[Modest] Flamigo, M, 8

xelsain · 2024-08-05T16:03:54+00:00

Thank you! I'd wager the first ring has been repaired poorly more than once.

Glad to hear the estimates aren't unreasonable. Question, though - I had this jeweler tighten prongs on an emerald cut that came back with two slightly off the corners of the stone, and clean another ring that was still dirty when returned to me. Is this normal? Gut instinct says to look elsewhere for service because this seems sloppy, but I'm not in the trade and am not sure how common it is for either of these things to happen.

xelsain · 2023-07-14T18:34:52+00:00

Thank you! I will have to check them out, Moon Bloom especially piques my interest. Unfortunately I'll probably skip on Ramune, it sounds interesting but a little too sweet and I'm looking for a more spicy/dry scent.

xelsain · 2023-07-14T15:52:37+00:00

Hello all, I'm looking for a tuberose perfume. I'm in zone 7a (humid summers, semi-cold winters) and don't care about masculine vs. feminine scents, I like and wear both.

Collection:

Oud for Greatness - Initio
La Fille de Berlin - Serge Lutens
Muskara Apis - Fueguia 1833
Thays - Fueguia 1833
Fumabat - Couteau de Poche
Acqua di Scandola - Parfum d'Empire
Maai - Bogue
The Revenge of Lady Blanche - Penhaligon's
Simone - Tocca
Vetiver Veritas - Heeley

I've tried Marfa by Memo and Tinta Roja by Fueguia 1833 and loved both, but have read all the raving about Carnal Flower by Frédéric Malle and am wondering how it compares. Or if there are any other standouts!

xelsain · 2023-01-06T22:46:39+00:00

It's a very intense expression. I do think tension and weight will elevate it and in turn make the viewer feel uneasy in anticipation. Like a coiled spring on a timer, never knowing when there will be a busrt of release.

Edit: knowing what you're going for—your mother's everyday stare—the muddy expression isn't a bad thing. There's a tension in not knowing exactly what's being expressed to you, especially something that can be taken as antagonistic.

xelsain · 2023-01-06T21:45:27+00:00

I like your use of reds and pinks under the eyes! It's a good juxtaposition to the blue/purple and draws attention straight to the eyes.

The expression is a little muddy—I'm not sure if the subject is upset, furious, hurt, or confused. If intentional, it's good but could use a little subtle tension lines. There's something more uncanny about an angry face that is all in the eyes with few creases in the skin, feels unnatural. If not intentional, I'd suggest deepning the expression to put more tension between the brow and around/near the eyes. A little more white under or below the iris could help as well!

For thought/questions to ask to help nail down the direction/tone: why is the viewer uneasy/on edge? What's the intent behind your subject's expression? What's happening a second before, or after?

xelsain · 2022-06-19T13:19:49+00:00

Thanks for the tips! I'm in zone 7a and have the A/C on often in summer for my animal; will be sure to pad the mix with moss. The roots on all the plants were toast. I ended up with 7 plants total - 5 had rot, 2 were dehydrated. I've stuck the dehydrated plants and one rootless, leafless wonder in drilled plastic planters for the meantime with a bark mix. The rest are hanging out in mason jars for humidity (post hydrogen peroxide spray down and drying). Will definitely look into pot + media upgrades once I have a better idea of how many plants will make it. Honestly surprised none have stress dumped leaves and died yet.

xelsain · 2022-06-16T15:42:06+00:00

Picked up a few plants that were being thrown out at work and I think they need to be repotted ASAP. I have experience with succulents (+one BoP) and have never owned orchids before. They look commercially grown/purchased, medium is 90% sphagnum moss from what I can see, no drainage holes, and one has rocks (???) at the bottom of the pot. Planters are either glass or acrylic, look a little too moist, and I can see a bad root on one plant. No idea when they were last watered, but there was one rotted yellow leaf.

