#Affective Filter Hypothesis

[thisisgraeme]

Empowering Success: Transformative Foundations of ESOL Teaching for Tertiary Educators in Aotearoa NZ – Part 1

xplore the foundations of ESOL teaching in this comprehensive course module. Learn about second language acquisition principles, cultural diversity, challenges, and integrating first languages. Enhance your teaching practice today.

I’m writing a series of modules on the foundations of teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). This is long overdue as I was an ESOL teacher for many years, but it feels good to be looking at this content again with fresh eyes. I have roughly six chunks planned which I will draft and post here like I normally do with new content: Introduction to ESOL Teaching (this…

[lgbtlunaverse]

3zun data analysis

I was wondering how much the different 2-out-of-3zun ship fics were actually focused specifically on them, rather than having them feature as side pairings, so I did a little mini-experiment. Beginning by searching for otp:true in each tag

(This doesn't give you the real number of fics were the pairing is the main focus, for the record. The other tagged ships might've been a side pairing, and the one we're filtering for the main one, and otp:true also filters out platonic relationships. So, for example, a nielan fic that has the nie brothers tagged as a platonic bond will also be filtered out. But since it does that for all ships you can still get a good idea how likely each one of them is to be the center in their fics)

My hypothesis was that Nielan would be the least likely, as they're frequently tagged as a side pairing in wangxian focused fics, with xiyao and nieyao having comparable results.

Nielan, as I type this, have 2154 works, of which only 627 have only nielan tagged. That is 29% of all nielan fics.

Next up is xiyao, who have 4534 works, of which 2195 only have xiyao tagged, a significanly higher 48%

And lastly nieyao, who have the least works in total with 1749, but have 683 works only tagged nieyao, more than nielan despite having less fics overall. Ending up at 39% of all nieyao fics

So I was right about nielan being lower, but turned out to be wrong in my hypothesis that nieyao and xiyao would end up with comparable results!

One possible factor is that nieyao, being a smaller ship, is more affected by those big collection-type fics that have a dozen pairings tagged for every chapter, as well as 3zun fics that have the individual pairings tagged. (Which we'll get to later!!)

Also, Huaisang - typical of him - butts into nieyao more. 5% of nieyao fics have the Nie brothers tagged platonically, and almost exactly the same number are tagged sangyao. Compare that to lan xichen's much more reserved little brother who really doesn't want to be a part of this, as only 3% of xiyao fics are tagged with the twin jades, and zhanyao... isn't much of a thing.

I'd anticipated both of these, but I'd also expected that xiyao, being a bigger ship, would be a less controversial background pairing for wangxian, who - let's be real - are the main players within the mdzs fic space so they massively impact the numbers. I know xiyao are certainly not without controversy (god no) and the go-to side pairings are xicheng and xuanli instead but like... compared to nieyao, surely they're the normie pick? And, well, 25% of xiyao fics are tagged wangxian compared to only 20% of nieyao fics so that is somewhat true, but not as much as I'd thought. (For comparison, 43% of nielan fics are tagged wangxian)

Now let's look at 3zun overall. Of the 1127 3zun fics, 277 are exclusively tagged 3zun. That's only 25%

But that doesn't feel right. After all, a lot of 3zun fics also tag the individual pairings. And excluding them like we did with the 2-out-of-3zun ships feels wrong. You'd categorize a fic tagged with both nieyao and 3zun as a 3zun fic, wouldn't you?

So I manually excluded each non 2-out-of-3zun pair. This took a bit, but you end up with 538 3zun fics which are either not tagged with any side pairing, or only tagged with a ship already contained in 3zun. That is 48% of all 3zun fics, similar to xiyao.

So there you have it! Xiyao is the most independent of the subfandoms, having almost half of its works centered solely around xiyao (and even more primarily focused on xiyao. As I said, otp:true also filters out works that still focus on xiyao but have other background relationships) with the overall 3zun fandom having a similar focus, followed by nieyao, and then nielan.

edit: this has a part 2 now

[queeoretician]

Just finished re-listening to Nona, and I have to know - what the ever-loving fuck did Jod want with G—'s arm? My first thought was that it had something to do with the dead man's switch for the suitcase nuke, but he mentions that he still has plans for it, in his narration to Alecto/Harrow after the bombs have gone off, so there's something else there. I feel like it's tied in with something about G1deon and Pyrrha being different from the other lyctor/cavalier pairs we see.

Speaking of which, there are a good few of those differences - here are the ones that come to mind:

G1deon's thanergy-void ability that lets him break Harrow's bone wards. I don't think this is it - to me it feels like it's more in the vein of Mercymorn's one-touch supernatural anatomy abilities, within the "normal" range of freaky abilities that lyctors have.

G1deon being physically imposing, unlike any(?) other necromancer we come across. I feel like there are some connections here that are eluding me right now.

The big one, Pyrrha's individuality surviving lysis. This by itself wouldn't make sense to me, but maybe it ties in with G1deon's buffness, that somehow the physical basis for their ascension was atypical?

On that last note, something else that stood out to me through Nona is that Pyrrha and G1deon's necro/cav relationship dynamic seems very different from the others we see (not just among Jod's original disciples but also with the contemporary pairs). At one point Pyrrha mentions filtering G1deon's brain fluid while working on the transference/winnowing trial, with the only other subject of that test being Cristabel rather than one of the other necromancers. In another passage Pyrrha talks about working on the Tomb's wards with Cassiopeia and Mercymorn - her plus two necromancers.

This had me wondering if Pyrrha was also a necromancer originally, somehow - but Palamedes's explanation to Nona of why she isn't affected by the blue madness undermines that hypothesis. But that aside, Pyrrha was definitely involved in what I would think of as "necromancer stuff" in a way we don't see from anyone else except Camilla (because the Sixth House are nerds). But maybe my expectations are off base because we're introduced to the necro/cav relationship through the eyes of Gideon, who is aggressively disinterested in necromancy...

Speaking of nerd shit, what kind of people were Jod's crew before the bombs and the Resurrection? He refers to them at one point as "a cop and six different kinds of nerd" and "two scientists and an engineer and a nun and a lawyer and a banker and a cop and an artist," referring to A—, M—, G—, the nun (Cristabel), C—, A—'s brother (Alfred), P—, and N— (he doesn't seem to have included himself in that tally). The narration clearly references all of their roles individually except G—'s, so I would guess he was the engineer, with the scientists being M— (medical) and A— ("the glycerol-6 genius"). But as best I can recall we don't really hear anything about G—'s role apart from being Jod's most steadfast supporter and carrying the suitcase nuke - it comes across as though Jod took him rather for granted. I wonder if Pyrrha remembers this and holds it against Jod along with all his post-Resurrection shit? I'd love to learn more about this in Alecto - I wanna know everything about our problematic fave ex-cop ex-spook genderfuck parent figure and her grief and her love...

But back to my earlier line of thinking, after the Resurrection Jod roped his disciples into a war of vengeance against the descendants of the generation ship, and defense against the Resurrection Beasts, and at a very tentative guess it seems like only Pyrrha of the original eight would have been predisposed towards that kind of combative life (jokes about academia aside). But at the same time she seems to have stepped into a research-y role that we don't see from any of the other original cavaliers (with the caveat that our info is very limited and Alecto could upend this entirely).

All this is to say, I Have Questions about Pyrrha and G1deon and who they were pre-Resurrection, but right now I don't have any coherent theory beyond "I think there's something going on here."

[bloody-bee-tea]

Tiny Bee~k 2023 Day 7 - Stillness

Cyno feels restless when he returns to Sumeru, almost bordering on being jittery. The mission had been a failure, though through no fault of his own—he could hardly be blamed for the researcher he was pursuing blowing himself up with barrels he wanted to use on Cyno—but things like that always weigh on Cyno’s mind.

And they tend to make him restless which the repeated flexing of his hand is a testament to.

Still, Cyno tries to push it out of his mind; he has to report back to Alhaitham since Nahida—who he now normally reports to, is away with the Traveler—and after that he can finally crash in his home.

Some sleep will do him good, he hopes, even though he doubts he will get much of it.

When he steps into Alhaitham’s office, he supresses a sigh. Alhaitham is currently in a somewhat heated debate it seems and Cyno knows just how much he hates it when those get interrupted. And especially for something like Cyno’s report, which absolutely can wait a moment longer.

Cyno sees Alhaitham’s eyes briefly dart over to him, so he knows he has been noticed, but just a second later Alhaitham focuses back on the scholar standing in front of his desk.

Cyno finds a seat for himself somewhere to Alhaitham’s left, intend on waiting this whole thing out, and even though curiosity gets the better of him, he has a hard time following along what is being said.

It seems as if Cyno is more tired than he thought because his eyes keep closing and every time it happens, getting them open again is harder than the time before.

Cyno tries to filter out the voices, simply concentrating on the cadence of their speech but even that lulls him to sleep.

There is just something about Alhaitham, Cyno distantly thinks. Something about the way he talks, the way he acts that seems calming to Cyno.

Or maybe it simply is the otherwise stillness of the office, he immediately thinks after, refusing to believe that Alhaitham could have any kind of affect on him beyond annoying him.

He smirks at his own thought and then he knows nothing for a while.

“Cyno?”

At hearing his voice Cyno jolts—not awake, because he hasn’t been asleep, thank you very much, but out of whatever kind of trance he had found himself in.

“I know you generally look with disdain at researches but I didn’t think we were this boring to you,” Alhaitham says, a teasing smile playing around his mouth and Cyno blinks two times before he fully finds back to himself.

“It’s just been a long day,” he explains, not rising to Alhaitham’s teasing and finally gets up, ready to give Alhaitham his report and then go home to crash.

The fact that he lays awake in his own bed for hours, is of course not puzzling at all.

~*~*~

Cyno finds himself back in Alhaitham’s office a few days later. Sleep at home still evades him and even though Alhaitham made that quip the last time he was there, Cyno graduated from the Akademiya as well and he knows how to test a hypothesis.

So he sits in Alhaitham’s office without offering any kind of explanation and can’t even feel smug when he does doze off not even five minutes in.

He startles awake when the elevator starts to whir to life and he comes to to curious eyes mustering him.

“Are you alright?” Alhaitham wants to know and Cyno pushes himself to his feet.

If he is receiving someone right now then Cyno should probably leave.

“Perfectly fine,” he gives back and the arch of Alhaitham’s eyebrow tells him exactly how much he believes Cyno.

Cyno refuses to explain himself though, still too unsure about the entire thing—and especially about how he’s supposed to put it into words—and so he simply gets on the elevator as soon as it comes to a stop, not even greeting whoever gets off it.

~*~*~

Cyno still doesn’t sleep at home, and so he finds himself in the matra office a day later. If it works in Alhaitham’s office, then it surely has to work in this office as well, right?

It’s probably the shuffling of paper or the scrape of a quill that has the relaxing effect on Cyno, so he should be able to doze off in another office no problem.

The matra office doesn’t work. Cyno moves on to the office of the temporary Scribe, thinking that maybe there’s just too much happening in the matra office. But even the office of the Scribe doesn’t work and Cyno only partially blames it on how nervous he seems to make the other man.

But that leaves him only with Alhaitham’s office, where he finds himself back at a day later.

Cyno is loathe to admit it, but he steps into the huge, open space and something in him immediately relaxes. Alhaitham acknowledges him with a nod of his head, not taking his eyes off the paper he’s currently studying and Cyno seats himself in his by now usual seat.

Alhaitham doesn’t seem bothered by his presence at all and Cyno takes the chance to observe him for a while. He’s still not entirely sure what it is about this entire set-up that makes him so relaxed, but by now he has to admit that Alhaitham has to play a role in it.

