#i already did this a few times and finnish / finland is always no. 1 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ideks-on-mars · 3 years

Text

Half-Brothers?

The Taichi-Naoyasu Situation

Taichi and Naoyasu are half-brothers and here's how lol

Taichi's mother and father had both met in their birth country of Germany. However, his grandparents on his mother's side hadn't approved of his father. The two had then decided to study a good amount of Japanese before saving up for plane tickets and running off to Japan. They changed their last names and had a completely fresh start. The two were madly in love, or at least that's what Taichi's mother thought. She had figured out she was pregnant, with who we know as Taichi, and she was ecstatic. She quickly told Taichi's father and his reaction was the exact opposite of what she expected. The man was furious and didn't want anything to do with the woman or baby. After hours of begging and yelling the man had left the German woman to fend for herself and her unborn baby. She picked up a few different jobs at small stores, extra shifts and she would make good friends that were more than happy to help her, two of those friends being the Shirabu's who also had a baby on the way. Her life in Japan was getting better. And on April 15, 1995, her baby Taichi, was born. She had changed her name after the "Love of her life" had left. Her last name was Kawanishi. And now, all she had was her, her friends, and her beloved baby.

Meanwhile, almost exactly 4 months before Taichi was born. A small, fragile, pale woman, had been another victim of the man. She had found out she was pregnant by him during January 1996. The woman was, just like the last, left soon after. The woman was young and hadn't even been in Japan for too long. She had came to Japan from her home country of Finland due to that fact that it had always been a dream of hers to move in with her grandmother, who moved to Japan when she was two. She was intelligent though, and knew languages like Finnish, Slovak, German, and Japanese. She could also keep up a normal conversation in English and Danish. She was confident in her ability to take care of a baby and she studied extra hard, wanting to be able to get a decent job for her and her baby.

After graduating from college, she was now about seven months pregnant. She lived with her grandma and she was working as a translator for people visiting Japan. She had, who we know as, Naoyasu Kuguri, not long after. However, the older he had gotten, his mother had taught him more Finnish, Slovak, and German than Japanese. He knew some Japanese, of course, they lived in Japan. However his mother thought that all he needed was her and the only person he should feel the absolute need to talk to was her.

TIME SKIP

Multiple years later and Taichi is now seventeen with Naoyasu being sixteen. STZ was having a practice match against Nohebi and they were having a small break between the first and second set.

"Kawanishi-Kun~...doesn't number twelve over there remind you of yourself~ hehe~"

Kawanishi turned to the place his upperclassmen, Tendō Satori, was pointing towards, curious as to what he was talking about.

Taichi scanned the other team until his eyes landed on number twelve. The boy had a lean, yet muscular build, his height similar to Semi's. He had a bored expression on his face and a water bottle in hand. His eyes were pointed at the end, very similar to Taichi's. The only difference was that number twelve's eyes rounded into the point. Taichi's were more of a obtuse angle that lead to the point. Their eyelids were both very pointy. His eyebrows were thicker than Taichi's and his pupils were a lot bigger and more circle shaped, compared to Taichi's oval shaped pupils. Taichi's eyes were silver gray, number twelve's eyes seemed to be green with a hint of grey. Taichi's hair was a darker ginger, thick, and messy. Yet number twelve's hair was...interesting. His hair was a blonde mixed with brunette, leaving him with a very light brown bedhead. However his eyebrows were darker.

"He does look...kind of like me..."

"Kind of", was a bit of an understatement, Taichi could go around telling his team that they were related and they'd most likely believe it, except for Kenjirō of course, who knew the whole situation with Taichi's family.

"You should talk to him! You two seem equally as uninterested."

Some of his teammates laughed at Yamagata's joke but Taichi, for once in his life, actually considered going up to the boy and talking to him.

As if God himself had granted him an opportunity, Nohebi's captain walked up to the team, his hand placed on the back of the stoic winged spiker.

"Hey, sorry if I'm interrupting anything, but would any of you mind helping Kuguri-Kun here find the restroom?"

The captain, who they knew was called Daishō, patted the boy's, now known as Kuguri, back twice. Kuguri didn't react though, he stood there beside his captain quietly, slouched and staring at the ground blankly, his hands stuffed into his volleyball jacket pockets. Before anyone could speak, Tendō, not surprisingly, did.

"Oh! Well our dear Kawanishi-Kun would love to escort Kuguri-Kun! Right Kiwi?"

Kawanishi looked at Tendō with an expression that said "are you serious?" but Taichi wasn't one to go against an upperclassmen's wishes, especially Tendō's. Taichi sighed.

"Yes, Tendō-San."

Daishō smiled a snake-like smile, however Taichi didn't think he could help it, and walked away leaving his teammate with the monsters known as Shiratorizawa. Taichi could tell he was uncomfortable so he quickly walked past him towards the exit.

"C'mon, Kuguri-Kun."

He said, his German accent slipping a little. He glanced behind him and saw that Kuguri was sauntering behind him. Taichi stopped, waiting for the slightly shorter male to catch up with him and began to walk at the other's pace.

Taichi got to the door first and held it open for the brunette. He glanced up at Taichi and nodded. However Taichi could've swore he saw the other's eyes widen for point two seconds before he looked back down and walked through the door way. Taichi, even though it was barely audible, heard Kuguri speak.

"Thank you, Kawanishi-San."

The thick, obviously European, accent was clear in his words. Taichi could tell that it was slightly German, but it just had to be another Northern European accent. Taichi quickly shook it off and nodded. They silently headed down the hall, the occasional Shiratorizawa student walking past them. Suddenly, and surprisingly, Kuguri spoke.

"So...where are you from?"

Taichi was taken aback, the other's accent was thicker now. Taichi seemed confused but figured the the other thought he was from somewhere else due to his accent.

"Oh, um, I'm from Japan. It's just that my mother is German and...I knew how to speak German before Japanese."

Kuguri nodded.

"Oh. I was just asking. I spoke Finnish, Slovak and German before I spoke Japanese. I'm still not as good as I should be at it."

Taichi understood. Japanese was no joke, and neither was Finnish, Slovak, and German.

"Well, if speaking in German makes it easier for you, then I don't mind."

(Bold + Red = Speaking in German)

Kuguri smiled happily. It wasn't the biggest smile, more of just the sides of his lips curling upward, but still, a smile.

"Thank you...Naoyasu Kuguri."

Taichi smiled back, a similar smile to the one Naoyasu had shown him before.

"Nice to meet you...I'm Taichi Kawanishi."

The two smiled, happy that they had someone that they could relate to.

"Anyways, I didn't see you on Nohebi last year, are you new?"

"Yeah, I'm a first year..."

TIME SKIP

It was now the end of the match and Nohebi was about to get on their long trip back to Tokyo.

(I looked it up and from Miyagi to Tokyo is 4-6 hours 👀)

The two teams thanked each other for the practice game, all waving as they piled into the bus. Naoyasu was the last one to get on. He turned around and waved at Taichi one more time. Taichi waved back and watched happily as his new friend had drove off. He was glad they had exchanged numbers.

"So you really did make friends with him?"

Taichi looked over at his teammates.

"Yeah. He was pretty chill."

They nodded.

"Did you catch his name?"

"Yeah. Naoyasu Kuguri."

TIME SKIP

The two boys ended up being good friends. They didn't get to hang out as much as they wanted but it was good enough for them due to the fact that they weren't very social people anyway. Though, when they found out that they both got to go to the same training camp, they were excited. In the training camp you actually got time to lay back and chat with people from other teams, giving them the chance to hangout with each other.

The thing was, at this training camp they allowed parents and/or siblings to come. The parents would come watch their children play, help with lunch and dinner, and help with other fun drills and activities, and if they had younger children they were allowed to bring them. That's how a lot of the parents and siblings made good friends with the others. Taichi's mom, Annike, had always come, due to the fact that, 1) she loves and wants to support her son, and 2) she was great friends with most of the moms of his teammates and other teams. She would always bring Taichi's little six-year-old half sister, Takara, who enjoyed playing with the other little ones. She was the result of of Taichi's old stepfather. He was a cool guy and him and his mom were on good terms. Taichi never really gave him a chance though. However, Taichi would never deny the fact that he adored his little sister.

Once they arrived, Taichi quickly scoped out his teammates and joined them whilst his mother conversated with the other parents.

The coaches informed everyone that they would take the first day to let everyone get settled in, eat, and conversate.

Earlier into the day, Taichi heard his name being called.

"Kawanishi-San. Hello."

Taichi turned around, already having an idea of who it was.

"Hi Kuguri-Kun, how've you been?"

"Alright. You?"

"Fine, thanks."

"Naoyasu! Don't run off like that."

(Bold + Blue = Speaking in Finnish)

"Sorry ma."

Taichi looked a little behind Naoyasu and saw a short, pale woman with blonde hair that fell beautifully over her shoulders, he could've swore she was made of glass. She had on light blue jeans and a grey shirt on. Her eyes were the same color as Naoyasu's.

"Who's this?"

Taichi had no clue what she was saying, considering she was speaking in Finnish. Suddenly Naoyasu moved to the side, so that he wasn't between the two and they could meet eyes and Taichi didn't only see one half of her.

"Ma, this is Taichi Kawanishi, a friend of mine. Kawanishi-San, this is my mother."

Taichi remembered that Naoyasu only had his mother and knew that she knew and taught him German, plus Naoyase was just speaking to her in German so he responded in German.

"It's nice to meet you Kuguri-San. I'm good friends with Naoyasu-Kun."

Taichi stuck his hand out. The woman grabbed it, firmly shaking his hand.

"Nice to meet you Taichi-Kun. You can call me Aino."

"Taichi!"

Taichi looked behind him to see that his mother had come up behind him. She walked up beside him, a smile on her face, Takara beside her. Taichi's mom had curly, long, ginger hair that was pulled into a ponytail. She had on jeans and a t-shirt just like Miss Aino. She turned over to Aino and now the womans' jaws dropped.

Taichi and Naoyasu looked confused while Takara didn't seem to care all the much, only hugging her big brother's leg. Taichi patted her head, still not taking his eyes off of the two women.

"Aino?"

"Annike?"

Now the boys were beyond confused. They knew each other. Both the women nodded to each other and began to walk away. Taichi tried to call out to his mother.

"Mom-"

"Watch your sister Taichi. I'll be back soon."

Naoyasu tried too.

"Mom where are you-"

"Stay with Taichi, help watch the girl."

"Hi!"

Taichi and Naoyasu both looked at each other, shrugged, and looked down at the little girl, who was now looking up at Naoyasu.

WITH THE WOMEN

The two were behind the building now, staring at each other.

"It's been a while."

"It has."

They both were quiet for a few seconds.

"Is that...his son?"

Aino nodded.

"Yeah...it is. Naoyasu is his. I'm sure Taichi is his, correct?"

"Yeah, he is."

The two women chuckled.

"They're half-brothers."

"Yeah they are. They deserve to know."

Annike nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I can't lie to Taichi any longer."

The two talked more. Catching up with each other and talking about their respective sons. They were nervous to tell their sons, yet excited and happy that they at least had met and are good friends.

AFTER THEY HAD SAT THE TWO BOYS DOWN

Both Taichi and Naoyasu were now sat down on the curb of the parking lot near the building where the training camp was being held. The women were leaning against the Kawanishi's car, both smoking a cigarette. Takara was being watched by some of the Shiratorizawa moms.

Annike dropped the cigarette onto the asphalt and stepped on it, putting it out.

"We have to tell you something important."

The two boys nodded.

"I don't think you both realize how much this will affect you both. This will shock you both tremendously."

The two were hesitant, but nodded. The two women looked at each other and Aino gestured for the other to go ahead and tell the two.

"You two are half-brothers."

The two brothers paused completely. That was until Taichi slapped his thigh and stood up.

"I knew we looked alike!"

He didn't say it in German, causing some other people to look at the usually quiet boy out of curiosity. Taichi bowed towards them apologetically before returning to the situation at hand.

Naoyasu was in shock. Half-brothers? He was just being told now? He assumed that they had the same dad. He wasn't stupid. He put two and two together.

Naoyasu stood up beside Taichi. The two looked at each other not exactly knowing what to do. However, Taichi, who was already a big brother, now of two, had his instincts kick in. Whenever his little sister was confused and was completely lost on what to do, he comforted her, so that's what he did to his new, well new in his life, little brother.

Taichi wrapped his arms around Naoyasu tightly. Naoyasu seemed genuinely scared at first but calmed down quickly. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around Taichi, resting his head on Taichi's shoulder.

The two women smiled gently at their sons, both extremely pleased that the two seemed happy. Taichi pulled away and patted both Naoyasu's shoulders.

"Let's go introduce you to your new little sister too."

Naoyasu looked confused.

"But...I'm not related to her."

"You're part of the family now. No escaping."

Taichi and Naoyasu both laughed and began to make their way to the little girl. The moms watched before Annike started walking too. She noticed that Aino wasn't following her and turned around.

"You too, Aino. You're part of the family too."

Aino couldn't even fight the smile creeping onto her face and dropped her cigarette, stepping on it. Annike reached her hand out and Aino grabbed it.

They both rounded the corner and smiled widely when they saw Takara walking between her two big brothers, holding both theirs hands and talking about something with a big smile on her face.

39 notes · View notes

mcrmadness · 3 years

Note

Color asks: coral, cream, coconut, honey, and scarlet

Color Asks.

coral: an animal you wish hadn’t gone extinct

Either quagga or thylacine. And yeah, thanks to humans, both species went extinct... It’s super weird to look at photos of these species and to know neither of them exist anymore. A human really is the worst species on this planet.

Thylacine was a marsupial but super weird looking one, almost like a dog but then not. It’s Finnish name actually is “pussihukka” which basically translates to a “bag wolf” - the front part of the name is because marsupial in Finnish is “pussieläin” (”a bag animal”) because, you know, they have this pocket instead of a womb where the offspring grow :D And thylacine was very canine-like looking so it was only natural to add there an old word for “wolf” in Finnish.

Quagga then was an equine species closely related to zebras. It’s very weird looking because it was partially dark brown but with stripes. I think some zebra-horse hybrids actually can look a bit like quaggas but unfortunately it’s not the same thing + usually those equine hybrids are born sterile anyway. I don’t remember for sure if there’s been attempts of “cloning” a quagga or so, all I know is that the Przewalski’s horse almost went extinct at some point but with the help of zoos etc., humans were able to save them from the same fate. (Faith in humanity restored... for a moment.) But apparently even those might not be 100% descended from the real Przewalski’s horses. Anyway, most if not all of the other “wild horses” nowadays are usually descended from tamed individuals. E.g. all the American Mustang horses are like that and none of them descend from the real American wild horses that once roamed free.

(Both photos from Wikipedia.)

***

cream: any piercings or tattoos? do you want any?

Nope. I had earrings but I then had a rebel phase and let the earholes to grow shut(?) and wanted everyone to see that and say “oh poor you” but no one did and now I’m annoyed because NOW I wish I had earholes so I could use earrings again :DDD But I’m afraid of needles and doing piercings is not too unrisky with a congenital heart defect (because it literally is creating an open wound, and those are always risky if not taken care of properly). But the biggest issue is the needles and pain. Idk, if they can use numbing cream for piercings, maybe I’ll get earrings one day again. Back then I dreamed that I would have had 3 earholes on both instead of just 1. I also like how lip piercings look like but that might be way too much.

Tattoos I have never really cared about so that’s a no.

***

coconut: a subject you enjoy learning about

Oh there’s so many! It’d be easier to answer to what I DON’T like learning about :D But as you already can see from the first answer: zoology.

