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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years

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The urinary tract infection business-model

There were two competing visions at the dawn of the modern digital era: in one camp, you had people who saw computers as a way to empower people to push back against corporate and state control; in the other camp, there were the people who wanted to use computers to transfer power from the public to corporations or governments.

I’ve always been baffled by the technologists who pursued control over liberation: surely their own formative experiences were of the liberatory power of technology. After experiencing that power, how could these Vichy nerds lend their skills to the project of forging digital shackles?

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/12/redeeming-hackers/#origin-stories

And yet, there they were, from the earliest days. Back in 2017, Redditor /u/vadermeer was browsing a Seattle thrift-shop and unearthed a trove of early internal documents from Apple’s SSAFE project, an early, doomed DRM project from 1979:

https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageApple/comments/5vjsow/found_internal_apple_memos_about_copy_protection/

The files (now hosted at the Internet Archive) are a chronicle of the battle between technologists pursuing user liberation and technologists who want to use computers to control their users. There are some great cameos from Woz:

https://archive.org/details/AppleSSAFEProject

SSAFE bombed, but the fight raged on for decades and rages on still. I’ve been in the thick of it for more than 20 years — literally. My first day on the job for EFF, back in 2002, was spent attending the inaugural meeting of the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (BPDG), an inter-industry conspiracy to put all computers in chains, forever:

https://onezero.medium.com/the-internet-heist-part-i-3395769891b0

The BPDG’s mission was to create a standard for a Broadcast Flag a single bit that would be included in the headers for video files. If the flag was present, any device that encountered the video would have to restrict its playback, checking to see whether and under what circumstances that playback could occur.

In order to make this work, the group — an alliance of giant corporations from consumer electronics, IT, broadcast/cable/satellite and movies — would get a friendly lawmaker (Billy Tauzin, one of the dirtiest Congressmen who ever held office) to pass a law that required anyone building a video-capable device to seek out and respond to the flag.

As part of this proposal, all video-capable devices would also need to be “resistant to end-user modification” — that is, they’d have to have enough Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology to trigger Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which banned removing copyright locks on penalty of a 5-year prison sentence and a $500k fine.

Strip away all the acronyms and obfuscation and here’s what that meant: if this group got their way, every computer would only run proprietary software (no free software/open source allowed) and if you tried to reverse-engineer it to change it to do your bidding in any way, you could be sent to prison for five years.

Under this system, whatever restrictions the manufacturer imposed on the use of their computer-enabled products would be the final word. It would be a felony for a rival to make a tool that plugged into their system and let you do stuff the manufacturers blocked, even if that stuff was perfectly legal.

For example, under this system, distributing ad-blockers would be a felony. If the manufacturer designed a computer — any computer, whether or not it was used to watch video, because the standard was video-capable not video-intended — so that the browser used the operating-system’s DRM to prevent ad-blocking, bypassing it would be a crime.

At the time, we warned that giving manufacturers the power to restrict how you configured your own digital products would lead them to abuse that power — not to prevent copyright infringement, but to shift value from you to them. The temptation would be too great to resist, especially if the companies knew they could use the law to destroy any company that fixed the anti-features in their products.

Sometimes, this was dismissed as fearmongering, with company insiders insisting that they knew their colleagues to be good and honorable people who wouldn’t ever abuse this power. I expected that: no one is the villain of their own story, and we are all prone to inflated assessments of our power to resist moral hazard.

But there was another response to our activism, one that was far more telling: “Yes, we are going to take away all the features you get with your digital media and sell them back to you one click at a time. So what?”

These people were in thrall to a specific ideology: the neoliberal doctrine that markets are the most efficient way to allocate resources, and anything that isn’t a market can be improved by turning it into one.

That’s the brain-worms that leads “entrepreneurs” to flood the entire IRS switchboard with thousands of auto-dialers and then auction off the right to be bridged into a call when someone picks up:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/07/markets-in-everything/#no-th-enq

It’s the same species of brain-worms that causes “entrepreneurs” to make apps that let people vacating a public parking spot to sell off the right to park there next:

https://www.theverge.com/2014/6/23/5836232/san-francisco-is-going-after-apps-that-let-people-sell-their-public-parking-spots

It’s the same species of brain-worms that causes “entrepreneurs” to make fake bookings for every hot table at every restaurant in town and then auction off the right to dine:

https://brianmayer.com/2014/07/how-i-became-the-most-hated-person-in-san-francisco-for-a-day/

In the case of digital media, these brain-worms manifested as the certainty that we get too many rights when we buy or subscribe to digital media. The argument goes:

When you buy a book or movie or song or game, you may not want the right to sell it on the used market, or give it away, or re-read or re-watch or re-listen to it;

Because the only way to get media is to buy it outright, you might be paying more than you need to for that media;

Perhaps the seller would offer you a discount on a book you could only read once, or Christmas movie you could only watch in July;

The blunt instrument of sale means that there are lots of discount offers that never get made, so there are lots of people with less money to spend who are excluded from the market.

Put that way, it sounds reasonable, and indeed, in the margins, there have been some successes from the ability to transform an unconditional sale to a conditional license. You can “buy” a streaming movie on Youtube for $10, or “rent” it for $3; and you can pay $10/month for ad-free Spotify, $5/month for Spotify with some ads, or $0/month for ad-heavy Spotify.

But these are exceptions. Most of the pre-digital offers aren’t available at any price: you could buy a DVD and keep it forever, even if you never went back to the store again. If you “buy” a video on Prime or YouTube and then cancel your subscription and delete your account, you lose your “purchase.”

If you buy a print book, you can lend it out or give it away to a friend or a library or a school. Ebooks come with contractual prohibitions on resale, and whether an ebook can be loaned is at the mercy of publishers, and not a feature you can give up in exchange for a discount.

For brain-wormed market trufans, the digital media dream was our nightmare. It was something I called “the urinary tract infection business model.” With non-DRM media, all the value flowed in a healthy gush: you could buy a CD, rip it to your computer, use it as a ringtone or as an alarmtone, play it in any country on any day forever.

With DRM, all that value would dwindle from a steady stream to a burning, painful dribble: every feature would have a price-tag, and every time you pressed a button on your remote, a few cents would be deducted from your bank-account (“Mute feature: $0.01/minute”).

Of course, there was no market for the right to buy a book but not the right to loan that book to someone else. Instead, giving sellers the power to unilaterally confiscate the value that we would otherwise get with our purchases led them to do so, selling us less for more.

The Broadcast Flag was actually adopted by then-FCC chairman Michal Powell, so we sued him, along with our allies at Public Knowledge and the American Library Association, and kicked his ass, and the Broadcast Flag died in 2005:

https://www.eff.org/cases/ala-v-fcc

But the dream of the Broadcast Flag never died. All the streaming apps on your phone come with the same restrictions that the Broadcast Flag would have imposed on over-the-air videos.

It’s much worse on your big screen. Your cable receiver is a gigantic, energy-sucking, wallet-draining piece of shit; the average US household spends $200 on these clunky, insecure devices, and every attempt to “unlock the box” has been thwarted by Hollywood and the Copyright Office:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/10/newly-released-documents-show-hollywood-influenced-copyright-offices-comments-set

The UTI business-model didn’t take hold in most markets, but it’s alive and well in your cable box. That box is mandatory, and modifying it runs afoul of DMCA 1201, meaning you can go to prison for five years for helping someone unfuck their cable box.

Back when PVRs like Tivo entered the market, viewers were as excited about being able to skip ads as broadcasters and cable operators were furious about it. The industry has treated ignoring or skipping ads as a form of theft since the invention of the first TV remote control, which was condemned as a tool of piracy, since it enabled viewers to easily change the channel when ads came on.

The advent of digital TV meant that cable boxes could implement DRM, ban ad-skipping, and criminalize the act of making a cable box that restored the feature. But early cable boxes didn’t ban ad-skipping, because the cable industry knew that people would be slow to switch to digital TV if they lost this beloved feature.

Instead, the power to block ads was a sleeper agent, a Manchurian Candidate that lurked in your cable box until the cable operators decided you were sufficiently invested in their products that they could take away this feature.

This week, Sky UK started warning people who pressed the skip-ad button on their cable remotes that they would be billed an extra £5/month if they fast-forwarded past an ad. The UTI business model is back, baby — feel the burn!

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/sky-warns-customers-charged-5-25644831

This was the utterly foreseeable consequence of giving vendors the power to change how their devices worked after they sold it to you, under conditions that criminalized rivals who made products to change them back.

Back in 2004, Wired published a special edition featuring reviews of new digital AV technology, almost all of which was encumbered with DRM. I had worked as a Wired reviewer on and off for years at that point, and I published a blog post taking the magazine to task for failing to note that all the features that it was praising in these devices could be taken away by the manufacturer at any time:

https://memex.craphound.com/2004/12/28/bittorrent-write-up-in-wired/

Then editor-in-chief Chris Anderson defended the move, saying that DRM would encourage rightsholders to make their media available, and this was a net benefit:

https://longtail.typepad.com/the_long_tail/2004/12/is_drm_evil.html

I replied, saying this wasn’t the point: if you’re a trusted reviewer and you’re telling readers, “Buy this device because it has these three excellent features,” you have a duty to warn them that any of these features could be taken away due to factors beyond your control, leaving you without any recourse:

https://memex.craphound.com/2004/12/29/cory-responds-to-wired-editor-on-drm/

This is a case I’ve made to other reviewers since, but no one’s taken me up on my suggestion that every review of every DRM-enabled device come with a bold warning that whatever you’re buying this for might be taken away at any time. In my opinion, this is a major omission on the part of otherwise excellent, trusted reviewers like Consumer Reports and Wirecutter.

Everywhere we find DRM, we find fuckery. Even if your cable box could be redesigned to stop spying on you, you’d still have to root out spyware on your TV. Companies like Vizio have crammed so much spyware into your “smart” TV that they now make more money spying on you than they do selling you the set.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/14/still-the-product/#vizio

Remember that the next time someone spouts the lazy maxim that “If you’re not paying for the product, you’re the product.” The problem with Vizio’s TVs isn’t that they’re “smart.” The problem isn’t that you’re not paying enough for them.

The problem is that it’s illegal to unfuck them, because Vizio includes the mandatory DRM that rightsholders insist on, and then hide surveillance behind its legal minefield.

The risks of DRM aren’t limited to having your bank-account drained or having your privacy invaded. DRM also lets companies decide who can fix their devices: a manufacturer that embeds processors in its replacement parts can require an unlock code before the device recognizes a new part. They can (and do) restrict the ability of independent service depots to generate these codes, meaning that manufacturers get a monopoly over who can fix your ventilator, your tractor, your phone, your wheelchair or your car.

https://doctorow.medium.com/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors-bc93f471b9c8

The technical term for these unlock codes is “VIN-locking,” and the “VIN” stands for “vehicle identification number,” the unique code etched into the chassis of every new car and, these days, burned into into its central computerized controller. Big Car invented VIN-locking.

VIN-locking is the major impediment to securing the Right to Repair. Manufacturers of all kinds bootstrap the DMCA — a Clinton-era copyright law — into a new doctrine that Jay Freeman calls “felony contempt of business model.” Removing DRM is illegal, so any business model that hides behind DRM is illegal to thwart:

https://doctorow.medium.com/how-to-fix-cars-by-breaking-felony-contempt-of-business-model-1464231071e

With Felony Contempt of Business Model, repair is just the tip of the iceberg. When security experts conduct security audits of DRM-locked devices, they typically have to bypass the DRM to test the device.

Since bypassing this DRM exposes them to legal risks, many security experts simply avoid DRM-locked gadgets. Even if they are brave enough to delve into DRM’s dirty secrets, their general counsels often prohibit them from going public with their results.

This means that every DRM-restricted device is a potential reservoir of long-lived digital vulnerabilities that bad guys can discover and exploit over long timescales, while honest security researchers are scared off of discovering and reporting these bugs.

That’s why, when a researcher goes public with a really bad security defect that has been present for a very long time, the system in question often has DRM — and it’s why media devices are so insecure, because they all have DRM.

But these days, “media device” has ceased to be a meaningful category. As we warned Chairman Powell in 2003, soon every device would have a general purpose computer inside it, and any rule regulating “media devices” would regulate everything.

Cars are media devices. Many new cars sell with Sirius XM players built into their media centers (mine did, and I was bombarded with calls and letters from Sirius begging me to subscribe to it). These players have DRM. They also have incredibly grave security defects.

Security researcher Sam Curry and his colleagues discovered that they could hijack Sirius XM-enabled cars, armed only with the VIN number that was printed on its windscreen. Sirius’s authentication sucks and once you authenticate to an in-car Sirius-enabled app, you’re in:

https://gizmodo.com/sirius-xm-bug-honda-nissan-acura-hack-1849836987

Curry and pals were able to plunder personal information from connected cars, lock and unlock them, and execute other commands available through the cars’ telematics systems. A similar hack of Jeep cars in 2017 let attackers seize control over steering, brakes and accelleration:

https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/

The auto industry itself admits that its products gather so much information on you — the contents of your phone, the places you go — that any breach could endanger your very life. Indeed, they made this claim to try to scare Massachusetts voters away from passing Right to Repair legislation in 2020:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/03/rip-david-graeber/#rolling-surveillance-platforms

The same structural factors that make cars dumpster-fires of slapdash security are also present in your phone, and, thanks to the 2017 decision to standardize DRM in browsers, in your browser:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/open-letter-w3c-director-ceo-team-and-membership

This all starts with the idea that the problem with “content” is that Congress gave us, the public, too many rights under copyright, and that nickel-and-diming us to buy those rights a la carte would fix this problem. 20 years later, the benefits of this system are thin gruel indeed, and the costs keep mounting.

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[Image ID: A wood-paneled living room with a large flat screen TV on a stand. Before the TV sit two small boys with their arms around each others' shoulders, sitting crosslegged on the carpet in front of the set. The screen of the set displays a giant arcade machine '25¢ Push to Reject' coin-slot. Above the set, the glaring red eye of HAL9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey oversees the scene, ringed with a burned circle.]

#pluralistic

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just-a-carrot · 8 months

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Okay, so I was just looking through some of your art, and I made an interesting observation.

You draw Iggy mouthless. Like, a lot. And a lot of the times when he does have a mouth it's a really small line/dot. And there's nothing wrong with that! I think, in your style, it works quite well and doesn't look too out of place. But it's really funny, seeing how the other characters around him are usually very emotive with their mouths, so it creates a very interesting contrast.

Thinking about it, it actually makes sense considering Iggy's personality. He's a shy, quiet, anxious little fellow, and I trust he probably has trouble speaking up for himself. So for him, not having a mouth actually fits him? If that makes sense. I also love how despite his lack of mouth, you still manage to make him so damn expressive? This is one thing I really wanna point out, you're really good at emotions, Carrot. You just have a way of expressing your characters' feelings that is both nuanced and yet very clear. I think your art style is just great in general? Like, I know you've said before that it might be a turn-off and it has to "grow on people", but I never disliked it. I thought it was very charming and unique, and I still do! Also, this is hard to explain, but I love how your art manages to be so simple and yet so detailed at the same time? Like, it's very clear and expressive and abstract, and yet it has all these little details, but they're never distracting, and only enhance your drawings!

