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absolutebl · 2 years

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There is one question that is starting to pop up for me these days a bit recurringly these days:

Is there even the slightest chance of any sort of home media market for dramas to come to be in the West?

Coming over from Anime I realize the audience over there is rather spoiled with physical media releases and even a bunch of collector's editions here and then. If I wind up liking a certain title a real lot (happens rarely enough), I kind of like buying it, due to those tending to have a high rewatch value. And maybe just have a pretty cover/packaging for it. Also, my rewatches are often very jumpy and nonlinear and doing that on a streaming platform with all the buffering waits is a major pain. An additional nuisance for anime is keeping track about which platform holds the streaming license currently, because some things get constantly removed and re-added elsewhere. And all the geoblock nonsense on streaming plattforms. (This seems a bit more stable with dramas? But one major platform (Line TV) seems to have just died right before I got started getting into this section?) Also, a BD release (mostly) has a better video quality than streaming platforms get. Offline file copies of paid platforms titles are a bit more complicated to track down and even if there is some gray version the quality sucks ass a lot of times. And I don't really don't like the idea to begin with, because I prefer to just buy an official, well done Blu-ray release.

So I looked a bit into it and, there is about zero in the West in terms of home media releases bar maybe the very occasional Japanese manga movie adaption picked up by anime publishers? (Or maybe some (wannabe?) high cinema movies of sorts? Something like Boyslove seems to have a release over here... Blegh.)

Japan doesn't seem to like foreign subs on their home release much at all, but luckily that itself isn't so much of a biggie for me at least, since I know Japanese and can just import the original release as I already do with the occasional anime I really like. (It just gets a few folds more expensive.) But anyhow, no obstacle on getting me a copy of "Utsukushii Kare" eventually, yay~

Then musing about that I simply do the same thing for Thai, I was curiously looking at Thai releases and from what I could find samples wise - Unlike Japan they seem to add English subs somewhat often so are a lot friendlier to international audiences. But then somehow they are all DVD-release exclusive?? This seems so bizarre to me, because given the extra merch tad on releases they also seem to be geared for die hard collector's fans like the Japanese physical releases, but you'd still have a release that has a lower video quality than the official free streams on youtube at al? Kind of harder to import, tto. The only place I know is just yesasia, and they tend to only list fairly recent or popular stuff. Thailand's domestic prices are also about the same range as Japanese domestic releases. But with being DVD-only. Like, why---- (Is this me being brainwashed by that collector's best quality version edition mentality anime fans are infamous for?)

At least I have found out, that Japan seems to throw a whole bunch from Thailand's BLs on their home media market. (They have "He's Coming to Me" on Blu-ray, yaaay! Although they gave it a very absurdly lengthy trashy-Light Novel-esque subtitle.) Japanese subs-only of course. But their releases seem to differ vastly between titles and their popularity. Some get fancy digipacks with loads of extra material from photocards, booklets to photobooks and whatnot and others are just getting fairly bog standard releases with maybe a little booklet at best. (Sometimes even with a Blu-ray release slapped into a cheap DVD case like as with "He's Coming to Me", oh Japan...) But they seem to release everything more recently produced on Blu-ray at least (which hopefully isn't the Thai DVD master just slapped onto a Blu-ray disc). But it's not like everything gets over to them either. (They have Love by Chance 1-2 and TharnType 1-2, but no Why R U? Licencing politics be damned. Through not like Western Anime publishers didn't manage something as brainy as to release a direct sequel S2 of a franchise and never putting S1 out before either...)

I haven't managed to like anything from Korea so far, but their's probably one to spoil collector's partly? At least I know about popular Western movies or anime releases getting some fairly special editions over there sometimes even English friendly. (If it was an anglosphere movie to begin with then English subs are kinda irrelevant. Their Anime releases tend to never be English friendly, but Hyouka's anime release beats even the Japanese domestic releases to a punch even if I can't read naught of the printed booklet book and the Korean dub/dub are maybe future Korean learning material.) But I haven't really heard about anything that was originally produced by them, bar maybe the very occasional animated movie picked up by some anime publisher. At least, running some whatever higher scored random Korean title I found from your spreadsheet export into KimchiDVD also yielded nothing at all.

I haven't even started looking into Mainland Chinese or Taiwanese stuff. But given how anime fans from production out of the former are crying notoriously for both home media releases or even just readable subs it's probably even worse. (Ironically, the best shot of any Chinese anime to have a physical release is to hope for Japan again? At least I observed somebody being super mega happy that they picked up "Mo Dao Zu Shi" for a Blu-ray release.)

I know about the history of anime fans being fairly peculiar with their buying what originally was meant to be bought by video rental houses and how their collector's mentality are now an important leg to stand on for the anime industry to finance their productions.

But BL fans kind of seem to be kind of adjacent, so maybe similar in terms of notoriety and spending power? At least there seems to be some considerable overlap with the anime/manga/otaku fandom (and fujoshi's are kinda famed for their spending power on manga?) along with the idol fan (which are fairly notorious for collecting whatever, too?) sections? And the market is expanding; even Western mainstream movies and series seem to get at least a bog standard Blu-ray release in the West if it's not something taken hostage by Netflix/Apple/Amazon/you name it.

Any chance of a decent home media selection to evolve? Be that as of the kind of targeting very niche die hard collector's fans or it growing to become a smaller slice of something more mainstream with simpler standard releases?

(a.k.a. this is me just venting about having wanted to buy Bad Buddy physically, but being completely stomped over the DVD-only part of its box release and now waiting for a Japanese Blu-ray release that hopefully gets more love and care than poor "He's Coming to Me". Although I suppose one should maybe be surprised it got a release at all, given how it's this so notoriously overlooked gem title...)

DVD Releases of BLs, International Access?

I would LOVE this more than anything but I think it highly unlikely.

Like you said Thailand does it internally only as DVD exclusives AKA special collectors limited run editions (although there are a few local "traders" who try to gather and then redistribute international at markup - fair). And, so far, I think mostly GMMTV and the larger studios have done this. (I believe Thai DVDs are UK burned though, so you need an international player if you’re USA.)

This seems so bizarre to me, because given the extra merch tad on releases they also seem to be geared for die hard collector's fans like the Japanese physical releases, but you'd still have a release that has a lower video quality than the official free streams on youtube at al? Kind of harder to import, tto. The only place I know is just yesasia, and they tend to only list fairly recent or popular stuff. Thailand's domestic prices are also about the same range as Japanese domestic releases. But with being DVD-only. Like, why---- (Is this me being brainwashed by that collector's best quality version edition mentality anime fans are infamous for?)

Honestly, with Thailand, this likely has to do with in-country facilities. I wouldn’t be surprised if GMMTV has its own burner and is actually doing these themselves - like BY HAND. Super fan service kinda thing. I mean they have a high end printer service they work with for their lookbooks, but DVDs.... ?

Again, like you said, Japan will do some, like a few that are intimately connected to manga or anime collectors market. But mostly for local consumption (and occasionally Taiwan). These days I’m beginning to think of Taiwan as just a baby extension of the Japanese market, but that’s a different conversation.

Weirdly DVD distribution seems to have more in common with theatrical release distribution patterns.

But the moment a physical object is involved there’s a whole new mess of supply chains for international, not to mention warehousing, shipping, tariffs, and so forth.

Is there even the slightest chance of any sort of home media market for dramas to come to be in the West?

I highly doubt it.

You pegged the few reasons people still buy DVDs in the west:

high rewatch value

pretty cover/packaging - the Collector (luxury/scarcity)

low bandwidth (often rural or transient locations)

fear of favorite piece of media disappearing off a streaming service

higher quality (cinephiles - rare in BL fandom)

Also, my rewatches are often very jumpy and nonlinear and doing that on a streaming platform with all the buffering waits is a major pain. ... I prefer to just buy an official, well done Blu-ray release.

Preach, me too.

Leaving aside the DRASTIC decline in popularity of the DVD...

I think international hard copy of BLs is pretty unlikely.

Korea maybe doing collectors editions, because they have the distribution and production mechanisms in place due to Kpop. And China, maybe on the big historicals like The Untamed because, again, they have the systems in place.

In Korea’s case, watch for them to release this puppy... my money is on it being the first:

Hard copy releases generally come 6 months to a year after digital releases.

Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines = highly unlikely with any kind of consistency or volume.

But one major platform (Line TV) seems to have just died right before I got started getting into this section?

Yes, but most of their content has popped back up again on Viki or GaGa.

Honestly, I stopped even checking to see if I could buy the DVD of any of these shows ages ago. Like we barely if ever get translations of the original manga/manwha in paperback, fat chance on a DVD.

