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beanibon · 11 months

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Play Me

Context: reader is a performer, often singing in bars with hired bands.

TW: Mentions of stalking, reader getting harassed be sleazy patrons, Virgin!Knives (man does not know how to fuck to save his life), oral (both receiving), breeding kink, creampie, overstimulation, knife play, rough sex, marking

JuLai was as lively as ever once night fell, the streets were packed with food vendors, the occasional stall still open for browsing, and streets filled to the brim of people. It was like any other night really, except for the additional drunks that roamed a little longer.

You wouldn't have it any other way, this was the JuLai you had become accustomed to. As you walked to your gig, heels clacking against the walkway, you smiled brightly. You thrived as performer in such a busy city, drinking in the fame and fortune it brought every night.

As you rounded a familiar corner, greeting the bouncer at the 'Staff Only' entrance, you slipped inside giving friendly 'hellos' to the band. Another perk of the job was the constant chance to communicate with people, whether it be employers, patrons, or personal clients, you adored the opportunity to make new friends and employers that would hire you again.

You lingered a little longer around the pianist, engaging in an extended greeting with him as you admired the instrument. A giddy excitement bubbled inside your heart, the beautiful instrument was by far a favourite, the music carrying each performance. This bar had an especially beautiful piano, the silver laced keys glistened in the stage lights, it was a favourite among the bars who had more simple designs.

When it came to your scheduled performance, you smiled brightly as it began, looking out into the sea of bar patrons. Some you recognised, others new, yet there was one that caught your attention more than the rest.

The hooded man seemed to prefer the quieter corners of the bar, he'd never order anything, no drinks, food or anything. He'd simply sit alone, watching you from his secluded corner.

Each time you attempted to approach the man after your performances, he'd disappear. It was as if he never existed, just a shadow in a pitch black room.

Tonight you swore, that you'd finally catch him before he left, you were determined.

At the end of your last song, you draped your body over the piano, the dress you were revealing a significant portion of your legs. It seemed to have gained the attention of your mysterious admirer, who tensed at the sight, averting his gaze soon after. It was reaction you wanted, a sly smirk crawling it's way onto you face.

However what you didn't expect was the abrupt way he left, sliding the chair back, leaving without a single word to anyone. You couldn't show your disappointment, curtseying to your admiring onslaught of applause, staring at the empty space that held your mysterious man.

Exhaustion pulled at every muscle, mostly your face at this point. The constant smiling, laughing and singing made your cheeks burn, hands rubbing gently at them to relieve some of the strain.

Red heels swung from your manicured fingers, finding walking without them eased the ache in your feet. Plus it didn't mean limping all the way home, wishing you could afford some kind of massage to relieve their aches.

"Lady Y/N, what a fine specimen, say maybe you could use that mouth of yours for something other than singing." You ignored the men, use to sexual harassment at this point, normally they didn't act on anything other than the odd innuendo.

Except for tonight it appeared.

A rough hand grabbed your arm, yanking you back against a wall, your head slamming into the concrete. Heels clattered to the ground, eyes filled with uneven black dots from the impact of the collision.

"Pretensious whore, you can't get a man hard without fixing the problem. I'm gonna make you sing my name, all while I fu-"

The taste of iron filled your panting mouth, mind not computing the headless man before you as he collapsed to the ground. Screams of panic sounded all around you, but you couldn't focus on any of it, legs giving out.

Two arms captured you, hoisting you effortlessly into his arms as he carried you off, leaving behind those he slaughtered.

Pain was what woke you, groaning as your head was swarmed with an agonising headache. You slowly rose to sit up, yelping as two hands pulled you back. . . Except those hands weren't hands, they were blades.

Fear seized your heart, shaking as you remembered the men from before, legs instinctively crossed. But the blades retreated instantly upon your reaction, noticing how they whipped back like tentacles. You followed where they disappeared, noticing a hooded figure a few feet away, back turned to you as he flipped through the pages of an old book.

"You shouldn't move, something as weak as your species would only make it worse." His words stung almost, but it mostly confused you. Wasn't he human too?

Reluctantly you uncrossed your legs, wincing as you turned over. Again those blades lashed out, causing you to faceplant on the thin pillow as they pushed you down.

You mumbled something against its surface, the blades retreating again.

"What?"

"I said, you don't have to force me down so roughly, it hurts." You repeated, small droplets of blood slipped down your shoulders.

Silence.

"I apologise."

Silence returned, your fingers tapped against the bed, watching the strangers muscles flex. You didn't recognise him, but you would be lying if you didn't find him attractive.

Yet despite that, he held a familiar aura to him.

You sat up, sliding from the thin sheets as you stood, shakily as your legs protested against the action. You approached the stranger, craning your neck to get a look at his face, only for thousands of tendrils to appear. The blades clattered against each other, moving like serpents attracted to the sound of a flute, it shocked you.

"You should think twice before startling me, you may end up a pile of bleeding limbs." You swallowed nervously, yet you outstretched a hand, running it along blade filled vine.

The stranger shuddered, retracting it away from your touch, except you turned to another once you noticed the reaction. Teasing a hand along them until it run along the muscles of his back, tracing them with a feathery touch as your confidence returned.

"Who may I thank for rescuing me, surely you have a name?" You quipped, standing on your tippytoes to drape your arms around his neck.

The stranger panted, teeth grinding at your antics. He feigned irritation, yet you could recognise his flight instincts.

"May you perhaps be my mystery man? The one who watches my performances with such reserved admiration?" A grunt sounded, the book tumbling to the floor. "How can I ever repay you for your service, what is it that you wish?"

Suddenly a hand wrapped itself around your throat, squeezing as your body was hoisted in the air.

"Shut up witch! Tell me what you're doing to me? Why do you make me burn with desire!?" He yelled, throwing you roughly onto the mattress. His ears were red, eyes clouded with what you knew as lust. It was kind of adorable.

Rubbing your throat, a sweet smile graced your red stained lips, hands coming up to caress your mystery man's face. "Do you find me beautiful?"

He scoffed, averting his gaze. "Why would I find a human beautiful? You're all pathetic, disgusting creatures."

A gentle laugh.

"Then why are you hard?"

Teeth ground, as his brows knotted together in a frown. "Fix it."

"Pardon?" You teased, giggling at his pout.

"He-. . . Help me fix it," Silence. "Please."

A teasing laugh made him tense, growling as you brought him closer, sitting him besides you. Hands trailed his muscles, tracing the abs shown from the tight embrace of his suit.

"If you want me to help you, you need to do two things for me."

"What is that?"

Fingers pinched his inner thighs, earning a drawled out groan. "Firstly I need you strip, secondly I need a name to sing."

Reluctantly, the stranger peeled the suit from his body, revealing an inhuman member. Four petals opened to reveal a pointed, girthy cock with ridges underneath the tip, along with four glowing tendrils sparking around it's base.

Your eyes felt mesmerised by the sight, kneeling between his legs, tracing the alien cock as the tendrils wrapped around your finger.

"Knives."

"I'm sorry, may you please repeat that?" You asked politely, looking at him.

"Knives, don't make me repeat myself another time." He scoffed.

"Knives, such a handsome name." The name on your tongue sent a shiver up his spine, cock twitching.

Before Knives could say anything, you placed a kiss against his cock, leaving a red stain from your lipstick. The sight of it had Knives biting his lips, containing the disgusting sounds threatening to spill from them. But you were relentless, leaving red lipstick all along his pulsating cock.

Eventually you kissed the tip, mixing the red pigment with his leaking precum. Then you took his cock, tongue circling his tip.

Knives grunted, whimpering pathetically against his hand. You felt so perfect, the way your throat opened around his cock, bobbing your head as you sucked him off. It was heavenly, especially seeing your lipstick smear against the base of his dick.

What was embarrassing was how quickly he came, filling your cheeks with what tasted like nectar, you couldn't resist swallowing. And that's what drove Knives to the breaking point, pulling you up to smash his lips against yours.

"Someone's needy," You smiled against his lips, feeling the scowl form on his once gentle features. "Do I get the pleasure of knowing what my handsome Knives is?"

"No, you will eventually but I dont care for explaining right now." Knives teeth grazed your shoulder, peeling the red spaghetti strip from your shoulder.

"Eventually? Does that imply you want to keep me around?" You heard a groan, teeth sinking into the soft flesh of your neck, causing you to yelp.

Knives wanted to engage in intercourse, to impregnate you with his seed. But there one problem, that being he's never had sex before.

Why would he when his primary goal was to free his brethen? That was until your sirens song dragged him from his goal, capturing his heart as you lured him to you.

Now he could fuck you, to pump you full with his seed until you were ready to burst. The very thought had Knives clawing your dress from your body, breasts bouncing slightly at the freedom of their restraints.

"What's the matter? Never seen a woman before?" Knives growled, slamming your body against the bed.

"Don't tease me woman, I don't have the patience." Knives hovered over you, knees spreading your legs open as he stared at your clothed cunt. It was evident he didn't know what to do, shifting his weight from side to side. "What do I do?"

A patient smile was all you gave him, pulling the panties off, revealing your dripping cunt to cold atmosphere. The sight had Knives licking his lips, head tilted as he awaited your instructions.

"Like I did with you, you can use your mouth to prepare me," You pointed to your pussy, slightly spreading it open before pointing at the clit. "This is important, you want to stimulate it while you eat me out, think you can manage?"

The platinum blonde nodded stiffly, leaning down to drag his tongue over your dripping flaps, suckling at your clit. The action had you bucking, fingers buried in his soft locks as he was desperately tugged deeper. Without anytime to comprehend, Knives stuffed two fingers in you, sinking them down to the knuckle as he gently nibbled your clit, smirking as your thighs quivered. His fingers felt so soft inside you, despite how they curled so roughly, plowing into your pussy with force and inexperience.

Knives was grunting against your swollen clit, moaning lowly into you. The sound was pure bliss, and you couldn't help but shower him in sweet praises. From calling him a 'good boy', to 'my angel', you could tell Knives was getting desperate by the way his nails dug into your thighs. Fingers thrusted faster, needing you to hurry up and cum so he could fuck you into the sheets, mold his body with yours to imprint you to him.

You cried out his name, spasming around his digits as you orgasmed, cum dripping off his chin. His tongue savoured the taste of you, chuckling to himself.

"You make quite a mess, don't you?" The teasing in his tone caused you to huff, squeezing his head between your thighs. Knives gave you a fanged grin, sinking his teeth into your thighs, a bladed hand running along its soft flesh.

The hairs raised along your neck, goosebumps forming on your arms. The cool touch of the blade had your body going into fight or flight, yet there was something oddly arousing about having those soft hands trail such a deadly weapon over your supple skin. Or the way those tendrils wrapped around your body, their blades pressing against you, not hard enough to pierce through but enough to know they could. It had you reeling, loving how such a dangerous man could be so gentle despite his threatening aura.

Concealed inside those deadly blades, Knives loomed over you, trapping you within his arms. Hovering his cock over your entrance, he quirked a brow your way, silently asking if this was what he was suppose to do.

It still humoured you the way he was so unsure, giggling at the way his lip jutted out in pout, or how his brows furrowed in such concentration. None of this was natural for Knives, and it showed in every small detail.

"Relax, sex isn't suppose to be a chore," You brought his eyes to you, Knives leaning into your touch. "Take it slow, savour every moment."

Knives frowned, that's the last thing he wanted, taking it agonisingly slow that is. Of course he'd savour the moment, but he wanted you fucked until you couldn't form a coherent sentence, dribbling out malformed versions of his name. Being soft was something his humanity loving brother would do, Knives hated the thought, he needed you to be claimed, mated to him.

Hesitation no longer present, Knives surged forward earning a startled gasp from your lips, the lipstick smudged beautifully across them. He didn't even allow your body to adjust to the foreign cock, ruthlessly pounding into.

The Independent didn't care who heard you, in fact he wanted his subordinates to hear you, to know you were his. It drove him to move faster, bodies pressed together as your legs were brought above your head.

"Kn-Knives! Please, slow down!" You cried out, blades prickling your skin dangerously as they wrapped tighter around you.

The only response you got was a dark chuckle and a wicked grin from the man above you, those gorgeous blue eyes filled with crazed lust. Then Knives started marking you, teeth sinking into every inch of bare skin, sucking until it turned a subtle purple.

Months of watching you, stalking you, heeding your calls and after months he finally was rewarded with the fruits of his labour. Your beautiful form beneath him, fashioning his marks like they were made for you, lips whimpering his name just like the songs you sung. If only he could fuck you in his piano room, making a song he was sure he'd never forget.

You had lost count of how many times Knives made you orgasm, arms hanging loosely around his neck, showing no signs of stopping. He may be inexperienced, sloppy even, but by the gods he had stamina and his inhuman cock only made it all the more heavenly.

By the time Knives began to falter, tiring himself, the sun had already crept above the horizon. You were a crying, drooling, blabbering mess, cum leaking from your cunt as you were stuffed over and over again. It inhuman for certain, being able to fuck you for hours without any evidence of tiring, Knives probably could've gone for longer.

