One can easily distinguish a true veteran adventurer from the masses, for one doesn’t fear those who show to the start of a dungeon with gleaming weapons and polished armor, but those who show up wearing casual clothing, looking like they just got done shopping in town not 5 minutes earlier.
This isn’t fiction, this is just a real thing that happened to me, which this prompt reminded me of.
Since my 20’s I’ve practiced kendo, a Japanese sword art which among other things involves putting on protective gear and sparring with shinai, bamboo weapons meant to somewhat mimic the length and heft of a katana. It’s pretty physically demanding, but it’s also one of the martial arts with the highest percentage of women to men, because it’s not all about strength; speed and precision and stamina are worth more than muscle is in nine out of ten interactions.
Anyway. I went to visit a friend in another city, and visited one of their kendo dojo. And the experience was…bad. I attended the early-evening beginner’s class, and stayed through the later advanced class (this is polite; it’s rude to only go for what you can get, and not what you can give the school you’re visiting, and out of respect to the people who pulled you up, you’re supposed to pull other people up), and I spent basically the entire time in a state of simmering irritation. “You’re a woman, you don’t need to move so fast.” and “You’re a woman, you don’t need to kiai so loudly.” and so on, misogyny after misogyny. “There’s nothing wrong with your form, but you’re a woman, you don’t need to beat the men.” I’m small! I’m not a bruiser, either, though I have vast respect for the women who are. My only salvation has to be speed and spirit, and a good round of kendo requires screaming; no one had ever told me to be quieter.
I had my sparring round with the head Sensei, and he spent most of the round literally looking away from me. Even though I was a guest, and there’s some pretty strict reigi about the treatment of guests, he paid me no attention. I thought that I must have been imagining things, I must surely be misreading him or maybe I was being too egotistical and demanding, but the next week I went to the other dojo in town, and when I said I’d gone to this one first, one of the women laughed and said “Lemme guess–he totally ignored you, right? He told me there was no reason for a woman to ever test past nidan. ‘Up to nidan, so you can teach your sons the basics, then give them to me!’ ”
He had a reputation, and his school had a reputation, and it was simply my bad luck to have landed there. But leaving a practice early is bad behavior, unless you have a good excuse, and “everyone here is behaving like an asshole” wasn’t enough when I knew I’d have to give an accounting of this practice to my own Sensei when I got home. I had to stick it out.
So two hours in, the door opens up, and in walks this guy in a brand new uniform. It was dark, dark blue, and shedding dye at his throat and ankles where he was sweating already in the muggy air; it had deep creases from being folded in its sale packaging. It had pretty clearly just been put on for the first time. And I thought, okay, this is a noob who’s just got his armor, but he skipped the early class and he’s showing up this late to practice? Maybe he got stuck in traffic, maybe he’s an asshole, whatever. and the round ended, I bowed to my opponent and everyone in the room but the head Sensei rotated left, ready for the next fight.
And the New Guy looks around the room quickly, bounces in place a couple of times, loosens his wrists and ankles. His glance catches me, and his eyes light up–he doesn’t know me!– and he weaves between the other fighters to come stand across from me. We bow to each other, and he’s still rolling his shoulders a little bit as he drops down into sonkyo, the ritual crouch before standing up into the starting kamae. I have half of an instant to notice that his sonkyo is very fluid before he stands up and I’m suddenly freezing cold in the hot room. Goosebumps wash over my entire body. And I realize that no only did the person I was supposed to fight just evaporate, but this new fellow has the easy six feet of clearance on all sides that you see martial artists in practice instinctively, unthinkingly grant to people who are vastly their superior in skill.
Basically, I got destroyed in the next match.
It was such arelief. A common saying is “Fighting Sensei is like throwing an egg at a rock,” and it was true; I gave him 100% and all he did was laugh and challenge me more. He was never so far above me that I thought I couldn’t hit him, in that fashion of a good teacher who keeps his level just beyond yours, and I got more from him in two minutes than I’d gotten from the head Sensei in the previous two and a half hours.
I ended the match gasping and grinning and so, so grateful to have had this one good experience in three hours of bullshit. And then practice was over, and I got to go out into the sunlight and get myself an ice cream.