He’s simply reading over something and yet Cyno feels as if he could instantly drift off; the sight of Alhaitham being so still and yet doing his job is getting to him in a way Cyno can’t explain.

His mind starts to wander as he watches Alhaitham, and he’s slowly starting to nod off when Alhaitham suddenly puts the paper in his hand down.

“Have I done something to attract your suspicion lately?” Alhaitham asks and even though it should be startling Cyno right awake, he’s still slow to come back to himself.

“Why would you think so?” he finally asks when he can form coherent thoughts again and Alhaitham gives him a judging look.

“You’ve been in my office numerous times this week; never saying anything, just staring at me before leaving again. Am I under surveillance?”

“You never said anything before either,” Cyno gives back, still a little bit surprised at how easily Alhaitham has let him into his space even though it is his official office.

“But I am now,” Alhaitham gives back, abandoning his frankly unnecessary large throne that serves him as a office chair to come over to Cyno. “You look tired. Has something happened? Do you need some time off?”

Cyno gives that question some proper thought; he is tired but even if Alhaitham manages to give him some time off, he doubts he could sleep at home. It’s much more likely that he’ll find himself back in this office even more often and that would only raise more questions for Alhaitham.

Questions, Cyno is still not sure he has the answers to.

“No, it’s alright,” Cyno finally gives back and Alhaitham doesn’t even pretend to believe him.

“It’s clearly not.”

His searching gaze makes Cyno uneasy, so he decides to change the topic when the elevator starts it’s ominous whir again.

“Despite what you always claim, you’re awfully welcoming to everyone entering your office.”

“It’s hard to slam the door in someone’s face in this godforsaken, doorless office,” Alhaitham drily gives back and it startles a chuckle out of Cyno.

“Fair,” he gives back and then gets to his feet. “I’ll leave you to it then.”

Alhaitham seems as if he wants to say something else, but before he can Cyno already slipped away.

~*~*~

Cyno still refuses to believe that it is Alhaitham of all people who manages so easily to put him at ease, so he enters his office on a day he knows Alhaitham is out and about.

The office is quiet—just like before but something about it is off. Cyno feels restless in it, and even though he sits in the same chair as always, he can’t quite seem to settle down that day.

He heaves out a sigh.

It’s Alhaitham, then, Cyno finally has to admit that to himself. He spends one afternoon debating if that changes anything for him, if that knowledge will stop him from going back now, but in the end he has to admit that he suspected it from the beginning, so there’s no need to change anything.

It seems as if he’s the only one who thinks so, though, because when he returns to the office—this time with Alhaitham in it—just a day later, his chair is gone.

“What have you done?” Cyno turns betrayed eyes on Alhaitham, who simply regards him with an amused air around him.

“I didn’t think you’d be so attached to that one chair,” he mildly says and then pats the space right next to him.

“What?” Cyno asks, because surely Alhaitham cannot mean what he thinks he means but Alhaitham simply holds his gaze and repeats the motion.

Cyno’s feet—the traitors—bring him closer to Alhaitham’s hideous throne, but he doesn’t have to be happy about it and he conveys that with a glare. At least he hopes he does.

“What is the meaning of this?” he demands to know once he comes to a stop right in front of Alhaitham and he gets the distinct impression that Alhaitham wants to roll his eyes at him.

“You’re exhausted and you need to sleep. For some reason you come to my office for that but being slumped over in that chair really can’t be good. Here is better. You can lean against the back, curl up against the armrest or even lean on me. It should make you sleep better.”

Cyno opens his mouth, definitely wanting to say something, but nothing at all comes out. The thing is—Alhaitham is right. The chair is killing him—and his back, and neck—and the stupid throne has enough space for Alhaitham to work and Cyno to curl up in a corner.

It is the better option and Cyno hates that Alhaitham is pointing it out.

“Not a word about this to anyone,” Cyno hisses as he gets on the way-too-large throne, pressing himself into the corner to Alhaitham’s left.

Alhaitham’s mouth twitches and Cyno is very well aware how stupid his words are. Everyone who enters this office must have noticed the General Mahamatra drifting off here, and if they haven’t before, they most certainly will now, with him being right behind Alhaitham.

Still, Cyno can’t find it in him to mind it much, the sweet promise of some uninterrupted sleep too great for him to refuse this offer.

“Thank you,” he mumbles, shortly before he drifts off that day, and the only indication that Alhaitham heard him is the small pause in his writing.

Cyno is long asleep when Alhaitham whispers “You’re more than welcome.”

~*~*~

Cyno refuses to think about how he ends up with his head pillowed on Alhaitham’s leg while the other is doing his work, but this is the position he finds himself in most these days.

It does help with the pain in his back and neck and Alhaitham’s hand on his shoulder when he writes something or his hand in his hair when he reads something is a type of comfort Cyno never thought he’d find for himself.

When he mentioned this to Tighnari a while back, his friend had laughed long and hard at him before he sat him down and explained Cyno’s own feelings to him. And it wasn’t as if they were a surprise—Cyno is too in tune with himself not to realise that he has fallen for the other man—but to hear them out loud—it hadn’t been all that pleasant, is all.

Tighnari had asked him if he knew Alhaitham’s feelings on the matter and while Cyno couldn’t say for certain his actions certainly made him believe there was cause to hope.

Cyno doubts Alhaitham would just let anyone sleep on him—and occasionally drool, much to Cyno’s embarrassment—and Cyno had caught him twice now, staring at him with a soft look on his face.

It surely has to mean something.

He’s not about to bring it up though, because these days the little naps he takes in Alhaitham’s office are the only real good rest he gets and he’s not about to give them up, should he have read Alhaitham wrong.

At least not yet.

~*~*~

Cyno comes to tense and with an urge to hide. It takes him a split second to realize where he is—his head still pillowed on Alhaitham’s leg, with his hand repeatedly moving through Cyno’s hair—and he forces himself to stay still.

He doesn’t know what woke him and he needs to assess the situation first.

“Acting Grand Sage Alhaitham,” a voice says and Cyno immediately knows it’s this person’s steps who woke him.

“What can I do for you?” Alhaitham asks, his voice noticeably colder than it usually is and it feels as if the reassuring motion in Cyno’s hair gets more pronounced.

“It has come to my attention that you’re taking your time with your paperwork these days,” the other man says and Cyno wrecks his brain but he can’t remember his name.

He does know who he worked with before, though, but still he forces himself to remain calm.

“I wonder why that could be,” the man goes on and Cyno’s nape prickles. He must be looking at him then.

“Careful, Professor,” Alhaitham says. “Or one could think you’re judging my work.”

“It has just been noted,” the man drawls out and when Cyno dares to look up at Alhaitham he sees a cutting smile on his face.

“If this is about your research project I refused, rest assured that I would have refused it no matter what, and I will refuse it again, no matter how often you hand it in. No outward influences needed.”

There’s a long silence before Cyno hears a huff and then retreating steps. The elevator comes to life again and a minute later the office is quiet once more.

“You never wake up when someone enters the office. What is different with him?” Alhaitham wants to know, scratching lightly at Cyno’s scalp and Cyno closes his eyes.

“His steps. I know them. He worked with Azar before.”

Alhaitham hums.

“Not closely enough to implicate himself, I’m afraid,” Alhaitham mutters and keeps Cyno’s head where it is when he tries to sit up. “Don’t. You need more rest. You usually sleep deeply enough to sleep right through these things.”

Cyno blinks at that. It’s true; he rarely ever wakes up when someone enters the office and logically he knows that visitors must be frequent. His sleep has never been deep; his job doesn’t allow for it. He’s a light sleeper, awake at the smallest of sounds and always at least partially conscious about his surroundings.

The fact that all these things don’t apply when he’s here, with his head carefully cradled by Alhaitham makes him freeze.

“What did he mean, you’re slow with your work these days?” Cyno asks to give himself a little bit of time to compose himself again and Alhaitham huffs out a sigh.

“I find myself unwilling to leave the office, these days,” Alhaitham admits. “I would rather stay here and give you more time to rest than to wake you up.”

Cyno turns on his back at that, staring up at Alhaitham.

“You hate tardiness. You finish your work quickly and efficiently so that you can go home sooner.”

That makes Alhaitham chuckle.

“That is not wrong.”

“But,” Cyno prompts when Alhaitham doesn’t go on.

“I find that I hate it more when I have to wake you.”

“Oh,” Cyno whispers and then reaches up to grab Alhaitham’s hand still buried in his hair.

Alhaitham clearly misunderstands him because he’s in the motion of pulling away when Cyno finally manages to grab his hand and he’s quick to thread their fingers together.

Alhaitham relaxes when he notices what Cyno’s intention is and he rests his other hand on Cyno’s chest, right over his heart.

“What does that mean for us?” Cyno asks after a moment of comfortable silence and Alhaitham’s gaze darts out the window.

“It means that you will accompany me home now, so we can both get some actual rest,” he easily says as if it means nothing to him to invite Cyno into his home, his life, and his bed.

“We won’t if Kaveh is there,” Cyno reminds him with a small smile.

He loves the architect but if Alhaitham brings Cyno home with him only for them to vanish into Alhaitham’s bedroom then there will not be a quiet minute the entire evening.

“What do you propose then?” Alhaitham asks, clearly realising the truth and Cyno finally pushes himself up.

“I do have my own home,” he tells Alhaitham and pulls him up, making sure their hands stay entangled. “And a bed, even though I see how you would hardly believe that after all of this,” he waves his free hand around the office and watches with satisfaction how Alhaitham smiles at him.

“Best to show me then, so I can make sure of that with my own two eyes,” he teases and Cyno certainly does not melt on the spot when Alhaitham leans down and presses a kiss to Cyno’s forehead.

“Yeah, best to do that,” Cyno mumbles, overly aware of how hot his face suddenly is but then he decides that two can certainly play that game.

So he leans up on his toes to kiss the corner of Alhaitham’s mouth and he’s more than delighted to find that Alhaitham blushes easily.

He is certain that sleep will not be their immediate goal but as long as Alhaitham is with him Cyno is fine with anything. Because there is simply something special about Alhaitham.

[stillness-in-green]

Chapter Thoughts — Chapter 382: Don’t Let Him Go

Two big lengthy segments today (guess what about) and some shorter observations. I'll just go ahead and put the jump here, shall I?

On Toga:

It’s hard to talk rationally about the drama with Toga this week, both because 

(A) The early leaks led to a lot of discussion centered on Toga and love and why—as the leaks expressed quite baldly—she doesn’t love Shigaraki and Dabi, and the bad takes are like unto a lingering poison I have to shake.

and

(B)  It feels so overwhelmingly like a copout.

There’s so much that can be theorized about Toga's dilemma and to what extent Tsuyu's assumptions about her love are correct, but I find it difficult to engage in good faith because it just feels so cheap. This is an almost Platonic example of arbitrary complications that are only a problem because the author says they are, not because they flow naturally from previously established facts.  If the Shigaraki that couldn’t make his quirk go off were a Toga-disguised-as-Shigaraki, that would be one thing, and you could move into discussion of her feelings freely.  But so far as we’re presented with, it’s not—it’s just a clone Shigaraki, exactly like any other Jin could have made himself.

Jin never had any problems with creating incomplete doubles.  If he didn’t understand something well enough, it wouldn’t look perfect on the surface despite missing core aspects internally; it would just immediately turn into sludge, like his attempt at replicating Overhaul’s quirk-erasing bullet.  Likewise, the various members of the League Jin doubled never manifested Jin’s own psychological need to cover his face to keep from splitting; that always remained unique to him and his self-doubles.