Cumming one last time, Knives collapsed on you, panting heavily against your sweating skin. You looked absolutely perfect, just how he wanted you.

A shaky hand found its way into his dishevelled hair, massaging it gently. A sound akin to a purr rumbled from his throat, relaxing into your touch.

"You're perfect."

You smiled, exhaustion eating away the remainder of your strength. But you managed a few simple words, pulling your sweet admirer closing until he was nuzzled into your neck.

"And so are you, my beautiful angel."

Knives sighed at the name, it was sufficient enough, he'd allow it if you were to only called him it. Which he already knew you would.

With the last bit of his own strength, two blades protruded from his knuckles, pressed into your skin. With quick precision and a pained yelp from you, he made a mark that was sure to never disappear.

"Now you are mine forever, my darling Songbird."

A/N: sorry for the delay in finishing this! I was in-between a few things such as work, visiting my boyfriend and my grandparents and writing some new chapters for my book.

But it now complete and I'm in love with it, need some more Knives content, especially the possessive kind. Hope you all enjoy! 💜

#trigun stampede #trigun #trigun smut #millions knives #millions knives x reader #knives x reader #knives millions #knives smut #million knives x reader #millions knives smut #millions knives x you #nai x reader

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aoifereal · 1 month

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Don't like venting about this stuff normally but I'm very frustrated by this, so. I saw a transfem butch complaining online about how being misgendered for being butch and the comments were sucks and the comments are full of people effectively saying "that's just how it is for butches, what did you expect?".

That's so rude on so many levels. Do you think this trans butch doesn't know that people assumptions about gender? It's the same condescension that happens whenever a trans woman talks about women's issues, the same deep-rooted cissexism. People don't view trans women's womanhoods to be as real as cis womens womanhoods so they assume we can't possibly understand what it's like to have an experience a (in this case, butch) woman would have. It's the same logic that leads people to say "welcome to being a woman" as if a trans woman is not aware of misogyny and has not faced any real examples of it, despite trans women facing misogyny and transmisogny well before people start to acknowledge us as women.

Additionally, why do you think any trans person would need it explained to them that strangers will make gendered assumptions about you. That's our whole lives! I'm sure most trans butches had a more feminine phase (in the same way many cis butches conform to femininity for some time due to the extreme pressures placed on all women to) and even in those phases we are very aware of gendered assumptions! Because we have to be to stay safe in public!

In this same forum there's a post from a day ago where a (presumably cis, but what matters is that people will assume that because she didn't say) butch complains about the exact same thing and everyone in the comments is being nice to her and saying they understand and they're sorry that it sucks she's being misgendered. It's such naked transmisogny to immediately dismiss and condescend to a trans woman in a way that you do not do when you're talking to cis women.

One cis woman was going on and on about how some trans women find it nice when people are misogynistic towards them because it affirms their gender and why doesnt op just take a similar approach to butchphobia :). Now I do get the latter part of this a bit because I will say "it is because of my masculine lesbian swag" in my head when I get misgendered but it pisses me off when people suggest trans women like experiencing misogyny. Sometimes particularly early transition women joke about it because if you don't laugh you'll cry but facing misogyny isn't fun for anyone. Cis people fucking love this stuff though because it allows them to continue thinking of trans women as acceptable targets for misogyny.

Also full of people saying "you should just assert your womanhood when you get misgendered" which is crazy to me because it's dangerous for cis butches let alone transfem butches! That's insane advice to give someone and just shows you're checked out of reality. Women get killed over this shit dude. Or people not getting how misgendering is used as a patriarchal tool of control. Not understanding that a misgendering has a threat of violence behind it a significant portion of the time when you're a trans woman.

It's just all wild, and no listening to the several trans women trying to explain why the things they were saying were lacking in understanding. Very disappointing to see lesbians say this stuff.

#aoiferealposting #cw transmisogyny #cw transphobia #cw butchphobia

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yall-hate-kids-tourney · 3 months

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Round 2: Nagisa Momoe (Madoka Magica) vs. Amane Momose (MILGRAM)

Propaganda below the cut

Nagisa Momoe:

I think this might just be the fandom circles I'm in,but a lot of people don't like how Nagisa killed Mami?Even though she herself was dead duue to being a witch at that point guys come on.Also how her wish was selfish and pointless even though the fandom doesn't criticize characters who made objectively worse wishes when they were older.There is some criticism that her inclusion in rebellion was unnecerssary and just bloated the cast while contributing nothing significant to the plot but it's been a while since I've watched rebellion so idk .

Amane Momose:

Amane was voted guilty in the first trial so that she would acknowledge her guilt. It backfired, and now she’s considered a threat. Well, everyone is a threat, but nobody’s threat level has been as heavily discussed and debated as hers. Consider the next prisoner in line, Mikoto. He’s objectively more dangerous and cannot be restrained. He beat up the guard in trial 1, and he was able to hold his own when the other guilty prisoners were attacked. But a good incentive to forgive him is so that he will calm down. You know what? That’s a good incentive to forgive Amane too! But she *can* be restrained, so a good portion of the discussion went into how she should be voted guilty so she *will* be restrained and not a threat. Since her vote was a near 50/50, of course a good chunk of the voters expressed dissatisfaction with her forgiven verdict. Some are already planning to vote her guilty for trial 3, calling her a “lost cause”. She hasn’t even done any concrete harm yet. Hold the pitchforks until she actually causes harm, please? And what if she *was* voted guilty in trial 2? We’ve been warned that she will continue to deny our judgement. A second guilty verdict won’t make her better either, and then what? She’d be called a “lost cause” as well. There is no winning with her.

----

Where do I even start? So first of all she’s an cult child who was physically and mentally abused and tortured by her parents and then (presumably) murdered her mother after her mother killed a cat that she took care of.

Now everyone in Milgram is a murderer but when Amane came and her MV showed her murder and circumstance in an admittedly highly fictionalized depiction of it the audience decided to…repeat the cycle of abuse!

She was voted guilty for the main reason of “teaching her” and helping her “realize that she was abused.” I would like to note that this tough love approach is something her parents utilized against her. “We are only doing this to help you.”

So the audience replicates Amane’s abusers and repeats the cycle of abuse and that’s pretty shitty but it isn’t exactly “Fuck Em Kids” level.

And then Trial 2 happened. Cause Amane is bitter and angry and horrifically traumatized so she acts aggressive and hostile. Especially towards another prisoner.

Now, again, everyone here is a fucking murderer (of atleast could be constructed as one) These people being able to Harm is a core concept of this series.

Yet for some reason it feels like people treat Amane as a “delusional creepy kid who wants to kill people” which completly takes away the nuance of her character. She does have the capacity to harm! Everyone here does! She’s not Uniquly Dangerous! She just has a Reason to be Dangerous. A Reason we GAVE HER by REPEATING THE CYCLE OF ABUSE.

In short: In a series full of Murderers I’m honestly a bit pissed that the 12 year old abuse victim is the one who’s treated like the guy from American Pyscho.

----

TL;DR: "We metavoted this abused, indoctrinated child guilty in trial 1, but it didn't work. Now she is a threat to three grown adults: one who is fully free and two whom she has been shown to get along with. Please metavote her guilty again so she will be restrained and unable to attack them, even though that means subjecting her to further psychological torture." Amane Momose is the youngest of ten murderers, prisoners of Milgram who are to be judged innocent (forgiven) or guilty (unforgiven). In the first interrogation (voice drama), she said that what she did was in line with her religion's doctrines. If we judged her the "wrong way", she said she will just deny the verdict. Combining the voice drama and music video, you could piece together that she was raised in a cult and abused, even though she is cheerful and downplays her pain. She never shows *who* she killed, only *why* she did. After the first day of her vote, she was 81% innocent, but this wouldn't last the whole three months. Many people voted her guilty so she would "see her sins", part of the practice commonly known as "metavoting". Her innocent percentage rapidly decreased, and she hit guilty in the last 15 days, finishing at 51% guilty. At the end of the first trial, Jackalope (who is something like a host) went over all the prisoners' verdicts and commented on the general reasoning. When he got to Amane, he *laughed* at the audience for voting that way to make her realize her sins. Trial 2 rolled around, and it was revealed that Amane's victim was her abuser. On day one, she was at 74% innocent. Seems like a cut-and-dry case now, right? Well... in the intermission, two of the prisoners (Fuuta and Mahiru) were badly beaten up and became reliant on the care of Shidou, a doctor. Amane became hostile to Shidou because what he was doing was against her beliefs. She visited all three of them on their birthdays to convince them to change their ways. She seems to be especially close to Fuuta, who is now murmuring about salvation. Guilty prisoners are psychologically tortured, forced to listen to voices that reject their beliefs. Fuuta and Mahiru both say that the mental strain is worse than their physical injuries. But Amane, who also looks worse for wear, was thrown under the bus because she isn't injured and is considered a physical threat to them (never mind that she gets along with them). She's considered a threat to Shidou, a grown man who is twice her size and fully free, while she is partially restricted by the long sleeves in her trial 2 uniform. She might indoctrinate Fuuta even though, in a prison of ten people and one guard, she's the only voice of her cult. Fortunately, she got a break. Her vote was falling at a similar rate to the first trial. But this time, it stabilized at 51% innocent, 12 days before the end of her vote. But there's no way this is over.

#yall hate kids tourney #round 2 #Madoka Magica #Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Rebellion #Momoe Nagisa #nagisa momoe #milgram #milgram project #amane momose #momose amane #cw child death #cw cults #cw child abuse #cw torture #cw psychological torture #cw animal death

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rileytwenty · 1 year

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IDIA || an Avatar story (x Neteyam)

Chapter 3

Masterlist

A/N: Sorry for the second post of the day but I like to post as soon as I'm finished to get your guys' feedback. Thanks for reading!

(English Na'vi)

The marui meant to be our new home was nice. Jake agreed. Neytiri, not so much.

Neteyam and Kiri were quickly put to work helping their mother weave new clothes for the family that would be better for swimming. Tuk was out looking for pretty rocks (as a secret present for Lo'ak, I overheard) and Lo'ak was sent off to find decorative shells for the new clothing.

I wasn't sure what to do. I had no idea how to weave anything; my clothes were given to me by a pitying elderly Omatikaya lady who said our blue skin wasn't meant for Sky People clothes. She offered some items to Norm as well, but he wasn't so comfortable showing that much skin.

I stood at the back opening of the marui, staring out at the vast ocean. Even if I wanted to return home, I had no way to. No ikran, no aircraft, no communication with the mountain sanctum.

"How're you holding up?" Jake asked as he approached behind me, resting an elbow on my shoulder.

"How's Neytiri taking it?" I turned the conversation around.

His ears flit back for a second and his gaze fell on the ground. "Not well," he admitted, "but we all have to adjust a bit still."

I looked back at the three still inside the marui, watching them intently work at their tasks.

"Tonowari said that Ao'nung could teach you to swim, if you wanted," Jake offered, "I mean, I asked if he could find someone to teach you, and he volunteered Ao'nung."

I was unspeakably nervous at the thought. What if I don't learn? What if I just start drowning? Can I really rely on that boy to pull me out? "Not Tsireya?"

Jake gave me surprised side eye. "Would you prefer it to be Tsireya? She seems sweet, I'm sure she wouldn't mind us interrupting whatever she's doing."

I thought about it for a second, but I decided I needed to try to be more flexible and less of an inconvenience here. If Ao'nung was the only one free, it would have to do. "Thanks, Jake, but Ao'nung will be a fine teacher. Just curious, was all."

"Alright. If you say so."

----------------------------------------------------------

"So, you cup your hands like this." Ao'nung had been teaching me the technique on dry land for three minutes and already seemed done with me. I did my best to copy the shape he was making.

He poked me in the wrist. "No, tighter. Squeeze your fingers together. Yeah, that's better. Then you just kick your legs and swish your arms in circles around you. You'll be fine."

Nerves wracked my body and made my fingers and toes go numb.

"Right, okay... you can do this." I mumbled to myself as my toes hit the water.

"What was that, freak?" That is the only thing he had addressed me by: 'freak'. And I kind of was one, wasn't I? It definitely wasn't an unfamiliar word to me.

"Nothing!" I waded out further and further into the water until I came to the drop-off. A deep swallow rippled down my throat as I pictured myself going down down down under the surface.

"Well, go!" Ao'nung shouted at me.

I took a deep breath just in case and stepped off the ledge. As it would turn out, 'just in case' was actually extremely necessary.

I can't do it. I can't swim. I can only sink.

My limbs thrashed in all directions, trying to figure out how to get enough traction with the water to propel myself upward. I was getting farther and farther from the surface. In a panic, I tried to release a cry for help but only managed to disperse a significant portion of the air in my lungs.

Where the hell was Ao'nung? He had already reassured me that he'd pull me back up if I couldn't figure it out in time. I felt like I had been underwater for ten minutes already.

My lungs were aflame and the only thought in my head was that of: breathe! I kicked and swished like he'd told me until my limbs were stiff but it was to no avail. I was only going down.