Anyways, I got a bit carried away at the end, but I really felt the need to tell you thisjsjshsubsjens– but, yeah, that's about all, have a good day, Carrot! :D

HAHAHAHAHAHA

you are not the first person who's commented on iggy's lack of mouth, so this is making me laugh a bit 🤣💦

i will admit that though i have always drawn iggy's mouth rather small (especially compared to the others), the complete lack of it is something that kinda evolved as production went on (similar to all the other character changes alkjdasf)

i've never really thought about why this happened, it's kinda just something that happened often when i drew him, i guess because it felt fitting and right for his face and expressions LOL but that's such a good analysis of it now that you've said it. it's true that he has a hard time speaking up and often just speaking in general...

THAT IS SO NICE THO???

omg you're gonna make me cry

i have indeed had a lot of self-conscious thoughts about my art throughout production, mostly because i know it's not very pretty and detailed like a lot of VNs. i also got a number of disparaging comments about it early on. so hearing that people do actually like it really means a lot to me... 🥺 i know that some of the early art especially is a bit rough (and the characters themselves have evolved a bit as well). this is part of why i'd love to clean up some of the earlier art later on in some kind of remaster... lol

but i'm glad that you like it it so much!! i feel really blessed that i have been able to find people who can like my art style! hearing stuff like that really makes my day ldkajfdas

so thank you very much!! 😭💕

#ow: asks

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rhymeswithfart · 1 year

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Hello hello! Just dropping in to say that your different Sonic SATAM verses are really really cool and your art is lovely! It’s so pretty! ;u;

I’m so interested in these verses now. I was wondering, do you have a story, or a comic, or a post about the lore of them? They��re just so neat I wanna know more! It’s so interesting!

Have a great day! :)

Thanks so much!!! 💖💖💖💖 I'm so glad you like it!

(I actually forget if I made an actual lore post with all the stuff in one place rip) my lore is also pretty disorganized for most stuff, I'm just doin whatever, but here's some of the more fleshed out lore I have.

The reverse aus mostly follow similar storyline points to canon, with diversions due to the characters having different personalities. The satam one is based on that plot point where Robotnik and Snively are the sole survivors of a space colony, while the Archie one is based on the overlander-mobian war thing.

Both Satam and Archie reverse have a bloody war (which Julian served in as a medic before becoming Minister of Medical Science) that ends in The Great Peace, ushered in by Jules Hedgehog. However the "peace" is only in name, as the empire of anti-King Acorn is fraught with oppression and state violence. The lower classes starve while being crushed under Acorn's brutal rule. Julian and Johnny, along with several other revolutionaries, succeed in overthrowing the tyrant, but the kingdom is thrown into turmoil in the process. Princess Alicia, (anti-Sally), takes this opportunity to throw her father into the Zone of Silence with the help of anti-Sonic (this happens later than Robotnik's coup in the canon universe).

The Suppression Squad (anti-FF) is either staging a coup, being mercenaries for whichever forces are fighting for power, or just being general troublemakers at this point. Anti-Sonic hasn't yet become known as Scourge. Julian retires from his position as minister and sets up his clinic. Johnny manages the security and more actively fights against any would-be tyrants/terrorists. He doesn't have the same code against violence as Julian.

As the Suppression Squad gets more violent powerful, and Scourge starts his conquest of Moebius in earnest, Johnny and Julian flee into the Great Forest and create a force-field that makes their encampment invisible to unwanted guests. They take refugees and injured people in.

Here's some of my reverse StC lore. It follows the "Ovi Kintobor was transformed into Doctor Robotnik in an accident" storyline, but it has Kintobor being part of a very suppressive, fascist ideology. Robotnik is the product of Kintobor's repressed kindness and compassion, things that Kintobor would see as weakness and treachery. The badniks (goodniks?) in this au are like ai life support systems and mobility devices for disabled Moebians, as well as protection from danger. They're like mech suits that protect their little buddies.

Reverse Sonic Underground is based on some of my conjecture about the ppl from the Six is a Crowd episode. Robotnik was once the music teacher for the triplets. Anti-Aleena ruled over a society similar to the "Great Peace" I described in Satam/Archie, where the upper classes thrived and the average citizen struggled in poverty. Robotnik was part of the lower class, and suffered from an ailment which he couldn't afford to have looked at (also lived in a dirty-ass apartment with nasty water and mold probably). Despite this, he did genuinely care about the triplets, even being closer to them as a parental figure than their mother. At some point, his illness caused him to develop necrosis in his arms and legs (or something I'm still figuring it out) and he had to have them all amputated, nearly dying in the process. Aleena arranged for him to have cybernetic limbs attached, and moved him out of his deathtrap apartment and into the palace. (that's the backstory and I'm still figuring out how they got to the point in the episode)

#answers #text #lore post #sonic au lore #reverse Archie lore #reverse satam lore #long post #revetse stc lore #sonic au #moebius #reverse underground #reverse underground lore #queen aleena #reverse robotnik

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fantranslatorbychoice · 2 years

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Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi Volume 6 Chapter 9 - Tenjin-ya's Autumn Festival

T/N: I hope you like this chapter, it's my "Britney's back, bicth" reappearance, my Nihongo got a bit wonked-out but I hope you all still enjoy this. Also it's a double-upload so please do take a seat, it's gonna be a roller-coaster ride y'all.

As always, if you like this translation, you can heart it, SHARE THE LINK, reblog. You can rave about this, rant about this, reply, etc. but if you can, please link back to this page. If you’re unsure how to do that, just copy the web address of this page. If you’re on a blogsite just insert the web address as a hyperlink to create a link back to this page. I just respectfully ask to NOT REPOST OR REUPLOAD THIS ELSEWHERE. Thank you very much.

This is my contribution to the scant English content of this fandom, and I worked really hard to finish this thing, it’s not like I just copy-pasted everything on some AI-translating site. I even had to build the kanji in Jisho one by one if I need to. Try it here and you’ll see what I mean.

Honestly if this light novel was officially-published in English, I wouldn’t even be doing this right now... And if it did, especially if it was sanctioned, I’d take this down to support the publishers and Yuuma-sensei. Creators support creators, is what I believe in.

If I still have enough energy to do it, I’ll prolly do 1-5 once 6-10 has been done, or however long I can manage to translate the raw texts, sometimes my soul gets absorbed by some entity and I have to get it back piece by piece lol.

As previously-mentioned in earlier chapters, if you stumbled upon this one, the two seasons of the anime covered volumes 1-5, so other than the extra details, you didn’t miss much stuff. Believe me, I sped-run them with 50% comprehension then rewatched the anime, and they're more or less the same.

OK here it goes, enjoy~

P267 It's the end of October. In Utsushiyo, there is an event called "Halloween" which is associated with wearing costumes, I wonder if it's festive and lively and huge right now?

But then again, this is Kakuriyo. For countless days now, Tenjin-ya has been celebrating the bountiful harvests in the Autumn Festival. Because this is the biggest autumn event in here, this time around it was gossiped about that Tenjin-ya will be celebrating it differently than before.

As per Ginji-san's suggestion, Tenjin-ya's interior as well as the gardens were decorated with Japanese-style pumpkin lanterns lighted up by ogre-fire.

Maps were given to guests at the front desk, which guide them in finding the flashy lanterns placed at the service station and resting areas where the employees are gathered as they give away sweets and snacks.**

Pumpkin lanterns are considered rare in Kakuriyo, and with an event that seems like treasure-hunting in the underworld, it was a very popular event enjoyed by both adults and children.

Only one other place was also decorated with the pumpkin lanterns as a rest stop, and that is Yugao.

Here, aside from the usual sweets given out to everyone, Kasuga and I also give out the newly-developed product "Hell-juu".

This is because this product is being promoted and advertised as a "revolutionary" and "pioneering" product.

T/N: In Japan, anything labeled as お菓子 (o-kashi) are considered as tiny snacks, not limited to sweets but also small amounts of salty and savory stuff like 煎餅 (senbei - rice crackers)

P268 Since this year's opening for the Autumn Festival hasn't started yet, along with the tea time business operations, I was just sitting outside Yugao where tea is usually prepapred, as I was making a list of fun Autumn sweets that Yugao can offer to customers.

Right now, this is the food and snack lineup for sale in Yugao: -> Sweet potato and purple yam ice cream -> Buttercream-filled bread rolls with raisin and walnut -> Melt-in-your-mouth persimmon pudding (with persimmon leaf tea)

Since in Utsushiyo sweets are a big hit during Halloween, I also took a great liberty to do them too. And surprisingly, the bread rolls filled with buttercream and with raisins and walnuts were especially well-received by so many.

The grapes that we picked from the fruit orchard were hung behind Yugao, in order to make raisins. These raisins, along with the roasted walnuts were mixed with homemade buttercream**, and then turning them into an easily-consumable hand-held cream bread roll.

When I made the buttercream by hand, it felt nostalgic, I missed how the sweetness and how it feels in my mouth was to my liking. The full cream feels very different from the raisins and the walnuts, it wasn't a distasteful mix at all, and it makes them even prominent from the sidelines.

Since it tastes better when fresh from the oven, we had a label up that says "we bake them as you order them".

"Oh my, Kasuga-chan, since when did you switch to working at Yugao?" "I thought you already quit being a Tenjin-ya employee?"

T/N: Please never make homemade buttercream with your bare hands, unless your hands and arms are buff AF. Use a mixer ALWAYS. A message of concern from someone who HAD TO DO IT BY HAND and now has PTSD. The pain wasn't worth it. T_T

P269

Yugao's regular customers who came by during tea time were shocked to see that Kasuga was at work. Nobody knows though, that today was inevitably Kasuga's last day working at Tenjin-ya.

"Ahaha, but it's not bad working as a sales lady in a sweets' shop, you know?"

She doesn't show it in her innocent smile, but Kasuga does everything that she can to keep on serving each and every one of the customers, ceaselessly ushering them in and giving them what they need.

With that going on, I was able to concentrate on making the dishes, and the rounds in the shop went on smoothly.

More than anything else that I was grateful for, was Kasuga's know-how when it comes to serving guests. She even taught Ai-chan how to politely interact with the customers. Even though Ai-chan now regularly appears at the shop, she's still a beginner and likely will make mistakes. To Ai-chan that is more of a support, every now and then we give her some advice.

To be honest, the more that she moves the more she gets the hang of it, and the more she gets the hang of it, the more that she gets motivated to work.

So far it seems that whatever she sees, she does it in a similar manner. That is something that employees at Tenjin-ya learn from their superiors - cultivated by the toiling and grinding for so many years, this is by any means not a very easy thing to do nor learn by anyone's standards.**

Doing so much work, running so much errands... is this day ever gonna end...? Aaaarggh..

Kasuga keeps saying "this is too much" as she keeps running to and from here in the kitchen, urgently taking orders, relaying the information to me, and getting exhausted doing so.

T/N: Double negatives are really a pain in the arse I tell you. Arrrrggh lol

P270 "Aoi-shaaaa~n, please give me pumpkin sheeee~ds"

Before opening up for the evening's business hours, it was crunch time for prepping the ingredients. Kasuga and I arranged the chairs outside, while Chibi, who turned the pumpkin lanterns into a playground, was begging for pumpkin seeds.

"Why are you asking for pumpkin seeds?"

"They're delicioussssh~"

Because we used up so many pumpkins today, we have a lot of pumpkin seeds.

Giving him some pumpkin seeds from the kitchen, Chibi holds one and starts gnawing it with his beak, skillfully picking out the contents to eat.

Somehow, he looks like a hamster eating a sunflower seed...

But, just as Chibi was about to take the last bite, for some reason it seemed, he was starting to behave like he had an intense dilemma, and he stopped eating the seed.

"What? What's the matter? Is that a nasty-tasting seed?"

"This pumpkin sheeeed, If I plant thissss under the willow tree, I'm going to help it grow. Then when it bearssssh fruits, Aoi-shan will make me a dish from it. And the sheeeds... I will eat them."

Wait, wait, what's going on?

After immediately running towards the willow tree, Chibi using his webbed fingers started digging and tearing up the ground, and with some skills he has planted the seed into the ground. Well, for sure he can grow it like that, but...

"Wh-?"

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And in that exact moment, on the other side of the willow tree...

Within the inner garden some mysterious movement was happening, which was a young couple, and when I noticed them I called over saying

"Is something the matter?", to which they immediately came towards me.

"Uhm... have you seen an item that has been dropped around here?"

"A missing item? What is it that you have lost?"

"Uhm, that is... A silver bracelet..."

After asking them about it, it seemed like the young couple was newly wedded, and had their honeymoon here in Tenjin-ya.

They were a very typical young couple. According to the young bride, it was a silver bracelet that her own mother had bequeathed her before she got married.

It seemed that it got lost somewhere around pumpkin lanterns, and they have been going around and around the pumpkin lanterns in order to find it.

Even though it was supposed to be a very special occasion, the young bride looked so pitiful, with her face full of so much worry and anxiety. Could it possibly be that Yugao may have caught sight of that bracelet...?

"There, there! Tenjin-ya has a Lost and Found, maybe they have it in there? They probably have it there already, they always find all of the guests' lost items, for sure. I'll lead the way over there, ok?"

Hearing our conversation, Kasuga immediately popped over and courteously lead the young couple while saying "this way please".

I saw that the young bride smiled to her husband with a sigh of relief.

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As expected of Kasuga, isn't she is a clever, competent employee?

"I have so much concerns, but by leaving everything else to Kasuga, I don't have to worry so much. Then I only have to give it my all with my cooking." I'll need to add more items to Yugao's regular menu, and I am not limiting it to this year's Autumn Festival specials.

-> Crunchy salad made with lightly-pickled pumpkin topped with the Southern Lands' tuna -> Assorted Tempura Platter (Pumpkin, Chicken), garnished with Kimon's famous product, pumpkin -> White fish and autumn vegetables simmered in a thick sauce - A rare set meal, featuring Odanna-sama's homegrown autumn eggplant

But, the most special menu item, which is also served to guests as appetizers, is the Pumpkin and Soy Milk Potage. Foremost, because it has shredded onions and homemade bacon, which was stir-fried with care.

This brings out the umami taste of the shredded onions and homemade bacon, and the bite-sized pumpkin slices' flavor explodes into the whole soup as it boils and simmers down.

"Aoi-san, thank you for your hard work." "Oh, Ginji-san, thanks for the hard work."

Ginji-san was making his rounds in Yugao, he was in the middle of executing his plans and arranging the setups, when the potage was just about ready.

For the sake of drawing up the plans while still doing his management duties, Ginji-san seems so busy even for today.

But, as expected, you can't even see tiredness in the fresh and lively smiles of Ginji-san.

"Ginji-san, it seems that your well-though plan was a huge success. Everyone seems to be enjoying it."

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"Oh, it's not like that. It's just that it happened to be dark when we set things up for the guests. It would have been easier to hold the entire event during daylight hours but... The lanterns' lights won't show up. But if it was held during the evening, then it slowly becomes more and more Halloween-y. The pumpkin lanterns' lights are seen even from above Tenjin-ya's skies."

"Ahhh, then that's wonderful. Even I myself think that it already has the best Halloween vibes. But then again, the Ayakashi world already seems Halloween-y, so I don't know if that translates well..."