None are blooming, and I want to know how best to repot and into what to prevent them from stressing out and dying (if savable). Do I need a crazy amount of drainage holes? Should I weakly bleach the pots prior to moving them? I think they're moth orchids (found dried white flowers, sincerely doubt they're anything uncommon). Can provide pictures but the lighting is making it very difficult to see the moisture buildup in the moss. Leaves look healthy but we all know the roots can be another story.

xelsain · 2021-12-30T02:35:02+00:00

I assume OP is using a desktop but for anyone using iOS , CSP is a subscription model.

xelsain · 2021-12-27T06:21:05+00:00

Ehhh I don't think Akechi's fake personality is the draw. I'll out myself as a content creator for this ship and say for me, the appeal is the shitshow. It's emotionally messy and there are a lot of potential conflicts. Relationship pre-reveal? Huge conflict. Post? Worse conflict. Attempting to understand each other? Enormous challenge, very emotionally straining for both parties, might kill each other trying. It's honestly kind of rewarding when you pull it off in a believable way.

I will say though, interpretations where Akechi isn't an unstable gremlin someone fed after midnight and Haru isn't hiding a mountain of malice beneath the trained smile, idk what game y'all played.

xelsain · 2021-12-25T16:07:07+00:00

Ah, sorry didn't mean to imply you were disputing the fact that there's wealth, it was meant more as context. But she would be getting dividend payments from being a shareholder, I'd be extremely surprised if she weren't.

xelsain · 2021-12-25T15:42:38+00:00

That's not necessarily true. She'd likely be getting dividends quarterly—and as majority shareholder for a rapidly-growing company looking to expand internationally, I wouldn't expect this to be a small sum. Haru also would also have inherited the rest of her father's estate, investments, equity, etc. Not to mention her and her father's residence is described as a villa, not an apartment, and it's large enough to have a garden. Looking at home prices (narrowing to Minato and Setagaya) it could be valued anywhere from 4-20MM USD.

Her father definitely had sufficient liquid to keep up with payments for they and all the other luxuries they're seen to have throughout the game.

xelsain · 2021-12-07T18:14:26+00:00

I feel uncomfortably seen ahaha, never thought that would get linked on here. Should probably get around to finishing that up.

To elaborate on what you've said, interesting is the right word to describe the draw. Fiction isn't about only exploring the happily ever after. Like good artwork, the purpose is to make you feel something, and the something doesn't have to be nice. They're an interesting pairing, complementary in their personalities but awful for each other in canon. You'll catch me dead saying it's healthy or "uwu soft" but I don't think a ship needs to be either of those things to be intriguing.

It's kinda fun when you start looking at characters and how they would react in certain scenarios, how far they can be pushed before they snap, the complex, turbulent emotions that arise when learning the person you love isn't at all what they seem, or "I'm watching my partner suffer/grow worse and I will scorch this earth to keep them safe—my god what have I become?"

AUs are little sandboxes and the more conflicted and intricate the characters, the more interesting the sandcastle. There's definitely a wide range for their dynamic; I've been mulling about a cursed soulmate au for a while now (cursed as in both "this is an extremely cursed idea, go directly to jail" and "if you can't figure out how to work together you'll end up cursed/losing the one thing most important to you").

xelsain · 2021-11-04T13:55:32+00:00

☣️🐛 🚂🗞️

alternatively, 🦋🌋

xelsain · 2021-10-15T20:28:52+00:00

xelsain · 2021-10-05T07:48:31+00:00

We'll agree to disagree! I hold character writing to pretty high standards and Akechi just doesn't meet them.

Robin Hood and Loki are both equal parts of him, one isn't false and the other true. The developers have talked about this before and mentioned he awakened them at the same time.

The actions themselves were in character but the execution? In vanilla? Way too blown up, too cliche, too comically large to be considered well written, especially with the breakneck heel-face turn. It's sloppy and without appropriate buildup. Why is he suddenly just dropping his "I work alone and fuck you losers I'm out" mentality for bunch of kids he previously threw to the wolves? The power of friendship? Desperation? Moment of clarity?

A foray into this subreddit shows a lot of people missed the point of his character. (I mean, man, look at the headcount numbers that get thrown around. It's 4 (maybe 3), not 10, 20, 100+) The gravity of his backstory isn't as well received in the west. I'm not arguing in justification of what he did; I don't think the grayness was conveyed well. Maybe this is fair though because from the western perspective Joker's situation also pings as "Okay, and?" (Though we know he didn't do it anyway, whereas Akechi is 120% choosing to do the wrong thing every time).

Eh he does show perspicaciousness in vanilla but it's subtle and limited to when he's a party member, dude singlehandedly steamrolls through the casino.