So why do doubles Toga makes have her emotional restriction?  Well, because the author said so.  Because Horikoshi couldn’t have this whole field of heroes be annihilated by a single double—even though, from all we knew about how Double worked before, that should be exactly what happened—so he had to come up with some arbitrary explanation why dozens of people haven’t been dusted where they stand.

As far as (A) goes, I think the real translation is more nuanced than the blunt statements in the leaks, and certainly the chapter as a whole is much more nuanced than the wild leaps people started making when all they had to go on was Tsuyu’s hypothesis—that people immediately took as fact—that Toga doesn’t love Shigaraki and Dabi.  For myself, I’m not inclined to second-guess Toga on her own experience of her feelings of love, what qualifies and what doesn’t.  She says she loves Touya and Tomura; I have to read that as at least as credible a claim as her love for Ochaco and Deku.

So where does that leave me?  Well, I think there are two major possible explanations for Toga’s problems that aren’t just the incredibly reductive and insulting, “She doesn’t love them.”  Both have some sub-issues of their own, but, well, that’s what comes of this whole development being dictionary-definition Arbitrary.

Theory 1:  Toga’s love always been tied up in her sense of wanting to become more and more like the objects of her affection.  She doesn’t just love Ochaco; she wants to become Ochaco.  So maybe the issue is that, while she loves Shigaraki and Dabi, she doesn’t particularly want to become them, and it’s the desire to emulate, rather than the love, that actually defines her ability to use quirks.

That would be consistent with the way her quirk evolution was portrayed in Chapter 226—much more consistent, even, than the idea that her “love” is the key factor.  Back then, the thought that’s on her mind as Curious comes in for the kill is, “I wanna be just like you.”  When she uses Ochaco’s quirk to kill, her spoken line is, “I wanna be even more like the people I love.”  Love is a factor, certainly, but it’s filtered through that additional qualifier.  This would mean everyone involved[1] has misread Toga’s condition in a small but crucially important way.

I can see two immediate problems with this theory, but both are fairly minor.

First, Toga never showed any particular desire to emulate Jin, but she’s obviously using his quirk—not without issues, but using it all the same.  This one’s fairly easy to get around, in that it would be very easy to say that she didn’t want to become Jin before he was killed, and her desire to do so now is inseparable from the fact that he was murdered.  Does she want to become him so he won’t be gone from her life?  So she can carry out revenge for him?  That’s fairly immaterial; as long as she does want to become him, his quirk becomes accessible.

Second, Toga has shown signs of emulating Shigaraki and, to a more debatable extent, Dabi.  While it’s not as full-throated as for Ochaco, obviously, Chapter 226 ends with Toga thinking that whatever she hates must be destroyed—right, Tomura?  Likewise, people have pointed out that Toga’s pose on the 339 color spread could be her copying his Frankenstein’s monster hands pose from 191.  So there’s at least some basis for Toga mimicking or adopting aspects of Shigaraki and Dabi, which would undercut the idea that she doesn’t want to become them ergo she can’t use their quirks. A single line of dialogue and a highly interpretable pose in a non-canon color spread make a pretty thin objection, though, so I don’t regard them as hard evidence against the theory.

Theory 2:  Toga’s transformation into Twice is flawed, so his quirk isn’t working to its fullest.  A flawed transformation would line up with that extremely unsubtle page of Toga agonizing about why she can’t become Jin overlaid against a background of thoughts about hero mass extinction that are highly un-Jin-like.  It would also point to the Sad Man’s Death Parade not being made up of Togas-transformed-into-Jin, which I had thought was the explanation for why they were so deathly silent compared to the riotous clamor the Sad Man’s Parade raised in Deika.  Rather, they are clones of Jin, but they’re flawed clones, strained through Toga’s grief and overpowering hatred, choking out Jin’s actual character: chatty, protective, desperately loyal.  If those distorted copies have Toga’s emotions, it makes a certain amount of sense that they’d also have her restrictions.

This one runs into serious trouble with my (B) objection, above, particularly the idea that Twice’s own quirk was always very all or nothing—it either works or it gloops, no in between.  If Toga’s attempt to use Jin’s quirk is reflecting a flawed understanding of Jin, she shouldn’t really get usable copies at all, just sludge.  As for explaining away this problem, well, we might say that quirks are pretty weird, so Transform and Double having some unpredictable interactions isn’t entirely out of bounds.  It’s just, again, deeply arbitrary.

I can't help but think, whatever the explanation, that there are ways around a hero massacre that wouldn't have required kneecapping Toga with nonsensical quirk restrictions. It's not as if we lack precedent for clones being way less dangerous than the real things!  The Shigaraki/Dabi/AFO clones were probably made by the bazillionth Himijin clone, so are about as strong as wet paper.  They'd also take longer to make, because it always took Jin longer to make clones of other people than clones of himself.  Just get Hawks off of AFO-sitting-duty and back down to the field to put feathers through any League/AFO-clones that are reaching out their hands in dangerous ways.

Heck, you could even further the teamwork themes by having Hawks—who's probably a bit low on feathers to do that whole thing himself—be the eye in the sky to coordinate everyone else!  (This might then leave him open to Actual Toga, who still deserves to knife him and has inexplicably not gotten to do so yet.)

Anyway.  I guess we’ll see how it develops.  I’m not against Toga having some good crunchy anguish, heaven knows, but it would be nice if it didn’t feel so mandated by the need to stop her from murdering a dozen acres’ worth of on-the-ground heroes.

One other thing, though, before I leave Toga and move on to the other big headache this chapter.  Tsuyu says, “It seems like Himiko-chan’s own restriction applies to the doubles she makes after transforming into Twice.  (...)  In an extreme situation like this, a single emotion could override that restriction at any second.”  That’s extra dangerous because of—and I don’t know if Tsuyu knows this or not—one of the factors in how Double works, or at least could be read as working.

Recall that back during MVA, we were told that the doubles Twice makes of other people are limited to what their real selves knew at the last time real!Twice saw them, but that this limitation doesn’t apply to Twice himself.  I never could 100% parse that, but one of the logical explanations is a sort of instant knowledge transmission—that anything the original knew, any double of him made would also know, even if it was itself made by a double that wasn't present for whatever new thing just happened.

Would this have applied only to new clones, each created as an up-to-the-minute copy of Original Jin and then lagging behind as they slide into their own experience?  Or is every clone updated moment to moment such that they stay accurate reflections of Jin?  That’s unclear thanks to the vague phrasing, but if the knowledge transmission works the same way for Toga, and she resolves her crisis and suddenly becomes able to create quirk-capable clones, then whether every Himijin on the field can abruptly do the same or only newly created Himijins, it’s an instant ticket to The Worst Situation either way.

(I’m rooting for you, Himiko!  Resolve that crisis!  Go go go!)

On Shinsou and Gigantomachia: 

On the one hand, this is the exact opposite of arbitrary authorial handwaves.  I can look back over Shinsou’s arc all the way back to the Sports Festival and see the groundwork being laid for this.  Indeed, I’d say all of his major appearances, combined with what we know about Machia, contributed to the setup for this.

At the Sports Festival, we learned that he could take control of people by tricking them into responding to them.  By the Joint Training arc, he’d picked up a support item that allowed him to mimic others’ voices.  In MVA, Machia was shown to be fanatically loyal to AFO, a trait that could be particularly guided by the sound of his master’s voice.

After the traitor reveal, Shinsou mind-controlled the Aoyamas through their phone call with AFO.  Since he can’t force people to do anything that requires much mental engagement (here meaning he couldn’t just order the Aoyamas to respond to AFO the way AFO expected them to), we must assume he needed to be able to hear AFO’s side of that phone in order to respond to it properly.  Thus, that phone call enabled him to learn what AFO’s voice sounded like such that he could later mimic it.

It all fits!  It fits extremely elegantly, more so than the vast majority of the late-stage twists have done thus far.

And yet...  And yet.

And yet it’s morally dubious and frankly, the Machia we were introduced to in MVA deserves better than this.

I know most people don’t care about Gigantomachia—indeed, the post-MVA series has not gone out of its way to encourage us to do so—but imagine for a moment that this wasn’t Machia attacking AFO.  Imagine it were Mister Compress.  He’s much too chatty to not trip into responding to Shinsou, and then he could be dropped in front of, say, Toga in hopes that seeing him would cause her to drop her guard long enough for Mr. Compress to be ordered into marbling her.

Wouldn’t that feel incredibly shitty, manipulative, and even outright villainous?  Especially for the kid whose entire character arc is about proving that he can use his quirk in non-villainous ways?  Like, Shinsou immobilizing Machia would be one thing, making him walk back into his cell, something like that would entirely fine. Actually forcing him to attack his own allies, however, is many, many steps past fine.

And it’s not like AFO doesn’t deserve to have a mountain thrown at him, but does Machia deserve to be forced to throw it?  Well, I could talk about that,[2] but as I see it, it’s a moot point.

Forcing enemies to fight their own allies, just so we’re all clear here, would be considered a war crime if this were a duly declared war situation.[3]  It isn’t a war, not least because the heroes are a nominally civilian force fighting against their own nation’s criminals, but, hot take, anything that would constitute a literal war crime in an international conflict is not something that should get readers cheering for the wholesome good guy heroes just because the crime’s being perpetrated against their own people.

Even if you set aside the ethics of the situation, though (which you by no means should), I have to ask about the tactical wisdom of bringing Machia to the field as well.  So Shinsou's controlling him now, awesome; we’ve weaponized one of the villains against their own side.

What happens when that control wears off?  Or Shinsou gets wounded (or worse) and loses focus?  Or AFO warps Machia out of there, likely out of Shinsou’s range of control?  Or Machia breaks himself out of the control because that’s just how much it agonizes him to be forced to fight his beloved master?  Or AFO breaks him out of the control because Machia is conditioned to respond to his voice, and he’s got the right smell to go with it?  Or literally anything because this is not a permanent solution but now Machia's out of prison and on the field with AFO, great job, team!!!

Another issue a chat friend brought up: Machia’s basically just retracing the path he took before—from the Villa to Jakku then back again.  Given how incredibly destructive that was before, how destructive was it this time?  Did they swerve around every settled area on the way?  Just run over it again because, heck, it’s not like anyone’s had time to repair it anyway?  ‘Cause like, back in Chapter 282, when the radio was running through the list of places that needed to be evacuated, the announcer listed twenty names before Uraraka picked up her line of dialogue, interrupting any further roll call of affected areas.

Furthermore, all the places listed were called cities—shi in the Japanese, the largest of Japan’s three municipal categories.  There are also towns (machi) and villages (mura), neither of which were mentioned in the broadcast, but which must surely also be scattered along Machia’s route.  That’s a lot of municipality to swerve around; would it even be feasible to do so and still reach the battle in a relatively timely fashion?  How much time has elapsed since we saw the Jakku battlefield in 353, at which point Machia was still down and dreaming?  How much time is that compared to how long it took Machia to clear the villa and arrive at Jakku in the previous war?

Machia’s travel times have always been a frankly impossible abstraction,[4] but seriously, it ought to take considerably more time to navigate around every clutch of houses in his path than to just plow through them.[5]  Unless, again, the kids just said fuck it and ran back over the path he took before, trusting that it was still an evacuated wasteland.  Which, while it doesn’t account for those who declined to evacuate to begin with, might be a fair bet—I can’t imagine the government’s shelling out much for repair and construction with things still so unsettled—but would still be a pretty bad look for Team Hero.

Stray Thoughts:

O  The layout of the narration boxes on the first page is very fun.