Originally meant to be held as a talisman against evil spirits during Halloween, it has changed, and the pumpkin lantern is now used as a fun decoration for Halloween by common folk and travelers alike.

Increasingly, due to the avoidance and ignorance of magic among humans, the ayakashi have slowly warmed up to the idea of pumpkin lanterns and see them as something fun.

Even Jack-O-Lanterns can surely make anyone in the underworld cry.

“By the way, Aoi-san, the pumpkin smells good, doesn't it?"

"Yes, and it's also because of the pumpkin potage I made. I'm going to put a lot of soy milk when I make it, so it easily goes down the throat, and it's healthy too."

"Ohhh, that sounds delicious."

I placed all of the sauteed onions, bacon, and boiled pumpkin in a see-through mixing bowl** and mixed it all in. Once it has turned into a paste, I was helped by Ginji-san as I strained all of the contents.

Once it got a smooth consistency, I placed it back again in a pot to boil while adding a lot of soy milk.

By using soy milk instead of cow's milk, it stands out by tasting as refreshing and as mellow as a stickleback.

T/N: The transliteration was "goldfish bowl mixing bowl" but that sounds so unsanitary so I made it boring lol

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The bacon's umami has already dissolved, and I was putting a small amount of salt and pepper for seasoning.

"Ginji-san, have some of these first before you go back to work. After all, you probably won't have much time eating tonight, don't you?"

"Yay, it's a good thing I waited."

I poured some of the pumpkin potage into a bowl, and handed it to Ginji-san.

"Ah, after this please have some of the bread rolls. There's still a bit left of the canned tuna, so I could make you some tuna salad sandwich."

"Wow, really? Then I'm gonna eat a lot! It's because canned tuna is my all-time favorite!"

"Ohhh is that so? Alright, please have some potage while I go fix you one."

There was still a bit left of the prepared shredded onions, so I quickly stir-fried them, divided some into a bowl and added some canned tuna to mix. I added a bit of pepper to the homemade mayo, then some soy sauce to make simple flavoring .

The canned tuna from the Southern Lands, was very much different from the canned tuna sold in Utsushiyo, the flesh feels more sturdy and I could feel it as I mix, mix, mix the ingredients altogether...

"Hm.. I think this is ready and good to go."

After cutting the bread roll in half, I took a bit of the flavored mayo and added that to the bread roll, after which I added the tuna with stir-fried onions. That's it. Simple is best. That.. is the only thing needed to make a really good tuna sandwich.

T/N: Just a reminder that this is not a cookbook but yeah you can try the recipes out. I am not liable for any mishaps lol

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Even as he was sitting on the counter where I handed his sandwich, Ginji-san didn't seem to be holding back. He just sank his teeth into the tuna-filled bread roll. After chewing it noisily, he took a gulp of the potage.

"Hmmm, this is so delicious! The crunch of the stir-fried onions are still there! The saltiness of the tuna goes so well with the spiciness of the onions. This unsophisticated bread roll, along with the sweetness of the potage, they work exceptionally well together, don't they?"

"It seems like it. Nobody can hold back from a simple tuna sandwich, it will be the death of working people."

Unlike other dishes that are a hassle to make, this one is delicious yet really simple. These days I just enjoy eating a lot of sandwiches like that, but because I have been eating that since I was a child, it has been my long time cherished food.

So this is how it is, using a bread roll. Somehow, this gives of the feeling of elementary school food back in the day.

And yet, Ginji-san seems to have enjoyed eating it so much...

"Wahhh, this light snack has filled and warmed up my entire body, it was really delicious. Now I can go back to working at my best!"

Wow, it seemed that Ginji-san was really hungry back there. I'm gonna tell him that he can come again to eat when he has some free time later.

"Oh, right, I just remembered. The pumpkins that you used for the potage, aren't those the ones grown by Odanna-sama himself? It's truly mysterious, he even started growing that pumpkin that he hates so much."

"But.. surely, I think that even Odanna-sama will eventually come to like this potage."

And just like that, even though Ginij-san was still smiling, his gaze quickly dropped down.

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It was a quick reaction. I wonder if he's worried about something...

"Kyaaaaaa! Please stop it Kasuga, please stoooop!"

That came as a surprise. Out of nowhere, shrieks can be heard from outside.

"That voice... It's the Ookami-sama!"

What on earth is happening? Ginji-san and I went out to take a look.

It seems that there's some commotion at the main building, and at the west tower a multitude of waiters and waitresses were gathered around the one-eyed Ookami-sama. It was so noisy that the guests have also started to notice it.

"What is going on here, may I ask?" "Oh, Wakadanna-dono, that girl Kasuga, please make her stop!" In a very shrill voice the Ookami-sama begged and clung onto Ginji-san.

What the, Kasuga is on the roof of the western tower. Both Ginji-san and I were shocked.

"Wh-what's the matter Kasuga? What on earth are you doing over there?!"

"K-kasuga-san! It's dangerous up there, please go down in a safer place!"

Hearing our voices down below, Kasuga glanced toward us and took all of her voice out

"Uhm..."

"It was a crow. It was a crow that took our guests' silver bracelet. Please wait, I'll

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go down as soon as I can."

"Oh... that crow! That crow that took my kanzashi a while back!"

For sure, at the top of that western building, that one, shameless, impudent crow, whose looks we all despise. On its beak there was something glittery, could that be the guests' silver bracelet?

It seems that when Kasuga found out about it, she climbed all the way up the tower in order to get it back.

But whenever Kasuga was about to move, it seems like she's about to slip her feet and fall down, and it does not bode her well.

"Aaaahhhh! Kasuga please stop it right now! If something happens to you I will not be responsible!!!"

Ookami-sama is now starting to lose her wits.

As if it was normal though, Kasuga just said "Shhh, be quiet" and started focusing her attention to what she was doing. But the crow being a crow, it started darting back and forth towards Kasuga as if she was an idiot. It seems to be relishing the whole commotion.

"AAAAAH!"

"K-kasuga!"

That crow swatted at Kasuga's head and this caused her balance to break, slipping over the roof tiles and sending her down.

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Everyone started shrieking out loud. The Ookami-sama somehow lost her spirits, while being supported by the waitresses as they sat in that place and dealt with the whole incidence.

But Kasuga's fingertips were able to stay in place, and while keeping her body in balance, she was able to climb up on the roof again.

Eventually, Ginji-san said "I'm coming to help you" and just when it seemed that he was changing into his giant fox form while saying "Please hang on-"

"Aaaaah!"

From behind, on the other side someone tightly grabbed Ginji-san's third tail from the right, which was hanging down. Because of that, he didn't transform completely, and he ended up with his baby fox form.

When he looked back, he saw that O-ryo's face was looking at him relentlessly.

"Wakadanna-sama, this is none of your business. This is something that Kasuga must follow through on her own."

"But.. But O-ryo!"

"Aoi, just shut up and watch."

O-ryo, what the heck are you even thinking right now?

On the other hand, poor Ginji-san seems to be dejected. Humiliated as he is, he casually hid behind me as he trembled and shook. So it was true that the third tail from the right was really weak...

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"Kasuga!"

From yonder, O-ryo's voice reached Kasuga who was still on the roof.

"It's our guests' important missing item you know. Don't let that crow get away with it!"

"O-ryo sama..."

Everyone in there had no idea why O-ryo would say such things.

Kasuga was being made to retrieve the guests' silver bracelet.

Ookami-sama shrieked out "What on earth are you even saying!!", but O-ryo just flat out ignored her screams, and when Kasuga looked at O-ryo, she immediately understood, she looked like she braced herself tightly as she started climbing back onto the roof again.

"Ouch!"

The crow, while still holding the bracelet in its beak, started attacking Kasuga furiously.

As Kasuga kept crying "Ouch! Ouch!" in hushed tones while the crow was relentlessly attacking her outstretched hand, she pulled out something from inside her kimono.

"Look here, This is the "Hell-juu" that Aoi-chan made~ It's delicious~"

"..."

"What in the.. Kasuga was carrying a concealed "Hell-juu"?

Kasuga realized it in an instant, when the crow's eyes started twinkling, and she didn't miss the opportunity to use the "Hell-juu" as bait, and flung the manjuu.

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The crow opened its beak wide, and perfectly caught it.

On its beak it replaced the silver bracelet, which dropped and rolled down, down down from the roof.

"No, wait!"

The bracelet has dangerously rolled off the roof, someone needs to chase after and grab hold of it but...

Good thing she was surrounded by the west tower's walls, Kasuga already leapt off the roof and and shot off into the sky.

This was a scary feat, and as Kasuga was clutching the bracelet in her bosom, her true form was revealed, and in an instant, on the chimney, there stood a tiny tanuki.

"Ohhh, Kasuga!"

Nobody dared close their eyes.

Even though she wasn't swayed, O-ryo kept watching over Kasuga.

"Nice job, Kasuga!"

O-ryo swung her sleeves, and rolled up a really powerful snowstorm.

The snowstorm wrapped up and cradled tiny tanuki Kasuga, the air gently softened the impact and she fell onto the ground with a plop.

Kasuga got covered by the snow and was shivering, and she fell on her ribboned backside. We had no idea if she got any major injuries.

"Kasuga.. Are you cold?"

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She was asked by O-ryo, who had a daunting stance in front of her.

Kasuga, while still shivering, slowly opened her cute, round eyes.

It was because O-ryo was looking at her without much concern.

"When you had no choice but to bear that cold, before you looked like a tiny tanuki that was being pelted on by the harsh cold winds of the northern lands, if that happens you'll instantly get frozen up. A frozen tanuki..., When you look like that, little by little... You'd look like a pudgy, stumpy, cute little tanuki!"

Upon saying those words, O-ryo looked up in the sky as her face became distorted.

With her hands on her waist, she remarkably looked very elated.

"Even though back home I hated being a snow lady, the snow folk families are very tight-knit and clannish. You'll think that we're cold, lonely, and harsh but... Please don't imagine us like that. Even though you're a shivering tanuki, you won't get looked at without getting any pity."

"O-ryo..."

In the end, no one else was more worried about Kasuga than O-ryo.

Because she knew about so much stuff on the northern lands and the snow folk, she had always been so worried about Kasuga going to live there...

That's why when she said that she was quitting work and getting married off to live there, O-ryo had a very strong stance against it.

"Wahhh, O-ryo sama!!!"

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With a pop, Kasuga returned to her human girl form, and hugged O-ryo's waist.

For sure, it helped that O-ryo expressed her thoughts, and once again it was reassuring.

It must have been so awkward for the revered O-ryo, but it seemed that Kasuga was someone she was deeply concerned about.

O-ryo hasn't said anything yet, but only kept patting Kasuga's head.

The crimson twilight has appeared, and it was a memorable sight, the two's silhouettes hugging each other.

That O-ryo has always been selfish and gets her way, but not right now, for she is supporting her kouhai and sending her off, and now she appears as the wonderful sempai attendant.

"Well, now hurry off to return the guests' bracelet. What a pity, they couldn't find it so for sure they're in the lobby all depressed."

"Oh, right!"

"And after you're done here, go to the banquet hall that I'm in charge of, up until the end I will make you word hard."

"Heeeeyy, even though right now, Kasuga is helping at Yugao?!"

"Hee hee hee. Too bad, Aoi. Give us Kasuga. From the very start she has always been my subordinate."

Even though Kasuga was bewildered, I gave up and put up a bitter-sweet smile at her saying "Well, we can't do anything about that", and even as she wore a burdened smile at me, she hurried back to the lobby quickly.

And without missing a beat, that woman O-ryo called out to all the onlooking attendants and said "Alright everybody, back to work!" and directed and

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guided everyone on what to do as they went back to the main hall. Even that Ookami-sama went back while she was shaking and trembling...

After seeing what happened, no matter what anyone says, I believe that O-ryo is still skilled at being a Wakaookami.

Every since the beginning, that has always been what Kasuga knows.

And even until now, she still believes it.

"Aoi-san, it seems that even for today, it's busy hasn't it?"

Ginji-san, who was still in his tiny fox form, at my heels, spoke out cheerfully.

I picked up Ginji-san and held him in my arms.

"Heheh, well, it is. But.. Ai-chan learned so many things from Kasuga, Yugao will just continue business as usual."

"Well, if my abilities weren't so limited, I would be going there to help out too. I know that I have no business saying this, but during the time that Kasuga was in Yugao, I felt a bit lonely."

"Aww, really now? But I think that if Ginji-san's workload decreased, you'd be very happy, won't you? But if you're there, you'd still be worried."

While petting his fluffy tails, we looked at each other and stifled a laugh. Well, nightfall is drawing near.

All around Tenjin-ya, the pumpkin lanterns' lights grew even brighter.

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And in a few moments, Yugao's evening business hours will be starting.

A few guests will appear here and there and would start lining up in front of Yugao, so we need to get back quickly.

x-x-x

That day's business hours was booming.

There were no unexpected increase in customers, it was an announced event and everything went successfully just as planned, all of the ingredients were properly allotted and there was no shortage. It was very busy, but Ai-chan and Chibi were there, and thankfully Ginji-san occasionally pops right in to help, and up until closing hours the rounds in the shop went well without a hitch.

The huge number of guests were also due to the advertisements in the souvenir shops, and it was something worth celebrating for.

"Whew, finally it has ended. Ai-chan and Chibi you're both tired too, let's go to sleep!"

After business hours, Yugao was empty and we were done cleaning up after the day.

With her head facing up, Ai-chan was out like a light and was fast asleep in the corner of the tatami seating room. I brought a blanket from the kitchen and covered her up with it. Even though she easily falls asleep these days, now she easily doesn't go back into the pendant, and I call that progress.

Beside her was Chibi sleeping soundly again with a swelling snot bubble.

Ginji-san has left Yugao afterwards, surely after the events it will still be busy,

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and it always has been the case.

There were still huge celebrations outside. A huge pumpkin lantern with ogre lights is flying on top of Tenjin-ya, it looks like there's still a show going on.

I'm sure that it looks very pretty. It's very much visible but, I can't see it from here so....

"Aoi, thank you for your hard work."

"Oh..."

The sliding door to Yugao opened, and it was Odanna-sama.

I did promise to do something, he probably came in to remind me.

"Why do you look so surprised?"

"Not really... Aren't you busy? I feel bad, I didn't know that you'll be coming here..."

"Oh, well an invitation from Aoi is very generous. At this time of the night it already has been empty and closed. Even my stomach is already empty."

"Aww.. Well, I apologize for that."

However, I was glad that he came.

Because I was on a quest to help Odanna-sama overcome his difficulty with pumpkins, and I did my best in researching pumpkin recipes for him.

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"Sit over at the counter. Oh.. Now that we're looking at it, it feels weird that Odanna-sama has come to Yugao to eat."

"You're saying that now that I've finally come here?"

"..."

"While I was going here, I didn't hear anybody saying any complaints about it."

Probably, but...

If Odanna-sama has been going here to Yugao from the very beginning, it would seem that, with his position, in the eyes of the other employees, he is showing some favoritism, I think.

During those times, even if that guy didn't say anything, even if I didn't know about it, we were just following protocol.

"Oh, uhm... I want Odanna-sama to try eating some deep-fried meat patty with pumpkin.

"Deep-fried meat patty with pumpkin? Hm... I haven't heard of that kind of food before."