I grew up as a zoology nerd, I loved dinosaurs (they’re still cool tho) and anything to do with evolution. I watched just any movie or series with dinos - Jurassic Park, The Land Before Time, BBC Walking With Dinosaurs (a document series), Disney’s Dinosaur and so many others. I loved these but my siblings were maybe even more into them than I and I already was very much into them :D My sister had a proper special interest in dinos. We also had so many dinosaur figurines we used to play with all the time.

youtube

There was also another series like this, called Walking with Cavemen, but I never found the apes as interesting as other animals so I didn’t watch that one too much.

Later on I loved playing Zoo Tycoon! I actually learnt a lot about mammals that happened between dinosaurs and modern animals from there. The Dinosaur Digs EP had also lots of different modern-day animals’ precessor species like the giant sloth, saber toothed cat or macrauchenia. Back in the 90s it was actually hard to find any info about these, dinos were everywhere but not really these so I was always excited to find new info - I had a couple of books and then also really enjoyed BBC’s Walking With Beasts that was about those species especially. I still don’t know too much about these creatures so I still enjoy browsing animal “family trees” and reading about where did everything come from, and to which dinosaur/extinct animal any modern-day animal is related to.

***

honey: your thoughts on magic- does it exist?

I was obsessed with magic as a kid, much before even getting into Harry Potter (idk if those were even released yet back then? At least not the movies and I started with them.) and me and my cousin were convinced that I was a witch. I don’t remember for sure what was it that convinced us of that - I can remember only one thing: we were to an art school as a hobby once a week and sometimes I “wished” so hard that her mother aka my aunt would come and pick us up by a car and they would bring me home. And sometimes that actually did happen! Normally I used to take a bus home, she would walk to the bus stop with me and wait there with me until the bus came, and she walked to her home. She lived at the downtown area unlike me. (I didn’t live far away tho, it was just a bit too long way to walk home, took about 10-15min by bus.)

In a way I still believe in some sort of magic. I’m supr skeptic nowadays, before I would just immediately think of everything as something magical or paranormal. Sometimes it’s not good with my anxiety and its tendency to do ocd-like “magical thinking”, e.g. feeling like saying something scary aloud will make it happen. Also I have to say that the horse business, at least the harness racing field, is super superstitious profession :D There’s lots of money and betting involved and we always had this saying “It doesn’t survive the compliments.” meaning you should never say “This horse has never had problems with their legs!” because that will definitely cause the horse to injure itself sooner than you’d even guess. I also always always avoided saying “We will win today.” because if I said that, we definitely did not win. So I always asked the horses “Are we gonna win today?” or was talking to the horse and told them how we should win today. But never said “We WILL win.” and I always felt like bad luck was happening when my coworkers started chanting how we’re gonna win today.

But more than magic, I kinda believe in intuition. There were a few cases when I was to the races with the horses and I just had this feeling that we’re gonna go home with a win. I don’t know where did it come from, I just knew it. I felt it somewhere deep inside that this is the day. And usually that feeling always was right. I never said it aloud tho because of course it would have not happened if I did. Or so I believe :D

***

scarlet: favorite holiday

I don’t really have any. They are all the same anyway. When I was working, we didn’t really have any public holidays with horses. I mean, someone’s gotta take care of the animals no matter what the calendar says :D But I actually really liked that! Only time I had a proper holiday was during Christmas. Basically that could be my favorite holiday because of the presents I get to give to people.

Another one that’s nice is the Midsummer day, it’s a huge thing in Finland. Tho, for me it doesn’t really mean anything else but my birthday (which can be negative thing too because I have an age crisis :D) since it’s super common for people to go out to get wasted, but I don’t drink alcohol nor do I have friends :D So usually I just stay at home or visit my family.

#useless-blog-of-a-moth #ask games #animals

6 notes · View notes

berlinaura · 4 years

Text

Oh how the laziness has taken over. My school motivation has completely disappeared and the only thing keeping me going is the fact that the work I have to do are group works. I am allowing myself pass classes with minimum effort right now.

On the week after my birthday party my Finnish friends were in Berlin. I was at school on one day of that week. We drank 4 days in a row (okay I had to take one chill day in between because I had the throw up kind of hangover). We went to some bars and Mauerpark flea market on Sunday.

The next Monday I had an intervietw for an internship in Berlin. I was stressing over the interview for the whole night and got only 1 hour of sleep. I felt like a shaking zombie. Nevertheless, the interview went alright in my opinion. They made me speak some German and wanted to hear why I applied for the position. That’s basically all they asked me. They promised to let me know their decision by the end of the week but so far I have heard nothing from them (now it is Monday again and exactly 1 week has passed). That is alright because I also got a job offer from Finland and I am pretty sure I am gonna accept it no matter what. The tasks and salary are too tempting and unfortunately outweigh Berlin. I also got another interview for an internship in Berlin and even though I have basically made up my mind, I am gonna do the (phone) interview for practice.

Last Thursday me and my friends were at Escape room. It was a birthday gift I recieved from them and it was so much fun! I have never been to an Escape room before so I had no idea what to expect. We took one called “Puppeteer” and the idea was to escape from a puppeteers workroom before he makes us into puppets. We had a creepy ass robot baby, quietly saying “take me with you, take me with you...” that we had to carry from a room to another. We did so well and only needed “1,5 hints” from the game master. And even got 2 spare minutes in the end! I definitely want to try this game again.

Afterwards we went out for a couple of drinks and to analyze our game. Suddenly we got the best idea ever: we are going on a road trip in February, after exams! It didn’t take long and suddenly we already had a route planned, From Barcelona to Montpellier, from there to Lyon and ending at Genf. I have been wanting go on a such adventure for ages and now I can’t wait until the exams are over!

On Friday me and a friend went spontaneously for drinks to an Indian restaurant called Amar. I found my new favorite drink “Touch down”. One thing I love about Berlin that the cocktails are often so cheap and good and you can get them from normal restaurants. It feels kinda luxurious but at the same time it only costs around 4 euros each. Also, they were super strong and only a few cocktails got us drunk and talk about deep stuff. I wish I had one right now...

On Saturday I tried my best to concentrate on school work. I didn’t proceed at all. I ended up playing Mahjong and taking a nap. In the evening I had a super fancy sweatpants, tv and frozen food -kind of date. The best way to relax after a hard week, am I right!

On Sunday me and friends decided to check out an Asian restaurant called Umami. Their food was delicious. Always when I try food like this I try to analyze which ingredients they have used so I could redo the dish at home but I never end up doing it.

The next week was nothing but school work from the morning to the evening. I have three presentations coming up, one paper to write and of course exams and normal homework. I feel like I am learning so much and these courses are actually beneficial for me but at the same time I feel like there is no point in stressing over grades and stress over studying. I think I have found a nice balance in working hard during week and then being super lazy during the weekend.

After one Thursday we went to have a drink to a bar to plan our Spain/France roadtrip. After 30 minutes we had already booked flights to... SCOTLAND! No idea what that trip is about but I can not wait for the exams to be over now. We are going to visit both Edinburgh and Glasgow. Hopefully the weather is not going to be a classic February gray rain weather, though.

On Friday 31.1. we were supposed to have a house party but decided to do a pub crawl instead. Somehow our group grew to 10 people and towards the end of the evening we were having a hard time to fit into the places we wanted to go to. The first one, multilayerladen was the stereotype of a hipsterish Berlin bar where people sat on swings, Mary Poppins film was projected to the wall and rusty shopping carts were used as a decoration. They made a delicious and affordable Gin & Tonic though so nothing to complain there. Then, naturally we ended up at Que Pasa to order their 3,5€ cocktails and read palms. Then towards the end of the evening our group started to crumble. At the last place we found fun pinball arcade machines, had conversations about language grammar and smoking and then finally left the extremely crowded yet cozy place (Clash).

I had the laziest fucking Saturday yesterday and I plan to spend my Sunday exactly the same way. I already slept for 13 hours and now I plan to play some sims, maybe bake something and maybe in the evening do something for school. If the stores were open, I would have wanted to go thrift shopping today, it seems like the perfect day for that but unfortunately I have to leave that for the week.

Recently I have been feeling melancholic because I know my exchange year is ending soon. It is hard to enjoy fun moments when you know you are going to leave these people soon and go back to your normal life. I should accept that this semester is just a temporary part of my life and I won’t feel the same after a year. I know that after being in Finland for a couple of months, I am already used to it and don’t feel so dead inside anymore :D Also, I can always come back after graduating. Literally, who knows what I am going to do. At least now if I ever think about moving abroad, I know I’ll manage and fear isn’t holding me back.

#berlin #erasmus #exchange year

1 note · View note

englishflagcumrag · 5 years

Note

connie and noora :P

oh legend

Connie Cohen

1: What’s your OCs favorite color?

Green?

2: Where does your OC work?

Formerly an actress. These days she just farms chickens though.

3: What’s your OCs favorite food?

The vampirism thing really limits her options. Chicken blood by default.

4: Does your OC prefer paper or plastic?

Paper?

5: How old is your OC?

84, but physically she’s still 29

6: Does your OC have any supernatural powers?

She’s a vampire, coming with all the transforming and seducing and hypnotism and whatever the fuck.

7: Is your OC in a relationship?

No.

10: What is your OCs favorite outfit?

She likes to be comfortable. Sturdy jeans, big jumper,

11: What is your OCs spirit animal?

You mean her fursona? Maybe a peacock.

12: Is your OC sexually active?

13: What is your OCs earliest memory?

Her first acting appearance. She was only like 6. It’s a bittersweet memory.

14: Does your OC have a cell phone? If so, what kind?

No, she’s old and kind of off the grid.

15: What makes your OC angry?

Attention, lack of attention, people calling her by her stage name, Hollywood.

16: When is your OCs favorite time of year?

Winter. She lives in Finland so it means she can leave the house without getting crispy.

17: How long can your OC hold their breath?

Indefinitely? She doesn’t need to breathe.

19: Does your OC prefer plaid or polka dots?

Plaid probably

21: Who is your OCs best friend?

Noora

24: What does your OC smell like?

Kind of wood-ish

26: Is your OC a human or an animal? (or something else idk)

Vampire

27: What languages does your OC speak?

English, Finnish, a vague amount of Yiddish, maybe some French but only like. at a secondary school level.

29: Can your OC swim?

Yes

30: What does your OC choose to do about the, er, hair down there?

Used to shave it a lot, stopped bothering after she died

31: Does your OC believe in fairies?

She knows a few personally so,, yes

32: Did your OC go to college? What did they major in?

I think by that point she already had a pretty steady job as an actress, so idk if she would’ve bothered.

33: Are your OCs parents dead?

Yeah, idk the details really but like. she’s 84 I doubt they’d have lived this long.

34: Is your OC religious?

She was raised Jewish and remains pretty observant, but the whole aversion to religious symbols complicates things somewhat.

35: How flexible is your OC?

Fairly? She took dance lessons as a kid.

38: Does your OC have any pets?

No but she does keep chickens

39: Who is your OCs biggest enemy?

Hollywood

40: What is the craziest thing your OC has done?

Getting turned into a vampire at some weird Hollywood rich people party is up there.

42: Does your OC drink coffee or tea?

44: What color eyes does your OC have?

Brown

45: Does your OC like reading?

Yes, her cottage is like a library.

46: Is your OC loyal?

Not particularly? She does her own thing.

48: What social class is your OC from?

Raised working/middle class, became high-class with fame, nowadays she lives a fairly comfortable retirement but isn’t quite as loaded.

49: What country was your OC born in?

America

52: How does your OC feel about insects?

Bad

53: What is your OCs sexual orientation?

Aroace

54: Does your OC smoke?

Yes

55: What gender is your OC?

Female

56: What kind of clothes does your OC wear?

Comfortable, sturdy.

58: Is your OC introverted or extroverted?

Basically a recluse.

59: What is the first thing that someone would notice about your OC?

Her striking resemblance to a certain iconic actress of the 1950s.

60: Does your OC enjoy nature?

Very much. She lives in the woods and farms chickens.

Noora Lehtonen

2: Where does your OC work?

Her job is floating through forests and screaming.

6: Does your OC have any supernatural powers?

Floating, giving anyone who passes through her a little shock of static.

7: Is your OC in a relationship?

Yes, with Erja, who isn’t anywhere near as developed as either of them.

10: What is your OCs favorite outfit?

I guess by default the one she died in? Haven’t decided on it yet but it’s floaty.

11: What is your OCs spirit animal?

Her fursona? Maybe some sort of bird? I know I’m defaulting to birds but she is.

12: Is your OC sexually active?

As sexually active as a ghost can be, what with the,, not being solid.

14: Does your OC have a cell phone? If so, what kind?

No, again she’s old (though I’m still not sure how old)

15: What makes your OC angry?

Quite a lot of things.

16: When is your OCs favorite time of year?

Spring maybe? I don’t know but she likes lightning, which is a bit weird because she died from being struck by it.

17: How long can your OC hold their breath?

Indefinitely. Again, undead.

21: Who is your OCs best friend?

Connie.

22: Has your OC ever killed someone?

No, but she probably could.

24: What does your OC smell like?

Lightning. Lightning does in fact have a smell, I looked it up.

26: Is your OC a human or an animal? (or something else idk)

Ghost.

27: What languages does your OC speak?

Finnish, English.

29: Can your OC swim?

31: Does your OC believe in fairies?

She’s dating one.

32: Did your OC go to college? What did they major in?

33: Are your OCs parents dead?

Yes.

35: How flexible is your OC?

Very, since she isn’t really solid.

40: What is the craziest thing your OC has done?

Ran away from her family into the woods to elope with one of the Fair Folk

42: Does your OC drink coffee or tea?

No.

46: Is your OC loyal?

Unflinchingly. Probably a bit too loyal.

47: Does your OC tolerate violence?

Yeah, she’d be a hypocrite not to. She does try to keep her temper though, just not very successfully.

49: What country was your OC born in?

Finland.

50: Does your OC cry easily?

Yes

51: What is your OCs favorite genre of music?

I don’t know what genre you would describe it as but she makes her own music that mostly consists of distant screaming in the forest.

52: How does your OC feel about insects?

Friends.

53: What is your OCs sexual orientation?

Lesbian.

54: Does your OC smoke?

No.

55: What gender is your OC?

Yeah.

56: What kind of clothes does your OC wear?

Always the same outfit she died in. Again, I don’t know what it is, but it’s a bit torn and a lot floaty.

57: Would you call your OC adventurous?

Yes.

58: Is your OC introverted or extroverted?

Fairly extroverted.

59: What is the first thing that someone would notice about your OC?

Her sort of unhinged bedragglement I guess.

60: Does your OC enjoy nature?

Yes, she spends all her time in the forests.

#strudelmugel #noora lehtonen #connie cohen #my ocs

2 notes · View notes

finnishfun · 6 years

Text

How to start learning Finnish

I get asks every once in a while to recommend resources for beginners, so I thought of sharing what I started with and what I generally find useful for beginners.

Here is my resource post with all links and downloads I’ve collected so far, if you’re looking for specific things. If you know of anything I didn’t include, let me know and I will. :)

1. Apps

The first thing I used was the Finnish Fun Easy Learn 5000 words app. It teaches you words in different categories with various exercises (recognizing the words after hearing, writing them down, find the mistake, etc.), so it’s a good app for learning words in context. It also helped me to recognize various patterns in words that were helpful later. (also this was before I seriously started learning Finnish, so kind of a warm-up exercise).

Other similar apps are 6000 words also from Fun Easy Learn (it’s not actually 6k because you’ll have to pay for the full version) which has a similar structure with the added bonus that you can also practise saying the words and the app will tell you if it was good or not.

