#He has a very specific dialect of speaking so is it from knowing a different type of language?? | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

jazeswhbhaven · 10 days ago

Text

Agares Origin Story Event: Hidden Lore | React/Summary Spoilers

Okay so it took me a few days on this because I like to stack up, considering the chapters for each day is rather short this time around on top of there not being two parts in the beginning as usual. I think because Agares is not a major part of the main story and more of a "here's your rootin' tootin' orange lovin' man and his backstory finally!" kinda thing.

So far, there's....alot to digest for his past because let me start with my original theories from when we first met him in the previous Niflheim event:

🍊He was the OG ruler of Niflheim but gone rogue due to an angel attack that wiped out his subjects 🍊His eye was damaged during that battle 🍊He and Vassago were the only ones left and their dynamic is based on that traumatic experience 🍊He is a part of the 72 and so is Vassago, but their loyalty will never belong to Belphegor due to their past and Agares' royal lineage

So it turns out that I was sorta correct in my theories, but there was a lot of things I was off about upon starting this event including the strange reveal of "him being an illegitimate child of an angel". But we'll get more into that!

Grab ya snacks and tissues, get comfy, it's time to go over the first 5 days of the event!

So it turns out that Beleth, Gusion, and Bathin are doing some cleaning duties around the palace of Niflheim. Normally, it appears that Belphie wouldn't really give a shit about any of that, but here lately Agares and Vassago have been complaining about the trash surrounding the area.

It was agreed between Agares and Belphie that Agares would be recognized as the ruler of the castle, but Belphie of the land itself. Fair, right?

considering most of the fucking country is covered in trash and not the castle.

"Lawd" pffttttttttttttttttttttttttt

I say that a lot, so it makes me laugh. I'm lovin' the speech patterns and dialects chosen for this specific country of Hell as I feel like I'm right at home.

(Quick yap about that: I know when y'all think of 'country' southern speak you think of maybe "King of the Hill" or hick, deep woods "YEAP BILLY BO O'RE YONDER" stuff but not everyone speaks like that depending on where you're at. Texas (gawd awful as it is) has a pretty good variety of Southern dialects due to all the different people that move there. Georgia, specifically "Atlanta" has a very specific dialect too. And don't get me started on anyone trying to understand Creole, normally heard in Lousianna (just listen to Gambit from X-men). This is why you see Belphie call MC/US "Sugar" a lot as this in a general term not really used to show interest or "doting" on you. Any nice southern belle is bond to call ya "sweetheart" "hun" "honey" or even "baby" just because or an older man saying "darlin'" or "ma'am" "little lady" depending on where you go. A lot of people tend to like it, others either feel it's too personal or get offended when it's used because they think they're being hit on. Trust, you'd rather hear that than "bless your heart" because have fun guessing if they actually sympathize with you, or if they're insulting you 💀)

also peep that I call Beel and Belphie "boo" this is usually a term of endearment and can also be used between close friends!

But enough about that. Lol B A C K to the story

So it's always funny to me that devils gossip just like humans do and just as they described them standing around smoking and just talking about Agares randomly has me being like do they do this often? like...really? What's funnier is Beleth's nosey ass was trying to see what they were talking about, Bathin joined in, and Gusion even though pretending he didn't wanna...did it too lol

But we get the scoop on Agares' eye the one that was sliced and diced and how the land was almost sold off to the angels. Apparently this random guard devil's grandaddy from like 4 family lines ago saw it with his own eyes (i'm starting to wonder how considering what we're about to find out...)

So we find out that Agares' left eye (when he's facing us on his right) is the mark of angel, a single silver feather. This marked him as an illegitimate son of an angel, his mother being a devil and living in the palace before she passed. The rumor was that she had an affair, and thus Agares was born. Even Agares had a deep feeling that this was all a ploy by his political enemies that didn't want him to rise to power that is until the mark appeared one night just out of nowhere.

Oh no! Poor bby :(

so since the rumor started he's been having to hide his eye, ashamed that he was the last to know, and his stepmother isn't on his side at all, refusing to even acknowledge or defend him in anyway (because she probably hates him let's be foreal).

Leave him alone????? LIKE *punches air* PROTECT HIMMMMMMM

Everyone ganged up on him, all of them being grown adults and I wanted so badly to fight for him. Even if he IS mixed with angel, the other half of him is STILL devil and he shouldn't be treated like he was.

In particular there was a devil that said "we had our doubts" when we learned in the main story that devils don't doubt each other at all. This leads me to believe that since this is very early Hell, the devils at this time had a different set of practices and rules for themselves, meaning that doubt was not off the table.

A damn shame too, because even his evil bitch of a stepmom told him that only his dead mama would know if he was truly the rightful heir. Also we learned something else that seemed to throw a loop....she...gave birth? (I'm going to assume this meant she got her baby from Lilith and they just called it a "birth" just for face) Also, his dad was conveniently just not there for whatever damn reason so there's that.

So young Agares was thrown to the streets, covered in filth and trash and the background pretty much resembles a typical slum neighborhood. The citizens treated him like filth, the CHILDREN were throwing stones at him. Like...THIS ENTIRE THING HAD ME SCREAMING FOR HIM.

Now this scene right here had me wanting to...I'll refrain from saying it but yeah I was not happy with those kids doing that to him which it was indeed on fucking purpose!

Agares was starving at this point, begging for food, something he never thought he'd do and barely having strength to move or think. Plagued with thoughts about his true parent, why his father wasn't coming to save him, couldn't even cry because it would make him even more hungry. Hell, even finding rotting food was scarce in the part of town that he was in.

These random kids found an orange, and while mocking him gave it to him. He accepted it, thanking them and even offering to repay the "kindness". Only to truly be fooled. The orange was poisoned, causing Agares to puke and pass out on the ground as the children ran away in disgust.

But he's saved by none other than Vassago! He wakes up in an abandoned temple, where Vassago introduces himself. He's the leader of what I'm calling a "cult" because that is what this looks and sounds like honestly, that had been waiting for his arrival. All of the devils have the same horn to the side with jewelry. All of them. I will say that they weren't born that way like Agares was, but perhaps cut off their other horn(s) to match.

We have a small pit stop in the flashback, Gusion wondering why he's just now learning everything about this which to Beleth reminds him that he works late nights so never has time to study about the history of the land. (lol gotta put in those hourssss) They also talk about how Agares wouldn't appreciate his business being told like that and he would strike down anyone he hears gossiping

i mean i would too, like what y'all talkin' about me for? lmao

Also the difference between Beleth calling Agares' temper a "nasty attitude" vs what Gusion considers a nightmare is hilarious to me. It's probably because I mean Beleth used to be in Heaven...there's three HUGE manifestations of a nightmare of a temper living up there and he's probably had to deal with it more than once.

though Beleth mentions the reason is becaue he's always near Belphie, so I'm like yeah that attitude of his because he doesn't feel like doing shit is horrific lmao. Agares is mild.

Btw the dynamic between these three, including Bathin is always so wholesome. They seem to care about one another a bunch especially their workloads, rest, and just wellbeing. Reminds me of those coworkers who are always looking out for you instead of trying to one-up you by being a faux manager looking for a reason to snitch on whatever you're doing.

So we're back to the story, Vassago further explaining himself and we get a peek into what Agares thinks of them.

What I found interesting is that he mentions that he didn't suspect them of being devils based on how they looked but they definitely were angels. He even half expected that angels would be coming to rescue him since he's half angel right? Well...there's a thing about that. They don't obviously and Agares gave up that hope just like his hope that his own father would come and save him.

Vassago goes to explain that the temple is the only thing not covered in trash, but everything else around them is, and only Agares can clean it up. He mentions that Agares is the true King that he and his clan have been waiting for. His clan specifically exists to offer sacred rites for the rulers of the land, but after the incident with Agares being kicked out, they waited silently at the temple for the perfect moment to rise to see him once more.

yup this is a dang cult lol meaning they'd DIE for him, live for him, no matter what it is. giving me Douma from demon slayer vibes or Geto from JJK.

So after some thought, Agares accepted them, had Vassago and his clan be his ears and eyes as they worked to clean up the land.

Now here, I've been trying to wrap my head around it myself on what was trying to be illustrated by seeing him in his "matured" state.

"It was the face of someone who had lived consumed by rage, humiliated and betrayed. A face that now looked nothing like the beautiful young prince everyone once admired."

They mention that this wasn't a face simply shed from boyhood or age or growth. Agares himself doesn't even recognize his own face anymore.

How I interpreted this is, yes time has passed and Agares has gotten older, but that youthful, bright and beautiful face that once had hearts flutter and gain respect and admiration from other devils in the royal family was completely gone. The hopeful, caring Agares that was raised to be a King caring for his people had vanished. It was now replaced with this shell of a man, beaten and bruised and filled with distrust and angst. Was this truly his face? Did he even know what he truly looked like? Or was this another trick of the cruel life he was dealt in his time?

But Vassago comes in just in time to reassure him, and Agares shows that still softer side of himself, grateful for all that he and his clan has done for him this far.

Sweet king. Live and breathe on.

AND THEN we get smacked in the face with another twist around.

Agares ain't no divaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (JOKING PLEASE DON'T SIDE EYE ME)

That's right folks, he's not half angel AT ALL. It was a scheme planned between the devils and angels they were scheming with against Agares....JUST how he suspected in the beginning. Vassago had his point, that this power would had shown at birth.

Now I have a counter argument to that logic, that perhaps since there is no angel/devil hybrids as of yet in that timeframe, that no one can truly know when his or hers powers would show. Sometimes things take time. Though, usually yes...in this case it would have shown up very early and Agares would be a powerhouse. At the same time, we really didn't know what rank of angel his mother interacted with, could have easily been a lower level angel such as Beleth, Leamas(Samael), Jophiel where the powers are so low it probably wouldn't be significant enough to be considered a power. Now if he were part cherubim, that may be more immediate of showing up!

No possible way for him to be part of any higher rank, considering the circumstances.

But knowing Vassgo's background of being over sacred rites, and how much older he is than Agares so knowing more things just from knowledge/experience alone, it is a high possibility that someone just simply put a curse on Agares (similar to how MC has a cursed angel mark on them from Gabriel)

Here we get a cameo back to Mammon's origin story

*waves at Mammon's daddy* heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ;)

we also get to see a nice remember of Mammon's fine ass longer hair and his back....mmmm (had him locked in that prison for so long too like how dare...)

The purpose of mentioning Mammon's lore was to have Agares be reminded that angels do whatever the fuck they want essentially. Back then they didn't even bother to hide their unhinged behavior, legit playing in your face kind of way.

IN the end though, this led to Mammon's rise to being a King, a powerful angel being locked away and peace being restored to the land. This story motivates Agares to do the same thing, crawling from the depths of the trash of Niflheim and to rise as it's rightful heir to the throne.

Now, uh he went a bit overboard thinking he was one of the chosen 7 kings, (he didn't know so it's alright) Vassago also mentions that the royals have pretty much fucked the country to all depths of fucked. Law is pretty much nonexistent, money drained, and the devils had become so lazy that they don't want to work, making money by allowing other countries to dump their trash there basically Niflheim is one big damn landfill for hell.

Let me just say that I think this is hilarious that out of all supernatural creatures, demons would have one use items and trash in the first place. But I mean in most forms of media I do see that Hell does function very similar to Earth if not a damn 1:1 mirror. And in WHB's universe Mammon and some of the nobles have always reminded MC that some way or another "Hell did it first" and that it was shown to Earth on how to make their living situations better because that's how they did it.

Neat.

who the fuck invented taxes and showed someone here then like take property taxes away...i know somebody in Tartaros did it.../joking

Now we've reached the part of the story where it gets pretty gorey and fucked up. They explain pretty much everything in detail for this...so if you didn't read it for the event, brace yourself!

Let's start y'all off with a smile from this sweet man. Sigh....oh how I wish that smile could stay on your beautiful face for just a while longer because this next thing is about to become fucking depressing.

The first day out in months, Agares decided to go clean up the trash around the land on his own for the day, determined and motivated. Only to come back...seeing that his beloved new family and loved ones have been crushed. Vassago's clan was completely wiped out.