Some food he never had before, and pumpkin, these made Odanna-sama in some way, very nervous.

While holding his pose he went over to the side counter, and I could only gaze at him from the side.

"It's image is similar to a croquette made out of pumpkin. I didn't sell any in the shop today, this is a dish I made exclusively for Odanna-sama behind the scenes. There's a lot of meat, and the meat patty has some spicy peppers."

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"Being an exclusive recipe.. That's so much like a wife, I'm so glad."

"What? Which part?"

"But a meat patty with spicy peppers... Uhm.... I don't know how that would taste like."

Odanna-sama's face says it all... Pumpkins that are supposedly sweet mixed with meat and chilli peppers.. I dunno how that goes.

"You wait right there. I'll make you something. Oh, also have some of the potage I made."

I heated up the potage I made, and placed it in a small bowl. I made Ginji-san some bread rolls to add to his, but for Odanna-sama I made some garlic croutons out of the bread crusts and added it on top.

Holding his spoon, while looking confused, Odanna-sama took a spoonful of the potage in his mouth.

"Mmm.. I didn't imagine that it's easy to drink. I imagined it would be thick, but it's goes down smoothly."

"I strained it many times. After adding a lot of soymilk, I added simple seasonings to it."

"What are these things that seem to be afloat?"

"Those are croutons. Is this your first time eating them? I added some garlic and salt to some cold bread crusts, cut them into tiny pieces, and toasted them on the stove. It adds a nice salty taste, and I think it keeps the soup's sweetness more interesting."

"Oh.. You're right. This is good. I could readily drink all of this!"

The garlic's flavor was effective, and the croutons were crunchy. The aroma and the texture, it seemed that Odanna-sama

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enjoyed the potage.

It seems that he has already drank all of the potage up, I should make him the deep-fried patty now.

While I was about to start cooking, Chibi, who was sleeping beside Ai-chan, woke up, and went towards Odanna-sama.

"Saaaay Ogre-shaaaan, how do you grow a huuuuge pumpkin?"

"Hmm?"

Chibi started climbing onto Odanna-sama's sleeve, and started asking him on how to grow pumpkins.

That little one, he got passionate for growing pumpkins.

Odanna-sama being an Odanna-sama, happily started talking about and teaching Chibi about how to plant pumpkins. It seemed that he suddenly bonded with Chibi as an older brother, like a commander of vegetable farmers and holding secrets...

Well, Odanna-sama can take care of Chibi on the side, and I will be making the deep-fried meat patty with pumpkin.

While the pumpkin gets soft and mushy as it's being boiled, I'll make some other dishes, and I already prepared the ingredients.

I finely chopped some onions and stir-fried them, and mixed these with both pork and beef in a bowl, and added the pumpkin and an egg yolk after that, then splashed some soymilk in, and kept mixing everything until it has gotten very sticky.

Then I made some sauces for flavoring, some salt and pepper, seven-spice and chili peppers, and a spoonful each of secret ingredients: mayonnaise and ketchup.

Now it's just like frying your usual fried food. The meat was shaped into a round patty, and dipped these in flour, beaten egg and panko crumbs,

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and fried them in oil.

The sauce is also conventional. Homemade ketchup and Worcestershire sauce, with roasted sesame seeds were mixed together.

The deep-fried meat patty is now well-done. I made Chibi's tiny meat patty while I was at it.

I piled a huge amount of shredded cabbage on a plate, and arranged two large pieces of fried patty.

I placed a lot of the sauces in another container, so that anyone can add whatever they like.

In another bowl, I added the pumpkin soup and croutons plentifully.

To make it really into the delicious flavors of autumn, I stir-fried some mustard spinach greens and some eggplant with some soy sauce. I added some eggplants harvested from Odanna-sama's vegetable patch.

Since the soup has already been drank up, I made the meal a lot more deluxe by adding some broth made out of matsutake mushrooms.

"Odanna-sama, now I'm thinking of choosing, between plain white rice or rice and barley, which one would you prefer?"

"Oh, really? It has been a while since I ate rice and barley."

"As expected, rice and barley are a better match with fried food."

I mixed the barley and rice then boiled it. Even though newly-harvested plain rice tastes better, as the barley is being cooked and mixed, its added texture makes it stand out and the rice even more fun to eat.

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While the rice and barley are cooking, more pumpkin dishes. I added some lightly-pickled pumpkin for garnishing.

"Thank you for waiting, Odanna-sama, here is our specially-made premium meal, deep-fried minced meat patty with pumpkin. I added a lot of pumpkin in the meat, please have a taste."

"...It looks delicious, what Aoi made..."

"You're saying that while you're sweating profusely..."

Even though a while ago he was drinking some soup.

I thought so, him having to deal with something difficult hasn't been brushed off.

"Aoi-shaaaan~, I wanna, I wanna eat some minced meat too~"

Chibi hopped onto the counter and started demanding by jumping up and down over and over again, I cut a piece of the minced meat small enough for a baby, placed it on a plate and put it in front of him.

"Okay you two, that is fresh off the fryer and very hot, the juices of the meat might ooze out, so be careful when you eat it."

At first, Odanna-sama took a sip of his matsutake soup, took a bit of the turnip garnish on the side, and well, with all his might gently took some of pumpkin minced meat.

"Ohhh!"

I knew it, the juicy meat was heart-pounding. As hot steam piped out, the pumpkin's pretty yellow color was intertwined with the coarsely-ground meat.

And despite that...

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"Mmmm... it tastes sweet, but also spicy? Is that.. seven-spice?"

While chewing, Odanna-sama had a surprised look on his face.

The crumbly pumpkin's sweetness, the meat and its juiciness filled with onions, and adding the seven-spice to make it spicy, it was made perfectly.

"The pumpkin tastes sweet, but the addition of the seven-spice gave it heat, it ties up all of the flavors. And because of the meat's juiciness, that alone makes the pumpkin's presence unnoticeable, doesn't it? No matter how you taste it, it just melts in your mouth."

"Oh... The meat's flavor rather than the pumpkin brings everything together. It's good, like after eating edamame. It's a perfect accent. It feels like eating pumpkin that I had difficulties with, I won't have any left-overs."

"Well, rather than forcing someone who finds it difficult to eat pumpkin, by adding other ingredients and lending their flavors, I think it becomes easier to eat. As for removing your difficulty in eating it, if you keep eating a lot of the food made to taste better and easier to eat, as you keep eating them you'll get used to it, right?"

"Woah, Aoi, you're a scheming person."

Odanna-sama started stifling off his amused laugh.

And once more, asking for another plate of the rice and barley, he filled his mouth with some pumpkin minced meat. Odanna-sama eats his food neatly, but when he takes a huge bite, at the end of the day he still eats like a man.

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"Oh, it was like what you were saying, Aoi. By adding light sauce to the minced meat, it's an added improvement to the rice and barley."

"Right? Oh, just looking at it makes me go hungry too."

"Is it alright if you eat beside me? You haven't eaten dinner, right?"

"Yup, but for today I thought I want to devote myself to serving Odanna-sama food and drinks.."

I tried averting my gaze, but then my stomach made a loud noise.

He tried to hold it in, but Odanna-sama couldn't hide the laughter in his face.

Ahhh, whatever! Stop reading how hungry I am!

"It's alright. You don't have to steel yourself in front of me."

"Normally I keep my composure, but what are you implying, Odanna-sama?"

Fiiine. I don't care, I'm gonna eat.

In my desperation, I arranged all my deluxe food in a plate, and sat beside Odanna-sama.

"I'm gonna eat now."

And with gusto, I partook of my food.

Mmm. it truly shows that autumn is the best season of good appetite. Just about everything in this season is really delicious.

Especially when I work a lot, whenever I eat food on an empty stomach, everything just tastes so good.

"Aoi, don't worry about how you're eating."

"Mmm?"

P293

My mouth was full of minced meat, so I replied with my mouth closed.

I saw that Odanna-sama's meal was half-finished in front of him.

"That is no different from everyone else. Food is something absolutely necessary for anybody to stay alive. Even if occasionally you can't eat something high-class and delightful, you need it to stay alive each day, and when you're eating a familial warm home-cooked meal, it just gives you that sensation of being alive."

"What are you talking about, Odanna-sama. You're exaggerating."

"Hmm. The meals that you call food, even if it's that one thing where you feel like you belong. It can be beside anybody, but it makes you feel like you can be vulnerable in that place, doesn't it?"

"Where you belong..."

I have heard that from Odanna-sama so many times...

After eating his meal with a gulp and drinking his fill, Odanna-sama showed the side of his face.

Working out those features, no matter how it looks like he smiles like a young boy.

And yet, despite that, it seems like he has another side to him...

"Hmph. Ginji describes your cooking as something that "makes ayakashi hearts go wild", and it seems like it. It looks like your cooking is no match to those whose hearts are obstinately closed."

"Is there anything that you want to tell me?"

I unabashedly asked.

P294

"Can we talk about something right now, just for a bit? But, this is something that is beyond what I normally would talk about. This is a secret belief among most ayakashi. And I feel very strongly about it."

"..But Odanna-sama, I don't get what this situation is all about..."

"Might you become angry at me?"

"I don't understand why I would be angry at Odanna-sama but, yes I would like to know more about what you're about to say."

When I thought that I was getting to understand this person bit by bit, it has become clear that everything about him seems so hazy that I can't see anymore.

Even though it feels like he wants to intensely keep me in suspense, I was just holding the fried minced meat patty with my chopsticks, empathically chewing it in my cheeks very slowly.

Even though these are the times when it seems like it's the most crucial moment, "It's fine, just keep eating", Odanna-sama says as it seems that he is still relaxed over the matter.

"Aoi..."

"What now? If you want dessert, it's in the fridge..."

"It's not that."

After drinking his after-meal tea**, Odanna-sama, with formalilty, placed an object in front of me.

What is this... a key?

It was a beautiful obsidian glass key.

It looked like a key that came out of a fairy-tale from a foreign land. And in those stories, it's a secret key.

"I want Aoi to keep this safe, for me."

"Me? Why...?"

T/N: As far as I am aware of, this might be an Asian thing, wherein after having meals it is custom to drink something like tea or hot water (Hi Steven’s Dad lolol) to aid in digestion. Some say it helps stave off calories, I say this just helps with the bloat.

P295

"I still have some stuff left to do, and I need to go to Youto as well. It seems that I'm still going to Youto to go out and do things. Well, think that I'm like in a business trip, dealing with so many part-time jobs here and there, as well as managing the matter regarding Kasuga. While I'm gone, if there's anything that you are concerned about, I won't know about it."

My eyes blinked back in surprise. If that's the case, why the key, and why me?

"This... What is this key for?"**

"That I cannot tell you. But, the thing is, if you really want to GET-TO-KNOW-MORE about me, and you have no other choices, then you have to find the place which that key unlocks.

"Uhm...?"

I wanna know. I don't wanna know.

I could see them in his eyes, those extreme mixed feelings, it seemed like these were fighting inside Odanna-sama.

Having those feelings while wearing a bitter-sweet smile, he pushed his hair behind his ears.

In an instant, the color of his eyes changed.

It wasn't warm, but it wasn't a cold gaze either, it seemed so captivating like a clear, empty sky.

"Aoi, you always say that you wanted to get to know more about me. But if you do get to know who I really am, I wonder, will you grow to hate me even more? That.. is what I am worried about. That is because, ultimately, I am still an ogre."

"Odanna-sama?"

T/N: LOL how about the key to your heart lololol do I look like I care lol ofc I do fam. Don't we all lol

P296

A while ago, I asked those words. I was wondering what good things to say, and Odanna-sama went "I have to leave in a bit." as he stood up. Oh no, the dessert... I missed my chance to give some for him to eat.

"I have been pleased with the food, Aoi. Thanks to you, my impression on the pumpkin that I had difficulty eating has been changed. Aoi's home-cooked meals, somehow you have made me eat some. As expected from my housewife."

And from a new wife it suddenly became a housewife. "Ahahaha" While finally laughing, Odanna-sama petted my head while saying "There, there, there". In a moment, he saw my kanzashi, but he didn't say anything in particular, and in a bit he pulled away his hand. "Well then, Aoi" While my head was tousled, I sent off Odanna-sama as he left Yugao. In front of Yugao's shop curtain, the black haori fluttering from that height, dissolving into the darkness and disappearing... That height was really tall. In all of Tenjin-ya, the multitudes of Ayakashi couldn't reach that height.** And yet, why this time, his back seems secluded and a little solitary... W... Wait, Odanna-sama!" "..."

T/N: Supposedly, ogres or Oni were very tall, like super-tall, they're not exactly giants but they're tall-ish Youkai, like the tallest, hence in both the anime and the covers of the light novels, Odanna-sama is illustrated as the tallest dude in the bunch. Unless he's on covert ninja mode. Still tall though.

P297 Weirdly I felt impatient, and I ran out, and grabbed Odanna-sama's kimono. Odanna-sama turned his head. I abruptly raised my face, and I stared at him with assertion. "I... I like, Odanna-sama." ".. .what? Aoi?" "I trust, Odanna-sama"

Odanna-sama slowly opened his eyes and stared. Shocked, his mouth slacked open and was about to say something, but it seemed that he couldn't say anything. What "like" means, it's like "love" but I don't know it yet. My emotions kept getting intense.

"Odanna-sama, a while ago didn't you tell me? When everyone in Tenjin-ya was judging me... confidently, you said that I was a person who can give my all and win. When I made a small mistake, you didn't put me down..." How much can one be happy, hearing those words? How much relief can it give?

"It's also the same with Odanna-sama. Now I can trust Odanna-sama, and continuously, from the sidelines give support. In the most crucial moments I'll come to your side. I'll help you. No matter how many times..." Almost certainly, even my young self would. But, even though it's different, Odanna-sama has already saved me countless times. . P298 My trust in that person, is enough.

"That is why, whatever I'll find out, I will not hate Odanna-sama!"

That was all, I thought I have conveyed what I needed to say. Odanna-sama's red eyes, it only got wrapped in a surprised expression, and little by little it started flickering. With my question, his mouth opened again. But... Not one word came out.

Odanna-sama pulled my waist closer, and that mouth that spun words, blocked mine.

"..."

The passion was so deep and vast, the extent of feeling and not feeling, everywhere felt so light, it was so unexpected, and in an instant my mind went blank.

When our lips pulled away, the feeling of a warm and moist breath, other than understanding what just happened, the corners of my eyes became hot. I couldn't blink because of that.

"Na.... O, Oda... what?" My pulse suddenly became fast. Normally I would've been angry, but I was

P299 more surprised than angry, and my words became incoherent.

In spite of not feeling anything easily, I couldn't say anything. I burned and blushed, I was embarrassed to have my red-as-an-apple face seen. I instantly covered my face with my palms. Me being like that, Odanna-sama hugged me tightly, and whispered in my ear.

"..." "Aoi. Undoubtedly, you'll become my wife."

"..." "From the bottom of my heart, I revere you."

I don't get it. Why those words? In that moment, those came out of Odanna-sama's mouth.

It's easier to say "I like you", but right now, after so long a time, it deeply pierced and cut through me. Although, it did touch my heart a little bit.

Beyond Odanna-sama's wide shoulders, I realized that I could see him amidst the darkness.