50 languages is also popular, again with various exercises to practise. (this personally didn’t work for me but mostly because my tablet kept crashing so that’s not to say others won’t like it)

So, a good idea to use some apps every day or maybe once a week, depending on what method you find best for learning. They can be a good extra practice if you want to focus on e.g. learning from a book.

2. Books

Language learning always starts with books, right? It’s always a good idea to have a grammar book, especially for Finnish. It will explain all you need to know and you can also practise. At least this method works for me.

Teach Yourself is probably one of the most popular books, I hear many people using and liking it. (The one on the link is an earlier edition, but just as good as the new one - I bought the hard copy). It’s a “classic” language book with topics, situations, grammar, vocab and exercises. There is also audio so perfect for getting an idea about speaking too.

Take a look at my resource list for more books, there are also links to various resource folders where you can download lots more. Maybe a different book will work for you, but I think this one is a good start. Whichever you chose, I definitely recommend using a book, at least for grammar.

3. Online resources

"There is no Finnish on Duolingo!” you will probably hear if you decide to learn Finnish. True, but there are other apps and sites you can use similarly, even if they not as “interactive” as Duolingo. Again, check the links to find something you like. :) There are some sites like Mondly or Mango that have premium features, so the free version is only a couple of lessons. Wasn’t worth for me so instead I tried to find others. The only two sites I use for Finnish at the moment are Memrise and Clozemaster.

Memrise is quite popular, mostly for vocab, even if you just choose one of the “most frequent words” courses, you can practise a bit every day and learn some new words that will surely turn up elsewhere. I did the beginner’s course first, it’s great even if you start a grammar book at the same time. Later you might find different courses that fit your needs.

Clozemaster is probably not the best for a total beginner, but after a bit it’s useful. You have to fill in the missing word in various sentences. The good thing is that these are sentences you might use in real life and contain very frequent words plus you learn in context and the grammar rules will turn up too. There is a multiple choice option which is good for beginners, later I switched to just adding the word by myself. You can play on various levels and the sentences repeat (so you can “master” them) so it’s also a good daily practice.

I didn’t have time yet to try more apps, but I will post about them when I do.

4. Immersion

Another thing you hear often as a language learner: Immerse yourself in the language! Read, write, watch movies in your target language, etc... so, how to do this with Finnish?

Reading

Again, check out the resources - there are some downloads and sites with children’s books which are probably the best starting point. They are easy and you can start recognizing things on your own and understanding more of the text. Believe me, you’ll get bored with it, but at first it’s a good feeling to say: Wow, I’m at the level of a Finnish four-year-old! :D Later you might want to read more complex books or Harry Potter or whatever, if you can and want, maybe buy some actual Finnish books :)

Also useful to read news and maybe Wikipedia articles on things that you’re interested in.

Writing

You might have to write some sentences during the exercises in your grammar book, so after a while you’ll be able to construct sentences on your own. Try writing short things at first, maybe a few lines about your day or choose a topic you’ve already learnt about. You can keep a diary or just post on your blog and others might correct it. It’s a good idea to write as often as you can, as early as you can, then you recognize the areas you have to improve in and go back to certain things if needed.

What to watch and listen

Youtube videos - check the resource list for some recommendations :)

TV programmes - again some links there, some probably have subtitles, but even without those you can just listen and see how much you understand, even if it sounds like nothing at first (an important part of language learning is falling in love with the language before you understand it, so just listening to it casually will make you love it even more and it also helps with listening to how people actually speak). You might find some cartoons/kid’s programmes as well which are probably easier to understand at first.

Music - just jump in and find Finnish artists you like and listen to them 24/7 and eventually you’ll pick out some words or try to learn the lyrics if you like (most of my Swedish learning was song lyrics for a long time) which helps learn a lot of vocab in context so you’ll remember better.

Disney songs - assume you know some Disney songs already, just listen to the Finnish version and similarly to music, it will help you learn more.

Watch movies - when you feel brave enough :D Also, watch movies you already know like Disney or others (if you can find them in Finnish) Again, you don’t have to understand everything, you know what the movie is about so try to pick out some familiar words.

Listen to the radio - again good for music and maybe some random speaking programmes

5. Tumblr

Make a langblr :D You can post about your progress, collect resources, practise writing and have others correct it, make friends and help others. You can find some of my favourite blogs in this post.

Tumblr is also good for finding random Finnish content and learning more about Finland and the culture. One way or the other you’ll find some Finnish blogs with interesting content and maybe eventually understand the weird memes they’re sharing :D Because let’s not forget, learning about your target language’s culture is important, and with Finnish it’s great fun because there are so many great things about Finland and Finnish culture.

6. General things

Some final pieces of advice based on my experience:

Don’t listen to the “OMG, Finnish is so hard” comments. Once you get the hang of it, it is just as easy as you make it to be. :)

Don’t be afraid to speak! Even if you just read out the dialogues from your book, words from Memrise or whatever, practise speaking. If you know native speakers and you’re not afraid to talk to them, do! :D

Practise every day (just like with any other language) - even if just a little, small progress is progress :)

Don’t get discouraged by the amount of grammar or unknown words or people who say it’s too hard. Just study in your own pace, try different methods, learn from the mistakes you make and try again. It will work!

This is all I can think of at the moment. Let me know if you have any questions and I will make more posts on different resources. And of course, good luck with learning Finnish! We’ll all get there one day!

#finnish #resources #beginners' guide

178 notes · View notes

android-babes · 6 years

Text

Tagged!

I was tagged again! Woww, thanks @pokengirl2 ! ♥

Rules: Answer these questions and tag 20 blogs you’d like to get to know better

Nickname: I don’t have one :D In my childhood people called me “Jensku” or “Jennuska” but my name (Jenni) is too short to make a nickname XD

Zodiac: Taurus

Height: 5′8″

Time: 1:17pm

Favourite band/artist: Uhmmm, I like Imagine Dragons, Linkin Park (R.I.P Chester ;___;), Coldplay, Starset, Halsey and one Finnish band called Haloo Helsinki! the most :D

Song stuck in my head: I don’t even like this song anymore (because it plays on the radio for like 10 times a day) and it’s in Finnish but here, if you want to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQedOObEqEE EEEEEEIIIII MITÄÄN HÄTÄÄ, KUN EI OMAT VOIMAT RIITÄNEEEET!!! :’’D

Last movie I saw: The newest movie I saw (which I hadn’t seen before) was Meet the Robinsons :D But last movie overall was Desert Flower, which I watched with my friend last week.

Last thing I googled: “ hey now, just walk away you once know “ I tried to find a song with these lyrics, didn’t find that. :’D Watched a video and liked the song in it.

Other blogs: @joutsentytto It’s with a different account and works like shit, I’m pretty inactive in there because of that. Dash there is really slow and the whole website is slow when I’m on that account and I don’t know why. This account works perfectly, so I don’t think it’s because of my internet.

Do I get asks: Yeah, once in a while. Requests more often, but sometimes some wonderful person drops by to praise my writings and I’m a red burrito roll for the rest of my day :D ♥

Why did I choose this user name: At first it was androidbabes. Then androidbabies (I don’t know why I changed that :DDD) and then I wanted to change back but androidbabes was taken already. So android-babes. But yeah, DBH - androids, I think it’s pretty obvious :D In my other account joutsentytto is a mini version of my philosophy. Joutsentyttö means “swan girl” and I have always thought I am an ugly duckling. But being an ugly duckling only means I get to be a swan someday :3

Following: 73, I’m really bad at following anybody :’D

Average amount of sleep: Uhmmm, I try to sleep that 8-9h but sometimes it may be 12-15h... I could honestly spend all my life in bed if I didn’t need food or didn’t have the need to pee :’D + Writing is the other source of my life and I can’t sleep and write at the same time :’(

Luck number: 7, 23, 5, 95 :D I was born on the 7th of May, 1995 and I’m 23 years old at the moment. So those are my lucky numbers, 23 changes every year.

What I am wearing: Still have my pajamas on :D An Olaf-tanktop where reads “I like hugs!” and Olaf-shorts.

Dream job: Can’t I just write fanfics rest of my life?? :( I don’t have a dream job. Being a writer would be too stressful to me + I don’t even like to write with my own characters in my own world. I wanted to be a professional photographer a few years ago, I went to study that and my passion for photography died when I studied that. I haven’t touched my camera since that at all.

Dream trip: Hmm... I’d love to visit Switzerland BECAUSE OF THOSE LANDSCAPES! :D And Croatia, and Greece, and Spain, and Italy. I’m going with my mom to Lerós, Greece in 2020 summer, I love that island, been there once before, but my mom’s visit would be the first ♥

Favourite Food: Pasta :D My favourite pasta isn’t made by me, though. There’s one Italian restaurant here in Finland where an Italian man makes THE BEST PASTAS AND PIZZAS! ♥

Plany any instruments: I’m self-teaching myself to play piano.

Eye Colour: Bright blue with a small spot of green, but in some light, they may seem green or grey.

Hair colour: Brown. I had a really light brown hair and used to dye it, because I hated that color and now my hair is that color for which I dyed it for years :D

Describe yourself as aesthetic things: keyboard keys, headphones, light blue, yellow, sunlight, tea, books, smile, PS4 controller? Sorry, I don’t know how to be aesthetic XD

Languages you speak: Finnish, English, a little tiny bit of Swedish :D

Most iconic song: Ahem, I was a huuuuge Michael Jackson fan for years (and still am but not that huge XD) soooo... Wanna be startin’ somethin’.

Random Fact: I’ve never had a boyfriend but boys keep crushing on me for some strange reason :D I just never like them back.

Tagging... aahh I don’t know who to tag so I’m going to pick (again) quite randomly :D So I’m sorry if you already have been tagged/already done this.

@resedabae @mikkasao @248dbh-writes @thirium-fiction @prettyandroids @detroit-extended @detroitbecomefugly @rk800downloading @riiwriting @tabegohan @youarenotevenhuman @thiriun @sentientdeviant @adi--writes @writinginstability @heckie-shmeckie @queenmarcelinesimagines @alexs-ummers @android-softies @dbh-imagines

//aaaand I just noticed it didn't tag anyone, though I tagged people like it should and there was links as I clicked post. Now it's been a few days since making this post so I'm not gonna fix it. Sorry.

#and again #i close my eyes as i press the post button #gosh why am i so nervous about tagging people #well #here we go #->

4 notes · View notes

drev-the-ambassador · 7 years

Text

EDIT: I don’t know if it’s just me, but the pictures in this post didn’t seem to be working properly on the mobile app at first. If the pictures are all over the place and don’t seem to be getting back to normal, you might have better luck trying the web page version!

So, in case no one noticed, I haven’t made a post in a looong time. That is due to a combination of a crappy computer, lack of time and also a bit of laziness. Originally I wanted to make this post the first post on the blog, but that didn’t end up happening. While trying to answer one sports-related ask I, seeing as the post was taking forever since I had to do a lot of research and on top of that, I had to write in proper sentences, I decided it would probably be for the best to make a quick post, a list perhaps, of some basic things about Finland. So I did. It’s this post. The reason it has taken me so long to get this done is that originally I also had a history portion, but it ended up making the post too long. I then decided it would be better to make that into its own post, so I settled on making a condensed version on this one.

Turns out, condensing 800 years of history into one post and keeping it at a reasonable length is not such an easy task. Huh, who would’ve thought? That means that you’ll be getting THREE separate posts about general Finnish history! Awesome right?

Anyway, this is not that post. This is just some basic stuff, and pictures. So, without further ado:

Some basic things about Finland

Name of the country: Suomen tasavalta (the Republic of Finland)

Location: Fennoscandia (not Scandinavia!!), Northern Europe

Edit made by me (as you can see from the top notch quality), but the map is from here Neighboring countries: Norway to the north, Sweden to the west, Estonia to the south on the other side of the Gulf of Finland, Russia to the east.

Official languages: Finnish and Swedish (technically Finland Swedish) Minority languages (mentioned in the law): Karelian, Northern Sami, Skolt Sami, Inari Sami, Finnish Romani, Finnish Sign Language and Finland Swedish Sign Language.

Languages with the most speakers: 1st: Finnish (4 865 628 people/88,7% of total population[as of 2015]) 2nd: Swedish (290 161/5,3%[2015]) 3rd: Russian (~75 000[as of March of 2017, same with the ones below]) 4th: Estonian (~49 500) 5th: Arabic (~21 700) 6th: Somali (~19 000) 7th: English (~18 500)

President: Sauli Niinistö, 12th president of Finland. in 2018 there’ll be a new presidential election, but he’s running for president again, and there’s quite a good chance he’ll get elected again.

Here’s our current president with his wife Jenni Haukio and their dog, Lennu, the first dog of Finland.

Currency: Euro since 2002. From 1860 until 2002 Finland had it’s own currency, markka. 1 euro is approximately 6 markkas.

Population: 5 503 297 as of 2016

Population density: 16/km2

Size: Area: 338 424 km2 Length: ~ 1 200 km Width: ~ 550 km

Number of lakes: 187 888

Number of islands: 179 584

Religion: 72,0 % Evangelical Lutheran 1,1 % Orthodox Christian 1,6 % other 25,3 % none

Important holidays: Vappu 1.5. Juhannus 20.6.-26.6. on a Saturday Itsenäisyyspäivä (Independence day) 6.12. Joulu (Christmas) 24.12. is celebrated more than 25.12. Uudenvuodenaatto (New Year’s eve) 31.12.

Other holidays: Laskiainen (Shrove Tuesday) Seven weeks before Easter. Pyhäinmiestenpäivä (All Saints’ Day) 31.10.-6.11. on a Saturday, NOT Halloween, we don’t celebrate it here. Pääsiäinen (Easter) The same time it’s celebrated elsewhere. Ruotsalaisuuden päivä (Finnish Swedish Heritage Day) 6.11. Äitienpäivä (Mother’s day) Celebrated on the second Sunday of May. Isänpäivä (Father’s day) Celebrated on the second Sunday of November, exactly half a year after Mother’s day.

Can you drink the tap water: Yes.

Number of saunas: 2 million - 3,2 million

Number of dogs: around 500 000 pure breeds, mixed breeds not included

Finland’s national

...anthem: Maamme, Vårt land in Swedish, Our Land in English. Composed by Fredrik Pacius, words written (first in Swedish) by J. L. Runeberg. It was performed for the first time in 1846. The Finnish translation is what made it become the national anthem, even though for a long time Finnish wasn’t even an official language in Finland.

...flag: A blue Nordic cross on a white background, the State flag also has the Coat of Arms of Finland in the middle.

...Coat of Arms: A golden crowned lion on a red background, standing on it’s hind legs, with it’s other armored front leg holding a sword, trampling a saber, with nine silver roses just kinda floating around. See for yourself.

...day: 6th of December, our Independence day.

...epic: Kalevala, published in 1835, made by Elias Lönnrot, who collected old poems and songs from Karjala (Karelia) and compiled them into one book. Kalevala has inspired many artists in Finland and abroad, one example being J.R.R. Tolkien. Kalevala has been translated into 61 languages, so you can probably give it a read if you’d like. (source)

...instrument: Kantele. (source)

...personification: Suomi-neito, the Finnish Maiden. Yes, we have an official personification as well.

