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Conlang Year Days 112–119

The past week of Conlang Year focused on valency-changing strategies, which isn't something I've usually gotten around to... I think I'm at a state where I'm happy with what I have, though, or at least don't feel the need to make any immediate changes.

Days 112–115: Passive Voice

I debated evolving a passive-voice form for verbs, but in the end figured it would be easier to use the pieces I already had. For this construction, the verb nai (exist) is used as a suffix on the base verb and conjugated appropriately.

Teigano ne jia gate. I ate the birdflesh. Teinani tio jia gate. The birdflesh was eaten.

In ditransitive verbs, either the direct or indirect object can be promoted, since the other will retain its original case marking.

Kaigani ne ja degako ciako. They (sg.) gave the book to me. Kainani tio ja degako ciako. The book was given to me. Kainano ne ja degako. I was given the book.

(This would with my current verb forms cause some confusion in 3.5th- and 4th-person past tense... though because of the rarity of such cases and the fact that the number of present arguments should provide a clue, I think I'll leave it in as spice.)

Days 116–119: Valency-Increasing

For a causative structure, the embedded clause uses an infinitive verb, with the following arguments acting as they would in any sentence. Because the infinitive does not take a tense, noun tense becomes a little more important in embedded clauses (especially for the subject), even if nothing surprising is going on.

Teigani tiona Keiti ne ja nene. Katie ate the onion. Kitulani naneju deitei tiona Keiti ne ja nene. They (sg.) made Katie eat the onion. (She has already eaten it.) Kitulani naneju deitei tiokesi Keiti ne ja nene. They (sg.) made Katie eat the onion. (She is eating it right now.)

I'm currently thinking this structure could work for any kind of nested clauses:

Sagesio deitei tiodu Keiti ne ja nene. I want Katie to eat the onion. Koigano deitei tiona Keiti ne ja nene. I saw Katie eating the onion. Sagesio deikoi deitei tiodu Keiti ne ja nene. I want to see Katie eat the onion. Kitulani deisage nalako deikoi deitei tiokesi Keiti ne ja nene. They (sg.) made me want to see Katie eating the onion. (She is eating it right now.)

When a subject can be inferred (due to being the same as the previous subject) it can be omitted.

(It's probably cruel to make Katie eat this many onions. "Nene" doesn't even indicate any specific vegetable (or fruit), at least not until we can get into adjectives.)

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Still thinking about the Wild and how the Wounded Wild is essentially the inverse of the Damsel.

With the Damsel, you trust her unconditionally, and so you shape her into someone who is unable to wish you harm. Even though she would be capable of taking your blade and using it, she can't want to—even when you kill her—until after she's had the opportunity to change.

Then you have the Wounded Wild. You've denied her her purpose, and for a moment it looks as though you're about to return to the fight between you and the Princess, to the sort of conflict that should come from you killing each other... but you don't. She can't hurt you, even if she wanted to. She can't even move unless you choose to cut her free. You've rendered her more powerless than maybe any other Princess.

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The boys in my supernatural town AU

Clockwise from left: Hero, Contrarian, Cheated, Paranoid

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Drawing eyes still baffles me

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Sometimes I wonder if being the Wild affects the Princess as much as it does the Voices.

You're forced together with the thing that used to be part of the thing you used to be, and it leaves enough of an impression that you, the pair of eyes observing the world into being, can no longer imagine the two of you as being two of you. You become a reconstituted version of the thing that has been irreversibly torn into two.

Okay, but you hate her. And she hates you. How can you be a single thing if each half of you hates the other? So you make sure you don't. You make sure your sharp edges are not poised to dig into each other. Sometimes it's as easy as turning them so they lie flat, so they have no reason to cut. There is nothing for you to fear; no one here wants to hurt you. You need not bow down to a higher power; everything is you and so everything is equal. You never wanted to hurt anyone, did you? Now you don't have to.

But some pieces are too jagged to sit nicely in the thing that needs to be one, and they will cut into the Other no matter how you place them. So you sand down their edges until they can't hurt anyone. Maybe you sand them down a lot. And they are placid, and they don't sound much like themselves, but they can't tear into the seams of the thing you're meant to be, and that's more important than a few shards of glass.