Finally, finally, when I just about couldn't take it anymore, some thick Metkayina arms pulled me out of the water. When we reached the surface and sand was back under my feet, I realized my ears were full of water and someone was trying to say something to me.

"Whaa?" I shook my head about to rid myself of the water trapped in my ears.

"Are you alright, Idia? Can you breathe?" It was Tsireya, not Ao'nung. No surprise, really.

I was raised primarily on English, so my brain needed a second to translate and then form a response. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm alright." I gasped out eventually, my throat raw from the amount of saltwater I inhaled. Coughing only made it worse.

"Ao'nung!" Tsireya was shouting. "Dad told you to teach her to swim, not let her figure it out or drown!"

That's when I noticed Tuk and Neteyam were there, too. How embarrassing for me.

I crawled out of the water-- not wanting to be in it any longer-- and planted my butt on the beach, still catching my breath.

"I was trying! She's a bad learner. I thought she'd figure it out eventually, we did it as newborns!" Ao'nung defended himself.

"Mom will hear about this," Tsireya warned, to which Ao'nung scoffed.

"Mom will be dissapointed that you saved the freak."

I didn't bother protesting. Ronal still considered Lo'ak, Kiri, Jake and I demons. Ao'nung spoke the truth.

"Damn you!" Neteyam suddenly lashed out at Ao'nung, glaring at him hard. Neteyam dragged me to my feet by the upper arm, grabbed Tuk's hand and marched us back toward our marui.

"You can't let them call you that." Neteyam was suddenly mad at me.

"What?" It left my mouth without any real thought of what I was saying.

His head whipped towards me with his braids swaying from the force.

"If they can call you a freak, they'll think they can call Kiri and Lo'ak that, too. I don't want my siblings getting called that."

"What am I supposed to do? Your dad told us not to make trouble."

"I..." he paused, massaging his temples, "I don't know. How about, just avoid them in the first place?"

"Then how am I meant to learn how to swim?"

He looked at me incredulously. "Ask me, maybe? Or my father, or Kiri?"

"Oh." I hadn't thought of that. "I didn't think you'd want to."

"It's better than letting you make a mockery of our family. Which you're seen as a part of now, whether or not any of us likes it."

Now that Ao'nung and Tsireya were out of view, he was comfortable walking away from me, still holding Tuk's hand.

"Now as for you, Tuk. You can't stray that far away. We even had to get Tsireya to help look for you." His voice was fading as they slowly left.

"But if you weren't bringing me back, Tsireya couldn't have saved Idia."

Neteyam looked back at me, and our eyes met for a few seconds. I looked away first. He didn't reply to Tuk's comment, and I chose to take that as a good thing.

taglist: @im-kaii @itsemy01 @isabel-ffl-xoxo

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the-archlich · 10 months

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Do you think you've about exhausted things to talk about with respect to the 3 Kingdoms era?

Not at all.

This got very out of hand but I'm going to leave it as is.

Oh, sure, some subjects have been beaten to death. There's only so much you can say about the particular events that have been told and retold in folktales, opera, novels, and (in the modern age) movies, TV shows, and video games for the last 1800 years. There isn't a lot left to say about the most famous battles and individuals that hasn't been said already.

There's also a lot that is still relatively overlooked, outside of very specific circles. People who didn't get prominent roles in fictionalizations of the period are still pretty obscure. Events that aren't depicted in stories and adaptations don't get much discussion. That's the sort of thing I try to write about, like with my articles on the Crown Prince Affair (Part I | Part II) or my series on Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan.

But the things I write about are just one very limited facet of the period's history. There's so much more to be said. The stuff I write about is probably the least meaningful. Ultimately it doesn't make much difference who won what battle or what faction took over a government. Individuals varied but all the governments of the time were fundamentally the same. No matter who took power in what region, it was going to be a Han style government, dominated by Han culture. Nothing meaningful was going to change, no matter which of our well-known warlords won. Their battles were largely irrelevant. There's a reason nothing meaningful changed in Shu when it was conquered by Wei, or Wu when conquered by Jin. There's a reason the Sima regime was only superficially different from that of the Cao, and why it really doesn't matter if, say, the Quan family had seized the throne of Wu. Despite individual differences they were all fundamentally the same.

To see what I mean, we don't have to look very far into the future. The collapse of western Jin meant the rise of non-Han polities in significant areas of the former Han/Jin empire. The governments of the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, and and other groups from outside of the Han culture were meaningfully different. Prolonged chaos in the northern portions of the empire resulted in mass movement to the south, into areas previously claimed by the Han people only in name but not in fact. The efforts of Wu and Shu (largely due to He Qi and Ma Zhong) to establish firm control over these regions laid the groundwork for the "sinicization" of southern China, but it was really only with the collapse of Western Jin that the new status quo was established. At the same time, we can also observe the so-called "barbarians" adopting many elements of Han culture to help them rule their new empires.

You could spend your whole career studying something like that.

You could analyze the literature of the period and compare different style and composition across different years and regions. You could dig deep into the economics and study things like government monopolies on key industries, and contrast the different approaches taken by the various rulers of the era. You could study all the material left by civilians who had no part in the "great affairs" of the time. You could study how infrastructure projects meant to support warfare (like the many canals Wei dug) impacted trade and travel for others. You could study the visual arts; paintings, sculptures, miniatures, etc. And all of that gets much more complicated and interesting when you reach beyond the Han culture, into the areas and eras where non-Han influences achieved supremacy and influenced the existing culture.

The era produced some of China's most influential figures whose contributions are far more meaningful than the battles fought by its various generals. Zhong Yao's calligraphy was so influential that we still imitate his writing today. Pei Xiu was one of the most important cartographers in China's extensive history. Hua Tuo's scientific approach to medicine was revolutionary in its time. Du Kui and Xun Xu made extraordinary contributions to music. There are so many others to speak of.

Sociology. Visual arts. Performing arts. Economics. Mathematics. Literature. Technology. The list goes on and on and on. There is absolutely no shortage of new things to study and talk about. A very accessible example is the deep dive @discourseofthethreekingdoms did on the theology of the Yellow Turbans. I don't think I've ever heard that much said about them anywhere. It was a significant and meaningful look at the actual beliefs and ideology of a group usually just dismissed as rebellious malcontents deceived by charismatic opportunists.

Now, none of that is what I generally write about. A big part of that is because that's serious academic work. It's hard, it's complicated, and it requires both resources and training I don't have to get it right. I'm not any kind of real academic. There are people doing this work, and because it doesn't have mass appeal they don't get the kind of credit they deserve, but that's the kind of work that actually matters. People like to read about wars and battles and politics and don't give the same attention to these much more serious and meaningful subjects. It's a damn shame, really, and I can only hope that the ones doing the important work at least receive the respect of their peers.

And if I'm being fully honest, even if I did have the training and resources it takes to do the important work, that's not where my passion is.

I'm a storyteller.

I'm fascinated by these people and their lives. When I get invested in a particular historical era, it's because I find it to be filled with a wide variety of very interesting individuals whose stories I love, and whose stories I want to try to share with others. I like to tell the stories I think don't get told enough; or that get so obscured by fictionalization that the real people involved become unrecognizable. That does end up with me writing about a lot of battles and politicking, because that's where we get a lot of these stories from. When I believe a story is left untold (like with the Crown Prince Affair) I want to tell it. When I believe that a story is being misrepresented, I want to try and correct it. The reason I get so passionate about "history vs. fiction" is because these people were real. Their accomplishments and failures were real. Their triumphs and tragedies were real. Every single name you see was a full human being exactly as complex as you are; and so is every single anonymous soldier and civilian killed in their pointless wars.

Some of these stories have been told and retold so many times that there's nothing interesting left to say. But there are so many others that remain in relative obscurity, and ones where the truth has become obscured over time. That's mostly what I spend my time writing about now.

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librarycards · 3 months

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hi friend! i have had a dream of creating a publication of some kind that uplifts artists/writers in my area. i have been so lost at what i want to or should be doing, so i think this might be a good time to strike!! i'm reaching out to the student magazines at local colleges to see if they have any advice, but i wanted to see if you had any advice to offer as someone who might not have had something so significant (like a school) backing you and your litmag! Thank you so much for everything!!

hello anon, and thanks for your patience!! [full disclosure this was completed last week but in my drafts im sorry!!]

the first piece i have is to read: read mags that print a variety of types of work, those that are established and upstarts and everyone in between. this isn't only to get a sense of what the literary landscape is like rn, but also to find patterns: what do these sites have in common? how about their submission guidelines, norms, expectations?

^ in regard to the above, i also *strongly* recommend you submit and go through the publication process in at least a few mags before starting your own. maybe you have already! in any case, think about what kinds of editorial support/communication/practice you've liked and disliked. what kind of editor are you/do you want to be? if you're not sure yet, consider joining the reading team at a magazine, or editing a folio or guest issue! going from no experience to EIC is not a great plan, in no small part because you learn who and what you are as an editor, and who and what you want to edit, as you gain more experience. joining an established publication in some capacity is something i recommend to *everyone* interested in starting a lit mag. that is, i do not recommend attempting to start a publication if you have no experience on a masthead already.

presuming that you do have this experience, you're going to have some new considerations for your new publication in addition to those you're familiar with:

probably-familiar things to consider:

who is my demographic (do I have any restrictions on who submits?)

what are my values? (this is what you put in your about/mission statement/submission guidelines. for example, I don't submit to magazines who do not make their antizionism/pro-palestine stance clear)

who are my coworkers (do I want to run this thing on my own, or get multiple editors on with me? do I want to just make a quick squarespace site or have a designer onboard?)

what genres, lengths, and other specifications do I want for submissions (docx vs pdf vs rtf? how much do you actually have time to read? what do you feel confident in your ability to assess?)

where can people find us? (social media? twitter/x is still a home base for a huge portion of publications, despite everything. ig has a fair few. tumblr hasn't been very successful in lit mag world - but maybe you'll change that? there's a fair but niche showing on bsky and mastodon. facebook, as with everything else, is for boomers with shit politics.)

probably-unfamiliar things to consider:

what's your title? is a domain available for that title? how are you paying for the domain?

how about website hosting? (squarespace, weebly, google sites, wordpress, something else? is your site accessible? do you need to make extra access considerations, e.g. if publishing visual art?)

do you pay? how much? (without institutional backing, the money will either come from your pocket or donations, or both. if you want to pay but are broke, you could set up a fundraiser - but no promises on people following through.)

what submissions platform will you use? (email? manywor(l)ds does this, and we like it. submittable? pricy, but streamlined. moksha/oleda/duotrope? i mean....you do you but i find them weird)

how often will you be open for submissions? will you solicit any, or be all-slush? (I take a 90/10 approach in favor of slush, personally. slushpile 4 lyfe xoxo)

do you charge fees? (hint: DON'T)

where are you listed? (chillsubs, duotrope, the submission grinder, and other sites aggregate lit mag opportunities. you should get yourself here!)

how often do you want to publish? how many pieces per issue? (consider how much time you actually have. this is all unpaid work, too.)

(if you have an editorial staff beyond yourself) how often are you meeting? how are decisions being made? how are you handling conflicts of interest?

there are also things that become relevant as you begin your mag: like, keeping track of published pieces eligible/nominated for prizes, making editorial friends/comrades (CRUCIAL), managing harassment and spam in the submission process, and other issues you'll encounter just in the daily practice of operating a magazine. remember, more than anything, that you're part of a community - or more accurately, an archipelago of communities and subcultures. this is why participation is so important, and imo necessary, as a pre- and continuous co-requisite to 'having' a lit mag. you're there to fill a niche, not pick out and publish All the Good Writing Ever. This will help you let go of great pieces that 'don't quite work' or just 'aren't a fit' (editors are serious when we say we reject a fuckton of amazing pieces every issue) and let go of submissions you yourself receive rejections for.

anyway, i hope this helps give you a few places to start. in short, focus on community, reciprocity, and building slow&steady experience and expertise (as well as your own editorial styles/techniques) vs. launching into developing your own thing right away!

#ask #anonymous #lit mag #writing #publishing #editing

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coolasakuhncumber · 4 months

Text

2023 in review

This has been harder than expected to pull together. I know social media is the 'glossy' version of everyone's life but in the last couple of days of the year, in the seeing of people posting about buying houses and getting married and having babies, I feel lost. I feel a great sense of emptiness. A year ago I had a sense of what 2023 would look like and what my future beyond that may be and now I don't. I feel like I'm just holding space. I need more novelty and difference in my life to separate the days from blurring into each other.

Work I started a new job I was excited about. I learnt pretty quickly that implementation is maybe not quite where I want to be, I'd rather be doing the strategic influencing work. Big reform work. I suspected this already, but it was good to have it confirmed. I liked the work travel though. The going to Brisbane and Cairns and Sydney and getting out of the national office, getting a bit more perspective.