O  AFO is obvious, but I wonder why Dabi and not Shigaraki for Tsuyu’s pick on people they’d be doomed if Toga had chosen to transform into.  Shigaraki’s ranged Decay is by some measure deadlier, and that’s not even getting into everything else Shigaraki’s packing now.  Meanwhile, Dabi has still yet to kill a single named character.

O  Tsuyu calls Toga Himiko-chan, which is certainly A Choice she’s consciously making, given that last time they met, Tsuyu was still rebuking Toga not to address her by her given name.  Suffice to say, it’s a pretty strong suggestion that Tsuyu and Ochaco have had at least one serious conversation about Ochaco’s intentions towards Toga.  I wish we could have seen it, but I suppose there’s always a chance of flashbacks.

O  The panel of “Twice” with Toga’s eyes is a very nice touch.  I assume it’s not meant to be literal—the “Camie” the reader first meets at the License Exam also has Toga’s eyes, which are wildly different from Real Camie’s eyes, a discrepancy you’d think her classmates would have noticed if it were meant to be a true depiction of her appearance.[6]  Anyway, Ochaco doesn’t recognize her by the eyes; she recognizes her by the tears.

…Which is ironic, really, given that Jin was by far the most openly weepy of the League.

O  Teen AFO is great, but what I find most striking is the shadows beneath his eyes.  Specifically, the way they so strongly resemble the hollows beneath Shigaraki’s in e.g. Chapter 373.

I don’t know if this means anything, but it’s an interesting visual parallel.  I wonder if Yoichi was not the only brother prone to frailty as a youth?

-------------------- FOOTNOTES --------------------

1:  Tsuyu, who makes deductions based on it this week, Toga herself, who states it in Chapter 289; Ochaco, who heard it from Toga’s own mouth in the same chapter; and Dabi, back in 241, who probably also heard it from Toga at some point post-Deika.

2:  Mostly I’d say that since we know neither what AFO did to earn Machia’s loyalty nor how much say Machia had in the walking disaster he’s become, we don’t actually have enough context to say what he “deserves” and what he doesn’t, and that it’s not the heroes’ job to unilaterally dispense that justice regardless.

3:  Article 130 of the Geneva Conventions, which includes “compelling a prisoner of war to serve in the forces of the hostile Power” as one of several “grave breaches” of the Conventions that constitute a war crime.

4:  As has been the case for all the travel times this arc has flippantly handwaved.

5: Because if plowing through them would take him longer than running around them, he would have run around them the first time, the sooner to make it to Master’s side.

6:  Oddly enough, “Camie” only has Toga’s eyes for the first phase of the exam.  Once Toga switches transformations to Ochaco to target Deku and then shifts back into Camie after, her eyes look the Real Camie’s.  I haven’t done a thorough hunt, but she manifests Ochaco’s and Deku’s eyes normally at Deika and the Shie Hassaikai raid.

[scottishcommune]

Even the Modern Synthesis, the neo-Darwinian model of organic evolution that has been in force since the early 1940s, has been challenged as too narrow and perhaps too mechanistic in its outlook. Its thesis of slow-paced evolutionary change emerging from the interplay of small variations, which are “selected” for their adaptability to the environment, is no longer as tenable as it once seemed based on the fossil record. Evolution seems instead to have been rather more sporadic, marked by occasional changes of considerable rapidity, then long periods of stasis. The “Effect Hypothesis,” advanced by Elizabeth Vrba, suggests that evolution includes an immanent striving, not merely random mutational changes filtered by external selective factors. As one observer notes, “Whereas species selection puts the forces of change on environmental conditions, the Effect Hypothesis looks to internal parameters that affect the rates of speciation and extinction.”

Indeed, the theory of small, gradual point mutations (a theory that accords with the Victorian notion of strictly fortuitous evolutionary change, much like the Victorian image of the economic marketplace) can be challenged on genetic grounds alone. Not only genes but chromosomes, too, may be altered chemically and mechanically. Genetic changes may range from “simple” point mutations, through jumping genes and transposable elements, to major chromosomal rearrangements. Major morphological changes may thus result from mosaics of genetic change. This dynamic raises the intriguing possibility of a directiveness to genetic change itself, not simply a promiscuous and purely fortuitous randomness, and an environment largely created by life itself, not by forces exclusively external to it.

- Murray Bookchin, Toward a Philosophy of Nature: The Bases for an Ecological Ethics

[aurrai]

learning how to write using the Input Hypothesis

Stephen Krashen's 'Input Hypothesis' came up regularly during my Second Language Acquisition classes at uni and I think it can be applied to learning to write stories as well.

What is it?

Basically it's a suggested way to learn languages based on your current level and the kind of material you use to study with, but I think it can be applied to anything you learn, such as writing. The key idea is comprehensible input—to learn by using material that is above your level but not so high as to be overwhelming. A comfortably higher level. Another key idea is the affective filter—you learn better when you're feeling confident and motivated and you don't learn well when you're feeling hopeless and uninspired.

Applying this theory to writing, you take your current level of writing skills and you try to find material that is above your level that you can learn from, and above all you make sure you're having fun while doing it.

So I guess the technique would be:

Learning comes from input. For a Writer, that input is reading.

The best kind of input material contains writing techniques that you don't know yet but that you could pick up easily enough given your current level.

Being confident and motivated requires you to check in on how you're feeling so if you're not enjoying the book you're reading, maybe have a think about putting it down for the time being and choosing a different one.

The sweet spot for learning is reading a story you enjoy that is just above your current level.

So how do you, Writer at home, know what kind of writing is just above your level and where to find that sweet spot story you'll enjoy? Good question. I'm not sure I have the answer. For myself, I used trial and error and eventually I kind of got a sense of what was at the right level for me. So for example, I find CAPTIVE PRINCE by C.S. Pacat is at a good level for me to learn from by myself, but when I was looking at SCHINDLER'S ARK by Thomas Keneally yesterday, I found it a bit hard to analyse and would probably need a more experienced person to help break it down for me. These are both stories I love and have read multiple times.

The Input Hypothesis also says it's better to acquire new skills through exposure (in a Writer's case, through reading stories) than through the teaching of forms (structure, techniques, etc). Overall, I agree, but I hope it doesn't downplay teaching too much. Teaching speeds up the learning process because you can get an initial awareness of what structures and writing techniques are possible. For example, I benefitted a lot from learning about the 3-Act structure because I didn't have to work it out for myself, I just jumped straight into looking for it and analysing the stories I was reading. How long would it have taken me to recognise it on my own? Probably ages, so I feel like I saved a lot of time by just studying it outright. Having said that though, I didn't really, truly understand what the 3-Act structure looked like until I was exposed to it through reading a lot of stories that used it. I don't think teaching is enough, and nor do I think studying forms is what a Writer should do a majority or even a lot of the time. I find I benefit from just a little bit of study (say, reading a writing blog that talks about a technique) and then spending the rest of my time reading so that I get exposure to how the forms are actually used by different Writers in their stories.

So I guess technique #2 would be:

spend the majority of your time reading so that you get exposure to a lot of different ways to tell stories.

spend a little time studying story structure and writing techniques so that you can start to recognise and analyse those forms in the stories you're reading.

Note: I don't know if I need to add this caveat here or if it's obvious already but it's okay to read stories without the pressure of thinking you need to learn something from them. I think that's the importance of monitoring how you're feeling—ideally you want to keep yourself at a state where you feel confident and motivated and sometimes that means reading things solely because you love the story's premise, or because you've read the story before and you want to experience it again, or just taking some time off and not reading at all for a little while. I've also seen writing advice that says the first time you read a story is for pleasure and the second time is for analysis. I think that's good advice to follow as well.

Wikipedia gives a further overview of Krashen's Input Hypothesis if you're curious and want to read more about it. Keep in mind it's a theory from second language acquisition, not creative writing.

[faustmartin]

FRIENDS?

Friendships. An illusion? A convergence of emotional needs? A stepping stone for future success? Or is Love the mainstay of it? I am and have always been bewildered by the exact definition of the word "Friendship". Just like there's no such thing as pure altruism (e.g you don't donate to charity soley to help but also because it satisfies your 'obligations' of being a responsible person in society), "Forever Friends" is clearly a hyperbole. Before you call someone your friend, think about what that really means. Is he/she your friend only in a certain context? What happens when that 'friend' of yours suddenly lead a life that begins to diverge from yours? Will that affect the way you guys communicate or the value of the friendship? Okae Socrate's dialectic method is clearly not working because i can only question and not answer. I'll write more when i have a clearer state of mind. I just thought people should take friendships more seriously. Some people can be surrounded by everyone but yet feel alone in that crowd. Popularity does not equate to having more friends. It can mean that it is harder for you to filter out the friends who love you for who you are and not what you have. My hypothesis: "The purest of friendships exists only when people have nothing to gain but everything to lose out of it". Then again, this will never happen. Assuming that the idea of love is central to the issue of frendship and that true love doesn't exist (except for God's love) just like how nothing is absolute in this world, how can the purest of friendships exists? Oh so maybe since nothing is absolute, everything is relative. Just like how evil is necessary to define what is good. Maybe we can view friendships in the same light ; of it being relative to other friendships we have e.g (ure a better friend to me because under the same circumstances, i wouldn't be that nice to someone else). Conclusion NO. 1 : "There's no such thing as the phrase Forever Friends and therefore friendships always involve the element of converging emotional, physical and spiritual needs"

[reggioemilianidoverde]

The Affective Filter & Language Learning

The affective filter hypothesis states that language cannot be learned if the learner is impeding the process. In other words, a learner may be mentally prepared to learn or may be impeding the learning process in some way. A learner can have a high or low affective filter: the higher the filter, the less likely language schools Austin and you will occur; the lower the filter, the more likely language learning will occur.

What Is The Affective Filter?

The "affective filter" is a second language acquisition theoretical construct that attempts to explain the emotional variables associated with second language acquisition success or failure. The affective filter is an invisible psychological filter that can either help or hinder second language production.

What Causes a High Affective Filter?

Stress and discomfort have a negative impact on learning. A learner must feel safe and comfortable in the learning environment in order to learn effectively. During the learning process, the learner should not feel stressed or anxious. Furthermore, the learner should be motivated to participate in learning activities without fear of making mistakes.

Consider this: the times when you are able to study the most diligently are most likely times when you are most at ease and safe. You are at ease and not under any duress. You are both mentally and physically at ease.

Symptoms of a High Affective Filter

As a teacher or parent wishing to teach your child a second language, it is critical to be aware of the signs and symptoms of a high affective filter.

Understanding some common behaviors of students with a high affective filter allows us to identify them more quickly at home or in the classroom and adapt our teaching and learning environment to lower the affective filter.

Here we have mentioned the four emotional states that raise the affective filter and thus impair second language acquisition:

Anxiety

a lack of motivation

Lack of self-assurance

Negative mindset

Let's look at how some of these factors manifest themselves in terms of behavior.

Behaving Bored

Is the child staring off into the distance? Yawning? Fidgeting? All of these are symptoms of boredom and a high affective filter.

When a child loses interest in a lesson and becomes distracted, we often refer to them as 'disruptive' or 'disengaged'. As if to imply that the student is the problem here or you can also learn more about the International schools in Austin.

Of course, there are instances of disruptive student behavior, which frequently affects classrooms on a larger, school-wide scale.

2. Anxiety

Another emotion that can cause a high affective filter and impede language learning is anxiety.

Anxiety in a language learning setting can arise from a variety of sources, but in a classroom, it is frequently caused by a sense of intimidation. And that fear is usually triggered by the pressure to produce original output - that is, to speak in the foreign language!

I believe we can all recall a time when we were intimidated by the language learning process!

