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summercreolefanfictioner · 1 year

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Headcanons about Sakamaki and Mukami hands please 🙏

touch by touch: sakamaki and mukami hands headcanons

tw: a bit nsfw

SHUU

-his hands are rough... but not as rough as what you'd imagine cause he carries this small tube of hand cream that he uses as his mini perfume

-however, you can feel his calluses due to playing the violin. well he doesn't play that much anymore but the calluses are still there to remind him of the child he was back then

-but boy what he does with his fingers will make you wild (I'll leave it up to your imagination 😉)

REIJI

-one might think Reiji's hands are soft bcos he always maintains cleanliness everywhere he goes

-nah his hands are dry like the Sahara desert cause of his frequent usage of alcohol c/o of the things he experiments

-would even try to compensate for these dry hands by using gloves while washing the dishes like those Asian moms (mommyreijiinthehouse)

-so yeah he's the typical rough hand that could touch your skin and make you melt as he chokes you into oblivion bcos he wants you to subject to him

AYATO

-hmm sometimes his hands are sweaty especially when he's nervous and that is really rare or maybe his hands are sweaty due to excitement or adrenaline rush cause our red boy's full of spunk

-he actually takes care of his hands tho, especially his nails bcos basketball players aren't allowed to have long nails

-would even go as far as to apply a clear shiny coat on them bcos he doesn't like seeing them chipped off

-even got Yui into doing this kind of thing bcos couple goals ✨

KANATO

-as someone who is a fan of fingers and such, this purple gremlin takes care of his hands

-after all, he knows how hands can have a significant impact on the way you touch and tease someone

-doesn't matter if his hand is composed of paper pale skin or bony fingers that look like they can easily bend and break as long as he manages to ghost you with his touch

-yeah like his touches and carrases are gentle but the way he skins you alive with his knife is harsh and painful

-also uses a hand cream with the same brand like Shuu's

LAITO

-HOARDER OF HAND CREAMS

-this guy has prob the most beautiful hands out of all bros like he really takes care of them

-yeah bcos this beautiful boy wants to do anything that would make him the center of attention

-diva

-his hands are not too bony nor muscular??? they're just the perfect fit

-well until he decides to do something terrible to you with them

SUBARU

-you know those hand descriptions that say "rough and muscular with veins protruding"?

-yep that's our bby car right here

-like his whole body, even his hands, should show any amount of rage he always keeps inside like the constipated man he is

-ofc there are a few bruises here and there

-as if they don't heal cause pureblood vampire genes

-guess how many people he has killed with them

RUKI

-papercuts, lots of them

-I wanna say something interesting like rough with a few bony fingers and veins popping up every time he cuts a vegetable

-but nah all this guy has are papercuts

KOU

-the same with Laito

-like btch he has an idol image to maintain so might as well take care of any part of his body so he could sell well

-talk abt exploitation jk

-he actually practiced giving himself manicures for years until he can finally flaunt them btchass fingernails 💅

-even got the signature Doja Cat nails bcos he found out some idols use them to pick their nose

-eventually removed them cause it only makes his nose bleed

YUMA

-BIG 👀

-like I swear when he spreads it out, it covers Azusa's whole face and his bros would reprimand him to be careful with them

-cause one tight grasp of his hands and he'll be sending someone to the hospital soon

-he accidentally broke one of his classmates bones by trying to pull them when they're about to get bumped by the crowd during cultural festival

AZUSA

-wounds everywhere

-I swear all of em are traced like constellations in the sky but this time constellations on his bony hands

-prob even named them after constellations too

-"Ruki what does this one look like?"

-"like Spica"

-"okay your name is Spica"

-but he will realize soon enough that it's futile to have wounds in his hands bcos it hinders movement

-so he went back to his bff Justin and added more friends there so he won't be lonely 🫂

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questionablyrhetoric · 4 months

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tricks i use to not die

(will be updated from time to time)

1. walking. obviously you always get the whole “walk it’s so good for you,” but walks can often suck. if you play a high intensity sport like i do several times a week, doing intense workouts outside of that is very detrimental and you WILL burn out. walking helps burn calories, get steps in, and overall makes you feel better.

2. eat serving sizes. it’s specific, but then i know exactly what i’m eating when i’m eating it, especially when it comes to unhealthy snacks. (plus those are often very small serving sizes)

3. waiting. when i want to eat i always wait 15 minutes before, so i can really think on my decision and it’s not a spur of the moment choice.

4. this may only work for some, but tell yourself you can eat. you see a snack you can say “oh that’s perfect! i’ll eat that later.” but as time goes on you lose interest and don’t end up eating it. restrict your food, not your mind.

5. stay out of the house. currently for me it’s difficult because it’s winter in canada, and i want to stay warm, but i try to get in at least a walk a day and spend time downtown or with friends. (this works because my best friend also doesn’t eat a lot and has a gluten intolerance like me, so our outings rarely revolve around food)

6. focus on nutrients. everyone says this, but it’s true. think how what you plan to eat will do for your body, and if you want to actually gain nutrients from this.

7. get in a routine. for me i wake up at 5:00, have a shower, do a few easy workouts, do some stretches, get homework done (if needed), and then get some rest time before i start getting ready. my mornings are beneficial to me mentally for lots of reasons i won’t list, and a routine will give you something to rely on.

8. never have a “fuck it” mentality. you ate chocolate? that’s fine. enjoy it. but don’t believe your day is ruined and then binge. people slip up, they go over limits, and that’s okay. don’t make it worse.

9. find something to do. take up a new hobby, or learn a new skill, or work on a project. find something you genuinely enjoy and work on it. your mind will stay occupied.

10. if you use it, find th1n$pø that looks like you. i could never get behind the skinny asian girls who are about 5’0 and 70 lbs. for me i personally just want to look like a skeleton, so i prefer the more 🦴spo type. but if you’re going for more realistic goals, find photos that are similar to your body and build. you can’t change your skeleton. i’m sorry.

11. if you happen to be poc or have really curly hair, get it done. i spent eight hours in a hair salon getting braids. easiest fast of my life.

12. this is a habit i still struggle with, but try not to weigh/measure obsessively. if you weigh yourself multiple times a day you’ll get discouraged. i aim for about twice a week, and try and focus on subtler things (my rings being lose, my clothes looking bigger, making a new hole in my belt, etc). it keeps optimism going.

13. if you can, join a sport. i play hockey and i burn between 700-900 cals from one practice, which is only an hour. incredibly helpful and fun all at once.

14. i’m so going to hell for this, but romanticism. you think i’m enjoying this? fuck no. but by imagining the little things and romanticizing my little disorder, i’m keeping myself in a decent enough headspace to keep going. (i think i’ll make a longer post on this topic later)

15. this is incredibly difficult, but act. lie your ass off. do your homework, smile, make jokes, socialize. don’t change immediately and try and act as everything’s fine, people won’t catch on for a while if you do.

16. have a goal that is for you, but not just about looks. this is a little tricky. most often i see people either doing this for a) to look more attractive. b) so the object of their affections will reciprocate. or c) to get revenge on those who’ve body-shamed them. my current goal is to fit the part for the role i got casted in, more to embody the character. obviously i do this for looks as well, but mainly it’s so i can kinda method act. find something specific to work towards alongside your other goals.

17. water. i’m personally not one of those people who chugs litres daily, but i try to drink at least one water bottle full daily. if you find yourself hating the taste of water, get some of those 0 cal flavourers. mine’s berry pomegranate.

18. become loyal to your brands. i only eat two kinds of protein bars, only drink coke zero or diet dr. pepper. this could just be me, but experimenting doesn’t make me feel very safe. i like to know what i’m eating inside and out.

19. always, ALWAYS keep something on you. i’m not joking. if you’re going out after three days of fasting get a fucking cereal bar or something, because you can easily get faint and risk it. i’m not telling you to eat, but always keep food on you for emergency.

20. spend time alone. don’t completely isolate yourself, but be alone when you need to. it gives your mind a break from the stresses of social life and allows you to just get some good thinking in.

21. get used to small portions. if you go out for a meal, get a small salad instead of a large, small coffees, forgo snacks, stay with water instead of getting a drink. this both gives you less food and has you not spending so much money.

22. go to bed early. we all probably know by now when you don’t eat you have insomnia, so by going to bed at say nine, if you spend maybe, three hours awake, you’re still getting roughly 6-8 hours of sleep depending on when you wake up. if you had gone to bed at midnight, you’d have gotten about 3-5 hours.

23. i cannot stress this enough. IF YOU ARE DRINKING, FOLLOW THE RULES. drinking on an empty stomach is dangerous enough, remember to wait 30 minutes between drinks, drink water, never accept rides from drunk people or drive yourself, etc. we’re already risking our lives, no need to get worse.

24. take good care of myself. although i look like i’m rotting away, i’m incredibly intense when it comes to personal hygiene. it’s easier for me personally to exist when i’m clean and fresh, and spending time doing my hair or makeup helps distract me.

25. cook your own food. i understand a lot of people may not have the time or money to afford cooking for themselves, or maybe they just don’t like cooking, and that’s fine. but if you have access to a kitchen and ingredients, look up some recipes! spend time learning! it’s so much fun and gives me a way to both pass the time and know exactly what i’m putting in my food.

26. if you wish, go vegan or vegetarian. i’ve been on a strict gluten free diet for a few years now due to an intolerance (so against my will), but i’m coming up to a year being vegetarian by choice. not trying to preach this lifestyle onto you, but if you want to eat more vegetables or have an easier excuse for just getting a salad when out with friends, there you go.

27. do things you actually enjoy. i’m not going to force myself to run because i fucking hate running, but i’m perfectly comfortable going for a bike ride or long walk. i’m not one for soccer, but i’ll play hockey and ski. if you’re exercising, don’t force yourself to do something you hate. do something fun and enjoyable, and everyone’s different so don’t feel pressured to be “better.”

28. (i sound like such a consumer) go shopping. seriously. going to a mall will get you thousands of steps and thousands of dollars in debt but fuck it we ball.

29. try to be mindful. lately i’ve been getting into journalling again to try and get off screens, and also been doing puzzles to stay relaxed and focused. it’s tempting to just scroll eternally, but spending some uninterrupted time to just think and exist is quite beneficial to your mental health. and considering you’re on this side of tumblr, you need it.

30. get outside. even if not to exercise, if it’s just to sit on the curb or feed birds, get outside. it’s just so good for your mental health and seriously you’ll feel better.

this post is very long, but i still plan to update it.