At least I have found out, that Japan seems to throw a whole bunch from Thailand's BLs on their home media market. (They have "He's Coming to Me" on Blu-ray, yaaay! Although they gave it a very absurdly lengthy trashy-Light Novel-esque subtitle.) Japanese subs-only of course. But their releases seem to differ vastly between titles and their popularity. Some get fancy digipacks with loads of extra material from photocards, booklets to photobooks and whatnot and others are just getting fairly bog standard releases with maybe a little booklet at best. (Sometimes even with a Blu-ray release slapped into a cheap DVD case like as with "He's Coming to Me", oh Japan…) But they seem to release everything more recently produced on Blu-ray at least (which hopefully isn't the Thai DVD master just slapped onto a Blu-ray disc). But it's not like everything gets over to them either. (They have Love by Chance 1-2 and TharnType 1-2, but no Why R U? Licencing politics be damned. Through not like Western Anime publishers didn't manage something as brainy as to release a direct sequel S2 of a franchise and never putting S1 out before either…)

You know a lot more about this than I do. I’ve never delved into the Japanese market. The anime fad of life skipped over me entirely... my college years, I had other things on my mind, mostly pretty boys, edgy girls, one astronomically hot drag queen, and foreign exchange programs.... ah youth.

I think there is at least some disposable income floating around, and with super fans/obsessive even if they aren’t solvent they will spend bank anyway.

Honestly, if I were GMMTV, for example, I’d offer a high end “club” the way Kpops do, where one of the elite level subscriber perks is direct download with subs say... a year after the BL has aired.

This would allow for international asset delivery but no need to monkey around with a physical product. Pirating might increase (but not as much as they think it would, if service is priced well).

Direct sales/downloads after the initial enthusiasm has died is a GREAT way to reboot a backlist, and if it’s tied to a subscription model that would assist in daily operations costs?

Also, direct access centralizes the fans with the highest spending power for any future endeavors (like a newsletter does for authors). These can be activated for additional revenue/market tests in many ways: pay to play private Lives with actors and/or directors, or first access to pilot products like lookbooks (or DVDs), subber check teams under the guise of early access privileges, merch, but also kickstarter-style backers for experimental projects. They’d need to set up the delivery portal/private forum, but that’s not too hard.

All this to say that, as BL fans, owning the digital asset is probubly a better target than owning the physical asset. (If your primary reason is fear of losing access to your favorite BL - which is mine. I am wholly driven by fear of loss.) Frankly, it’s also achievable, just not legally.

#thai bl #bl industry #buying bl dvds #bl dvds #cl collectors editions #korean bl #japanese bl #the dvd market

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meowthiroth · 2 years

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Tell us about Spike

Spike initially started out as sort of a character concept I came up with for Baldi’s Basics because I felt like the blue lockers were a little too situational/underutilized when I watched others play the game. Basically the idea was he’d pick a random locker to hide in, and then jump out & attack whoever walks past his hiding spot & immobilize them for a brief period of time before running off to find a new locker. It would sort of make the player need to pay more attention around blue lockers because there’s a chance they might be a hazard. here’s a sort of mock-up I made of what it might look like from the player’s POV when he jumps them—

the catch is, yeah, he’s a nuisance, but he can also be used by the player to trap & escape from other characters if they figure out what locker he’s in & plan accordingly (there would be sound/subtitle clues to help out with this). there are several ways you can get past him without making him jump out (chalk eraser in front of his locker, using the grappling hook to pass by, being pushed past him by another character), and if you manage to get him in between you and another character who’s chasing after you, he’ll attack them instead and give you a pretty decent head start. Additionally, any characters who were chasing you when they got jumped (excluding Baldi) would forget they were after you and just resume wandering around the halls like normal.

And if you just plain don’t want to deal with him/don’t want him in a specific locker, you can always NoSquee it to prevent him from going inside (this is so he won’t use up your 3 NoSquee uses on a locker while you’re elsewhere in the school) or just try to go inside the locker he’s currently in, which forces him out & makes him pick a new one.

he’s not an official BB character obvs (if anything he’s kinda turned into my warmup doodle character/animation test dummy at this point because his design is so simple & fun to doodle) but like, ngl if mystman likes him enough to add him I definitely wouldn’t be against it. The fanbase seemed pretty fond of him, and I put a lot of thought into his design & how he’d work mechanically so I’m sure he’d fit right in!

(i also just think it’d be funny to see him running around terrorizing everyone else in the school lmfao)

#haven’t really decided on a style for his sprites tbh #like I like the whole ‘‘is that a drawing or a 3d model’’ angle some of them have #but like. quick mspaint doodle style is Very In Line with the existing character designs #either way he’s just a silly little guy who I use for animation/cartooning practice a lot #he’s cute AND he bites. the full package really #questions for ace #fazhound

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i-believe-n-me-alicia · 2 years

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Gang Stalking in Vehicles Now because illegal voyeurism, surveillance & listening isn't Enough!

I submitted a type to the local authorities! Yes, again! There's always more with these things that call themselves people! To https://new.tipsubmit.com/en/create-report/anonymous/ChicagoPD There are cars that drive around all day thru and on these streets listed including the parking garage of Truman college. This car and/or cars drive loudly and rev up their engine all day and at all times while driving. The noise is so loud and constant, it sounds like drag racing down the streets. There are many elderly people and children in this area due to school close and elderly/nursing homes in the area! We have made complaints to Truman security and they have done a great job with handling the noise nuisances, as they are still working to catch them they have stop a few which in turn has detoured the other one(s). I hope that this promotes the police to patrol more around the City College/Truman and in the general area and not just when the mayor shows up at a near by school. A bigger and deeper police presence would help detour these criminals. There wasn't an issue with police always in the area but now for some odd reason you all/police are not around when needed and desired to be around!

*****Sec. 12-602. Mufflers, prevention of noise.*****

Every motor vehicle driven or operated upon the highways of this State shall at all times be equipped with an adequate muffler or exhaust system in constant operation and properly maintained to prevent any excessive or unusual noise. No such muffler or exhaust system shall be equipped with a cutout, bypass or similar device. No person shall modify the exhaust system of a motor vehicle in a manner which will amplify or increase the noise of such vehicle above that emitted by the muffler originally installed on the vehicle, and such original muffler shall comply with all the requirements of this Section.

IL Administrative Code Section 902.120: Standards applicable to all passenger cars and to other motor vehicles

Passenger vehicles and other motor vehicles under 8,000 pounds in weight may produce up to 74 db A when speed limit is under 35 mph, or 82 db A where speed limit is over 35 mph (with 3% allowed variance). Most vehicles fall into this category.

Table below displays all vehicle exhaust noise level requirements as per Illinois Administrative Code:

Illinois vehicle noise limits: Speed limit < 35 mph Speed limit > 35 mph All vehicles under 8,000 pounds 74-76 dB A 82 – 85 dB A All vehicles over 8,000 pounds 80 – 82 dB A 86 dB A Motorcycles 86 dB A 90 dB A

“dB A” means the composite abbreviation for the A-weighted sound level and the unit of sound level, the decibel.

Illinois noise limit penalties:

Violating car noise limits in Illinois carries a $75 – $125 fine.

Sources and more info:

Illinois Compiled Statutes: Vehicle Code, Chapter 12: Equipment of Vehicles, Article VI: Miscellaneous Requirements, Section 12-602: Mufflers, prevention of noise.

Illinois Noise Related Statutes and Regulations (.pdf file; see or search for “Section 902.120”, “Section 902.121”, “Section 902.122”); or:

Illinois Administrative Code, Title 35: Environmental Protection, Subtitle H: Noise, Chapter I: Pollution Control Board, Part 902: Sound Emission Standards and Limitations for Motor Vehicles, Subpart B.

This has been going on for over a year. Gang stalking w/the dumbest criminals that do everything possible to let me know their watching! I guess at the end of the day, I might want to be a bit grateful for them being so "braggadocious"!

#stalking #gang stalking #children #harassment #illegal surveillance #mentally disturb people #mental cases

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kumoriyami-xiuzhen · 3 years

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Hakuoki Kyoka-Roku Hijikata Character Perspective Translation

opened musescore for the first time this year (motivation for music has been unstable since covid started)... and just looking at the piece i was last working on made me really wanna to listen to the actual song I was trying to make an arrangement for and actually finish the piece, but at the same time, I seriously did not want to look at it given how screwed up the timing for some the sequences is... lol. fuck theory and timing... also i seriously procrastinate whenever there are timing errors in the vocal sections since that means the piano timing is all wrong too. plus it doesn’t help that that song is one of the longest ones i want sheet music for.

anyway, same format as all the other char perspectives... screenshots used in this post are not mine. last one of these will be for Harada since i can’t access the post for the CN tl of Heisuke’s version of this.

also since Reimeiroku is getting a new port, I’m going to refrain from from redoing my subtitle video for Saito’s final chapter/epilogue until that comes out... as my device is now running atmosphere (plus, the vita version of Reimeiroku has problems running VITA2PC [plugin I use to stream audio to pc] for me and some of the game assets literally disappear on screen while it’s in use and I’m not really wanting to capture the gameplay audio and video separately to then edit together later).

Hakuoki Kyoka-Roku Hijikata Character Perspective

Translation by KumoriYami

Face: At the time, you stared directly into my eyes. I obviously had the tip of my katana at your neck but your eyes were direct and unwavering...... No, I wasn't shocked, I just thought you amazingly courageous.

Body: Oi, what are you touching!?