What happened is that assassin's were sent to get rid of them and Agares in one swoop. The clan knew of this attempt, creating a fake Agares to trick said assassins, taking the hit. As I said before...they were ready to sacrifice themselves FOR him to protect him.

But this...awakened something in Agares.

Before that though I will share what he saw:

"Beneath the fallen structure, scattered like discarded debris amongst the dead, were the bodies of Vassago's clan. Their clothes were torn, and their faces were so disfigured they could no longer be recognized."

He found Vassago thankfully amongst the wreckage, the wisps of smoke that surrounded him being the main thing that led Agares to his location.

After speaking with Vassago about the demise of his clan and learning that those who truly loved him and looked out for him had passed on while those who raised him casted him out....

Yeah...when I said awakened....I meant it. A well fucking deserved crash out.

He is pretty much gone to the point of no return, the Agares that we see now that's nothing but a hollow ball of cruelty and anger. He had been pushed so far the monster brewing inside him was released. Any forms of Agares we've seen prior to this point were now lost in this deep rage.

Oh there's a storm comin' alright....y'all really in for it.

Literally me pretending to not see him comin' if I was asked to guard the gate. Go on right through sir, I ain't gonna stop ya.

That concludes the first half of Agares' origin story, y'all! So far, it's been fucking angsty, and just as we've seen in previous event stories, a bunch of the nobles have been through some kind of traumatic event even as children (Andrealphus being the most memorable so far) and damn like the writers for this stuff are on the same level as me when I start getting into my "lets write the most traumatic ass back story for character growth and have them wonder if I truly love my OCs or not"

So there's three days left as of now for the event, and I'm just wondering how it's all gonna climax or what's going to happen in the end. There are things we know now that we didn't before

🍊Agares is not half angel 🍊Vassago is older than him, and is a leader of a clan(cult) 🍊Agares' dad has fucked off somewhere and left him with an evil stepmother 🍊The angels learn from mistakes, meaning they get more crafty each time the devils find ways to stop them from scheming 🍊Agares did have a soft side to him, it's buried in there beneath all of the trauma. Though it's probably going to be damn near impossible to get that out from him again

I know I don't see too many folks talking much about this event, probably due to being more interested in Asmo's card, or just the "eh" mood of not really being into Niflheim's lore as much as the other nations in Hell. Well either way, I'm over here still trying to do a mental timeline for when all this shit happened in the first place. Lol.

Anyways, thank y'all for sitting through another event react! Stay tuned for the second part here in the next few days.

#whb #what in hell is bad #whb niflheim #whb event #whb spoilers #whb agares

99 notes · View notes

conazo · 1 year ago

Text

Valentino writing tips: language

I’m not an expert by any means, but I thought I might provide some insight into how I, personally, handle the nasty moth's dialogue.

Like all languages, Spanish is highly regional. We don’t really know Val’s actual background as a Sinner, so your guess is as good as mine. Given his VA is Puerto Rican, however, I write Valentino as someone who speaks Caribbean Spanish (like me!). The three Spanish-speaking countries/territories in the Caribbean are: Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. I'm not familiar with Cuban Spanish, so we'll focus on the first two for now.

Some of these are more specific to one place than the other, but I’m mushing them together for simplicity’s sake (don't come at me).

Fun quirks of Dominican and Puerto Rican Spanish:

A habit of shortening words, like “ven pa’ca” (“come here”) instead of “ven para acá.” We frequently eat the letters “r,” “s” or “d” toward or at the end of some words.

Pronouncing “r” as “l” in some words.

Pronouncing “t” as a soft sound between a “th” and a “d.” Although this voice has a Spanish (from Spain) cadence, you can hear the modified “t” sound in “Valentino” here.

Fun Dominican and Puerto Rican words and phrases:

“Coño” as a casual curse, typically used as an expression of frustration (like “fuck!”). My username is basically a really intense version of coño, and is a very Dominican phrase.

“Diablo,” which means “devil,” is also commonly used as an exclamation.

“Hijo de la gran puta,” a classic that roughly parallels "son of a bitch," but literally translates to “son of a great whore.”

“Papi” or “papi chulo” (“cute daddy”) as a term of affection. “Papito” is the diminutive version of this phrase.

On that note, you can add “ito” to the end of just about anything to make it a diminutive (cutesy/smaller version). “Chulo” means cute, for example. “Chulito” is the even more affectionate/smaller version of that.

“Dique,” which is used to express doubt. Vox might say, “I am not obsessed with Alastor!” Valentino might mutter “diiiique” in response. This is a Dominican thing.

“Wepa,” which is something usually shouted in excitement. This is a Puerto Rican thing.

“Vaina,” which kind of means “thing,” often with a negative connotation. So, Valentino might look at one of Velvette’s designs, find it hideous, and say, “que vaina más fea, oof” (“what an ugly thing, oof”).

“Fó,” which is sort of “ew” or “gross,” usually re: bad smells. You shout it.

“Mano,” short for “hermano” (“brother”). Used between friends.

“Dímelo” (“tell me”) as a greeting. Something that would be said when answering the phone, for example.

“Cojer” as a means of saying “to take,” like taking something from a table. This word has a very different context in other regions. In Mexico, for example, the verb “cojer” is vulgar and means “to fuck.”

“Ahorita,” which in my experience means “later.” In other regions, it can mean “right now” or “later” depending on context.

Commonly used phrases in Mexican Spanish.

You’ll want to avoid these if you’d like his dialogue to be consistently Caribbean-inspired:

“Pinche”

“Verga”

“Wey”

“No mames/no manches”

“Qué padre”

“Chingar”

Calling acquaintances “primo” or “jefe”

I mention this Spanish dialect specifically because it's the most common one in the world. And hey, Val could be canonically Mexican or Mexican in your headcanon! That's cool, too. I'm just providing insight for consistency's sake.

Other insight:

“Ay dios mío!” is a generally overused phrase, in my opinion, and not actually said IRL as frequently as TV makes it seem. Just my experience, though.

“Ay” or “uy” are good filler sounds. You hear Val shout it when Niffty snaps at him.

Valentino canonically squeaks like a moth when passionate!

His voice takes on an echo/growl when he’s particularly angry.

Mixing English and Spanish is tricky. Spanglish is not uncommon in PR, DR, and the US, but usually only when speaking with someone else who is fluent in both languages. Valentino seems plenty fluent in English; he uses lots of contractions, complex sentence structure, and slang. He doesn’t need to inject Spanish phrases in favor of English ones when conversing with another English speaker. He does do it sometimes for emphasis (“the devil’s princesa” or “this chiquita”).

As cliché as it is, defaulting to a Spanish phrase in moments of alarm, anger, frustration, or affection is also not uncommon if you grew up in a Spanish-speaking home. If someone surprises me, I shout “coño” by default, for example.

Valentino uses pet names when referring to others, like "amorcito" (“little love”) and "Angie" over voicemail.

Generally speaking, Val likes to stretch his vowels to be theatrical ("he mooooved!"). He sometimes eats the ends of English words, like “fuckin’” instead of “fucking.” He also sometimes rolls his “r” for English words, like in “ungrrrateful whore!”

Val's accent isn’t consistently strong, which could be a stylistic choice, or he could just be prone to a kind of unique code switching, for lack of a better term. My friends say I speak English with a Spanish accent when conversing with my family, for example (it’s not intentional).

Okay that’s it, bye!

#valentino #hazbin hotel #writing #staticmoth #voxval #Vox

421 notes · View notes

lottielovelace · 6 months ago

Text

die prinzessin

(PLATONIC könig & sister!reader)

summary: So... turns out your mystery half-brother is a giant Austrian special forces operator. What now? (Catching up on two decades of sibling bonding, that's what)

originally posted on ao3 (wordcount: main version 3.1k)

Rating: T

Relationships: Platonic König & Reader, König/Horangi

Ao3 Tags: Brother-Sister Relationships / Sibling Bonding / Long Lost/Secret Relatives / reader is konig's half sister / Implied/Referenced Self-Harm (reader has scars implied to be from SH but it's ultimately left up to interpretation) / Deutsch | German / Author speaks German (as a second language) / Historical References / reading the prior installment is recommended but not required

this is a part of a series

Notes:

Possible triggers: - König teaches MC to shoot. No violence, but he gives her semi-detailed instructions on how to handle a sniper rifle. - MC talks about past mental health struggles, and König notices old scars of her. These are implied to be from SH, but I tried to leave it open-ended for anyone who doesn't want that in their reading. - König implied to have previously experienced homophobia.

Prior context: I recommend reading the previous installment in the series, but if you really don't wanna here are the truly crucial parts: Your name is Elisabeth "Elise" Linh Veidt, a medical student. You were kidnapped to serve as hostage for a half-brother (König) you've never met before, who ended up rescuing you. There's more, but it's not directly tied to this fic so I'll leave it unspoiled in case you do become interested in reading the first work in the series. I do not use Y/N. I sometimes do use "Elise" & other specific details (you'll see why it's unavoidable in this fic) but I try to—when possible—keep things vague so you can freely project onto her (ex: using "your hair" instead of "your dark hair").

About the German: I speak German as a second language. I like to assess my skill level as "I know what Genitive is, but I don't always remember to use it." As Hochdeutsch-speaking foreign civilian, my speech patterns/vocabulary are going to be pretty similar to Elise's but very different to König, a native Austrian and a hardened soldier. I tried translate as accurately as possible (lots of LEO usage), but besides maybe a "servus" or two, I made and will make no attempt to mimic the Austrian dialect because it's frankly a lost cause for me. That being said, if you are a native speaker and notice any grammatical/syntactical mistakes (or even any sentences where you go "he would not fucking say that" [ex: a term being super formal or old fashioned] please let me know!

About the legibility: This is the primary iteration of the fic. If the German really does make it impossible to read, here's a version devoid of foreign language, but if possible, I highly recommend reading this version for the fullest experience. This version is the most proofread edition and even if you don't speak the language there was linguistic nuances you can still pick up on. If there are any cultural references you don't get, I have an explanation post linked at the bottom. (also available here)

"Können wir jetzt sprechen?” [ Can we speak now? ]

“Fast,” [ Almost ], your brother answered as he continued to guide you through the complex’s winding halls. His refusal to answer questions until your surroundings were secure made the flight over to the KorTac base feel endless.

Finally he stopped at a door-lined hallway. Approaching the second on the left, he punched a combination into its keypad. It swung open, revealing a modest bedroom.

“Großes Bett” [ Big bed ], you noted. His cot was large, even for someone of his rank.

“Ich habe ein Verzicht erhalten” [ I got a waiver ], he lazily indicated at his height. You were once again reminded of your stark height difference.

You looked at him—or at least what you could see of him with the mask—again. Drawing from your bio classes, you knew you shared 25% of your DNA. Clearly none of it manifested in height. Your father had been tall, but even at his peak he was nowhere near as lofty as your brother.

“Deine Mutter muss riesig sein.” [ Your mother must be giant .]

“Sie war.” [ She was. ]

You mentally winced. Way to get off on the wrong foot.

“Meine Mutter ist auch verstorben. Früher dieses Jahres.” [ My mother also passed. Earlier this year. ]

“Entschuldigung.” [ My condolences ].

“Du weißt, dass unser Vater schon ein paar Jahren gestorben ist.” [ You know that our father died a few years ago. ]

You really hoped you weren’t the one to break the news to him.

“Ja, ich weiß. Wir haben einen Brief bekommen.” [ Yes, I know. We received a letter .]

“Gut.” [ Good .]

“Dein Name ist Elisabeth, ja?” [ Your name is Elisabeth, correct? ]

“Ja.” [ Yes. ]

You’re not surprised he knows. There’s gotta be a file on you somewhere packed with everything you’ve ever even sniffed at.