#ana rexx #tw self destructive behavior #tw ana diary #ana bllog #ed not sheeren #⭐️ving #🦴spo #ana rant #ana tricks #ana trigger #ed bllog #ed tricks #ed trigger warning #ana talks #tw relaspe

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ladsofsorrow24 · 1 year

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get ready to read me dumping all of my feelings for makima here (spoilers in the read more!)

while i was doing laundry just now, i'm reminded of how i felt when i first read chainsaw man, and how... empty i felt after finishing part 1. i can't remember when did i first read it, because it's been... a while but i do remember at the time, what really caught me off guard about makima is how... much i excused her behavior towards denji and everyone around her just because she's in a form of a woman.

god, that's the biggest mistake i made right there.

i actually felt betrayed by fujimoto when i finished reading chapter 74 for the first time. seeing makima laughed at denji's face for naively putting his faith on her. it felt like i was the one being mocked. i actually had to take a break after reading it because i felt so angry at makima.

but now, after... going through some traumatic shit myself that's pretty similar to what happened to denji... i kinda felt like a fool for believing makima's... facade in the first two chapters. and i think that also has something to do with the current climate of feminism and how... asian culture had this weird gender essentialism thing where people can't process the thought of women being evil without being outright obnoxious/rude about it. combined the two, and you got people reading fictional works and thought "ah there's no way this female character is evil, she's too nice"

hell, just like me, there are people out there who think of this when it comes to women in their lives too.

and to see this manga tackle such... sensitive issue in this very subtle way, i'm also grateful to fujimoto for not... ridiculing denji too much for believing makima. he's not at fault here, no matter how much stupid mistakes he made, i can never blame him for falling into makima's traps. because he is starving for affection, for acceptance, for kindness. just like a lot of people, he have difficulty understanding that not all kindness, acceptance and affection are unconditional.

but we always tried our best to think positively of other people. so no, it's not your fault if you ended up trusting the wrong person, things... happened. for a reason, i hope so.

and just like i mentioned before about asian's gender essentialism bs and the current social climate regarding gender equality etc, it is very rare to see women, especially evil women represented in a way that isn't a) obnoxiously loud, b) boldly sexual and c) stupidly weak when confronted with men

so, really, i'm glad i picked up the manga again after i throw it away from my first reading. because now i get to appreciate just how... complex makima as a character is. in my current mindset, i'm able to enjoy how cool yet terrifying she is. but also how... surprisingly vulnerable her inner mind is, after knowing that what she really desires is nothing more than just an equal-footing relationship with another person. it makes me realized that... really even abusers are still human beings.

i'm not trying to forgive abusers here, they're actively doing things for their own selfish reasons, but. i think there is merit in understanding how... bad people can become bad. "nature vs nurture" and all that.

tldr'; i just think makima is pretty fucking neat and people who be like "oh she's truly evil" can benefit from looking at her character in a more nuanced way. especially if you're someone aspiring to write complex character with subtle mannerisms.

#chainsaw man spoilers #makima #chainsaw man meta #kinda? idk #but yeah if you can't guess yet #i love makima #yet i also hate her #you get what i mean

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kazumiwrites-fanfiction · 1 year

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Rules

1. No asking me to do smut because I’ll say no. Keep in mind that I’m a minor, and I don’t particularly want to write a lot of that. Minor sexual innuendos are fine, just no straight-up smut. Go to 18+ blogs for that please.

2. Please don’t pressure me to keep writing; every once in a while is okay, but I have a life outside of Tumblr (high school wants to kill me).

3. Remember that I can and will only do things that I feel like doing. So don’t get mad if I don’t do your request.

4. I do character x reader, oc x reader, and oc x oc - no character x character (No hate, I’m just pretty bad at it; writing canon characters that are in character is hard enough for me). For a list of my OCs, go here or here (I apologize that I don't have anything on Tumblr, I just haven't had the time). To add to this, I make all of my writing gender-neutral as possible, even when gender is specified by a request (I know the feeling of being pulled out of a story when seeing the wrong pronouns, so I try to avoid it). That being said, I will do things like "how ___ would react if the reader was on their period" or something like that, but it will continue to have as few pronouns as possible. Most often, the only times that I will specify gender for a reader is if it is for a specifically trans reader (as I do have more ideas for those than cisgender readers... It's probably because I fit into the trans category haha). I will rarely write specifically for female readers as that can give me dysphoria, and I don't really like that.

5. Also, no homophobia, transphobia, queerphobia in general; I’m not going to tolerate that. To add to that, any misogyny, sexism, racism, etc is not okay (So basically, if you hate people of color (especially Asians) that were born female and are not cisgender or heterosexual, you probably shouldn't talk to me).

6. No adult x minor (because it’s illegal) and I feel really uncomfortable with that topic.

7. Please be specific in your requests for writing; include ship, what sorta plot, and what point of view (also gender of reader, if applicable, otherwise I'll make it a gender-neutral reader). Here’s a general outline:

Ship: oc x oc (e.g. Tatsuya x Kenji), oc x reader (e.g. Chisuke x female reader), character x reader (e.g. Bakugo (I love him so much-) x gender-neutral reader), character x character (e.g. Iwaizumi x Oikawa (yes my OTP))

Plot: Mood (e.g. Fluff/angst/comfort/fluff to angst), trope (if applicable) (e.g. enemies to lovers, forbidden love), actual plot (e.g. Character A and Character B get into a fight, and Character C (their mutual friend) makes them a homemade date to make them get back together).

Point of View: First person (i/my), Second person (you/your), Third person (she/he/they) (e.g. Both Tatsuya and Kenji’s point of view, changes from time to time- third person; first person, reader’s point of view; second person, Dabi’s point of view, etc)

Other: (add anything else here-) (especially any little things you want me to add (like if you want to have your pet in there or anything-)

8. I am not comfortable writing readers that are a trans female, nor am I comfortable with headcanoning characters to be a trans female (unless they canonically are). I would rather not write them at all than write something that really sucks and could be unintentionally transphobic etc. (Also since I'm already kind of struggling with trans guys (even though I'm like really close to identifying as one) I just don't want to struggle more with trying to do good representation yk.)

9. Please don't follow if you're strictly an 18+ blog? Reading, liking, and reblogging are fine but I'd rather not have blogs that aren't for minors following me, I hope you understand :)

If you’ve read these rules, like this post!

#kazumiwrites #kazumi's rambling #rules #kazumi's rules

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olderthannetfic · 2 years

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i’ve been going through your’s (and others’) posts about americentrism in fandom, particularly about the rising popularity of east asian media - cdrama, mostly, but anime and kpop too - in english-speaking circles. but i couldn’t find much on fic-based racism for kpop, so when i saw you’re a fan of BTS and did extensive research, i hope you can give me some insight:

(this is a fanfic-specific question) what are your views on if xianxia AUs of kpop or anime are racist; or if it’s not a binary, what are the pitfalls?

see, i’m confused (esp. w/ kpop, which is mostly an rpf genre) because of:

1) the thorny real world political situation between s.korea and china— the chinese gvt’s bans and accusations of historical cultural theft; racism from both sides about idol nationality,

2) the historical racism from The West (‘all asian cultures are the same’) which manifest particularly strongly with the recent cdrama and donghua boom - fans calling donghua ‘anime’ or manhua ‘manga’

3) the confusion of terminology from korean-to-english and chinese-to-english, neither culture having had the wide reach of anime.

i’m sure lots of examples of those come to mind.

coming back to xianxia— the genre is so steeped in chinese culture, language, and aesthetic history that i worry about casual racism especially in kpop rpf, which is the fandom i’m thinking of making xianxia AUs for. people already confuse hanfu/hanbok, and korean shamanism is less known than japanese shintoism or chinese taoism, and afa i can find, the concept of ‘xian’ only exists in taoism.

obviously european-based fantasy AUs for kpop and anime (and cdrama, but i didn’t check AO3 for those) exist, but high-fantasy-as-descended-from-tolkien is a) familiar to english-speaking fandom, b) versatile enough by virtue of being depicted a long time and thus experimented upon, that c) is able to exist, more or less, separately from its european roots. so there is less chance of someone shouting ‘racist!’ or ‘cultural erasure!’ when a BTS fic is a D&D-style fantasy.

but xianxia is a new genre to lots of western fans. wuxia/xianxia/xuanhuan is poorly translated into english as a whole, and its core concepts are difficult to translate, and i worry about misappropriation or appearing as if i believe the sinosphere to be an undifferentiated and interchangable cultural blob if i put kpop groups into wuxia/xianxia AUs.

(s.korea does have wuxia/xianxia novels, but reddit tells me those use a lot of hanja, so obviously borrowing exists in wider culture, and china also has media that’s distinctly japanese, e.g. 阴阳师, as well as manga that are set elsewhere, e.g. Akatsuki no Yona, and Magi, but those are original IPs)

for context, i’m 2nd-gen chinese diaspora and can read the language but did not grow up immersed in the culture. i can find mandarin material on my own and to some extent i can spot the cultural symbols, but reading up on korean and japanese culture in mandarin has an upsettingly high chance of coming across han-supremacist texts. ...so, apologies for the essay, and ...thoughts?

Hoooo boy, this is already long and it's going to get longer... RIP everyone's dash. This is a rare time that I really wish Tumblr would let me do nested readmores like Dreamwidth does, but it won't, so everyone will just have to deal.

I think the very, very short version of what I have to say is that 2nd-gen Chinese diaspora are exactly who cares about this so deeply you can't get a word of fic out while everybody else is blundering happily along, doing whatever offensive, dumbass thing they like. (Or else wallowing in equally useless US white guilt while writing only things that are "correct" according to one specific BNF's primer or something, and still getting everything hilariously wrong.)

I will trust fandom to figure out when xianxia AUs are racist at the point fandom can reliably tell that The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity is not fucking xianxia, and its protagonists are not "cultivators".

Or, even better, at the point that fanfic for every historical/fantasy setting from Les Mis to The Untamed stops being modern coffee shop and college AUs that are blatantly American coffee shops and colleges.

[Insert rant here about Korean coffee shops and their magnificence vs. the anemic, boring-ass coffee shop culture found in BTS fanfics. WE HAVE YOUTUBE FOOD BLOGGERS, PEOPLE! YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS!]

----POINT ONE: Chinese government = bag of dicks----

The current mainland government being asshats is not a reason to do anything. Period. Historical cultural theft? By Korea from China??? Are you fucking kidding me? Korea was a tiny satellite being stepped on by the might of one of the most powerful empires in history. Korea was certainly influenced by China, and from there, the influence made its way to Japan, but neighboring countries experiencing cultural exchange is not "theft". Why are you listening to the Chinese government anyway? That's like listening to Trump.

As for people being racist about idols, like fans within South Korea not liking group members who are not South Korean, that's sad, but it's not the fault of other fans who aren't assholes. Why should it dictate what fanfic AUs someone writes?

It's commonplace and perfectly fine that the fantasy genre traditions in the sinosphere have been influenced heavily by China just as folklore itself has been influenced by Chinese folklore. Should you, a Chinese-American or Chinese-Canadian or whatever not be allowed to write Marvel AUs or enjoy Disney princesses beyond Mulan because that would make you too "white" or something? Come on!

I'm not saying there's zero potential for offense here, but it's going to mostly be about the execution and/or just be in the eye of the beholder.

----POINT TWO: Loanwords----

#2 there is especially pointless. I'm all for teaching fans what the Chinese words for things are, but you know what the word manhua is?

漫画

You know what the word manhwa is?

Well, okay, between Korean not using hanja much and various historical factors, it's apparently 漫畵, but still.

You know what Japanese manga is? YOU GUESSED IT:

漫画

I'm not saying we should entirely conflate these or fail to give China credit for the comics that come from there, but this extreme preciousness about creating two new loan words makes me roll my eyes. If someone calls it "Chinese manga" or something, they are not some racist monster.

This reminds me of weebs getting their panties in a bunch over how ~manga~ is a sacred category that is different from "comics", a word which means "not Japanese"... meanwhile like 50% of the manga I own are from publishers who stamp "comics" all over the spines of every volume. Manga/manhua/manhwa in their original contexts are cognates that just mean comics, from the US to Belgium to East Asia.

If you want to see this in action, go to the English-language article on "comics". Click the sidebar links to Japanese, Chinese, and Korean and see what you find.

Chinese 'donghua' isn't a cognate with the Japanese and Korean words because... uh... those are just "animation"--a loanword from English! But 'donghua' too is just a word that means all animation, regardless of origin, in its original context.

Now, that doesn't mean we can't make more specific loan words that mean something slightly different from the original form of the word. Those languages do it with English all the time. But being extremely precious about these words instead of addressing larger issues of dumbassery about Asia is not actually that woke, and it's certainly not helpful.

----POINT THREE pt. 1: There is no default----

Now we get to the real meat of the argument, and nonnie... oh my god... Where do I start?