And with that, the lightly-floating moon hid itself in the navy blue sky, and somehow it got dimmer.

End of Chapter 9, Volume 6. Previous - Intermission 3 Next - Chapter 10.

References:

Wonderful site for the youkai references

Other stuff I used to do this: Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary (you can buy here, I’m not sponsored btw). I was about to buy the older edition but then the newer one came out 2013 so I bought that instead. Worth buying since I was able to find nearly all of the words I needed just by stroke pattern alone.

Merriam-Webster's Japanese-English Dictionary (the red-covered 1996 version is apparently out of print right now). This is what I have been using for a very long time, I bought it when I was still a fetus (yes I am old so what lol), and after so many years, when compared to newer editions, I still prefer this one since its entirety is Japanese-English, the English to Japanese gloss are just 16 pages tops, so you get more Japanese words for your buck. But that’s just my opinion, maybe other people prefer the Jap-En x En-Jap IDEK.

Basic online dictionary, Jisho. Knowledge of verb conjugations and other words are necessary since not all have entries.

If you can read Japanese, you can buy the whole set in Amazon Japan, they’re shipping worldwide now, I think.

#kakuriyo no yadomeshi #kakuriyo no yadomeshi light novel #kakuriyo no yadomeshi english translation #kakuriyo no yadomeshi english fan translation #kakuriyo no yadomeshi light novel english #kakuriyo no yadomeshi volume 6 chapter 9

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bridgertonbabe · 1 year

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As much as I love every one of the benophie boys, I think william might be my favorite(in your hc worlds) I just love how mischievous yet lovable he can, so it would be great if we got an older teen/adult william drabble! Thank you for the writing btw, I know how hard a creative block can be and just know were just grateful for anything we can get in this tiny Fandom! So take as long as you need we can wait!

I just wanted to say thank you for being so supportive and understanding. I've been on the struggle bus creatively for a while now and it's been very frustrating because I sincerely want to write and update my works and be productive but my writer's block has just left me in a rut. Back in the summer I had all these plans to write a bunch of stuff in the lead up to Christmas, to be churning stuff out thick and fast and creating plenty of content but alas that hasn't come to fruition. I've had asks enquiring when I'll next be updating any one of my works or curious if I'd be contributing any holiday-related content and I've felt so guilty for not being able to provide an answer purely because hell I didn't have an answer for myself. So it's very kind and reassuring to receive these asks of people being understanding and I just wanted to say it really means a lot and I greatly appreciate it.

With that all being said, William is always fun to write for, due to how much of a fun lil shit he is. Here's a lil festive drabble set in the Teachers AU in which William continues to be the biggest stressor in his father's life;

Benedict loved all his four children with every fibre in his being. Charlie and Alex had both recently graduated university, both of them hard-working and dedicated in their pursuits in life, and Violet was perfect in every which way just like her mother, and William... well, William was William.

By no means did he love William any less. William was as much of a blessing in Benedict's life as Charlie, Alex, and Violet were and there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for his youngest son - but with that being said, William was the most notorious child in the entire Bridgerton family and his constant naughty antics was single-handedly the biggest source of grief in Benedict's life and had been ever since William had begun walking and talking.

All year round William caused chaos, but he particularly upped the ante during the Christmas season. When he was three years old his biggest mission was to push over their Christmas tree which he successfully managed to do multiple times that year, leaving Benedict to put it back up again and again and again. A couple of years later Benedict had discovered his young daughter crying in a sealed up cardboard box by the front door after William decided he wanted a different sister and had packaged her up in the hopes that Santa could trade her for a new one. During his years at infant and primary school whenever he participated in a Nativity play or Christmas concert he'd take the opportunity to loudly cry out a new word he had learnt that year, vocabulary which had included; penis, anus, fuck, and (most infamously of all after his teacher had welcomed the parents to the concert) nonce. One year he had preyed on Violet's fear of the elf on the shelf and kept moving the elf to unsettle and freak her out all the time before topping off his reign of terror when Violet opened her wardrobe and found William dressed up like the elf and giving her a sinister stare, causing her to scream and go running to Benedict and be left so frightened that she spent the following week sleeping in her parents bed.

Benedict had hoped that as William grew up that he might be capable of maturing - but he thought wrong. A running gag that had stretched on for years was a present being left underneath the tree for Violet with the tag claiming it was from her "real father", with William "accidentally" letting slip that Violet was the result of an extra-marital affair. On the first year he had pulled that stunt an inconsolable Violet had to be assured that of course Benedict was her real father and that her parents loved each other very much and would never cheat on each other. In spite of the upset he had caused, William continued the bit year in and year out, elevating it to now include Sophie receiving jewellery from her supposed lover, much to Benedict's chagrin.

So of course once the festive season came around again, while others were stressed with Christmas shopping and hosting their family during the holiday, Benedict Bridgerton's Yuletide stress was totally and utterly as a result of the dread he felt from whatever it was his eighteen year old son had up his sleeve.

"What's he pulled this year?" Michael asked.

It was Christmas Day and the whole Bridgerton family was celebrating together, the first time they had done so for a couple of years, what with Anthony, Colin, and Francesca celebrating with their in-laws during the previous Christmases. Dinner had just been finished and everyone was spread out across the large home Violet and Edmund resided in. While everyone else was enjoying the festivities, Benedict was keeping a constant eye on his youngest son to see what he would do.

"Nothing yet." Benedict replied. "Which makes me only more worried."

So far the only things William had done were return from his first uni term with newly dyed red hair and white frosted tips ("tis the season" had been his shrugged explanation), as well as send a Christmas card pretending to be Sophie's make-believe lover in which he begged her to run away with him and bring Violet too so they could finally be a family. Benedict just knew that there was more to come. William simply couldn't plateau his typical Christmas shenanigans like that.

"So no gifts for shock-value underneath the tree this year?" Colin asked.

He was referring to Christmases gone by in which Alex had once unwrapped a copy of Oedipus Rex, leading to both Alex and Charlie to whack William around the head for being gross for what he was implying, as well as another Christmas in which Charlie had unwrapped a present that had resulted in Benedict shouting on Christmas morning; "YOU ARE FOURTEEN YEARS OLD! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU BUYING A FLESHLIGHT FOR YOUR BROTHER?!"

"Fortunately not." Benedict said through gritted teeth.

"Shit. You think he's going to pull something here?" Eloise wondered.

Typically if William was suspiciously low-key on Christmas morning at home, it meant he had something dastardly planned for the day spent with the extended family. The most infamous incident had been the Christmas when the fire brigade had been called out after he had set off a fireworks in the living room - it was the most mortified and stressed Benedict had ever been because of his youngest son.

He gave a small nod to confirm Eloise's suspicion, his eyes still firmly fixed on William, who noticed his father's stare and sent a disarming wink back at him.

"What do you think he's got planned?" Michael asked.

"I have no idea. All I know is that he's plotting something."

Since returning from uni William had been curiously quiet and Benedict had come across him having hushed conversations on the phone as well as sneaking out of the house everyday and slipping back in later on. He truly couldn't fathom what it was that William had concocted this year and even dwelling on what he could have come up with was putting Benedict on edge.

Suddenly there was the jingling of bells and everyone's attention was brought to William, who had stood up with said bells in his hand.

"Hey everyone! If you could all gather round. There's a little something I've prepared which I hope everyone will enjoy." he announced.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god." Benedict fretted, already holding his head in his hand, dreading what exactly his son was about to do in front of everyone.

What if he had gone to the extreme lengths of hiring an actor and bringing him along to introduce as Violet’s real father? Or what if he was going for something far more simple than that and simply drop his trousers to moon everyone in the room? When it came to William, the terrifying possibilities were endless.

"Now if all the cousins don't mind assembling." William motioned to the front of the living room by the fire place.

Much to Benedict's confusion, all of his nieces and nephews, as well as his other three children all followed William's instruction, and all of them were smirking, giggling, and nudging each other as they convened together.

"Wait; has he roped them all in on it this year?" Colin frowned.

"Oh fuck." Benedict groaned - he wouldn't have been surprised if William had convinced other mischief-makers like Charlotte, Oliver, and Amanda to help him with whatever he had planned, and he could see William's younger cousins being influenced and following his lead, but the fact he had roped in his older cousins, his more mature and level-headed cousins, and even Violet had left Benedict flabbergasted.

"And if you oldies would like to sit yourselves down." William addressed to his grandparents, aunts, and uncles with a cheeky grin.

"No, no, no, no." Benedict was muttering under his breath has his parents, siblings, and in-laws began sitting down on the sofas and chairs facing the younger generation.

"Ben. Ben? Look at me." Sophie had appeared and reached out a hand to his cheek. "It's fine. It's going to be fine, okay?" she tried reassuring him. "Charlie, Alex, and Violet wouldn't go along with anything bad now would they?"

"But what if he's blackmailing them?" Benedict hissed. "What if he's blackmailing all of the ones who wouldn't normally go along with it?"

"Honey, I don't think William has that much influence."

"Hey, mum?" William called out. "Could you save telling dad you're leaving him for a few minutes please?"

"Now, William!" his grandmother warned with the shake of her head.

"Apologies, Old Violet." William smirked, using the nickname his grandmother abhorred and received an unimpressed glare from her. "Now," William beamed to the rest of the group and pulled out a conductor's baton from his sleeve, "this is dedicated to you, grandpa." he addressed his grandfather, with the family patriarch's jaw dropping in elated surprise. "This is our present to you."

William then turned back to the thirty-four other grandchildren of Violet and Edmund, clearing his throat performatively and holding his hands up ready to begin conducting.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god." Benedict muttered under his breath, bracing himself for whatever it was that his son had organized.

Sophie clutched his hand in hers to provide him comfort as much as she was trying to alleviate her own anxiety.

"And a one, and a two, and a one, two, three!" William said quietly, waving his baton before commandingly pointing it.

"Holidays are coming," the older male cousins at the back of the group began to chant, "holidays are coming, holidays are coming,"

"Tis the season!" Amanda and the Bassett girls sang when pointed to by William.

"Watch out!" the younger cousins chorused. "Look around! Something's coming, coming to town!"

"Coming to your town!" Amanda and the Basset girls chimed in again.

Benedict and Sophie's mouths both hung wide open with the ongoing harmonies and just how good it sounded. The youngest cousins were ringing bells, bouncing their knees excitedly in time with the song, and every last one of Edmund Bridgerton's grandkids had the biggest smile on their face.

"Something magic! In the night! Can't you see it? Shining bright!" they continued, all the while the older male cousins kept up the "holidays are coming" chant.

"Shining bright!" Amanda and the Basset girls as well as Katie, Charlotte, and Violet sung melodically, the last note extending as more harmonies overlapped with la la las.

Benedict and Sophie's amazement was mirrored in the faces of the rest of the older Bridgerton siblings, their partners, and Violet and Edmund as the grandchildren continued their collective choral efforts.

"Tis the season it's always the real thing!"

After a last few "holiday's are coming" William gave one last wave of his baton and the singing and jingling came to a unanimous end.

"Bravo!" Edmund jumped to his feet first, clapping madly and wearing one of the biggest smiles he had ever had on his face (which was saying a lot considering how generally smiley a person Edmund Bridgerton was). "Bravo! Bravo!"

"Oh... my god." Sophie breathed as the other adultier adults got to their feet to cheer and applaud.

Benedict stared in abject shock as William took a bow before being pulled into a crushing hug by his grandfather. He couldn't quite believe his son had done something that was entirely pure and wholesome.

Growing up Edmund had always sung the jingle to the Coca Cola Christmas advert as he served up his children Coca Cola bottles at Christmas dinner, as per their little family tradition. He had never stopped singing it over the years so naturally his grandchildren were just as familiar with the classic advert's song and got as excited as their parents did whenever the advert played or whenever their grandfather sang it to them.

"I can't believe you all planned this!" (Old) Violet remarked.

"It was actually all William's idea." Amelia said.

"Yeah he was the one who organized it entirely." Miles added.

"Oh, William, my boy!" Edmund boomed and hauled his grandson into yet another bear hug.

William? Being so thoughtful for good? To have been plotting all this time and sneaking around all in the elaborate effort of providing a sentimental surprise for his grandfather?

"Oh my god." Benedict muttered.

Hell had frozen over, pigs were flying, and by all accounts his most meddlesome son had finally turned over a new leaf.

"Wow. William really played a blinder this year." Anthony said a little later on after they had watched their father give every last grandchild a massive hug.

"I know." Benedict nodded, still in a state of disbelief.

"He really blew everyone else's presents out of the water with that." Anthony continued. "You have to hand it to him. It was unbelievably impressive."

"Daddy?"

Little Mary had come up to her father and uncle and immediately they clocked the wobble in her voice and the way her eyes were filling up with tears.

"Oh, sweetheart, what's wrong?" Anthony asked, scooping her up in his arms and cuddling her.

Mary gave a sad little sniffle. "W-W-William said that I'm only your second favourite daughter." she sobbed. "And th-that Violet's your favourite daughter and m-m-my half-sister."

Instantly Benedict heaved out a groan.

"Yeah. Yeah, there it is." he shook his head - he should have known William couldn't not be a little shit for one Christmas.

"Oh, baby, your cousin was just teasing you." Anthony comforted his daughter.

"WILLIAM!" Benedict bellowed out and marched over to his son for his regularly-programmed Christmas bollocking.

#asks #requests #teachers au #william bridgerton #benedict bridgerton #bridgerton drabble #christmas drabble #bridgerton family

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m3rkur3 · 2 years

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in this 5am post i talk about how i feel about the Rusty Quill allegations and (inexplicably) how using an anarchist co-op approach in the industry could maybe possibly potentially have not allowed these issues to happen (from experience!)

honestly please read cuz now i want to start a podcasting co-op and it would be great if others did too.

i really loved tma (until plot>statements cuz i can't really follow the plot that much and i much prefer anthology horror that only hints at a wider plot and this is quite a long tangent actually) so this is kinda disappointing fr.

as someone who works in an anarchist co-op it's interesting to see how business who start out with horizontal leadership & pay devolve into full-on capitalist practices. is this inevitable? can i trust in the process? our bar, for example, works. at least, that's what it looks like to me. we're all paid the same, we all have equal rights within the business, we all have a stake in it, even though we all do very different jobs: bartending, hosting, talent-sourcing, sound-tech...ing. but i guess a massive difference is intent. from the start, the bar had a mission: prove that a business model like ours can work in parallel with capitalist businesses, creating networks of anarchist businesses, federation stuff etc etc, spread the anti-capitalist, if not explicitly anarcho-communist message throughout the city. a local bakery/cafe is also doing just that and they are fricking booming tbqh, it's remarkable.

with rusty quill, it's not a co-op, it's a capitalist business. hence the CEO. could the bar scale to this level and keep its core mission intact? well, i guess another difference is the fact that not only do we not expect to scale in that way, neither are we gonna franchise. it doesn't make sense. our aim would be to help other upcoming co-ops and related create their OWN co-ops, not come under our wing and become a massive co-op. is it possible to create a workers co-op in the podcasting world? pay everyone the same wage but keep that wage a healthy amount above minimum wage? No bosses, just people who do it because even in the hard times its what they WANT to do. Any creative job could be like that under a different system.

underneath this cut i go into a little detail of what i think a rudimentary podcasting co-op would look like and how it solves at least 1 (one) of RQs missteps and honestly i did not expect to talk about this and its 5am so it's a bit of a ramble but tldr; i think its possible and (obvs i'm biased) much preferable. given the time, interested people, and literally any knowledge of podcasting, would try to implement. tldr 2: capitalism sucks and it will kill everything you love if you're not paying attention.