Body: We don't wear heavy protective equipment except when it's for an emergency. It's for the so-called "faster response time."

Haori: This alternating stripe pattern on the haori... I really miss it now.

Katana: How could I forget the first time I met you? At the time I only thought that you were a minor nuisance, though now that I think about it... life truly is very unpredictable.

Face: Now that I think about it, my heart might have already recognized you then. I feel that like I've lost to that sincere expression of yours that shows everything you think about. That's why, I'm the only one you can show that expression to. Understand?

Arm: Oi, don't poke my arm. That tickles!

Arm: What's wrong? Are you that fond of my arm?

Arm: Listen well, my arms, they exist to protect you.

Arm: At the time, when you suddenly knelt down, you really shocked me. You were obviously not a member of the Shinsengumi, yet you were so serious about us, and wanted to help us. To tell you the truth, I had forced you into a corner then. I was very angry at myself for how useless I was, but I was still very happy.

Face: What is it? You keep staring at my face.

Face: Well, the first time I put on Western clothes, I ended up cutting my hair.

Face: Do you think that short hair suits me? Haha, since you're saying that, I feel a bit relieved.

Blades: At the time, you and I made a promise as samurai. I didn't think you would follow orders without you doing this. That’s why I might have been driven into making this promise with you [not sure bout the last sentence here].

Chizuru: You were still wearing men's clothes at that time... I'm truly sorry. I couldn't even let a young woman wear beautiful clothes. But, regardless of how you dress, at the time, I already thought of you as a woman.

Face: "Let me stay at your side," those words, I originally planned to never say them in my lifetime. But, you unexpectedly came rushing into my arms, and completely exposed my heart to you. Really... I’ve lost to you.

Hand: This hand is in the way? Don't be so cold. It's because I want to hold you like this.

Hand: Perhaps I might not be able to wield my sword with this hand anymore.

Hand: No matter what you say, I will never let you go again.

Chizuru’s head: I'm sorry to have embraced you so suddenly. I didn't expect you to be so surprised though. But I think that if I don't do this, I won't be able to speak of what is on my mind. From now on, no matter what happens, I will hold you like this. So, smile a bit more for me.

Head: Why are you suddenly touching my head? What? You want to comfort me?

Head: What is it? Touching me so many times, did you want to tease me?

Head: It doesn't feel bad to feel the warmth of someone else's body.

Chizuru’s face: I don't know to what degree you are aware of these things, but I understand that you've given me a life beyond the Shinsengumi. You are the only woman in the world who has changed my entire life.

Chizuru’s hand: People cannot live by themselves. I always thought that I understood that truth. It was only then that I realized that again. I need you.

Clothes: Nn? Ah, a petal got stuck on my back? Thank you.

Back: You’re saying that my back is quite wide? Of course it’s wider than yours.

Back: I can let you lean on my back, though this is also very good [i think?]

Chizuru: Our lives are fleeting like these sakura. Our lives are not endless. One day, death will separate us. But as for when that happens... I think that will be in a long time. As long as you don’t forget that you are now mine, that’s enough.

Sakura: I didn't expect to be able to enjoy the sakura with you like this. No, I'm not being sarcastic when I say this. Because I am able to enjoy the sakura with you. If only I could forever enjoy the sakura with you from now...

#hakuoki #hakuouki #Hakuoki Kyoka-Roku #hakuoki game translation #Hijikata Toshizou

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sirianhewigxiii · 3 years

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what inspired you to make all these rwby gifs? they're really good, it's always nice to see them while browsing the tag ✨

Thank youuu, dear Anon, it always makes me happy to hear that people enjoy my gifs (*^_^*)

I apologize in advance for this maybe being a bit too deep/long and me rambling but here we go (^_^”)

Honestly what started it all was that one moment between Weiss and Willow in V7 when Willow takes the booze and drinks it straight out of the bottle.

Or rather it always bothered me a little how people misinterpreted Weiss’ behavior when she threw and burned those bottles (in V6) – to me it was clearly because she was triggered by Qrow’s alcoholism and how he wasn’t doing shit to help (he was even actively being a fucking nuisance in the middle of all of that danger).

Still people always made it about Weiss just having gotten emotional for no actual reasons even though we knew at this point how Willow sank herself into alcohol and resigned. (Weiss’ trauma having been triggered like that especially by the way is one of the reasons you will never see any Winter and Qrow stuff on this blog, but let’s not get into that here...)

Either way I was always a little bit shy/protective about sharing theories and thoughts about things I very much hyperfixate on online or at all really (I also don’t really have a community irl to even share stuff like that with) – I also didn’t honestly even know that people would do theory or analysis posts that much about RWBY (or in general).

All I would ever do on Tumblr was look at the fanart and the Gifs (^_^”) so what I did know was that people would do Gif-sets/parallels.

But when that scene in V7 came up and I didn’t find anybody making a set out of the Weiss’ scene (V6:E6 - Alone in the Woods) and the scene with Willow (V7:E8 - Cordially Invited) and put ‘two and two together’ I just felt a little disappointed (^_^”)

I was like ‘Did people just not notice maybe? These scenes line up so well though…maybe I can do it then…?’ and so I kinda learned how to make basic gifs.

So my very first Gif-set of these two scenes took me forever to make and it’s really really blurry as all of my early Gifs really were since I had no idea what I was doing and what free programs were best and easiest to use xD

I would also use any basic subs that I could just find or get somewhere online, so some of them are really sloppy (^_^”)

These days I actually taught myself how to make my own subtitles so everything looks a lot cleaner - along with the Gifs themselves since I just kept figuring out how to do better I guess? (^_^”)

Either way that first Gifset kinda ‘blew up’ and I though to myself ‘Hey, maybe it’s safe to kinda share all of the details I notice like this. People seem to enjoy it and add to it in the tags, replies, reblogs. Maybe I’ll find all of the peeps who enjoy and love the show the same way as me.’

And so I just kept going to find my community really and just share something that others who are/were like me may get happy about seeing (✩ ์ ᴗ ์✩) (If that makes sense? xD)

And without getting into too much details about my private life I’ll say that RWBY is one of the very very very few things I have in life that just truly give me joy.

I just truly love the show, the story and the characters to the point that with every new Volume I’m just scared to death that something/some plot or character thing might happen that will just break it for me and leave a void – even though there has yet to be an episode to disappoint me.

And just finding all of the details, parallels, even the way scenes are cut and change is something that I simply enjoy a lot and I just always feel like I just want to share and show everybody about just how fantastic the show is ヾ(＠^∇^＠)ノ

And more than anything showing people what I want to point out by doing something as simple as putting scenes together/side by side, these days even putting my thoughts down about a certain scene in words or making fun headcanons and using Gifs to visualize it all has drawn people towards the blog who are also just really fun and cool about the show.

And while there are (quite a few) people who I have without missing a heartbeat simply blocked for several certain reasons, the majority of people here (who check out my blog) are people who actually watch the show, pay attention to the characters, their actual characters and developments, actions and interactions and are willing to look genuinely at things the way they are without being pretentious about it or clearly emotionally just not mature enough to understand what is going on.

Not that I somehow blame those latter type of people for maybe simply not being old or experienced enough to understand certain human behavior or interactions. It is however the entitlement that comes with unwillingness to listen to others who do know what they are talking about that I don’t like and the entitlement to think that certain headcanons that were unfounded from the very beginning are more important and ‘right’ that what actually happens. But that’s a whole other issue in on itself about the FNDM.

That said Gif-ing alone especially these days is also something that simply helps me a lot with anxiety (attacks) and existential fear. It just gives me something to do and to focus on for longer amounts of time that also involves something that I just enjoy and it also, on a more positive note, gives me the opportunity to connect to people, share visuals and ideas with others.

It’s just a very, for the lack of a better word, simple way to connect with people and every like, reply and reblog without or with a comment (regularly or in the tags) just makes me feel happy about one more person enjoying the same thing as I (❁´◡`❁)

And I know there’s also a crap-ton of others out there who make Gifs/Gif-sets and have been longer at and while I usually will reblog a set somebody else has already made I also usually like just cutting thing a bit differently and some people just use filters that I don’t really like (but maybe I’m just ‘showing my age’ here xD).

But I know a lot of people like them, personally however I just think the show’s too gorgeous to slap some filter on it but that’s just really a matter of taste I guess and so I just don’t use them, I also keep my subs simple for that reason ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ That said however I do know that it’s probably a crap-ton of extra work to filter and sometimes watermark things (^_^”)

That was it for my answer I think and hope that wasn’t too boring or disappointing of a read (＾◇＾)ノ

#ask me anything #rwby #rwby gifs

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amoret-the-leaf · 3 years

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Summary: Wei Wuxian is determined. After seeing his Lan Zhan yawning, yawning of all things, he makes it his mission to let his husband take a rest. Though, as with many things in life, it doesn't go according to plan. Many years had passed since the esteemed Hanguang-Jun and the Yiling Patriarch had found themselves stuck in a cave on death's doorstep, confessing deeply rooted traumas to each other. Wei Ying would give everything he had and more to never let it happen again. Never. He was going to cherish Lan Wangji like he deserved, until the day he died.