First of all, you have made the most elementary Western dumbass mistake, which is treating the West as a default. I was going to say "white" dumbass mistake, but then I finished reading your ask. Wow, you're giving off big White Guilt energy right now, nonnie. I feel like maybe you need more... like... other Chinese diaspora kpop nerds to hang out with or something? This feels like you're getting all of your input from the most fear-mongering, dutyfic-writing, debbie downer parts of fandom. But anyway...

There is no default.

English-speaking fans are more familiar with Tolkien, so a Tolkien AU erases less South Koreanness than an Untamed one? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???

Yeah, playing it "safe" by making everything as generically US as possible is fandom's usual move, and it's less likely to get you yelled at, but that's only because the form of racism--or really cultural hegemony--it represents is so pervasive that it's impossible to pick a target and most of the yellers are guilty of this one themselves.

Let me give you an analogy from vidding that I've been thinking of writing meta about for a while:

A lot of vidders in the narrow Vividcon type vidding space, which traces its roots to Escapade slash con and back to ye olde Media Fandom vidding and Kandy Fong, are concerned about using kpop to vid cdramas. Is this insensitive? Is it conflating cultures?

But...

Not only is using Panic at the Disco to vid any source neutral, but so is using ABBA.

I have never, never, never seen a single English-speaking vidder treat ABBA as anything other than a universally-available default that is part of all of "our" culture and available for any use. And I agree that ABBA is generally treated like that by myopic United States culture.

Yet ABBA's choice to sing in English is no different from BTS' recent all-English songs. It was a calculated move to win Eurovision and to be competitive in an international market, and not just an international market of native English speakers but a European market that was receptive to English as a lingua franca.

I don't have any fandom friends from Sweden (well, that I know of), but I cannot help but imagine that how Swedish people see their most famous music group of all time and how Americans view yet another famous pop group singing in English is... somewhat different.

Yes, things like the movie Mamma Mia! have let us complacently think of ABBA as "ours", but half the Korean shit I like turns out to have Korean-Americans involved in its making, and ABBA is not American at all.

[See also: all those times Greek anons have sent me asks saying that no, actually, they're not cool with their mythology and culture being "everyone's" when their modern people are erased and hated.]

This myopia is a combination of seeing white faces and thinking "default" with thinking that appropriation from or erasure of European cultures is 100% neutral and fine.

So yes, nonnie, you would be safer writing a Western high fantasy AU than an Asian-but-not-Korean one, but only because the fans around you are both ignorant and racist.

----POINT THREE pt. 2: Research is fun----

I want to get back to this quote specifically:

b) versatile enough by virtue of being depicted a long time and thus experimented upon, that c) is able to exist, more or less, separately from its european roots.

Like I said above, I think c is straight up bullshit. Looking out at a sea of Western-flavor AUs does make people feel like Asianness is being erased, and some European things appear divorced from roots to one white Western person yet not to another.

But b is also worthy of digging into because it is simply untrue that xianxia is new or hasn't been experimented upon.

I know you meant within an English-speaking Western context, and you're right, but think about it: If you wanted to write your xianxia AU "right" or if you wanted to expand beyond an Untamed AU to a more general xianxia one, how would you do it? (I know you didn't specify Untamed, but that's what lots of n00bs are writing.) It's pretty obvious, isn't it?

You look to Chinese writers.

Not only can you just consume more xianxia canons, but you can also look up the many primers explaining genre tropes and their origins in Chinese folklore, other genres, traditional medicine and religion, etc.

I was familiar with a lot of East Asian stuff before I watched The Untamed, but I wasn't familiar specifically with xianxia, and I was a little lost at first. I looked up general info, and it was very helpful. (I think my biggest confusion was the core transfer, which was cleared up by finding out that cores aren't usually a literal physical organ like that, and that's just a MDZS bit of worldbuilding. It seems like cores are more commonly treated how I'd expect from traditional Asian medicine, martial arts, etc.)

I didn't do this because I wanted to do some guilt-ridden ass-covering. I did it because I'm a nerd and I was interested.

Research is fun!

Or at least, it can be if you treat it as such. If you look shit up because you're curious, it will inevitably influence your writing, but I don't think you should have to pass some high bar of Correct Woke Knowledge because that kind of gatekeeping means far less fic, and what does get written may still sound "wrong" to lots of readers. There is no magic pill to level up your cultural competency like you're a cultivator who needs to fight a boss battle.

There is no Woke Seal Of Approval that will guarantee your fic is perfect and can offend no one.

There is no such thing as "safe".

I'm not saying you should go be racist on purpose or that you should never incorporate feedback into your next fic, but ultimately, making art is about taking chances and not endlessly revising old work or stressing about every single viewer response.

----POINT THREE pt. 3: Taking up space----

Honestly, the vibe I'm getting is that you are afraid to take up space. Why do I, a white girl, feel perfectly entitled to write about Asian things? I'm sure some lurkers will be going "LOL, because you're a racist bitch", but the way I see it is that I'm willing to assert my right to an opinion.

You, as Chinese diaspora or just as a human who likes both kpop and xianxia, have a right to an opinion.

Are you "authentically" mainland Chinese? No. You're authentically yourself. If xianxia speaks to you, then it's a perfectly acceptable type of AU for you to write. As an Asian diaspora person, you know perfectly well that different parts of Asia are different. If someone else assumes you're conflating them, maybe that just shows their own lack of knowledge and desire to lord it over you.

In the US, we conflate our locally oppressed minority issues, which include Asians, with our stealing native culture issues. But our Native population is relatively small and their cultural output relatively easy to drown out on a global scale. Overall US culture can easily pretend American Indians are all dead and gone. Our history of slavery means that most black people here don't have a direct link back to a specific African culture, and the culture white entertainers steal from is that created by black entertainers here. These are the contexts cultural appropriation discourse springs from and is most applicable to. (And I still think we go overboard on cultural appropriation discourse and misuse it to make art more boring, e.g. by whining about non-US rap even when it is respectful, but at least some form of it makes sense in this original context.)

But East Asian cultures are a very different matter. South Korea isn't the biggest or most powerful, but kpop is media made primarily by and for an ethnic majority speaking a majority language in a geographical region where they're top dog. Yes, some idiots can't tell the difference between China, Japan, and Korea, but these are places with their own geographical territories, languages that are not endangered, and healthy media industries. Idols already get to celebrate their own culture just fine.

I'm not saying put zero thought into all this, but from the sound of things, you're currently putting in way too much.

Your Chinese heritage is not in danger from you getting it wrong. It has all the other Chinese people behind it. South Korea, while less powerful, is still a pretty powerful global culture, and you're certainly not getting it wronger than a bunch of white girls writing coffee shop AUs.

Basically, if you silence yourself, you're decreasing diversity and joy, not serving cultural sensitivity.

----YOUR ACTUAL QUESTION----

Okay, your actual question was about the pitfalls and how to do it better instead of worse. This is exactly the right question to be asking.

I honestly think the main thing you need to do is tag it 'xianxia AU'. Having that tag demonstrates that you understand that you are picking a specific genre. If people assume you don't know what xianxia is or that you don't understand it's not Korean, that's on them.

The second thing I would do is lay out a few rules in an author's note if you feel you can't make them clear enough in the fic. You don't need to be tediously didactic about it. I'm thinking of something equivalent to those notes on a/b/o that are like "In my a/b/o, betas have [specific thing] and aren't just regular humans". But if your fic makes it clear how the world works, then you don't need to do this.

If you want to adapt the principles of xianxia to an ancient-but-fantasy Korean setting, go for it. If you want to set your fic in ancient fantasy China, go for it. Your research process would look slightly different in each case.

In terms of research, I'm still thinking about this bit:

people already confuse hanfu/hanbok, and korean shamanism is less known than japanese shintoism or chinese taoism, and afa i can find, the concept of ‘xian’ only exists in taoism.

Here's the thing: a person who can tell a Tang Dynasty outfit from a Ming Dynasty one probably won't confuse either with a Korean outfit. Someone who knows fuckall will have a hard time with swathes of historical Asian dress. The same thing is true of European historical dress.

Refusal to treat live humans as having multiple cultures is the problem. Period.

Someone saying 'hanbok' when they mean 'hanfu' or having trouble distinguishing styles of "historical" outfits as interpreted through modern and possibly fantasy media is a red herring. It might be a symptom of genuinely conflating the cultures or it might be a slip of the tongue.

It's super interesting to me that you mention shamanism because I'm actually researching it right now for an original book I'm writing. I want sources on Korean shamanism, and I'm not finding much that's easily accessible in English. I haven't looked at journal articles yet though, and that's where I expect the better info is. For the moment, I'm rereading The Catalpa Bow because I found my old copy in a box. It's about Japanese shamanism. Not Shinto: shamanism. In fact, the first chapter makes a big deal about how dumb Western scholarship insists on treating "Shinto" and "Buddhism" as two entirely separate strata of Japanese religion, but to look at shamanism, you need to accept that it's a huge mishmash of syncretic folk religion that is both/neither and that different areas of Japan have completely different forms.

Shamanism itself probably ultimately derives from a Siberian origin, coming down to Northern China through Mongolia. This flavor of Tungusic shamanism shows up in all of China, Japan, and Korea. It's the flavor that usually starts with a mysterious illness, possibly lasting years, and a near death experience cured by initiation, dedication to a god or gods, and routine spirit possession. Honestly, the best sources I've found in English tend to be random Youtube videos and podcasts by people who've been initiated in the modern day.

Sidebar: the most interesting thing I found was a Korean-American lady who'd finally gotten initiated to cure her long term mental illness. She lives and works in NYC... Apparently, many of the clients for Korean shamans there are Russian because there aren't any Siberian shamans to be found, and the Russians are like "Close enough, I guess". It makes sense, but it was a very "WHOA!" moment for me.

Sure, xianxia principles are a little tricky to explain if someone knows nothing about any principles of Chinese esoteric thought, traditional medicine, mythology, etc. But...

There's no inherent reality to xianxia any more than there is to what counts as a/b/o or high fantasy. It's a genre of fiction. It's fantasy worldbuilding by specific artists.

Yes, it is steeped in Chinese culture. Yes, there are plenty of ways to go so far outside of what the genre is normally that you really can't use the term anymore.

But if a bunch of Chinese authors decide to add some element that becomes a big trend in xianxia, that's now also part of the genre.

It's not like saying "The historical record only shows X in the Tang Dynasty and not Y" where reality is hard to know, but at least it exists. Xianxia is a set of genre conventions people made up. Sure, 'xian' is a Taoist thing, but... like... you don't honestly think that the for funsies adventure novel version is exactly the same as the religious/esoteric/folkloric version that existed prior to these novels being a thing, do you? Tolkien ripoffs are not exactly the same as European mythology despite being heavily derived from it.

If you want to do fantasy worldbuilding, you start by looking up real mythology/history/culture and seeing what other people do, but then you... you know... make shit up.

You synthesize from other sources. You make a version that is cool and fun and meaningful to you.

The debbie downer side of fandom focuses way too much on things like xianxia as expressions of some unified Chinese authenticness and way too little on them as individual writers' creativity.

It's a subtle, but I think very real, form of erasure. Chinese culture did not spontaneously manifest xianxia. Specific writers who wanted to write a rip-roaring adventure tale made up cool shit they thought an audience would enjoy. It's like those posts talking about "historical costume" vs. "fashion" and how the former can erase individual agency and creativity.

You're an individual, creative person wanting to write a Chinese-flavor fantasy AU about some Korean singers. I think you should go for it.

