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It's been a week since the tree of life has been finished! On a whim, I wrote some authors' commentary of the story about where the inspiration of the story came from and some thought processes behind it. It contains initial ideas, a VERY bad summary of certain legends and myths that this story contains, and a bit about how my faith shaped the writing journey.
Thank you <3.
Commission for @mykingdomforapen!
Baby moon Xiaoshi to go with baby frog Guang from her wonderful fic Courage of Stars.
Quarri my BELOVED!!
Posted by Roberto to his Instagram.
(Loose) Translation, Alt ID in Spanish:
Today we had a day of fraternization for the old ties of the @/numaturcatti team with the @/oldchristiansclub @/occfutbol with whom we share the same life values. Of those who were in the accident, several played in this team, Pancho Delgado, Arturo Nogueira, Coche Inciarte, Gastón Costemalle and Numa Turcatti, who was the captain at that time of the team called "Loyola" and which later came to be named in his honor.
Comment reads: It was an honor for us to share today's journey, thank you very much! 💙💛
Comment reads: Your friends in heaven 🌌 must be so proud of this 🥺✨🤍
Enzo Vogrincic & Agustín Pardella as Numa Turcatti & Nando Parrado LA SOCIEDAD DE LA NIEVE (2023) dir. J.A. Bayona
For the first time, I consider the very real possibility that I'll never return home. But I look at Nando, and I feel hopeful. He trains every day, obsessed with one idea – that beyond that mountain lie the green valleys of Chile. But climbing it is suicide. Still, I'll go with him.
thinking about the super giga brains of people that worked on this movie by making one of the first scenes this one; of most of them in church as a priest talks about jusus giving his body because a man cannot live on bread alone when he is tempted by satan in isolation. and then the boys pass a note to numa asking him to join them on the flight where they will end up in a similar situation, where near the end numa will give his body so his friends can live
'Numa se inmola para provocar la salida de los expedicionarios, como si dijera: "si me muero ahora, primero dejo de sufrir y además los impulso para que se vayan"', asegura Gustavo Zerbino, que fue quien encontró la nota que Numa escribió en su mano cerrada. 'Con ese mensaje les hablaba a los expedicionarios; "les toca a ustedes". Lo miré a Roberto y Roberto me responde: "ya está, salimos mañana"'. 'Numa sacrificed himself to push the expeditionaries to leave, as if saying: “If I die now, most importantly I won’t suffer anymore. Besides that, I’ll motivate them to leave,”’ says Gustavo Zerbino, who was the one to find the note Numa had written, clutched in his closed hand. ‘With this message he was telling the expeditionaries: “Now it’s your turn.” I looked at Roberto and he said, “Alright, we’ll leave tomorrow.”’ — La Sociedad de la Nieve (2008), Pablo Vierci
The countries that got tea via China through the Silk Road (land) referred to it in various forms of the word “cha”. On the other hand, the countries that traded with China via sea - through the Min Tan port called it in different forms of “te”.
I liked this so much I became curious… and it checks out! The explanation lies, unsurprisingly, in who was interacting with whom in early modern long-distance trade.
@amuseoffyre immediately thought of you :)
los dedos preciosos
How does it make me feel? Truthfully?
Day 5 - hotpot 🥘
JA Bayona framing the movie Society of the Snow so that Numa is the narrator may very well be the bazooka to my emotional damage
"Numa made his presence felt through quiet heroics: no one fought harder for our survival, no one inspired more hope, and no one showed more compassion for the ones who suffered the most. Even though he was a new friend for most of us, I believe Numa was the best loved man on the mountain." - Nando Parrado
SOCIETY OF THE SNOW (2023)
How about 6 & 10 for the writing meme? And happy new year to you!!
hehehe thank you for asking friend!
6. What’s your favourite piece of dialogue you wrote this year?
Oh that's hard. Hmmm. I think it would have to be between two--one from tree of life and the other from living pains. I normally love writing dialogue, but the dialogue in the tree of life was pretty difficult to balance. I felt like I was very clumsy with words throughout the writing process. But I really like the dialogue in the tree of life, chapter 10, between Cheung Fun and Lu Guang on the fishing boat.