Ship: Wangxian

Word Count: 5130

Author’s Note: This story is a result of MDZS/CQL frankencanon, and may contain differences in titles and ways of addressing due to subtitle variations. This work may not be completely accurate to Ancient Chinese and Xianxia culture. If something has been written inappropriately/offensively, please let me know!

The crisp air carried soft flakes of white across the frostbitten sky. The Cloud Recesses was coated in a blanket of thick, plush snow as far as anyone could see. The rabbits had been tucked away from their place on Back Mountain into a warmer abode. Tonight, that abode happened to be the Jingshi, where a cheeky Wei Wuxian had smuggled the bunch inside to surprise his almost always overworked lover.

These days, both he and Wangji had been teaching the juniors alongside various night hunts. Though things had been mostly peaceful in the cultivation world, and currently none of the clans were at each other's throats, spirits and other nuisances were still running around causing trouble. But of course, where there was trouble, there was the esteemed Hanguang-Jun and the ever chaotic Yiling Patriarch. The current problem of their teachings was in the execution. Where he was laid back and experience based in his lessons, Lan Zhan meticulously laid out everything, leaving no room for creative exploration, and holding many lectures Wei Ying himself was guilty of falling asleep during. Monotony was somehow effective for disciples like Sizhui, but for those whose brains hadn't become entirely indoctrinated by years of rules- well, it reminded him of the boring hours during his time as a student in Gusu. Lan Qiren's tedious way of drilling said rules of the Lan Clan didn't do much either, all things considered. Like uncle, like nephew.

Though he didn't agree with endless hours of just sitting and listening, his Lan-Er-Ge was insistent. He was also insistent in just the planning alone of those dull, dull lessons. Not to mention overseeing the individual growth of each disciple, and the several times he'd be called out during the evening to help get the group of teenagers out of trouble. Wei Ying tagged along those nights, of course, but he didn't exactly wake up at sunrise most days, nor did he hold anywhere near the same amount of responsibilities the Second Jade did. He could sleep in, and it was expected of him.

So now that he could see his beloved Lan Zhan not-so discreetly yawning after their last night hunt, Wei Ying made it his secret mission to (politely) force him to take a break tonight. What better way to do that than shielding their dear rabbits from the cold? If he was lucky, maybe he could even get Lan Zhan to cuddle with him. He could be a rabbit too!

So when the door slid open, Wei Ying was already darting forwards with two fluffy bunnies in hand. "Lan Zhaaan~!" He beamed, nearly falling face forward as he stopped abruptly. "I brought in the- Eh?"

That wasn't Lan Zhan. No, he was too short to be Lan Zhan. Short and flustered. "A-Yuan?"

Sizhui looked down, apologetically. "S-Senior Wei! Sorry for coming in unannounced!" He bowed, already getting overly worried about the littlest things when it came to courtesy. Like he wasn't allowed here whenever he pleased, he and Lan Zhan didn't mind. He'd have to break this kid from being so polite! It was poisoning him!

"Ah, A-Yuan A-Yuan! Who decided you call me Senior Wei? You used to call me Xian-gege!" Wei Ying huffed, setting the rabbits down to hop around the place once more as he leaned on the doorframe. "Or maybe you prefer to call me Baba now since I clearly raised you!"

"But Hanguang-Jun ra-"

"Hanguang Jun raised you like a bunny. I raised you to be a gentleman!" He exclaimed, proudly sporting his widened smile. "Eat carrots, sit around and be cute. That's for a rabbit. I taught you all the important things! Like how to plant a little radish! And look, you got more radish friends in the end! Isn't that great?" Hands contently sat on his hips as the once feared Yiling Patriarch bragged his true colors. The two couldn't help a light chuckle from that. "But I assume you didn't come to listen to me badger about being the better parent, right?"

Sizhui shook his head. "Actually, Hanguang-Jun asked me to keep you company while he finishes some of his work." The boy explained, gladly coming in from the cold as Wei Ying stepped aside from the doorframe. He had the expression of a giddy puppy... on second thought, A-Yuan was too well mannered and tame to be compared to any dog. "Hanguang Jun must work very hard to still be reviewing this late in the evening. It's only an hour from curfew now."

Wei Ying sighed. Of course Lan Zhan had sent Sizhui to distract him. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the disciple's company, but he wanted his husband by his side again. Life was so boring and lonely when he didn't have his beloved to pester. That, and his husband was going to run himself into the ground if he didn't take a break soon.

One of the rabbits bounced around, before contently nibbling on Sizhui's robe as the teen set out some tea. Of course, Wei Ying wouldn't tell the kid that the tea was only for him, and that Wei Wuxian had poured a heaping's worth of Emperor's Smile into his own cup. That would be 'setting a bad example'.

"Believe it or not, Hanguang-Jun is just as stubborn as I am. Won't admit when he's struggling, and won't easily be swayed from his duties." He spoke, a bit scornfully. As the two sat down for their drinks, most of the bunnies piled around the junior disciple, one even hopping upon his lap. "Traitors! I brought you here!"

The teen gently ran his fingers across the rabbit's forehead. He was accustomed to this, Wei Wuxian was sure of it. Either that, or they were trusting of their own kind. Lan Zhan fed him and raised him to be a rabbit, maybe they knew he was secretly their kin. "Senior Wei, do you think Hanguang-Jun is struggling?" Sizhui asked, now showing worry on his face.

"He yawned today."

Well that was definitely a surprised look. "So it's true then. He never yawns." A hand was brought to his chin. "I don't think I've ever seen him tired before."

Still pouty, Wei Ying closed his eyes. "Considering he kept a straight face after being wounded by the Xuanwu, I can say for certain he's been working too hard for too long. And I'm gonna do something about it!" Downing the rest of his drink, he abruptly stood. If Lan Zhan wasn't planning on taking a break anytime soon, he would be now. "I have an idea, and I'm gonna need your help with it. You and... where's Jingyi right now? We need a messenger who knows how to keep a secret."

Wangji took his work in the Lan Clan very seriously. Uncle begrudgingly learned to tolerate Wei Ying's presence over time, and his brother was always supportive of his decisions- his desires more specifically, a rare thing to him to imdulge in. Therefore, his responsibilities were tied to his sense of gratitude. Lan Wangji was grateful that he and his soulmate could reside here in peace, at least for the time being. Perhaps the Cloud Recesses wouldn't be their home forever, but for now, everything- it was as it should be. So he had to work hard. He would work hard to keep things this way.

He had sent Sizhui to hopefully entertain Wei Ying. They enjoyed each other's presence and talked frequently of the past. How he silently wished to be with them, but he had to grade papers tonight. He would sit and write as long as he had to, complying with the curfew time of course. Wangji had hoped to spend some time with his lover before the late hour came, but it would have to wait for another day. As long as they were together in the night, as long as the single lotus of the Cloud Recesses was beside him when the moon was high, he could be satisfied.

What he had presumed to be a peaceful last hour of writing changed when another of the current disciples, Jingyi, had come rushing to his side. "Hanguang Jun!" He called out, in a manner that was unnerving for Wangji. Worry. Fear. A distinguishable type of fear, shared only with those who were familiar with... "It's Senior Wei! He- something's wrong!"

His brush fell from his hand, sliding across his desk to a graded paper, leaving blotches of ink scattered on it. "What happened?" He asked, coldly. Wangji knew he was idolized by the disciple, but right now, he knew the stern, serious gaze that took hold of his face would be enough to intimidate even those whom he loved the most. His brother had so politely gotten accustomed to calling it, 'The Wei Wuxian Effect,' but that was beside the point.

Jingyi, and his inability to have the specifics, was still catching his breath. "I-I only heard yelling!" The teen looked as though he was cowering. It was only then that Wangji had realized that not only was his brush dropped, but broken in half, the second part still wrapped in his hand by knuckles that were turning white. He hadn't remembered doing that. "Hanguang-Jun! Sizhui is still with him! I don't know what's happening!"

Without needing to hear the rest, he was up and moving. As fast as any rules would forbid, he was moving. Across the paths of dusty white, he was going. The Second Jade was preparing himself for anything, clutching Bichen as the brisk pace he was taking barely left any time for marks to be formed in the snow. Wangji couldn't lose him again, his husband or their son, he wouldn't let it happen. He'd be faster this time.

Possibilities flooded his mind. Across the many towns, certain people swore vengeance to the Yiling Patriarch, for one reason or another. In the same sense, many sought out the demonic cultivator in hopes of being taught the art form, and would even carry out heinous acts to do so. Wangji sincerely hoped neither was the case. Spirits were enough of an issue, but he would always silently prefer the threat of the unliving rather than the unagreeable nature of man. Whatever the threat, he would never let Wei Ying go again. Never.

'Wei Ying!'