#I feel like I have lots more rambling on this #but oh god I need lunch

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prettywon · 2 years

Text

I will say this once and once only.

east. asian. ethnicities. are. not. interchangeable.

so no. if you are Korean-American you cannot have the username "Megan-san" one, because you are not fucking japanese. two, you're speaking English so there is no need for japanese honorifics.

and for the love of God. only CHINESE people can say the C-slur.

being Asian is not a rare or glamorous trait. being Asian does not fucking equal instant likeability. Being friends with Asian people does not make you cool. it makes you look like you have an Asian fetish. "I love Asian people" is not the compliment you think it is. if you're a mixed Asian, embracing your Asian side is always ok! But embrace YOUR culture, and don't neglect your other heritage. only wanting to be perceived as Asian when your mixed glorifies Asian people.

East Asia is so much more than what you see on Pinterest when you search "Korean aesthetic icons" (which you shouldn't be doing anyways bc hello.. reducing an entire countries culture and history to some pretty picture is... wrong for obvious reasons)

I'm not saying you can't be educated on other Asian cultures. Just don't pick and choose which parts you acknowledge. Japan is more than mochi and anime. China is more than money and fucking covid. You're ethnicity is such a big part of who you are, I hate when I see Asian ppl so involved in other Asian countries and their "aesthetic" when they don't even know the first thing about their own 😕

tl;dr: don't use parts of other cultures for their aesthetic and East Asian ethnicities are very different; not at all interchangeable

one last mention: I just love how we went from saying ching chong to every Asian we met to fucking kissing their asses.

#important 💌#please reblog

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veethewriter · 2 years

Note

Hi! I hope you’re doing well 🤗💞 May I request a matchup? Thank you !

sexuality/pronouns: heterosexual female, she/her

fandom: obey me and mha please !

general/appearance: 18, scorpio, 5’4”, southeast asian, layered medium-length black hair, (tad bit hooded) dark brown eyes that apparently appear as if I have eyeliner on + long & thick eyelashes (if people were to talk ((positively)) about my appearance, it would mostly be about my eyes), light-medium olive skin, medium sized pouty lips (or that i just appear to not smile often 😭😭 “you should smile more” “you look prettier when you smile”), (apparently) thick thighs, soft hands w/ long fingers, (again, apparently) appears as if I’m rich and/or i make things look expensive, overall softer features

personality: I’m pretty quiet at first meeting, introverted (i def need my time alone, and s p a c e), but I’m silly, teasing, sarcastic, and quite loud when it comes to my friends. Trying out different things/exploring stuff is a pretty big thing to me which results into me acting more child-like (i love learning/cus im a student ((of life)), carefree/go with the flow, and passionate. When it comes to my (life) goals, that default “passionate” approach seem to manifest into me being serious/intense and perfectionistic. Preferring to finish an objective (a project for example) in one sitting rather than taking quite a bit of breaks in between. Despite my child-like nature, it would be amazing if my partner respects my wishes and supports my goals without them being too bummed if I can’t make too much time with them because of it for example (I’m quite goal-oriented i suppose).

interests/hobbies: im sure theres more but from the top of my head.. trying/exploring different/new things, anything creatively inclined (drawing, painting, photo/video editing, fashion, architecture, etc.), dancing, swimming, occult (divination, spirituality, astrology, manifestation...), analyses (i love when things are well-thought out and given meaning/has meaning when it comes to characters, shows, art/design, branding...), mystery & investigatory shows/games/stories. 🥴🔍

dislikes: when people gang up on someone without hearing them out first (yeah i root for the underdog, i try to be understanding of both parties but most especially the one that’s being accused) and honestly... being told what to do 💀💀 (but its not like i would refuse to do every thing i was ordered to yk, like i understand that i should comply in a bunch of cases..... especially that I’m not exactly one to stand up and prefer to be a leader..but it doesn’t mean i like it LMAOOO)

Thank you so much again whether you get to do this or not ! Have a nice rest of your day 💓

Of course!! For obey me I match you with Satan.

Satan doesn't mind giving you alone time, mostly because he needs it to sometimes so he understands when you need it. Satan would definitely let you lend books he thinks you would like (his books are basically his babies so take care of them lol). Satan isn't that demanding of you, they only time he gets really bossy or ticked off is after he's had a fight with his brothers.

He never takes it out on you, at least if you don't catch him before he can make it to his room. Satan does spend a lot of time with you, even if it is just him reading in the room while you do something else. He supports and helps you in whatever you do, because he wants you to be successful.

He rarely shows physical affection, so you might have to be the one to start that (it will make him blush a lot and hide his face). For a date he'll probably take you to see a new crime documentary or movie. For gifts he'll probably get you one of those crime solving games, where you solve the case or he'll get you some drawing stuff for you.

For mha I match you with shoto!

Now your gonna have to help this boy with learning about emotions completely because he does not understand them at all. Though he does understand if you wanna be alone, just tell hi and he'll leave you alone for a couple of hours before coming back to check on you. This man blushes even with just holding your hand (he doesn't get a lot of affection from his family after all).

Shoto loves to try your hobbies with you and will even spoil you but getting you things that will help you with your hobbies. Shoto for the life of him can't tell when your being sarcastic, so you have to tell this boy you are. After a while of dating, you'll just start finding random gifts around your house from him.

For a first date shoto would take you to an escape room or he would take you on a walk around the park to just talk and hang out. For gifts he would get you some photo editing equipment and a new camera to take photos with. Shoto loves supporting you whenever he can, especially f you support what he does also.

Nope you like it! ❤❤

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lumini-317 · 3 years

Text

Hello!

This will be my official “introductory” post!

My real name is Erica, but I go by many names. My nickname repertoire includes but is not limited to: Lumi, Lumini, Cricket (I have a habit of rubbing my feet together, lmao), Jinx, Eri, Er, EriJoy, Sunbaeby, and Aceir (my real name but in alphabetical order).

This is my first ever Tumblr blog. I’ve had it for a while but have rarely posted anything, that along with the fact that I’m on mobile is kind of a mess so I apologize for mistakes and all that.

I have 3 older brothers, an older sister, and a younger brother.

I’m an ambivert. Sometimes I love hanging out with bigger groups of people, other times I dread it.

I’ve taken the “16personalities” test 4 times and all 4 put me in the “Diplomat” category, however I got “Advocate” (INFJ) 2 times, and “Protagonist” (ENFJ) and “Mediator” (INFP) 1 time each.

I am LGBTQ+. I’m asexual, aro+panromantic flux, and while I feel like I’m genderfluid, the changes are very subtle and so I sometimes just go with agender, gendervoid, or neutrois. It’s a lot less complicated that way. I’m ambiamorous, and also pronoun apathetic!

I love whump. I’ve loved it for as long as I can remember but only found the whump community maybe 3(?) years ago.

I also love K-Pop, C-Pop, J-Pop, and Asian dramas, mainly K-Pop and K-Dramas, though.

I’m a HUGE multistan. ATEEZ, SKZ, TBZ, EXO, BTS, Red Velvet, SHINee, iKON, MONSTA X, TWICE, TO1, WANNA ONE, SuperM, X1, MIRAE, Ciipher, Golden Child, Purple Kiss, BAE173, SF9, IU, ONEUS, ONEWE, The Rose, PIXY, LUCY, STAYC, WEi (which I pronounced as “way” for an embarrassingly long time), Dreamcatcher, Brave Girls, TXT, ENHYPEN, SNSD, KARD, AKMU, SHAUN, Gaho, NCT, GHOST9, 1team, SE7EN, Cross Gene, D1ce, AB6IX, CRAVITY, BLACKPINK, CIX, VIXX, f(x), 4Minute, CLC, YEZI, B.I, Wonho, (G)I-DLE, EVERGLOW, SEVENTEEN, BROOKLYN, Ha Hyunsang, DAY6, GOT7, Teen Top, BAP, TREASURE, UNIQ, etc! It goes on, far longer than I can list. I am also very much against fanwars, they disgust me.

I’m also a HUGE animal lover, and a big softie. I can’t even squish insects. I don’t care that they can’t feel pain and don’t experience emotions, I just can’t bring myself to. I make it my mission to save any type of animal I come across. I find toads in our koi pond and immediately pick them out and take them to a safe place. I help turtles across the road. I got a mouse out of a puddle and revived it, releasing it when it was healthy enough. I saw a snail on a piece of wood that was going to be thrown on a fire and carefully pulled it off and put it somewhere else. So far I’ve found 5 stray cats (Piper, Toothless, Felix, Kai, and Kit Kat—all were found as skinny, sickly kittens) and took them in, raising them as my own. I rescued a chipmunk from certain death-by-cat. I’ve even saved a few baby raccoons, ducklings, lizards, spiders, and snakes in my time. And I’ll keep doing so for as long as I live.

I love writing, drawing/sketching, and painting, however I’m not confident that I’m good at any of those things, lmao. I mean, I don’t think I’m the worst, but my finished “works” often leave me unsatisfied with my “skills”. But of course, that won’t stop me from trying to improve!

I’m a maladaptive daydreamer. This can cause issues in some places while helping me out in others. On one hand, it makes doing chores and such kind of difficult. Like one time I had to take care of my dad’s pigeons while he was fixing our shed and one time he pointed out how slow I was with the chores. His words were something along the lines of, “I’m already almost done with what I have to do and you’re still working with the pigeons.” Also, it (and maybe ADHD if I do have it?) made school a nightmare for me. But it’s also helpful because then during church it’s really easy to keep myself occupied while the pastors go on about their Magical Sky Daddy™’s son throwing a tantrum and killing a figtree because it didn’t have any figs and how that story should “challenge” us or something.

The characters in my daydreams are weird, though. They merge and separate with each other to make different characters depending on the situation. Most of them don’t have definite genders. Only a handful of them have names because they’re always merging and separating like some kind of Shadow Clone Masters or something. Stuff like that.

One of my characters is for sure a demi-boy, though, and his name is Kyler.

I brought this up because I was watching The Andy Griffith Show and Andy was giving Opie a lecture on how many poor kids there are in the world and used the ratio “one and a half boys per square mile”. Opie then says that he’s “never seen a half a boy before”. Kyler just sort of pops into (fake) existence, jumps off the couch, and throws his arms in the air while saying, “Half a boy, right here!” I burst out laughing. Thankfully it didn’t seem weird, since my parents started laughing at Opie and thought that I was just laughing at it, too.

Any-who.

If I daydream while I’m standing, I’ll often pace and gesture with my arms while moving my lips. Sometimes I’ll even whisper. If I’m sitting down, I usually fidget a lot (such as pick at my shirt and rub my feet together), stare into space, and move my lips or whisper. My family sometimes ask me, “Why are you whispering?” Or, “What are you grinning about?” And I just shrug because I don’t know how to explain it to them without risking them calling someone to pray over me, lmao. I mean, I wasn’t even allowed to have imaginary friends because that was “evil”. When I was about 7, I told my parents about my imaginary unicorn friend and they gave me a lecture and “prayed over me”. It was embarrassing and awkward for me.

I’m suspicious that I might have ADHD, but don’t have the money to actually get a professional diagnosis. I’m also too scared to ask my parents about it.

Speaking of which, my family and I don’t see eye-to-eye. I mean, they don’t know it because I’m good at hiding it, and they think I agree with mostly everything they do but boy, is it a mess.

You see, they’re evangelical conservative Christians. “LGBTQ+ people are going to hell”, “ThE LeFt ARe eViL AnD ARe TrYiNg To BrAiNwAsh OuR ChiLdrEn”, “Trump was sent by God”, “Intersex is fake”, “Women must submit to men”, “You should get married no later than in a year or ‘the temptation’ to have sex might become too much”, the whole bit.

Meanwhile I’m over here with my (imaginary) pride flags, just existing as an agnostic leftist who wants everyone to have equal rights, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation, and would rather redo my horrifically atrocious kindergarten closing program role than pray to a god who (if they/he/she/it/whatever exists) gives cancer to kids and killed millions of innocent animals and people in the Bible.