“Magst du deinen Namen?” [ Do you like your name? ]

“Wie bitte?” [ Pardon? ]

“Benutzen Sie Elisabeth oder etwas anderes?" [ Do you go by Elisabeth or something else? ]

“Elise. Und du musst nicht ‘Sie’ benutzen. Wir sind Blut.” [ Elise. And you don’t need to be so formal. We’re blood .] A beat passed. “Wie heißt du?” [ And you? What is your name? ]

“Jeder nennt mich König.” [ Everyone calls me König. ]

“König? Ist das nicht ein wenig dramatisch?” [ King? Isn’t that a bit dramatic? ]

“Wenn du so groß wie ich bin, gibt es keinen Raum für Subtilität. Auch mag ich Geburtsnamens nicht.” [ When you’re as big as me, there is no room for subtlety. Plus I’m not the biggest fan of my birth name. ]

“Darf ich fragen?” [ May I ask? ]

“Ludwig.”

“Ludwig? Wie der König? Der Verrückte?” [ Ludwig? Like the king? The mad one? ]

“Genau. Ich mag es nicht, aber möchte es noch würdigen.” [ Exactly. I don’t like it, but I do enjoy paying tribute to it in my own way.]

“Elisabeth und Ludwig. Unser Vater mochte die Wittelsbacher, ja?” [ Elisabeth and Ludwig. Our father had a fondness for the Wittelsbachers. ]

“Wenn ich der Märchenkönig bin und du die Sisi bist, bist du Kaiserin?” [ If I’m the Fairy Tale King, and you’re Sisi… wouldn’t that make you the Empress? ]

“Dann wäre ich dir überlegen.” [ I would outrank you then. ]

“Gefällt dir das als mögliches Rufzeichen?” [ Would you like that as a callsign? ]

“Was? Kaiserin? Muss ich wirklich einen?” [ What, Empress? Do I even need one? ]

“Ja. Es würde mir ein Stein vom Herzen fallen. Dein Name ist kostbar. Verrate es nicht. Zumindest nicht hier.” [ I think so. It would ease my mind. Your name is a precious thing, I don’t want you to give it away. At least not while you’re on base. ]

Your stomach twisted.

“Du hast mir gesagt, dass dieser Ort sicher sei.” [ I thought you said this place was safe. ]

“Ja voll. Aber jeder kann mithören und hacken.” [ It is. But anyone can tap into radio comms or steal files .]

“Was meinst du damit?” [ What are you implying? ]

“Es ist zusätzlicher Schutz. Bitte. Es könnte irgendetwas. Ich brauche nur, dass du eines hast.” [ It’s an extra barrier of protection. Please. You can pick whatever it is, I just want you to have one. ]

You thought about it for a moment.

“Ich möchte nicht ‘Kaiserin’ sein. Das ist zu viel Macht und Anstrengung. Die Kaiserkrone hat die echte Sisi erwürgen.” [ I don’t want to be ‘Empress’. That’s too much power and pressure. The imperial crown strangled the original Sisi, after all. ]

A smile bloomed on your face.

“Vielleicht zulasse ich ‘Prinzessin’.” [ I might be amenable to ‘Princess’ though. ]

“Prinzessin? Ich kann damit leben. Sinn für kurz?” [ Princess? I can work with that. Sinn (meaning sense/reason/mind) for short? ]

You nodded with deep gravitas, “Einer von uns muss die Intelligenz sein.” [ Someone needs to be the brains around here. ]

Something about the faux-seriousness in your tone made the two of you burst into uncontrollable laughter.

The moment is so beautiful, you almost don’t want to ruin it with the question you know you have to ask. Something ancient, the spirit of Orpheus or Pandora perhaps, urges you to look.

“Darf ich über der Maske fragen?” [ Can I ask about the mask? ]

He paused for a moment, hesitant. Then quietly he spoke:

“Ich kann es ausziehen. Du bist Familie.” [ I can take it off. For you. You’re family, after all. ]

There’s a reluctance in his voice that made your heart twinge.

“Du musst nicht wenn du nicht willst.” [ You don’t have to if you don’t want to. ]

“Nein.” [ No. ] This time his voice seems more resolved, “Ich möchte.” [ I want to. ]

He pulled off his hood. His face was ruddy, but it worked well with his light hair and eyes. You two both looked so similar yet so different.

“Du hast alle guten Gene geerbt,” [ You clearly got all the good genes, ] you joked.

He turned his head bashfully, accidentally revealing his battered side profile.

“Deine arme Nase! Was passiert?” [ Your poor nose! What happened to it? ]

“Zebrochen. Ein paarmal. Bisschen verwickelt medizinische Hilfe zu erkriegen wenn du deinem Gesicht verheimlichst.” [ Broke it. A few times. Bit hard to get medical attention when you refuse to show your face. ]

“Nächste Mal einfach ruf mich. Ich habe dein Gesicht schön gesehen.” [ Next time just come to me. I’ve already seen your face. ]

“Mit Verlaub zu sagen, wie viel kannst du hilf mit helfen?” [ No offense, but how much can you help? ]

“Ja leider. Was weiß ich?” [ You’re right. What do I know? ] you bit back. “Ich habe nur noch ein Viertel vom Medschule übrig.” [ I’m only a quarter out from graduating med school. ]

“Soll das ein Scherz sein?” [ You’re joking. ]

“Das war nicht im Bericht?” [ That didn’t make it into the file? ]

“Nein. Wann ist der Abschluss?” [ No. When’s graduation? ]

You tensed. He was beaming with pride. You hated to ruin it with the ugly truth.

“Ich weiß nicht ob ich graduiere.” [ I don’t know if I will graduate. ]

“Warum? Hast du schulische Probleme?” [ Why? Are you having troubles at school? ]

“Sozusagen. Meine Noten sind gut, aber heuer versuchte ich zu ausscheiden. Sie ließen mich nicht, so nahm ich Gewaltkur.” [ Sort of? My grades are fine but… I tried to drop out earlier this year. They wouldn’t let me so I took more… drastic measures. ]

König’s eyes drifted to your scars.

“Sie sind alt.” [ They’re old, ] you reassured. “Und danach dem ganze Entführungquatch, ich bin entschlossen zu überleben. Vetrau mir. Deshalb möchte ich nicht zurückkehren. Ich möchte leben, nicht in Schule sorgen.” [ Plus after the whole kidnapping ordeal, I’m more determined to live than ever. Trust me. That’s why I don’t want to go back. I want to live, not suffer more in school. ]

Your brother looked at you disapprovingly, “Du musst zurückgehen.” [ You need to go back. ]

“Kann ich einfach hier bleiben? Bei dir? Ich könnte Medizinerin sein.” [ Can’t I just stay here with you? I could be a medic. ]

"Medizinische Arbeit ist nicht leicht.” [ Being a medic is hard work. ]

“Fleiß ist kein fremd.” [ I’m no stranger to hard work.]

“Du wärst ein bessere Medizinerin, wenn du Schule fertigbringst.” [ You’d be a better medic if you finished school. ]

You stared at him with arms crossed, unyielding.

He tried again, “Wenn du dein Medizinstudium abschließt kannst du hier arbeiten. Und du erhältst eine besondere Belohnung von mir.” [ Look, if you graduate you can work here full time—and I’ll ensure you get a special reward. ]

“Was?” [ What? ]

“Eine Überraschung. Du wirst es schön wissen.” [ It’s a surprise. I won’t tell you. Yet. ]

You pursed your lips. Clearly this wasn’t an argument you were going to win.

“In Ordnung. Aber lass mich länger bleiben. Ich möchte dich kennenlernen.” [ Fine. But let me stay a little longer. I want to get to know you.]

“Natürlich.” [ Of course. ]

The tension dissipated.

“Du hast gesagt das du lasst Medical dein Gesicht nicht sehen. Erlaubst du irgendjemand?” [ You said you don’t let medical see your face. Do you let anyone else? ]

Your brother flushed. He really was quite pink under the hood.

“Einer.” [ One person .]

You mentally rolled up your sleeves. You had over two decades of little sister pestering to make up for.

“Echt?” [ Oh really? ]

“Ein Freund.” [ A friend. ]

“Ein Freund oder dein Freund?” [ A friend or your boyfriend? ]

“Ich liebe ihn.” [ I love him. ]

“Gefühl er gleichartig?” [ And does he feel the same?]

“Ja.” [ Yes. ]

“Na ja, ich muss sehen, ob er gut genug für dich ist.” [ Hmm. I’ll have to see if he’s good enough for you. ]

He slumped in relief. With a jolt you realized he was afraid of you… rejecting him. For what? Being in a relationship with another man? No, you of all people would never do that. You silently resolved to make sure he would never have to fear that ever again.

“Du kannst ihn heute Abend in der Kantine begegen.” [ You can meet him in the mess hall tonight. ]

----------

The mess hall is awash with activity. Even here amongst allies and coworkers, people gave König a wide berth.

“Welcher ist er?” [ Which one is he? ]

König pointed to a man sitting alone at a table.

“Dieser.” [ That one. ]

“Noch ein Maskenträger? Bisschen narzisstisch, ja?” [ Another mask? Bit narcissistic of you, isn’t it?]

You felt your brother roll his eyes under his hood. The sitting man’s head jerked up at the sound of his heavy footsteps. His mask already pulled up over his mouth to eat, the man broke out into a brilliant smile.

“Das ist der Horangi.” [ This is Horangi. ] König introduced. “Klarname Kim Hong-jin.” [ Real name Kim Hong-jin. ]

“Sprecht er Deutsch?” [ Does he speak German? ]

“Ja.” [ Yes. ] Horangi responded. “Er war mein Lehrer. So wurden wir unzertrennlich. Du bist seine Schwester, ja?” [ He has been my tutor. It’s actually how we got close. You’re his sister, right? ]

“Richtig.” [ Yes. ]

“Does she speak English?” Horangi asked your brother, switching languages. You knew it was just a way to test your skills, but it irked you.

“I’m American.”

“Just because you’re American doesn’t mean you speak English. I don’t even know if half the stuff that comes out of Graves’ mouth even qualifies as human speech.”

“Graves?” you looked to your brother for explanation.

“Er ist—wie sagt man das? Yee-haw?” [ He is… how do you say it? Yee-haw? ]

“Südstaatler?” [ Southern? ]

“Geneau.” [ Exactly. ]

You crossed your arms and gave Horangi a final thorough look-over.

“I approve under one condition.”

“Yes?”

“Teach me how to fight. It’s great that I was able to meet my brother but I do not want a repeat of the kidnapping.”

Horangi cocked his head, “Wouldn’t you want to learn from your brother?”

“There are plenty of things I want to learn from him. This is not one of them. Based on size alone, we’re going to have very different strategies. I’m sure he’s a great fighter, but I have a feeling that using his technique with my frame would be… lackluster. No offense.”

“Kein Problem.” [ None taken. ]

“Very well,” Horangi relented. If this was all it took to be on the good side of his in-laws, it was a small price to pay. “I expect to see you at 7 sharp. I won’t go easy on you.”

“Perfect.”

----------

Horangi’s right. It’s not easy, but slowly and steadily—and with no small amount of tears and blood—you managed to win Horangi’s respect (and a nice set of abs).

About a week in, he makes a suggestion. You two were on a water break, your brother was sitting nearby. König had taken to watching your sparring, occasionally commentating or tagging in.

“Du verbesserst!” [ You’re improving! ] the Austrian complimented brightly.

“Und ich habe gar nichts mit es zu tun.” [ And I had absolutely nothing to do with the matter, ] Horangi muttered with mock resentment.

“Unsinn, du bist immer ein prima Lehrer.” [Nonsense, you are an excellent teacher.] König apologized with a kiss.

“Wirklich! Vielen Dank.” [ Definitely, thank you so much! ] you corroborated.

Horangi shifted. Even in training, he still wore the mask—at least while in the base’s general gym. He was more lackadaisical about it in private. Your “family dinners” with him and König had given you a good look at both of their faces.

You’d become well versed in his facial reactions. Even with his face covered you could feel his devilish smile.

“자기야, du solltest ihr deine erste Liebe vorstellen.” [You know babe, you should introduce her to your first love.]

Your head snapped to your brother. Sans Horangi, you were probably the person on base who he felt most comfortable talking about his past with, but even then it sometimes felt like pulling teeth. You quickly learned to treasure any lore you gleaned.