The doors burst open with a thud, Wangji using a great deal of strength to pry them open. Wisps of smoke lingered all around the room, coming from a tapestry set ablaze; the remains just barely intact to still hang on the wall. Sizhui was frantically trying to suppress the flames with a basin of water, but to no avail. "It's no use! I got it!" Wei Ying yelled, grabbing a section of the cloth that had yet to be touched by fire, and carefully holding it away from the wall. He bent over, gathering a pile of ashes that had collected on the ground with his other hand, smudging them across his fingers. "It has the remnants of a fire talisman. It won't be put out easily-" A glance came to his direction. "Huh? Lan Zhan when did you get here?"

Before he could answer, Jingyi had caught up, looking confused. "Huh?! When did you switch the plan to fire?! What happened to the first plan?!" He exclaimed. At that, both Sizhui and Wei Ying shot him a glare. In Wangji's experience, that meant they were hiding something. Not the first time it had happened. "I mean, what plan? There was no plan!"

"Plan?" The Second Jade asked. Hesitant looks and a light laugh were exchanged between the three. No one wanted to come forward. However, silence from Hanguang-Jun rang loudly, or so he'd been told. Though he had not intended to be intimidating, it was effective.

"Hanguang-Jun," Sizhui bowed, "Senior Wei noticed you've been working hard recently, so..." His sentence trailed off. "We came up with a plan to have you take a break. Jingyi was our messenger. Apologies for the initial deception. The fire was not part of this." The junior disciple confessed. Jingyi joined the other in his apologetic stance.

Wei Ying sighed, seeming to forget what he was holding as the last of the fire grazed his hand. Yelping, he let the last of the material go, as it succumbed to ash midair. Wangji was already by his side, holding the injury to his eyes and looking over the redness that had been left on two of his fingertips. "Should be treated." He spoke, softly. Fortunately, he had both the right balm and proper dressings nearby, as Wei Ying had a bad habit of being injured, and the healers were busy enough.

"Lan Zhaaan..." He whined, already having the gauze wrapped around by the other. "Lan-Er-Ge, this stuff won't work. I need you to kiss it better for me!" A pout smuggled on his face as he threw his arms over his lover's shoulders. "It hurts! It hurts so much! This is the end, Lan Zhan! The end of the Yiling Patriarch! I'm headed back to the afterlife for sure!"

The Second Jade sighed, looking content as he planted a gentle kiss atop his husband's now treated hand. "Be more careful." Wangji breathed out, letting Wei Ying put his head on his shoulder, still quietly embracing the hug from behind. When met with eyes that held a mischievous gaze, he repeated. "Need to be more careful, Wei Ying."

The pair of junior disciples weren't sure if they should be seeing this. Red hues brought on by embarrassment heated their cheeks. Still half-nuzzled into Wangji, Wei Ying couldn't help but laugh, looking up to the ceiling. "You kids! So easily flustered, just like your Hanguang-Jun used to be! You need to get out of this stuffy old place more often! Do some real labor, talk to the townspeople! They'll teach you how to have fun! And maybe you'll get to meet a pretty-"

"Wei Ying, the fire?"

One of the many conversational cues of the Second Master Lan- this one insinuating he wished for them to speak alone. Finally. Letting go of Wangji, much to his concealed displeasure, he shuffled away, closer to the duo of teenagers. "Alright alright. We've had enough excitement for one night, haven't we? Mission... Unconventional Success? The adults need to talk now." He teased, "and I'm sure the rest of your little duckling friends want to hear all about what happened, hmm? Run along now my little henchmen~!"

Jingyi stepped forward, seemingly wanting to protest, but A-Yuan grabbed his arm. "Right." The more daring of the two mumbled.

"Have a good evening Hanguang-Jun, Senior Wei." Sizhui added. Both of the disciples turned to leave, clearly hesitant. Wei Ying couldn't blame them for wanting to stay longer, after all, he was just so cool to be around, and spontaneous fires were certainly going to be an interesting thing to deal with if this was going to be a recurring thing! But the curfew was fast approaching, and he'd dealt with the consequences of rule-breaking enough to know that it wouldn't exactly be taken lightly should they be out longer than needed. His hand cramped just thinking about it! So much writing...

When the doors were sealed shut, the solemnity of Lan Wangji wore off. Loose shoulders, small flakes in his golden-toned eyes lighting up ever so delicately, the corners of his mouth turning upwards- to anyone unenlightened, they would notice no difference. But Wei Ying was enlightened, so very enlightened; educated and experienced in the ways of the Second Jade. Every magnetic movement made was put to a makeshift memory. His Lan Zhan was just so magnificent, he could study him for hours.

"You didn't start the fire." Wangji spoke, looking to the other for confirmation. Just as Wei Ying was experienced in his lover's expressions, Wangji was equally versed. "Good."

"We had sent Jingyi out to get you when it happened." The other started, sliding his fingers along the charred outline on the wall. "No trace of how it happened; didn't even catch our attention at first. By the time I had noticed, it was halfway singed through. What I find interesting..."

Wei Ying started digging through piles of scrolls. They had many maps, but on different scales. The one he took showed all of Gusu, and only Gusu. "It burnt one item. Of all that could have been set to fire, it burnt one item, and one that was mounted far enough from the wall as to not endanger anyone with a large scale blaze." A hand was brought to his chin. "Where did that tapestry come from?"

"Yuanwei Village." The Second Jade replied.

"Yuanwei... Lan Zhan! Did you name a town after me and A-Yuan?" A smirk crept onto the Yiling Patriarch's face. A devilish one, one of skillful teasing. He didn't remember anyplace called Yuanwei. He didn't remember a lot of things though. But there was no way-

"Farmers and merchants established a community eight years ago. Became a village. Asked to be recognized and named." He stopped, only for a minute. Wei Ying loved it when their eyes met like this. "I was given the task." Wangji informed, nonchalantly. His gaze strayed back to the map as his husband slowly turned red.

Beet red. "Lan Zhan!!! You-! You can't just say these things casually!"

"Does it bother Wei Ying?"

"No! But you can't just... But I guess you already have... Aiyahhh, I guess I'll have no choice but to love you for being so extravagant." Chenqing tapped against his hip as he held his arms around Wangji's waist. It seemed almost like a one-sided hug, but a hint of intimacy shared between them. This was nice.

Still holding onto his beloved, he turned the two of them around so he could see. Wangji had to look over his shoulder to see the map, but he didn't mind. "Yuanwei. The tapestry is from Yuanwei. There was no one close enough to cast an ordinary fire talisman, and it seems like this is too calculated to have been an attempt on our lives. Good! It's such a chore when people want to kill us."

"Mn."

Wei Ying sighed, dreamily falling into Wangji's always alert arms. "So eloquent my husband is!" Just as quickly as he dove towards the floor for the Second Jade to catch him, he bounced back to his feet. "In any case! I'm sure Zewu-Jun would want to hear about this. Especially if this was a threat to the Lan clan. Shall we go visit him, Hanguang-Jun?"

Wangji lightly shook his head. "Brother is not in the Cloud Recesses tonight. Visit to Qinghe."

The former Jiang disciple snapped. "Ah! I forgot! Huisang called a conference right? Doesn't he come back tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"Great!" He tugged on Wangji's sleeve. "Then he can know tomorrow. And youuu~" Wei Ying placed a single kiss on his cheek. His voice was no louder than a whisper. "You can take a break, Lan Zhan. You've been working so hard-"

He stopped.

Why did he stop? A smile stayed on Wei Ying's face, though pained. Ah, not this again. A glint of raw emotion, a single tear rolling down from eyes just barely dusted by pink under eyes, barely noticeable. But the Second Jade did, he always would, and it was too late to turn away. Tears? Why was he crying? He hadn't been feeling sad all day. He wasn't even sad! Lan Wangji was by his side again, and they were talking. It's what he wanted. So why... "You look so tired, Lan Zhan."

He didn't want to see him like this.

"...Wei Ying?"

"Hah." He breathed out, clutching his chest. "I don't know where these tears came from... I promise you I haven't been sad this whole time. I'm not even sad now! I promise. It's just- ahh I'm sorry this keeps happening!" That much was true. Unfortunately, sometimes what he went through crept up at the most inconvenient times. Memories of the past swept in with the happenings of the present. Something his husband had assured him was fine, but he still couldn't help but feel guilty. Bandaged fingers laced between his soulmate's hand. "I just... I don't want to see you so run down, Lan Zhan. Apparently my fragile heart can't bear it." He smiled.

Wangji knelt down, kissing the top of the other's hand in desperation. "Can't bear it." He repeated. "Can't bear to make Wei Ying cry."

"I'm not crying! You didn't make me cry! See? No more tears! You didn't make me sad! I wasn't sad I promise I-" Words will do nothing. Lan Wangji never cares for words. And so, he took the other's lips himself. Passionate yet delicately making sure the Second Jade couldn't speak another word of blame towards himself. Brief, but very effective.