I moved to the role to follow a senior manager and that senior manager left 5 months into me being there. Two weeks later I was approached to go back to my previous work area and they committed to meeting the requests I had. I worked two jobs for a month and a half and that was HARD. Do not recommend. It's good to be back in this policy area (for the third time!!!) and working with the manager I have. I've had some really great opportunities to step up take the lead and have senior people see what I've done. The Melbourne trip was a highlight, despite the associated difficulties.

I managed a couple of underperformers this year and was forced to grow as a manager to address the issues. I learnt that the attitude of my staff really matters, and it's ok to have the expectations I have and that I'm actually a pretty good and empathetic manager. I dealt with a situation that looked like underperformance and had a strong element of fraud to it. What a time. Not.

I showed signs of burnout for a large portion of the year. It's not ok.

Travel I meant to do Perth -> Broome this year but it fell apart and I instead spent a week in Perth, a few days in Canberra with my friend who was recovering from knee surgery, a long weekend down the south coast, a few days in Cairns, and a few days in Sydney for my step-brother's wedding. It was all good, though if I were to do it again, I'd spend less time in transit and more time in one place.

Referendum Australia had its first Referendum this century, calling for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament to be enshrined in the constitution. It failed and I am still smad about it. I don't know yet how to not be angry about the misinformation and disinformation that was spread through the 'No' campaign. I truly believe Peter Dutton and other significant figures of the no campaign have blood on their hands.

I started getting undercuts as a dopamine hit to lift me out of my feelings.

Health I'm pretty damn sick hey. I need heart surgery but my lungs are too bad to allow it so we're just hanging out deteriorating. Some days are just really tough. But I did start a new medication that has helped me breathe just a little bit better and we're all holding out hope I'll continue to improve. I'm going to do what I can to improve my lungs and yeah, I might not live to be 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, but God has a plan for me and I can rest easy in that knowledge.

Relationships The thing that has probably changed the most in the last year is that Duc and I are no longer together. We haven't been since late Jan. We had talked about getting engaged in 2023, getting married not too long after. I was thinking of buying an investment property with the thought that he could live in it for a bit, then it would become a shared asset when we were committed for life.

Instead, we're no longer together. We haven't been together for a while. It's absolutely the right thing for us to not be together but man did I get used to regular companionship the almost 4 years we were a thing.

Dating sucks. Trying to date as a woman in your early 30s with a visible disability really sucks. My friends and family are fantastic and fill so many of my social and emotional needs that I'm feeling a strong sense of why bother? The desire for domesticity with one I love is why.

Jay

I love Jay. I think I have loved him for years and I let myself love him this year. I know we're not end game. I will need to let go at some point but I remain not yet ready to.

Whiskey Club

This remains one of my favourite friendship things. It's Paul and I. We eat fried chicken, drink whiskey, and talk about our feelings. It's the best. It's a form of therapy, though I sometimes suspect a professional would be good.

Disability

I have become more 'disabled' over the last couple of years and it really became more pronounced over the last 12 months. I feel limited in my life in many ways. I can't travel internationally at the moment, pending how things go I might not be able to again.

Some days I just can't breathe. When things were bad there were weeks of impromptu crying because this body sucks. Sometimes it feels like things can only go downhill from here. I don't like that. I resent it, even.

This year I became the Co-chair of my workplace's Disability Network and I've been taking action to improve policy and procedures for staff living with disability. I've been on panels, talking about some of my experiences. But I'm not 'disability proud'. If I could not have this particular set of challenges based on genetic markers, I would choose that every single time.

There's probably more work I need to do on myself here.

Some good

I did say 2023 would be the year of natural fibres and I did predominantly wear less polyester and more linen. I bought a few more dresses and I do really love the collection I have now.

2024

This year I want to continue growing. My housemate is looking to purchase property and move out with their partner and I really don't know how I'll go living alone.

I'd like to maybe go on a nice date or two? Maybe?

I want to be stronger with my boundaries.

My Mum is going to start working with me and that's equal parts exciting and worrying. I want it to work and not impact the good dynamic we have in a negative way.

Bring it on hey.

#2023 #NYE #2024 #work #working hard or hardly working #duc #jay #the lump #whiskey club #paul #referendum #disability #personal

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beardedmrbean · 2 years

Note

James Webb telescope just got hit with a space rock, and has irreparable damage.

Oh for goodness sake, lets see if it's 10 billion down the toilet or if still gonna be mostly functional

Washington: On July 11, the James Webb Telescope released a set of images that exhibited great potential of the telescope to unravel the deepest secrets of the universe. However, after completing six months of commissioning in the vacuum of space, a micrometeoroid hit is causing a block in its perfect functioning. A micrometeoroid is a particle, smaller than a grain of sand, flying in the vacuum of space.Also Read - James Webb Space Telescope's First Images: Impeccable Quality, Unmatchable Clarity And Massive Future Prospects

In a report released by three space agencies, data suggests that the observatory has sustained multiple impacts from micrometeoroids and one of them might have a significant effect. Scientists have released an image that shows the extent of the impact sustained by the world’s most powerful observatory.

The space agency had announced recently that the spacecraft had sustained several hits. It also maintained that Webb’s mirror was engineered to withstand bombardment with dust-sized particles flying at extreme velocities in space.

James Webb Telescope Damaged?

The report detailing the first six months of commissioning of the spacecraft states that the micrometeoroid which hit segment C3, one of the 18 gold plated segments of its 6.5 meter primary mirror, in the period of May 22-24 this year, caused a significant irreversible change in the overall figure of that segment.

“The effect was small at the full telescope level because only a small portion of the telescope area was affected,” the report stated. NASA had revealed in June that the spacecraft between May 23 and 25 the James Webb Space Telescope sustained an impact on one of its primary mirror segments. Engineers then began a delicate readjustment of the impacted mirror segment to help “cancel out a portion of the distortion” caused by the micrometeoroid.

“Each micrometeoroid caused degradation in the wavefront of the impacted mirror segment, as measured during regular wavefront sensing,” the report stated adding that a comparison of pupil images taken on 23 February and 26 May 2022 showed evidence for 19 such minor strikes over a 92-day period.

Will It Fail To Function?

The Webb team is yet to conclude that it is not yet clear whether the May 2022 hit to segment C3 was a rare event or whether the telescope may be more susceptible to damage by micrometeoroids than pre-launch modeling predicted. NASA is conducting an additional investigation into how impacts affect beryllium mirrors. While it may not affect its overall functioning at large, its approach in certain directions was to be restricted.

It is worth mentioning that the mirrors have been designed with a mixture of simulations and actual test impacts on mirror samples to get a clearer idea of how to fortify the observatory for operation in orbit. The commissioning report released by the James Webb Telescope team confirms the micrometeoroid hit will have an impact on the observatory. ______________________-

I'm no pro but I'd guess they'll be able to come up with a workaround of some sort, fiddle with the software to correct for the damage or something like that.

Every time they send a new telescope up, people get so excited, and I don't blame them, it does it's thing and then goes bye bye. All the while Hubble's just hangin out there like

I'm still good guys, what would you like me to discover for you this time?

Old girl just keeps truckin along like a Volvo with 750,000 miles on it when it's finally broken in.

Webb thing doesn't look totally tragic to me though, I do need to remember to not check space.com during the day though, now I've got like 12 tabs open from there.

#anonymous

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sanstropfremir · 2 years

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Omg! I saw you briefly mentioned Tomorrow in an ask and I just finished the show. I have so many thoughts about it and not sure if they’re all good but I would love to hear your opinion about the overall show (especially the distinct costume design of each character and the set design!!). For a show that navigated some heavy material — it was full of such bright color and fun fashion decisions! Unsure if you talk about shows but I thought to ask because you always provide such interesting and thoughtful critiques.

THE COSTUME DESIGN IN TOMORROW!!!!!! it's soooooooooooo good it was one of the things that kept me watching bc yes there some glaringly obvious problems with the script. the production/set design are excellent too, especially for jumadeung. literally framing it as a company is a.....choice, but visually framing it with art deco style architecture a la the chrysler building is a smart way to keep it feeling outside time, because our brains still interpret art deco as a relatively modern style because of its scarcity and association with wealth, but in reality art deco is approaching it's centennial in just a couple of years.

ok i'm gonna talk about some major plot beats so spoiler warning for anyone who hasn't finished the show or cares about that kind of thing.

tbh i actually think the best costume design was in the scenes with all the team leaders because they were so quick and so infrequent but each of them had such a clear signature that tbh i spent like five minutes stopping and starting that first intro scene where we see everyone just to try and pick up all the little details.

other than that though, they do such a good job with koo ryeon, joong-gil and ryung-gu and interpreting how very old/essentially immortal characters would interpret clothing and what they would be comfortable in. jun-woong is fine, but the show itself kind of acknowledges by the back half that really he's the vehicle for the rest of their stories, so imo his design choices are all intentionally wallflower-y. but koo ryeon, joong-gil, and ryung-gu all share some key character traits: they're all extremely loyal, dedicated, defensive, AND they all lived their formative lives pre the invention of the zipper and stretch fabric. i know this sounds like a very weird point to make, but trust me on this one, i'll get to it. and all three of these characters embody all of these traits in their clothing. many of the creature comforts that we associate with fashion are very very modern, think within the last 100-150 years. zippers? the 1910s. spandex/lycra/synthetic stretch fabrics? 1958. hell, even the concept of sportswear and leisure clothing only started cropping up in the mid 1800s. for a lot of cultures and for long periods of history, clothing consisted of a lot of layers and a fair amount of internal structure, by virtue of fabric being a solid weave. for a significant portion of their lives, all three of these characters were wearing anywhere between two and probably five layers at all times, with koo ryeon and joong-gil for about 250yrs longer and also with much more intricacy due to their higher class. clothing plays a very big part into how someone presents themselves to the world, and it can be a protective measure. this might be a bit difficult for some to understand for some, especially in our modern 'comfort first' fashion culture, but the structure and weight of a lot of layers and the rituals around getting dressed a specific way can be both a defensive mechanism and also a physical comfort. you see it with older generations and their likelihood of wearing older styles/styles that were 'on trend' in their youth; think grannies who still get their hair permed and put on lipstick every time they leave the house, or someone like my grandfather, who never stopped wearing the same style of highwaisted slacks and dress shirts from the early 60s. and i think it's a very fair trait to extrapolate to characters who 1) have had particularly traumatic lives, 2) have spent a very long time wearing the same thing, and 3) have a textually noted extended/different understanding of time.

let's start with joong-gil, who exclusively wears a three piece suit post-becoming a reaper. this means he's wearing at least three well structured layers, and i'd be willing to bet that he'd be the type to wear a singlet/underlayer as well, which brings that total up to four. he's also frequently shown wearing an additional jacket (five layers) and gloves, another further barrier. given the fact that jumadeung appears to have 'westernized' aesthetically when korea was freed from japanese colonial rule***, three piece suits were still standard business attire. and he's very strict about his own dress code, he's either in white shirt and three piece or a black shirt and three piece. obviously this is also a physical manifestation of his discipline and dedication of the 'rules', as we can see that when he deviates from that uniform it is as a specific character point for him. the most notable instances of this are in the last episode, where he's wearing a turtleneck (but still a waistcoat) when jun-woong goes to try and reason with him, and then again later in the episode when joong-gil is taking his punishment in his shirtsleeves. and then for a third time at the very end of the episode, where his black three piece has been exchanged for a grey one, signalling his softening and the merging of his two selves (his pre-reaper self that wore mostly lighter colours, and his post-reaper self that wore mostly black).

unsurprisingly, koo ryeon is also a very defensive dresser. all the same observations from joong-gil apply here, but with koo ryeon instead of her being a dedicated rule-follower, her dedication manifests as rule-breaking in order to achieve her goals; as you can see she wears a lot of colours in counter to joong-gil's monochrome. but i think the most interesting of her visual 'rule-breaking' is that she doesn't particularly follow the convenions of 'feminine' coded dressing. this is most noticable in when the rm team goes on 'assignment' in different workplaces, where ryeon will wear nearly identical suits to jun-woong and ryung-gu (interestingly, it's pointedly not her wearing men's clothes, she's always wearing a 'female' version even if the cuts are virtually identical. you can tell bc the button closures are opposite). she also dresses very 'modestly', she doesn't show any skin at all and more notably, she doesn't wear anything form fitting. she favours boxy and bulky shapes with a predominance for longer lines and wider shapes on her lower body. now there's two reasons to speculate for this: the first is the same as for joong-gil, that she's very used to layers and a specific silhouette, especially considering that the shape of female hanbok is not even close to being form-fitting and has heavy skirting. and the second is that her trauma is directly tied to people's perception of her femininity. literally the reason ryeon died is because she was stigmatized for 'using her femininity to get out of an adverse situation' even though we are explicitly shown that that is emphatically not the case. thus her rejection of more western feminine silhouettes is directly related to how she wants there to be no question that the reason she is so accomplished at her job is purely because of her skills, and not for any other reason.

and ryung-gu! more similar to koo ryeon in style than joong-gil, but again they all share that propensity for numerous heavy and obscurative layers that echoes a more traditional style of dress. because ryung-gu is younger (literal age wise but also i'm pretty sure he died younger as well) there's a little more flexibility in his materials and cuts, and because he's of a lower class than koo ryeon and joong-gil, he tends towards less formal shapes too. although i would not describe koo ryeon as a 'formal' dresser, she wears a lot of blazers and two piece suits, as well as heavy wools and fabrics that are generally associated with business and formalwear. ryung-gu however, almost exclusively picks his shapes from garments that have a working class or blue collar origin; lots of jeans, informal but still structured jackets like bombers and denim jackets, and a fair amount of casual sportswear, practical wear, and synthetic fabrics. and although ryung-gu is framed as being rebellious like koo ryeon, unlike ryeon his rebellion always comes as an active response to something that upsets his internal or external systems. as a child he is dutifully and lovingly reverent of his mother, she's the centre of his world, and even as a reaper he isn't shown to have any real issues with authority. sure he clocks out right at eight hours, but that's not being rebellious, that's just following the rules to a technicality. it's only when his mother is taken from his life and he loses that external structure that he actively 'becomes rebellious', and even then i think rebellion is the wrong word; it's actually just self destructive behaviour that is 'morally' grey according to the wider societal system. when his story arc finally concludes and he has his mother back in his life (sort of), he visually sheds some of his more 'rebelliously' attributes by cutting and redying his hair to the 'standard masculine' haircut and showing up to work in a suit and/or less flamboyant patterns and garments. but he does still keep the same number of layers and shapes as he did before.