But they have no idea that this is how I feel and now expect me to be baptized within the next month to show that I have “accepted Jesus Christ as my savior”. Yeah...that’s gonna be an awkward discussion...

Anyway, that’s just some things about me. Sorry that I got sidetracked a few times, lmao!

I look forward to posting more and maybe even making friends!

Thank you for reading (:

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thebirdandhersong · 3 years

Note

Hey, so I've basically never watched any k-dramas, but I've read a lot of manga and manhwa and the automatic next step does feel like moving into k-dramas. You seem to have watched a number, so I was wondering if you could make a recommended list? Only if you felt like it of course, but it would be helpful! (Preferably of at least some which are on netflix uk, I looked up 18 again but it's unfortunately not on here in Britain :(. But if you have favourites I'd just like to know them so I can look out for them anywhere)

Also yay! Your term's ended!

(yanks open the door) did someone say RECOMMENDATIONS?? I DO have many!!! Boy do I have them!!!!

(YAY!! One last exam and I'm done for the summer!)

I love Eastern entertainment (manga, k-dramas, c-dramas, and movies from Korea and Taiwan) because of several reasons: the scripts are phenomenal nine times out of ten; Asian culture puts a strong emphasis on the importance of family, personal responsibility, learning from one's mistakes, expressing affection through gestures and acts of service, and friendship and I really love seeing that in a story; and they make good use of silence and stillness in shows and movies, which is pretty rare in Hollywood. The quiet moments between characters are more often than not some of the most important in the story and I Love That!!

The dramas I'm (briefly) listing are in bold if they're available on Netflix UK, and in bold and italicised if they're available on Rakuten Viki (which is a mostly-free drama streaming service, though unfortunately they're rather heavy on the ads). The Absolute Favourites are marked with stars (***). Though I can't actually see the whole list of dramas available in the UK, so some of these may be wrong, and it may be worth checking twice!

If you're in the mood for something fast-paced:

Descendants of the Sun (Viki); considered a Classic

- romantic comedy, medical drama, a bit of action

- The confident and charming leader of a Special Forces unit meets a reserved surgeon and they hit it off, after some... interesting misunderstandings. But after dating briefly and breaking up, they find themselves reunited on a peacekeeping mission in a war-torn country. Insert a lot of Suspense and Excitement but also a lot of Comedy and Sincere Declarations of Love.

- if you enjoy Song Joongki's performance, I'd also recommend his movie A Werewolf Boy. If you enjoy Song Hye-kyo's performance, I'd recommend her drama Encounter.

***Come and Hug Me (Viki, but I don't know if it costs money?)

- thriller/suspense, romance, this one genuinely stressed me out but the moments of peace and reconciliation (and the ENDING) were well worth it

- Their first loves during their youth ends in her mother's death and their separation. Years later, the lively daughter of the murdered woman is now an actress, and the introverted son of the serial killer has become a police officer. They meet each other again (Of Course) and have to tackle all sorts of Nonsense (including the serial killer's return, his murderous brother's return from prison, the Media, the ghosts of their past, etc. etc.) together. HUGE focus on forgiveness, hope, healing, unconditional and self-sacrificial love. Also one of the best redemption arcs (I did in fact bawl my eyes out)

- my friend just started crying when we first watched this drama together because the male lead is just so gentle and tenderhearted and steadfast :')

If you're in the mood for something a bit slower

***Goblin/Guardian (Viki); International Acclaim

- fantasy, drama, one of the funniest dramas I've ever watched, but also tears (I cried at a rate of around once every two episodes. This show talks a lot about life and meaning and the effect your actions and words have on the people around you.)

- Kim Shin, a general from the Goryeo Dynasty, is cursed to live as an immortal Goblin (a Korean mythical/fairy tale figure) until his destined Bride pulls the sword from his chest, thus breaking the 'spell' and ending his life. He really did not expect his bride to be the vivacious and irrepressible Eun-tak, though, and What's More!! He did not expect that he would start wanting to live again :))) Includes a surprising amount of comedy, a surprising amount of tears, and EXCELLENT screenwriting. (Descendants and Goblin share the same brilliant writer.)

- fun fact: parts of it were shot in Quebec!! One of the characters refers to Canada as "the maple nation" early on in the story and my friend and I just burst into laughter.

***Encounter (Viki, but I'm not sure if it costs money?)

- melodrama, romantic comedy, FAIRY TALE

- a cold and withdrawn woman, recently divorced because of her husband's infidelity, and a warm-hearted and optimistic young man meet on the streets of Cuba by accident, and upon separating without means of contact, find themselves back in Korea as boss and newly hired employee. This sounds like a recipe for disaster: stuffed to the gills with unnecessary workplace drama and gossip, etc. but the story focuses instead on family, vulnerability, transformation, sacrifice, about art, compassion, mending relationships, opening up to people, and about the beauty in bringing and receiving comfort and love.

- also. ALSO. Fairy tale!!! with illustrated opening and ending cards and everything!!! (they literally refer to her as the Ice Princess. And her Prince is the human equivalent of sunshine. I Love him)

- if you like Park Bo-gum's performance, I'd recommend Reply 1988, too!

***One Spring Night

- melodrama; quiet and understated but very beautiful

- A bright, clever, and sharp-tongued librarian meets a quiet, steady, and gentle pharmacist one day. It turns out that he's a single father, and she's trapped in a relationship that really isn't working out. Friendship! Family! Sisters standing up for each other and saying No I Won't Let You Treat My Sister Like This, You Jerk! Figuring things out! Learning how to love! I really don't know what else to say, except for the fact that I loved it very much!!

- if you enjoy Jung Hae-in's performance, I'd also recommend Something in the Rain (which should also be on Netflix!) for his acting alone. I just think he's neat.

Reply 1988

- slice-of-life, comedy

- In the late 1980s, five friends (four boys, one girl) who have grown up with each other since childhood are Going Through It in high school. This drama is all about the little things that happen in life, and about learning to understand your family and your friends. Deok-sun is just trying to survive all of This as the middle child, and as a young girl who is trying to figure this Romance thing out. In the present, adult Deok-sun is just as lively, and is now happily married..... but to whom? :))) A Lot of '80s Asian culture, daily antics, and good old friendship.

- if you like Park Bo-gum's performance, I'd recommend Encounter too :)

18 Again (Viki)

- romantic comedy, fantasy/time travel (sort of)

- Nearly twenty years of marriage, and things have been going Wrong all over the place. His wife wants a divorce, he's no longer close to his teenaged kids, and he's just lost the job he's been faithfully working at for years. Daeyoung wishes that he could go back somehow, and finds himself 18 once again.... except he's still in the present. Interesting things ensue. He enrolls in school (it turns out to be the same one his kids attend), and decides to pursue the dreams he had to give up when he was a teenager. Antics ensue! But also Healing: he gets to know his kids all over again, and is able to view his relationships with Dajung (whom he still loves. Of course) and his estranged father in a new light.

- I have not finished this drama yet but judging from the first third of it, it is both well-written and well-acted. There are a few things that I am not a fan of, but on the whole Lee Dohyun's performance is wonderful and I have already cried buckets.

Other honourable mentions:

100 Days My Prince: historical drama. Prince caught in an assassination plot, loses his memory, wakes up in a village right when the king issues a marriage law that results in his marrying the spirited 'spinster'.

Still 17/Thirty But Seventeen: 17 year old violin prodigy in a coma after an accident, wakes up when she's 30; the boy who inadvertently caused the accident runs into her again after she wakes up and helps her adjust to her new life. Lots of wacky humour, very sweet!!

#as per usual this is horrendously long #but i hope that this is helpful!!#k-dramas in the past have had some pretty questionable male leads #as in: the aggressively alpha male lead who thinks kindergarten bullying is a form of flirting #and i am very Not Here for that #so my favourite dramas tend to have Oak/Tilney/Wentworth-style male leads #ALSO!! storytelling in Eastern media takes a different approach than Western media #so it is so interesting to me to watch dramas like Goblin and 18 Again that take a pretty unconventional approach #songbird again

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cherriesink · 3 years

Text

Defrott - Murmurs

Murmurs are snippets of character reflection earned by increasing Explore Points during Exploration. They usually include 6-7 monologues about other characters and 3-4 monologues about things important to the specific character.

These lines are taken straight from the English translation of the game, so fair warning of bad grammar.

About Yatsufusa “Yatsufusa is also a new type of vampire different from Shutaro Kurusu. He enjoys plays, literature, and music... Rich slacker was the term, was it? It probably means that they are the wealthy enough so they can do what they want. Like aristocrats back in the days.

But that’s a suited way to live for vampires. Because the key to a long life is having a hobby.

And above all, Yatsufusa has a unique skill. It’s probably his ability to reason... but it’s as if he’s an actor acting on stage with a script in hand. He can reenact the crime scene just by looking at the remains. Very fascinating.

It’s also elegant how he uses his brains when fighting in a battle, unlike other vampires. I’m curious how he is 100 years from now, so I want him to live long. But from my experience... boys like him sacrifice themselves for somebody else and end up dying. Just like Mercutio...”

About Kurusu “Shutaro Kurusu... He’s not an exception, but Japanese people are interesting. Because they call themselves monsters. In Europe, we called ourselves God. Both humans and vampires will suffer if they cannot find their raison d'être.

Frailty, thy name is vampire. Vampires like Kurusu were mocked in the ages I’ve gone through. Being mocked is still cute... Worse case, you’d be killed. I wonder if his type are mainstream nowadays? It must be the age of time...

Things rarely surprise me since I’ve gone to different countries. But usually, A-Class vampires will become full of themselves. And... how do I say it- think themselves as God.

But I guess Kurusu is different. A vampire that fears his own powers... quite interesting. He is just like Hamlet. Because he is struggling how to utilize his own powers.”

About Maeda “Maeda from Code Zero... I don’t like him. He’s not elegant.

I think our time is coming close to an end. We do not belong anywhere in the future that’s filled with rationalization. We will become extinct...

So I want to disappear gracefully when my time has come. I want vampires to be spotless when we must go. But- he and his unit are treating vampires like toy soldiers for modern warfare. That is not how vampires should end their lives, absolutely not.

...But I can still tolerate with their nonsense. After all, they’re still a tiny unit with Kurusu, Yamagami, Suwa, and Takeuchi. If they grow bigger to the point where they look hideous, then I must crush and erase them from this world.

Yoshinobu Maeda will be the Macbeth... who goes first on the list.”

About Yamagami “Unranked vampires are no different from ordinary human beings. That guy in Code Zero- Yamagami was it? He always looks at me with frightened eyes, but he doesn’t interest me at all.

Everyone fears us, but S-Class vampires are apathetic about most things. We don’t fear people, we don’t get upset, and you even forget how to cry when you live as long as me.

So, unranked vampires arent that different from plants to me. I’d be interested in him if he was a really good actor, or something about him was elegant and beautiful.

I’ll tell him that he doesn’t have to be so scared of me next time. And that I’ll won’t kill him unless he coughs during my stage.”

About Takeuchi “Takeuchi makes me feel sad. The world should have mysteries that we cannot understand. Because that is how great poems are born. Beautiful Greek mythology or the story of Icarus wouldn’t have been born if people understood what the sun was.

Beauty lies within the darkness. Art forms through our imagination and what we find in that darkness. But the light of civilization swept that darkness and snatched away beauty from this world...

Takeuchi would’ve been dead a long time ago if killing him was my solution. But things are changing rapidly throughout the entire world since the Industrial Revolution. So in the end, the light will vanish us because we are vampires.

But I think science is dangerous in its own ways. Because you can die from getting too close to the sun just like Icarus did.”