...animal: A bear. It was a holy animal in Finnish paganism, so much so that it was forbidden to say its name out loud. To this day, we don’t know what the real, original word for bear in Finnish was. It had a lot of names that were used instead. The word we use today, karhu, comes from the word “karhea”, which means like, rough? It’s because of the texture of the bear’s fur. (source)

...fish: Ahven, European perch. Beautiful, isn’t it? (source)

....bird: Laulujoutsen, which is by the way a much prettier name than whooper swan (sorry English). Laulujoutsen literally means “song swan”. (source)

...bug: Leppäkerttu, a ladybug. Funny thing, you know how it’s called like a God’s cow in some languages? Well, the Finnish name, leppäkerttu OR the more specific species seitsenpistepirkko, are literally translated as “alder-Kerttu” and “seven-dotted- Pirkko”, Kerttu and Pirkko being Finnish names for women. What a weird name. ALSO, one of the gods pagan Finns worshipped was called Ukko, and it is commonly believed that he was the highest of all the Finnish gods. A ladybug, back then, was called ukonlehmä. You know what that means? Ukko’s cow. (source)

...horse: Suomenhevonen, Finnhorse, literally “horse of Finland”. It was, for a long time, the only horse breed in Finland. It’s apparently considered one of the fastest and most versatile coldblood breeds in the world. During WWII, the Finnish army did not have many cars, so suomenhevoset were very important back then. 7 200 horses died or went missing during the Winter War, and the horses that did survive had their minds as broken as the men they’d stayed beside. There are quite a few memorials for the horses, after all, they helped to carry the wounded when no other vehicle could. We owe them a lot.

This is one of those memorials. It’s called Suomenhevonen - Sotahevonen, which means basically “the Finnhorse - a war horse”. (no relation to the movie)

....dog: Suomenpystykorva, the Finnish Spitz, yes, we did need our national dog, who doesn’t??? Written mentions of a barking hunting dogs with red fur have survived from the end of the 19th century, but dogs very closely resembling the breed have been used for hunting in Finland for hundreds of years. (source)

...tree: Rauduskoivu, silver birch. (picture by me)

...flower: Kielo, Lily of the valley. (source)

...stone: Graniitti, granite. It’s the most common type of stone in Finland, and it’s been mined here even to be exported. For example, the pillars of Saint Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg were made of Finnish granite. And, of course, so was Finland’s Parliament House in Helsinki. There’s even a type of granite that has a Finnish name, rapakivi granite.

...poet: Johan Ludwig Runeberg (1804-1877). The words of our national anthem were made by him, and he wrote a collection of poems, called Vänrikki Stoolin tarinat, The Tales of Ensign Stål, an epic poem about the Finnish War of 1808-1809, a work of literature second to only Kalevala. He was already considered a great man (suurmies) before his death, and Runebergin päivä, Runeberg day, is celebrated on February 5th.

...composer: Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). Composed such little pieces as Finlandia (which was once suggested as the anthem for the whole world), the Karelia Suite, his seven symphonies, Valse triste, and many more. Finlandia is perhaps the best known out of all of them, especially the Finlandia Hymn. It is very beautiful, I agree. Here’s a link, go have a listen if you have time.

...author: Aleksis Kivi. He was the first professional Finnish author. He is the best known for his novel Seitsemän veljestä, Seven Brothers. He also wrote plays and poetry. Oh, yes, I should probably mention that this first professional Finnish author lived in 1834-1872. No, we haven’t been writing books here for very long. There are no photos of him, but there’s this drawing by Albert Edelfelt.

...saint: Piispa Henrik, or Henry, Bishop of Finland. He was murdered here in 1156. Maybe. He might’ve not existed, no one knows for sure.

...satu: See, the word “satu” technically means a fairytale, but some stories that are called a satu in Finnish don’t actually have that much magic stuff, you know? For example this one, that I swear I saw being called Finland’s national “fairytale”, but if it’s not, that’s fine, because it’s still a very well known tale in Finland. It’s called Koivu ja tähti, which means the Birch and the Star. It’s about two children, who were taken from their parents and from their home to Russia during the Russian occupation of Finland called “Isoviha”, or the Great Hatred. A lot of people died, okay, I’ll talk about it later in the history post. Anyway, the siblings, a boy and a girl, who want to return back home to Finland. However, the only thing they remember of their home is the big birch tree growing outside, and how a star always shone through the branches in the evening. They start making their way home, with only two birds leading their way, and after a year find their home and their parents, still alive. However, their two sisters had died while they were away, so the children realize that the two birds were actually the souls of their siblings leading them back home. This was based on the story of the author’s, Sakari Topelius’, great-grandfather Kristoffer Toppelius’ life, as he was taken to Russia as a slave, but after escaping and following the sunset he eventually found his way to Southern Finland.

But yeah, that’s about it. In our brand new series (that I came up with while making this post), “Some basic stuff about Finland”, the next part will be about the years Finland was a part of Sweden! Material for tons of fanfics y’all

I hope you enjoyed the read! Sorry that it took so long!

#hetaliafandomdirectory #aph ambassador #aph finland #finland #hetalia #and if you think my posts are too long pls tell me #the amount of times i typo'd the word Finland while making this and the history parts is too big #kinda like when i made my essay on the russification of finland in 8th grade #though then it was with the Finnish names and like both Finland and Russia and i think Sweden a few times???#i really can't write #sorry if this has many mistakes it's nearing 2 am now and i am quite tired so i'll fix the mistaks in the morning #i would've gotten this out sooner but i spent the afternoon making karelian pies with my cousin and grandma #hohoo #it was fun #sorry for the rambling btw #but i do hope you like this!!!#I spent a lot of time on it #i know which posts ill do next btw #answer a couple of asks and make a couple of my own posts #the hardest part is writing because i keep getting distracted by research

135 notes · View notes

riisinaakka-draws · 7 years

Photo

Under the cut there are some thoughts on the process and ideas behind the drawing JOURNEY INTO THE DARK if you are interested :)

I thought it would be too big of a burden to mention all of this within the art post. This is also for my own archiving purposes (so I won’t forget what was involved! :D) and it’s always nice to see how things start and develop...

Long post ahead! (contains spoilers for the show)

COMMENTARY:

I continued this work bit by bit over a period of several months (I started this just when s4 started airing) and only finished it recently. A few hours then and then (whenever I felt like it or had time for this), but I can’t really say how much time it took all together. Occasionally there were weeks/months that I just forgot about it and was more focused on other things...

Most of the thoughts here are fleeting ideas during the process (how a thing X lead to thing Y) and some personal fun and not something I actually spend too much time on dwelling or planning (or researching lol). I have probably forgotten some already and some happened by accident and some I am just incabable of putting into understandable words.

None of these are any actual instructions (or limits) of “this is how it’s to be seen”. Art doesn’t have to be or even shouldn’t be explained in some cases, but I just wanted to document the process and open up the symbolism since there were a lot of (random) things involved.

It’s also fun to look back on things and how they evolved and what their connection to other things were.

You are free to have your own interpretations of course and I hope this additional post doesn’t ruin any of those :)

The initial idea and motifs:

Flint decends the steps from light to darkness and Miranda is standing behind him as an accomplice/orderer. Stepping stones get bloodier by every step and gold coins are glimmering on the path (Urca de Lima’s gold). Sword is drawn out for war and slaughter. Black water as in the opening credits + general darkness to represent the abyss. Reflection shows James when he was happy (him returning to Hamiltons) and how much he has changed compared to that (McGraw vs Flint). Sort of stage / antique/ greek tragedy(?) setting with marble columns, red curtains (like a myth, a monology or a story or something).

A white feather shining in the dark to show there’s always hope and another way out. I already explained this in another post, but here it is again:

Short answer: Silver (although some of you may not like it) Long answer: the feather is for “hope and an alternative for war” (the dove of peace..haha). Also remember the trap Flint laid in season 1? The feather and the logbook in his drawer -> leads to Silver’s capture later.

The feather is also a reference to the swan of Tuonela (in Finnish mythology the river of Tuonela separates the world of the living and the dead (compare Styx in Greek mythology I guess). Flint decents to the world of death (also represented here by the pale and dead-looking organic shapes of the opening sequence’s sculpture… thing).

Anyway, the feather is mainly about Silver: both how they end up meeting in the beginning (the trap, and then some new hope along the way and eventually some light in Flint’s miserable life) and what (who) also ends up being “the end of Captain Flint” (a tiny nod to the swan guarding the border between the living and the dead).

Visually I wanted something to shine in the darkness to remind there’s always hope and another way out. At one point it had an additional thin string leading to Thomas’ hand. You know, a connection to the memory (and to the reason of Flint’s revenge and war path and so on) but the idea didn’t work so well and felt too distracting so I left it (the string) out. And then the finale happened (!!!) and the reflection became also the future.. :D

a way out of the darkness… :)

There was also a post going around a long time ago about the empty space (the absence of Thomas) next to James and Miranda in some scenes, so I incorporated that in here, too. Unfortunately I cannot remember who did the post, so I cannot link it right now :| It was something about how some of the New World scenes were framed in a way that it looked like there was something missing (aka the third person of the trio).

Here’s the early drafts again so you don’t have to scroll back:

I didn’t like the first composition that much and continued it into another direction with similar elements and the main ideas.

The stepping stones changed to wooden planks: angrier zigzag lines (rage) and also the idea of “walk the plank” (except that you don’t know when and where the nightmare ends...)

I ditched the gold coin idea. The overal setting became more spacious and gloomier to emphasize the vastness of abyss and the smallness of people. The stage / arch became the staircase seen in Flint’s dreams.

The whole thing is sailing on a similar sculptural thing seen in the opening sequence which for some reason made me think about the floating theatre in the Moomins (when the Moomin valley is flooded in one dangerous midsummer. LMAO):

(*coughs* lots of water, a stage and some drama after a disaster...so..)

(At one point I was also thinking about Howl’s moving castle and how that too is a monstrous looking vessel travelling between worlds (well, opening doors) but how the moving castle itself is also composed of various other things... and how in the drawing Flint would be stepping out of the ride for a moment to do some dark deeds in one of these ‘worlds’ etc.)

Black Sails opening sequence - is there a term for that cool monstrosity?

Some other inspiration and references:

Akseli Gallen-Kallela’s “Lemminkäisen äiti” (Lemminkäinen’s Mother, 1897).

(notice the swan, the black water, blood-covered stones, ‘the mother’ and the red-bearded ‘son’ waiting/asking for a spark for new life after the mother has combed his broken parts out of the river and assembled them back into the shape of a man)

I must admit that I didn’t bother to think any deeper parallels with Lemminkäinen and Flint (or the Mother and Miranda) beside this (more about it later though) and mainly had my thoughts just on this painting and its visuals because it is so well known (and liked) in Finland.

Moving on.

Screencaps from season 2 (source here):

I chose the latter stairs for the reflection (although modified) only because they were in London and there is an arch above them (to mirror the window in the drawing)

Some steps futher when the needed elements are more clear:

At some point I tried things with a lot more light and coldness (below, left pic) to channel some of the the dream sequence in s3 but in the end I chose the darker atmosphere, faces in shadows and I also wanted to preserve the red colour somehow (right pic):

The reflection sketch (at some point), although most of it cannot be seen in the finished work and thus didn’t need too much details. Young lieutenant James McGraw returning to London from his voyage:

Also, (and I am so sorry about this, but it was “fitting” and I decided to keep it..) in the reflection (when flipped and put in its position) the plank (their unfortunate blood-covered war-path and future) accidentally hides Miranda’s face and decapitates her so to speak and she won’t be there anymore ;_;

Thomas, on the other hand, is in the reflection to meet James - both in the past and again in the future - but not in ‘the present’ where Miranda is.

Miranda in Flint’s visions (s3 ep3):

When I first met you, you were so Unformed.

And then I spoke and bade you cast aside your shame, and Captain Flint was born into the world. The part of you that always existed yet never were you willing to allow into the light of day.

I was mistress to you when you needed love. I was wife to you when you needed understanding. But first and before all I was mother. I have known you like no other. So I love you like no other. I will guide you through it, but at its end is where you must leave me. At its end is where you will find the peace that eludes you, and at its end lies the answer you refuse to see.

And then in s3ep5: You can't see it yet, can you? You are not alone.

The end part of it is seen in the fandom as a reference to Silver (and his partnership) and how Flint’s mind is telling himself to see it too. And I agree on that. I don’t think James had any hopes for Thomas being alive (especially in s3). As I mentioned earlier I originally did the reflection to show him (Thomas) only as a memory. Then the finale happened and the reflection got its double meaning :)

And here again Miranda as the mother (there has been better discussions about this topic and speech in the fandom so I won’t go more into that now). In the inspiration painting that I showed earlier the mother had assembled his son back together (for rebirth / reanimation) <--- Miranda being part of the creation (birth) of ‘Captain Flint’.

Aaaaand here’s the feather again and Silver’s words (and sort of motto):

“Take it from me, there's always a way.” (season 1)

“Nothing is inevitable here. I'm showing you a way in which we can survive this.″ (season 3)

Some further fixed details and adjustments. In the end the wall almost disappeared and to me it made this feel a bit like “floating alone without a shelter on your back or a place to return once you leave its premise”... I fixed the perspective of the planks (took me surprisingly long to notice what was wrong) and got the bloody red back on the planks (and not leaking too much on the water).

I wanted the water to be quiet, pitch black and endless and the reflection to seem like a dream. I probably should’ve done everything a bit more detailed or sharper, but in the end it didn’t feel so necessary (and it would have been way too much work, haha).

The final drawing:

The planning and initial idea was done after seeing s3 and just when s4 was beginning so there weren’t any thoughts linked to s4 while making this (other than the surprise connection with Thomas). Most of this I did paint after s4 though, but only to finish what I had already started.

One more thing. I also made “the doors of the warship” -drawing after planning the JOURNEY INTO THE DARK (although I posted the doors pic first, since it was finished earlier).

It has a similar lighting and the theme of James and Miranda facing together ‘the civilization’ although this time they are stepping towards the light again (in hopes of closure and the promise of new life... which doesn’t go well as we already know ;_;).

James and Miranda about to leave the warship and meet Lord Peter Ashe in Charles Town:

So, here we sort of have a beginning and an end for their journey in the dark (together) - believing that there are just the two of them left from the original trio.

Aaaaaand, that’s about it. Sorry about some repetition and messiness.

As I said in the beginning of this post, you are free to have your own interpretations (and I hope this post didn’t ruin any of them). These were just the things and thoughts that went into this work (or were stumbled upon along the way...), but you don’t have to take them to your heart.

Thank you so much for checking out this post and I hope it was worthy of your time! ( ˘ ³˘)♥

#black sails doodle #some interesting and silly meta about my own drawings #long post #for archiving purposes and vacant reading #(although tumblr is not forever but anyway)#I like to have secret meanings or personal easter eggs in my work although many of them are not that secret really #or well thought for that matter #and some probably don't make any sense (except to me)#good thing I made some notes during the process..#feel free to comment if you want #(I was supposed to post this yesterday evening)#(but I got stuck in the kitchen drinking coffee and talking with my flat mate until it was midnight and it felt too late to post)

70 notes · View notes

rememberthattime · 4 years

Text

Chapter 52. Finnish Lapland

I’m writing this introduction from our flight from London Gatwick. It is 6:14 AM. Cold and rainy. We’ve been up since 4, and even my few hours of sleep were interrupted by relentless coughing. I should feel tired and angry.

But instead I’m bursting with anticipation - like my body can’t handle the excitement (maybe that’s the reason for my cough?).

This is Chelsay and I’s first weekend trip, and as the plane makes its way to the runway, I’m remembering the #1 reason we moved back: accessible travel, starting with this weekend’s trip to the Finnish Lapland.