A finger flicked against the tip of Wangji's nose. "My Lan Zhan is so funny, thinking he could ever make me sad." A giggle escaped the Yiling Patriarch. "No, I wasn't sad. I was so happy. Happy to see you again. It feels like it's been forever to be awake beside you, but only when you don't yawn. Do you know how traumatizing that was to see? My Lan-Er-Ge yawning? Unthinkable." Wei Ying mumbled, contently sitting on the floor where his beloved still knelt. He put a head on his shoulder. "Your knees must hurt, sit properly. No need for this apology stuff. I want to lay my head in your lap-"

He rambled. Wangji liked it when he rambled. It was so vibrant, and he was so curious. Despite always being clad in black, Wei Ying was ever colorful in his soul. Wangji never cared for words unless they were his. But he could only be consoled by actions. Had he really done no wrong? Wei Ying didn't cry because of him?

"-and the ground is hogging your lap! How dare it! I should've let that tapestry burn it all! We'd build a much nicer floor in its place you know!"

Wangji let out one, singular laugh. A grin formed on his single lotus's face as he shuffled over to place his head in the now sitting comfortably Hanguang-Jun. "The floor cannot have me."

"Good. I won't let it." Wei Ying smirked throwing his hands behind his head. "Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, you should really take that break tomorrow. We could have a relaxing day here all to ourselves. Or we could go into Caiyi Town and have some loquats- take A-Yuan and A-Yi to have dinner with us. Would you like that Lan Zhan?"

"...Would that make Wei Ying happy?" Wangji finally gave in, closing his eyes briefly in hesitant acceptance. But seeing Wei Ying light up the way he did, nodding vigorously, he would do this a thousand times over and more if he could. "I will take a break, then." He murmured, running his hand through the other's hair. Knowing they would be retiring for the night soon, he reached for a brush, undoing the tie of his husband's red ribbon. Wei Ying's hair was both silky smooth and yet small tangles always hid beneath the layers. They straightened easily with a gentle tug, never too hard.

Meanwhile his soulmate took to rambling once more. "Lan Zhan I had to go to such great lengths to bribe A-Yi to be the messenger for our plan! And I didn't even need to! One of the other disciples would've come to get you when the fire started! But now I have to get the whole lot of them sweets anyways!" He pouted, leaning his head back further to look at the other. "If I were them, I would've broken out for sweets myself! Why do they need me to do it? Kids!"

Wangji had finished brushing through the hair, letting go of it gently. "What were you planning?" He asked, both curious and a bit concerned. Nothing dangerous, and nothing that would upset him- those were out of the question. But upset uncle or the others... they were not graced with the same protections from his husband's mischief.

"Nothing special. I had brought up the rabbits earlier and was going to tell you they hopped up here all by themselves looking for you." Scooching across the floor, he picked up a basket that had been turned over on the floor. Hiding underneath, bunnies were practically stacked on top of each other. Strange, there was enough room for them all to be on the floor. "Good thing I put them in there before the fire started. Sizhui wanted to let them hop all over- but I told him you might trip over them if you were scared. That Jingyi... I told him to not scare you when I sent him!"

The rabbits hurriedly sprung over to their precious Hanguang-Jun. They had clear favoritism, even after Wei Ying had given them a talking to. Wangji let the few who were bold enough to hop onto him get settled where they liked. "A-Yi heard screaming." He started, sweetly stroking a hand on its head. "Glad he reacted."

"I guess you're right. I'd much rather you save me from a blaze than watching those juniors try and fan it."

Wangji nodded. The rabbit he'd taken to the most, the only one of dark fur they had, made its way up to his arm not long ago. It sat peacefully on his shoulder, but seemed to nuzzle into the man for more attention. Understanding the request, he lifted it up, holding it out just far enough from his body to be comfortable. "A-Ying."

Wei Ying nearly choked hearing that. His face went through thousands of shades of red, from a subtle pink to a burning strawberry, moving closer to his husband. "Eh!? First a town and now this! You never quit do you?" He asked, desperately, though sure he already knew the answer. "You never even call me A-Ying! What gives? Spoiling me and then calling the rabbit the cute name?"

He didn't need to say another word. Lan Zhan was already putting the rabbit in his lap. "A-Ying-" The Second Jade murmured, placing his head on the other's shoulder. "A-Ying is so handsome. Cute. Kind. Courageous. Strong. All the good things. Good like a bunny."

Grinning. He was grinning like a lovesick fool. Giddy, he took the brush that had been set aside, and took out ornaments in his lover's hair. Though wedded, nowadays he looked for permission before touching the sacred Lan headband Wangji wore proudly across his forehead. When he go the nod, he was quick to fumble with the tie that kept it fastened, before letting it slide gracefully into his hands.

Ha, how naive he'd been all those years ago. He'd picked a lover without even knowing it. A good choice, the best in fact, but a choice unconsciously made so young. He'd be gentle now, respectful. He owed so much debt to this elegant piece of cloth, but an eternity more to the one who wore it. Years. Life had kept on a steady pace in the blink of an eye for him, though in a new body. But... no he'd rather not pry that tonight. He was already tired, no need to bring up those memories. No more surprise crying!

Wangji's hair was damp from now melted snow. Wei Ying carefully glided a towel over it. "Lan Zhan, you shouldn't keep your hair damp. It's bad for your health."

"Mn."

When it was softened again, he ran the brush through. "We should go to bed soon. You need the extra sleep."

"Still have time. Curfew bell did not ring."

He sighed, pressing his face into the other's white robes. Sandalwood. He still had that rich, wooded trace clinging to him. "You need to sleeeeep~" Wei Ying mumbled, affectionately.

That's when the other turned around, causing him to nearly face-plant into the ground. But he was caught at the wrists. "Want to look at you." Wangji admitted, the tips of his ears tinged with a sweet pink. "Don't see you enough. Need to see you."

"You'll see me all tomorrow when Zewu-Jun comes back. You should rest now or else I'll make you take a nap then!" He teased. But of course, Wangji took it seriously, pulling away and heading for the bed. Wei Ying couldn't help but giggle as the other stared at him, waiting to be joined. "Alright alright, I'll come too. But I might be up earlier then! Maybe I'll make you breakfast!"

When they were laying beside each other, Wangji shut his eyes. "Wei Ying will sleep in."

"Is that a request or a fact?"

"Fact."

Wei Ying shuffled, propping himself halfway up with his shoulder, head sitting in his hands. "Is that so? What if you're wrong?" He poked the Second Jade's cheek. "Has Hanguang-Jun ever been wrong though? Maybe the entire cultivation world should listen to you more often. Things could be a lot more quiet."

"To us. Wei Ying is insightful." Lan Zhan added, opening his eyes once more. Turning slightly, he blew out three candles that illuminated the room. One... two... three, and the room was dark. Wangji not-so gracefully fell back onto the bed, before, turning towards the other. "Sleep." He breathed out.

"Sing to me." Wei Ying offered, only to be met with a confused, sleepy gaze. "Wangxian, sing it to me."

He tilted his head. Adorable. "Meant to be played on the guqin."

"Ahbut Lan Zhan," Wei Ying started, taking a thoughtful stance. "Your guqin is only an echo of your beautiful voice. It can't compare." An explanation that could be seen as biased, but bias was his specialty. They were married, Wei Ying could be biased compared to everyone else. He was the only one allowed to be biased when it came to Lan Wangji.

A moment of quietness passed, the only sound being the wind that whistled outside. Then, notes. Words... Words?

"You made words to this?"

"Mn."

The Yiling Patriarch brushed stray strands of velvet black out of his eyes, then Wangji's. "Lan Zhan." He coaxed. "Lan Zhan. Lan-Er-Ge. Ji-xiong. Hanguang-Jun. Lan Wangji." The names were all beautiful, each in their own way. Yet, there was one yet to be spoken. A-Ying... He liked that. Maybe his angel in white would like... Was it too bold? A-Ying was meant to be a rabbit, but he had no rabbit by the bed to blame it on. But Lan Zhan used it, so maybe- maybe he'd wanted to hear a response all these years? Only one way to tell.

"A-Zhan, it's beautiful. You're beautiful."

He smiled.

Author’s Note: Updates come every Sunday! There will be four chapters total :)

#mo dao zu shi #mdzs #cql #the untamed #wangxian #lan wangji #wei wuxian #lan zhan #wei ying #lan sizhui #a-yuan #wen yuan #lan jingyi #hurt/comfort #frankencanon #just go to sleep lan zhan #im sorry i hurt you later #uh hi my name is tae come consume me mdzs/cql fandom

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gemsofgreece · 4 years

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Ancient Greek, the language of the future

by Eugenia Manolidou, conductor.

“I read with interest Mr Dimos’s article that was published in the “Opinions” column on October 17th 2020. Please allow me some comments regarding it.”

[GEMSOFGREECE NOTE: I have read both articles and many things stated by Mr Dimos had me disagreeing or straight out displeased. Eugenia Manolidou responded with an article of her own, apparently motivated by similar feelings. I think her article is an enjoyable read and I agree on many levels while on others I can’t have an opinion due to lack of sufficient knowledge. I thought some of you would be interested in it, so I am translating the article in English. The article is informative for both Greek speakers and people interested in the Greek language and culture as well as the pronunciation of Ancient Greek. In the link, you can find the sources she used at the end of the text. I must now add that I did not necessarily expect to enjoy an article written by Mrs Manolidou (she’s well known in Greece and married to a politician) but that’s a personal impression that perhaps shouldn’t influence you. Going on with the article under the cut.]