The river spun the fishing boat along its wild currents. Lu Guang clung to the edge, hugging the wood desperately to stay upright. So, Lu Guang, said Cheung Fun. Jump out from this boat. “What?” Lu Guang choked. He looked up at Cheung Fun with terror. The waters around him lashed out at him, dark and deep with the unknown. Now, said Cheung Fun. And then you will be safe. “But–” Keep your hand stretched out from the surface, Cheung Fun said. You will know when to get out of the river. Lu Guang couldn’t help it. He whimpered. He had thought by now he had lost the fear of death–somewhere in between losing his life to the war against time, and losing his friend. And yet life flailed inside of his heart, rich and flush with the hunger for more of it. He was alive, and he was afraid. He had been afraid for so long. Cheung Fun pressed his snout against the top of Lu Guang’s head. “Will I drown?” Lu Guang cried out. I am a dragon, said Cheung Fun. The king in the river. I could dry this riverbed in a breath, split it into a thousand streams like hair. If I tell you to get in the water, it can do nothing against you. Lu Guang could feel his limbs shake uncontrollably. Cheung Fun’s hot breath rustled his hair. I could make it stop in its tracks until it is as still as glass, said Cheung Fun. But if you knew what I knew, you would not ask it of me.
It's a conversation that I think when I heard it in my head really struck me like a bullet. It's very much reflective of my own emotional wrestlings with faith and fear and trying to trust the Lord, and I channeled those emotions here--that sitting through torrential and terrifying storms of life is sometimes the only way to get me to where I absolutely need to be, but in the moment before I know where it'll take me it's so scary. Lu Guang sees a terrifying force of nature, one that had given him a fright back in chapter 3 and is understandably afraid of it, and if he had it his way, probably would rather the river be completely still and safe before he jumps out. But if that were the case, he would never have gotten to the bridge. It's a piece of dialogue that I often go back to for my own emotional need for comfort, to remind myself that being afraid is so real and okay but to keep reaching my hand out, so to speak.
I also like this one from living pains lol:
"Lu Guang," [Cheng Xiaoshi] said. "I just had a thought." "Oh?" Lu Guang said. "Shall we make a toast?"
10. What, if anything, are you going to try to do differently in your writing in the new year?
Oh, so much. I want to try writing an experimental fic, which is giving me a run for my money. I want to try writing more original fiction, or at least toy with the idea and not be so scared of it. I also would really love to write a QL centric fic if that will ever come to me, since stars was CXS centric in a way and the peaches fic was LG centric. We shall see...
1 and 7 for the end of year fic writer meme!!
Hehehe thank you for asking!! I emerge from my night-long haunting!!
I think that has to go to the tree of life ! It was a fic I had wanted to write since the first few months I started watching Link Click, and incorporating a lot of elements in a story I really wanted to try telling for a good chunk of my writing life, so to get to write it for this fic as well as to go on this journey of emotions (the story's direction actually changed relatively late in the process from what I initially imagined it to be), it really means a lot to me.
7. What’s your favourite piece of description or narration?
I'm going to cheat a little because I technically wrote this scene in 2024 but it wasn't published until 2025. But it's from the tree of life chapter 6.
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Lu Guang had spent countless nights locking eyes with this beast that was torn between hunting and haunting. He armed himself with axes and clubs, ready to swing at this understanding when it got too close. He was convinced that it would pin him down and tear his heart out. Cheng Xiaoshi wanted to live, but he couldn’t. Cheng Xiaoshi deserved to live, had so much to live for, and now look at him. Who are you, Lu Guang, to eat the food he couldn’t and smell the sunlight on an autumn day? The thought’s canines would puncture his heart and he would feel it with every nerve in his body.
Until the thought finally stepped into the light, and Lu Guang saw that its muzzle was soft and its paws were padded. It stared up at Lu Guang with dark, watery eyes and it panted for a place to lay its head.
Lu Guang stood dumbly, enterprises of great fury and retaliation losing their momentum. He lost grip of vicious self-blame that he would have wielded, suddenly finding himself defenseless to this quiet, lumbering thought that waited for him to make the first move.
Gingerly, Lu Guang lowered himself into a sitting position.
A beat.
The thought trudged closer, skittish but hopeful, until it carefully lay its head on Lu Guang’s knee. It bundled its legs underneath its body and scooted closer to Lu Guang’s warmth, before closing its eyes with quiet acceptance. It was here to stay.
Cheng Xiaoshi wanted to be alive, it purred.
Because no matter the pain that he alone would endure, no matter the demons that lied to him, the people who ever left him behind, the darkness that tried to choke the light out of him, Cheng Xiaoshi breathed in and relished the depths of his lungs. His knees buckled under the weight of burdens no one could lift from him, so he draped his arms around his friends and let them carry him. When an ocean of tears tried to drown him, he reached his hand out to the surface in faith that there was air.
Lu Guang hesitated. His fingers itched towards the thought. The fur had looked so coarse and venomous from afar. From here, he wondered if it was soft to the touch.
Cheng Xiaoshi wanted to be alive, said the thought.
So what about you?
