When you pick up a sword for the first time you will be slow and awkward. This is frustrating, but refuse the temptation to try and become a “faster” fencer. Chasing after speed is like trying to catch smoke. If you try and pursue speed, all you will accomplish is haste. Haste is the enemy of 1st class fencing.
Speed is a lie the untrained mind tells itself when it sees an action it cannot follow. The truth is a combination of timing, control, and fluidity. Fluid motion, even done slowly, will always arrive before a hasty strike. Control will allow you to move without wasteful motion that will slow you down. Timing will eliminate the need to move fast almost entirely. There is no need to get somewhere fast so long as you get there at the right time.
Tip for mymutuals who engage in bladed armed combat
“Fifteen years of that, huh?” Tempest murmured. “I get the feeling that might get old. Although it might be nice to have someone looking out for you like that…”
The elder gave her two sisters another light, affectionate squeeze.
“That’s enough for now, Akemi.” She decided.
“Eh? Figured what out?” Aegis asked with more than a little surprise.
For a conversation starter, this sure was an unusual one. Had Tempest been investigating something? Surely not, was it?
“Just let Tempest talk, Aegis. I have a feeling this is rather important.” came Serina’s observant remark.
“Sometimes, getting used to this new life is hard for me. But, I know I have you as a friend. I’m friends with Hope and Lumi too, but it’s different when I’m with you.”
“I know that people will have asked you this before, but… I was wondering if you wanted to be more than just friends?”
And just like that, Aegis’s mind came to an abrupt halt. And then sped up again, as the Titan’s blush grew tenfold and she realized exactly what Tempest was asking.
“Um…wait, I – you really do feel that way?” she stammered, mind racing light years a second. Despite her popularity, only one other shipgirl had ever asked this same question seriously, and Song hadn’t been one to joke around with such words.
If Tempest felt the same way for her as she was starting to feel…it was a one in a trillion shot. Aegis met Tempest’s gaze with a shyness that was rare for her, her voice coming out in an embarrassed whisper.
“I mean…I don’t mind. Being more than friends.”
“Really!?” the flustered Tempest responded, with a mix of both surprise and jubilation.
“I mean- Yes, I um… I really feel that way. And I would like that a lot.” She answered.
Aegis would be able to see in Tempest’s eyes that she was being serious.
From the Titan came a nervous, small laugh. “This…this is new for both of us, isn’t it?”
An actual relationship, with someone so new to the ways of human life. Through her whirlwind of happy, buzzing thoughts, Aegis could only wonder if Tempest felt the same fluttering of her drive core as she herself did at that current moment.
Its resonance tempo was spiking, registering as a quickened pulse to human perceptions. In an attempt to calm herself, Aegis held Tempest close. The carrier’s warmth was surprisingly soothing.
Tempest melted in her touch, replying with a hum of agreement. She wrapped her arms around her new partner, hoping to reciprocate the comfort Aegis provided.
“Yeah… sometimes new can be good, right?” Tempest smiled.
Aegis hummed in the affirmative just as Tempest had, a thought springing to mind out of the proverbial ether. “Mhm…”
Perhaps she could take a leaf out of Hope’s book in showing affection.
So as the Titan hugged Tempest, a hand moved up to stroke the carrier’s head gently. Slowly, she felt herself relaxing even more from the action. Perhaps Tempest would as well.
Some good news, I’ve been talking to two developers now and got them working together, we just had a meeting with the guys behind an existing large (millions of users) site similar to Tumblr, with a vibrant and open-minded community, and more importantly, it has open-minded owners who believe in free speech. They think we can get something done here to rescue the whole community.
I’m not allowed to reveal the site name yet. I can tell you it’s mainstream, open to everyone, open-minded and welcoming. (It’s not WordPress or any site owned by Facebook or Twitter. It’s not Pillowfort, that’s in closed beta. It’s not Ello, that’s mainly for artists. It’s not kinkspace or fetlife, those are too specialist. It’s not jux, that seems to be closed. It’s not Soup, that seems still in development and too small.)
One of the reasons for delaying the announcement for next few days is they don’t want a “land grab” where people take the names of current popular Tumblr users over there (cyber squatting). So they are looking at ways for existing Tumblr users to keep the same names on the new site.
More info over the days to come.
The plan is, broadly:
1. By December 9th, announcement of the new site and how to secure your username there
2. By December 10th, an online tool for bloggers to copy their existing content to the new site automatically, with the same tags and captions.
3. Bloggers will need to copy their content across between December 10th and December 17th if they want to use the automatic tool.
4. My understanding is that after December 17th there will be no public access to any “flagged” posts on Tumblr, but the original poster will still be able to see the flagged post (for a short time at least). Therefore, the original poster may still be able to manually download a post to their own PC or phone, after December 17th, and manually upload it to the other site. But if you have lots of posts that will take a long time, it will be better to use the automatic tool before December 17th.
Please understand that these dates are approximate and may change for technical or other reasons.
There may be a few rough edges or not so perfect looking site design on the transfer tool. Everyone is doing their best. The main goal here is to help as many people as possible preserve access to their content, in the short space of time Tumblr has allowed us, and preserve as much as possible of the Tumblr community spirit somewhere new.
The new site will cater for photo, GIF, text and html posts. It will not offer video and audio posts, due to cost reasons – maybe in future, but for now you will need to preserve video and audio content yourself in some other place.
If your Tumblr blog has a mixture of original content and reblogs, or all reblogs, all of that can be copied over to the new site. Reblogs will become “your” original content if nobody else posted them yet, otherwise they will be shown as reblogs. The devs are looking at ways to preserve attribution of reblogs back to the original Tumblr poster, if that person also moves to the new site.