---

***when japan surrendered in 1945 it ceded all its territories to the us, so really korea was actually just colonized again. you can see in the korean war vet episode that in flashbacks joong-gil is wearing a western style suit as a reaper, which would have been between 1950-53, but in the comfort women episode he's still wearing hanbok, which would have been at the earliest 1930ish. also it would makes sense logistically as jumadeung is supposed to mirror the 'real' world. i also think this is where the framing of it as a 'company' comes from as well.

#OK I HAVE TO STOP NOW THIS IS WAY TOO LONG #non kpop questions #if more ppl start asking me about shows and stuff i might start a general media analysis tag #tomorrow #netflix tomorrow #tv #this show had like a TON of problems but i think the heart of it was really good and it was probably necessary?#like the fact that it was extremely empathetic is very important but also. it wasn't realistic at all #and also it was relatively kind to character stereotypes that don't normally receive kindness? like fat characters #AND the fact that ryung-gu is explicitly a recovered addict and still framed sooo empathetically is a huge deal #esp for a country with massive drug stigmas still #but the fact that christian morality is SO deeply baked into just the concept of the show is big oof. like huge massive very large OOF #anyways. here's my very long essay on defensive dressing and how immortal characters arent just gonna dress in the latest trends #text #answers #also further point about ryeon. i think the reason we rarely saw her as a reaper in the period between when jumadeung 'westernized'#and the present is bc it would be a huge betrayal of her character to dress her in something 'traditionally' feminine from that time frame #but they couldn't feasibly dress her as more gender-nonconforming because it would have pretty much instantly coded her as a lesbian #which i think they were actively trying to avoid #OH I FORGOT ABT JOONG-GILS CAMEL NUMBER IN EP5 #thats an important character beat for him tho too so it still fits the pattern #since its the first time he makes an effort to try and see a different perspective. even if it doesn't actually work and he regresses lol #anyways these three characters are sooooooo interesting and unusual and i really like all of them #yes ryung-gu is my favourite and no its not just bc he cries pretty! i have real reasons!!

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translations-dark-matter · 2 months

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Living as an Extra in an Omegaverse novel

Chapter 62

I slowly rose from the bed. What's the point of pretending to sleep when you know I'm awake?

"You're up. I thought you were sleeping, so I was talking to myself. Did you happen to miss what I said in your dream?"

Shin Tae-oh spoke awkwardly and stiffly. I didn't like how he approached me so casually, but I disliked even more how he seemed to be coaxing me, knowing everything. Would I be able to give him an answer to his confession now that I've woken up?

"Since when have you been here? I didn't even realize you were here since I slept without dreaming."

Maintaining my audacity, I met Shin Tae-oh's eyes, as if saying, "That's how it is."

"Well, I'm glad you slept well."

Shin Tae-oh took a step back. Since he set up this strange situation in the first place, I couldn't blame anyone but him.

"Are you hungry? Shall we eat?"

What's his intention this time?

***

"It's my fault, so of course I should feed and take care of you."

Even if I say something, he'll just...

"My hands are perfectly fine."

"So are my eyes."

...

Is it really necessary to say that when I can see that my hands are fine?

Realizing that someone can become increasingly repulsive when they try too hard to please, I looked at the food in front of me. When my father was hospitalized, Shin Tae-oh brought hotel bento boxes. It seems like the same story this time as well.

Back then, there were many people to share the meal with, so I could discreetly join in and the portions would be just right. But this time, it wasn't the case. Seeing the towering stack of lunchboxes earlier, I wondered who else was coming.

"How is it? Doesn't it look delicious?"

Se-hyeon hesitated for a moment as he looked at the magnificent feast in front of him, then shook his head.

"Using food to tempt someone is not the way to go."

"You seem to have been tempted enough."

Despite Se-hyeon saying he wasn’t interested, Shin Tae-oh interpreted it in his own way. He should have said it wasn’t necessary, but... His hand involuntarily twitched, wanting to grab the chopsticks.

"We need to fill our stomachs even if it's not this. So let's eat. Otherwise, we'll just throw it all away."

Shin Tae-oh said as he lifted a piece of grilled short rib with his chopsticks.

"I ordered 6 servings for the two of us, but I couldn't finish it all by myself."

"And why did you order 6 servings?"

Silence.

Grumbling with dissatisfaction, Se-hyeon felt Shin Tae-oh bring the grilled short rib closer to his lips.

"I have to make sure Se-hyeon eats at least this much."

As Shin Tae-oh's mouth curled up on one side, showing his mischievousness,

"You eat well."

Se-hyeon chewed the grilled short rib diligently, taking over for Shin Tae-oh.

"Does it taste good?"

Se-hyeon kept his lips tightly sealed and only nodded his head slightly. There was nothing wrong with the food. The issue was the person who brought it.

Se-hyeon glanced at Shin Tae-oh sneakily, raising his eyes for a moment. Not only did he confess to me, but he seems determined to be straightforward. He's still showing me a great deal of intimacy, yet Se-hyeon himself remains unresponsive.

I heard Shin Tae-oh's confession and pretended not to hear, but now he has set up a table in front of me.

Should I accept Shin Tae-oh's confession? If I do, it would mean entering into a relationship, which would bring significant changes to my stable life. I couldn't be certain whether it would have a positive or negative impact on me.

In the first place, scrutinizing these things meant that I didn't particularly like Shin Tae-oh. No matter what happens, it's not like I only have eyes for him, ignoring everything else.

I don't know how I would appear to Shin Tae-oh if he could see into my thoughts, but this is who I am. Calculating and selfish. What I prioritize the most is the well-being of my family and myself.

In the end, there was only one attitude Se-hyeon could take.

‘I have to reject him.’

It would be best to draw a line between us and maintain our relationship as boss and secretary. My mind has already made the decision, but my lips have yet to speak.

I'm not sure when would be a good time to say it.

"Se-hyeon."

"Yes?"

Startled by the sound of his name, Se-hyeon looked at Shin Tae-oh. He didn't know how long Shin Tae-oh had been watching him. It seemed like he had been caught stealing glances and unintentionally getting lost in his thoughts.

"Do you not want to leave the hospital?"

"No, I want to leave."

"Then eat quickly. You need to eat and get better to leave."

Shin Tae-oh took the soup in front of Se-hyeon and poured a fresh serving for him. As Se-hyeon watched the steam rising from the soup, he heard Shin Tae-oh's tender voice.

"Let's eat and think about things."

As if knowing exactly what Se-hyeon had been thinking, Shin Tae-oh set the order. Se-hyeon picked up the spoon and began to eat the soup.

"Does it taste good?"

"It's hot."

To the point where the spot where the soup passed through could be felt. The soup warmed his chest.

"Boss."

Normally, I should be the one watching Shin Tae-oh eat, but it turned out to be the opposite. Stirring the soup with the spoon, I called Shin Tae-oh.

"Why?"

"I've been thinking about the company."

I stirred the soup diligently, but it showed no signs of cooling down. Should I just ask for a cooler soup?

"Is that so?"

It's definitely not what you were thinking.

In response to Se-hyeon's emphasis, Shin Tae-oh flashed a faint smile.

"Fine. Let's say that's the case."

"It's not about 'let's say,' it's the truth."

"Everything you say is true."

"I'm good at lying, but this time it's true."

"Then I'll say that this lie is true."

"...."

It wasn't supposed to go like this.

Feeling strangely cornered, Se-hyeon pondered how to turn the situation while moving his chopsticks, and then spoke.

"I'm healthy. The doctor said I can be discharged anytime."

Having received all the necessary IV fluids, there was only one needle mark left on the back of his hand. Finding something to resist against Shin Tae-oh, his heavy heart became slightly lighter.

“I’ll be with you when I get discharged, Secretary Ahn.”

Tae-oh who was just talking tenderly to me suddenly lowered his voice and spoke in a business-like tone.

Having been his secretary for three years, I knew not to refuse in times like this.

"The discharge procedures will be handled by the Chief Secretary."

I said it for no reason.

***

The lunchboxes that Se-hyeon thought he couldn't finish emptied one by one.

"You did well ordering six servings."

Shin Tae-oh smiled as if he had expected that and pushed the empty container in front of me to the side.

"I ordered a lot so that we can eat a lot."

“Isn’t this better because you give in if you ask for more?”

Shin Tae-oh's words were correct. Honestly, it felt good to be able to eat to my heart's content without worrying about anyone's opinion.

"You'll know the joy of eating."

Se-hyeon, who was eating the remaining food, looked at Shin Tae-oh with chopsticks still in his mouth.

"I meant it as mealtime. I just thought it was a time to have a conversation while looking into each other's eyes."

It's probably not just Shin Tae-oh, but most people feel that way.

"I often eat alone, so it wasn't very enjoyable."

It seemed like Shin Tae-oh was referring to the times when he ate alone at home, as opposed to having meals with the person he met for a business meeting outside or with the Chief Secretary.

"I wasn't alone in that space, but there was no one to talk to."

His voice was heavy, and I couldn't interrupt.

"But it's different when I eat with Ahn Se-hyeon."

"Sorry for interrupting, but we didn't talk much either."

At first, I wondered why we would eat together, but once we started eating, we focused without saying much. In that case, isn't this also similar to having almost no conversation?

"Yeah, I unintentionally end up eating competitively."

Am I afraid of being deprived?

"When I see you eating, it looks delicious, so I want to eat too."

Somehow, I followed along and imitated you.

"You're busy eating, so when would there be time to talk?"

At this point, I'm curious about what you want to say.

"It's okay even without conversation. Just the act of eating itself is enjoyable."

"I'm glad you're enjoying it."

Unable to find anything to say, I held onto the tail end of the conversation. Fortunately, Shin Tae-oh, seeming to have finished saying what he wanted to, moved his chopsticks again.

Watching him with a lifted corner of his mouth, as if to say it tastes good, I quietly set down my chopsticks.

["I was in the same class as Shin Tae-oh. When we were young, we used to hang out together sometimes."

"If you're really curious, ask Yoo Jin-hyeon."]

Perhaps it was because of what Shin Tae-oh just said that Ha Jin-seong's words came to mind.

"Um, boss."

Before going to ask Yoo Jin-hyeon, I wondered if there was anything I could hear from Shin Tae-oh. So, I called out to him, but before he could answer, the sound of a knock echoed.

The doctor came and left in the morning, so could it be someone looking for Shin Tae-oh?

"Is Se-hyeon here... Yes."

The person who appeared with the door slightly ajar was Yoo Jin-ha.

"Yoo... Manager."

I was taken aback by the unexpected visit, and it seemed like Yoo Jin-ha was too. He greeted me with a friendly handshake and then his eyes widened when he saw Shin Tae-oh.

"Oh? Tae..."

"He's also hospitalized. The timing was coincidental, but we're not sharing the same room. We just ate together."

As Yoo Jin-ha was about to say something upon seeing Shin Tae-oh, Se-hyeon intervened.

"...Oh, so that's why you're here."

Jin-ha continued his interrupted sentence and greeted Shin Tae-oh. Then, he momentarily leaned back and checked something, probably my name written on the hospital room.

"I heard from the Chief Secretary that you're not feeling well... Can I come in for a moment? Can I?"

Yoo Jin-ha asked Se-hyeon first, and then he asked Shin Tae-oh.

"Ah..."

Upon Yoo Jin-ha’s question, I looked at Shin Tae-oh. It's not like there was a specific reason, but whenever someone mentions "Yoo Jin-ha," Shin Tae-oh naturally comes to mind, and that's how I ended up looking at him.

"Come in."