“Was? Warum habe ich noch nie von das gehört?” [ What? How have I not heard of this before? ]

König raised his hands in defense.

“Das stimmt nicht. Er verhohnepipelt mich.” [ It’s not like that. He’s making fun of me. ]

“Wer ist diese erste Liebe dann?” [ Who is this first love then? ]

“Scharfschützen.” [ Sniping, ] he replied bashfully.

----------

After much cajoling, you finally got König to teach you to snipe. You had a good feeling about it. You always had a steady hand and good hand-eye coordination. Before the kidnapping, you’d even been looking into specializing in surgery (though now—whenever you’d return—you’d be taking a hard turn into emergency medicine and the other subjects required for a combat medic). Plus maybe it ran in the family.

You met at the shooting range one early morning. Horangi had recently been deployed and your brother needed to stop stressing about it.

“Ich wollte ein Heckenschütze sein.” [ I wanted to be a sniper, ] he explained as he showed you the mechanics. The assembly of the gun soundtracked his words with rhythmic clicking.

“Du bist ein Insertionsspezialist, ja? Was passiert?” [ You’re an insertion specialist, right? What happened? ]

“Zu groß. Das wird kein Problem für dich.” [ Too tall. That won’t be an issue for you. ]

You crossed your arms. Cheap shot. König didn’t notice your disapproval, eyes now trained on the target.

“Auch ich zappele.” [ And I fidget .]

“Ich habe dein Scharfschießen gesehen. Du hast eine feste Hand.” [ I’ve seen you shoot. You have a steady hand. ]

“Hände kann ich ruhen. Alles anderes, nicht so viel. Problematisch, wenn man unauffindbar sein muss. Erinnern: Drück, nicht zieh.” [ I can keep my hands steady. The rest of me, not so much. A slight issue when trying to be undetectable. Remember, squeeze don’t pull. ]

BANG

Bullseye.

“Du bist dran.” [ Your turn. ]

You approached the marked spot. This seemed so much easier before you felt the gun in your hands and witnessed your brother’s expertise first hand.

“Hol drei tief Atemzüge. Großer letzter Ausatmen. Das ist der Moment. Beacht Folgemaßnahmen, Rückstoß ist eine knifflige, besonders bei deiner Größe.” [ Take three deep breaths. Big exhale on the last. That’s when you want to shoot. And remember to follow through, recoil can be a bitch, especially at your size. ]

Even with your nervousness, you still found it in yourself to retort.

“Nennst du mich kurz?” [ Are you calling me short? ]

“Für mich seid ihr alle kurz. Das ist nichts speziell. Schussbereit!” [ You’re all short to me. There’s nothing special about that. Position! ]

The gun was heavy, but thanks to your work with Horangi not unbearable.

One.

Two.

Three.

Even watching your brother’s demonstration hadn’t prepared you for just how loud the gunshot was.

You flinched. Hard.

The bullet went left, landing in the dirt with a small puff.

“Scheiße.” [ Shit. ]

“Gute Form. Ohne dein Zucken, wurdest du ins Schwarze treffen. Du musst nur an dem Krach passen. Probier es noch mal.” [ Good form. If it wasn’t for the flinch you would’ve got it dead on. You just need to get used to the noise. Try again. ]

You were still rattled, but your brother’s confidence in you steadied your hands.

You knew you could do it, you just had to…

Eins.

Zwei.

Drei.

There was no dust cloud this time. Only the noise of the round hitting something solid and your brother’s exhilarated whoop as he took you in his arms.

----------

Saying goodbye was rough. Both König and Horangi joined you on the ride to the airport, wanting to prolong goodbyes for as long as possible.

“Bis bald.” [ See you soon. ]

When your flight finally touched down and you returned to finish med school, it was with a few training bruises, an even steadier finger, and a determination to help your new family the only way you knew how.

An explanation of König & Reader's full names and the historical references behind them

77 notes · View notes

tulliolamonster · 3 months ago

Text

I have another lead on Old Cybertronian!

After speaking with a professor more versed in historical languages, syllabaries, and consonants than I am, I learned some things that might shed necessary light on how the language and alphabet evolved.

If my previous assumptions are right, Old Cybertronian (OC) is a language that has distinct vowel/voicing sounds, but places far more emphasis on consonants. Evidence supports this assumption: Vowels exist in the OC alphabet to denote vowels and voicing, while the OC speech written in comics that doesn’t use the OC alphabet is primarily consonant sounds. Old Cybertronian likely views vowels more as a sign of consonant voicing than wholly separate from the consonant.

Seeing this, I believe the Old Cybertronian alphabet originally did not have symbols for vowels, similarly to the Phoenician alphabet/abjad. Readers would know from context which consonant went with each symbol due to its place in the word and that word’s function. There might be some confusion over specific words as culture shifted or if the text was found without its original context, but it would’ve still been legible.

Where do vowels come in? I believe they likely began as smaller symbols placed adjacent to relevant consonants representing the vowel sound or voicing. Most script during this time could do without them while still remaining legible. However, increased use of these notations might have shifted the writing system, making them a standard part. Over time, those small voicing notations would become the larger letters seen in the official OC alphabet.

If written Old Cybertronian began as a script that didn’t include vowels, what does that say about characters like Vos, self-proclaimed “linguistic purist” and one of the few examples of spoken OC in the comics? His speech clearly contains vowel symbols; is he breaking his stance?

Probably not. If we’re looking for an explanation (and not the real answer, which is that the writers probably were not thinking much about fictional linguistics), it’s most likely all the spoken Old Cybertronian has been written in a more recent form for the ease of the audience. The speech in the comics doesn’t preserve the accents of characters speaking modern Cybertronian/Neocybex, nor does it clearly note shifts in which language is spoken (like a Cybertronian switching between a human language into their native language when speaking to different groups). If Old Cybertronian is barely spoken anymore and very few understand it, it makes sense to try and write it down in a way that’s most legible to your audience. As a result, vowels are included.

Realistically, unless I missed something, we don’t see Vos or Cyclonus really write in OC. For all we know, Vos could write without vowels or using smaller voicing notation. He and Cyclonus could speak OC from very different time periods or dialects. We just won’t know. And as fun as it would be for me to say Vos using vowels furthers a theme of incomplete or inaccurate mimicry of an idealized past in the DJD’s characters, I just don’t have the evidence.

Anyway, please share your thoughts! I’m not sure if I’m onto something interesting or spinning off into headcanon hell, so I’d like to know what y’all think.

#transformers #maccadam #maccadams #robot thoughts #cybertronian culture #cybertronians #cybertronian worldbuilding #cybertronian linguistics #old cybertronian #cybertron #cybertronian alphabet #mtmte vos #tf vos #transformers djd

23 notes · View notes

anitalianfrie · 1 year ago

Note

Hi hi I’m relatively new to MotoGP so I don’t know if you maybe made a post about this before already but! What’s the accent variety like in the Italian lads? Bc I learnt Italian for a year and I loooveee love picking apart accents and silly lil language things but I’m just not used enough to spoken Italian to identify any variation from the standard. I’ve been told tho that Bez has a notable accent but do any of the others as well?🤔

accents ask accents ask stay calm! (sorry i am. very passionate about accents) also disclaimer: i am very much not an expert! i'm just having fun here

okay so, all the italian riders (that are important to me) come from one of these three places: Emilia-Romagna, more specifically Romagna, even more specifically near Rimini*; Lazio, more specifically from Rome; Piemonte, more specifically from around Turin.

*only exception is dovi who was born a leedle more in the inland. but only a leedle.

Here's a map where I have circled the zones of interest

(yes the circle around Turin is enormous it's because I'm not searching on google maps the minuscule ass place cele lived in)

You can hear the Romagnolo accent in Bez, Vale, Enea, Luca, Dovi, Mig, with various degree of intensity. Luca is probably the one with the less strong accent, but it's still very identifiable. There are of course still some differences in the way they speak (i noticed that for some reason Vale tends to open his e more than bez, sometimes making a ⟨ɛ⟩ sound rather than a ⟨e̞⟩ sound). Their accent is caractherized mainly by the way they say the s, the z and the c, that they tend to almost hiss. Here's an example of Bez saying his surname, and somebody from another region saying it. (first the person with the other accent, then bez)

In the audio you can also hear the e thing i was talking about: in Romagna they tend to close it more then they do in some other places in the north (for example the other guy is from Lombardia)

Between all of them, Bez's accent is probably the strongest. I once said that hearing him talk feels like being slapped in the face by a piadina, and I will repeat it.

Both Franco and Diggia are from Rome, but to be honest, Franky's accent is almost unperceptible. Really difficult to clock. Diggia has a stardard Rome accent, but not that strong. People from Rome have a very distinct accent (and also probably one of the easiest to do) characterized by the frequent use of dialectal terms. You can hear it for example in the c and g, that tend to be a bit more guttural, and the l tends to become a r. Also, due to the dialect thing, they tend to cut the verbs: for example fare becomes fa', andare becomes anda'.

For the Piemontese accent, we encounter a slight problem: I am also from Piemonte, and therefore it's harder for me to clock how strong the accent is. The main thing that you can hear about this accent is the o, that tends to become more of a ou. Prime example in this baby cele clip, when he says 'porte'. Adorable. Also, around Turin they tend to close the e (while we, from the secret location i'm blogging from, tend to open them). People from Piemonte also tend to say 'neh' a lot, but I don't have clips of Cele saying it because it's quite informal. I might try do to a deep dive later. And I can't say much more about this accent because as I said, I can't really hear it.

You might have noticed that pecco is nowhere to be found in the list up until now. That's because his accent INFURIATES me. He's from Piemonte but doesn't have the accent, and instead has a slight Romagnolo accent. Here's a clip from this year's Sanremo that made me cry in pain.

Another thing you might have noticed is that the guys from the northen regions (Emilia-Romagna and Piemonte) will frequently put an article in front of people's names, even if grammatically incorrect. Il Cele. Il Bez. Il Pecco. L'Enea. Il Vale. We just do that. You will not catch Diggia ever saying it, because people from the centre and south of italy just don't. do it.

I hope this was somewhat idk. interesting? useful? if you have some more questions do ask i love to talk about these things

#true reason why i need to put them into the big brother: get a more complete grasp on their informal way of speaking #has cele lost the piemontese swag of saying fuma c'anduma? i probably will never know #c'è posta per me #henritoivonen #Italian motogp

109 notes · View notes

mehilaiselokuva · 5 months ago

Text

Interviewing a beginner Finnish learner

A bit of a different post for today! I have been working with a friend who has started self-learning Finnish. Maybe you can gain some inpiration or tips from this interview we conducted! I have added extra commentary bits to some parts, marked with "C".

PREFACE

Interviewer: Me

Interviewee: @nuniante

Been learning Finnish for: half a month

Previous knowledge of the language: none

1. How long have you studied finnish actively?

A) ive been studying for just about half a month

2. What is your study routine like? do you study daily?

A) i try to write notes everyday about grammar concepts i think will help me advance at my current level (so far really basic stuff). i try but dont study daily. i also use duolingo to learn basic expressions/vocab and try to immerse myself in finnish through making some of the apps on my phone in finnish.

C) He tends to write at least one sentence in Finnish a day in our groupchat to the best of his abilities and will ask if he doesn't know a word. I feel like that's a very good way to learn when you are learning a specific dialect like he is.

3. What kinds of notes do you take? what do you write down? do you always write things down or just memorize things without writing?

A) my notes are basic. i write in the exceptions but i dont really go into detail sometimes. i might skip over something mentioned in the lesson or material im using if i think that a concept they bring up is inferrable. for vocab i try to memorize words i learn because i know so few that theres not much point to writing anything down. i think when ill reach a more advanced level ill start to write down more

C) I think that this approach is great, finding things you know you'll use and learning those first is useful!