Our second round of European adventures began with this road trip to Nellim, Finland, an extremely remote town of 150 people tucked 250 miles into the Arctic Circle, just five miles from the Russian border.

However, before writing about our three days in Finland, I want to quickly cover our first three weeks in London.

I could talk about our return to Richmond Park, about our walks through Soho and the reminders of how “cool” London is, or about how we found our flat in Hampstead within 24 hours of arriving... All of that was great, but I really only want to write about one thing: Indy.

Yes, 12 year old Chelsay’s dream finally came true. As a kid, she’d tell her mom she was going to live in London (...she watched a lot of Mary Poppins). She would have a great job and a nice husband. But most importantly: she would have a border collie named Indiana Jones. This dream came true when Chels and I traveled up to Derby, England to visit a puppy litter. All of the puppies had chubby butts, but our little Indy was easy to spot: tail wagging, stomping over his puppy siblings, and already showing affection to his new parents. It was love at first site.

We won’t get to take little Indy home for a few more weeks, but that hasn’t slowed Chelsay’s “puppy mom” obsession. We bought his crate and fence on the ride home from Derby. We’ve been watching hours of dog training videos on YouTube. I’m receiving dozens of texts each day with the same puppy picture. ...Who am I kidding though? I’m just as much of an obsessed “puppy dad”.

That one Indy story means you’re caught up on our first three weeks in London. Back to our first trip.

There’s always a buzz when you’re going somewhere new, and that’s especially true in Europe. Every country is so accessible yet so unique. Spain is nothing like Sweden nor Morocco. They’re all just three hours away, but might as well be on different planets.

This was proven true as our plane descended into Finland. The landscape was whiter than a Dave Mathews concert. Snow everywhere. No patches of civilization, just patches of evergreen forests covered in more white. We took off in metropolitan London and landed literally in the Arctic Circle.

If this was evident on the flight in, it became especially clear as we left the airport. I asked our rental agent for the car keys and he looked back at me as if it were obvious: “They’re in the car - I started it 30 minutes ago.”

As we stepped out the airport doors, I realized why this should’ve been obvious — and also why his directions to the car were so emphatic. Everything was frozen, including the car had he not started it earlier. Chelsay and I would’ve been frozen too if we didn’t literally dive into the car.

After barely avoiding frostbite, my first thought upon hitting the road was “How can people survive here?” It’s just snow, ice, and sub-zero temperatures for months!

youtube

But the Finnish rightly play up their winter wonderland. In fact, it’s close enough to the North Pole that Lapland claims to be the Home of Santa. Yes, of all the places in the entire world, Santa chose Rovaniemi, Finland to set up shop. What an honor.

After a brief stop at Santa’s offices, we hit the road for our four-hour drive to Nellim. This place is remote, and that was exactly the intention. My two goals for the trip were (1) to see the Northern Lights and (2) to walk through snowy, silent Finish forests. Heading as far into Lapland as possible gave us the best chances for both.

The drive was a breeze: we had studded tires for the icy roads, and a James Acaster audiobook for entertainment. Plus the landscape kept us in awe - tall spruce forests lined the roadway and the black concrete was covered in ice, loose snow whipping around in the wind.

youtube

We were conscious of daylight on our drive up. In winter, the sun technically rises at 9:30 AM and sets at 3 PM. I say “technically” because there is actually far more daylight thanks to Nautical and Civil twilight, two things I’d never heard of before this trip. Given Lapland’s latitude, sunrise and sunset last about two hours each — rather than have a defined light time and dark time, Finnish days are just caught in perpetual semi-visibility... In addition to being “Home to Santa”, Lapland is apparently also the Twilight Zone.

Stop it Mike.

Anyway, we arrived at Nellim Wilderness Resort after sunset and nautical twilight and civil twilight and any other twilight. It was dark, but there were still a few activities available our first evening.

First, our resort had an illuminated sled hill. We didn’t know about the sledding beforehand, but once we’d seen it, Chelsay and I couldn’t resist.

Our riding styles were absolutely on brand: Chelsay laughed and screamed the entire way down (reminding me of our ride on The Mummy roller coaster at Universal Studios).

youtube

Meanwhile, I took sledding to an extreme by riding headfirst (likely breaking my ribs with what Chelsay called “The Salmon Jump”), then later trying to surf down (likely breaking my back with what Chelsay called “The Concussion Tumble”).

youtube

We were in the right country to recover from our (my) frigid falls, because the Finns love a hot sauna. In fact, they invented it! 1000 years ago, some Viking named Olaf probably tried that sled-surf thing, and a smoky sauna was his novel therapy!

Luckily the resort’s saunas were private, because similar to sled-surfing, I introduced a new twist to an old tradition: no one in the history of saunas has ever sweat as much as I did. Olaf included.

Outside of sledding and saunas, the other big nighttime activity in Lapland is searching for the Aurora Borealis. The Northern Lights are fairly common this time of year: about 50/50. The problem was the weather was due to be overcast & snowing throughout, so Chelsay and I came in with zero expectation.

We mentioned this to the receptionist at Nellim, but she wasn’t giving up hope. She said to keep our eyes peeled for stars: if you can see the stars, there’s a break in the clouds and a chance to see the Aurora. It didn’t hurt that our room was 50% window.

Just as the receptionist predicted, we saw stars from about 10:30 to midnight. Staring out felt like being on a hunt, eyes dashing from one side of the sky to the other in hopes of seeing a green flash. Eventually I fell asleep, but the resort offers an Aurora alarm in case the lights appear.

Unfortunately there were no alarms either night.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed - the Northern Lights were one of the main reasons for visiting, and the brief star sightings provided a cruel tease of unwarranted hope. But the Aurora is just weather after all, and as the sun rose the next day, we remembered how cool it was to be in Nellim, Finland. Plus, the flip side of this snowy cloud cover was a clean and white-coated winter wonderland.

The fresh snow was perfect for our first activity of the day: dog sledding. These huskies were dying to get out and run, and I’ll never forget their excited gallop as we burst through the trees onto an open, frozen lake.

youtube

Chelsay and I switched off as driver, both flirting with danger. Chelsay nearly led us into Russia, while I ghost rode the sled. If you’re not familiar with ghost riding, it’s where you hop out of a moving (now driverless) vehicle and run beside it. Based on the look in our dogs’ eyes, I’m not sure they’d seen this before.

After the morning excitement, Chelsay and I had earned extra whipped cream on our hot chocolates. I’ll briefly mention the dining, which we both surprisingly enjoyed. Finnish food is not traditionally exciting (a lot of lingonberry and reindeer), but the Wilderness Resort came through for each meal: tasty lamb shanks, potatoes gratin, mushroom risotto, panna cotta, and more. And obviously a lot of hot chocolate.

We regained enough energy over lunch for our afternoon activity: snow shoeing. We planned to be out for a few hours, so bundled up in three layers of everything: socks, leggings, sweaters. We even doubled up on gloves.

Now insulated from the sub zero temperatures, we were motoring around the quiet, empty wilderness in no time. Nothing but clean snow and creaky timber for miles. Chelsay said it reminded her of the land of swirly twirly gumdrops from Elf: “Byeee Buddyyyy”

We climbed up hills, slid down slopes, trekked across frozen lakes, forged our own paths through the deep snow, and tracked the only other footprints we could find: wolf and reindeer.

youtube

Just as the sun was setting (at 3 PM), Chelsay and I stumbled into a peaceful and perfect grove. It was a beautiful setting and the most memorable moments I’ll take from the trip.

The evergreen branches were coated in snowy white clumps, the crisp air was cold in our chests, and the only sound we could hear was crunch... crunch... crunch... as we gently shuffled across the deep snow.

We returned to our room with that “exhausted but content” feeling. Our quads were burning but we’d accomplished what we came for.

That night, we enjoyed another remedial sauna - this one was somehow sweatier than the last. We didn’t have any energy or unbroken bones left for sledding that night, so we instead stayed in our room and watched Parasite (great movie) while sipping hot chocolate. I doubt I’ll remember what JOMO meant when I read this in 20 years, but this night describes it well.

We were making the long drive back to Rovaniemi around lunch the next day, but had plenty of time for morning walk. This time we attempted to go without snow shoes, but quickly realized that walking through deep snow is hard! Your feet sink with every step, and you have to contort your legs up & out of the snow to make any progress.

youtube

Chelsay compared it to the Sahara, except instead of sinking ankle-deep in sand, we were literally waist-deep. Luckily we persevered long enough to stumble across a pack of reindeer.

With our quads burning, we figured the reindeer sighting was a good enough cap to our Lapland adventure. Sure, I wish we’d seen the Northern Lights, but Chelsay and I are still very content with our first trip back in Europe.

I say that without any doubt. Rewinding to our flight from London: Lapland’s frozen landscapes exceeded the “new city” excitement I felt as our departing plane rolled toward the runway.

Lapland is a different planet: part winter wonderland, part uninhabitable wasteland. Its frigid wilderness is unlike any of the previous places we’ve visited, but the craziest part is that it was all so easily accessible. Chelsay and I were 250 miles into the Arctic Circle, literally a short walk into Russia’s northernmost territories, yet remained just a three hour flight from London.

That’s why we moved back: because every trip Chelsay and I take has the potential to bring us somewhere new, special, and completely different from anywhere we’ve ever been.

I can’t wait for our next departing plane to roll its way to the runway.

0 notes

williamlitt · 4 years

Text

Moonshine

Today is Sunday. A peaceful mid-June afternoon, the sky is clear and there's a soft heat in the air. I've started my backpack Eurotrip a week ago. Last night was my third in Zagreb. But while getting up this morning, I got the feeling I was done here. So I just picked my bag and booked a ticket for the next train to the seaside.

Now I'm boarding on the wagon, and the seat assignment from my ticket is occupied. I had been going out quite often these last days, socializing a lot. So in this moment, I'm just feeling like isolating myself a bit. I see a free 1-seat spot in the corner. I sit there, anticipating a quiet and studious journey. It's the natural way to continue a quite introverted day. A few meters away, there's a sweetest spot though: some 2 & 2 facing seats, with a wide table in-between, perfect to write on my notebook more comfortably. Unfortunately, some random guy is already set-up there, and I happen not to be really in the mood for talking.

Okay, fine. Let's go anyway. At least I'll be enjoying the landscapes from a wider window.

Unavoidably, some conversation starts flowing with my new neighbor, a freshly graduated chilian backpacker. His name is Javier. Unexpectedly, we immediately get on very well. He had been traveling for a month already. We are quickly skipping the small-talk part, and his epic little stories end up reviving my empathy.

The train is almost ready to go. A large group of (probably) british guys have already filled up the other part of our wagon.

I haven't paid much attention to any newcomers until then. But when three (probably) foreign girls settle right next to us in the parallel row, I raise my head. Among them, one is really easy to notice. She has long and straight dark hair, blue eyes, a pale skin, a graceful silhouette.

Her appearance is rather pleasing to me, but there's something else. Perhaps the way she moves into space smoothly, her way of being present or something. She chooses the seat facing mine, but in the parallel row; so I have her on my right diagonal, not even 2 meters away.

It's not taking long for the train to depart and soon my conversation with Javier quiets down naturally ; so I pick my notebook while he grabs something to read.

The girls are chatting together, in some lenguage hard for me to identify. I'm apparently taking some notes, but these are kind of random. I cannot get a single word of what they are saying, but I love the sounds of it.

Then, I feel like trying to guess, so I clear my throat. « Hey; by any chance are you from the Baltic area? »

They look at me gently, and answer they are from Finland : Helsinki and Turku.

To fill the following silence, I go for the first genuine compliment popping up. « Finnish is a lenguage that is... » but I realize mid-sentence that using the word « beautiful » would be too generic and lazy, so I pause and look at her specifically - it then strikes me how stunning she is - I forget about the whole Finnish lenguage compliment thing - and just go like « ... special. »

My sentence altogether probably ends up sounding pretty weird, but well. What's there to answer? not much. We all get back quietly to our business.

Some minutes pass by. Then all of a sudden, she asks Javier and I if we have a pen to lend. He immediately answers « For sure! » but I'm quicker... I proudly offer her « a multicolor pen! », as if it was some seriously fancy item. She smiles.

I observe her writing down stuff on what seems to be a diary. She is charmingly expressive when writing, playful yet serious. Meanwhile, I'm also taking some notes. Kind of useful ones this time.

This lasts quite a while. And when she hands the pen back to me, I turn my head to find her eyes - they are captivating - clear blue but somehow dark - kind but untamed.

She says « thank you » kindly. I'm thinking « you're welcome » while looking at her, but no actual word comes out of my mouth (even though I have half-opened it). It's okay though, I feel she got what I meant.

The journey continues peacefully. Everyone is getting a bit sleepy. I lean my head on the window, watching the green landscapes go by. By now, she has moved out onto the two empty seats behind Javier, her back on my window. I can see her hair in the narrow space.

I'm thinking of the many hours left to spend on the train; of the many times I had pathetically watched my chance slip away; and of stuff being all so ephemere anyway, etc.

As logical conclusion, I go and rip off a piece of paper. The note I write on it is basic: I'm asking for her name while giving her mine. I fold it into a tiny paper plane. Then, I discretely throw it to her, above the seat in front of me.

While awaiting for a reaction, I start conditionning myself to appear all cool and casual about it, even though I'm experiencing a little rush of stress.

Several seconds later, her face appears from in-between the front backseats. She's looking straight at me. Her expression is a mix of shock, interrogation and amusement. It seems like she is mentally asking « are you serious?! »

The intense eye contact we have makes me forget about all my plans. I have the impression I am talking to someone I've known for a while already.

So just like that, this little game suddenly feels like the most obvious thing to do. I spontaneously smile, shrug and rise my eyebrows, mentally answering "why not?"

Then her face suddenly lights up; she agrees with a genuine smile.

It doesn't last long until I see her answer rolling down to my feet, on the same tiny paper.

Her name is Eva. And she's enquiring about what is up.

I tell her I'm going to the city of Split. She tells me they also are. I tell her about my backpacking plans. She'd been around before and gives me a few tips.

Now and then, to make sure new notes are well-received, we glance at each other discretely, in-between backseats and window.

The notes are progressively growing in length. By now, an official mailing channel has been established below the seat next to Javier. At some point, he notices something is off, and looks at me interrogatively. I say I'd explain later, then wink at him.

Little by little, we start to get to know each other. I learn she's fond of some old French photographer I had never heard of ; that she's been especially into Finnish music recently ; or that her grandma loves bossa nova.

Time and landscapes fly. Now there's only one hour left to roll. Soon our little game would be over and we would both go our way. She's still there but I'm already thinking about how to see her again.

We've already exchanged contact infos to keep in touch « in case we hear of any cool musical event happening in Split ». But I start doubting about whether that's enough or not. Without any further calculation, I draw two little squares to check on the next note. I'm openly wondering « what would be the coolest thing between: a) keeping the notes flowing; and b) just starting to chat casually ».

She answers drawing a third little checked square which says « or you're very welcome to come and sit next to me ».

Then I feel half-enchanted, half-tensed. Everyone around us is pretty quiet at the moment, and I have no idea what I'm supposed to tell her. On the notes, I had the time to think, to choose my words correctly; there it would be total freestyle.

But now it's to late for hesitations. So I stand up, move toward her, offer her my hand to shake, say out loud in a jokingly formal voice « nice to meet you », and just sit next to her.

She is close now. Her pupils are dilated. She smiles at me in such a manner that my brain stops operating correctly.

It's relevant to say something else now, right ? I don't know. I have to look away to regain cold control.