About Suwa “Suwa- an underaged vampire that’s been living a long time. Just like me. He must be wise if he managed to survive this far being a C-Class vampire.

He also enjoys plays- so he’s checked off the list to longevity, I see. But he is too aggressive for a vampire his age. I think he can be a bit more laid-back.

But I guess the humanness left inside him is what keeps him going. Vampires that have a strong feeling towards something tend to keep up their sanity just like me. Although, that is the same for humans as well...

I heard he was attacked by a group of vampires disguising themselves as a missionary. If he has 11 sitgmatas in total, that means he was bitten by 11 different vampires. I heard the classless ones that got banished from Europe went to Asian countries east of India. So I guess they were some of them.”

About Tenman-ya “I must say that Tenman-ya is quite interesting. There was something similar in Europe called guilds. Although, it was a place where people paid their blood in exchange for getting rid of someone they loathe.

But Tenman-ya pays with blood if vampires help out with carpenters or craftsmen. I have never seen vampires work for blood until I ran into them. That is why I never get tired of this world. Is it a cultural difference? I’m sure vampires in France won’t use it even if a shop with the same concept opened its doors. It takes too much time. I am... an actor myself, but it’s more like a hobby to me.

To top it off, I heard their master adores vampires and despises humans... Different things pop up at different times and countries indeed. So it it very fascinating.

However, it seems my time is almost up. I can’t keep up with this era anymore.”

About Family “My younger brother is quite famous- but I do not brag about it in public. My brother is a hero. But it will only hurt his reputation if the world finds out that his older brother is a vampire.

A vampire named Clotide turned me into a vampire. She was someone who I used to call my sister... She mastered ancient Greek and, her abilities were top-notch out of all the vampires I’ve seen. Her levels surpassed the ranking system. I am one of the oldest vampires, but even those vampires called her the “Ancient Vampire” or the “Ancient Goddess.”

An ancient code of vampires goes: “Thou shall not breed children or animal vampires.” If broken, the new life shall be ended. My sister broke the code and protected me. She protected and hid me. We traveled the entire world together...

I did not hold a grudge against her for making me into a vampire... Yet, she never forgave herself. She never did... until the end...”

About Japan “I was always interested in Japan. It all began when I watched “Madama Butterfly” at La Scala. Puccini is fascinating. I do not agree with the ending most of the time, but his music is fantastic. It makes you forget that fuzzy feeling you get.

I have never been to Asia in my life even when being alive for hundreds of years. I had nothing to do... after losing my sister. So, I first went to Beijing where “Turandot” took place. I stayed in Shanghai for awhile, and I said to myself, “Might as well visit Japan since that’s where Madama Butterfly took place...”

But it was disappointing since it was nothing like the Japan depicted at La Scala. I was expecting something more oriental but the country was busy constructing western-style buildings. I should’ve come 100 years earlier...

But it ended up being a country that provokes my curiosity.”

About Vampires “Most vampires are terrified of me and stay away from my territory. Vampires rarely come near the Imperial Theater since they know that it’s my home. Excluding Code Zero and Yatsufusa... that is.

Those that hide in caves deep inside a mountain and come down for blood once in a while are the most dangerous vampires. Because most of their humanness has long been gone, and some of them have not spoken to anyone for hundreds of years. They forget how to speak. Not elegant at all. Plus, they are only a pain that calls for attention. So I sweep them up.

Vampires are not widely known because they are faithful to their principles to an extent. So boorish ones are even hated by their own kind... Why can’t we all live elegantly?”

#mars red #defrott

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chanaqinn · 2 years

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Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars

or, the most underrated GTA game (or is it 1? or 2???? idk)

I’ve already completed the story many years ago, but I had such good memories that I wanted to do it again. And I rarely go through a game for the story twice (due to laziness... some games are super long ok). “Salt in the Wound” is the last mission, but I won’t spoil it. • The cutscenes are interesting imo. They’re drawings, kinda like visual novels I’d say? On the DS as least, the drawings are at the bottom, you can see what’s happening in the 3D world on the upper screen.

Huang is a dumbass, but he’s still a cool protagonist. I like him.. or his sarcasm lol (some characters are very clueless). Plus, it can hit close to home if you’re Asian and you’ve experienced racism, because there is racism in this game. (　´_ﾉ` )

The ending is pretty unpredictable, I’d say? Like, the entire time, you’re looking for a dude to get rid of him because of what he did to Huang (killed his father and stole the shitty sword everyone wants), but you have no idea who he is. Then Huang has people telling him that if he works for them, they’ll tell him who it is, but most of them are just full of bs and use him, especially that dude that wanted a specific guy dead. (｡+･`ω･´)

As for the gameplay, it’s unique for a GTA game because it originally came out on the DS (though remastered and ported to PSP, Android and iOS) so it uses the touch screen. There are mini games like scratching tickets, drawing tattoos, looking through trash for various things (some are useless junk), making molotov cocktails at the gas stations, attaching a bomb to a car, opening specific vehicles to steal their stuff, turning the engine on without activating the alarm when stealing parked cars (two different types), and throughout the story, during some missions. Also, I don’t know if it was ever featured in another GTA game (not mods), but it’s possible to buy and sell drugs; there’s a network dedicated to that in the game so you can see who wants what. Definitely not a game for addicts (money or whatever), since I find it hard to get big bucks without the whole drugs thing (unless you’re extra lucky with the scratch card, or you’re a cheater). It’s possible to buy other places to live/save/hide, but that’s featured in some other GTA games for sure (I’m thinking San Andreas). Perhaps winning an apartment/house with a scratch card is only available in GTA:CW. Ah, and let’s not forget the multiplayer parts of it! I’ve never tried them though. :/ But they’re there.

Anyway, yes, I like the game very much. :) if that wasn’t obvious lol +++ My favorite cheat in this game (and other GTA games but–) : rolling out of the car when about to pass a .... toll??? That thing where you have to pay to go through, otherwise the police chases you and takes your weapons... Getting out of the car while it’s still in motion makes it go through no problem, then you can just walk past it and go back inside the vehicle, without paying even though it’s just 5 bucks lol

Total time to complete the story: defo more than 7 hours because it crashed... multiple times :c + that quality is utter trash haha

The first time I was selling that stuff in this 2nd playthrough, pretty much at the beginning of the game........ I had 0 money issue afterwards LOL

Oh yeah, spoiler here: I remember how scared I was during the cutscene with the ambulance I couldn’t watch. :( I mean, I was a child back then. Hate Zhou Ming. It’s not that graphic btw, but if body horror scares you... then you better close your eyes. And the sword. Arg. I found one in the trash LOL. It’s pretty scary when you’re not the one holding one, because its particularity is: it only takes one hit to kill. The swinging animation is pretty fast too, it doesn’t leave enough time to react and run away.

#gta #gta cw #grand theft auto chinatown wars #i like this game very much #video games #idk why i wrote a review but i'll leave this here anyway lol #chanaqinns #typed this in may so the trashlogy remaster wasn't out yet at the time

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re-diesirae · 3 years

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Chapter 2

Chris

Chris watched his sister's back as she disappeared down the corridor. Something about her overall appearance was bothering him, but he pushed the thoughts away. Claire always hated it when he hovered over her, and, considering that he hadn't seen the woman in almost three months, he didn't want to spoil their time together by annoying his sister.

"Huh, she's going to be mopping about this later," Saya sighed, "she will be feeling guilty after all this."

The comment caught Chris's attention, and the soldier turned to the Asian doctor with a quizzical look.

"Guilty? Why?" Chris asked.

"Well, it isn't like she gets a lot of friendly visitors often. I can tell she was overjoyed to have you here, but with all this mess, unfortunately, with this mess, Claire has barely been a proper host, and that will haunt her."

Chris felt a pinch of guilt at the woman's words. He knew Claire was a strong girl. Claire had always been independent, but she valued family like nothing else. She probably missed him as much as he missed her; maybe he should consider dropping by more often.

"You seem to know her well," Leon said casually, looking around the place.

"We are old friends and colleagues," Saya said, picking a notepad and scribbling something, "we have grown close after sharing so many night shifts side by side. I am not sure which of us spends more time in this building. Maybe we should start a contest on that."

"Night Shifts?" Chris asked, "She has night shifts?"

"Well, her promotion carried a lot of extra work," Saya explained, "Sometimes the amount is ridiculous, especially when the other chiefs are calling and asking for help. She's too kind to say no. Sometimes she has so much work that she just gave up going home at night. I do the same, so eventually, we ended up making each other company."

"So, she hasn't been going home?"Jill asked.

"She does, but rarely. Deep down inside, I believe she prefers it here because that way, she won't feel lonely. You know she lives alone, and sometimes when something bothers her or she wakes up from a nightmare, it is nice to have someone to chat with and have some hot chocolate."

"Nightmares?" Barry asked.

"She still has them?" Moira asked.

Chris looked at the girl, and he saw Barry put his arm protectively around his daughter.

"Yes, it has become a regular thing lately. I heard yours have become less frequent," Saya said, tilting her head.

Moira nodded and looked at her dad.

"Natalia and I used to have them for a while, too," Moira said, and Barry rubbed her back comfortingly, "but they have almost stopped completely."

"Well, that's good," Saya nodded, "unfortunately, our Claire wasn't so lucky."

"I didn't know she still had them. I mean, we all lived a nightmare on that fucking island. She should have told me. Talking it out might help."

Saya smiled and sighed.

"You know she wouldn't say a word," Saya shrugged.

"Well, why not? We went through that hell together."

Chris was the one with the answer to that.

"Because she always keeps quiet," Chris sighed, "It's been like this since she was a kid. Claire never says anything when she is having trouble with something."

"She doesn't want to worry us, probably," Leon said.

He had spoken with her a few times on the phone. She usually asked how things were doing, and when he returned the question, she merely said she was bored or lots of work. On the phone, it was hard to tell when the girl was hiding something, and the younger Redfield was proficient in that area.

Their chat was suddenly interrupted by the sound of the automatic doors opening. They had expected it to be Claire, but instead, a tall blonde man wearing a black security uniform came in, walking impatiently.

"Ok, Redfield, why did you need me? It better be for a good reason, because I've got to reboot the system, and that is not doing itself."

The blonde stopped dryly and stared at the group in confusion.

"Ok, now this is weird..." he said, turning to the Asian doctor.

"Wallace," Saya said, surprised, "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean? Red called me up here. Isn't Redfield here?"

"Well, that depends on which Redfield, kid," Barry snorted.

"What?"

The man was visibly confused, but it was Moira who cleared it up for him. She pointed at Chris lazily.

"What my dad means," Moira said, pointing at Chris, "he is Chris Redfield. I mean the Chris Redfield, you know. Claire's beloved brother?"

"Oh! Now, that makes sense. I'm Grant Wallace, Head of cybersecurity. he said, shaking Chris's hand ceremoniously, "It's an honor to meet you, at last, brother. Forgive my lack of courtesy. I am in a rush since I need to fix the crap those hackers did to my precious system. Let me be a little more specific, then, is Claire here?"

"No, she isn't here," Saya said, crossing her arms, "She left some minutes ago to find you."

"She... what? Why?"

"Why?" Saya said, indignantly, "You called her, and now you ask why?"

"What? I never called her. She was the one who asked me to come up here."

"This isn't time for jokes," Saya chastised him. "We all heard it. You said that there was something in the Command Center you wanted her to see."

"I never said..." Wallace said, "I was in command, and she told me she was having issues with the security system in the lab. She even told me to drag my lazy ass up here, or she would make me pay."

Everyone fell silent, and it was then that something clicked inside Chris's head. If the man had not called Claire, and he was there. Who was waiting for Claire at the Command Center?