4. What was your initial plan when studying? what things did you study in what order?

A) my initial plan for studying was trying to learn the basics and formal language to help me in learning colloquial speech, which i planned to learn from a friend (im talking about you juho). so far ive studied the basic cases + declensions, basic verbs conjugations, demonstratives and conjunctions and im rn learning about the numbers and the plural forms of nouns. i plan to take a break from grammar and learn vocab next.

C) Remember that all this is just half a month in! I think learning grammar before vocab is very good! You'll start picking up core words while doing that and of you perfect those grammar points early on, you will find speaking and writing easier fast.

5. What is your goal?

A) i dont really have a goal, but i think that if i could hold up a real conversation in finnish id feel successful.

6. What has been the most difficult + easiest?

A) i think the hardest thing so far has been consonant gradation or numbers. gradation can feel irrational, what with weird sound changes (eg. k > v) and also how you cant really predict what grade a noun/verb should be in depending off its form. easiest might be vowel harmony. you can decide harmony just by feeling what sounds better.

C) For once, a learner has not only learned vowel harmony but has no mistakes using it and will not forget that it's there. If you are more than half a year in learning and you still cannot remember to apply vowel harmony accordingly, you need to make it your priority ASAP.

7. How would you rate your current finnish level (speaking, writing, reading)

A) id say theyre all low. reading is probably my highest because i dont really consume finnish any other way. juho said my finnish accent is ok so i think that makes speech second. i havent listened to finnish yet so i cant even tell.

C) This person writes and speaks better Finnish than some people who have been learning the language for like three years! He is very careful with congruence which many learners don't consider very much. This means that he is eliminating most of the beginner mistakes very early on

8. Additional comments.

A) i like saying hyvää yötä

C) I like that our groupchat has started using Finnish and picking up words like "joo" and "sama asia" since we speak the language now. I consider it very admirable that this person has not only started writing Finnish early on, but he is learning kirjakieli, puhekieli AND a dialect all the same time!

Feel free to use this as motivation or inspiration! I recommend finding a learning style that fits you, so remember that what worked for this person might not work for you! I could make this a series honestly, are any of you interested in participating?

#finnish #langblr #langblog #language #suomen kieli #suomi #finnish language #interview #mehilaiselokuva interviews #this could become a series

24 notes · View notes

missempanada · 4 months ago

Text

"So Spain doesn't have a lisp?" Distinción 101

So in my last post I mentioned if you're not a native Spanish speaker and/or you don't know how the TH/S sounds work you should refrain from incorporating that into your work (and especially describing Spain's speech pattern as someone with a lisp) as those of us who know will notice. However someone has asked me to explain how diferenciación/distinción works which is what I'll do in this post.

As you may have noticed, or seen in very inaccurate memes, in Spain we pronounce some words with a TH sound. But, is that considered a lisp? Well, no, since a lisp is a speech impediment. That'd be as nonsensical as saying that English speakers have a lisp because they call this (1000) number thousand, or they call the thing that shakes in the sky thunder, or that Greeks have a lisp because they have a bunch of words like thalasso.

What we have is distinción or diferenciación which is a phonemic distinction made between the sounds represented by the letters "s" and "z" (or soft "c" before "e" and "i").

How do you know how to pronounce each sound?

Za, ze, ce, zi, ci, zo, zu = TH

Sa, se, si, so, su = S

(so, no, we don't pronounce sí like "thí", or España like "Ethpaña" as some may have you believe)

This is actually very useful when writing because we know exactly whether we should write a word with a Z or an S depending on how it sounds. Spanish speakers of other dialects may get confused when they learn how to write as children, as they have to memorise if words are written with Z or S. We don't need to do that.

It's also useful when telling apart two words that sound very similar. For example:

"Casa" ("house") is pronounced caSa.

"Caza" ("hunt") is pronounced with caTHa.

Does everyone in Spain speak with distinción / diferenciación?

No! As you can see in the map below, even though most people do the distinción, some people in Spain speak with seseo and some others speak with ceceo.

Seseo consists in pronouncing everything with a S sound. This is the characteristic found in all of the dialects in Latin America, as well as in some parts of the south of Spain and the Canary Islands (not pictured in the map, smh). So for example, they'd pronounce "zapato" ("shoe") as sapato.

Ceceo is the opposite of seseo, so, pronouncing everything with a TH sound. This is also found in the south of Spain. People who do ceceo would typically pronounce a word like "sandía" ("watermelon") as thandía.

So, is ceceo a lisp? Still, no. Most people who speak with ceceo are able to switch to distinción, even if it doesn't come natural to them, so it can't be a speech impediment. In fact, a lot of them are more or less forced to, especially if they move out of the southern regions, as people who speak with ceceo are stereotypically regarded as dumb and unprofessional and are usually the target of classist jokes.

European Spanish (especially the southern/Andalusian dialect) is so diverse when it comes to phonetics and vocabulary, that even within the same city or town you'll find people who pronounce things differently. Which means, not every inhabitant of the part of the map colored as "ceceo" is going to speak with ceceo.

For example, this is the data of three cities in the south, when studying if people do ceceo, seseo or distinción:

I personally spoke with ceceo as a child, as I learned how to talk in a town where people do that, but I was corrected out of it because of concerns regarding the stereotype I just told you. It slips from time to time but I mostly speak with diferenciación now.

Now that I've explained all of this, you probably already know how we'd pronounce the word "distinción", right? It's diStinTHión.

So which accent would Hetalia's Spain have?

Unlike characters like Romano, we don't know which part of the country Spain would be from, so we cannot know which specific dialect he speaks. In the official Spanish dub he does speak with distinción but that's because dubs are usually done in Madrid's accent (which is considered to be the "neutral" one).

If you want to go the safe route, I'd say distinción is the way, since it can be found even in cities where ceceo or seseo predominate. Unless he was from the Canary Island: there's no way he'd speak with other than seseo then.

If you're doing fan work it's very unlikely that you have to use any of these phonetics anyways, since most content is done in English. The point of my explanation is mostly to let you know that:

no, Spaniards don't have a lisp.

there's no such thing as just one "Spanish from Spain" dialect.

mocking people who do the TH sound is actually classist and very uncool.

That's all for today! If you have any questions please let me know :)

#2 educational posts in a row damn i feel like a teacher #hws #hws spain #aph #aph spain #hetalia #antonio fernandez carriedo #spanish #european spanish #spanish from spain #ceceo #seseo

22 notes · View notes

shinewerst · 1 year ago

Text

Here I will leave some of my thoughts, guesses and headcanons. Some of them may be stupid and unreasonable, but I will share them with you anyway.

I've noticed that a lot of people headcanon Earth and Moon or Earth and Venus as siblings. And I partially agree with this. But here are my thoughts on this matter: They are celestial bodies and they do not have siblings in the usual sense, but since they live for a very long time, over billions of years of being close to each other, they can develop family feelings for each other. But only if they are always close. Therefore, most often this occurs between a planet and its moons or between several moons of one planet. This is unlikely to happen between planets, since each of them is in its own orbit, perhaps double planets are an exception. Therefore, I headcanon the Moon and Earth as brothers, Phobos and Deimos too, and Mars as their guardian. (Earth and Venus may be somehow connected, but not family) It's more difficult with gas giants. I believe that when their moons are too numerous and constantly increasing in number, they stop keeping track of them and treat them more like decorations. But Idk.

In the Solar System, having life is supposedly cool and the Earth is proud of it, Venus dreams of it, etc. but it seems to me that in other systems the attitude towards this may be different. For example, I have an oc exoplanet and in her home system this was not considered something cool. They literally treated it like lice lol.

Planets/stars/satellites do not speak any of the earth’s languages, but their own. But different systems have something like their own accents and dialects. So my oc speaks a little differently from them.

In different parts of the universe, the appearance of the planets changes and what the planets will look like usually depends on the star (I'm talking specifically about planethumans).

For the planet/star and satellites, love is something deeper than for earthlings. This is very strong, sensual.

I also noticed how in many fanfictions characters call Proto-Earth that way. But it seems to me that the term “Proto-Earth” itself appeared after his death, namely the collision with Theia and the appearance of the “new Earth”. Before that, everyone simply called him Earth.

Each of them has its own axis tilt, right? They don't really follow it, especially in the planethumans format, so I made a headcanon about them sleeping on their slants. So, Venus sleeps upside down, huh?

The Earth speaks all earthly languages and knows the stages of evolution of almost every creature on his surface, although sometimes he himself may be confused about this. His past memories are slowly fading. He does not remember how he and the Moon appeared, he does not remember that there could have been life on Venus before. I imagine him periodically reading a book about dinosaurs because he doesn't want to forget about them.

I like to think that Mars used to be a bad-tempered asshole, but Earth doesn't remember that. Mars himself does not want to remember this at all, since he has already grown out of it.

Probably the Earth became the way we see him because of humans. Perhaps he was different before. I imagine him as a sweet and kind planet who does his best to care for his friends and his little brother. But when he changed, Luna continued to love him like a brother and care for him in return.

Earth usually tells others only the good side of earthlings, but usually he complains to the Moon about how much he is hurt, about how they are starting another war and doing other terrible things. Therefore, the Moon is much more tolerant of the Earth; he must be the only one who knows how hard it is for him.

Venus is jealous of the Earth and everyone has already understood this. I like to think that Venus, after losing life on its surface, feels the need to protect Earth and its inhabitants.

Luna is aroace. Just because for some reason it seems to me that dating someone just doesn’t suit him.

That's all for now. Maybe I'll create a second part cause I might have forgotten something :p

#solarballs #solarballs earth #solarballs venus #solarballs moon #solarballs mars

62 notes · View notes

melrosing · 6 months ago

Note

Hey, question, you know how GRRM is american but all of the dialogue in ASOIAF, aside from being old-fangled, is also supposed to be vaguely "british"? Like, everyone kind of is supposed to have those old english royalty accents and shit, all the northerners say "aye", etc. What's that like to you, an actual UK person?

it’s a weird one lol bc in some ways he leans into it and others he leans right out. I get the impression GRRM has watched a lot of British TV and so his ‘small folk’ dialect isn’t really that different (imo) from the staple working class dialect ascribed to characters in many British period pieces - which kind of sounds to me like an anaemic cockney or something, without the slang and quirks. on British TV it’s been the case for the longest time that for class reasons most of what you’re going to hear is broadly RP and you’d have to tune into specific shows to hear much else (that’s not as bad as it used to be but the impact is still pretty real).

anyway all of that to say, if that’s GRRM’s point of reference I don’t think he does a bad job with it?? it’s a shallow distinction between his smallfolk and his highborn, but w/e - it’s used about as effectively as it’s used in say, Downton Abbey lol. i.e. quite caricature-y but no more so than brits themselves are guilty of. I don’t really notice Americanisms slipping in and the only one he seems to fumble (afaik) is ‘aye’ which he occasionally has southern characters like the Lannisters use. and maybe southern brits did use ‘aye’ once but for a long time that’s been heavily associated w northerners/scotland/etc.

and also I know he isn’t actually trying to write AU UK here, Westeros is influenced by the histories of many different IRL countries and cultures, but it’s obvious that it very substantially draws on GRRM’s consumption of British media and culture in its depiction and so I do think based on that he could’ve had a bit more fun w the regional dialects. I know he doesn’t have to, he’s got enough on his hands and frankly there’s so much scope for fucking that up, but I think as bidonica said in a recent post, it’s kind of wild that across the entire continent of Westeros… the highborn and lowborn dialects are each the same. like suffice to say that is extremely not the case in the UK and was not the case even more historically speaking. my mum is northern and my dad came from a central London cockney neighbourhood and the words and phrases the other used to use would send them constantly.

so it’d be fun if there were variations between regions, and those wouldn’t even have to be based on any real British equivalent if GRRM were worried about getting it wrong. definitely amongst the smallfolk anyway, bc whilst I think at least in modern history the richest folk in the UK largely adopted the same upper class accent, that wasn’t the case for anyone else. the UK is about the size of a coin and yet comprises hundreds of different accents and languages. personally think it could be fun if he had played w that but he didn’t. idk if that’s bc he just cba or if as an American he basically just knows the queen’s english and the ‘it’s choosday’ accent but w/e.