« So... what do you do... like... in life ? », I ask her finally. She says she's a singer and an actress back in Finland. Plenty of new interrogations pop up in my mind. How did she get into this ? What are her inspirations ? How is daily life like ?

She is answering each of my questions briefly, while always asking back about me right away. That's funny, I think. I had been so used to meet people who enjoyed it more listening to themselves.

I can feel her confidence. She speaks with a clear and expressive voice. And the more I look at her, the more I can't help but feeling a bit impressed. She probably meets up with lots of cooler-than-average guys everyday. I'm feeling like I need to stand out, somehow.

It's harder to connect with people when we're in our head. And that's where I'm getting back right now. I'm thinking about what would be the best story to tell next, how could I tell it so subtly I'd appear cool and humble at the same time. I want all my questions and answers to be unexpected. I can't stand any small-talk or generic statements anymore.

I don't manage to really look deep into her eyes, now. She would see right through me. The conversation keeps going, but I've become more focused on playing my part correctly than actually connecting with her. I'm hearing myself telling stories I've told before. I notice all the little mistakes in my speech. She smiles and sometimes laughs sincerely, but I'm slowly starting to dislike this egocentric character I'm into.

Our relation is now not as natural. Topics are dealt with fast. There are short silences. She kindly also does little efforts to keep it alive. Not all my answers are as deep or funny I wish they were. I fear to be boring. And as I feel there's no harmony anymore, my confidence is diminishing.

We have been talking for more than half an hour, but I've become slightly doubtful. What if I had been staying by here side for too long ? What if she'd also like to have a chat with her friends now ? I really hate being the clingy guy. We've already exchanged contact infos, that's time for me to go.

While I'm telling her I'll get back to my seat, I'm struggling to say a proper goodbye. It's kind of abrupt, there's no particular reason for me to suddenly leave her. And she may interpret it as if I haven't been enjoying her company ; this perspective makes me feel awkward. I'm trying hard to tell her in a cool way that we may « team up » tomorrow, for « some adventure » at « some beach ». But the way I'm saying it makes me realize she could interpret it as if I was feeling lonely and looking for friends. I've been loving my solo backpacking trip so far, and the idea of her thinking otherwise instantly kills the last bit of confidence I had left. And while I'm finishing the most confused sentence ever, she looks at me with so much kindness and comprehension that I foresee an unrepairable failure, and my goodbye ends up sounding as sad as a farewell.

Back at my spot, I sit down, motionless, defeated. Damn it, I usually never get that vulnerable, why did it have to be this way at this particular moment? Well, I had a little chance, I screwed up. Truth is I didn't expect she'd affect me that much ; this doesn't happen with the girls I'm used to meet. It's alright, I accept the lesson, and will learn from it.

A moment later, the train hits the final destination. We're all reaching for our bags and stuff. We agree to go for a little beer with Javier. And without really believing they'd be interested, I also politely suggest this idea to Eva. She says they'd first settle down at their flat, then keep me in touch if they feel like it. I'm kind of pessimistic.

To pack my things, I take my time. I don't want to be that stingy guy who coordinates to stick around. Out of the train, I see her glancing at me one last time. I can't help but smile with a mix of politeness and sadness. She answers doing the same.

It's 10 pm. The air is warm, humid. It smells like the sea. The city is a charming old port, the tiny houses there have beige stone walls and reddish tiles. There are little lights everywhere. Lots of people are hanging out at restaurants and bars. The atmosphere is festive.

We're walking down the street toward our hostels. Javier is laughout out loud when I reveal to him the whole train story. « So... are you gonna see her again ? », he asks. I don't think so.

Today is Tuesday. I had been texting with Eva since yesterday. She told me that tonight they'd probably be going out for some drinks on the beach. I was « welcome to join » them, and I could « bring some people along » if I wished to. For sure, I told her I was « in ».

I didn't have anyone to bring, though. Javier had gone away in the morning to some nearby islands, so I said I'd be coming alone.

Today was a hot, sunny day. I've been chilling at the beach all along, walking by the shores, swimming, sunbathing.

Right now, the evening is perfect. It's still warm, the sky is clear, the moon is really big.

She just kept me in touch : they have bought some wine and are about to leave their flat to the city. Although she warns me she'd have no internet there. I try to call her but it doesn't work. She says she may use her friend's phone to reach me later. Alright, let's do that.

The streets are filled with enthusiastic, often fancy-dressed people. All bars and restaurants are full, music is blasting everywhere. I've bought some beers at the shop and I'm looking for a nice panoramic spot by the sea.

Down at the harbour, there is a large and wide dock crowded with people sitting on stone blocks, drinking. These are mostly young people, many different lenguages are spoken and the mood is nice. That's where I'll hang out for now, I guess.

At the end of dock, I'm watching far away toward the horizon. The water is peaceful. I have my earphones on, playing loudly uplifting tracks.

Time goes by. I'm enjoying spending time alone, I feel I can do whatever I want to. I may think about all my favorite things while never being interrupted. I'm lightly grooving to my music, without caring that much about other people around.

It's getting late now, and still no news from the girls. It's okay though, I've got my mind made up. Doubtlessly, I had appeared socially unskilled in the train's last conversation. She probably felt that me joining up solo would be a risky addition in terms of group dynamic. Plus, her two friends certainly wanted to spend some time altogether and avoid having their friend subtracted by some random guy. That's all fair to me, I got it, I don't mind.

At some point however, I decide to leave the dock to go for a little walk around. Otherwise when I'm sitting and drinking for too long I get sleepy.

These sweet vibes got me in a good mood. The perfume of the sea, the tropical atmosphere, the happy people around. I don't need anything more, honestly.

I'm taking the main alley by the hearbour, eastward. It's where all the fanciest bars are situated. All the terraces and alleys are packed with loud people eating, drinking.

I've been walking for not even 100m and some element of the whole display suddenly puzzles me. On a small stone block, I see three girls sitting. They have their back to me, so I get around and pass them by to check their faces. It's them.

I'm glad to bump into them randomly like that, of course. And I'm not even mad they haven't tried harder to contact me. Okay, maybe a slight bit, in the deep of the emotional side of my mind. But on a rational level, I totally get it.

The fact that I had been kinda disregarded somehow eases me down. Now I feel expectations from me are pretty low. I don't have much to lose, nor much to prove. It's a bit of a paradox, but now I don't care that much. I'm just welcoming things as they come. And it feels good.

They appear positively surprised, I greet them all cheerfully. The two other friends are named Hanna and Anna. The meet-up is all benevolent and smooth. They had been sitting down here for a little while, drinking wine from a bottle, but were willing to move around. They agree to go and see that same dock I just came from.

I still have my mind set on Eva, obviously. But I really want her friends not to feel ignored, I sincerely want to connect with them as well. So I'm paying a careful attention to all of them equally, with the same curiosity.

We find a free spot at the end of the dock, which offers a wide panorama on the sea. I'm opening my second beer. I feel we've all quickly found a way to get along. It's natural. I like their openness and simplicity.

The lenguage topic is quite lively. They are teaching me some Finnish while I help them with some French. Hanna knows a whole lot of numbers, and her pronunciation is quite decent.

Beyond the usual classics, I'm feeling like teaching them the essential sentences to to survive in the French hood, just in case. They are enthusiastically practicing three different ways of asking « how is it going ? », gangster-style. I try to persuade them that it's the most useful thing there is.

The conversation is flowing all pleasantly but soon, all of our bottles are dry. We're all on the same page, it would be best to keep on getting hydrated. We'll walk by the eastern shores of the harbour, and see if we can find a nice location for drinking supplies.

While we hit the road altogether, Eva comes right by my side. I'm sensing an early form of magnetism in the air. And I'm glad to see how easy it is to connect with her now. I'm profoundly feeling each thing she means, and it seems to be mutual.

Anna listens to classical music, but for dancing she likes radio hits. We spend a little while talking about music composition with Hanna, she's also into it and uses a different software than mine.

We're passing by some night clubs, and many bars which are all kind of look-a-like to me. It doesn't take us long to settle down at one of the terraces by the sea.

The waiter there argues that for cocktails, it'd be nice to go for the « local experience ». So be it. I'm picking some kind of a Mojito derivative. It's not bad.

We're now discussing bout party traditions worldwide.

To my dismay, I just found out that scandinavians actually don't start at 6pm to finish and go to bed early. That was just a legend.

I'm telling them about the mexican drinking game culture, advocating for their top-notch expertise in that field of research.

The timing feels right to go and try some.We'll just go for that app-based one. Turn by turn, it gives a randomly selected little challenge to one of us. It's quite basic, but it offers a nice playground to learn new things about each other.

I appreciate the girls' enthusiasm to try and do it all fully. Anna demonstrates a rather skilled fluidity in her dancing moves, while the struggle is real between avoiding some forbidden words and remembering not to answer any of Eva's questions.

At some point, I'm selected for the « staring challenge » ag ainst... Eva. I'm immediately ready to go and last forever, while, according to her prompt reaction, she seems to be quite motivated as well. But Hanna foresees the everlasting situation to come, so she adds right away « alright, so the first person to blink loses as well ».

Eventually, this game turns out to be quite rewarding for the most prominent sinners among us. It helps to be knowledgeable in liquor brands, to have been involved in fights already, or other types of improper behaviors.

It's getting late by now. We're about the last people on the terrace. The waiter comes around and tells us the bar is about to close. We'd better be on our way.

I'm standing up, stretching, while talking to Eva. And when I turn and step toward her, she does the same. We end up standing in front of each other in quite an usual short conversation distance. I'm so close to her face I could nearly touch her. We aren't saying in anything special, but all I see is her eyes, wide open, fascinating. I'm out of order again.

Hanna's voice wakes me up. Where shall we go now ?

It's passed midnight but the air is still cool. We're all in a light mood. The idea of chilling a the beach is pleasing everyone.

There's a charming and quiet one I know, but it's by the other side of the harbour, on the western shores. It will be a bit more than an half an hour walk.

Hanna warns us she had been texting to some Finnish friend who'd like to come along. He'd catch us up nearby, at the central alley of the harbour.

We're off in that direction, by the sea. Anna and Hanna are leading the way, and I'm walking beside Eva. I'm with her 100%. And I forgot about the whole group dynamic thing. Little by little, I'm letting the flow take over.

Our meeting point is down a large alley with palm trees on a side. Lots of festive people are passing by. The girls just picked a bench to sit on and wait.

I'm also sitting comfortably, my arms spread on the bench's backrest. She's so close I can feel her thigh subtly touching mine. She's a bit worrying I'd get bored just waiting. I'm telling her « it's all good, I'm all happy here. » As long as she'd be around, I thought, I didn't care that much about what was happening and where.

In some matters, sometimes, I happen to be kind of shy. Especially, when it comes to do the first physical steps. All typical approaches usually seem to me a bit too cliché, too soap-opera style. I find it hard to know the right timing to do the right thing the right way, etc. There's always a probability of unpleasant rejection, and I particularly dislike feeling invasive.

But now, for once, I'm pretty confident. I have the impression I can read her, more or less. How she's feeling, what she wants. And in this moment, I'm sensing rather positive vibrations.

Therefore, all casually, I'm delicately laying my hand on her shoulder. But surprisingly, it feels as if it was the 1000th time I'd be doing that. It's the tiniest thing, the most simple touch. But still, it does light me up inside for a second.

Eventually, the Finnish guy shows up. He has some kind of an indie-artsy-skater-style, if that means anything. Hanna said he was a pianist. He just told me his name but either it was too complicated, either my mind was still somewhere else. Anyway, he takes a few cans of beer from his bag and offers one to each of us. We start talking and he seems like the nicest guy ever, easy-going and chill. In a deep and dark corner of my mind, I can't help but wonder why would Eva like me specifically, among all others. This thought soon vanishes, though.

On our way to the beach, everyone is happy. Anna and Hanna are having an engaging conversation in Finnish with the new guy. And I'm walking behind with Eva.

The alleys start getting way quieter, especially in the area we're going to. The western beaches are kind of less popular, less artificial somehow.

I'm not paying much attention to the surroundings, if we're going the right way or not. I'm just enjoying the walk, her company. I like the lower-than-average tone of her voice, and her subtle Finnish accent. I like the way she listens carefully, all ears.

When I finally look up to check what's up with the other guys ahead, I see our group has enlarged again. Two new guys are now walking along. Getting closer, they greet us. They are both swedish. They seem pretty friendly, cool people. They admit still being a bit tipsy after their night out. They say they'd be glad to join us for our little beach quest.

Soon, there starts a private joke session, scandinavian style. I'm not getting it all, of course, but I sometimes laugh anyway just because it sounds funny.

At some point, the tallest-blond-muscular swedish guy comes around Eva playing it all smooth operator. It's quite obvious he's not indifferent to her. He's doing his little show, but I don't mind.

She's far from falling for it though, I'm not surprised but it's still nice to witness. I'm charmed by her assertiveness, by the way she implicitly dismisses his advances.

We are now reaching the rocky side of the shore. There are cliffs, old small stairways carved in stone, and a lush kind of tropical vegetation.

The night is clear, all so peaceful. The moon is gigantic.

The winding pathways we're going through are pretty narrow. I take her hand. It feels like something normal we had been used to for a while already. We're now getting more comfortable in that double dialogue, between spoken and silent things.

The beach we had been searching for soon appears to us from the distance. As far as I could remember, it was much further away.

It's shaped like a large bay. The shores are made of sand and tiny rocks. It's all calm, we're the only people left.

There's a fresh breeze in the air now, it's kind of late. I think we'll eventually just sit by the ocean and enjoy the view. The girls didn't bring their swimming suits, and I believe I'm the only one with a towel.

Yet, as an evidence, Eva starts taking her clothes off, so do I, so do the others.

The tallest swedish guy hurries to go first. I'm second. The water temperature is survivable. In relative darkness, we have to step carefully among the tiny rocks.

I'm advancing slowly toward the unlimited horizon. And when the sea level reaches my waist, I'm diving in. It's delightful. I'm turning around to lie on my back, looking up to the starry sky. I have an impulsion to swim away from the shore, far. So off I start drifting away. But then I see her, coming along. Despite everything, I'm still genuinely amazed she cares.

Our friends are now quite a long distance from us. We still hear them laughing while splashing water to each other.

The sea level is still below my chest when she stops and stands just in front of me. The moonshine reflects white flickering halos on the calm waves. I didn't know the night could be so bright naturally. I see her face clearly, her hair is wet, waterdrops run on her shoulders. I'm admirative. This makes me recall some cool cinematic scene from a fantasy video game I used to play years ago. Hopefully, no one can read my thoughts.

But then I find her eyes. She is giving me that same magnetic look, inflexible, penetrating.

My thoughts are fading away one by one. No analysis anymore. No judgement. My mind is silent.

The train, the city, our friends, everything feels far appart now. Time is like suspended. The scenery and the sounds become dim, and she's the only one left. Attraction is slowly and inevitably pulling me toward her. When we eventually collide, it feels like a tiny firework inside. Her skin is silky, and a bit cold. She's light, delicate.

Now I'm taking her hand, and lifting it up to invite her for a dance. It makes no sense but it feels just right. She slowly sways round below my arm, amused. The sea is playing its quietest and most hypnotic tune.

We're drifting in circles around each other, floating in every way. My senses are all awaken. There's no need to explain, no need for words, it's all balanced.

Apart from the fresh breeze blowing gently, there are some colder streams swirling underwater. Two seconds away and it's pretty cold, two seconds closer and it's not cold at all.

On the ground however, there are some rather spiky things among rocks. And it really hurts like hell when we step on them. It's as if we were dancing on a minefield. We both find it funny though ; the way we alternate between solemn grace and sudden sparks of agony.