I mean that's what we're trying to do. We are a grassroots music venue in a place that people never consider when they think about the country's culture. and yet we've managed to be a hotspot for people who've heard about us from word-of-mouth whenever our city is mentioned. yes, in general we have shit advertising but what works works lmfao.

so back to RQ: my point is it literally doesn't have to be like that. the music industry, from local venues to big studios, is extremely exploitative and such a scummy example of capitalism at work but WE MANAGED! Against the odds, a blooming spot in a tired, dying town. Can other industries do the same? Can podcasters do the same?

What would be the issue? What are the differences that make it more or less difficult? What issues befell RQ? Mismanagement and lack of communication? In a co-op, would this be fixed? I would venture a tentative "yes", because you no longer rely on a central body to have these discussions. You are the decision maker, as is everyone in the business. If it's "we should raise our pay", everyone else can say "well we want to pay for this studio or that bit of advertising, maybe we shouldn't" or they can say "yes, good idea because we have this surplus and can afford to spend less on this kind of microphone" or whatever. Everyone votes to change an established reality, and if there's a consensus, we go ahead! If it's a query that would affect only YOU and YOUR production, guess what? you need ask NO ONE!

This is just one of the ways in which i see a way out for this industry. Eventually, capitalism will come for every last one of our beautiful, independent podcasts. It's obviously already happening. And then the monopolization of it all into one, formless, Disney blob. Podcasts, one of the last bastions of high-quality, widely accessible art that so many people love and anyone can create, succumbing to the maw of the approaching terror that is the death of creativity at the behest of the invisible hand. This isn't about Rusty Quill anymore, really. I am just advocating for one of my favorite things to wrest itself from its destiny before it becomes nothing. All we'll have are the podcasts that made us think and feel decades ago:(

This became me just telling everyone to form co-ops. Also join the IWW - it's a massive international workers union. kill capitalism before it kills the things you love. do things today that make sure those things can continue being a light tomorrow. honestly, if making a podcasters co-op is viable then pls someone do it, i know nothing about podcasting, i cannot act or make sounds in microphones of high quality, so there's not much i can do on my own really. but if literally more than one person got up to this part then 1) you are a champ and 2) lmk if this is a good idea cuz rn my body is saying yes it is and that i can do anything rn.

i am sorry that this is just a stream of conciousness rambling, again i have been prescribed new adhd medication and accidentally took more than they told me to.

I am doing this instead of my C++ assignment. If anyone can also tell me how to understand operational amplifiers or how to calculate the uncertainty of a standard platinum resistance thermometer that would be fantastic.

xoxo not a girl

#rusty quill #the magnus archives #i have shit to do #uni exams i am shitting myself about #yet here i am #5 am #tma posting #and communism posting #some things will never change #anarchism #communism #how about a bit of both #anarchocommunism #how did i end up putting these things together am i insane #or just high on elvanse #how about a bit of both x2 #tma #the extra meds were not an accident i lied dont try this at home kids i cant sleep and i am shaking

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papirouge · 7 months

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Lol the stories about the child sacrifice and abortion parallels plus the boy wanting and mutilating himself to be an animatronic as a trans allegory are pretty based and at least the last one seems quite likely to be based on that if the original creator was the one who came up with the idea. how in hell did people even find out he was a registered republican voter? how do you even register yourself as a voter for a particular party?? in my country, things don't work like that so I'm lost. your vote is completely confidencial so it shouldn't be possible for anyone to know such info unless someone close to him decided to spill the beans.

I think i've heard before something about the creator of fnaf being cancelled but for some reason I had the idea it was for being christian, perhaps i'm confusing him with another game creator...

like i said i only play minecraft and pokeymon, but notch, the creator of minecraft, has also had his heated gamer moments too. he said trans women aren't women, he said people who didnt believe in a straight pride parade deserved to be shot, said feminism was a social disease and called a feminist a cunt, said there was nothing wrong about white pride (then later kinda recanted by saying something like "I didnt know there were only some groups allowed to feel proud of who they are"), and something else about not giving in to mentall illness in reference to transgenderism, though later kinda apologized saying he didnt understand trans identities very well. obviously, references to his name got erased in many products and even the game itself, only visible once after you beat the ender dragon, and microsoft banned him from their events ever since.

pokemon creators havent had these type of controversies which i attribute to having a better pr team and not growing up alongside social media and decide it's a great idea to post any thought that passes through their head. theyve had some though, like with jynx believed to be a racial stereotype (supposedly though she's based on ganguro fashion and the "fat lady" of an opera) so her skin was changed from black to purple. interestingly, ludicolo is a very obvious mexican stereotype yet nobody cares lol.

i do think its kinda funny when these authors get cancelled but they stil keep them/their product around to milk it to death.

and I might or might not watch the video. ive watched some youtube essays before but never that long, so we'll see...

I mean only mentally ill people like me would be dedicated to watch a 9 hours lore video essay, so I don't blame you anon lol

I am too very confused about the registred political alignement thing but I gues that's yet another dystopian US lunacy. In my country this stuff doesn't exist neither. I heard some celebrities/influencer get flack for being Republican (Jaclyn Hill comes to mind) but I have no idea how people/haters manage to get this information. I guess they are available on public record or stuff like that.

Since FNAF has a VERY dedicated fandom, I am not surprised some fans went as far as to sleuth this info out.

That minecraft guy sounds like a legit asshole though and he deserved to be canceled idc I HATE when people make foul out of themselves for the whole world to see, and then act shook when people don't want to have anything to do with them anymore. I hope he didn't have the audacity to whine about "Mh fReeDoM oF sPeeCh" because dude was apparently saying it was ok to kill people for having disagreeing opinions🙃

On the opposite, Scott Cawthon is SUPER lowkey & private and never explicitely said anything rude or insulting. People just started hating him for being Republican and allegedly Christian (which I think nobody found actual evidence of)

And animatronic aren't allegory of trans people, it was only the B-7 story of a boy butchering himself as one. The whole FNAF story is Scott Cawthon creation. He just co-writes the book with a female author, but only him creates the lore. Animatronics are regular robot who are possessed by the spirit of dead children.

I didn't know they changed Jynx color 'o' I never thought anything about this design - I felt like she didn't even have skin, but but more like a void lmao (like these spectre type pokemon)

I roll my eyes at article defending this design à la "oooh but Sugiomori didn't want to offend anyone uwu" ok but Pokémon is now a game with an INTERNATIONAL audience. If Nintendo wants to keep making bucks out of their game, they have to adapt themselves to foreign audience. This sort of "purity complex" when it comes from japanese cultural assets coming into the West is insufferable. No culture is immune to criticism.

Ganguro started around 1996 which is the year when the first Pokémon game came out...so I highly doubt Sugimori would be already aware of this trend during the game development. Japan already had a weird thing with dark/black skin, so Jynx simply might be yet another design celebrating this brand of "quirkiness".

#answered #gaming

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rachelbethhines · 2 years

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Tangled Bonus Marathon - Tales of Rapunzel #1: Secrets Unlocked

Introduction

The Tales of Rapunzel series is a collection of mini adaptions of selected individual episodes. While two praters, like Before Ever After, received their own novelizations, this book series would included two separate stories paired together for each release.

Today’s novelization is consists of ‘What the Hair’ and ‘Great Expotations’, or as it’s called here ‘The Great Science Expo’. I’m guessing they were still workshop the title when this book was still in production. Either way, it’s our first major appearance of Varian in the marathon outside of the series guide that we looked at.

Content

The writing for this adaptation is a little more simplistic than the other two novelizations that we’ve looked at so far. It’s not condescendingly easy, in fact you can still read it as an adult and not feel insulted by it, but it’s clearly meant to be a reading level below the first two books, and its certainly less complex than the two original novels that we’ve looked at.

It’s hard to explain, unless you’re just already familiar with the suggested reading levels that the American school system utilizes, but let’s just say that this book is recommended reading for 2nd to 4th graders, while the other books are more 5th grade and up.

The difference is in how much detail things are described in, now much exposition and action there is compared to how much introspection and world building there is, along with a distinct lack of metaphor and simile.

This isn’t to say that these are completely non-existent or that the writing has an overly simple sentence structure. Rather that the approach to the story is more efficient and to the point than say something more slightly more challenging to read, like The Hobbit or Peter Pan. (And yes, the actual J.M.Barrie novel is a difficult read for even some adults let alone children.)

And that is perhaps the best way to describe both of the adaptations within, efficient. Lines are cut, scenes are omitted, and subplots are streamlined to created abridged versions of the episodes. Yet what is dropped is ultimately unimportant to the over all story and merely existed for flavor text and pacing reasons in the original format.

In ‘What the Hair’ Eugene manages to convince Varian to turn off the machines while they’re still in the tunnel, and Eugene is the one to deliver and set up the spectrograph. Where upon, he can get straight to warning Rapunzel and Cass about the earthquakes, bringing the climax forward.

This eliminates a lot of the running back and forth and repeating of the internal conflicts that the original episode had going on. Which aren’t bad things for tv series because it helps build character dynamics, but would be pointless in a one and done story.

Meanwhile, the ‘Great Expo’, cuts Rapunzel out of the main Varian and Cassandra plot. She still has her inventing subplot, which comes together in the climax to provide the episode’s chekhov's gun, but the scenes of her butting into their conflict is gone. Which in my opinion is an improvement.

While her additional scenes in episode weren’t bad necessarily, they were overall pretty pointless. At least there they were kept to a minimum and not shoved into your face like in S3, though. Still the story is stronger without them.

Presentation

This book wins in the presentation department, as its the only novel we’ve come across yet to have actual illustrations! And they’re all nice original art works that you won’t find just anywhere. Oh a few images do get reused in ‘My First Year As Princess’ but by in large they’re pretty exclusive to the novelization itself.

They’re all black and white and done up in the series style, and inked like a coloring book. But most impressively their is a lot of them and hey are evenly distributed through out the story and only appear when relevant.

Seriously, this is miles better than anything we’ve gotten so far, bar the comics which are nothing but pictures. I’m still amazed that stuff geared towards older audiences are so anti-pictures. It makes no sense.

Would I Recommend It

I would definitely recommend this if you are a Varian fan or someone who wants to collect season one in novel format. For the Varian fan there’s the rare artwork to collect, and for the adaptation lovers this is an important stepping stone in series, same as Before Ever After.

Up Next

It’s another IDW comic, Let Down Your Hair.

Also, this Thursday is the next salt stream on the discord.

https://discord.gg/SEncmZjs

#tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #tangled #varian #Rapunzel #cassandra #eugene

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derekfoxwit · 2 years

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The Faux Intellect Issue I’ve Seen With Animation Discourse Over The Years

As someone who has come to appreciate the art of animation, it’s really common to see discourse that has to stress that the medium isn’t just for children. Of course, this doesn’t take away from how so many childhoods were defined by animated productions, a good amount of which is able to hold up beyond the notion of being a kid-distractor. Over my time online, however, I’ve felt that there tended to be an obsession with creating an image of self-righteousness or entitlement with select projects that were able to appeal just as much for adults as children. Whether it’d be due to insecurities or genuine ego, so often I’ve felt too much animation discourse (especially from the late-2000s to early 2010s) would seemingly rely more on the image of SOUNDING smart rather than the ability to engage the subject with depth or particularly development one’s artistic lens or media literacy overtime.

To start things up, here is the link to a post I made. I would like to emphasize what the original content I screenshot was highlighting: the joke this iconic Cartoon Network show was able to work in. For now, we’re ignoring the “back in muh day” comments for a second. I’ve felt that over the years, there has been this oversimplifying habit of bringing up these innuendos (mainly the sexual kind) as a means to elevate the animated kids’ work as cream of the crop material.

Yet, in practice, HOW they illustrate this sort of love tends to amount to “they were able to work in this bit I now get” but little else. Sure, it can be neat to realize those gags now that you’ve aged and see how they managed to sneak them. The issue I have here, though, is that with how surprisingly frequent it is to see several innuendos across individual kids’ cartoons, I find that it takes away from how good of a job the work could be doing at what it aims for. Or ESPECIALLY it stylistic touches that are in display. Largely due to an emphasis on the MERE inclusion of that type of gag than anything else relating to its’ implementation, a frequent oddity with plenty of animation discourse circles. I find that by downplaying such jokes, or even the overall tone of the comedy, in a similar way, it unintentionally downplays why certain works themselves are considered so good. Almost like an implication of all the comedy of that nature being created equal, which is just.......NOT the case! Particularly odd with another weird issue I’ve seen with comedic material, which I’ll get to later. With the aforementioned sexual innuendos, simply leaving it as “it’s a joke I now get” doesn’t necessarily inform one on why some cartoons were able to catch on more compared others. For example, if I was looking back at this joke and several others from Powerpuff Girls and was all “man, that show was top tier” after realizing said jokes, yet also showed little interest or enthusiasm in Animaniacs (a very notable cartoon for its’ bonus jokes for adults), what is that meant to say about the quality of either? What would that mean for certain animated films?

Using the mild edginess of such innuendos as a transition, I would like to highlight this video but more specifically MANY of its’ comments. Aside from the obviously unfair cherry-picking (the Blue’s Clues reboot isn’t even comparable to an animated telling of Vladimir the Great), you got so many people essentially romanticizing European animation (and possibly growing up with it) as this symbol of superiority. One of the top comments is just this hot mess of over-estimating how Disney Princess films have apparently made girls toxic and incapable of having a healthy relationship (one other comment having a chain of replies implying that DreamWorks offers superior children development and how that allowed them to be better people).

There was also a general problem with acting like most kids were more into the action-packed stuff. This and similar statements suffer from being under the impression that 90-95% of children were a certain way, probably as a product of projection. In case of the comments of the linked YouTube video above, it’s not helped by how moderately masculine they can read. Just anecdotally speaking, I WASN’T much for action, and with a couple exceptions, I was mostly into the kids’ material that was on the sillier side or had enough notable comical moments for me to not mind. For an example from early 2022, some of the various rants against Turning Red were about how sure-of-themselves they were saying that teenage girls wouldn’t act the way Mei Ling and her friends did.