In the early stages of second language learning, it is common for students to stumble and make numerous errors.

3. Deflated Body Language Or Tone

A negative tone or negative body language are usually telltale signs that the child's Affective Filter is activated and they are either bored, anxious, unmotivated, or lacking in self-confidence about the language learning that is expected in class.

For fear of being called upon and put on the spot, these students frequently avoid making eye contact. They try to blend in or stare off into space. Or they could be legitimately zoning out and not truly present.

Read more about: Daycare or School: Three Differences That Really Matter For Your Child

4. Trouble Following Instruction

If your second language learners are unable to follow instructions in the target language, it could be due to an increase in their affective filter.

Try re-evaluating your instructions; are they too complicated for their language/developmental level? Is it necessary to divide the instructions into more specific multi-step instructions? Also, reconsider whether the instructions are actually understandable - perhaps you need to act or draw them out step by step?

Finally, but most importantly, assess the child's inner emotional landscape: is there boredom, stress, anxiety, or a lack of motivation?

Lowering The Affective Filter

So, how do we foster a learning environment in which students' affective filters are low?

The affective filter theory suggests that students will thrive in language learning when they feel safe and supported.

Of course, physical safety is important when learning anything, but here we are referring to the emotional safety that facilitates language acquisition.

A child is more open to language input if they are at ease in their learning environment.

At Nido Verde Di Reggio Emilia, we believe in learning through play in a loving and respectful environment. We provide a Spanish speaking environment in which children can explore. For more details, you can call us at +1-512-202-8295 or email us at admissions@nidoverdedireggioemilia.com. 

Source link: https://bit.ly/3lwQkjX

[snooowwater]

✴️اسئلة فرضيات كراشن✴️ Q)- ……..is a device that learners use to edit their language.                                  A)input.                    B)output C)Monitor✔ D)Utterance

Q)- An Affective Filter Hypothesis acknowledges that learner s ……..can affect their ability to learn.

A - nationality B- appearance C- voice- control D- self confidence✔

Q)- the system linguistic knowledge possessed by a speaker of language is called:

A - performance B - competence ✔ C- proficiency D- mastery

Q)- one of the following is not of the characteristics of input :

A- comprehensive B- clear C- adequate D- ambiguous✔

Q)- …….. do not influence second language acquisition? A) Environment abd instruction factors B) cognitive factors c) individual factors D) Technological facors ✔

Q)- when the learner is unmotivated or stressed the affective filter is :

A- up✔ B- down C- on D- at

Q9)- Anxiety and self-consciousness can be reduced in EFL classroom when teachers:

A- test students on the material they are working with. B- function as partners and mentors to students ✔ C- do not check homework regularly D- do not correct students' error

Q10)- Which of the following best characterizes Krashen’s recommendations for determining appropriateness of reading materials for ESL learners? ⚽️(A) They should be selected on the basis of grammatical structures that have already been taught. 🏀(B) They should be chosen by individual students regardless of the students’ language ability and text difficulty. 🏈(C) They should be selected by teachers based on an assessment of students’ abilities. 🎾(D) They should be at a level of complexity slightly beyond the reader’s current reading level.✔

Q)- It is always important to create a safe, environment L2 which students can learn. This hypothesis according to:

A) critical period hypothesis B) input hypothesis C) natural order hypothesis D)affective filter hypothesis✔

Q)- The two functions of the Monitor are: a. Time and place b. In reception and production✔ c. Place and manner d. Participants and their experience

Q)- All of the following are correct hypotheses of krashen's monitor model except: A)Natural Order Hypothesis B)Input Hypothesis C)Critical period Hypothesis✔ D)Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis

Q)- The three conditions for the Monitor use are: a. Age, place and participants b. Communication, time and place c. Time, focus on form, and know the rule✔ d. Language transfer, interlanguage and intralanguage

Q)- Monitor use depends on: a. Learner's age✔ b. Monitor over-users c. Monitor under-users d. Setting

Q)- It is a subconscious process identical in all important ways to the process children utilize in acquiring their first language. a. Learning b. Acquisition✔ c. Error analysis d. Intralanguage

Q)- Those are people who prefer not to use their monitor even if they have all the conditions. a. Monitor excellent-users b. Monitor over-users c. Monitor under-users✔ d. Monitor good-users

Q)-____is a conscious process of accumulating language .

A)- Teaching B)- Acquisition C)- Learning ✔ D)- Knowing

Q)- i+1 refers to that hypothesis.

A)- Natural- Order Hypothesis B)- Affective- Filter C)- The input hypothesis ✔ D)- Acquisition- Learning

[languagescience24]

Another prospective of Fossilization

Larry Selinker speculated the term "fossilization." The word "fossil" denotes "stagnant" which means something that resists to development. Fossilization is how incorrect interlanguage elements become a permanent part of the way a person speaks and writes a new language .Furthermore when a learner is unable to learn despite enough motivation, exposure, and instruction, he is called fossilized as a learner. Having said that, he may become linguistically crippled.However, I do not believe in complete fossilization. Language learning is predicated on three factors: cognition, emotion, and environment. In other words, emotion plays an important role in language learning. Linguist Stephen Krashen brings the emotional aspect of language acquisition in his Affective filter hypothesis.When confidence, self-esteem, motivation are high, the filter is low, then language learning is high ,according to Krashen.On the other hand , Instruction can help in the SLA process as it might speed up the learning process. However the crucial factor in the language learning process is exposure to a specific language in a suitable environment.For instance- ESL students pick language from enviornment which is not possible for EFL students .Significantly exposure helps to use language in different context .I believe that if a person is intrinsically motivated, receives appropriate exposure and instruction, he will undoubtedly learn. But According to Salinker , About 5% of second language learners are fossilized on some of the ideas and grammar structures because they can not learn even after having enough motivation,exposure and instruction. 

    When we try to establish the term " fossilization", we try to believe that language is limited.If one cant learn that limited set of rules,vocabularies and grammar , he will be called fossilized.That should not be done because language is not limited .It evolves with time .For example, in the mid 16th century, the word "flirt" was characterized as a sudden sharp movement, but today this word took a fun and cheeky meaning. On the other hand, we understand "robot" to mean "machine." However, in South Africa, it refers to "traffic light." That is how old words take on new meanings in the language. Generally language is changeable. Its not always grammatical perhaps it is contextual.Therefore , simply memorizing structures is insufficient .And the person who couldn’t memorize those strcutures ,we shouldnt call him fossilized .That's why Stephen Krashen stated that grammar is unnecessary when it comes to learning second language.

    According to Krashen , If my job is to teach somebody language,then I shouldnt teach grammar but if my job is to teach structure of language ,then I should teach grammar. According to fossilization , language learning is a product.Whereas language learning is a process of trial and error also it does not happen in a particular period. Consider the case below: An English language learning course who claimed to teach the language just in one month. Consequently, they started putting pressure to all of the students. Therefore students had given materials to memorize and worksheets to do.Nevertheless students are not clones. They are distinct from one another. So worksheets, exercises, activities, and even homework should be personalized since students have different needs, and the teacher should meet them all. However a person is unable to cross his limit due to cognitive limitation as a result some students couldn’t memorize those materials and solve those worksheets. We learned about it from Stephen Krashen's "Input hypothesis," where he emphasized the systematic nature of language learning. The input is (I+ 1). "I" denotes the current level of language (development), while "1" denotes the immediate next step. This immediate next step should come in the basis of the current level of development. As we have seen, it didnt happen in this course ,consequently some students got demotivated and concluded that English was not their cup of tea. Though it has been demonstrated that students of that course were provided sufficient instruction, exposure, and motivation. Despite all, they were unable to learn . Although these students were not fossilized; they simply lack proper guideline and instruction. One must go through an entire process of learning which takes time.

*Check next post for the rest .Thank you .

[jorgefuentesdataanalysistools]

Data Analysis Tools: Week 2

By continuing with the previous week homework, we will run 2 chi-square test to try to see:

 -'Do polity score depends on the country group type?'   (PIGS vs EasternEurope vs Rest)

 -For all countries, do the polity score of a country affect its employ rate?

Code and results of running it:

 import numpy

import pandas

import statsmodels.formula.api as smf

import statsmodels.stats.multicomp as multi

import scipy.stats

 # Load gapminder dataset

data = pandas.read_csv('_7548339a20b4e1d06571333baf47b8df_gapminder.csv', low_memory=False)

 # To avoid having blank data instead of NaN -> If you have blank data the previous line will give you an error.

data = data.replace(r'^\s*$', numpy.NaN, regex = True)

 # Change all DataFrame column names to Lower-case

data.columns = map(str.lower, data.columns)

 # Bug fix for display formats to avoid run time errors

pandas.set_option('display.float_format', lambda x:'%f'%x)

 print('Number of observations (rows)')

print(len(data))

print('Number of Variables (columns)')

print(len(data.columns))

print()

 # Ensure each of these columns are numeric

data['suicideper100th'] = data['suicideper100th'].apply(pandas.to_numeric, errors='coerce')

data['lifeexpectancy'] = data['lifeexpectancy'].apply(pandas.to_numeric, errors='coerce')

data['urbanrate'] = data['urbanrate'].apply(pandas.to_numeric, errors='coerce')

data['employrate'] = data['employrate'].apply(pandas.to_numeric, errors='coerce')

data['polityscore'] = data['polityscore'].apply(pandas.to_numeric, errors='coerce')

print(data['polityscore'])

 # Filtering into groups:

print('According to the definition below for Easter European countries and PIGS countries we will create a new column called EuropeEastVsPIGS where:')

print('1 is for Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Czech Rep., Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine')

print('2 is for PiGS countries: Portual, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain ')

print()

 def EuropeEastVsPIGS (row) :

  if row['country'] == 'Bulgaria':

      return 1

  if row['country'] == 'Czech Rep.':

      return 1

  if row['country'] == 'Hungary':

      return 1

  if row['country'] == 'Poland':

      return 1

  if row['country'] == 'Romania':

      return 1

  if row['country'] == 'Russia':

      return 1

  if row['country'] == 'Slovak Republic':

      return 1

  if row['country'] == 'Belarus':

      return 1

  if row['country'] == 'Moldova':

      return 1

  if row['country'] == 'Ukraine':

      return 1

  if row['country'] == 'Portugal':

      return 2

  if row['country'] == 'Ireland':

      return 2

  if row['country'] == 'Italy':

      return 2

  if row['country'] == 'Greece':

      return 2

  if row['country'] == 'Spain':

      return 2

 data['EuropeEastVsPIGS'] = data.apply (lambda row: EuropeEastVsPIGS (row), axis = 1)

data['EuropeEastVsPIGS'] = data['EuropeEastVsPIGS'].apply(pandas.to_numeric, errors='coerce')

 # Replace NaN with 99 to use as others

data['EuropeEastVsPIGS'].fillna(99, inplace=True)

 sub1 = data.copy()

 # Chi Square test of independence: when we have a categorical explanatory variabale and a categorial response variable:

 -'Do polity score depends on the country group type?'