I have no idea how long we had been in the water, but it seems like our friends are now moving back to the beach. We'll catch them up.

In the deep of the night, we're all dripping wet, frozen, yet cheerful.

I see she's shivering, so I'm wrapping her in my towel. I look at her, and we both know it's a whole new paradigm now. Rules have changed. Walls have fallen.

Our feet are slightly bleeding from few tiny wounds, « but it was worth it. »

It's time to head back home. My left foot is severely aching, which causes me to limp a bit while walking. She grabs my arm. We're now leading the way together, through the rocky pathways.

We aren't saying anything particular. Silences don't feel awkward anymore. There's no fear to do too much or not enough. I just know I'm feeling good, in her presence simply.

The swedish guys are sleeping in their boat, which is parked by some dock along the way. We leave them there, saying we'd keep in touch.

Not much further away, we reach our crossroads. It's almost 3am. They'll go back to their flat and me to my hostel, and it's all natural that way. I'm telling to Anna and Hanna it was nice to meet them, while sincerely meaning it. I don't even have the time to think about how to say goodbye to her, she reaches to me for a kiss. One last charming glance, and she turns away for good.

Now I'm the only one left by the harbour's shore, limping around. I'm kind of stunned. I hadn't anticipated any of that.

The night is still clear. The streets are completely desert. I'm taking a deep breath of the sea. In this moment, I don't want or lack anything particular. I'm just glad to be here, to do each little thing coming my way.

0 notes

juliankka-blog1 · 7 years

Text

Tag Game

Thank you to @norxcoffee for tagging me!

Rules: Answer 30 questions and tag 20 people you’d like to know better

1. Nicknames: I don’t think I have any?

2. Gender: Female

3. Zodiac Sign: Aries

4. Height: I don’t actually know nor do I have the energy to figure it out, all I know is I’m shorter than most people at my school.

5. Current Time: 3:20

6. Birthday: I’d prefer not to say the exact date(sorry...)

7. Favourite bands: Right now I’m really into Sonata Arctica, I also like Innertier as well

8. Favourite solo artists: I really like Johanna Kurkela, she has such a pretty voice! And lots of her songs have really nice and inspirational lyrics which is also great!

9. Song Stuck In My Head: A weird mash-up of Sonata Arctica songs, specifically Fairytale, Cloud Factory, Deathaura, Kingdom For A Heart, and The Wolves Die Young

10. Last Film I Watched: I don’t actually remember, I rarely watch movies, I have recently watched a clip of Frozen in Norwegian? Does that count?

11. Last Tv show I watched: Probably Spongebob, since in the mornings the TV is always on and it’s normally on a cartoon channel, and Spongebob is normally the show that’s on when I wake up in the mornings.

12. When did I create my blog: Over this past summer, but I only started taking it seriously and posting regularly around October 28th

13. What Do I Post: Art that I’ve made, most of it being Hetalia fem!Nordics

14. Last Thing I Googled: flower shops in Denmark, I needed it as reference for the picture I posted yesterday.

15. Other Blogs:@juliankka-languages , basically just a bunch of stuff to help me learn Icelandic, Finnish, and Norwegian

16. Do You Get Asks: Not usually, just the occasional drawing suggestion, although I’d adore to get more! Drawings from asks are my favorite thing to draw.

17. Why Did You Choose Your URL: My middle name is Juliana and one of the first words I knew as a kid was the Finnish word ‘ankka’ meaning duck, and my toddler brain combined the two and created ‘Juliankka’, I’ve always loved the name, so I started going by it on the internet!

18. Last Thing I ate: A piece of pizza

19. How Many Pillows: 1

20. Favourite Colours: Basically anything except orange

21. Favourite Tag: Probably ‘ahh’

22. Lucky Number: 15

23. Instruments: I’ve played guitar for around 4 or 5 years, I played flute in mandatory band classes in grades 5-7, and I’m learning piano in music classes at school, and I’d love to learn the violin in the future.

24. What Am I Wearing: A red shirt with pajama pants, I was too lazy to get properly dressed this morning.

25. Last Thing I Wrote: A message to a friend

26. Dream Job: Either a clinical psychologist or a foreign language teacher, since I love both psychology AND languages

27. Dream Trip: I’d love to visit Finland again, and going to Sweden again would be cool too, and I’d love to go to Iceland, Denmark and Norway for the first time.

28. Favourite Food: I love pasta and ice cream, and lots of Finnish food is cool too.

29. Nationality: Born in Finland(my dad’s side is Finnish), but moved to Canada when I was little(my mom’s side is Canadian)

30. Favourite Song Right Now: Ahh I have so many there’s no way I could pick just one! A few would be Ég á líf, Endeløst, Numb, My Heart Is Yours, How Far We’ve Come, Ainutlaatuinen, Kuolevainen, Cloud Factory, Deathaura and so many more, I listen to too much music.

I tag: I still don’t know that many people and lots of them have already done this, so @snowyy-owl @call-me-n0ni-chan and @hachaton(hasn’t posted much but is one of my school friends), of course only if you guys want to, and anyone else interested!

#this was fun!#thanks for tagging me!

2 notes · View notes

mcrmadness · 4 years

Text

17 questions 17 people

@hanhan156 tagged me to do this. I guess you’re supposed to tag 17 people but oh boy I don’t even know that many people and if I do, I can’t remember more than like 2. Every time I need to list things, my mind magically goes blank. I guess it’s the only time it’s totally blank, too. (Note to self: Try making lists more often! Maybe you will accidentally start meditating one day...)

1. Nickname: I have such a short first name, Aada, that I don’t have any nicknames :( Well of course my family has came up with all kinds of names but nothing what could be used outside of the family. My friend once named me as Dexter but I don’t know if she even remembers that anymore :D But I really like “Madness” tho and probably would change it as my real name too if I could. There’s just that this is not really a name that anyone in real life uses - apart from online friends but if I meet them in real life, they usually call me by my IRL name anyway. I also have a love-hate relationship with my actual first name because it bugs me and it’s so feminine to me, but everyone who knows me says they don’t see it as a feminine name at all because of me. So for years I’ve been looking for a “new name” but still haven’t found it (”Ade” being one possibility but idk if that feels like me either). A few days ago i did have a realization that “Madi” could actually work even in Finnish and it would be very neutral too - and it’d be from my online nickname I’ve been using since I was 13-14 aka for... 16 years. But I don’t know, I’ve always wanted to have nicknames but from my name you can’t make anything actual that would also work in everydaylife.

2. Zodiac: Cancer.

3. Height: I‘m short, just about 156cm.

4. Hogwarts House: For years I was a Ravenclaw but then one day Pottermore put me to Slytherin. Idk what happened there, mentally I still feel more like a Ravenclaw.

5. Last Thing I Googled: "Stoopid” because my anxiety kicked in and told me to check if this word is just a random word or a reference to something I don’t know and shouldn’t use because I might accidentally make people understand something about me that isn’t true.

6. Song Stuck in My Head: I have had Apulanta songs spin around in my head non stop for days. “Tivoli” was there for days and then it changed to Palava pensas...

7. Number of Followers: 286 atm, I think. (Holy shit I’m really making a fool of myself in front of so many random people...)

8. Amount of Sleep: It depends, 7-8h is enough but my body doesn’t like to be consistent so it can be anything between 5 and 12 hours.

9. Lucky Number: 13, and 23, and 123. (And 3.)

10. Dream Job: Oh I have too many, I wanna do little bit of everything but idk how when even having one job would make me be basically braindead zombie in the evenings. Currently all the things I’d want to do something with: languages, linguistics, arts, video editing, animals (I’m a horse groom), zoology, genetics, detective, video games... too many choices, so little time and energy.

11. Wearing: My oldest (black) Rammstein t-shirt, black college pants as I use as my “home pants” and socks.

12. Favorite Song: Right at this very moment my favorite song is Paaso from Apulanta.

13. Aesthetic: Not exactly sure what is meant with this here but I’m drawn to the color black. Especially when it’s combined with red. I also like it a lot when it’s with white and grey. Another color I’m drawn to is orange - it’s been my fave color since I was a kid and even tho I don’t wear anything orange, it still attracts me a lot and I might even do impulse buys just because something is so pretty orange. I even chose this apartment because it has orange living room walls and that is not very common in Finland. And I’ve bought two bowls and also a fruit bowl from bargain sales because they have this pretty color of orange. So on the outside I’m quite dark, I dye my hair black and I wear only black but on the inside I do like colors, too, especially warm ones. My home is actually lots of black, white and grey, bit of red in the kitchen to go with it and living room’s main color is orange. I also love tigers and I have a huge rug with a picture of tiger on it and recently I bought bedsheets just because the tiger image. Oh and one of the bought pictures in my kitchen? Tiger. (One has zebras and one has a tree, they all are black and white.) And I’m the opposite of minimalist. I guess this is my aesthetic.

14. Favorite Author: Douglas Adams.

15. Favorite Instrument: I really love the sound of piano, and violin. As a kid I actually learnt to play piano myself but social anxiety kinda took over. Lately I’ve been feeling like playing piano again because you could get an electric one and attach headphones to it so no one would hear it and I could try to get even with my social anxiety, but these things are so expensive. And I doubt my dad will borrow me his... Usually I don’t like slow songs but if a slow song has piano and/or violin (and especially if them both!), I’m usually sold if the melody just stays interesting. The next most important in music is probably drums, I didn’t even see this before I at some point started to wonder this more and I tend to be drawn to music with complicated drumming. Every time I have been wondering what is it with this band, why do I like this even if it would be otherwise somewhat dull or not that diverse, I usually find the answer from the drumming style. (I can’t stand simple drumming that stays the same throughout the whole song! Some of my fave drummers who are or were in bands like: die ärzte, Rammstein, MCR, Yellowcard.)

16. Favorite Animal Noise: Just any cat noise that doesn’t indicate hurting. Or this sound horses make when they greet you. It just makes my day every time :)

17. Random: I’m a Monty Python fan and I have very weird sense of humour. I suspect it’s because I grew up with things like MP movies. And talking of movies, my favorite actor is Jim Carrey. I normally don’t have fave actors - there’s plenty of great actors but I think Jim Carrey is the only one whose movies I have watched just because he is in them, and he’s been my fave actor ever since I saw “Dumb and Dumber” when I was about 5-6 years old and my aunt had it on VHS and I started watching it there. Normally the other great actors just happen to be in my favorite movies, the plots and such are more important for me. And btw I’m also a Tim Burton fan and my all-time-favorite TB movie, movie overall and movie soundtrack will always be Beetlejuice.

I’m gonna tag: @stufenlosregelbar and @notafraidofredyellowandblue aaaaand the rest I’ve already forgotten. Sorry for that, but tag yourself if you want.