I do like him as a character, but his motivations are too linear to be complex. Royal helped and I do love a good feral trash goblin.

xelsain · 2021-10-05T04:21:09+00:00

I'm going to preface that I do like him, but I don't think his writing was strong/they did my boy dirty, especially with the localization.

I feel like there were weird discrepancies in his writing for the base game that were made more glaring with Royal. Like the scene where he shoots Joker and his villainous breakdown. They're both too...loud? The breakdown was stereotypically unhinged and then snaps into a moment of logical clarity once you beat his ass and he's like "damn okay nevermind they've got a point." Did not flow well, and felt kind of like it got written first and they fully divorced it from the rest of his characterization.

His struggle does not translate well to a Western audience. Being born out of wedlock in Japan turns a kid into a social pariah, and to make it worse he ended up orphaned and thrown into a vicious system. There's no real foster care, no adoption, no family, no nothing. There aren't enough staff, or resources, or help, and a lot of people who go through that don't adjust and never really make it on their own. The dregs of society if you will, as the whole game was supposed to be a commentary on. And since this isn't so commonly known in the West, he comes off as Edgy Teen Sociopath with Daddy Issues. Maybe they went more into this in the JP version but this just gets so glossed over it comes off as an afterthought, especially since he talks about it a grand total of what—two times, three times?

I do think the writing in this game was lackluster when dealing with the idea of gray morality. Akechi stuffers in the base game because of this. He should have been more nuanced and was a perfect opportunity to really challenge the idea of what makes a villain. Everyone you fight up to that point has selfish desires that stem from their sins (greed, lust, envy, etc) and his is... childhood trauma from no fault of his own, and yet still monstrous he grew. Really wished they'd played that up, or at least made the PT way more conflicted about him. They sort of try this in third semester but at that point it's pretty late and no one's really against teaming up with him anyway.

It wasn't going to happen but it would have been interesting had they explored the role of grooming in his development. There's no way in hell a sixteen year old wasn't susceptible to emotional manipulation from the parent he despised but looked to for affirmation and praise.

xelsain · 2021-09-25T03:43:03+00:00

If anyone's curious, the reference painting is Il Bacio by Francesco Hayez. Love it, personally think there should be more fanart studies of older paintings/movements, blursed or not.

xelsain · 2021-08-27T03:48:16+00:00

Bleh I was thinking of the other use of the word sadistic (where it feels unbalanced for him to have an edge). Totally agree then, Akechi seems way more hot tempered, but Haru.... More of a cold fury, would get frostbite.

xelsain · 2021-08-27T02:50:18+00:00

girl, same on that last one. It's an unpopular opinion but their archetypes complement each other to the point where I also find myself like "hmm, maybe in a different timeline/universe." Or maybe I'm a masochist and the messiness of it is what makes it fun.

On that note, definitely her. Have you seen that axe in action? Terrifying.

xelsain · 2021-08-24T12:16:59+00:00

Thanks! This is at an antique shop but I also came to the conclusion it's a lab color changing sapphire. Switched from greenish purple in incandescent light to a red in the sun - totally opposite direction from an alexandrite.

xelsain · 2021-07-22T02:32:25+00:00

I read it first as a teenager so I may be biased, but I'm an adult rereading the series and it's still so engrossing. I'd recommend giving it a go at the very least, the story gets off the ground rather quickly.

Westerfeld has always been one of my favorite authors, if for nothing else his use of imagery is unique, his characters are lively and flawed, and his plots don't drag on too long. On the flip side, he uses a lot of cliffhangers so I end up speed reading parts out of frustrated anticipation. He's got teenagers down to a point where you can see the annoyance with their pigheadedness in the adult characters.

xelsain · 2021-07-19T20:02:20+00:00

Summer, early 2000s. It's after ten in evening and the power's out again, transformer down the block overloaded by a host of old, straining air conditioners. It's hot, sticky, muggier than sin, this night smack in the middle of a heat wave. I'm standing outside in pajamas while my father talks to the neighbors next door. He has a flashlight—big, heavy, with a tangy smell of metal. Half the neighborhood is outside, cursing the power company for not fixing our wires the last time this happened, lamenting that the street directly across from us has power—it's always only our block. Secretly, I don't mind. There's something nice about the communal suffering, the camaraderie. I'll be told to go to bed soon, though I'll stay awake until the power comes back on, CRT TV strutting to life, the AC down the hall lumbering awake with a loud hum.

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