After Shin Tae-oh gave his permission, I thought it was my hospital room, but it was already too late.

"I didn't come alone. Can we come in together?"

With Yoo Jin-ha’s words, the door swung wide open, revealing Ha Min-hyuk who was standing behind.

"Why is everyone doing this to me?"

Se-hyeon, who saw the two of them, sighed and covered his eyes.

Why did they both show up on the day when I was already feeling troubled by Taenyang's confession?

Even if it's because I'm hospitalized for some kind of pain, it wouldn't be like this. I'm already worried that the cycle will be disrupted, and now if Ha Min-hyuk comes holding hands and says, "Let's date," during his visit on the day I was admitted, what should I do?

Shin Tae-oh noticed this. Wouldn't it bother you even if you confessed your feelings to Yoo Jin-ha?

"Come in."

But Shin Tae-oh even gave permission to Ha Min-hyuk.

"Excuse us then."

"This."

Ha Min-hyuk, who came in with Yoo Jin-ha, placed a fruit basket on the bedside table.

"I was going to buy drinks, but they said you'll be discharged soon..."

I see. So he knows. He came even though he knows.

"Thank you."

I expressed my gratitude for the care they showed by coming. Then, I tried to get up, but I hesitated when I realized that the meal wasn't finished yet.

"Finish eating."

Shin Tae-oh pointed at the fruit and even picked it up to bring it to my mouth.

"I'll eat it."

"I'm giving it to you because I'm worried that you won't be able to eat properly with other people on your mind."

Why would you tell them to come in and then say something like that?

Anyway, it would be better to eat and finish it quickly rather than refusing. I ate what Shin Tae-oh offered and finished off all the remaining fruit.

"I haven't finished eating yet."

I ignored Shin Tae-oh's mumbling.

Prev / Next

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asimali22 · 2 years

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Good Judgment for Comparison of Mortgage Brokers and Banks

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Balance a Mortgage Broker with a Buyer's Agent

A home credit vendor looks like a buyer's delegate for your home advance.

A buyer's delegate tends to the house client's prosperity. The expert is an educated real estate professional focused on tending to only the purchaser. With this depiction the homebuyer can save cash and have more ideal game plans organized.

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#mortgage brokers

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slashingdisneypasta · 2 years

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Long John Silver x Reader || Headcanons

Topic: All the ways Silver offer's affection.

Warnings: I don't know how to write Silver's talk *Cries*, also a few sexual references

Oh so many hugs. Like, he's not a cuddly person in general (At least he doesnt allow himself to be. He's a feared pirate captain, so he just cant be.)... but with his significant other, its so very different XD As a greeting he'll gather you against his (Warm, comfy) belly with his big arms, he'll sit with his flesh-and-bone arm propped against the railing of a boat or the back of a chair or something and invite you in to fit yourself into his side, use his big cyborg hand to gather your waist to him, etc.

Manhandles you quite a bit. Like Hades, Silver will use his size and power (Both natural physical strength and cyborg appendages) to get you where he wants you; Twirling you around to get you in front of the pot so you can watch the stew boil while he goes off somewhere else probably to yell at Scroop, picking your hand up and holding it out so he can see you cool new outfit better, tripping you 'on accident' so he can catch you and set you on his lap ("Aw, surely y' can sit down with your husband for just an itty bitty jiffy, no? Oh, blimey!- are you alright there, love? Y' better sit down for a moment there after a near-miss like tha'- ")- and he'll act all innocent, like he doesn't quite realise his own strength (How he can handle you like a doll) but he absolutely knows and the mischievous grin on his face is testament to that.

Has a very 'Hands on' approach to teaching. Unlike Hades (Yes I'm continuing with this comparison, Hades is a very touchy-feely villain), he's not doing it on purpose to get a feel or nothing. Its just the way he is. Guiding your hands and arms into place, pulling your shoulders back so you're straighter, kicking your legs apart gently, nudging your chin up, etc. Its also just because he loves you, though, so there will also be some, like, playing with your hair while you concentrate, wrapping his arms around you from behind while you're learning to shoot a gun, letting his hand sit on your hip while you're learning knots with him, etc. Fluffy, domestic, encouraging stuff like that.

He loves having you splat on his lap. He loves it. Its the perfect way to show ownership (Of you) while also getting a good portion of his cuddle quota in during the day, without seeming too soft in front of the crew. Also in this position, he's able to whisper stuff to you even when other people are talking. Like, yes, dirty stuff ("Stop wrigglin'.", "You just wait til' I got you alone in a bit, lass.", "Watch yourself in front of the men, love.", etc), but also warnings ("See that 'une there? Watch 'im.", "Remember, don't talk about the treasure love, these pirates aren't the calm type,", *Subtly slides a gun into your pocket, "Keep this 'ere.", etc), inside jokes (About secrets you both know about the other pirates, something you said in the open conversation a few minutes ago, things that happened throughout the day, etc) and just general chit chat between just the two of you. That is not to say he doesn't love having you in lap in private, though, also. Then you can face him and he can see your beautiful face.

Dancing! He's the kind of dancer that only does it when he has a partner- you! Silver's full of spirit and you'll have a lot of fun with him, and when you pulls you on deck, or the dance floor at a pub near the docks, or even alone in the captains quarters/kitchen at night are some of those times. He loves to twirl you around, getting you to love and smile, then take your (Much smaller- remember, even if you are a large person- Silver is WAY BIGGER) hands in both of his and take you around the dance floor, or just quietly gather you close to his body (His bio hand holding yours and the cyborg hand encompassing your back safely while your cheek rests on his chest/belly) and just waltz you slowly in one spot. Depending on his and your mood ^^

He can absolutely pick you up with ease. Like if you're trying to reach something in the kitchen or theirs something none of the crew can get to but is necessary for the mission- Silver'll just come up to you, wrap his hands around your waist, lift and hold you up to it. Or set you up on his shoulders (Either standing with your feet held firmly to his shoulders or sitting with your thighs around his head). He also likes to come up and surprise you sometimes, the mischievous pirate he is- just sneaking up behind you and abruptly throwing you over his shoulder so fricken easily (Which is to say, safely and comfortably for you as well even though its a surprise) because he's decided its time to go into the captains quarters and have some you-and-him-time.

And finally- places he likes to kiss you. Basically, places that'll tickle you and make you laugh are a huge fan favourite XD Like the spot where your jaw becomes your neck, the corner of your mouth, collar bones, the underside of your knees (Just imagine that though- he's rarin' up to take care of you but takes his time first to set your legs comfortable against his shoulder, and look at you layin' down there like that in front of him and he lifts your leg just to give a little kiss under your knee.), down your neck, inside of your thighs- places like that. He also loves to kiss your lips though, of course. He likes that it shows off that you're his and he just loves the way your lips feel against his.

#Long John Silver x Reader Headcanons #Long John Silver x Reader #Long John Silver #Headcanons #Disney Villains #Disney Villains x Reader #Disney Villains x Reader Headcanons #Affection Headcanons #Long John Silver Affection Headcanons #SFW

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old-archivist · 2 years

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Antiva Köppen Climate Map and the Nerd Deep Dive to Go With it

Hello, I'm back and I have a nerd deep dive for you. This time featuring our ever so mysterious and romantic Antiva. Homeland of our beloved Zevran and Josephine. The coffee and trade capital of Thedas, and the site of demise of the fourth Archdemon Andoral. (I'm going to bring this up later. It's a rather big thing, to me at least.)

[Image Id: A multicoloured climate map of the fictional country Antiva from Dragon Age. Right side has the colour key for the climate zones of the map.]

This is going to be a really long post so everything is going under the cut. Topics being covered are:

Climate Zones

Trade

Flora

Fauna

Climate Zones

First thing you may notice is that this map is a little different from my original projects. Well, that is because I overlooked a rather significant detail:

The Fourth Blight ended in Antiva’s bean belt/tropical zone.

So what I originally projected to be tropical savanna and tropical monsoons, even a bit of rain forest, looked like this.

[Image ID: A multicoloured map, the top portion being largely green to denote a tropical climate area. Half way down turns orange denoting a change to a more arid and desert climate.]

I was expecting a more widespread coverage given the location of the area and all the potential precipitation levels. This was also back before most of my in depth research pertaining to the popular exports of Antiva, such as coffee.

But all of what I had planned, while plausible for the area, was likely wiped out during the Fourth Blight. The official maps I was referencing as a base line, to keep this as close to canon as I could, actually make it a fair bit difficult to realize this at first glance.

[Image Id: The Bioware Official map showing Antiva and the colours of the landscape.]

I thought it was a greyish-green type landscape. Mountainous perhaps but overall the appropriate climate zone. That is until I colour picked it and realized it was the same grey colour as the Sea of Ash on the other-side of the Gamordan Peaks southwest of Orlais.

In case you aren’t familiar with it, a Blight isn’t just devastating because of the Blight itself or even the darkspawn. When a Blight hits it impacts an area’s rainfall. Despite the arrival of an Archdemon on the surface heralding unnatural dark clouds, the clouds are simply to provide shelter from the darkspawn who fear the sun.

These black storm clouds offer next to no rain, and as time wears on, the surface water in the area evaporates. So rivers run dry, the land going through a desertification process from the sudden and prolonged drought that begins killing off plant life. The deteriorating climate leads to other effects as the Blight takes hold of the weakened plant and wildlife; mutating what has managed to survive.

This leads to many unnatural deserts and arid climates in Thedas, especially in areas heavily impacted by Blights. As we see with the Western Approach in Orlais, the Silent Plains between Nevarra and Tevinter, and the entirety of the Anderfels. And from these areas we can tell just how long it takes for areas to recover if at all.

So, given the area from Rivain to the Drylands shares that greyish colour, I thought it was best to regulate it as a hot steppe area. To clarify, steppes are dry, grassy plains which usually lie between tropics and polar regions. They have distinct seasonal temperature changes, cold winters and warm summers. Steppes are characterized as being semi-arid, which means they receive 10-20 inches (25-50cm) of rain in a year. Which means they have enough to support short grasses but not really enough for trees or tall grasses to grow.

This makes them mostly border climates in terms of transitioning from say tropics to deserts or mediterranean to temperate. It’s why you’ll see most of Antiva is covered in them. Because they have multiple climates that would need these transitioning zones, as well as they are a reasonable step in the potential climate recovery of Antiva after a Blight.

Now I was tempted to leave the savanna there, because traditionally they are closer to the equator and do differ from steppes in that they have hot, wet summers and only marginally cooler, but much drier winters. They also generally run warmer than steppes. I didn’t think that there was initially much reason to completely get rid of the savanna in place of steppes, given that there would be in areas that receive a lot of off-shore precipitation. But given that most of the coastal areas became mediterranean and that there was likely a lot of loss of long time water reservoirs such as lakes, rivers, and the like from the desertification of the Blight. It felt more reasonable that without the added precipitation from the large amounts of tropical rain forests and the retreat of the monsoon zones, that would dampen the recovery - even though it would be more accelerated compared to its inland counterparts. Those areas would become steppes. Because we can see such areas in Africa where the loss of rainforests and general deforestation impacts the surrounding areas.

So, what was a tropical savanna is now a hot steppe, what does that mean in the big picture? Well, for one it impacts the local flora and fauna - which I will go into more detail later; and also impacts what Antiva has to trade. A topic that will be in the following section as well. Aside from those, it impacts some of the surrounding climates.

While the Rialto Bay has its own off-shore winds bringing precipitation, it likely isn’t a lot given that I speculate that it has a cold current running through the bay. Generally speaking you will typically see mediterranean climates along cold currents and tropical regions with warm coastal currents. This is because it is more common that there will be less precipitation being blown in from the ocean. Cooler waters don’t evaporate as quickly so there is less moisture in the air. That would make most of the precipitation in the area coming from the northern shore from the Venefication Sea. Precipitation that would be lost as it goes over the tropical region on the coast, and presumably the small mountain range that surrounds the White Spire mountain. (Because mountains aren’t land features that naturally stand alone.) So if it has to cross the White Spire Mountain range, it would then leave all the steppes on the other side in what is called a rain shadow.

A rain shadow is often on the other side of a mountain, and is the side that typically sees less rain as the clouds need to release their moisture to climb higher in elevation. Now before the Blight this would still have been the case, but less so as there was likely run off water from the peaks that helped elevate the moisture to keep the area more tropical. But since the Blight, the loss of plant life, change in soil quality, and prolonged drought, it likely reached a point that there isn’t enough to revitalize the Blighted lands or alleviate the desertification. And thus the area turned more into steppes flanking the pockets of deserts and the Mediterranean coast.

I want to take this point to remind you that I am simply an amateur with an art degree who just really finds all this interesting, so I might be falling short in some areas and I highly encourage you to look into this stuff yourself. I also encourage you to have a dialogue with me about this if you think I missed something or should revise something.