# Convert a cuantitative variable into a categorical: We will group the polityscore intro 4 cathegories:

 def politygroup (row) :

  if row['polityscore'] >= -10 and row['polityscore'] < -3 :

      return 'NegativePolity'

  if row['polityscore'] >= -3 and row['polityscore'] < 4 :

      return 'NeutralPolity'

  if row['polityscore'] >= 4 and row['polityscore'] < 11 :

      return 'PositivePolity'

 sub1['politygroup'] = sub1.apply (lambda row: politygroup (row), axis = 1)

 sub4 = sub1[['EuropeEastVsPIGS','politygroup']].dropna()

 # Contingency table of observed counts

ct1 = pandas.crosstab(sub4['EuropeEastVsPIGS'], sub4['politygroup'])

print(ct1)    

print()

 # Column percentages

colsum = ct1.sum(axis=0)

colpct = ct1/colsum

print(colpct)

print()  

 # Chi-square

print('Chi-Square value, p-value, expected counts')

cs1 = scipy.stats.chi2_contingency(ct1)

print(cs1)

print()

 Since the p-value = 0.134 we cannot reject the null hypothesis and hence there are no diferences between the groups defined. The results are based on having a "Rest of the world" group that has a lot of countries on it.

 -For all countries, do the polity score of a country affect its employ rate?

 # Another example of the use of Chi-Square:

print('For all countries, do polity score group affect the employ rate of a country?')

 sub5 = sub1[['politygroup','employrate']].dropna()

 # Group into 3 categories the employ rate of countries

# Change NaN values to 0 to get max value in employ rate column

sub6 = sub5.copy()

sub6.fillna(0, inplace=True)

sub6_maxer = sub6['employrate'].max()

 sub7 = sub5.copy()

sub7.fillna(999, inplace=True)

sub7_min = sub7['employrate'].min()

 employlow = 0.33*(sub6_maxer - sub7_min) + sub7_min

employhigh = 0.66*(sub6_maxer - sub7_min) + sub7_min

 def employgroup (row) :

  if row['employrate'] >= sub7_min and row['employrate'] < employlow :

      return 'Low_employrate'

  if row['employrate'] >= employlow and row['employrate'] < employhigh :

      return 'Mid_employrate'

  if row['employrate'] >= employhigh and row['employrate'] <= sub6_maxer :

      return 'High_employrate'

 sub5['employgroup'] = sub1.apply (lambda row: employgroup (row), axis = 1)

 # Contingency table of observed counts

ct2 = pandas.crosstab(sub5['politygroup'], sub5['employgroup'])

print(ct2)    

print()

 # Column percentages

colsum2 = ct2.sum(axis=0)

colpct2 = ct2/colsum2

print(colpct2)

print()  

 # Chi-square

print('Chi-Square value, p-value, expected counts')

cs2 = scipy.stats.chi2_contingency(ct2)

print(cs2)

print()

 Since the p-value = 0.0059, null hypothesis is rejected and we can conclude that the employ rate depends on the polityscore of the country. We know they are not equal but we dont know which ones are equals and which are not. To know this a post-hoc test is needed.

 # If we reject the null hypothesis, we need to perform comparisons for each pair of groups.

# To appropiate protect against type 1 error in the contxt of a chi-squared test, we wil use the post-hoc called "Bonferroni Adjustment"

 # For that we will make 2 groups comparisons:

 # For 1st pair of groups:

 recode3 = {'High_employrate':'High_employrate' , 'Mid_employrate':'Mid_employrate' }

sub5['Comp1vs2'] = sub5['employgroup'].map(recode3)

 # Contingency table of observed counts

ct3 = pandas.crosstab(sub5['politygroup'], sub5['Comp1vs2'])

print(ct3)    

print()

 # Column percentages

colsum3 = ct3.sum(axis=0)

colpct3 = ct3/colsum3

print(colpct3)

print()  

 # Chi-square

print('Chi-Square value, p-value, expected counts')

cs3 = scipy.stats.chi2_contingency(ct3)

print(cs3)

 Since the p-value = 0.00086, null hypothesis is rejected and we can conclude that there is a significant difference between this 2 groups. High_employrate group is different from Mid_employrate group.

 # For 2nd pair of groups:

 recode4 = {'High_employrate':'High_employrate' , 'Low_employrate':'Low_employrate' }

sub5['Comp1vs3'] = sub5['employgroup'].map(recode4)

 # Contingency table of observed counts

ct4 = pandas.crosstab(sub5['politygroup'], sub5['Comp1vs3'])

print(ct4)    

print()

 # Column percentages

colsum4 = ct4.sum(axis=0)

colpct4 = ct4/colsum4

print(colpct4)

print()  

 # Chi-square

print('Chi-Square value, p-value, expected counts')

cs4 = scipy.stats.chi2_contingency(ct4)

print(cs4)

 Since the p-value = 0.29063, null hypothesis cannot be rejected and we can conclude that there is no significant difference between this 2 groups. High_employrate group is simmilar to low_employ rate group.

 # For 3rd pair of groups:

 recode5 = {'Low_employrate':'Low_employrate' , 'Mid_employrate':'Mid_employrate' }

sub5['Comp2vs3'] = sub5['employgroup'].map(recode5)

 # Contingency table of observed counts

ct5 = pandas.crosstab(sub5['politygroup'], sub5['Comp2vs3'])

print(ct5)    

print()

 # Column percentages

colsum5 = ct5.sum(axis=0)

colpct5 = ct5/colsum5

print(colpct5)

print()  

 # Chi-square

print('Chi-Square value, p-value, expected counts')

cs5 = scipy.stats.chi2_contingency(ct5)

print(cs5)

imagen

 Since the p-value = 0.24568, null hypothesis cannot be rejected and we can conclude that there is no significant difference between this 2 groups. Mid_employrate group is simmilar to low_employ rate group.

[jhstickynotes]

Writen by Kevin Bandel

While other articles have summarized the overlap between alexithymia and autism, they have been in the context of specific groups, such as children, college students, and adults with depression and/or social phobia. The article that will be summarized here explores the relationship between alexithymia and autism more generally and seeks to establish a firmer conclusion about how the two conditions interact with each other.

Alexithymia is a subclinical condition in which an individual has difficulties identifying, describing, and analyzing emotions. It is subclinical because it is not an official diagnosable mental state, but is used by psychologists to categorize and understand issues that some people face. Since around 50% of autistic people are believed to be alexithymic, there have been questions if alexithymia influences autism, autism influences alexithymia, or both.

The hypothesis of this article is that alexithymia is both a cause and consequence of autistic behavior. However, it is important to note that alexithymia, not autism, was seen as the leading cause of emotional deficits in several studies. Autism does not guarantee that an individual lacks emotional awareness. Therefore, this article suggests the approach to help alexithymic autistic individuals should be to dampen the impact of alexithymia, not autism.

A suspected physiological cause of alexithymia and autism is an alteration to a brain’s interoceptive sensitivity (awareness of physical body feelings, such as hunger or emotions) and interoceptive sensibility (subjective interpretation of body’s sensations). Some studies suggest that an excessive activation of interoceptive sensitivity (physical sensation) at the cost of reduced interoceptive sensibility (intuitive understanding of a physical sensation’s meaning), may increase the likelihood of a person being alexithymic. Autism is characterized by sensory overload due to high levels of focus, but challenges in filtering information.

If this research is correct, both alexithymia and autism may have similarities in how their focus can be disproportionately directed towards some parts of emotional recognition but not others. This might be why the strong and narrow attention of autism seems to increase the likelihood of alexithymia. The exact causes behind alexithymia and autism may not be the exact same, but their manifestations may appear similar in some ways.

However, there were some differences in how alexithymia and autism affect emotional responses. In moral decision making, those with alexithymia were reported to have an increased bias toward utilitarian thinking from a reduced empathetic concern. By contrast, those with autism had less utilitarian bias due to elevated stress levels in social situations. Other differences between alexithymia and autism was that alexithymia predicted compromised social assertiveness and reduced curiosity toward those with shared interests, but autism did not.

By comprehending alexithymia and autism more deeply, more tools will be available to understanding the issues individuals struggle with and how to deal with them.

[rrasado]

| -Why The Ink Flows- |

A hypothesis rant on Overblots

Well to be precise, A hunch on how and why a Magicless OC can overblot, If you have a non magic user OC that overblots but don’t have an explanation then feel free to use this. I made this while trying to figure out how my own MC will overblot despite being magic less.

In my opinion, a magic less person overblotting is so much more dangerous than the average overblot. Blot according to crowley in episode 2-4:

“It’s a black ink that taints the magical jewel. That’s the “blot” that happens after using magic excessively”

“A magical jewel does not exist simply to be an outlet for one’s magic. One other purpose it has is to accumulate Blot that could directly affect the caster.

“To an extent, it is a wonderful item that can carry such a huge burden.”

I can safely deduce from these statements that a magician’s blot starts from the magician’s gems like how in a water filter, the filter gathers the bacteria while the magician is the end canister. The gems are basically an extension of the magician itself, carrying a heavy burden as Crowley puts it.

“The magician’s overall state and well-being actually plays a huge influence on their magical limit before experiencing Blot.”

“Anger, sorrow, terror, confusion… Experiencing constant negative energies like that makes it easier for Blot to accumulate. It becomes easier for one to go into Overblot.”

So an overblot can happen for two reasons:

A) Overuse of one’s magic.

B) Accumulation of pent up negative energy.

Then again, these are all reasons why a magic user can overblot, but how about a non magic user? Unlike Magic users, magic less people don’t have gems or extensions. Why would they? They’re magic less after all so there’s no need.

But picture this, a magic less person whose body has never experienced being in the presence of large amounts of magic gets thrown into an infamous school for soon to be renowned magicians, said school is also a pillar of great magic source due to the number of magician’s accumulated in one vicinity. Not only is this magic less person exposed to dangerous quantities of magic energy, there’s also a high chance of them being under stress and pressure due to not only being thrown into a new environment but also the amount of work assigned to them, seems familiar?

If a magic less person such as them has an immense build up of negative energy while simultaneously being exposed to large amounts of magical energy. A blot doesn’t seem too far fetched. Going back to my point earlier, blot starts from the gems, but as we’ve also stated, a magic less person doesn't have a gem. So the question now is, Where will the blot form? My answer, Inside the Body.

Remember Ashengrotto’s UM? It required him to find an extension or balance of some sort, those magicless gems are basically like that, they’re an extension or balance of the magic user. But since magic less people don’t have that leisure then the blot might as well form from the source. What Source? Their emotion from within.

Cliche I know but think about it, emotion comes from within, aka Inside their body in some way, “But Rras why is it much more dangerous than-” I’ll tell you why, It breaks the natural order of things, It’s out of the norm. The only reason it happened was because factors coincidentally fell into place at the worst possible time. To be fair…

… A relapse doesn’t seem too far fetched either…

-🌒

[dai-ou-sama]

Wrote a thing for AlbetherWeek2021!! Has themes of Day 1 and 3 (warmth and dreams), but it’s mostly just Albedo detailing how (and how much) he loves Aether.

—Please they‘re the epitome of a comfort ship I MEAN, WHICH OTHER SHIP HAS A STRING OF REPRESENTATIVE EMOJIS LIKE THIS: ☀️💫✨

Read on AO3 or down below!

Albedo woke to the sight of Aether curled against his chest, what, he decided, must have been his favourite sight in the world.

He was breathing in soft, gentle puffs, his shoulders rising and falling feather-like, nearly imperceptible. The sun had just barely risen. Its rays filtered through the curtains and set the room aglow with a soft golden light.

A draft of wind rustled past the curtains, parted them, stirred the dust in the air and illuminated them so they resembled snowflakes falling from the sky of their ceiling. Stray petals, all in different shades of yellow, drifted from the bundle of flowers hanging by their window onto their bed. They landed around Aether’s sleeping figure. Albedo laughed quietly to himself. It looked like a scene straight out of a fairytale.

For a while, he simply watched. Being in a sleep-tinged daze did not keep him from marveling at the sight of Aether; at his presence. It didn’t matter that this was a scene he woke to everyday. It hadn’t yet failed to steal his breath away and fill his heart with so much pure, unadulterated joy, that he thought it might burst.