But basically–yeah, generally when you see someone in shiny new gear, it means that they’re a shiny new fighter. Sometimes it means they’ve fought so hard that every stitch of their old stuff gave out.
Isekai with male protags: “I was a loser on earth but now I’m super fucking strong and gettin mad bitches”
Isekai with female protags:
Reincarnated princess uses earth knowledge to make magitech a thing and romances sad girl
Girl romantically pursues her video game waifu
Girl is tasked to teach actual fucking gods to be more empathetic to humans
Woman reincarnated as the daughter of a magic item crafter uses earth knowledge to advance her trade
“Straight” girl is sucked into a world with zero men and lesbians everywhere and finds out she’s sapphic (there’s like actual plot but the gay is what matters…. to me)
A ghibli film. Need I say more
Woman reincarnated in video game as doomed villainess desperately tries to change her story
Girl reincarnated as a tiny baby spider kills monsters to level up
Like the male protag one but the lame guy’s mom got isekaid with him and she’s the op one.
Two normal girls fight urban legends in terrifying danger dimension
Right, should have thought of that.
In order:
The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady (Light novel, manga, an anime has also just barely started)
I’m in Love With the Villainess (Light novel, manga, an anime has been announced)
Kamigami No Asobi (Anime, manga and visual novel)
Magic Artisan Dahlia Wilts No More (Manga)
The Whole of Humanity Has Gone Yuri Except for Me (manga)
Spirited Away (anime movie)
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! (Light novel, manga, anime,)
So I’m a Spider So What (Light novel, manga, anime)
Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? (Light novel, manga, anime)
Otherside Picnic (Light novels, manga, anime)
I’m annoyed by what SAO did to isekai again so here’s some more
Girl in fantasy world responsible for executing dangerous isekaid kids falls in love with an isekaid girl who cannot die (The Executioner and Her Way of Life)
Girl who has never played a video game before builds a terrible character in full-dive VR game but accidentally exploits game loopholes to become unstoppable (Bofuri)
Fucking Inuyasha
Adorable bookworm is reincarnated as a commoner in a world where books are extremely rare and decides to make books accessible for everyone (Ascendance of a Bookworm)
If you’d consider Korean isekai, there’s even more variety!
This chart is several years old and I’ve been in and out of the girlsekai community so I don’t have the freshest recs, but some others:
What if you isekaied. What if you kept isekaing. What if you kept isekaiing the same exact year, as the same exact person, trapped in the same plot that would murder you (often brutally) on the exact same day? At some point you’d have to become a serial killer, right? Resetting Lady = Finally someone makes a girlsekai horror story
What if (the above) except it was a silly comedy? If You Lay A Hand On My Brother, You’re All Dead
Some moony-eyed girl keeps dying during a zombie apocalypse and initially thinks it’s some divine test of her devotion to her man. Except honestly. Is he worth this. Do I know this guy enough to warrant the trauma I’ve woken up to a thousand times. Survive Romance is shockingly more about friendship than anything
The first few chapters of My Mom Entered a Contract Marriage - you are the abused daughter of a fallen villainess - once the hottest royal bitch in the kingdom, she’s now a commoner, an alcoholic, and extremely bitter. One day she wakes you up, screaming that she’s burning. She’s shocked you’re alive, sobbing and begging your forgiveness. Tbh this is one that’s more fun if you’ve read a lot of princess isekais, because fans will totally pick up on what happened, but her child cannot. Visual treat, I stopped reading because I don’t trust artists like this to last long. But what a starter it was!
The Holy Grail of Eris - we need more Scarlet Castiels. Look at me when I talk to you, I don’t care if you don’t like me type princess. If only she could possess us all
Gonna say something that will definitely get screen capped and used to doxx me someday but like having a fetish isn’t. It isn’t evil. You know? People have fetishes. It’s part of the human condition. You’re not a serial killer just because you’re unusually and offputtingly hype about women’s shoes. Thought crime isn’t real and it especially shouldn’t be applied to fetishes. Every human brain is a diy project built by unlicensed electricians.
I think we should let Ron Perlman burn a house down. You know, as a treat.