And she is sanded down, too, until she cannot continue wanting to hurt you. She has never had a choice but to play her role, and now her role is to be a part of the thing you used to be. And if you allow her to play it, you can return to what you were before something tore you apart, and you can free yourself, until you can no longer remain in denial that some tears can never truly be mended.

If you deny her her role, she will fight. She always does. And in that fight she will try her best to draw blood, but her sharp edges have already been sanded down, and the most she can do is remind you that she once had fangs. No matter how powerful she may have been before you molded her to fit, she is at your mercy now.

She looks nothing like she used to.

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Why is my hand shaking uncontrollablyagain

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Voices ranked by who I think would be the best/worst at cooking:

Skeptic. He takes his job seriously when it's his turn to cook and despite frequently experimenting with new recipes everything turns out really well on the first attempt. Him and Hunted working together is the dream team.

Hunted. He usually doesn't make fancy meals, but he's really intent on making sure the others are getting a balanced diet. He's the one who cooks most often.

Paranoid. He bakes more often than he cooks dinner—it's kind of evolved from a stress response. No one's complaining.

Hero. He seems the kind of guy who could hold his own in the kitchen, but he's hesitant to try making anything advanced.

Cheated, but you won't get any meals out of him anymore. He's good with a recipe, but has a terminal string of bad luck in the kitchen that resulted in a self-imposed ban and a burn scar at the base of his thumb.

Opportunist. He tries—probably too hard. If he were willing to take a step back and stick to the basics, he'd probably do much better.

Smitten. He's more of a baker than a chef—he enjoys sweets—and they're pretty good if you're willing to accept the burnt edges.

Contrarian. He likes to "experiment." Usually the leftovers get thrown away after no one touches them for a few days.

Broken. He wouldn't trust himself to cook, but he'll often end up helping someone else out and keeping an eye on whatever they're making.

Stubborn. It's a good thing he's willing to eat what he burns, because no one else is.

Cold. Banned from the kitchen after his inattention nearly burned it down. He doesn't seem to care.

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Honestly the only Princess I can actually say I definitively dislike as a person is the Nightmare. Since she's the only one who seems more interested in taking out her (understandable) feelings on the world than on you.

[strixcattus]

logically i know that u are tumblr user strixcattus, but because of ur profile picture, my brain always goes “holy shit, basil omori posted something!” whenever i see u on my dash 😅

They're onto me

[strixcattus]

We all have to have our boundaries somewhere.

[strixcattus]

(Skimming through the game to pick them all up. As in all of them. Lots of images below the cut.)

(No Shifty since A: I forgot about her, and B: I've already hit the image limit. Finding a reference of her can be an exercise for the reader now.)

THE DAMSEL

Somehow the only clear, full image of her crown comes when you slay her. It's unclear whether there's a gem in the center of the crown—some screens make it seem like there's not, but the final deconstruction looks like there is one.

THE PRISONER

Much easier.

THE GREYS

The Drowned Grey is hard to get a clear picture of. It looks like they both have a string of pearls or something at the top of their veil.

THE NIGHTMARE/MOMENT OF CLARITY

Base crown. The same for both, which is good, because that was not a great MoC screenshot.

THE SPECTRE

Base crown.

THE WRAITH

THE STRANGER/BASE PRINCESS

First two are from the Stranger chapter. The last one is from Chapter I. As you can see, they're the same as the Spectre's and the Wraith's.

THE RAZOR

Each screenshot is from further on in her chapter than the last. The first one is from Chapter II, the next from early in Chapter III, the third from later in Chapter III, and the last from Chapter IV.

THE BEAST

No great opportunities for a picture. This is probably the best I can do.

THE DEN

THE WITCH

THE THORN

THE (WOUNDED) WILD

THE ADVERSARY

THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE

Couldn't grab a front view quickly. This ought to be good enough, though.

THE TOWER

THE APOTHEOSIS

She doesn't have a crown so much as a halo.

THE FURY

I doubt I'm the only person to notice this (I only started drawing the Princesses relatively recently), but the Stranger, the Nightmare, and the Spectre are the only Princesses who have the same crown design as the base Princess.

It's obvious why the Stranger looks the same as the base Princess. She's the first Princess you meet in that route—you haven't gotten to know anything about her that shapes the way you see her. But I'm starting to think this applies to the other two, too.