"Where is the Command Center?" he said with a grave tone, "Save the talk, just answer…"

"Basement, but…"

Saya's eyes went wide, and Grant fell into realization.

"It is a trap. Someone lured Claire there," Chris said furiously.

Before anyone could react, Chris was already running out of the room, followed closely by Leon and Jill.

Everyone fell silent. It was then that a switch clicked in Chris's head.

"Where is the Command Center?" he said with a grave tone, "Save the talk, just answer…"

"Basement, but there's no one at the Command Center," Wallace said, "and you say I called her down? There's something wrong there."

Wallace's eyes widened, and he looked at Chris in shock.

"Someone lured Claire there," Chris said furiously. "It is a trap!"

Before anyone could react or say anything, Chris was making his way through the corridor, heading for the stairs. The others exchanged glances, and with no more to say, Jill and Leon ran after him.

"Claire, you better be in one piece when I get there," Chris thought out loud as he ran down the stairs, followed by Leon and Jill.

Leon was the first one to follow him as soon as they had found out that Claire was potentially in danger. They were good friends; that fact was not a secret. Both had gone through a lot during the first outbreak in Racoon City, and those kinds of events usually created everlasting bonds between people. If there was anyone as worried as Chris was, it had to be him.

The second set of footsteps were Jill's. The woman seemed worried.

"We need to hurry. I want to be wrong, but if I am not, Claire will need our help," Chris told his companions.

Claire wasn't a damsel in distress. If she had to kick some asses, she would do it without trouble. But if she got tricked down there, she would not have been able to foresee the ambush that awaited her, and the element of surprise would leave her in a disadvantageous position.

They reached the Command Center in a short time. The office door was ajar, and there was no sign of Claire anywhere. That made Chris have a bad feeling.

The trio stepped into the room cautiously. There were evident signs of a struggle: papers scattered on the ground, furniture turned over, and few bloodstains on the floor. There had been a fight, and Chris prayed with all his heart that the red liquid on the ground wasn't Claire's blood. After inspecting the place, they came to the sad conclusion that it was empty.

Chris cursed himself for being late as he watched helplessly around the empty room.

"Shit, where are you, Claire?" Chris growled.

"Chris..."

The soldier turned to Leon. The man had crouched, and he was holding something silver in his hand. Chris recognized it at once.

"That's Claire's necklace."

"It seems she got ambushed," Jill said, after looking at the scene, "No deaths, as there are no corpses, but judging by the looks, someone got beaten into a pulp."

As long as that someone wasn't his sister, it was fine. Chris could live with it.

"Three attackers," Jill said, "Male and trained. I think Claire knocked out two, but she missed the third one. They can't be too far."

"We gotta move if we want to find her, then."

Jill nodded. The group was ready to step out when Jill stopped them and brought a finger against her lips, telling them to be silent. Someone was outside the room. The trio exchanged looks and took cover to listen.

"That bitch didn't go down without a fight, huh?" an unknown male voice said, "she's feisty. I guess that is why they are interested."

"She's tougher than the other ones," a second voice said, "what do you suppose they do with them?"

"That's none of your business. Our task is to collect the subjects. The rest is up to them," the first man said. "Now, move. You don't want to be in the city when they drop those presents in the city."

"Now that's going to be a show. What do you think those guys will send this time?"

"Some of their ugly pets, probably."

Chris looked at Leon and Jill. Those last words made the hair on the back of Chris's neck stand up. They were planning an attack on the city, and if it were as bad as Chris imagined, Hughesville would soon turn into a second Lanshiang Catastrophe.

"Let's see how those stupid TerraSavers handle that," the first voice said with amusement.

The trio held their breath as the voices receded. Chris had to restrain himself from attacking the men with his fists. Those men were his best chance at finding Claire. He would make them pay, but until his sister was safe and sound, he would let them go.

"Are they planning to launch an attack here?" Jill asked, "I can't believe this."

"We should get used to this crap," Chris said with anger, "Jill, go back to Barry and the others. We need to warn the BSAA about a possible bioterrorist attack asap. We need the forces to get moving before things get out of control."

"Yes, of course," Jill nodded, "what are you going to do?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Chris said, fiercely, "I am hunting down those assholes and getting my sister back."

"Chris, don't get me wrong, but going after them all on your own..." Jill said, and Chris growled.

"If I wait, I'll lose them. I can't let that happen."

"Yes, I understand that, but you can't expect me to let you go alone."

"He won't," Leon said. "I'll go with him. I'll help him get Claire back, so you can focus on evacuating the people before this becomes another tragedy."

Jill looked at them and hesitated.

"I have Leon as my backup. I will be fine. The attack will happen soon. If we want to save as many people as we can, we need to hurry. I am sure everyone in TerraSave will help us."

Jill nodded. The woman turned on her heels and ran back through the corridor, leaving the soldier and the agent behind. Chris knew that Jill was reluctant to leave. She loved Claire, too, and the idea of the girl getting kidnapped by a bunch of terrorists didn't make her happier than it made Chris. However, duty was a duty; the woman turned on her heels and ran back through the corridor, leaving the soldier and the agent behind.

Chris turned to Leon and found the agent fidgeting with his mobile phone.

"I contacted Hunnigan and asked her to help us track down Claire's kidnappers."

"Great, that will come in handy," Chris nodded, "Did you bring any weapons?"

Leon gave him a smile of irony and showed him the holster under his jacket.

"After all these years," Leon said, "They never leave my side."

"Tch, it must be nice to have the government's permission to carry your toys," Chris scoffed, "Fair enough. Let's move, then."

The two men rushed out of the room, following the path that the two chatting men from earlier had taken. It wasn't long before Leon and Chris caught up with them. It was a group of six men wearing black suits and masks. One of them, as Chris noted, was carrying an unconscious Claire over his shoulders. The sight was enough to make the man's blood boil, and the soldier clenched his fists, ready to throw a few punches.

The eldest Redfield looked at Leon, sending him a tacit plan, and the man nodded. They pulled out their guns and shot, aiming at the legs. The first man fell to the ground. The group was confused for a moment, but they soon reacted to their attackers. Three of the closest men began to fire back while the remaining ones sneaked away with Claire. It was evident that their priority was getting her out of the building.

Chris cursed. He had no time to waste, and the men were right in the way. He looked at Leon, and the blonde nodded, raising three fingers, counting down. When the last finger was out, the two jumped out from their cover and began firing at the men. The encounter lasted a couple of minutes, and soon the three attackers laid dead on the floor.

Leon seized the chance to check the bodies.

"What's that?" Chris asked, seeing that Leon had pulled out something from one of the body's pockets.

"A badge. I recognize it. It's one of those small terrorist groups that have ties to Neo-Umbrella," Leon muttered, "I'll let Hunnigan know. Let's get Claire back before they escape."

"Roger to that," Chris nodded.

The two men made their way through the empty corridors until they reached the underground parking lot. Chris and Leon made an abrupt stop when a black van passed them at full speed and broke through the parking entrance.

Chris glared at it and ran to the guard's office. The guard was on the floor. The soldier checked his vitals and concluded that the man was dead. There was nothing that he could do, so he picked a set of keys and rushed to grab one of Terra Save's vehicles.

It took them nothing to catch up with the van, and Chris was glad that no traffic had tried to stop him for his reckless driving. He could picture his sister's lecture about it in his mind, but considering the circumstances, Chris thought that his recklessness was reasonable.

"There they are," Leon said, putting out his gun, "keep it steady. I'll try to stop them."

Chris watched Leon stretch out through the window and began shooting. His accuracy was on point, and Chris was grateful that the agent was pointing at the tires only. It was the safest way to stop the car without the risk of hurting Claire in the crossfire.

"Leon, watch up," Chris said.

Two men were coming through the van's windows with their guys aiming at them. The exchange of fire was unavoidable, and Chris had to maneuver the car the best he could to avoid the incoming fire.

"The bastards came prepared," Leon groaned, reloading his gun. "I guess this won't be easy."

"Has it ever been easy?"

"Right," Leon snorted. The blonde aimed his gun and shot the man on the left.

The bullet hit the man cleanly on his forehead, killing him instantly.

"Nice shot," Chris smirked.

Leon smirked at the compliment, but the light mood short-lasting.

A loud crash resounded in the street as one of the closest buildings collapsed right in front of them, blocking the way and forcing the black van to make a turn to dodge the flying debris. A strong inhuman roar echoed through the city, and Chris found that howl unpleasantly familiar.

"Shit," Chris groaned, pushing the door open, "not this guy again."

"Friend of yours?" asked Leon, doing the same.

"Old acquaintance."

The ogroman let out a savage howl, hitting the nearby buildings with his large hands. The men in the black van had stepped out with their cargo. Claire was still unconscious. They seemed to have forgotten about their human chasers and were only concerned with finding a way to escape the infamous creature. The ogroman, however, had other plans. It snatched a couple of the more unlucky men and broke their bones with its hand.

Their fate wasn't one Chris wished for anyone, not even those damned terrorists.

"Great, just what we need," he growled.

"I am guessing you know how to deal with this guy," Leon asked with a frown.

"Yeah, and I can tell you we are not ready for this fight."

"Why am I not surprised?" Leon sighed. His attention got momentarily diverted from the monster as he watched the men take Claire through an alley. "Chris..."

Chris followed the blonde's sight and frowned. They ran to the alley to chase the escaping group but got violently stopped by the Ogroman punching the street. Chris and Leon rolled in opposite directions, evading the hit and the flying rocks.

"Shit," Chris cursed, "Are you okay, Leon?"

"I've been better," Leon groaned, "Any ideas?"

"Yeah, you follow those assholes. I'll take care of this guy."

"Are you nuts?"

"Don't worry. I know how to deal with it," Chris replied, "I'll distract it. You get Claire."

Leon pondered their options and nodded. Chris wasn't a rookie. He was a veteran with even more experience than Leon in some things. If someone could deal with that thing, it was him. Leon took some of his extra ammunition and threw them to Chris.

"Take this. You'll need it."

"Really. Where were you hiding these, huh?"

"I've got my tricks. Be careful, Chris."

"You, too, and make sure Claire is safe, or I'll kill you myself."

Leon snorted. He gave Chris a wave and ran into the alley, leaving the soldier to face the ogroman.

Chris could only trust that the man would save his sister; then again, Leon had proved himself a competent fighter and probably was the person that worried most about Claire, after himself, of course.

"Time to do some clean-up."

#cleon #my fanfiction #fanfic #claire redfield #leon x claire #claire x leon #leon s kennedy #chris redfield #resident evil

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mxndoscyarika · 4 years

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emily!!! i had a random thought that has no development what so ever! teaching the pedro characters how to use chopsticks properly 😬 and poor ezra having to use his left hand (ive tried/am trying it and it is *not fun* 🥺 also din would probably end up taking his gloves off out of poor frustration. anyways thats my thought. byee!

Ohhhh my god this is an AMAZING thought! I feel like I can’t judge them too hard, tho—I think my chinese side of the family kinda stopped using chopsticks in Venezuela so I rarely use them myself 😂 I can still use them pretty well, though, IMO (I’ll keep telling myself that as I pick up one grain of rice at a time). Note: the Cantonese slang term “lo fan” means non-chinese, non-asian, or foreigner. I am also using a chinese!reader for this, but any chopstick-using culture works 😁

Din doesn’t normally use chopsticks, mostly because his meals are some combination of bread and meat. But after you and he get married and can share meals together? You introduce him to using chopsticks. He doesn’t quite understand it at first, but he quickly realizes that they’re really useful. They’re sort of like extensions of your pointer finger and thumb, allowing you to flip over food and pick things up without burning yourself. The first time he tries to use them, he fails miserably. He just,,,doesn’t understand how you’re able to move the sticks so easily??? AND pick up more than one grain of rice at a time??? The gloves get in the way of his dexterity, so he removes them and tries again. After a bit of fumbling, he gets used to the movements and is able to (slowly) eat. A for effort, C- for success rate.