Important: your Likes cannot be copied from Tumblr to the new site. You will have to go find the same posts again on the new site, and like them afresh.
(Similarly, existing reblog comments, asks, messages and other user interaction on Tumblr cannot be copied to the new site – that’s just too much to do, in the short time available.)
If you want to preserve any of your existing Liked posts on Tumblr, you will need to either: (1) download the post to your own PC, or: (2A) reblog it now to your own Tumblr blog, and then (2B) use the automatic tool, before December 17th, to move your whole Tumblr blog across to the new site.
If you have Liked a lot of posts here on Tumblr, the gridllr.com webapp should be able to help you do steps 1 and 2A quickly, I mean download or reblog.
(Someone complained to me today about the appearance of Gridllr on a phone. It’s best to use Gridllr on a PC, Mac or Tablet with a large screen.)
If you have liked a post here on Tumblr and the original poster decides to delete it, or even to delete their entire blog, some time before December 17th, then that post will be permanently lost. So if you want to be sure to preserve any of your Liked posts, you should best download or reblog as soon as possible. If it’s reblogged to your own blog it is safe from deletion, at least for next few days.
Obviously, you will lose access, after December 17th, to all past posts you have liked, if Tumblr has flagged them as NSFW. Again, the steps (1), or (2A) and (2B) covered above will be the only way to hold on to these posts.
“Fifteen years of that, huh?” Tempest murmured. “I get the feeling that might get old. Although it might be nice to have someone looking out for you like that…”
The elder gave her two sisters another light, affectionate squeeze.
“That’s enough for now, Akemi.” She decided.
“Eh? Figured what out?” Aegis asked with more than a little surprise.
For a conversation starter, this sure was an unusual one. Had Tempest been investigating something? Surely not, was it?
“Just let Tempest talk, Aegis. I have a feeling this is rather important.” came Serina’s observant remark.
“Sometimes, getting used to this new life is hard for me. But, I know I have you as a friend. I’m friends with Hope and Lumi too, but it’s different when I’m with you.”
“I know that people will have asked you this before, but… I was wondering if you wanted to be more than just friends?”
And just like that, Aegis’s mind came to an abrupt halt. And then sped up again, as the Titan’s blush grew tenfold and she realized exactly what Tempest was asking.
“Um…wait, I – you really do feel that way?” she stammered, mind racing light years a second. Despite her popularity, only one other shipgirl had ever asked this same question seriously, and Song hadn’t been one to joke around with such words.
If Tempest felt the same way for her as she was starting to feel…it was a one in a trillion shot. Aegis met Tempest’s gaze with a shyness that was rare for her, her voice coming out in an embarrassed whisper.
“I mean…I don’t mind. Being more than friends.”
“Really!?” the flustered Tempest responded, with a mix of both surprise and jubilation.
“I mean- Yes, I um… I really feel that way. And I would like that a lot.” She answered.
Aegis would be able to see in Tempest’s eyes that she was being serious.
From the Titan came a nervous, small laugh. “This…this is new for both of us, isn’t it?”
An actual relationship, with someone so new to the ways of human life. Through her whirlwind of happy, buzzing thoughts, Aegis could only wonder if Tempest felt the same fluttering of her drive core as she herself did at that current moment.
Its resonance tempo was spiking, registering as a quickened pulse to human perceptions. In an attempt to calm herself, Aegis held Tempest close. The carrier’s warmth was surprisingly soothing.
“Amarillo, Professor.” Yellow responded promptly, using the pseudonym she’d made as an Adventurer and applied to study under.
Casting another Ward to let her partner test it’s strength, the healer observed the mandala’s patterns again. “I’ll be honest, Professor, I wasn’t expecting…this. But the flow of it, the equations and this display…it feels natural.”
She didn’t know how else to describe the way the Arcane Magic felt as it imposed itself upon reality. Comforting, maybe. The warmth and golden glow reminded her of a fireplace.
Yellow’s partner cast a low-level fireball spell, which impacted the Ward and dissipated harmlessly before the barrier. The professor nodded at Yellow’s display. “Seems like you’ve got potential as a mage then. This is good to find out. Well, Amarillo, I look forward to seeing your progress.”
“Thank you, Professor.” Yellow responded with a grateful nod, now switching roles to let her partner practice a Ward of her own.
As the professor went to observe another practicing pair, Yellow’s thoughts lingered on his words, even as she cast a small fusion-enhanced fireball against her partner’s Ward
She had potential as an Arcane mage? Encouraging to know, but she still had much to learn.
The two cruisers made their own noises of acknowledgement, and as Ilta returned to her duties Hope resumed her nearly finished novel.
Once again, she leaned her head into Lumi’s shoulder, the older shipgirl letting her sister be as she read through the new mythology tome.
A soothing silence fell over them, and before long both had finished their respective books. Deciding that it was time to move on, the sisters soon left the Temple Library, wishing Ilta a warm farewell at the entrance as they did.
Once the duo had reached the entrance, they would find Astrid waiting there for them with a smile on her face. “Yo!” she said. “How was the library?”
“It was so very wonderful~.” Hope replied first with a small wave, looking quite content. “Nice and quiet, paradise for sis.”
Lumi nodded in agreement, her tone soft with many thoughts. “Seems Hope liked the novels the Temple Library has. I found and read through some books of interest myself. We’re thinking of heading to Larstern’s library next.”
Initiative Archival Network 