I’ll begin with its title, “Can a dead language live again?”, which clearly refers to our language, Ancient Greek. I call it “ours” because even though we don’t comprehend it very well when reading ancient texts, we however use it in our everyday speech, even without realizing it.

For example, we might not know that the word αὐδή (avdí) means voice but we say very often “έμεινα άναυδος” (émina ánavdos = I was left speechless / voiceless). We might not know the phrase «ξύλου ἅπτεσθαι» (= knock on wood) but we always search for wood to knock when trying to avoid a bad omen.

Of course, I should not even start with the vocabulary in sciences, arts and literature because the list is endless. The Greek language is a living language that has survived not because we say so but because it remains in the international vocabulary by enriching most European languages.

Every year, students of the Classical Studies abroad rush to acquire books, teaching methods for Ancient Greek from Oxford, Cambridge and the rest acclaimed publishing companies. I will refer to the publications POLIS Institute Press of the Jerusalem Institute of Languages and Humanities with the title «Λαλεῖν τῇ κοινῇ διαλέκτῷ τῇ ζῶσῃ» (=Speaking the common living dialect). Meaning, the Common Greek, the living.

It is known that almost all schools in Europe kindle interest and enthusiasm in kids to learn the Classical Languages - and not “dead” so as to condemn them in advance - Latin and Greek. And yes in most countries they are taught with the Erasmian pronunciation because it helps them understand the dictation. Just for that. Not because they think it’s the correct pronunciation. Not anymore.

The Erasmian being an accurate description of how the ancients talked is an outdated thesis which many of the intellectuals and professors in Europe have now understood and explained. I will try to add some arguments in favor of this statement in short.

For those who don’t know, Desiderius Erasmus Roterdamus (1466 – 1536) was a Dutch monk who invented a method that would help those who learned Ancient Greek to write it down correctly. So, where someone would say “Χαίρε” (hére) and write it as «χέρε» (because that’s how it sounds), Erasmus explained that they should think of it as “háire” in order to write it correctly. But he never urged people to pronounce it like that.

Besides, in his book Colloquia Familiaria in the chapter “Echo”, he explains how to pronounce the diphthongs -onis, ονοις / -kopi, κόποι / -lici, λύκοι / -logi λόγοι/ and so on. Erasmus never said this is how Ancient Greeks talked, he just urged his students to memorize the correct dictation by ear. No European language is spoken exactly as it’s written.

We all think of such tricks to write words correctly. For instance, we think “extra-ordinary” but no fluent speaker of English pronounces it like that. Unfortunately, during the Renaissance in Europe, when the arts and literature were greatly inspired by the Greek mythology, history and philosophy, Greece under the centuries-long Turkish occupation couldn’t be a match for the rest of Europe. So when the French, German and Italian aristocrats spoke Ancient Greek to each other, we spoke a mix of Greek, Turkish and Italian, a blended language that we would hardly comprehend nowadays. And thankfully, our language survived thanks to the Church and the Scripts, which are written in Ancient Greek.

Therefore we did not know the way Ancient Greek was spoken in Europe. Here in Greece, we didn’t know. There were Greeks who didn’t live in Greece during the Ottoman rule though who knew. One of them was the priest Konstantinos Economou of Economon (1780-1857) who in his work «Περὶ τῆς Γνησίας Προφορᾶς τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς Γλώσσης» (=Regarding the Authentic Pronunciation of the Greek Language), Saint Petersburg 1829, explains why there’s no way the Ancient Greeks separated the diphthongs.

First of all, they were called “diphthongs” which means “two sounds in one”. If they don’t mean that, then why call them this way? Just like Andrea Marcolongo says in her book «La lingua geniale» , which translates to “the genius language” and not “the wonderful language”, with the subtitle «9 ragioni per amare il Greco», meaning, “9 reasons to love Greek” (Ancient Greek clearly, that’s what they always mean by “Greek” in Europe), there is no language more rich, precise and well-studied than Greek. Otherwise we wouldn’t have diphthongs, let alone a need for a diacritic mark( mark used to indicate a vowel forms its own syllable). We say «αρχαιολογία» and in English it’s archaeology, «παλαιοντολογία» and it’s «paleontology». But we say «αρχαϊκό» (note the diacritic) and in English it’s «archaic».

Let’s examine some more words: We say «ατμόσφαιρα» which in Latin is atmosfera. We say αίνιγμα, in latin it’s enigma. We say ενέργεια, in latin “energia” / αιθήρ, in Latin etere / Aίγυπτος, Egitto / μυστήριο, mistero / φαινόμενο, phenomenon / εγκυκλοπαίδεια, enciclopedia. The list is long and if we get ourselves into the scientific vocabulary (ginecologo, ematologo, pediatro), we will never end with this. In short, Latin, a “sister” language to Greek, saved through itself the pronunciation of Ancient Greek.

One more argument: the Greek words can be stressed exclusively in three syllables: the ultimate, the penultimate or the antepenultimate. If we separate the diphthongs, the punctuation gets out of hand. So instead of “hérete”, we would say “háirete” which is obviously wrong. With the separation of the diphthongs, the Dactylic Hexameter (the rhythmic scheme of Ancient Greek epic poetry) would collapse. Perhaps you’ve heard the attempts of the Europeans to recite the Iliad or the Odyssey.

Homer’s poetic epic has a completely different sound due to the loss of the Hexameter. Besides, just like Erasmus said and Economou quotes in his book: «Conducendus aliquis, natione Graecus, licet alioquin parvum eruditus, propter nativum illum ac patrium sonum, ut castigate graeca sonari dicantur.» Meaning, “Call someone, Greek in nation, even with little or no education, for that native sound, so that you learn the exact and natural pronunciation of Greek.”

What’s truly pitiful in this situation is not how foreigners learn to speak Ancient Greek. The true shame is that such a beautiful, rich and living language, our language, is more appreciated, loved and respected abroad than in Greece. I admire the people who try so hard to learn a language for which they don’t even know the alphabet. And yet they try, they learn it, they speak it, they teach it and that’s why the big publishing companies still publish teaching methods for Ancient Greek.

In the foreign universities, most professors teaching Ancient Greek are foreign. Foreign professors tutoring foreign students. It’s them who come to Greece for vacation and crowd our monuments and museums, which are right on our feet and yet we consider a visit there as a nuisance. If we truly want to love our language, our history and culture, we should be taught Ancient Greek from a young age, as a living language, like they do abroad.

With simple, comprehensible texts, from the mythology, from Aesop, from simple sayings and delphic orders, our language is full of them. So instead of occupying ourselves with whether Homer’s sheep cried “vee” or “beh” and instead of trying to decode why the Greek rooster says kokoriko while the English rooster says Cock-a-doodle-doo - he does neither - let’s try to make our children understand the importance, the meaning and the symbolism of the Naval Battle of Salamís instead of a plain «ὦ παῖδες Ἑλλήνων, ἴτε» (= O children of the Greeks, arise), dry and withered.

#αρχαία ελληνικά #greece #europe #greek #ancient greek #erasmus #languages #greek language #langblr #greek culture

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recentanimenews · 4 years

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Chuni Conquers All: Remembering Myriad Colors Phantom World

This article is part of Crunchyroll News' KyoAni Month celebration. Check out the rest of our KyoAni features HERE.

With so many shows and seasons to choose from, sometimes the task of finding a new anime series to view can seem a bit daunting. “Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog” is here to help. By offering additional info and cultural context, our goal is to connect fans to older titles that they may not have noticed the first time around.

This week, we once again pay homage to the works of Kyoto Animation as we flashback to a speculative fiction setting in which humanity has undergone an evolution of the ESPer kind when we take a look at Myriad Colors Phantom World.

What's Myriad Colors Phantom World?

Based on the light novels written by Sōichirō Hatano and illustrated by Shirabi, Myriad Colors Phantom World is a Winter 2016 TV anime with direction by Tatsuya Ishihara and animation production by Kyoto Animation. Crunchyroll describes the story of the series as follows:

In the near future, monstrous creatures called “phantoms” descend upon the world. Haruhiko Ichijo is a student at Hosea Academy, along with Mai Kawakami, Reina Izumi, and Koito Minase, three girls who fight these creatures. High school life proceeds as normal until a certain incident reveals the truth of their world to them.

Although it may not be entirely clear from that description, in Myriad Colors Phantom World, strange creatures and superhuman powers have become commonplace, and tracking down and eliminating nuisance Phantoms is considered an extracurricular club activity along the same lines as participating in a sports team or drama club. Myriad Colors Phantom World is a high school comedy in which chunibyo is real.

A Glitch in the Matrix.

As a general rule, the longer a light novel to anime adaptation progresses, the greater the chance that they will unironically reference the Schrödinger's Cat thought experiment. Myriad Colors Phantom World one-ups this practice, because the main character, Haruhiko Ichijo, is a bibliophile with a penchant for both ancient mythology and New Age concepts.