In order to get the Spectre, you have to kill the Princess immediately. If you hesitate for too long or try to get to know her, you're locked into a different route. You're not allowed to get to know the Princess as anything other than "dead," so she doesn't change much.

For the Nightmare, you can talk to her before leaving, but you still have to abandon her. It's not that different from the Stranger—the only difference is you run away after meeting the Princess. So she has more of an individual identity than the Stranger or even the Spectre, but for some reason it makes sense that this still doesn't make her as distinct from the original Princess as most of the other Vessels. You're not trying to get to know her—you're specifically trying not to know her.

The Wraith's crown is different from either of them because by this point you've been forced to get to know the Princess. Avoiding interaction by wrapping things up as quickly as possible or turning around and abandoning her only works the once.

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Long Quiet design notes:

—He keeps the same general appearance while he's fully mortal, whether it's within the Construct or in the Long Quiet. —The mirror doesn't reflect physical change—rather it's more of a change in mental state. —He's about a head taller than most of the Voices. Stubborn is the only one who passes him in height. He also has longer feathers than almost all the Voices. —His beak looks as though it's somehow merged into his feathers, unlike the Voices'. —While the Voices all have more birdlike feet, his are more human-like and I can't really figure out how to draw them properly. Oh well. —While mortal, he has two wings. Once he wakes up to his godhood, he has four, but they and his tail are all bound to the space of the Long Quiet. Until he accepts his godhood (whether with the Shifting Mound or without), he can't really use those limbs. —Entering the Shifting Mound's heart requires tearing away from the Long Quiet for a moment, leaving him with open wounds where his second pair of wings used to connect. Returning to godhood allows his wings to heal, while resetting the Construct erases all sign they were ever there.

Fully realized form (different versions for both endings):

—His tail becomes much longer in this form, since it and his wings make up the entirety of the Long Quiet (location). —His "ear" tufts are also longer. —Until he accepts his godhood, he's person-sized even when face-to-face with the Shifting Mound. Once he does, they're roughly the same height—she's taller standing, he's taller if he's in flight and you're willing to be generous. They're both approximately half the size of a universe.

[strixcattus]

Trying to get out my full battery of Pristine Cut theories I think are at least pretty realistic (some mine, some not—I don't recall where the ones that aren't mine came from)

(Bold text is edits from shortly after the initial post)

—Fury, Den, and Apotheosis will get significant expansions (pretty sure this one has been implicitly stated by the devs if not explicitly so) —Prisoner, Damsel, and Spectre will all get a unique Chapter III to finish the symmetry of the game —All of the expanded Chapter IIIs will end up with both more options/resolutions and more fleshing out to some of the existing options (feels a given, but I'm trying to be comprehensive here)

FURY —Adversary->Fury will come with even more Voices (Smitten and possibly Cheated would be my guesses) —The "unwinding" sequence will be longer and have more variation/options than the single line we have now —Something surreal is going to happen to the Fury as she unwinds us (based on that one art shared by the devs)

DEN —Expanded "failure" sequences—at the very least choosing the option that wasn't in your plan will be as fleshed out as EotN's "failure" and at most you might get a chance to turn things around —A "freeze" option to bring the whole set forward from the Beast into the Den —This one's more hope than theory but it'd be nice if you got the option to spare the Den if you're on the "fight" path. It'd also be nice if there were more of a sequence to freeing the Den on the "flight" path, but of the two the former seems more likely.

APOTHEOSIS —I'm not sure what to say about this one aside from "your choices have tangible meaning now" —It'd be neat if the Tower chapter got a little more meat that led to multiple ways to reach Apotheosis and thus multiple Voices you could gain from that chapter, but it doesn't seem too likely

PRISONER —Complete the set with Beast and Adversary by having a Chapter III that can be reached with both Stubborn and Hunted, with different storylines depending on which Voice you get —The Prisoner gets to kill you (and how you approach this determines which Voice you get) —I kind of want to see this chapter get brought into the "the blade gives you more options" fold by allowing you the chance to refuse to take the blade, thus locking you onto either chaining yourself up or one variant of the new Chapter III —We're finally going to get a concrete justification for why the Prisoner, despite being one of the more cooperative Princesses, has the same font as the more inhuman/combative Princesses