anyway GOT is way funnier about this bc obviously their actors are all speaking in British accents so the comparisons and questions are inevitable and they are MANY. explain why davos and gendry, who come from precisely the same part of town, are speaking accents from diametrically opposite ends of the UK. why are Robert and Stannis speaking w northern accents and Renly w southern. two of Cersei’s children are distinctly northern Irish. it’s wild from head to toe but I can’t be mad it IS funny

#ask #asoiaf

46 notes · View notes

canonicallyanxious · 5 months ago

Text

some assorted thoughts on ossan's love thailand ep 1 [quick note: i am an earthmix stan, an ossan's love "it's complicated"-er, and a gmmtv "it's complicated but in a different way"-er so keep in mind i have my own set of biases etc. etc.]

look i won't lie i was really apprehensive about this going in - i think ossan's love is, like, so of its time and context [by which i mean 2018 KSJNDSKJNDS look that WAS a different time okay] that i think any cross-cultural adaptation of this show really has its work cut out for it to modernize some of the more dated aspects of the show while maintaining the sheer earnestness of the original and i don't always trust gmmtv to deliver on the earnestness skjdfskdjfnskfs

but i think as an adaptation OLT is working well so far!! it's not as ostentatiously balls-to-the-wall insane as the og was but i think that's bc it's very rooted in thai comedic conventions so it has its own unique flair to it. the important thing is that tonally speaking i feel a lot of heart in this episode, particularly in the character writing, which was my favorite part about the og so i hope that continues over the run of the show!

shout out to earth, mix, and krit for the acting prowess on display - the success of this story hinges so much on the charisma of the main actors and they are all three so far nailing it. i like their interpretations of the characters and how you can trace their roots to ossan's love but how they also stand on their own within their own contexts

some smart adaptation choices being made, my personal favorites revolving around Mo's character and the added backstory bw Mo and Heng. i remember when the pilot dropped and it was implied Mo and Heng were longtime friends, i thought that was a neat choice to tailor the story more toward earthmix's dynamic but did stray a bit far from the og. then the full trailer dropped and it seemed like they dropped that choice which i found a bit disappointing but made sense if they wanted to keep close to the source material. i think this interpretation with them knowing each other from the probation period, and Mo secretly holding onto the potential of having maintained a longer relationship but giving up on that years ago, is the best of both worlds and lends interesting layers to the dynamic - it doesn't change too much on Heng's end but it gives Mix as Mo a lot to work with which is good bc they have the screentime to tackle that kind of character work with this show [and he really excels with that quiet brand of yearning i think!]

It also gives weight to Mo's decision to actually step up and fight for Heng at the end of the ep - "this time, i won't lose you to anyone" - and i think provides some interesting hints to his later character conflict toward the end of the story

Small thing in comparison but i thought it was fun that Mo established he was a lightweight in an almost throwaway comment and then at the end of the ep was shown to be drinking beer before going into the bathroom - you know i always appreciate some good visual storytelling!

LOVE the incorporation of Mix's northern background into Mo's character. pls correct me if i'm wrong, i'm not super familiar with thai culture/dialects, but from the flashback scene i was getting the vibe that Heng was picking up on Mo's accidental slip into northern dialect [i think??] and accent as a possible source of insecurity. really fleshes out Mo's character as someone who is quite conscious of how he comes across and possibly has some deep-running insecurities about being an outsider

it says a lot about Heng's character too - his empathy, his ability to put people at ease, etc. - and i thought it was just such a sweet way for them to connect and establish some history, as well as showing how much thought was put into earth and mix for these roles specifically

i remain unsure about the boss character which was my biggest hang up with ossan's love the series [to be clear i actually really liked the boss character in that show and thought he was pretty severely underserved and underutilized; and to me the choice of earthmix as a very well-established branded pairing for this series sidelines the boss character even more at least on the promotion side of things] but i do like the choices they are making for his character to establish him as his own entity. my favorite was the speech at the company event, which highlighted his values as a boss and also hinted to Heng's own values and the kind of person he is aspiring to be

i thought his confession was really sweet too - i mean what can top the iconic hearts of the og version but there was a groundedness to this version i found really compelling. i would love for them to do some more with grief and him grappling with queerness later in life but i won't hold my breath on that sdkfjsndkfd

regardless! i also thought it was interesting to place the confession after the hospital scene rather than before, gives the feeling they're going to efforts to make the boss seem more sympathetic in his motivations which makes me very eye emoji

really funny the way heng is like visibly pleading for mo to stay with him when the boss is around and mo just nopes out of the whole situation, and this happens multiple times LOL - says a lot about mo's character as well, and i'm really looking forward to seeing his dynamic with the boss evolve

i also think it's really funny the sheer difference between heng in mo's flashback scene versus real life present day heng KSJDNSKJDS i'm not sure how intentional this is but i do like to think the difference in portrayal is to highlight how differently mo sees/remembers heng versus how heng sees himself and the world [this latter part is something i had a stronger sense of in the og series but i do think it still comes across here, with thai comedy's trademark sound effects pulling double duty]

i'm actually so excited for the rest sjkdfnskdfns i can't wait to see how this develops! and with TWELVE EPISODES for an earthmix series i am SEATED!

#sarah.txt #ossan's love thailand #story meta #bold of me to assume i wouldn't go lit major on main about an earthmix show KSJNDKSNDSKJND oops #you know what... considering my time in skamverse fandom... it's astonishing i could be surprised by this lol

17 notes · View notes

an-spideog · 1 year ago

Note

haigh a chara tá siúl agam go bhfuil tú ceart go leor! i was wondering do you know any resources for learning Gaelainn? despite being from munster, in school we just learnt standard irish, but id really love to learn more munster irish. is breá liom do bhlag btw tá sé an-cabhrach <3

Míle baochas :) I do indeed know several resources, I made use of a lot of them lol, there's kind of two categories - Stuff about the dialect and stuff in the dialect. I'll start with 'about'.

Info about West Munster Irish

There's only 1 modern textbook I know of which teaches munster Irish, and it's kind of a rough read lol. This is Teach Yourself Irish (1961) (audio). The book is really really dense, one paragraph will contain a lot of information, and that can make it pretty easy to miss things, but it's still a very useful book - and much easier to use if you already have some Irish. It teaches Cork Irish but Cork and Kerry are quite similar (Kerry has a stronger Gaeltacht though so you're more likely to hear Kerry Irish). This book also has a weird transcription system for how to pronounce words, ignore it, learn the sounds of the language separately, and listen to the recordings that come with the book. Their system is buckwild and nobody else uses it.

You should also skip the sections labeled "rules for aspiration" and "rules for eclipsis", rather than reading them right at the start and use them as a reference if you ever need to.

An Teanga Bheo - Corca Dhuibhne is a great book to get some knowledge on Kerry Irish as long as you can read Irish pretty well, since it describes lots of the important features. But it's a reference text and an overview, not a textbook. If you don't feel that comfortable reading in Irish or want to be able to search, you can use this online translation

Shameless plug, I talk about Munster Irish on my youtube channel, and I try and share info which people wouldn't find easily otherwise, new video maybe out this weekend maybe. An Loingseach on youtube - He sometimes gets bogged down in the linguistic weeds and doesn't edit his videos at all lol, but he knows his stuff.

There's a blog called corkirish.com and it has some useful info on it but the guy who used to run it is an awful shitter, I'm hoping that with more other people sharing resources we can make that blog irrelevant.

If you're at all interested in linguistics, there's more technical books describing the dialect which can be useful as references.

The Irish of West Muskerry - This is a book talking about the pronunciation of Cork Irish, in English, but using a lot of phonetic terms and symbols. Quite useful if you know how to read them.

Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne - This is a book talking about the pronunciation and structure of Kerry Irish, in Irish, again using a lot of linguistic terminology. This one will be getting an updated English version at some point soon, hopefully.

The Linguistic Atlas and Survey of Irish Dialects (LASID) is a series of books showing the results of surveys where they went around to different Irish speaking regions and asked them what words they'd use for specific things, it gives you really cool maps like this: (Showing you how "Gaeilic" is used in donegal, "Gaeilge" is used in Galway, and "Gaelainn" is used in Kerry)

This map is actually from a web version of the first book which is quite handy. The second book isn't available as a site but there are pdfs and it only focuses on munster so you can see some differences with in munster.

Stuff in the Dialect

Things to Read

We're probably the luckiest in terms of things to read when studying the Munster Dialect because there have been so many authors, and so many authors who write very dialectally. So a lot of munster features you see very prominently in writing.

Books by Maidhc Dainín Ó Sé (a lot of fiction as well as one autobiography)

Books by Peig Sayers (There's school editions of at least her main book (Peig), try to avoid those and find the dialectal version in a library (Peig - a scéal féin), and she has written other books)

Books by Pádraig Ó Cíobháin (I haven't read any of these yet personally and I've heard they can be quite hard by nature of being very poetic and sometimes abstract)

Fiche Blian ag Fás by Muiris Ó Súilleabháin (similar to Peig, this is autobiographical)

Books by Tomás Ó Criomhthain (similar to Peig and MÓS these are autobiographical)

Books by Peadar Ua Laoghaire (Fiction, these are quite old - 100 years - and that can make them more difficult, but they can be pretty good)

Béaloideas and Dúchas.ie - these ones are harder to read than the others for various reasons but can often be a lot more interesting. Béaloideas is a journal of Irish folklore which you can find on JSTOR for free, and dúchas.ie has typed and handwritten stories collected in ireland, overlapping with Béaloideas to some extent. They can be harder to understand since sometimes the writing is intentionally over-dialectal to preserve the traits, but it's often more interesting since you can find fun little stories about different things. Stories from these collections are also sometimes put into smaller books or collections. (Béaloideas ó Chléire, an Seanchaidhe Muimhneach) you can usually find those books on Archive.org

Things to Listen To

Beo ar Éigean - Chatty podcast, one of the hosts has kerry Irish

Saol Ó Dheas - Munster Gaeltacht news show, not the most interesting if you don't live in the munster gaeltacht but there's a lot of it and the host has really good Irish, so you can focus on that even if the stories aren't gripping lol

Cartlann Bhóthar na Léinsí - Munster Archive show, they pull out older recordings of even more traditional speakers, and the host has very good Irish too, the older recordings are quite challenging to understand, but can be good.

Things to Watch

Seal le Dáithí - Talk show on TG4, host has Kerry Irish

Ros na Rún - Some of the characters have Munster Irish, it's a minority though

What did I do?

This isn't necessarily a guide, it's just what I did specifically.

After learning standardy Irish at school, I started talking to people on discord (Craic le Gaeilge and Celtic Languages), this was really helpful because I got to talk to a lot of knowledgeable people and get conversation practice even without being near to Irish speaking areas or events.

I also started listening to Beo Ar Éigean to practice my listening. I stuck to standard for a little while here and got to grips with basic grammar stuff because I was focusing on exams and stuff, but eventually I was taken with Munster Irish because some of the people I talked to a lot used it and because I liked synthetic forms. So I started working through Teach Yourself Irish with the help of people on discord, and that gave me a good basis in munster specific grammar and forms. From there I asked lots of questions (v important) and read the Irish of West Muskerry because I'm a nerd, wouldn't really recommend this if you're not that interested but it is kind of fun if you are. That helped me get a better understanding of Irish pronunciation (and spelling as a result of that). (I also read Peig at some point here) After that I started listening to a lot of Irish, trying to do at least 2 hours a day over one summer. An Saol Ó Dheas every day on my commute to work, and other stuff too, just trying to get as much exposure as I could. I use the host, Helen Ní Shé as my "language parent" - that is, I try to model my speech after hers. And currently I'm still focusing on just getting more and more exposure, and I've been reading more books in Irish.

#gaeilge #irish language #gaelainn #learning irish #irish dialects #resources #munster irish #hope it's not too much lol

48 notes · View notes

trashcanwithsprinkles · 11 months ago

Note

Ever since I saw that you like zhongtham... the idea has been living rent free on my head, thanks for build this roman empire in my brain lmao so...... TELL ME MORE, what are your thoughts on their relationship? how the people around them react to their relationship??