As the series progresses, Haruhiko and company directly reference all manner of psychological, metaphysical, and philosophical concepts, although more often than not these allusions are more likely to be in service to a groan-inducing pun than a deep exploration of themes. This adds an interesting texture to the setting and world-building of the series.

Shameless Fanservice.

Like many productions helmed by Kyoto Animation, Myriad Colors Phantom World is lavishly animated, and as a result, the series contains great, smacking gobs of fanservice, and not just of the variety that pays particular attention to the female form.

While there are plenty of instances where the cheesecake factor surrounding Mai Kawakami is off the scale, there are also numerous action sequences that read like pure pandering to animation fans, with intricate fight choreography and gorgeous special effects. The series is both high-concept and lowbrow, and its visuals pack a powerful punch.

Phantom Family.

While chuni high school antics and romantic comedy shenanigans are the meat of Myriad Colors Phantom World, the heart of the show is an exploration of the importance of the family unit to the emotional and mental well-being of the individual.

There are plenty of light novel anime with characters who have absent parents or who experience a chilly home life, but few series have the courage to tackle a parent and child reconciling after a messy divorce. The emotional core of Myriad Colors Phantom World is how each character navigates and internalizes the complexities of their familial relationships, and this elevates the story above the level of a typical high school comedy.

Chuni High School.

Crunchyroll currently streams Myriad Colors Phantom World in 202 territories worldwide. The series is available in the original Japanese language with subtitles in English, Spanish, Latin American Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Arabic, and an English dubbed version is also available in some regions. Myriad Colors Phantom World is also available on Bluray in the United States courtesy of Funimation.

A bright show both in title and execution, Myriad Colors Phantom World is the definition of light entertainment. If you're in the mood for a show that is full of pyrotechnics, puns, and positivity — and if the series is available in your area — then please consider giving Myriad Colors Phantom World a try.

Thanks for joining us for the second and final installment of the Kyoto Animation appreciation posts by “Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog.” Be sure to join us again next time, when we shine the light of fandom on another entry in Crunchyroll's catalog in the hopes of helping people discover a new passion for an older title.

Is there a series in Crunchyroll's catalog that you think needs some more love and attention? Please send in your suggestions via e-mail to [email protected] or post a Tweet to @gooberzilla. Your pick could inspire the next installment of “Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog!"

Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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all-things-skam · 5 years

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I really think if you did 65&67&62 it would be really cute! Elu of course, definitely think Elliot would never let Lucas study in peace haha

Anon: Lucas trying to study but Elliot wanting to do something else ;)

62. ‘‘You’re cute.’‘

65. ‘‘Stop it, I have to study.’‘

67. ‘‘Would you be mad if I kissed you right now?’‘

Title: Eliott - 1 | Studying - 0

Ship: Skam France | Lucas Lallemant and Eliot Demaury (Elu)

The BAC was approaching and studying with Eliott around was almost impossible. Lucas had agreed let him come over, thinking they could spend the night studying but, Eliott 'forgot' his textbooks at home. Yeah...as if.

Eliott sat on Lucas's bed, seeing that Lucas had already organized all his studying material on his desk. He felt a little bad because Lucas genuinely wanted to study, he was so stressed out because of the BAC, and Eliott just wanted to spend time with him. Guess he'll have to settle for kisses whenever Lucas was taking a break.

''Okay, you go study my little genius. I'll set up a movie on your laptop.''

Lucas bit his lip. ''Are you sure you don't mind? I have a lot of catch up to do in Biology and I don't understand shit in the last module.'' He let out an exasperated sigh, already discouraged. ''I'm going to fail...''

Eliott gently took Lucas's face in his hands and gave him a quick peck on the lips. ''You're [not] going to fail, mon amour. I just know it.''

Lucas didn't buy this and gave him a pout. ''I am! You only say that because you're my boyfriend and you have to say I'm good at things by default.''

The older boy chuckled. In the past couple of months that Eliott has known him, Lucas had done pretty well on all exams. He was just stressing out over nothing.

Reluctantly, Lucas went over to his desk and Eliott started his movie, keeping the sound low and putting the subtitles to not bother Lucas too much. How thoughtful of him.

After the the movie ended, boredom hit Eliott hard and he decided that it was time for Lucas to take a break. He had been studying for over two hours and hadn't taken any breaks. Eliott decided that It was time for Lucas to rest a bit.

''According to studies, our brain can only concentrate for ninety minutes before we begin to lose focus. You should take a break, baby. You'll retain information better if you take a break.''

Lucas sighed and shook his head, without looking up from his textbooks. ''I can't, Eliott. I'm trying to comprehend prokaryotes and protists and it's really complicated. I have to get these chapters done for tonight!'' he said, sounding stressed.

Standing up from the bed, Eliott crossed the distance to the desk and stood behind Lucas's chair, wrapping his arms around him from behind, resting his chin on Lucas's shoulder. He kissed his cheek, descending down his jawline and neck.

Lucas tried to brush him off. ''Stop it, I have to study.''

But, Eliott didn’t give in. He leaned up and kissed just behind his ear, knowing that Lucas was ticklish there. ''Come on, baby. Only for a few minutes.,'' he whispered in his ear, smirking before biting his lobe.

Lucas tensed, fingers tightening their hold around his pen, biting down harshly on his bottom lip. ''Can you not do that!'' Maybe he shouldn't have declined Imane's offer to study together... ''Next time, I'm studying at Imane's.''

''Why?''

''Because I can't study when you're there! Your presence itself is a nuisance to my academics,'' he explained, causing Eliott to chuckle.

Eliott moved from behind the chair and sat on the edge of Lucas's desk, not caring if he was sitting on any papers. He made sure to move super close to Lucas so that he had no chance of grabbing his papers and textbooks to study again. ''Am I distracting? Am I?'' Eliott asked with amusement, cocking an eyebrow.

How dare he sitting there, on the desk, looking like a goddamn snack while Lucas is trying to study? His tight, black tee shirt molding every muscles of his chest and torso, his signature messy hair and all over the place - and those gorgeous blue-gray eyes. How was Lucas supposed to resist to that?

''Yes, when you look at me like that...and looking like that.'' He tried to grab his textbook, setting it on his lap to start reading again only to be interrupted.

''I promise to not look at you anymore.''

Lucas huffed giving his boyfriend a look. ''What's the point of you coming over when you're not looking at me?''

This made Eliott smile, making him realize that he still held some power to stop the younger boy from studying. He leaned in close. ''Would you be mad if I kissed you right now?''

Lucas narrowed his eyes. ''Very.'' The brunet wanted to give into his touch, wanted to pull off the tee shirt and trace his skin with the pads of his fingers. He tried to shake off the thought, clearing his throat. ''Eliott come on, off the desk now.''

''You're cute when you're annoyed.''

He groaned. ''Eliott, that wasn’t the point! Come on, I need you to get off now, or else I’ll just have to send you back home!''

''Are you threatening me, Mr. Lallemant?'' Eliott asked playfully, cocking an eyebrow. He managed to not move at all, standing his ground.

Lucas shrugged, holding back his grin. He decided that he needed to be just a little more forceful as he began to gently push Eliott off. ''Come on, no more being all cute and sexy around me. Go back to the bed or you will get [banished] from the flat. And I’m being serious this time.''

Eliott stood, tricking Lucas into thinking that he was going back to the bed only to scoop him into his arms and over his shoulder, causing the boy to squeal and hold on to Eliott's tee shirt for dear life.

''Eliott, put me down!''

Ignoring his boyfriend's request, Eliott giggled and brought Lucas over the the bed, gently putting him down but keeping him under his grip. ''I'd like to see you banish me from the flat now,'' he said, smirking.

Lucas looked up at Eliott with a pout. ''Come on you’re crushing me,'' he complained, trying to somehow trick him into escaping from his grip.

But, this didn’t fool Eliott. Instead, he began to tickle the younger boy. ''This is what you get for lying to me! You think I don’t know that you’re trying to escape?''

Lucas couldn’t hold back his laughter, curling up every time Eliott tickled him. ''Fine, fine! I promise I won’t escape, just...no more tickling! I promise I won’t go!''

Testing the waters, Eliott started peppering kisses all over Lucas's face, his nose, his cheek, his brow bone, his cheekbone...except his lips, causing Lucas to smile and giggle, not fighting against Eliott's touch anymore.

''Come on, kiss me,'' the younger boy whined, pushing his bottom lip out.

Eliott leaned in real close, brushing their noses together. ''Oh, you want my kisses now?'' He was clearly teasing Lucas. ''You didn’t let me kiss you earlier. You had your chance and now it’s a little too late...no kisses for you.''

''Eliott...please, baby.''

Lucas pursed his lips, awaiting for a kiss. Eliott chuckled and executed his demand, joining their lips together. He gently laced his hands through Lucas's hair, deepening the kiss. Lucas parted his lips, his hands sliding on Eliott's body, clutching at him, needing him closer.

Needless to say, not much studying was done after that.

#elu #elu fic #eliott x lucas #lucas x eliott #eliott demaury #Lucas Lallemant #skamfr #skam france

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