Albedo watched him breathe; counted the seconds between each inhale and exhale. He mapped out the freckled constellations dusted over his cheeks and nose. Memorised them. He started combing through his hair, gingerly smoothing out the long locks with his fingers so Aether wouldn’t stir. He wondered at the way mornings casted Aether’s hair in light. Transformed them into strands of liquid gold solidified.

When all the knots in his hair were untangled, and all the stars across his face were found, he settled back into watching Aether breathe once more. It was a simple routine he repeated daily; one he fell more and more in love with with each passing day.

He reveled in the way warmth bloomed where their skin met skin. The way he could feel the soft thumps of Aether’s heart against his own even through the layers of fabric that lay between them. Thump, thump, thump. A steady, constant beat of life, heart to heart, that made him feel, more than anything, alive and corporeal and human.

There had been a time when Albedo had believed that he was an outsider living in a realm that he didn’t belong to. He was a hoax, an imposter, playing at human life in a masquerade.

He had doubted the very basis of his existence. Had questioned if his death would have amounted to anything more than an insignificant end to an artificial life. Like a porcelain doll falling to the ground, shattering out of existence.

From the faded memories of his youth, the written words of his old master had haunted him: Show me the true meaning of life and this world. Her final task to him before she had vanished into thin air.

Albedo hadn’t had an answer then. All he’d known were the laws of alchemy, the art of creation. Earth was the cumulative memory of time and being; soil was the origin of alchemy, the basis of all life; and chalk was the substance from which primal life was molded. There, written in words of fact. Simple, scientific. This he had understood. But what true meaning could have possibly been referring to had been lost on him.

No, he hadn’t had an answer. Not even then, when he would have given everything to see his master once more. When he’d been standing in the suddenly-too-empty halls of his old home, and wondering what the gnawing sense of absence inside him was. When he’d sat at the dining table that used to feed two people and eaten a dinner he hadn’t realised had long turned cold.

His master’s disappearance severed the only tether he’d had to the human world. The concept of meaning given to life and earthly existence became entirely foreign to him. He had found it laughably ironic that his talents lay in fabricating life.

Suddenly, it had felt like he was living in the margins of life. He was barred behind an invisible line, separated from everyone else around him. The depth of loss that had affected him had surprised him. He wondered if his master had somehow carved a part of him out and taken it with her when she’d left. Or perhaps, that that had been an entirely false hypothesis, and it was simply that he’d always been hollow. An empty shell, a facade of life — now simply made aware of it.

The more time passed, the more Albedo had been inclined to believe in the latter.

At least, meeting Alice and Klee in Mondstadt had helped quieten the clamouring in his head. Living with them was chaotic. It was a flurry of action and noise and laughter and warmth – so completely different from the efficient, systematic way he had lived with his master. Yet, somehow, their presence had still managed to feel familiar.

Their presence kept his anxiety at bay. Or at least, it kept his mind off of it. Klee’s hopeless antics and explosions staved him off from falling too far into a pit of wondering, wondering, wondering what having no answer suggested. No answer. No particular purpose or hope harboured in his being. What did that make of him?

It was a question that clung to him like a shadow that matched his every step and turn. Black matter, uncontrollable, that widened and stretched and grew at the back of his mind, eating away at more and more of him until it threatened to swallow him whole.

Life became a blur of passing interests before he had even realised it. A process of finding new creations and lifeforms that piqued his interest, before getting bored and moving on to find another. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

And then came word of the Honorary Knight. The rumoured traveler who didn’t seem to have come from Mondstadt — or anywhere in Teyvat for that matter. Who had been bestowed his title from the Knights of Favonius because of his contributions to the crisis with Stormterror. Whose name continued to be whispered around town because he, despite his grand title, continued to help with the average Mondstadtian’s most mundane of worries.

‘Aether’, they called him.

Aether. Albedo knew that word, he’d seen it in his alchemical texts before. The fifth element of alchemy; the purest form of air that the gods breathed. The personification of the upper sky, and the primordial god of light.

The boy who wore strange clothes and did kind things.

Albedo had been intrigued. Questions began wandering through his mind before he’d even become fully aware of them.

Where did this stranger come from? How did he control the elements? Why was he helping all those people? Wasn’t he tired? What did he look like? Was his hair as golden as the rumours said they were? Were his smiles truly as sweet as honey? Who was this mysterious person he was looking for?

...Is he like me?

And, somehow, just as his curiosity had reached its peak, they’d ended up meeting in his camp in Dragonspine. The traveler himself had come to find him.

Even now, Albedo still wasn’t sure if it had been this fact that had made his stomach flip in a peculiar way he hadn’t ever experienced before, or if it had simply been the sight of him.

The rumours had been true. Of his hair. His sunshine smiles.

More than that. How had the rumours managed to neglect how long his eyelashes were? Or how his skin resembled warmed marble? His lips to the soft curve of a waning moon?

And before Albedo had even had the chance to try and stop himself, he’d already thrown out a wild request for Aether to assist him with his experiments regarding the peculiar seed from another world. It had been made up on the spot and haphazardly hidden behind the excuse of ‘research’. Albedo still hardly believed that Aether had agreed.

In retrospect, Albedo often reflected on that moment. The same conclusion was always reached: he must have simply lost his mind in that moment. He was just glad that Aether never noticed a thing.

They spent the following weeks together, conducting experiments that confirmed Aether’s origins from a world beyond this one; that tested which laws of the Teyvat applied to him and which didn’t. Albedo’s initial questions about Aether were answered one by one. He easily formed more at a speed that far outpaced his answers. Questioning was, after all, in his nature as a scientist.

Questions like: What does he like to eat? Does he get cold easily? What would make him laugh? If I brought him flowers, would he smile? Is he as happy as I am when we are together?

Utterly scientific.

It had been weeks into their friendship by the time Albedo had noticed just how comfortable he felt around Aether. He was surprised by how often smiles broke onto his face, how at peace he felt. The worries that seemed to have plagued his mind permanently had been dimmed down, momentarily muted, and in their place was the thought of Aether.

They had found out early on that Aether was immune to poison and corruption. Evil did not affect his soul. He had the ability to purify corrupted objects with his touch. Albedo often wondered if that magic applied to him too.

But then, of course, that was impossible. Because, as much as Albedo wanted to believe in magic, he knew that problems did not go away by themselves, unaddressed. Problems demanded responsive action. This was so in experiments, and just as much in himself.

And so, one night in Dragonspine, when the snowstorm had been especially harsh, and the biting cold of winter seemed to seep deeper into him than usual, he’d confessed to Aether, in a fleeting whisper, all the thoughts and fears that clamoured in his head.

About the fact that he wasn’t, and wouldn’t ever be, truly human; that there was nobody else in this world quite like him; that it created an inexplicably jarring sense of isolation that he didn’t think anyone would ever understand. He confessed that he could not see purpose in his own existence.

He knew everything about the creation of life, but nothing about life itself.

His words had been uttered so quietly they had nearly been lost to the howling winds outside their tent. One could have pretended they were simply sounds of the storm imagined into words. The dwindling fire light between them could have been the only thing that heard him at all.

It was the first time Albedo had ever tried to vocalise the thoughts he rarely even let himself think. To speak into existence his emotions was to concretise them, and that had always been something he had instinctively turned away from.

That night, Albedo witnessed Aether’s smile drop from his face completely. For the first time since their meeting, he watched all familiar forms of joy and ease fade away from his expression and he immediately regretted ever saying a word because he could hardly bear with the fact that he was the reason why Aether looked like that.

A suffocating silence had settled over them like a blanket of snow. A sound too loud might have begun an avalanche. And then, like a shotgun, Aether had asked, “Do you love me?” His eyes had not left Albedo’s; his words had been steady. Albedo had failed to notice these things.

His breath escaped him in a heavy rush. Love? The question stumped him. The same way his master’s question had. What was the real meaning of life and this world? And suddenly, the same feelings of loss and confusion began welling up inside him again, amplified tenfold. A black hole ripped open beneath his feet, dragging him in, threatening to drown him.

His own silence crushed him. He fumbled for an answer, choked on his words. Looked away.

“...I don’t know,” he’d said. He had found himself incapable of explaining that he did not understand what being in love meant either.

Silence. It had been short, no longer than a few seconds, but Albedo had never experienced silence quite as loud. The world had begun caving in. He had been crumbling at his feet.

But Aether had not faltered. He’d gotten up and walked over to Albedo. He’d taken his face into his hands. His palms had been so, so warm against Albedo’s cheeks. So solid. “Then answer this instead: does your heart race when you see me?”

It was strange. Aether’s voice had been so quiet, so calm, yet it had managed to drown out the storms from the outside. He became an anchor. The world around them seemed to fall away. Suddenly, they were at the centre of the universe.

Albedo swallowed. Then nodded.

“Do you feel warm when I touch you?” Another nod.

“Do you fall asleep with thoughts of me? Wake from dreams about me?” And yet another nod.

“Good. Then you’re just like me,” Aether said. “Because when I see you, my heart races. When I’m by your side, I’m warm. I’m always thinking about you, and when I can think no longer, you visit me in my dreams.”

Aether’s voice had become fiercer and fiercer with every word he had spoken. There had been no joy reflected in his eyes in that moment, but there had been fire. A blazing flame that chased away – burned away – the shadows clinging onto Albedo.

“If you don’t know if you love me, that’s fine. You just need to know that I love you.” And then Aether had taken his hands and placed them over their hearts. One hand against each of their own. Albedo had felt two beats, identical, pound beneath his palms. “There, you see. Your heart is beating just the same as mine. Doesn’t that make you human enough?”

That was the night Albedo had found his answer to his master’s question. What was the true meaning of life and this world?

He hypothesised that the universal answer might have been love. The ability to love; the gift of being loved. But his personal truth could have only been one person.

That night had been years ago now. It nearly seemed like memories from another lifetime. Now, Albedo laughed when he thought about that night, because his present worries were so vastly different.

His present, most-pressing concern involved the fact that they had a list of a dozen-some chores that they needed to complete by the end of today, and Aether was still deeply asleep. And that was beside the fact that Albedo still had not figured out what flowers they were going to be using to decorate their home in preparation for this year's Windblume.

He’d decided that they would definitely be yellow flowers months ago, but he hadn’t settled on which ones he liked best. Marigolds, daffodils, dahlias, freesias, buttercups, primroses – each of them were a sentiment of his affection. Each unique in the type of love he felt for Aether.

There were so many things he needed to do…

Albedo watched Aether’s nose twitch. He felt him shift against his chest, then nuzzle closer to his neck.

…Later, Albedo decided.

Later, he would wake Aether up with a gentle flick against his nose so he could watch the way it scrunched in annoyance. Later, he would nag at him to get up so that they could go about finishing the chores they had listed out the day before. Later, he would indulge him with kisses all across his face when he began to complain.

Later, later, later. There were so many moments of the future waiting for them. An eternity’s worth, Albedo was sure. After all, they were beings that transcended time. Kreideprinz, the prince of chalk, birthed from soil, and the Honorary Knight, the boy made of sunlight and stars. It wouldn’t hurt to lay in bed for another hour longer.

[trash0receptacle]

Headcannon

Before that however: I’m sorry for not being active lately I’ve been very, stressed, busy, and tired. Since school started back my mood definitely declined a shit ton. With that being said writing is a way of coping for me so this is really just gonna be what I need today. If it helps you then that’s wonderful too.

Tw: Deppresion, Anxiety, and Anorexia

Paring: Lucifer x f/Mc

Also the way I right Luke is supposed to be taken platonically.