With those same YouTube comments, like several other areas of weird animation discourse, there also comes an incredibly unclear, borderline non-existent, sense of scale. Despite claiming that most kids would be able to handle bloody-ass fights and the content that the older versions of fairy tales offered, there’s a TON of comments implying that recognizing LGBT people is too much. Even when claiming that it’s just simply because of HOW the message is spread, whatever idea there is in going too far literally amounts to “tons of flags everywhere makes it look like cult shit.” You wouldn’t BELIEVE how frequent I’ve seen such oddly warped thresholds of what was “too much” (Mr. Enter has entered the chat). One minute, Gaston is being called one of the worst Disney villains because “as a feminist, I hate his advances at Belle,” yet the next, Frollo’s getting a pass and there’s even a joke about wishing that they could be Jafar after seeing what slave outfit Jasmine got put in. Occasionally, the sexual innuendo discussion actually does bring up the possibility of going too far OR otherwise being awkward as hell, yet where the line’s drawn is still rather hazy. One blog review I found for Toy Story (which I could not find again after a while) gave it a negative score, but the review essentially just equated to “this scared me especially as a kid due to creepy living toys,” as if that’s enough to say it’d be too much for them. Again, I can disprove this just anecdotally speaking alone. With one of many anti-SJW Tubers that ragged on Turning Red, they were complaining about the film’s allusion to menstruation by saying “sure, it’ll fly over kids’ heads, but the parents that know would be shocked,” suggesting THAT is enough to argue that what the movie did was too much. In practice, however, the argument was going no further than using an example with a banana being used to showcase male puberty.....in a manner that’s clearly seeing an extreme that wasn’t there. What about a parent reacting negatively toward Pokémon because ‘eVoLuTiOn’? Or even just fighting, due to seeing it as “killing”? I do think there are times where the work can, indeed, be too much for the kid(s) despite being under the “Family” umbrella, like perhaps The Incredibles being shown to a 5-year-old (something Brad Bird himself would’ve discouraged. Looking back, I was probably close to his perfect recommended age when that came out). I can sure as hell get not wanting to show a little kid the original Tom & Jerry completely uncensored due to a certain racial stereotype of a side character. But once again, often, there just seems to be a problem with arbitrary, usually over-generalizing thresholds based on shaky anecdotal evidence or of-the-moment emotions.

All that, along with a couple of these examples linked, show how often these folks simply.......DON’T know the bigger picture or otherwise haven't bothered to look for or watch other animations beyond their own seemingly narrow bubble. Over time, I’ve noticed that, as one user on the Justice League related post pointed out, there is a HUGE habit of people seeing themselves as big fans of the medium of animation, yet they make it clear that their own exploration and artistic development peaked sometime before they hit 20. Hearing people talk about music is basically a minefield of this. As a result, they’re shown to have a very limited media perspective (likely only childhood stuff, superhero works and the odd misc. big franchise) that can be deceptively effective at getting in the way of understanding the integrities of the creative process or even the cultural context behind some projects.

From my own personal experience, it would feel like that means relegating your artistic lens near-exclusively to American works and otherwise the most well-known foreign stuff. Even in one Discord I’m in, a user in their early 20s would keep bringing up annoyance over the continuous reboots and superhero ubiquity while wishing for more original stuff, yet they’ve made it pretty clear that a large majority of their modern media intake amounts to stuff they’ve already enjoyed at a younger age. A subtler oddity with this is how, several times in the same Discord, they’ve joined in on ragging on 90s kids that keep insisting on the 90s being the best time for cartoons through cherry-picked examples, yet that previous approach to media intake, at best, risks adopting a similar sensibility. I’ve felt that has, intentionally or otherwise, encouraged constantly hatejerking Boss Baby at the cost of ignoring something like Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts. In fact, just screw hate wagons in general (with animation being noticeably more sensitive to them).

On top of that, they frequently give the impression that so much of their artistic respect leans so hard into the mere recognition and additional elevation of works that was enjoyed at a younger age, all the while barely putting the effort in expanding their horizon beyond their immediate bubble. I find that makes it all the more possible or apparent that the guilty party may not have really bothered to explore artistically or advance analytically. It’s especially awkward when, from my own experience, this seems to only truly apply to animation and, every now and again, video games. For an example, I’m part of a smaller Discord server that is (in theory) dedicated to Pokémon, so we would discuss certain aspects of that series. At one point, there was talk about how, while the Mystery Dungeon stories are considered great FOR the series, they’re still just a little above average at best in context to overall video game stories. We would say that fans calling said stories amazing would be a product of them barely playing much else, therefore having little frame of reference. Granted, this is stated in a more jokey manner, but the general point still makes sense about having an incredibly limited frame of reference. Now imagine that applying to animation fan circles. If anything, that makes the weird habit of putting things in oversimplistic terms all the more telling that the respective speaker has a lacking sense of media literacy. This doesn’t help when there are so many folks online that bemoan about cartoons no longer being as good as they were at their age (not everything ages well), but their seeming only frames of modern reference are something like Teen Titans GO or The 2016 PPG reboot or some other hate wagon (or even some HUGE red flag relating to the marginalized).

Even BETWEEN family animations, I’ve seen a weird habit of expecting the same artistic intentions between every animation, especially in relation to darker elements. One YouTube comment I remember from a Watch Mojo video was annoyed about Toy Story 3 being on the respective list, with particular critique being aimed at the toy gang being saved from the incinerator. However, the critique seemed to only amount to "it would’ve been different and risky”. The commentor also brought up how Bambi and Lion King were able to pull off character deaths and how that apparently proves that TS3 has no excuse, even though.....those are different movies with different goals, a nuance that many of these sort of discussions fundamentally forget about. Sure, it may have felt nice, for example, to see Robin and Starfire’s relationship blossom over the course of the 2003 TV show, but that doesn’t mean every show needs to take up that much time for their romantic relationships or build things up for the majority of the series (some shows don’t even try to go for five seasons). One comment I’ve seen on a video about Turning Red would question why the writers wouldn’t take notes from Lilo from Lilo & Stitch if they wanted to write a “dorky and different girl,” with basically no clarity over how that’d fix things besides “older film good”. More often than not, it would seem like they only really focused on the spectacle of either getting edgier or otherwise going a certain route, but not so much if such a decision would’ve benefited the story’s intension. Sometimes the spectacle in question could just be something being vaguely flashy.

Frequently, it seems like one’s indicator of higher quality come from whatever extreme attitudes they’ve subconsciously developed for certain facets of media, as well as expecting oddly specific prerequisites based on the youthfully familiar media that was already consumed. One example of this would be these writing tips Lily Orchard posted in late 2020, where on top of how apparent it was that she was merely venting about certain cartoons more (Steven Universe; She-Ra; Korra), she’d give out weirdly specific and arbitrary ‘tips’ in an attempt to combat against said cartoons. Ironically enough, however, one of her better tips (although clearly said to further rag on Korra), would help highlight this aforementioned issue the series of tips is guilty of. More specifically, the one about not trying to “do what Avatar did,” and primarily, the takeaway that was obtained from the commentators of the video linked above. They brought up how you’re just fundamentally doomed from the start if you try to approach a project like it’s going to be the “Next Avatar” or “Next Star Wars” or whatever. The reason I’m highlighting THAT part is because, in addition to how oddly specific in prerequisites one’s indicator of higher quality can feel with animated works, it has often felt like there’s a subconscious expectation of “The Next X, Y, or Z”. Whether it’d be Avatar, Lion King, Teen Titans 2003, whatever else is listed in the immediately above meme, or some other animation. And if the work isn’t giving this near-immediate reassurance that the vague and particular thresholds were met, then the guilty party will more likely than not dismiss the work as not worthwhile. Honestly, from what I can tell, this feels like a Nickelodeon executive to me.

Of course, this isn’t to say they’re not all that great or anything, and it’s good to learn what makes the greats great. HOWEVER, a good chuck of the time, it’s felt to me that it’s based less on the content and more the recognition. Sure, one might show themselves as a fan of Avatar, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they have a good grasp of certain elements or even have a strong sense of media literacy (COUGH JUSTAROBOT COUGH). Going back to the Justice League related Reddit post, as several comments point out, the two screenshot Tweets seemed to ignore the fact that the newscaster in question (the show’s incarnation of Glorious Godfrey) was using his position to attack the Justice League’s credibility, at one point trying to scapegoat them for causing divorce rates to go up. Effectively, it’s one of many places where the man enjoying the media isn’t that focused on, or likely doesn’t even get, the substance of the material. Or at the very least, misidentifying the important aspects of said substance. Much like a patriot listening to Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The USA or someone enjoying Breaking Bad due to finding Walter White aspirational. It doesn’t help that they often express this weird stance of people never being super-sensitive until recently, another case where they’re clearly riding more on anecdotal emotions from when they weren’t aware of certain topics at the time (this screencap, for example). Or that plenty of outcries over media ruining the children have happened before. Especially ironic when the guilty party would still show respect for certain children’s works for incorporating themes that flew over their head as a kid.

The post’s emphasis on comedy specifically and about no longer being able to “cut loose” anymore reminds me of one of two other things I want to bring up about comedy. First, it comes to mind how, every now and again (mainly after some stand-up comedian backlash), I’ve seen several comments defending him with comments that claimed that you’re not doing truly great comedy if you don’t strive to offend. The second one is how, sometimes (and seemingly selectively), there will be that due to being a comedy that’s established to have more surreal or absurd tendencies, there’s no real need to question any such moments, even during more narratively charged moments. I’ve come to find both simplified terms to be rather limited accounts on how or what can make the humor of certain projects very good, mostly by making it seem like there may be less of a methodology at play than there is. In case of ‘offending’, that just makes it seem like you could say whatever rude thing you want with fundamentally no real punchline, or GoD fOrBiD (/s) consideration for the marginalized. If the simple act of saying something abrasive with little else needed was enough, then where’s the skill factor? They also could have easily misunderstood the intention of some edgy sounding element, like with the aforementioned Justice League post. Similar thing about the act of “oh, you were going for a surreal or absurd thing anyway.” It doesn’t necessarily sound like there’s anything that inherently grounds the situation, plus it can sound like one could get away with throwing in anything. Once again, whatever point one would draw the line isn’t made all that clear. By that point, a sense of timing or, again, method to the madness, would sound less important than it ultimately proves to be.

But even then, sometimes it suddenly doesn’t matter having a primarily comedic work, crummy or otherwise, because the guilty party will not be satisfied when the series isn’t going out of its way to provide a huge, complex story. There may not be much care for good feels or slice of life from Big City Greens because it’s not ‘serious business.’ Hell, occasionally, even just MILDLY lightening things up would be enough to where initial accusations toward Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would compare it to Teen Titans GO, because more humor. Then again, the fact that I’ve heard that the original TV version of Teen Titans had similar initial reactions can speak volumes to how needlessly anal people can be with a project having even a little more comical leverage in it. Wind Waker fans, you should know what I mean here (even if that’s more so with art style).

As nice as it was to see western animations get more into serialization, the way I’ve seen certain discourse circles elevate that as an inherent benefit to be any good has been.....a bit much, maybe even downright snooty. Especially when, again, plenty of the same circles only seem to care for some like of extreme but vague threshold with the material in question. There’s an odd tendency to forget that one can still get some great and enjoyable characterization without them needing to be put into this complicated situation that continuously has new stuff occurring. It could still be nice slice-of-life moments that are mainly episodic, or even how the characters happen to bounce off of one another in odd scenarios. In addition to the innate risk of requiring a linear, sometimes borderline right-off-the-bat investment to understand (especially true with the advent of streaming not only making binging everything in order more accessible, but encouraging the making of shows that thrive primarily through binging by design), but there’s also the chances that the narrative that’s being offered isn’t gonna be all it’s cracked up to be. Even if you wanted to have a serious topic here and there, one could still get that out of a more contained, slice-of-life TV experience (could even make it easier for the stakes to feel more personal).

This can especially feel that way when the project covering a certain topic happens to be a nostalgic experience. Sometimes, it can even lead to a continuous elevation of those couple works for tackling the topic of prejudice at the expense of giving another, less nostalgic endeavor a chance. That last part isn’t helped by how, at times, it feels like their comprehension of being ‘less deep’ would come down to either a borderline snobbish claim of unoriginality or believing that a quick summary is enough. For example, back to this one screencap about cartoons handling the topic of death, this clown was lamenting on the last time it happened for western animation was some early 2010s action superhero show (Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes). With the replies in mind that point out the comment’s bullshit (such as how the much more chill Harvey Beaks was able to bring up the topic of death in one episode), there ends up being not only an implied bias for high-octane action, but one that’s clearly led to some sort of dismissive attitude. On the one hand, it is understandable that the incorporation of certain topics in a work mostly intended for children to watch would be heavily appreciated, especially when looking back. But at the same time, for many cases of bringing up how an older project was able to hold up, there are similar notions to that of the sexual innuendo implementations from earlier: treating the MERE incorporation as the most that’s needed (similar to what I previously said about TS3). It frequently feels like it’s less about how one manages to handle the topic (such as things like, say, TACT) and more about giving off this self-proposed idea of higher ambition or sheer audacity. Sure, it’s neat that the original Teen Titans cartoon could claim to have tackled the topic of prejudice, but you gotta remember that it also provided this dialogue exchange for that same episode:

Starfire: “You know what it feels like to be judged simply because of how you look?”

Cyborg: “’Course I do.....I’m part robot.”

And then there are the times when those anti-SJW types have something to “say.” When basically foreshadowing a then-upcoming video, YouTuber Diregentleman made this comment about how Toph would’ve likely been called “woke” if Avatar TLA was released today, and one of those anti-SJW Anime YouTubers made this pointless video “responding” to the comment (as shown by the other screencap). In that same Anime YouTuber’s video, there were predictably numerous comments about how that wouldn’t be the case since you got yourself writers that knew not to do things like “shoving it down your throat” or “making it about character and not the agenda.” However, more often than not, when it comes to these outcries, there’s next to no clarity over when the line is drawn or what the threshold is other than surface-level dismissing. If anything, that lack of clarity can make it more obvious that there’s more of a nostalgia factor combined with a more dismissive mentality involved.

All this, in one way or another, can realistically lead into a particularly frustrating part about this over-reliance on the nostalgia factor: when it leads into a genuinely pompous and self-righteous attitude when it comes to the era of their own childhood. Not just proclaiming the belief of cartoons being better during YOUR childhood, but willingly bringing down others (especially those who are younger) for apparently having the “wrong” experience with animation. Bits of this can already be found back when I mentioned those comments from that “western animation vs eastern europe animation” video. Man, the irony of claiming to call out certain animations for helping to create toxic relationships while, in and of itself, seemingly encouraging some harmful mentalities that involve presumed “manliness.”

For another example, there was a tweet about showing excitement over a then-upcoming episode of The Ghost And Molly McGee being dedicated to a character’s bat mitzvah, due to Jewish representation. However, thanks to the tweet’s wording, they found themself in quite a storm with many people spouting zoomer disdain for showing ignorance over what any previous classics already had their prominent Jewish characters. You have yourself a huge series of replies that, essentially, over-correct the Tweet’s wording in a manner that ends up downplaying the respective user’s chance to feel seen. As if just mentioning that some older cartoon that the user may not have heard before is going to mean much for that person’s own experiences. Getting a newer show releasing during their youth that does represent a certain group has a better chance to directly connect than just simply knowing some history of when else such representation happened from likely before they were even born. This is not helped by there being several replies (including a couple in the screencap) which imply the idea of today’s kids “not knowing good cartoons,” as well as just implicitly trying to flex. You could still respect Rugrats having a Hanukkah special while being happy that a newer cartoon is allowing another generation of those kids to be seen. YouTuber The Wacky Delhi puts this more eloquently than I could, so recommend going to the video linked. That video, in general, puts what I had to say in this whole post in pretty good words.