That said, I also want to reiterate that desertification isn’t just a matter of sudden decrease in rainfall. I mentioned before but I want to say it more directly, that it also pairs with the degradation of the soil. With less nutrients in the soil, the area can’t support as complex or nutrient demanding plant life - such as trees and tall grasses. This means that there is less plant matter to hold it together, which leads to less water retention in the area for when it does rain, and that leads to an increase of soil erosion.

Soil erosion means things like mudslides, landslides, and massive movements of soil on areas of inclines; such as cliffs, areas leading into valleys, and on steep river beds. This also could lead to the change of rivers, the disruption of lake beds, and then an even further spread of the desertification.

So, what is the difference between hot and cold steppes? Not much really is the simple answer. A difference in average temperatures and sometimes altitude. The difference in average temperatures impact not only local plant life, but also the type of crops that could be grown there by farmers. If you want to see some real life locations of steppes for a better idea of what the areas look like or even a better understanding of all this climate talk I recommend visiting the Köppen Climate Classification Wiki.

Another caveat that should be mentioned in all of this, is that I cannot be sure of the overall landscape in terms of hills, valleys, and the like which have their own impact on the environment. While I have made some speculation based on the multiple maps Bioware has released as well as excerpts from Tevinter Nights and other Dragon Age additional media. They are just that, speculation. Which, for these maps I wanted to keep as reasonably low as I could because DA4 is lurking in the woods and could dramatically change a lot of this. If it does, I will of course be updating things because not only would that make all of this so much better but if you haven’t noticed, I like working on these maps.

Trade: Import and Exports

So, the Fourth Blight. Big, cataclysmic event, fourth of its kind, involved most nations in Thedas, went on for 12 years, and resulted in the extinction of Griffons and decimation of lands all across Thedas but most noticeably the Anderfels.

How does this relate to Antiva aside from the changes to the land I mentioned before. Well for starters, the Fourth Blight began in Antiva and was essentially the central point for the better part of those 12 years. There was a lot of destruction not only to the land but the country itself. It saw the end of the Antivan royal family at the time, the capital fell, and it decimated the infrastructure of the nation.

Yet when it was all said and done, Antiva turned its focus to rebuilding. Those efforts were more specifically focused on rebuilding the capital, Antiva City, as well as getting their sea trade industry back up. It is a coastal country and one that relies heavily on its sea trade to prosper. With a bulk of their towns and cities lining the coast, likely ports that make up part of their large trade routes, only two towns are shown inland. Further illustrating that Antiva is meant to be a nation of sea trade.

Which makes sense, given that it seems to be inspired by both Spain and Italy. Dragon Age media has depicted this in areas such as language, food, and some aspects of culture. These influences play heavily into what we know of Antiva. Both in the characters that originate from there and the snippets of lore.

This coastal country is known for their craftsmanship, wealth, and the Antivan Crows. Their primary exports being wines, coffee, spices, leather works, and jewels - rubies, diamonds, and pearls in the Rialto Bay. All these things are fairly easy to transport by sea, most hardy for long journeys and not easily spoiled. Key to trade that cannot be easily expedited. Leaving Antiva not lacking in stable exports.

But, I want to circle back to the climate for a moment and dip into a little bit of plant talk. Remember how I was expecting a much larger tropical zone in Antiva? That was due to one of their largest exports being coffee. To be so widely known for it, it would require they were able to get a steady and substantial supply of it. Even if it was exclusive to nobility, merchants, and the rich of other nations. Even as a limited supply good. It couldn’t be so limited that it was too rare to be heard of or shared by the few who could get their hands on it.

Initially, I thought Antiva lacked enough land space. Given that, Antiva is severely lacking in tropical climates save for the northern coast past the White Spire mountain. As you can see in the map below, it is roughly 450 mi2 (724.2 km2) of tropical land. I was under the impression that it was too little to produce enough coffee for them to be known for it as an export. It should be noted that the Arlathan Forest, likely rich in resources (and coffee trees), is widely avoided by all due to rumour of it being haunted, and isn't part of Antiva but Tevinter. It is simply included in the map due to its location and it being such a large area near Antiva that I felt it would be included in their map.

[Image Id: Multicoloured climate map of the fictional country Antiva from Dragon Age with a grid overlayed. The right side has the colour key for the climate zones as well as the scaling for the grid: 1 square equals 15 miles (1 Day travel)]

In regards to this map, it should also be noted that the scaling I used is derived from the fact that Ferelden has been stated to be about the size of England, roughly 50,301 mi2 (Roughly 130,279 km2). Which consequently would make all of Thedas less than 1/4 the size of all of Europe. (It’s 0.1791 the size of Europe, just saying.)

But back to coffee. My initial thoughts for its viability as an export were wrong. For, in traditional coffee farming, you can plant 450 coffee trees in one acre, and there are 640 acres in one square mile (247 acres in one square kilometer). So 450 trees times 640 acres is 288,000 trees. Multiply that by 450 and well, you’re looking at roughly 129.6 million trees. With each tree producing roughly one pound of roast in a yield and one pound of roast can yield 48 cups of coffee… Antiva can in theory produce up to 6.22 billion cups of coffee in a year.

Needless to say, Antiva can likely produce more than enough coffee. But! For a little fun speculation, and the fact that Antiva likely doesn’t grow just coffee in that 450 mi2 (724.2 km2), then how would they meet the quota of what they would need to export coffee. Well, I looked around the real world to see if I could find a plausible explanation, and I found one in Arabic coffee.

From what I found, it is suspected that the coffee plant in the Arabian peninsula, originally came from Ethiopia - as the earliest mention of it is from a legend of an Ethiopian goat herder. From there, some historians believe it was introduced to the Arabian peninsula in 675 AD, and it is certain that it existed in Yemen monasteries in the 15th century.

So, given that Antiva’s closest neighbour is Rivain, a nation with significantly more tropical land that could facilitate a steady means of production of coffee trees. I think Antivan coffee could likely be an import to Antiva if they could not produce enough coffee for themselves and to export it. So, once the coffee beans are in Antiva, the beans are roasted and prepared in a unique way - much like Arabic coffee beans, before then being exported.

In the map below, you can see that I have a part of Thedas shaded darker, I have included the Antiva climate zone map on top as reference. The shaded area of the map is all of Thedas that would potentially fall in the world's “Bean Belt”. Meaning areas that would plausibly be able to support coffee trees given they are a tropical environment.

[Image Id: A map of the continent of Thedas from Dragon Age franchise with the coloured climate zones of Antiva filled in. A top section of the map shaded darker than the rest.]

So as you can see, Rivain isn’t the only country that Antiva could get coffee from. However, I imagine it would probably be the easiest and cheapest in terms of cost, time, and shortest distance. Also likely the most reliable as from what I can tell Tevinter likely doesn’t have enough tropical spaces to support them, Seherron is a battlefield, Par Vollen doesn’t trade with anybody, and the Anderfels is one of the worst hit countries by the Blights. The Donnarks to the north of the Anderfels might be a suitable place, as Thedas gets their chocolate from there. However, I feel it would be far too expensive of an import to justify exporting it out.

Flora

So I know I just talked about coffee, and while we did dip into the whole where it grows aspect, it was primarily for whether or not it was a reliable export and if it wasn’t how to make it so. This section is more of a “Let's talk about what grows in Antiva. What we know and what we can guess.”

So as far as what is officially stated to be available in Antiva, we have:

• Coffee

• Cord-seed (Unsure of what this is exactly aside from a spice)

• Corn

• Grapes

• Olives

• Oranges

• Passion Fruit

• Pepper (Thedosian equivalent of cayenne)

All of these have been mentioned at one point or another as being found in, come from, or are grown in Antiva. All of which make sense with the mixture of tropical and Mediterranean climates that it has. As well as the sub-tropical/humid climates. The steppes would also be understandable given the potential variety of corn they could grow among other crops like olives.

So given the array of crops that we know, here are some of the following crops, also mentioned to exist in Thedas but not specific to Antiva, that might be found or grown in the country. All of these were based not on what is possible in a modern sense but in various time periods such as medieval and pre-industrial eras.

Almonds, apple, apricots, barley, beans, clover, cocoa, cucumber, date, fig, garlic, lavender, onion, oregano, palms, parsley, pear, pomegranate, rice, rosemary, sage, sugarcane, sunflower, tea plant, tomato, turnip, walnut, wheat

These plants fall either in the Mediterranean, subtropical, temperate, or tropical climates. Some even have multiple which would lend to their variety and availability throughout all of Antiva. Most of these plants are also easily cultivated in terms of technology that we know Thedas has and by extension, what Antiva has access to. Easy, reliable crops that would provide staples and most can handle a variety in soil quality as well if they were to be used as ground cover or as a crop to help restore the soil.

Along with their ease of production and availability, most of these crops would have multiple uses. From culinary to medicinal, as well as being hardy for long exports if fermented, jarred, dried, or processed in some minor way.

Antiva truly benefits from their variety in climate zones as well as the access to potentially large swaths of farm-able land in milder climate pockets. Something that occurs more towards the south and would likely be less affected than the northern regions when it comes to the effects of the Fourth Blight. Though only marginally so, which is why I don’t think all of the tropical land that Antiva has access to is dedicated solely to coffee trees. Because not only would monoculture farming like that be unheard of in the eras we are referencing, but also it would be a poor use of land for a largely trade based economy.

I say it would be a poor use of land because they wouldn’t want to flood the market and knock their own prices down. But also it would be a severe risk in a business sense. One of the negatives of monoculture is not only the increased risk of disease as all the plants are similar, close together, and are all weak to the same pests and diseases. But also because if they were to have a bad year it would have such a severe negative impact that they wouldn’t have anything to supplement it.

Monoculture farming is a modern concept, because in the era of technology that Thedas is in, they don’t have the tools to combat it. Even in our modern world we don’t have the tools to do so, we simply slow it down. But that is a separate conversation.

When it comes to agriculture in Antiva, and by extension most of Thedas. They likely rotate their crops and practice companion planting. Intermingling crops that will help restore the soil of nutrients that another crop took. Such as planting beans or any legume after or with a demanding crop like corn. Not only do the beans replace the nitrogen in the soil, but the corn can be used as a trellis for beans and peas that climb. Therefore maximizing the production of the land and producing two healthy crops.

Another reason they would practice companion planting is that some plants can fend off the pests or disease of another crop, or utilize space that would otherwise go unused. If you plant something like corn with beets or radishes in between the rows, you can maximize the production of the land.. Beets or carrots grow deeper than corn roots go. They also mature faster than corn so by the time they’re ready to harvest the corn is reaching a height that would otherwise shade out shorter crops.

Now most of these crops are Eurocentric, which is fine, however I believe you can reasonably add more variety given that Antiva is in a sweet spot of being close to the equator but also inching out of the tropic zone in the southern half. Allowing for a much wider variety than we might see.

Some crops I personally throw into Antiva that I think would be reasonable and fun are:

Alfalfa, aloe vera, amaranth, anise, bamboo, broad bean, cactus pear, carob, chickpea, durum, eggplant, emmer, hazelnuts, lentil, liquorice, loquat, mandarin, medlar, millet, persimmon, pistachio, quince, radish, sorghum, spelt, tuna (aka prickly pear), vetch, and water chestnut.

This is to name a few, as I’m still exploring the flora of other countries such as China, India, Thailand, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

There are numerous varieties of eggplant for example, that differ from country and climate zone. Same with radishes and legumes in general. Antiva, Rivain, and Tevinter are countries that I feel are so rich in diverse climates and in unique locations. As we can see with the existence of things such as figs, dates, passion fruit, and other flora.

Fauna

The fauna of Antiva isn’t largely known to us. We have mentioned that this is where lions originate from, that their crest is a golden drake which implies there were a great many dragons here at one point. There is mention of birds like the kingfisher, or sea gulls, which we know how varied and colourful that species of bird is.

We can also make fair assumptions in terms of what is common throughout the rest of Thedas, such as nugs, fennecs (which are seemingly modeled after fennec foxes which are native to northern Africa.). It is also reasonable to imagine things like:

Badgers, bats, boar, cobra, deer, duck, eagles, goats, hare, hyenas, the various manner of large spiders, giants, jackals, rams, deepstalkers, wolves, wyverns, bears, brontos, lurkers, adders, quillbacks, pheonix, raytooth, scorpion, vultures, and universal rodents such as rats.

Most of the fauna that has been shared in Dragon Age, has been depicted as specific to the underground, certain regions of southern Thedas, or exist in climates that simply don’t exist in Antiva. Something I hope will change in the future.

As far as speculative creatures would go, I have a few that are on my personal docket:

Beavers, gazelle, magpies, a variety of ox, pheasant, pilot whales, quail, leopards, cheetahs, addax, camels, oryx, buffalo, ostrich, lynx, foxes, african penguins, springbok, gemsbok, pallas's cat, caracal, przewalski’s horse, argali, dhole, pangolin, and bearded vultures.

I’m hoping to explore these animals to create some uniquely Thedosian ones in the future as they aren’t as easily plug and play for Antiva as some other animals are in say Ferelden or Orlais. Still, I think there is variety to be had here and would love to see it as filled as uniquely as other areas of Thedas.