(Mc’s Pov)

Life had been shitty lately a lot more shitty than usual. I suppose it started when I heard some of the other succubi talking about me in on the way to class.

“She’s so lucky!”

“I know why does that bitch get to live with the brothers?”

“What do they even see in her?”

Sure I shouldn’t have taken the comments so personally but hell I take everything personally. So thats when my self doubt started forming roots in my mind again.

Before devildom I already had a lot of unresolved trauma and pain but the brothers really helped me. They were there for me when I needed them and made me feel wanted however after Belphie escaped the attic things went downhill for me mentally. The situation caused me a massive relapse and I began my destructive habits again. It went unnoticed for the most part mainly because they didn’t know the full scale of my past. All they knew is that I struggled and was medicated but nothing else. Perhaps Barbatos knew but he never said anything and I don’t believe he truly knew what went on inside my head either.

Now in the present moment I am contemplating what the succubi were saying about me. They’re right, “what did they see in me?” Surely it wasn’t my looks. I’m decently smart but I have no work ethic. The only thing I know I’m good at is being kind yet I’m a bitch half the time. So that’s when it came back to my body. The thing I’ve always hated about myself because I was never skinny enough, tall enough, pretty enough, curvy enough. I was never enough for someone to care about me.

I started skipping meals here and there. I still ate 2 out of three meals but I figured losing weight couldn’t hurt but then before I knew it I was lucky to even eat once a day. I was always good at making myself lose weight but not so drastically that you could tell I starved myself. For the most part I seemed healthy. However since I was going unchecked it kept getting worse. First my curves disappeared, then it was my hips sticking out, after that my cheeks began to sink, and finally my hair began coming out when I brushed it. I knew what I’d done but I couldn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want to hurt them and in the past asking for help only got me ridiculed or hurt.

“No one wants to here about your problems mc it makes us sad.”

“You wonder why I don’t like you!”

“You always beg for compliments!”

“Your fat anyway.”

Those words just kept circulating inside my mind and wouldn’t stop. I wanted to get better I really did but it was hard to force myself to eat. However I couldn’t rely on anyone else for fear of hurting them or them hurting me so I stayed silent. That was until my ddd pinged and I received a text from Lucifer.

Lucifer: Please come to my study mc.

Mc: Uh sure... is everything alright?

No response.

This is unlike Lucifer whats wrong? Is he mad at me? I guess I shouldn’t keep him waiting otherwise he will get mad. I got up and walked to his study inside the library. On the way I noticed the house of Lamenation was eerily quiet. There was no noise besides the sound of my feet walking through the hallways. When I arrived at the door to the study I was surprised to not only see Lucifer but everyone else?

Simeon resembled a worried parent, Luke seemed confused and angry, Diavolo was most serious I’d ever seen him, Barbatos stared at me with what I assume was pity, Solomon looked at me like I was a ghost. However the brothers appeared in worst shape. Mammon seemed on the verge of crying, Levi had guilt written over his face, Satan like Luke was angry angry, Amso was for once frowning, and Belphie and Beel looked disappointed. However I couldn’t read Lucifer’s expression but I could tell something was definitely off.

“Uh hey guys... what’s wrong you look like someone died or something?” I tried to laugh off the uneasy mood in the room but it was to no avail.

“Mc if you could sit down we have some things we must discuss with you.” Lucifer spoke solemnly

They had to have figured it out. Of course I knew this would come out eventually but it still felt like a stab to the heart none the less. I sat down not even listening to the others words. All my energy was focused into not breaking down in front of them but I’d stayed “strong” for too long and tears began to silently fall down my face. The talking stopped and I felt them all look at me which just made the tears fall harder. I felt my wall crumbling down as the final straw on the camels back was placed. I just cried for what felt like hours. Once I began to calm down I finally spoke in between sobs and breaths

“I-.... I’m so-...sorry.”

The room became silent once more. No of them knew how to respond to the broken girl infront of them

“I just didn’t want to burden you guys.... you have your own problems and don’t need to put up with mine” “nor would you want to” I mumbled the last part but I didn’t go unheard.

Luke got up and ran over to me enveloping me in a hug. He just stood there hugging me as if he didn’t I would fade away. I just hugged him back feeling slightly better by the angel’s hug.

Simeon was the first to speak

“Mc we aren’t angry at you. I think I speak for everyone when I say we are worried.”

A silent agreement was exchanged throughout the room.

Diavolo spoke next

“While Barbatos wouldn’t divulge all of what he knew for the sake of your privacy he warned me that you needed an intervention.”

I chuckled halfheartedly knowing my hypothesis was indeed correct.

“Well I figured it would come to this eventually.”

*time skip*

“Can I go back to my room now?” I whisper

I wasn’t really asking rather I just said it and got up to leave. The others stayed still likely digesting the information I’d given them. I felt ashamed and exposed. I hated seeing how much my words affected them and I really needed to be alone at the moment. Eventually I made it to my room. Walking in I closed the door and just cried.

(Lucifer’s Pov)

No one bothered to utter a word after Mc left and no one went after her either. Eventually my brothers excused themselves to go where, I’m not sure. I couldn’t tell if it was minutes or hours that passed but Solomon, Simeon, and Luke left saying they should head back to purgatory hall. Which left Barbatos, Diavolo, and I alone in the study. For the first time since I’d known the prince I couldn’t tell what was going through his head. Barbatos eventually composed himself however and turned to me.

“I believe My lord and I should make our way back to the palace..”

I just nodded in agreement as the pair left me alone with my own thoughts. I’d never seen that side of Mc before. Of course I knew somewhat of Mc’s history either from her file or her own account but clearly things had been left out.

I eventually got up and left to go to my room knowing I wouldn’t be able to focus on my work even if I wanted to. On the way there I passed by Mc’s room and noticed the light was on. I debated knocking or leaving her alone when a voice called out.

“If your gonna stand at my door like a creep you might as well come in.”

And so I did.

“Hey Lucifer...”

“How did you know it was me?”

“Foot steps. I can tell who’s in the hallway by how they walk.”

“I see then.”

The room’s atmosphere felt awkward as neither one of us bother or start conversation. So I simply sat down on the floor across from Mc, who had her head in her knees. (The fetal position) Eventually she brought her head up to wipe tears from her eyes and said with a broken laugh.

“I’m sorry you had to seem me like this. I look pathetic right now..”

“Mc why do you say these things about yourself?”

“Why not it’s how I view my self Lucifer. I’ve heard it from your mouth before”

“I’m just a mere human.”

I cringed at the memory knowing she were right of course.

“Mc I-“

“You don’t need to apologize or explain I understand I pissed you off then. It was just an example”

Wanting to change the topic of discussion I asked her a question.

“Why didn’t you come to any of us?”

“Denial...”

“Denial of what?”

“That it got out of control.”

“Is that all?”

“Not exactly...”

“Would you care to elaborate?”

“I- just please don’t get angry...”

I silently nodded my head as a watched Mc loosen up a bit.

“I think it might be my lack of trust towards really anyone.”

Mc started looking into space as she continued.

“I’m terrified of needing people or letting people help me. Part of it is when I have in the past I ended up hurt and alone. So I stopped I started being the one to help others.... then I needed help and I was cast out like a piece of trash. According to them I was selfish for needing affirmation and love. So that was when I decided I didn’t need that again.”

I sat silently contemplating her words.

“I’m truly sorry mc.”

“I would say it’s fine but it’s not. It hurts like hell but that’s life isn’t it? You learn to love and trust then you get your heart stomped out like a burning ember. The people you love leave you or die and you can’t do shit about it.”

“Wait what do you mean by die?”

“You know this sounds awful but you should be thankful Lilith didn’t suffer... sure it hurts that she’s gone but you are able to remember her before then since her “death” was quick. Painless.”

“I’ve had to watch the people who were my Lilith for lack of better terms die and suffer for months or years. I watched their bodies grow weak and feeble. However I was a child then and couldn’t do anything.”

I didn’t know how to respond so we sat in silence until

“Why’d you tell me this Mc?”

“Honestly I don’t know. Likely it’s because my body is physically exhausted and my filter was turned off.”

I noticed the tiredness Mc was trying to hide for the first time.

“You should sleep mc.”

“That’s ironic coming from you Lucifer.”

“I’m being serious mc.”

“What are you going to do? Mak-“

She didn��t get to finish her thought as I picked her up and carried her to my room. I knew she shouldn’t be left alone and I wanted to make sure she would be alright.

We arrived at my room and I deposited her on my bed. I sat in on of the chairs by the fire figuring she’d want the bed.

“Ok but why is your bed more comfortable than mine? Like sis you don’t sleep wtf!”

I just sighed knowing she was probably out of it but she was kinda of adorable when pouty.

Eventually she quieted down and her breathing became slower.

Mc’s POV:

“Mc you need to wake up”

“Five more minutes”

“Mc wake up!”

I felt the covers being ripped off. A dick move really.

“Ahh I’m up I’m up asshole!”

Wait why is Lucifer looking down at me? Why am I in his room? Shit I cussed him out. Well death never seemed that terrible

“Well if you’re awake now you need to come downstairs to eat breakfast. No, you can not object to this either.”

With that he left probably to go make sure the house isn’t on fire. I walked over to his bathroom and splashed water in my face to wake me up and noticed how emaciated I appeared.

Where my cheeks always so pronounced? Or when did my eyes start looking glassy and dark? I brushed it off not wanting to delve deeper into my insecurities. So I made my way to the dinning room. When I got there all conversation stopped and 7 pairs of eyes shot in my direction. I awkwardly made my way to the table and sat down.

I tried eating breakfast but it’s always been something I’ve never been able to stomach. I honestly never feel hungry when I wake up and it’s not like devildom food is exactly tasty. I was about to get up to leave when

“Mc you need to eat more.”

“Lucifer is right mc.”

“Ok...”

I sat back down and tried to eat what was on my plate but couldn’t so I sat there looking at it. I looked over to mammon’s plate and noticed how much food his had compared to mine and figured at least one of them knew it was a process to get me to eat again.

“I really can’t eat anymore otherwise I might be sick.” With no objections I got up and took my plate to the kitchen.

As I was washing it in the sink slowly some of the brothers came in aswell. First Asmo offered to take me shopping but I didn’t feel up to it. Then Satan asked if I wanted to go to the library again I didn’t exactly want people to see me like this so I declined. So levi offered we could play video games or something and I took him up on his offer.

He made sure I ate lunch that day which I honestly forget about sometimes. By the end of the day the other brothers excluding Amso, Satan, and Lucifer were all piled in Levi’s room.

Belphie was passed out in the bathtub of all places. Mammon was trying to impress me with his video game skills and Beel was munching on snacks behind us. It felt normal.

Eventually I got tired of it and decided to have some alone time. I was on my bed watching tik toks. (But fr tho I do have a problem with tik tok) Laughing at some etc when a knock was at my door.

“Come in”

I said this without looking up figuring it was beel looking for snacks or even Satan wanting to come in here and read. When I didn’t hear anything I looked back up from my phone surprised to see Lucifer standing there.

“Is something wrong?”

“No. I just heard laughing and was wondering is you were alright.”

“Oh yeah sorry about that I’m just watching stuff in my phone.”

“Would you mind if I joined you?” He smirked

Damn not that smirk. Stop blushing Mc you got this. It’s just Lucifer.

“Uh... sure...”

Damn that wasn’t smooth.

End. (Unless I am asked to make a part two)

So I’ve been working on this for a while because I’ve wanted to make something actually decent. I wanted to do a happy ending and remind you guys that you’re amazing. And no matter who you are you’re loved and remember that.

- Caroline