DAMSEL —I think we're generally in agreement that the "up the stairs" image is probably for the new Chapter III —General consensus also seems to be that either we tell the Damsel to kill us or we insist on staying in the cabin with her forever —I personally favor the former theory since it would explain how we die (to move on to Chapter III) and it would add to the "taking the blade gives you more options" theme —We'll finally get another Chapter III that uses the font shared by the more gentle/human Princesses —Likely Voice candidates for the new chapter would be Contrarian or possibly Skeptic (Contra seems more likely, but I'm keeping an open mind)

SPECTRE —Possibility that the new Chapter III will only be accessible with the blade, though I can't imagine what it would be in that case —Notable that this is the only Chapter II called out by the devs... we might be seeing a significant expansion leading up to the new chapter, or even leading up to another Chapter II resolution —Perhaps there's a change in the sequence after you decide to refuse the Spectre's possession without slaying her or leaving the basement? —My best guess right now as to the lead-in would be that the new chapter stems from slaying yourself while possessed (unlikely since it's already a Chapter II resolution—would lead to gaining either Stubborn or Contrarian) (or Opportunist?) —I'm going back and forth about whether the new chapter might come from choosing to stay in the basement instead of leaving or trying to slay the Princess—I actually wrote and deleted it when initially posting—this would maybe result in Paranoid, Smitten, or Contrarian? —Most likely I think there'll be an entirely new section of the chapter that leads into the new Chapter III —To be honest the one thing I really hope is that somehow Broken shows up—this is the one pairing I really wanted to see since discovering you could mix and match the Voices in Chapter III —Somewhere there will be an achievement called The Exorcist II (to go with The Exorcist and The Exorcist III)

[strixcattus]

Thinking about my STP D&D AU (need to come up with a name for it so I can stop with the abbreviation salad) and I'm in a "this is an in-universe D&D campaign" mood

—The Voices are generally all friends with most of the others outside the game, and most of them have played a campaign with the Narrator as DM before. Hero is the Narrator's friend who's never played before, and Broken is Hunted's roommate (Hunted is trying to get him some form of social interaction for his mental well-being and he agreed to try out D&D) —Skeptic, Paranoid, and Cheated have been playing the longest out of the group (Skeptic's and Cheated's characters are probably concepts they've been waiting to play for a while) —Cold and Broken both got stuck on character backstory and the Narrator offered to let them roll on a d100 table to give them a place of origin. He immediately regretted that decision. —Most of the Princesses are NPCs. The Razor, Witch, and Thorn are the only ones who are actually PCs, though their players tend to show up more sporadically than the Voices. —The reason the Narrator is so annoyed by the Voices refusing to slay the Princesses is 70% because his plot didn't account for it and 30% because he backed himself into a corner with their voices and he's too proud to admit it's really hard to pitch his voice up that much —Smitten deciding his character was going to fall in love with the Damsel is so far the campaign low for him, because not only does he now have to flirt with one of the players, but he has to do it while putting on an anime girl voice —The group does appreciate his anime girl voice though

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The thing about Broken is that he simultaneously has the worst self-esteem of any Voice and believes he's literally the only person in the room with a realistic outlook on the situation

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The main problem with taking a break from writing projects is that all the short-term planning that lives in your head just kinda. Drains out

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I doubt I'm the only person to notice this (I only started drawing the Princesses relatively recently), but the Stranger, the Nightmare, and the Spectre are the only Princesses who have the same crown design as the base Princess.

It's obvious why the Stranger looks the same as the base Princess. She's the first Princess you meet in that route—you haven't gotten to know anything about her that shapes the way you see her. But I'm starting to think this applies to the other two, too.

In order to get the Spectre, you have to kill the Princess immediately. If you hesitate for too long or try to get to know her, you're locked into a different route. You're not allowed to get to know the Princess as anything other than "dead," so she doesn't change much.

For the Nightmare, you can talk to her before leaving, but you still have to abandon her. It's not that different from the Stranger—the only difference is you run away after meeting the Princess. So she has more of an individual identity than the Stranger or even the Spectre, but for some reason it makes sense that this still doesn't make her as distinct from the original Princess as most of the other Vessels. You're not trying to get to know her—you're specifically trying not to know her.

The Wraith's crown is different from either of them because by this point you've been forced to get to know the Princess. Avoiding interaction by wrapping things up as quickly as possible or turning around and abandoning her only works the once.