Additional Maps:

[Image ID: Canon compliant map of Antiva, with a grid overlayed. Depicts trails and cities.]

You'll notice this is on a different scale than the one I shared above. This scaling is derived from the timeline that Varric gives on how long it takes Hawke to get to Kirkwall. It does make Thedas a smidge bigger but not much haha.

[Image ID: Non-canon map of Antiva, with a grid overlayed. Depicts trails, paths, and additional towns, cities, and circles.]

So!

That's the end! I want thank you for reading through all this and would like to thank all the people who helped me with this. As soundboards, math checkers, proof readers, and simply encouraging me to do this. I hope to continue making more such projects.

A big thanks to @indymillerart for helping me name towns on my meta map. Taught me quite a bit in the process as well! To @justabrowncoatedwench for helping me sort through the math of scaling both versions that I used. The 15 mile increments as well as the 38 mile increment. There was a lot of math and double checking. I'm infinitely grateful for.

And a big thanks to @ripflemeth for tagging along on the journey of making this. For proofreading and double checking things as I went.

Another side note: If you want to help out a lore nerd, if you have any information on the interactive map from the dragon age website back in 2014, such as location details in the Free Marches and north of that. Even Orlais really, please send it my way. I ask for my mapping project and my general nerdness. You can also see this post to figure out what I’m talking about.

Want to support the maps? Buy me a ko-fi Want to have high rez versions of the map for your own purposes? Visit my shop! Questions, requests, concerns about the next blight and its impact on the natural world? Me too. Send an ask!

#dragon age #map of antiva #Map Mondays #Personally Unofficial Thedosian Maps #my meta #my maps #I'm an amateur with an art degree #Long post #This is a LONG post #Blights are still magic and fuck up everything

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elysianslove · 3 years

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hi sal! i recently found your account and i'm so in love with your work! i seriously went through all of provided content in one day lol.

(not sure if this was requested but) i was wondering if it would be possible for you to write reactions of jujutsu kaisen characters to their s/o (or someone dear/close to them) having a hard time eating (not necessarily a full-blown ed but some disordered eating habits)?

if you are not comfortable with it/don't write this sort of stuff or simply don't want to, it's completely fine! but if you decide to do it, then i'm leaving to you to decide which characters you would like to do.

thank you in advance! 💛

hi baby!! thank you so much i’m so glad you enjoy my work 🥺and don’t worry, i don’t mind writing topics like these. i struggle a lot with food, not for any particular reason, i just have terrible habits, so this was nice to see in my inbox. i only did three characters, but if you’d like more, let me know!

i do wanna put a Trigger Warning, though, that even though this isn’t a full blown eating disorder, it still can trigger some. they’re small headcanons, but please be careful if you choose to read this! i’ll put it beneath the cut just in case! <3

fushiguro megumi; megumi is crazy perceptive, it’s honestly a little scary. he would pick up on your habits and the little patterns pretty early on, but i think he’d be a little too worried to approach you about it, most likely because he doesn’t want it to seem like he’s overthinking or reaching. he starts to hyper focus, watching what happens when you go out to eat, when he asks you if you’ve eaten all day, when he asks you if you’re hungry. when he does notice that something really is off, he starts to feel a little guilty, for not recognizing it sooner, for not being able to take care of his significant other. is very kind about it, and very subtle too. asks you to share a meal with him, so you don’t feel overwhelmed with the amount of food, gives you small snacks like fruits, maybe some biscuits or pretzels, and makes sure you balance it out with water. he won’t ever approach you about it directly unless it starts becoming a little too dangerous of a habit for his liking, but until then, he encourages and motivates you in his own way. but he remains hyperaware of you from then on, and builds the habit of constantly checking in you in regards to eating. i think megumi would also be the type to turn to research, and the research might really scare him into one day freaking out over you and just yelling at you begging you to eat. he just wants you to always be healthy, and he tries to make sure of it in every way.

itadori yuuji; not as perceptive as megumi, but definitely picks up on it really quickly. different from the boy above, he does approach you about it, over time, in intervals. every time you decline to eat, every time you tell him you’ve forgotten to eat all day, every time you skip meals, every time you binge at night, he asks you about it. at first, he doesn’t think much of it. it’s normal to occasionally have your appetite fluctuate, and it happens for different reasons for different people. but when he finds it a repetitive habit, he starts to get really concerned, and he’s unafraid to show it too. he asks you, “what do you mean you haven’t eaten yet? it’s 9 pm,” with the saddest, most confused face ever. he doesn’t understand it much, but that doesn’t lessen of his worry at all, in any way. to help, he makes you a lot of home cooked meals, in hopes that it’s slightly more appealing. he calls you when you first wake up and asks you to go to breakfast with him, encouraging you to order anything small. he comes over in the middle of the day with some bento. he asks to share tea and a small snack before you go to bed. he definitely considers just forcing you to eat so much, as if it could possibly make up for the past missed meals, but he realizes just how much this could backfire. he’s really gentle with it, with you. he becomes your personal alarm if you have a habit of losing track of time and not eating for hours, and if you call him complaining about how hungry you are despite the fact that it’s nearly 4 in the morning, he tells you the recipe of a light meal on the phone, something that wouldn’t upset your stomach, leave you too full for breakfast the next morning. like i said, very kind about it.

gojō satoru; he’d immediately notice and pick up on your habits. and he scolds you for it, jokingly, trying to hint at it lightly, but i actually think he’d be as subtle as megumi, if not even more, when it comes to helping you. he takes you out to eat often, even if you’re just strolling around food stands, and if you decline his offer to let him buy you something, he’ll simply shrug and say, “okay, have fun watching me eat then,” but then he goes ahead and buys so much for himself, and makes you try a little bit of everything that it’s almost as if he’s tricking you into eating a full portion by yourself. it’s not against your will or anything, he just makes it very appealing for you. he’s honestly very understanding about it as a whole, and is very open minded. he will approach you eventually though, sit you down and tell you he needs you to talk to him, and if it’s so bad that you don’t even realize your habits, he’ll make them clear for you, and tell you he wants to make it better for you, wants you to take better care of yourself. but like i said, he’s very understanding, so if you really don’t have much of an appetite, he won’t make you eat, but he’ll buy a drink, like some juice, a milkshake, anything that energizes you and gives you some sort of nutrients. if you’re working, he’s there by your side feeding you tiny pieces of fruit. he just does his best to make it that you’re healthy without making you too uncomfortable.

#jujutsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu kaisen headcanon #itadori x reader #itadori yuuji x reader #fushiguro megumi x reader #megumi x reader #gojo satoru x reader #gojo x reader #tw bad eating habits #tw eating disorder

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beepboop358 · 3 years

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"S4 Sneak Peek" Teaser - SECOND PART

This is my second post about the st4 sneak peek teaser, regarding the second half of the st4 sneak peek teaser, which contains the new images for s4.

(the first part of this s4 sneak peek discussion regarding the first half of the teaser can be found here.)

The California group; Will, Mike, Argyle, Jonathan (and El for part of the season), are not shown in the s4 footage, neither is Joyce, who we also know is in California for at least part of the season. There are several possible reasons why they aren’t included, one being that they are waiting to release any content surrounding Joyce and Will’s storyline until both of their individual teasers are released, or that their storyline contains major spoilers too sensitive to reveal at this time.

Now getting into the images…

The Grandfather Clock:

It is striking midnight, which could be a reference to the doomsday clock, or just time running out until something catastrophic happens.

This clock has been seen several times in promos:

My running theory is the clocks represent memories, which will be re-visited through the powers of the upside down/the void, essentially “time travel flashbacks". If you want to read more about this theory it's in my post here. I think the grandfather clock being positioned in the upside down, further supports this theory.

A clock was also seen in the "Eleven are you listening?" teaser, striking 3 a.m., aka "the witching hour".

Eleven in s4:

In the first image, Eleven looks like Joyce. She has the same hairstyle with the bangs. Whether she is mimicking Joyce after getting closer and more attached to her, or Joyce gave her this haircut, she undeniably looks like Joyce. She is wearing Hopper's flannel, but her clothing style also looks similar to Joyce's, just like her hair.

Eleven has obviously been kidnapped by the “bad men”, probably government agents for Hawkins Lab. From her facial expression and lack of movement, she isn't struggling or trying to get away from their grip on her, and that the black van behind her has its doors open and she is facing away from it, which means they probably just took her out of the van. Her facial expression indicates she is looking at something, full of disbelief and confusion. The tan ground and blue sky tell us this is obviously California. It was confirmed by leaked set pics of Joyce and Jonathan's cars license plates that the Byers move to Cali. I have a theory Dr. Owens/the gov. paid to re-locate the Byers to keep a low profile for Eleven, or at least gave them some money to use to re-locate to a place far away from Hawkins, because Joyce can not afford the kind of house they are living in there in Cali by herself with the kind of job she previously worked.

The second image of Eleven in the lab could be a memory/"time travel flashback", or it may not even be El, it could be another test subject that just looks like her, since they all did have shaved heads, but I feel like the person has very similar facial features to Millie, so it is probably Eleven.

The Hawkins group:

We have Nancy, Steve, Robin, Max, Lucas, Dustin and Erica left in Hawkins to investigate what is going on there. They are in the Claremont house, rumored to be "Vecna's lair" (the rumored new monster in s4)

The group appears to be looking at the grandfather clock, but we don't know for sure.

Usually all the couples are visually paired together in shots (which is especially prominent in s3) but here in this shot Max and Lucas are not standing next to each other, and in the bike riding shot they aren’t riding next to each other either. Max and Lucas are always breaking up and then getting back together in s3, so I wonder if them not standing together and not riding next to each other indicates a more permanent break up between the two.

Max is also at the center of the formation, and everyone stands around and behind her. I have a theory Max will be more central to the plot this year in discovering whats going on in Hawkins. Steve also appears to be looking directly at Max, as if he is reacting to or going to respond to what she is saying or has been saying.

Max, Dustin, Lucas and Erica riding their bikes could be them running away from something, rushing to get somewhere to deliver news/show up to something that's about to happen, etc, we really don't know.

The Dice:

The number 7 can be seen as one of the prominent numbers in the middle of a dice roll during a D&D game with the hellfire club. The number 7 is associated with Will and Mike, but also could allude to the "Eleven are you listening?" teaser where a puck was dropped on the number 7. 3 and 5 are also prominent numbers here.

I think the hands with the ring is Eddie or another new character. Neither Mike or Dustin's hands look like that. The person sitting next to him could be anyone. This person is seen wearing a hellfire club shirt, and we have seen everyone we know to be confirmed members of the club - Eddie, Mike, Dustin, wear this shirt in bts pics.

Hopper:

This shot is most likely of Hopper in the Russian prison, using a flame thrower as a weapon for his escape, or to defend himself from someone/something.

The car on fire:

If you slow the teaser down to 0.25x speed, you can see the mysterious figure is walking towards the flaming car, approaching it. This means this person was most likely not in the wreck. Although it would make sense for it to be Joyce's car because she drives a Ford Pinto which was an extremely flammable car due to design flaws Ford neglected, the back of the Ford Pinto is rounded, and this car does not seem to have a rounded back. During the scene in the woods in s3 after Joyce and Hopper kidnapped Alexei and Hopper's car won't start, it blows up. Joyce makes comments about how she could have died in the car explosion, which could be possible foreshadowing.

The mysterious figure appears to be a man, I'm guessing a young adult/teenager based on the stripes on the sleeve of their shirt - it just feels like something a teenager would wear, not a middle aged adult. My bet is that this figure is either Will, Jonathan, or maybe Mike - just based off of the body shape of the figure and that they would fit the age group.

The one thing we know for sure from this picture is that the car explosion happens in Hawkins. The skinny, tall trees that can be seen on the side of the road, only grow in certain places, mainly in the southeast of the US, and the Hawkins portion of ST is filmed in Atlanta, GA where these trees grow. These kinds of trees can’t grow in New Mexico where the California portion is being filmed, and definitely not in Lithuania, where the Russia portion is being filmed. In the show these trees only appear in Hawkins, Indiana. These trees are seen during Hopper's letter - when the Byers drive past the "Leaving Hawkins" sign. The slight curve in the road right where the skinny trees can be seen is very suspiciously similar.

Chrissy:

Described as the most popular girl in school hiding a dark secret, Chrissy's death/disappearance will probably be what sparks the suspicion, action, mystery, of the Hawkins storyline. It will be the event that triggers the Hawkins group to investigate what's really going on, and if the upside down is back again in Hawkins.

Steve under water:

He seems to be looking for something, it's unclear what, why, or exactly when in the season this scene will occur. Water has an underlying significance in the show, and last year the stranger writers account kept tweeting reminding everyone to drink water, and tweeted that Steve wasn't drinking enough water. There's definitely something going on here with the water references. That tweet about Steve not drinking enough water could allude to his possible death/serious injury. Steve is a popular contender to die this season, but I wonder if/when Steve dies, Dustin will also die because of the comment he makes in s3 to Steve saying, "If you die, I die."

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