Thanks @ingdamnit for bringing this to my attention.
Someone on Twitter also remarked, “I think if some [entertainment CEO]’s house, you know, burns down accidentally… we should all do the Spartacus thing and claim to be Ron Perlman.”
I’m a cis man sure but i also wanna opt out of the gender binary. None of that shit is my fault or my responsibility and i don’t want any part of it
Believing the gender binary is stupid horseshit doesn’t require me to change my gender actually
Yeaheyah you get it. Not trans but i believe in their beliefs. Sometimes i remember people form gender complexes around what alcoholic beverages or colors they like and i just wonder how they’re not fucking exhausted from keeping up this stupid fucking horseshit. Just do whatever you want forever
@nimagine i know u reblogged this from me but ur so correct 🙏 get peer reviewed
I’m sure all you Tumblr users have heard by now about the changes being made to Tumblr’s ecosystem so that the site can make more money. And I’m sure most of you are as uneasy as I am or, in fact, are angry about the proposed changes.
The reason they need to make more money is simple: Tumblr is $30 million USD in debt.
For this site to run and for them to pay employees, the site needs to generate revenue.
This place maybe a hellsite but it’s our hellsite. We are still here because we actually like it here. Besides, the other social media sites are crashing or will crash soon. Where else would we go?
Now, I did some research. There are at least 300 million users and over 500 million blogs. One of the cheapest things to buy on the Tumblr store is the crab package you can gift to another blog, which is $3 USD.
If each and everyone of us buys a crab package, we get to keep Tumblr alive and kicking. @oracleoutlook suggested that we make a holiday of it on July 29th. It seems to have resonated with people. Others have also asked for that to extend to August 5th, as some people don’t get paid til the beginning of the month.
Many people have already agreed to celebrate July 29th as Crab Day, a day of posting crab memes and gifting crabs to other users. And if you cannot afford to buy crabs, that is a-okay! Participate in the crab memes. Who would pass up the chance to make and reblog memes about crabs, after all?
This hellsite is ours. Let us remind them of that.
Seriously, people, I’ve seen a lot of “we own this site!” which is a pretty sentiment, but not in any way actually true.
It could, however, become true, supposing the user base turns to and actually buys into the site. If we are the ones supporting the site, then you bet your ass we’ll be listened to just as much as possible. Tumblr has, in fact, bent over backwards to make this possible, reasonably simple, and actually entertaining. All you have to do is go buy some crabs or a rainbow checkmark. If you’re feeling a) well heeled and b) like this site really is as important to you as the outraged howling indicates, buy a paid subscription.
If the userbase contributes more than the advertisers, then guess who gets listened to? This is really quite simple math.
@paintsplash1712 There can’t be any PJO panels or meet and greets because the actors and writers can’t attend SDCC. But the show can still have a presence there through things like merch and posters, etc. It’s just that the members of the unions are not allowed to attend in any way.
When I first signed up for electrolysis, the clinic owner told me her whole staff is trans. Cool. I assumed that meant trans femmes, since we’re the ones who usually need the facial hair removal, so it only makes sense that some of us will go into the business.
Nope! My electrolysis tech is a trans man with a full beard. Huh.
I like how every reply has unanimously agreed that he’s taking the hair for himself. We’re all on the same wavelength here.
I’m going to see him again today to continue my electrolysis. On a scale of one to that’s weird, how much of a bad idea is it to bring a printout of this comic?
I need to know how this ends.
(I haven’t shown him the comic yet. I keep forgetting to prant it)
my friend liz downloaded some free audio software a few months ago to do something and now every time she joins a call a female voice says “trial. trial.” and liz doesn’t remember the name of the software or know how to stop it and she doesn’t want to
my friend liz had her spotify account hacked and literally didn’t realize for a year until I was talking about my decade in review playlist and she looked at hers and it was all brazilian music and she was like oh this explains why I would go to sleep listening to classical music and wake up and it’s playing trap. and also why there are like 30 playlists on my account that I didn’t make. she just thought spotify was like that
hand to god at some point my friend liz managed to fuck up her install of Portal so bad that it was displaying minecraft textures