Granted, from my own more recent experiences, I’ve been able to, at least, find an online circle or two that’s proven to be much better about avoiding these pitfalls. Obviously, these can still bleed in now and again since that’s just the nature of the beast (Mr. Enter during the Turning Red fiasco STILL doing exactly that speaks for itself). If anything, the biggest takeaway I’m looking to give here is to broaden your own horizons on animation, even if it’s just occasional. The wider diversity in cartoons will not only help give a lesser-known work some much-needed attention, but it can also help create a stronger range of examples of animation as an art form. My other intended takeaway, relating to children that are enjoying cartoons, is to simply NOT spoil the fun for them. There still is deserved critiques to be found in little kids’ content, but shitting on it for not treating YOU like some avant-garde cinema connoisseur is NOT the right way to do it.

#animation #film #cinema #television #long rant #faux intellect #youtube #online discourse #disney #nickelodeon #cartoon network #long post #genre #reddit #twitter #warner bros #netflix

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the-firebird69 · 9 days

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We are looking for our children ages 10 to 12 for management and ages 5 to 10 for factory work and office work and to build the pagliani motorcycle if the adults think that it's not right they can try and take over the project but right now we're going to start it up because we have to do something it's great training they'll have the toy at home. We know that some of it works because some of us got the toy and it's a symbol of our dedication to the program. I'd like to start this up today so I'm gonna put the full package in today and ask them to redline it and expedite it for the request of Zeus and solemn request of Hara who needs something to do this week. And we're going to work with her on production setting it up with children and we know our children this is gonna be great yeah parents will be watching and we understand this

this is gonna be great yeah parents will be watching and we understand this

Savage Opopress

We have a lot to say and we have a lot to do but this is a great idea and we're going to go forwards with it. We have a lot to talk about here this place is a nightmare and right now. To fix this place I was sending stuff in. Trying to get this going and he says try very hard OK we're gonna get it going I do know what you're saying. Going to get this company going and we're going to have children started we're going to get them involved a lot more and they will get their parents going. This is a special assignment they need clearance a certain age they should be in National Guard it's like the explorer post but it's a little more serious and they do it on the weekends and their parents go and we need people to sign on to them or create it he doesn't know if it's in existence but we need you to go and do that now.

Dath Muaul an today please and yes we use parts we have then make more Darth Talon we do know how and help but yes you run it our children we are proud parents

We accept the tour. Realize he's smiling 'cause he hasn't heard yet but it's good he's hearing from us. It takes us little to get going but this is a perfect idea. We want the toy where we are we realize it's a real motorcycle but we're big like he is and to us it's like his Kawasaki 90 and he was riding around age 12 he says he's a little older but he was acting about age 12 for us probably and that's true and he had a great time he said there was nothing more fun than driving around with that thing she says he was 14. So we might have management we tend to fifteen 16 year olds get to do more. And or 12 toes 15 and yeah 16 year olds are doing other stuff and we would have another category 8 to 10 I mean 8 to 12 that's what I said. Those guys would be doing supervisory roles we're gonna get going on this we can do it this is fun. To learn this stuff more and we need to get involved more and there's a lot of this stuff and he says to us this is a big step I took much bigger steps unfortunately but it's a big step in direction that he has not taken and we can get really good at it's important and it is very important and also if it doesn't work at this particular type of machine factory there are a lot of off-road vehicles and things of that nature toys that we can do and we like the idea too and we thank you our father and mother.

Specific child they call me mortimer and I guess that's my name and I'm famous he says it's an extremely famous character and I know that I get older. Called when I'm younger and it's probably now and we're gonna start doing this kind of thing he says those guys better get there too and acting here and there's more with me too children of Zeus and Hera

Ok we're interested you guys make the bikes and we'll accept them

macs

good

mac daddy

Well that's the weirdest **** ever heard

Well that's the weirdest **** ever heardd

die

Yeah that's her name but I'm going to sponsor this project and what he says is if it's for older kids or adults we can switch it over and we'll go to toys but he knows how it is and he thinks differently but it might be different than what he's thinking so it is going to work but he says the kids of his age when he was three years old or four years old they can ride these motorcycles and we know they can and he was doing amazing things. So we're going to try it this way and we will have them in other factors for sure none of them will have nothing to do they're going to be important and we think older adults if it doesn't work 18 and above for the factory but we have not tried this yet no we have we know how it works out and the kids are looking forward to it. Says that we will have toy pagster and toy 4 wheelers and quads and single seaters and they'll be with Briggs and Stratton if we can't do this one and they want to do that now.

Thor Freya

Seems like it doesn't know what he's doing no he does he did this with his Kawasaki but he did have other stuff first bicycles and things like that we need those but boy they're a drag E bikes are where it's at and we have specific ones that work we might make those too that's for a little older crowd no he says BMXE bike they're like the Harley Davidson and we could make one at Pagsda if someone wants to champion it and some 5 year old brave kid wants to fight Brian on the track. And they have those races and they're fully electric this is gonna be awesome.

Hera

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hairstyleforteen · 1 month

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How to Keep Hair Nice Overnight – Beauty Hair Guide

Whether you have long sleek hair, short cuts, or bouncy curls, we always wanted to have a great hair day the next morning. There’s no way for us to go to the hair stylist or rush to the salon early in the morning as we wake up. So, the best solution for this is to know how to keep hair nice overnight. That way, you can incorporate a natural beautiful looks into the tresses while you style your hair up in an effortless manner. In this blog post, we will give you different strategies in keeping the hair nice during the whole night. Aside from that, we also have here some basic life hacks that may be very helpful for those with long locks, short cuts, and stubborn curls. Sleeping on a wet hair will not already a problem anymore with the following hair care night regimen we have here. So, check this out and style your hair out successfully and beautifully in the morning! Tips and Tricks on How to Keep Hair Nice Overnight During the night, most likely at bedtime, the hair can go into a tragic condition in which it can traverse around million directions. Sometimes, it can even look horrible on a downright position. Or, you may find it like tiny trolls snuck within the bedroom and it created an empire on your pillow. Although the condition is not really dangerous but having it can be a little frustrating which can lead you to a bad hair day. Good thing, there are some techniques that you can do to prevent it. So, here’s how you can keep your hair nice overnight: 1-Dry the hair before sleeping Well, if you tend to sleep with wet hair, you’ll definitely catch a bed head. Keep in mind that as you sleep, more and more weights are putting on various areas of the scalp. With that, having wet hair while you sleep will going to dry out in any angles that seem to be funky. Aside from your hair, this can also result into creation of icky stuff within the pillow such as molds and mildew. So, it is very crucial to dry out your hair prior to getting in bed. 2-Sleep with a well-brushed mane

One way on how to keep hair nice overnight is to brush the tresses the night before you sleep. Hair brushing generally supports in detangling the hair. At the same time, it also aids in the distribution of moisture and removing excess products into the scalp. These ways can basically set your hair manageable the next morning. 3-Silk is the key Silk and satin is so luxurious to the eyes yet using it as bedding and pillowcase generally worth it. This applies true for your natural mane. Keep in mind that other bedding materials may damage the hair because it causes friction to the tresses. But, silk materials tend to be smooth and gentle. Through that, you can keep the hair nice overnight. 4-Moisturize the tips One best tips on how to keep hair nice overnight is to moisturize the hair ends. Generally, you would notice that every time you wake up in the morning, the top of the hair is actually normal. And, the one that looks frizzy and dry are the ends of the tresses. So, you need to moisturize the tips before you go to bed. 5-Leave-in products to the rescue You might not yet realize the benefits of leave-in products but once you use it, you’ll probably see its wonders. Remember that light conditioner that stays for a longer period in your hair overnight will generally tame those untamed locks. Other Simple Hacks on How to Keep Hair Nice Overnight – For Long and Short Cuts Well, there are many types of hair that can sabotage the way you look the next morning. And regardless of the type, there will always come a time that you need to find ways on how to keep hair nice overnight. Here are some other simple hacks that are specific for those with long manes and those who have short tresses. *Simple Hacks for Short Hair If you cut your hair short, the strands of it tend to be going in any direction. So, with that, here are some of the strategies that you need to consider in order to keep hair nice overnight. WEAR A BANDANA A bandana will generally hold everything in place once you place it in your head. Actually, you may use any type of material of the bandana, yet silk is always preferable. In case the bandana is not strong enough to hold your hair and make it look good, try to wrap a t-shirt, made of cotton, around the bandana. This will generally keep your hair altogether. You can also use Velvet Durags it is like a bandana But is more comfortable and fits perfectly in the head LAYERED STYLE HAIRCUT One way on how to keep hair nice overnight is to have a haircut with layers. This haircut style is really magical in so many ways and is a great preventive measure in having hair getting in all directions. Generally, layered haircuts seem so natural looking which is too sexy to wear by either male or female. Aside from that, if the haircut is done correctly, the layered hair will fall down naturally in no particular angle. This makes the hair looks beautiful with at least minimal to no maintenance at all. *Simple Hacks for Long Hair Long hair seems a little bit harder to tame than the short ones. So, here are some strategies to tame those stubborn tresses when you wake up in the morning. PIN DOWN Who says bobby pins are just for the oldies? Well, if you have long, stubborn hair, make sure you always have bobby pins on-hand. These hair accessories will be your best buddy here to keep hair nice overnight. Use those Bobbies to pin the tresses in small portions over the top of the head. You may also try to create small ringlets of hair to have extra volume and curl in the next morning. Additionally, this strategy will also reduce the time of self prep in the morning. This can also help you to go beyond washings for longer time period. PULL-UP Well, this is the easiest trick for long hair on how to keep hair nice overnight. Aside from taking just a second of your time, it also tends to be very effective as well. Simply pull your hair just like creating a bun or you may choose to do a top knot. In case the hair is too long to tuck the tips inside the bun, have an elastic tie to prevent any awkward crease. WRAP IT Prevention is the key especially for those with long tresses. Wrap the hair tightly with a t-shirt so that you can highly avoid wild strands from sticking up or poking somewhere. Best Strategies on Keeping the Hair Nice Overnight – For Coillies or Wavies Having curls or wavy hair doesn’t mean that you do not need to take care of it. Curls are naturally beautiful and bouncy. So, here’s how to keep hair nice overnight especially for those with curls or some waves. *Sleep on the best position

Well, if your hair is curly, sleeping directly over the tresses is not actually ideal. The weight of your head will generally put on any stress and pressure directly into the curls leaving it matted-looking and messy. Moreover, sleeping on the back may also lead to frizzy hair and creation of knots once you move the head sideways. So, the best position for sleeping when you have curly hair is sleeping on the side or on the stomach. In fact, sleeping on the side also entails other health benefits. *Don’t forget the satin or silk pillowcase Like the ways on how to keep straight hair nice overnight, satin or silk fabric material is also the best material to sleep on for the coillies. Generally, curly hairs have hair shaft that does not have similar thickness all along the way. With that, the curly hair strands are more susceptible to damage and breakage. Tossing and turning the head while you sleep can basically put the stress over the hair follicles thus causing breakage. In order to address hair frizz and breakage, you need to sleep on a satin or silk pillowcase. Cotton pillowcase has the ability to absorb the natural oils of the hair and the scratches against the hair strands. Meanwhile, pillowcase made out of silk or satin material basically protects the structure of the hair. Additionally, it keeps the head feel cooler while preventing the scalp to develop and get oils. Because of that, the need for washing will be cut back. *Make a pineapple Opps! Wait a minute; we’re not talking about the real fruit here. You do not need to make pineapple juice in order to keep hair nice overnight. The pineapple is a method of hair protection in which the curly hair is tied up at the head crown by satin or cotton scrunchie. Take note, it should be scrunchie and not just a hair elastic. Just gather up the hair over the top of your head and simply tie the scrunchie all around it at once. But, be careful not to pull the pineapple too hard or too tight. You may also consider using this method by adding a silk scarf or bonnet for best result. *Twist or braid the hair Twisting or braiding the coillies means securing your curly locks. With that, the hair strands will be less to rub against the other hair follicles or into the beddings. You just need to twist the curls through the bobby pins or small elastics. Moreover, well-secured braids are great way on how to keep curly hair nice overnight as it stabilizes the framework of curls all throughout the night. *Add in some spritz or two Generally, leave-in conditioners are really helpful on how to keep hair nice overnight. It works by incorporating keratin to the hair follicle which will eventually make the curls shiny and bouncy. Meanwhile, the spray-on conditioners may also support in making the hair strands strong. It also makes the curly hair softer and easier to style up when you wake up. Plop it Plopping is another method in which you can fall asleep with wet hair and keep your hair nice overnight with lovely curls. As soon as your hair is freshly washed, put on some curl gel, mousse that is alcohol-free or curl-shaping hair product. Using a cotton t-shirt, flip the wet hard forward. Make sure that all of the hair must be on the center of the t-shirt. Fold the flap and secure the arms of the cotton shirt through a knot. This will basically secure your hair overnight and give you beautiful coils the next morning. Various Ways on How to Keep Wet Hair Nice Overnight Well, we’ve mentioned above that you should dry your hair before bed time in order to have a nice-looking hair when you wake up. But, what if you are already tired and have no time and energy to dry your wet hair at night? Sleeping with wet hair is not really ideal. Thankfully, there are some helpful steps that you can do to protect the hair overnight from frizz and damage as you sleep with it wet. Prevent creases and frizz Sleeping with wet hair is the major factor of having hair in any directions the next morning. So, in order to avoid any frizz to come out, here are some helpful steps to consider: - Try to air dry some of the hair. You may also use Dyson airwrap or Supersonic hair dryer to quickly dry the underside of the hair. Keep in mind that partially dried hair is quite easier for the mane to dry during sleep. Moreover, it also creates a smoother finish. - Put on some amount of leave-in conditioner to protect the hair while you sleep. Even a small amount will do to coat the hair a little bit and avoid hair breakage and frizz. Doing so will basically result in a soft, smooth tresses. - Use a scrunchie and create a bun positioned highly on your head. This way, your sleep will not be distracted and may make you feel free from pain. - Through a microfiber towel, gently wrap the hair. Just make sure that the towel is highly secured. You may use clips, Velcro, or tie to secure it. - You can also wrap the hair with a scarf or bandana made of silk. Making beach waves or crimps

Although sleeping with wet hair is not really ideal, doing so will also make you style your hair out and prepare yourself for a great hair day in the morning. Here are the things that you can do in order to create a nice wavy hair overnight with those wet hair. - Apply hair products to the hair like cream, detangling spray, leave-in conditioner, or shine serum. Well, you can choose those hair products depending on your choice. Moreover, a beach spray is also a good choice especially if you want to enhance the natural texture of your mane. - Evenly distribute the cream or hair products that you applied by combing your hair. Combing the hair may also help in preventing product buildup. Remember that buildup is a contributing factor to have dull hair in the morning. - Braid the tresses as it is a great way to create some style in your hair during your good night sleep. One loose braid will basically give you beachy waves. Meanwhile, several small braids around the hair, just like that of the cornrows, will result into a crimped hair. And for curls, consider doing one or two French braids that are tight enough. Make sure that the braids start high on the scalp. - Wrap the braids highly on the scalp through loose bun. In case you do not want to set your hair using braids, you can also use foam curlers. Final Words Keeping your hair nice overnight gives all of the control into your hands. Regardless of the type of hair you have, improving or adding up some more steps into your night time beauty regimen is actually a surefire. Just small changes with it will generally make a big difference on your hair’s overall appearance. Aside from that, you will absolutely have a great hair day the next morning. Read the full article

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