(of course, only if you want to, I hope you have a nice day!!)

oh god

ultimately i think what they both need is understanding? in the sense that- both have very specific experiences in their day-to-day lives that aren't exactly the common shared experience between most other people. zhongli is a fucking eons-long being and alhaitham is not neurotypical. like he's autistic, idk how else we want to put it, that's what he is. zhongli, meanwhile, by virtue of not being a human and not having a strictly human way of processing the world, cannot be autistic since- again, not human. but this does make him autistic-coded, if that makes any sense. my man despises slimy foods on the basis of the texture (yes, this comes from trauma, but what bothers him is still the texture. that's coding). he's not human so he has different sensory experiences, probably more acute than humans. he's been described as a blockhead. he seems like he'd have a very specific routine he follows. he's very exacting on his field of expertise. the whole 'haha no mora no wallet' situation comes from the fact that his brain is still logically thinking he can just make mora (which, given everything, is a perfectly valid thing to still be hung up on), and so he forgets his money because his mind insists the way of the world is that he can just make it - but he can't anymore, and for an arbitrary reason, too. he's the literal god of contracts: what are contracts if not a parameter of very logical pre-established rules you have to follow? and he doesn't bend on those contracts, because he's of the mindset that if you made them in the first place, you knew what you were getting into, so what's the problem. all combined, and added with the fact that he's not human, and you cannot call him neurotypical. because he just does not function to match human standards of what 'neurotypical' even is.

so like- we don't know that they've met in canon, but we have decent reason to believe it's a very real possibility. the same way you could say gaming and ganyu have probably either met or seen each other at least once despite neither ever mentioning the other or appearing together on screen, because- well, he handles a delivery agency, she works for the qixing, they live in the same city, they're both familiar with cloud retainer, ganyu moves around a lot and knows a lot of people, and gaming seems pretty social. you get what i mean, right? in that same sense, i think it's perfectly possible for alhaitham and zhongli to have met at some point. granted nowhere near as probable as two people actually living in the same city, but notable enough nonetheless: alhaitham knows twenty languages, for that quota to exist i have to assume that each nation has at least their own unique language (since they all seem to speak the same thing in-game, tho, i can only translate that as all nations having their unique writing script- which they do). idk how many languages you could pull out of regional dialects in teyvat, but the most logical and easiest and obvious thing to do here if you were told to go learn 20 languages to graduate is to first go for the main most spoken languages and then fill in the gaps w regional dialects or more obscure no-longer-spoken ancient dialects. so we stand to reason alhaitham must know liyuean (?) right? and unless he learned it from within the confines of sumeru (which is possible tbf), then he must've traveled to liyue in order to learn the damn language. with liyue having quite the decently-preserved history, he might've picked other regional dialects up since they'd be easier to study next to like- idk, an obscure old language from mondstadt or smth. so if you're a student in liyue on a quest for knowledge trying to learn the language and possibly other obscure dialects, who are you going to go after? fellow scholars. what do all fucking scholars in liyue do when people have highly-specific needs and questions? point to fucking zhongli. so you get where the idea comes from. you can't tell me its completely implausible (for a headcanon) for zhongli and alhaitham to have met at some point, not the same way i'd raise eyebrows at like- headcanoning candace and zhongli having met based solely on in-game info. or- ei and sigewinne. y'know?

so like- alhaitham needs to learn liyuean (+ maybe other regional dialects bc 20 sounds like quite a lot for 7 nations, 8 if you count khaenri'ah), he goes to liyue, he gets to learning and then runs into the roadblock of not many scholars being familiar enough with ancient dialects for him to become fluent in them from their input alone, so the scholars are like 'yeah dw we know a guy, he's super knowledgable' and so they point him to zhongli, zhongli is like 'yea sure i can teach you, what do you need?'. idk how long it'd take alhaitham to learn liyuean (+ whatever else), but i'd assume he'd bunker down in liyue for most of that time. so let's say like- 6 months, and it counts as like a 'foreign languages' course where haravatat students get given money and are shipped off to learn (bear in mind 6 months sounds like stupid little to become fluent in an entire language let alone possibly a few others, but we'll just assume alhaitham is a prodigy (he seems to be) + since it's not a whole language and just a script, then it can be done).

so he stays in liyue for a while. i'd guess learning from zhongli most of that while. they're two guys who like peace and quiet and reading and investigating and they're both rather knowledgable (the gap is obviously abyssmal but still). you can imagine them just- going to a tea house and sitting down with tea for hours on end in amiable silence and quiet grammar exercises. i cannot see them not getting along. alhaitham is practical and so is zhongli, zhongli has a lot to say but it's always with purpose and informative and for a reason, and alhaitham is just happy to absorb knowledge. alhaitham is effective and to the point and zhongli (a battle general) would probably be perfectly happy rolling with it and being effective and to the point in turn. maybe they start having lunch together some days (zhongli does seem to do that with acquaintances a lot so it's not strange of him) and alhaitham just doesn't want any stewy soups and zhongli doesn't question it bc he's the one asking chef mao to dice and slice his fish into oblivion. sumeru is big on spices so alhaitham would probably have no problems whatsoever w the jueyun chilli. he'd also probably pick up on using chopsticks easily enough bc he's a perfectionist. zhongli would realise like two seconds into their introductions that alhaitham can hear him perfectly loud and clear w the headgear on and never bother commenting on it at all. alhaitham would also probably clock zhongli's more acute senses two seconds in and be relieved he doesn't have to raise his voice around people for no reason all the time. catch the patrons at the tea houses being confused and mildly unsettled by the two guys on the corner table just mumbling stuff to the other with a pile of books between them lmao

i cannot see their relationship being like- exciting in the sense that big shocking things happen. i just think they're both too smart and good at communicating w each other that shit like that just wouldn't catch them off guard. alhaitham would probably hear about legends of the adepti throughout his stay in liyue and quietly figure mr zhongli might be an adeptus but never bother saying anything because why should he care about what mr zhongli is? it's not his business, and it doesn't make him not-mr zhongli. so it's whatever. i also don't think any drama would pop up 🤷‍♂️ again they're too smart and hypercompetent for any misunderstandings to appear. by virtue of both of them being non-neurotypical they'd also understand each other in particular ways, so they'd easily be able to figure out any stuff and sand off any rough edges. it wouldn't be an exciting ship, it wouldn't be a ship full of ups and downs and drama and twists and turns and spice and oh the romance of it all. they both strike me as ace af and if not aro then absolutely somewhere in the spectrum, alhaitham more than zhongli.

but i'm an absolute sucker for non-verbal comunication and quiet understanding and an almost telepathic camraderie that would be so funny from the outside so i just think they'd be a delight. like the perfect team. they get each other, they're both smart, they're both strong (again, the gap is abyssmal). absolute academic weapons the both of them. catch someone being an ass about a contract and zhongli just staring disappointed and alhaitham next to him equally disappointed but listing off every single reason why they're being stupid about it also. zhongli's a bit too nice to say any of that stuff aloud but you can't tell me he wasn't running a constant 'chat are you seeing this shit?' in his head during his first story quest w kliment. alhaitham knows he's already got the 'freak' reputation so he just goes 'well if you want to keep digging i'm happy to hand you a shovel'.

as for other characters' reactions to them- i'd have to sit and think about them? idk how the liyue gang would react bc idk how they'd work in a canon setting? i can't see zhongli leaving liyue and i can't see alhaitham leaving sumeru either. if i had to pick one, alhaitham seems more likely for like- leave sumeru for plot reasons. and then go 'okay fuck this' and go to zhongli like 'you're the only bitch i respect in this house'. but outside of plot contrivances, hu tao does send zhongli off on random errands? so maybe he could pop up in sumeru from time to time. idk how the liyue gang would get to meet alhaitham then but if there is one character that absolutely gets to meet zhongli is kaveh bc the man is almost everywhere alhaitham is + they literally live together.

i think it would be fucking hilarious. like alhaitham: oh yeah a friend is coming over btw. don't be weird about it kaveh: why would i be weird about it what are you on kaveh: ... kaveh: ... kaveh: a what alhaitham: a friend kaveh: what alhaitham: i don't think the bimarstan is open at this hour if you got something in your ear kaveh: what friend kaveh: you don't have friends kaveh: ...you can just say nilou alhaitham: ??? zhongli: hello kaveh: who- what. what- who are you alhaitham: a friend from liyue. the one i said was coming over. like five minutes ago kaveh: what zhongli: is he alright alhaitham: he's never been alright, dw about him. the study is this way

#you opened the absolute floodgates my bad LMAO #anyway #yeah;;

24 notes · View notes

useless-catalanfacts · 1 year ago

Note

Hello I love your content! I'm hoping you can help me understand something about Catalan in Mallorca vs Barcelona.

One of my favorite football players is Mariona Caldentey, she has been playing for FC Barcelona for 10 years but originally is from Mallorca. There is a whole thread of criticism on X for her changing her accent (I think?) when she speaks in FCB videos and to Barcelona press. Why are folks so offended by this? Would the journalists be able to understand her if she used her native accent?

Here is the thread: https://x.com/bibiloni/status/1799091989767704880

Hello! Thank you ☺️

Her accent is 100% understandable to people from Barcelona, the reason for changing is not that she won't be understood. Some people from Mallorca can have a very strong accent that's difficult for the rest of us to understand when not used to it (also some people from outside the islands might not even try 🙄*), but that's not her case. She has a noticeable Mallorcan accent but it's not difficult to understand.

When she spoke in the FCB video, she was using a very specific accent that's not a standard Barcelona accent either (or at least not the original accent you would have heard in Barcelona 80 years ago), she was using the accent of people who usually speak Spanish and don't know how to make all the right sounds of the Catalan language (this is what "xava" means, that the guy who made the tweet mentions). So the man who made the tweet is saying she changed her accent because the "cool" accent is the "xava" one, when her initial (Mallorcan) accent is already correct and she shouldn't have needed to change.

So there's a few things to consider here.

Speaking an accent from a different part of the country where other people have a different accent, and even more so when this place has a different standard (each part of the Catalan Countries has its own standard). It's not uncommon for speakers of non-standard or non-prestige accents to change their accent to what they perceive as the standard or well-regarded accent where they move to (think for example, David Tennant's own Scottish accent vs how he speaks in British TV). This has to do with interiorized prejudice, and the OP of that tweet is remarking that her own initial accent was perfectly genuine and correct, so she didn't need to erase it.

She already knows how to speak Catalan correctly with perfectly correct sounds, and she decided to start speaking it wrongly. Imagine if a native English speaker decided to change their accent and start making a noticeable mistake, like rolling the Rs. It's quite strange, but in our case it again has to do with the situation of prestige. Speaking Catalan with its correct (non-Spanish) sounds, and even more when you have a noticeable non-standard accent, very easily gets you made fun of and labelled a "farmer" and "rural" (even if you're from a big city) which has the implicit meaning of "uneducated", "unrefined", "ridiculous", etc. I'm from near Barcelona and have a very soft accent, not like Girona or Lleida or anyone that can be more noticed, yet when I went to uni my Spanish-speaker friends from the Barcelona Metropolitan Area always imitated my accent exaggerating it to laugh at it. It's way worse for people from Girona, Central Catalonia, or any other that has strong è/é and ò/ó difference and strongly marked əs. Both of which Mallorcan has. People are already often looked down upon or thought of as "funny", "ridiculous" or "shouldn't be speaking Catalan instead of Spanish on camera or in Important™ situations" for speaking Catalan at all, and these same feelings become exaggerated when the accent is perceived as "more Catalan" (more different from Spanish, or from the countryside/not from Barcelona Metropolitan Area).

Code-switching. It's very common for people who live in a place with a different dialect/accent from their original one since they're young to learn to speak the way most people around them speak, even unconsciously. These people gain the ability to change accents depending on who they're speaking with (I have a friend whose family is from a town near Lleida but she grew up where I'm from and it was mind-blowing the first time I heard her speak to her parents!). If she's been in Barcelona for 10 years, it's not unusual that she can do this. So I assume most people around her, or a considerable amount, speak "xava" accent and it caught on.