#tag games #me

4 notes · View notes

kiiruna-a · 7 years

Text

resposnse #1 : i fell, i run. for you, to you. ( x ) @minugahanax

aleksanteri woke up at nine. his vintage alarm clock woke him up, ringing through the apartment like a school bell. without opening his eyes, he reached one arm out from under his blanket, turning it off. when he opened his eyes, he realized dawn was just coming out over the city. winter was really approaching; the time of the year where he had to get used to the sun never raising, like this part of the world was a place forgotten by god through three months of the year. he moved out of his bed, not making too much of a mess, as he was quick to lean down towards the mattress again when he was on his feet, tidying it, putting the blanket over the pillow & straightening the wrinkles. then, he picked up his glasses from the nightstand, placing them neatly on the bridge of his nose, observing his bedding one last time. he stood with his torso bare, though a pair of worn-out, light grey pajama pants swallowing his legs, & his boxer lining showing, like he was a teenager. it was cold. his apartment was rather small & bare, considering he had put all his money & efforts into his boat, which was larger than any house he’d ever own. so, from a hook hanging on the bedroom door, he picked out a dark green morning robe & wrapped himself in it before continuing on his morning routine like on auto-pilot. he put coffee powder & water into the machine. when it made it’s first noise, he left it to do it’s job, picking up his cigarette pack & walking over to the kitchen window, where he sat & reluctantly opened up for the chilly, ocean-air which would hit his face. lighting the cigarette, he really savored the first drag of the day. it was a breath so deep his robe got tight around the chest, & then he slowly exhaled, the smoke coming out thick & lingering, like clouds. not a lot of it actually seemed to make it’s way out the window, but he didn’t really care. on the kitchen table he had his phone, charging. when he picked it up & let the screen light up, he noticed that it was fully charged, & unplugged it. however, he noticed something else; the first thing to put his morning routine off balance, & he hadn’t even had his first sip of coffee yet. text messages. first of all, it was still rather early in the morning, so he couldn’t really figure out who would have texted him during the night. second of all, everyone knew he didn’t like to text. he always wanted people to call him if they needed anything. simple information was okay over text, things where he wasn’t supposed to reply. this, however... it was many texts. it gave him a bad feeling. immediately he tried to think of what he was supposed to do today; he didn’t have a match. he had practice, but it was in the evening, after both the women’s team & the juniors had theirs. he had planned to visit his parents for lunch, but they barely knew how to text in the first place. it really gave him a bad feeling in the gut... with another drag of his cigarette, he opened it. the first time he saw genjiro’s name, he suddenly understood, & he didn’t feel too affected by it. he had slowly started to build an armor around his heart, so he could pull through all those messages & mails sent to him by the mute. he exhaled less graciously, like a sigh, the smoke running through his teeth. he opened the conversation. big mistake. once he saw what was on it, his heart dropped down to his stomach & his stomach to the floor, it felt like. his eyes opened wide, almost terrified. he read the lines over & over, trying to grasp them while waking himself up from the fantasy that this was all a dream. genjiro is coming. aleksanteri continued to stare at the time they were all sent; just past nine pm yesterday. in other words, almost right after aleksanteri had put this phone to charge. he cursed under his breath, & once he realized how nice that felt, he did it again & again. he hadn’t repeated so many swear words after one another since––– he couldn’t even remember. it was twelve hours. how long was a flight between japan & finland? thirteen? fifteen? it meant he was almost there. he, was almost there, & he wanted to see him. for every second it seemed like he realized over & over that he wasn’t making this up, & the butterflies that rushed up his whole body tickled his throat & made him feel like he could throw up. if he hadn’t been so stupid & went to bed so early, he would have seen it, & he would have had time to think, to make a plan! he clicked away the message history & stared at the rest of his phone. he needed to do something with it. something drastic. he wasn’t sure if he was prepared, but it didn’t matter. genjiro had made that decision for him without knowing it. so, aleks stood up, not even bothering with the fact that he took his cigarette with him away from the window as he moved back over to the coffee machine, filling one of his many cups with the finnish coat of arms full of black coffee, took a sip, took a drag of his cigarette, & dialed a number. his stomach felt like it was squeezed & turned inside out, in knots from start to finish; or even ribbons. tight, tight ribbons. « yes, antti speaking. » aleks brushed his hair back, frustrated. this was the last thing he needed right now. breathing in sharp through his nose, he tried to collect himself enough to come off as his regular self. it was dark & monotone when he spoke. “ good morning, dad. is mother there? i need to talk to her. “ « oh, aleks! yes, sure, i’ll take you to her––– but son, is something wrong? » of course he didn’t manage to fool anyone. his heart was racing really, really fast now, & despite being cold just a few minutes ago, he was sweating. the instinct to flee overwhelmed him, because he hadn’t felt such a sensation since that very day at the marina in japan. he was used to being on top of the food chain, arrogant & confident, but now it felt like he was going to have a heart attack at any moment. despite that, he took another drag of his cigarette. it was long, & he heard his father shuffling around on the other side of the line. speaking & letting the smoke out on the same time, aleks leaned on one of his kitchen counters, closing his eyes, trying to collect himself. “ yes, father. kind of. you don’t have to worry, though. i just need to talk with mother about it & it’ll be fine, probably. “ he said, surprised over how convinced his voice came out, considering it felt fake to the core when he said it, every single word. he heard his father humming suspiciously on the other end, but eventually accepting the answer he’d been given. then, he heard a door open & the male’s voice calling for his wife. once again, aleks felt like he might throw up. he had to put down his coffee––– that’s how bad it was. the two started discussing. his mother sounded worried, because of course his father had to tell her himself that aleksanteri was in some kind of trouble. the couple really hadn’t had to deal with anything like that since aleksanteri’s rebellious, punk phase, before he enrolled military training. fifteen years later, & he was going to be honest with his parents again. this whole year had felt like he’d been lying more than ever before. it made absolutely no sense, because he had always been in the closet, all these years, but after meeting genjiro he had really realized how much he had been faking himself around everyone in his life. it didn’t feel as bad around the team as it did around his family. now, however, that would come to an end. possibly a horrible end, but an end. « hey, aleks. what’s on your mind? » the hockey player smiles a little as he hears her chase his father out of the room, convincing him that it’s best if aleks gets to talk to her on his own. he is immensely grateful at that moment, & for half a second he feels hopeful, & it makes everything just a little better for a man who’s world is cracking underneath his feet. “ something has come up, so i might not be able to have lunch with you today––– " « oh! did something come up? » a punch to his gut. he knew she meant well, but his brain was already spinning at it’s highest capacity, & having to take in her questions & re-phrase himself, making it all take even more time, it really frustrated him. he had to take another drag of his cigarette, as deep as the others, & then knocked some ash off in the sink. with his free hand, he reached over to the ventilation over the stove & turned it on, hoping it’d help with the stench that filled the kitchen slowly but surely. “ someone. “ he replied, his voice colder than he intended. “ someone came up, mother. i never told you this, but last summer, in japan, i actually fell for someone. it probably seems weird to you, why i wouldn’t tell you... considering i never have had anyone to bring home to you, while all your other children already married, & i have always rejected every single discussion & question, i have acted as if dying alone is what i’ve always wanted... but that was not the case... there’s something else, & i’ve always been scared to tell you, because i’ve already been so much trouble to you, such a disappointment, going on as i did when i was a kid, a teenager... i already embarrassed you so much. i didn’t want you to get in trouble or even––– hate me, because... your only son is... into men. “ at least he did not have to worry about an awkward, cutting silence. immediately, his mother gasped. it really did sound like her old heart was malfunctioning & she was getting a heart attack. the hockey player bit his tongue there, pressing back his desire to say anything more. to laugh, as if it was a joke. to apologize, or excuse himself, or make something up to make it all seem more okay. he wasn’t going to do that now. he wasn’t going to underestimate his mother’s patience & love. instead, he just waited, smoking more. despite that this was where his whole world was going to change, forever, most of it was gone by the time those words left his lips, as if the sentence itself held a weight heavier than his 100kg weights at the fitness center, & once he dropped them to the floor, there was a quake, but it was over. he could catch his breath & enjoy the feeling of having nothing to carry but his own person. his true, genuine self. « aleksanteri niilo toivonen... you should have told us earlier. if you’d told us... maybe, all this time, you could have... you could have met someone... » he could tell that his mother was moved. not angry, but upset all the same. her voice was trembling, & she was speaking with her fingers in front of her lips. that fact made him so relieved, he left the vent by the stove active, yet moved over to the living room, collapsing to the sofa. his elbow leaned on the headrest & his head in his palm. perhaps she was right. no one had ever told him before, or mourned over his lack of a love life, so it had all felt like something obvious to him; that he wasn’t going to have anything, or anyone. now, however, she really made it seem like it was something he could have had; something he had missed out on. it made him feel a kind of raw sadness that tore his heart open, & he could feel his insides bleeding again, like the day he left japan was just yesterday. with a hard swallow, he tried to keep calm, for her. “ mother... that don’t matter. what i’m trying to tell you, is that, right now, that person i fell in love with over a year ago, he’s coming here. he’s literally on a plane right now, coming here, to make me realize that he loves me. long story short, we did not end well, & i’ve been really upset, but... he’s trying to make it up to me, & he should land in helsinki... well, soon. i’ve been ignoring him for so long, mother, thinking he was just messing with me, that there was no reason for me to put more energy or heart into this relationship because it was never anything to begin with... but now i’m not sure. should i met him? shouldn’t i? i need your help... “ he knew that was going to help her. she needed to be a mother, she always had. she raised three kids at the same time, & now, when they were all adults, a large sense of purpose for her had ran out into the sand. she needed to know he did trust her, from now on, & she was the only one who could help him, because she was his mother, & she would always be. he needed motherly advice, even at thirty-five. what had been lost was not important right now, but what laid ahead. what was arriving at noon––– « aleksanteri, do you love him? » a rock seemed to build up inside the finn’s throat. he felt sweat run through his body again, almost frightened. this really would be the first time he told anyone except for genjiro about his feelings. about how much he loved & how much he hurt. he had carried it on his own all this time, tearing himself apart from the inside & out. for the first time, someone was going to listen to him, & he would not have to go through this alone. the realization made tears build up in his eyes. his breath trembled, & he took another drag from his cigarette. “ i do, mother. so much... “ he confessed, the crying coating his voice with sadness. it felt foreign to hear himself like that, like he was listening to a voice on the radio or the tv, not coming from his own throat. he closed his eyes, trying to collect himself through focusing on his breathing & pressing back his tears. on the other end, his mother was also clearly sobbing. never had he ever felt this close to her. « well! » she exclaimed, a bubbling laughter coming through his sobbing. « he clearly loves you too, you moron, so you need to see him! » aleksanteri couldn’t help but let out a chuckle-resembling sound as well, though it was a simple twitch of his posture, & then it was over. he swallowed repeatedly, saliva building up from his smoking as well as excitement. this was crazy; but it finally felt crazy in a good way. she really made it sound so easy. “ if... it goes to hell... i can come to you, right? “ he asked. it was a vulnerable question, which was new to him, but it felt good to let it out. a part of him was slowly realizing that maybe he wasn’t tired of trying, tired of hurting; but tired from having to carry it all on his own. with someone to hold him, to listen to him, to cry with him... he could pull through everything, he was sure. all this time, this solution had been right in front of him, but he hadn’t grasped it. he’d been alone for so long, he’d forgotten the power of love. « of course, my son. i’ll go to the store & buy your favorite food, & wait for the news. lord almighty... i’m proud of you. »

#( the c r o c o d i l e ) // threads .#( aleksanteri & genjiro ) // his guilty pleasure .#minugahanax #( I HAVENT WRITTEN THIS MUCH ANYTHING IN FOREVER )#( THIS IS SUCH CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT I ??? CANT ??? )#( HOPE UR PROUD OF URSELF TALA )#long post //

2 notes · View notes

wolfhourr · 7 years

Text

100 questions

I was bored af and tried to do these questions.

1. Is a kiss considered cheating? ya.

2. Have you ever faked an orgasm? Not one I could think of

3. If you could have one superpower, what would it be? probably flying

4. Do you think you are going to be rich in 7-8-9 years? hopefullyyyyy

5. Tell us some funny drunk story. Oh my god I know so many but a bunch of friends and I were celebrating midsummer and we had this wooden cross which we’d decorate with branches and flowers and one of my friends (he’s got long wavy hair) stole my flower crown and carried that cross halfway home through half of the town we live in and it was like half past 1 in the morning and the people on the streets were shouting ‘oh my god it’s Jesus’ all the time and that was freaking hilarious

6. Why are you no longer together with your ex? long distance isn’t cool

7. If you had to choose one way to die, what would it be? I don’t think of shit like this often but I’d like to have it quick and simple

8: What are your current goals? becoming a pro in photography (concerts mainly) and drone videography (basically shooting aerial footage for music videos and movies, that would be the most rad thing)

9. Do you like someone? I actually like a lot of people

10. Who was the last person to disappoint you? ugh, there are a few people who do that frequently but mostly band members

11. Do you like your body? parts.

12. Can you keep a diet? Nope I’m pretty weak regarding food

13. If the whole world listened to you right now, what would you say? Stop fucking killing each other and try to love everyone regardless of their origin or religion or sexuality or views

14. Do you work? I study Scandinavian Studies but I’ll be working as an aupair in Finland starting in August 2017

15. If you could choose only one food to eat for the rest of you life, what would it be? This is the toughest freaking question anyone has ever asked

16. Would you get a tattoo? I actually have 5

17. Something you don’t mind spending all your money on? concerts, cameras, things that make me genuinely happy

18. Can you drive? what? A car? A person insane? Like a fucking champ

19. When was the last time someone told you you were beautiful? my best friend aka Julienne that gorgeous shining bean

20. What was the last thing you cried for? my dad being my dad

21. Do you keep a journal? I have a scrapbook where I put random little things like receipts from vacations or stuff like that in and I also print out mini photos for it

22. Is life fun? What kind of question is this? Life’s an up and down

23. Is farting in front of people irrelevant? as long as they don’t hear it and you can smell it away

24. What’s your dream car? VW Golf R in metallic dark blue

25. Are grades in school important? As long as you don’t fail the class entirely or get kicked out of school it’s fine. Grades are so fucking overrated these days

26. Describe your crush. Ahahahaha he’s suuuuch a dork, especially whenever he’s drunk haha no but seriously he’s a dork and he get’s pretty touchy then

27. What was the last book/movie that really impressed you? uhh, can’t rememberrrr

28. What was your last lie? I really don’t lie often but maybe I said I wasn’t feeling well just to avoid going out with some friends

29. Dumbest lie you ever told? I think there are a lot of dumb things I told so I can’t really think of one specifically right now

30. Is crying in front of people embarrassing? depends on the people but generally yes even though it shouldn’t be

31. Something you did and you are proud of? my photographs of band members

32. Favorite cocktail? Not tasted all of em but I love Mojitos

33. Something you are good at? sleeping, eating, taking photos, being dumb

34. Do you like small kids? depends on the kids

35. How are you feeling right now? stuffed with lunch and tired but generally fine because life’s good

36. What would you name your daughter/son? daughter: Ebba son: Heinz-Ewald!

37. What do you need to be happy? music, positive vibes and photography

38. Is there someone you want to punch in the face right now? I’m a very non-violent person so nope.. maybe Trump tho

39. What was the last gift you received? my grandma bought me a new handbag yesterday and it’s fabulous

40. What was the last gift you gave? frozen flavoured water to my beloved Fachschaft

41. What was the last concert you went to? A Finnish band called ‘Wake The Nations’, I had the pleasure to take pics for them there hehe

42. Favorite place to shop at? C&A, H&M

43. Who inspires you? Sawyer Hartmann & Logan Henderson, actually a lot more human beings

44. How old were you when you first got drunk? I’m pretty good with alcohol so I have to drink a ton to get drunk and I’m a poor student so basically I was 20 (and I still am 20 lol)

45. How old were you when you first got high? never got there

46. How old were you when you first had sex? never got there either

47. When was your first kiss? 2013 lol

48. Something you want to do until the end of this year? staying in Finland haha

49. Is there something in the past you wish you hadn’t done? A lot of embarrassing things honestly

50. Post a selfie there are photos of me on this blog come on

51. Who are you most comfortable around? my best friends of course!

52. Name one thing that terrifies you. insects

53. What kind of books do you read? none honestly

54. What would you tell your 12 year old self? “Nick Jonas won’t marry you and never fall for boys, they won’t value your good heart”

55. What is your favorite flower? white roses

56. Any bad habits you have? I have many, can’t choose

57. What kind of people are you attracted to? ugh, I deffo don’t have a specific type of person, it really strongly depends on the person. It can be the metalhead in one of the other Fachschaften and it also can be the hot model or the mysterious musician whose head is in the clouds 99% of the time. As long as the person treats me right and isn’t suuuuuper weird it really can be anyone.

58. What was the last thing you cried for? didn’t we have that question already

59. Is there something you don’t eat? Some food that truly disgusts you? Yaaaaa. I hate mushrooms, any sort of fish, snails, insects, basically all that stuff that Germans don’t eat, and oh yeah we have that thing called blood sausage here which is the most awful thing ever

60. Are you in love? all the time

61. Something you find romantic? lying in the grass at night time staring into the sky and talking is something I wanna do with someone special

62. How long was your longest relationship? 6 months? long distance I mentioned that

63. What are three things that irritate you about the same sex? - why do girls bath their faces in tons of make up EVERY SINGLE DAY like I don’t even wear more than mascara EVER - why do girls have to be so disgusting when it comes to public toilets and stuff - arrogance

64. What are three things that irritate you about the opposite sex? - superior behavior - beards - can’t think of the third rn

65. What are you saving money for? for my further studies in October 2018

66. How would you describe your bad side? bad..?

67. Are you actually a good person? Why? I always try to be nice to people and approach them without any prejudice and I try to make people feel good in my presence

68. What are you living for? music and photography haha

69. Have you ever done anything illegal? I parked illegally a couple times lol

70. Do you like your body? check out question 11

71. Have you ever made someone feel bad about themselves intentionally? I strongly hope I haven’t

72. Ever sent nudes? lmao nope

73. Have you ever cheated on someone? In my mindddddd lol

74. Favorite candy? Ferrero Rocher. I’d die for them.

75. Is there a blog you visit every day or almost every day? Tag it! nopeeee I’m sorry I’m lame

76. Do you play any computer games? What’s your favorite? I used to play Rollercoaster Tycoon and Sims 2-4 a loooooot

77. Favorite TV series? Riverdale!!!! And the old German series ‘Wege zum Glück’ which is such a soap opera but I’m a sucker for it still

78. Are you religious? Does God exist? There have been so many “coincidences” that make it hard to believe he isn’t existent. And also there’s so much positive stuff in my life right now, I think he led me where I am right now.

79. What was the last book you read? Did it impress you and why? I read a Swedish book from Henning Mankell about murders and it was cool

80. What do you think about vegetarianism/veganism? everyone is allowed to eat what they want, I don’t even careee

81. How long have you been on tumblr? since 2011/12, not sure

82. Do you like Chinese food? every now and then, yes.

83. McDonalds or Subway? Megges!

84. Vodka or whiskey? V!

85. Alcohol or drugs? only done alcohol so that’s it for me

86. Ever been out of your province/state/country? of course!!!

87. Meaning behind your blog name? it’s my favorite song by the Swedish band called ‘DNKL’

88. What are you scared of? not finding someone to spend the rest of my life with

89. Last time you were insulted? I tend to suppress things like this

90. Most traumatic experience? being taken away from my grandparents regularly when I was young

91. Perfect date idea? it has to do with sunsets and the ocean

92. Favorite app on your phone? Instagrammmmm

93. What color are the walls in your room? white

94. Do you watch Youtube? Who is your favorite youtuber? I love the vlogs from Lex&Los and I am obsessed with the videos of the Swabian comedian Dodokay.

95. Share your favorite quote. boy there are so many I can’t even come up with one right now

96. What is the meaning of life? finding that one passion and doing everything to live that passion every day

97. Do you like horror movies? N O P E

98. Have you ever made your mum cry? What happened? probably my birth has made her cry at some point

99. Do you feel lucky or special in a way? the way some bandmembers treat me is truly something special hehe yes

100. Can you keep a secret? for sure!

#me #100 questions #personal #answers #helloooo

7 notes · View notes