Javi isn’t a big fan of chopsticks. He’s used them a couple times in the past, but he usually doesn’t eat asian food and uses a fork anyways. Why should he struggle to balance a bite of rice between two sticks when he could just use a spoon or fork? But you take the time to teach him the proper way to hold it, demonstrating with your own set before helping him get the positioning right. He’s Shook when you slide his hand up so his hold is higher. How is he supposed to pick up anything heavier than a noodle? But as he sees you effortlessly pick up a giant dumpling, he’s determined to make it work. B- for effort, C for success rate.

Frankie can use chopsticks decently, but his technique is...that of a lo fan, to say the least. He holds the chopsticks too low, which you point out as he struggles to pick up his food. You explain to him the physics of chopsticks and how he should position his fingers. Being the supportive husband he is, he simply nods and adjusts his grip to mimic yours. After a while, he’s much more successful. A for effort, B+ for success rate.

Whiskey tries to learn how to use chopsticks the moment you use them. Look,,,,he just doesn’t use chopsticks very often. Sure, he’ll order Chinese food occasionally but he doesn’t eat it often enough to need to use chopsticks. So when you’re at an asian restaurant where the default utensil is chopsticks? He flounders at first, but no worries: you’ll help him! You gently show him how it’s done, having him practice by picking up his napkin and the paper wrapper of his chopsticks. Since he’s never truly used chopsticks, the movements are kind of awkward at first. But eventually he gets the hang of it, though he does eventually need a spoon or fork. B+ for effort, D for success rate.

Ezra struggles at first. Even if he already knew how to use chopsticks, he’d struggle because he only had his non-dominant hand left. You feel bad at first, but he insists that he wants to be respectful of the culture and needs to learn anyways. So you help him through the hand positioning and although it takes him a while, he eventually is successful. A for effort, D- for success rate.

Marcus is able to use chopsticks pretty well, but only as well as a lo fan can. Nevertheless, he’s happy to keep learning and is delighted whenever you explain things to him. So he does his best to do what you say, and after a while he’s almost as good as you. Almost. A+ for effort, A- for success rate.

Tovar doesn’t get it. Why are people using two sticks to pick up food when they could just stab it with a fork or skewer??? He tries to follow your directions, but gets frustrated and starts shoving food into his mouth with his hands or a spoon. No matter how hard he tries, he just can’t seem to hold the chopsticks correctly. It’s as if his fingers can’t bend the right way. Thus, he insists that using a fork and spoon is easier. C for effort, D for success rate.

Dave can barely use chopsticks. He doesn’t give off the vibe that he is able to either, so the waitresses always bring over a fork and/or spoon for him. You try to teach him since some foods are just better to eat with chopsticks (see: any and all dumplings and noodles), and he refuses, insisting that he’s fine with a fork. F for effort, D- for success rate (if he does happen to use chopsticks).

#din djarin x reader #the mandalorian #javier peña x reader #narcos #agent whiskey x reader #marcus pike x reader #pero tovar x reader #dave york x reader #ezra x reader #frankie ‘catfish’ morales x reader #pedro pascal #pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal characters #my writing #x poc!reader

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zoe-oneesama · 4 years

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Serving up some LOOKS! I love Mylene's Ivan sweatshirt! Would you be willing to talk about what sort of style elements you use for each character? (If you already have and I haven't found it, please ignore the question, that's on me)

I mostly did this for Mendeleiev’s class back when Punch was starting Leave for Mendeleiev, and I did a small run down for how the Main 5 fashion will change in Scarlet Lady, but not Bustier’s class sooooo:

Marinette -[I’m copy/pasting from an earlier ask]- When she likes a color, she sticks with it. She has a versatile wardrobe, but pink must always be present. She has the hardest to nail style because she experiments all the time, but no matter what she doesn’t feel comfortable unless she has an outer layer. Summer, Winter, Shorts, Pants, she needs to the comfort of a jacket - for Tikki to hide in when her purse isn’t appropriate.

Adrien -[Also C/P]- Basic B*tch. He thinks he’s fancier than he is. Oh sure, his clothes are well tailored to him and fit well, but they’re basic as hell. Gabriel isn’t as “innovative” as he thinks he is. Most of his clothes have the Gabriel logo and he sticks to the brand…because Adrien has no fashion sense whatsoever. Oh, he knows in theory what works and can put an outfit together, but he doesn’t want to. If it were up to him, he’d wear tshirts with physics puns and cat themed jackets. But alas, when one is an icon…

Alya -[C/P]- Mom Vibes. Fashion is not her priority. She knows enough to do good for her figure, but otherwise can’t really be bothered. Flannels and jeans in varying heights and a snappy tshirt are all she needs. But she is drawn to things that remind her at least of superheroes or superpowers. Her ridiculous high tops with the spiky tongue? She thinks it makes her look fast. She’s also the one who’s going to embarrass Marinette by wearing trendy but “garbage” fashion: fanny packs, Jellies, ugs with sweatpants. Dammit Alya, you’re a beautiful human being, do you mind NOT dressing like a hobo on vacation?! (Secretly her favorite outfits are from Martinique, but she saves them for special occasions).

Nino -[C/P]- Precious trash goblin. Wash your shirts and the neckline won’t be so worn out! He likes graphic tees with his favorite bands and DJs logos on them (he’s partial to ones without the name of the band or DJ so he can find other fans) and prefers things to be loose. He’s also drawn to colors and he’s super chill when his “garbage” girlfriend rolls up to a date looking like she’s going to an amusement part with her four kids, because it means she can’t dump on him for not looking “put together” (she would never!). He’ll try to dress up every now and then for a fancier date or when Adrien manages to snag him a spot at an event with him, but it’s pretty clear he’s uncomfortable without his hat and headphones. He has a few Moroccan outfits that he brings out in the Summer.

Chloe - Expensive Fashion Forward Chic. She made a staple out of shaming anyone else who dared to wear her favorite color yellow over the years. She was extremely smug about being the first in her grade to experiment with makeup that she never bothered to get good at it. Her clothes are expensive with just a smidge of impractical - only someone with cash to burn would constantly wear white pants! She’s also the kind of person to put off dressing for the cold as long as she can- if she puts on all these jackets and layers, how will these peasants see my brand name clothes underneath?! A lot of her fashion decisions are based on long forgotten advice from her mother - gold over silver jewelry, always have something on your head, brand or nothing. She’ll only abandon a well worn trend if her mother directly contradicts it.

Sabrina - Nerdy, geeky, almost like she’s wearing a uniform. She’s preparing to be Chloe’s assistant best friend for life so she has to look the part. She’s long abandoned any hope of shining next to Chloe, so being flashy and showy is out of the question. Luckily, Chloe isn’t drawn to patterns, so that’s a field of fashion that Sabrina can claim for her own. Doesn’t matter where it is, something she’s wearing needs to have a pattern. Leggings are her favorite accessory and she’s taken to collecting Chat Noir merch (though it’s less out of admiration for the hero himself and more for her “role” with Chloe. It reminds her of the rare times when Chloe acts like they’re friends.)

Mylene - Bohemian, and a touch artsy. Peace is important to her and her vibe reflects that. She’s not super up for showing a lot of skin, but neither are a lot of girls in her class. She leans towards a muted color palette so that her hair doesn’t clash, though she usually tries to match one piece of clothing to some color in her hair. Her accessories are a bit childish and kitchy, like her monster head bead, and she has a huge collection of hair accessories, like bandannas and headbands. She has a lot of different passions with various levels of seriousness, so she’ll come to Marinette for advice on how to use her wardrobe to fit the level of professionalism she wants.

Alix - Sporty but on the lazier side. Fashion is such an anti priority. She’s the one Marinette will go to for her more out there ideas because she has no recoil to pants made of buckles or shapeless over shirts, but that’s as far as it goes. Her clothes are made to be weather resistant and easy to slip on (and so that her dad won’t be pissed if she wipes out and rips something). If it were up to her, she’d just shop out of thrift stores and pick out all the color blocked 80s windbreakers, but when your whole squad is held together by a fashion designer, you can only get away with so much. Her nicest clothes are made by Marinette for her professional races and competitions and her favorites have nods to Egypt mythology and history.

Ivan - Punk but like…beginners guide to punk. Let’s be honest, when you’re built like a brick house, shopping is hard - or at least not that much fun. Ditto when you’re a dude that just…doesn’t particularly care. Ivan has a bunch of cargo pants because they fit, they’re grungy, and they’re practical. SO MANY POCKETS!!! Beyond that, like Nino, he prefers to wear band shirts of his favorite groups. His hiking boots are the nicest things he owns and he has a few bracelets that he only brings out when he’s “dressing up”. The most colorful thing he owns is a hoodie/pants set from the Cartoon Monster Show that Mylene’s hair bead is modeled after.

Kim - Sporty and Serious. Sweatpants and running shoes. That’s the make of his wardrobe. After all, you need to be able to challenge anyone to a race at ANY TIME!! Dressing up for him means putting on a pair of jeans, and he’s pretty much always under dressed but also completely oblivious to the fact. Red is his favorite color and he’s partial to that one brand of sports wear that’s on his hoodie-shirt and sweatband. If something is waterproof (and therefore, sweatproof) he’ll give it a try AS LONG AS IT’S REEEEED!!!

Max - Geek Fashion. Max dresses like he’s already 65 years old, and with his best friend being Kim? He might be. He has invested in some good walking shoes because when your bestie is running off at any and every moment, you gotta do SOMETHING to keep up. His pants are higher up than most guys and his shirts are always tucked in. He prefers sweaters over sweatshirts and cardigans to jackets. We are comfortable in this house, not trendy!

Juleka - Electro Goth. Black is the main attraction, but she likes that punch of something neon - purple, green, even blue (Rose can tell she’s feeling romantic when she puts on some pink). She’s tall and likes clothes that accentuate that and she’s a fan of the details - shoulder cuts, lace inserts, epaulets. And despite covering half her face, she’s really into makeup (and she’s way better than Chloe). Does she have colored contacts? She’ll never tell.

Rose - Decora Kei is probably the best shortcut to describing her look, followed by Kawaii Fashion. Doesn’t matter if she burns to look at, she IS the embodiment of soft and cute! Obviously pink is her favorite color, bu she also likes pairing it with some other bright colors. Rainbows. Are. EVERYTHING. And she’s a sucker for bunnies and strawberries and angel wings ^^! How else is she supposed to have an amazing day if she’s not decked out in sunshine?!

Nathaniel - Basic but like Colorful Basic. He definitely hopped the skinny jeans phase and will continue to do so until he finally grows a bit. He holds onto clothes pretty long because there’s only so many times you can buy new shirts after getting paint and charcoal on them before you just stop caring. He aims for durability instead of fashionable, but also collects clothes with the logo from the show he likes. (And no one knows about his secret Ladybug merch collection that he only wears around his house).

Lila - Gyaru was the search term I used. She’s one of the few with a not super saturated color palette, sticking to dark neutrals. She’s drawn to patterns, like polka dots and zebra prints, and tries to balance it with neutral colors. Plus anything that makes her seem “exotic” and foreign and more interesting, she’ll wear (as long as it’s stylish enough for her.) She cleverly toes the line between fashionable and trashy, showing just enough skin or using a just flashy enough pattern. Every piece she wears she’s crafted a whole story around how she got it, like her bracelets being a gift from street kids in Belize or her earrings being a prize she won when impressing an East Asian Prince.

#fashion #ask zoe #ml #miraculous ladybug

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