*Catalan people aren't as used to hearing Catalan accents outside of their own as would be normal. Because of the Spanish government's restrictions on Catalan-language media and Catalan institutional collaboration, we are kept separate. We've talked about this before in the way that it's illegal to air TV and radio from Catalonia in the Valencian Country, or from the Valencian Country in Catalonia. This is done to dilute the Catalan Countries, so we're not as strong as we would be together. This has the result on Catalan speakers from each "autonomic community" (administrative regions in the Spanish system) only being able to hear their own speech variety(ies). For this reason, people from Catalonia can struggle with Balearic Islands, because many of them might never have heard it before. But if we listen for like 2 minutes, the mystery is gone and it's not difficult. But people might get put back at first, so Mallorcans with a strong accent who come to Catalonia can feel the need to soften their accent.

Lastly, the guy who made that tweet is a linguist who is quite famous for making remarks about extremely small details. He makes interesting points from a linguist point of view but don't take his word as representative of what most people believe.

We can't know for sure why she chooses to change her accent the way she does unless she tells us herself, but it definitely feels surprising to hear her speak in different accents! It's probably a mix of more than one reason.

The OP and the people in that thread are defending that everyone should feel okay speaking their accent, and OP points out that there's a sociological reason why she chooses to hide her accent when speaking to media outside of Mallorca. He's pointing out that it's more correct to speak her original accent (Mallorcan) than the one where you would usually be able to tell that whoever is speaking it isn't a native speaker (xava), and that it's a shame that accents are invisibilitzed to sound more "acceptable" or "cool".

I hope it makes more sense now!

#ask #anonymous #sociolinguistics #lingblr

36 notes · View notes

rustycopper4use · 3 months ago

Text

Its Always Been You

Pt. 20

…

“Welcome!”

…

Rose petals fly as the host club gets revealed, Edo era cosplay. Each host is wearing blue and white attire with the exception of Tamaki, who is wearing purple and black.

“Tamaki, you’re dressed as Ryōma Sakamoto, right?” A girl stared in awe.

“He’s so wild and handsome!” Another squeals.

“Yeah, I’m handsome, I’m wild, and I’m gonna steal your hearts, pretty ladies.” Tamaki coolly spoke, carrying an air of rebellious attitude. The three girls in front of Tamaki squirm in their seats, faces flushed

“We love it when you talk like a samurai, Tamaki!”

“Why is he speaking in the Tosa dialect?” Haruhi cringed looking over at the blonde.

“You know,” Haruhi lightly pulls on the edge of her blue sleeve, “I never thought that late Edo era cosplay would this popular.”

“I never saw the appeal either, closest I got to enjoying is when I saw Lady SnowBlood, and I don’t think it really counts.” Y/n sighed.

“Come on, you two can’t be serious.” Hikaru and Karou slide next to Y/n. “That’s like one of the basics.”

“There are plenty of girls that find the late Edo era totally fascinating. Particularly the Shinsengumi.” Karou notes.

“And most of the girls who like it are complete maniacs about it!” Honey joins in.

“Are they popular because of the noble nature in which they sacrificed their young lives for their country?” A Renge shaped voice breaks through, making the hosts to turn her way.

“Or could it be because of their stoic determination? Their choice to live out their lives by the Bushido code? Or could it be…”

Karou takes this as his cue as he dramatically stumbles, getting caught by his brother, Hikaru.

“Don’t die.” Hikaru stoically spoke, holding Karou.

“I’m done for, brother. Let me go.”

A group of girls watching swoon over the display, further proving Renge’s point.

“…That we’re intrigued because the worship of this group of renegade young men is something forbidden.”

“The Ikedaya Inn may be well-known, but it’s only because of Hijikata. Just imagining him after the Battle of Toba-fushimi, his back to the north, as he sorrowfully wandered the streets of his homeland attempting to defend the honour of the Shinsengumi all by himself!” She cheered, as she spun.

“Oh, I could eat three giant bowls of rice.”

“That was one hell of a history lesson, Renge.” Haruhi’s voice strained.

“Not having us cast ourselves in specific roles was good advice. Allowing the guests to just be free to fantasize on their own was truly a brilliant idea, Renge.” Kyoya praised, writing in his black notebook.

“I’m very impressed.”

“I told you it would work. But you know…” Renge looks over at Haruhi, who is looking off into the distance.

“I think dressing Haruhi as Soji Okita was perfect.” Renge grinned, as girls voiced their own feelings towards Haruhi.

“He’s wonderful as the handsome, evanescent young swordsman!”

“Haruhi, please don’t die! I couldn’t handle it!”

“Always the crowd pleaser, aren’t you Haruhi?” Y/n teased, breaking Haruhi from her inner monologue.

“Though I will say…” Y/n looks over at Mori, “He seems to fit the clubs theme the best out of us all.”

“So Mori has to be Kai Shimada, don’t you think?” A girl whispered, watching Mori from behind a room divider.

“No way. He’s totally Yamazaki.” A different girl whispered.

“I think itd be super cool if he was Soma!” An other girl joins in.

Suddenly Mori stands up, turns around and stabs through a different wall.

“Mori-Senpai!” Haruhi gasped.

“Why the sudden lunge?” Karou turned pale.

“Not getting enough attention?” Hikaru shakily spoke.

“Is it because the author forgets to include interactions with you and me!” Y/n exclaimed.

“Please calm down, Mori-senpai, I know you’re upset that you only have one line a chapter. We’re three-fourths through the book, and you haven’t had your own chapter. Is that it? I’m sorry!” Tamaki screams.

“No.” He pulls out the blade from the screen, sliding open revealing a red-haired male on the ground.

“We have a trespasser.”

“Takashi Morinozuka!” The guy charges at Mori.

“A surprise attack!” The club screams out.

“Senpai!” The male falls onto his knees, bowing in-front of Mori. “Please, take me on as your apprentice!”

A wave of confusion falls upon the club, while Honey simply giggles.

“Kasanoda?” Y/n eyes widened.

“Y/n?”

…

“Ritsu Kasanoda, first year, Class D. Heir to the third-generation head of the Kasanoda Syndicate, the most powerful gang in the Kanto area. He was admitted this year into Ouran Academy’s high school. He has long red hair, a mean-looking appearance, is reserved, and has few friends.” Kyoya flips the page in his notebook.

“It is said if your eyes meet his, you’ll have bad dreams for three months. Bump into him, you’ll end up in the hospital. And talking back to him sends you to an early grave.”

“He is so feared by his classmates that they call him the walking blizzard.”

“Seriously? But why would a human weapon like yourself wanna be Mori-senpai’s apprentice?” Tamaki questions.

“Well, because… Look, I may be tough, but I’m not a human weapon.” Kasanoda timidly spoke.

“I was just born with a face that makes me look mean all the time.”

Kyoya begins to write in his notebook, while Haruhi leans over trying to read it.

“Well, at least you’re aware of it, Casanova.” Hikaru and Karou both spoke.

“It’s Kasanoda!” He grumbled.

“Bossa Nova.” The two spoke again.

“Kasanoda.” Y/n repeats.

“Yeah like we said, Bossa Nova.”

“I said it was Kasanoda! Do you wanna die?” He snarled, causing majority of the host club to hide behind the sofa, the only ones left on it were: Kyoya, Haruhi and Y/n.

“Man, he really is mean-looking.” Tamaki and the twins shivered.

“Sorry about that.” Kasanoda falls back into his seat, resting his palm in his forehead.

“This always happens ‘cause of the way I look. I’ve always had this mean look ever since I was born. Even when I was just a tyke, my dad would say, ‘Just you wait. My son’s gonna be the greatest gangster of all time.’. So ever since I was a kid, I was taught how to be a godfather of a gang.” He sighed before continuing again,

“My pops was a good teacher, and he made me a true gangster. That’s great and all, but everyone’s afraid to come near me. Even my fellas are scared of me. So I’m all alone.”

His voice cracks, “It’s like they forget I’m young and sometimes I just wanna play. I wanna get out with my fellas and play a game of kick the can.”

“A good game of kankeri is awesome.” Tamaki smiled.

“But I’ve been livin’ the life of a gangster, and I don’t know how to interact with regular people.”

“Aw, poor guy.” Honey pouts.

“Morinozuka-senpai, that’s was I need you to show me. How do you manage to have so many friends when you you’re just as mean-looking as me?” Mori’s eyes widened as his drop dropped.

“You’re expressionless, distant, and you hardly ever talk. Plus you’ve got a mug that looks like a watchdog from hell. So, how come you’ve got so many friends? What are you doin’ that I’m not?”

“Please, teach me your secrets! I’m begging you!”

“So how do you know this guy exactly, Y/n?” Hikaru turns to look at Y/n.

“Oh my mother does dealings with the Kasanoda’s for years now, mostly for protection on our casinos. Because of that I used to see him around a lot growing up.” Y/n shrugs.

“Guess that makes sense…” Karou looks back at Kasanoda.

“What now boss?” Hikaru now stares worriedly at the red-head.

“Don’t you think we should do something about this?” Karou adds.

“Just leave him alone. Don’t get involved. Like he said, he just wants to be Mori-senpai’s apprentice.” Tamaki stands up, now towering over Kasanoda.

“So that means Mori-senpai decides what to do. This isn’t something that any of us should be interfering with.”

“Tamaki.” He looks over at a very now distressed Mori, this can’t be good.

“Well, in that case, since you insist, Mori-senpai, I, Tamaki Suoh, promise you I will do whatever I can do to assist you.”

“Yeah, right. He wanted to get involved so badly, he couldn’t bear it.” Haruhi snidely spoke, getting a laugh out of Y/n.

“Now lift your head-“ Tamaki tilts Kasanoda’s head,

“Bossa Nova.”

“It’s Kasanoda.”

“From now on, you may address me as King. Okay, Bossa Nova.” Tamaki still couldn’t get it right.

“That’s not my name!”

“Are you listening to me, Bossa Nova?” Tamaki raised his voice.

“Yeah.” He straightened his posture.

“There are many differences between you and our beloved Mori-senpai, but there is also one very definitive thing that you are lacking, and that is a lovely item!”

Kasanoda gasped.

“A lovely item?”

“Bossa Nova, I’d like to introduce you to a lovely item named Mitsukuni.” Tamaki points over to the cutesy Honey.

“Sure, Mori-senpai may be kind of mean-looking, and he may seem distant when you first meet him, but what if we put Mitsukuni on his shoulders? Suddenly, it’s like he’s a forest teddy bear that all the animals adore. In addition, this lovely items also plays up Mori-senpai’s strong and silent character. Even without saying anything, just by placing Honey-senpai next to him, people begin to have a newfound admiration for Mori-senpai. Suddenly, he’s seen in a positive light as a nice, quiet, young gentleman. That’s the plan!”

Tamaki looks at Kasanoda with a sense of determination.

“I’m not exaggerating when I say most of Mori-senpai’s charm is directly related to his friend Honey-senpai.” Tamaki finally stops talking.

“Yeah, you’re right!” Haruhi and the twins nodded in agreement.

“Now that you mentioned it, Mori-senpai…”

“Doesn’t really do anything.”

“Yeah, his position’s totally a bust.”

“Now you’re just being too harsh.” Y/n sighed, feeling bad for Mori.

“Now that I think about it… you also don’t live up to your role.” Hikaru very rudely spoke.

“I didn’t exactly choose my role.” Y/n bites back.

“Are they right? Have you really been using me this entire time?” Honey’s voice cracks and tears pool in his big eyes. Mori immediately slammed his hands on the table, very clearly shaking his head back and forth.

“I’m sorry, but Honey-senpai is on a long-term lease to Mori-senpai right now, so I can’t let you borrow him.” Tamaki unknowingly adds fuel to the fire.

“Is Tama-chan telling the truth? Are you renting me?” He cried, Mori shakes his head faster.

“You guys are just putting through the wringer this chapter.” Y/n quietly chuckled.

“Don’t worry, I’ll come up with something to take his place. But the next thing we need to discuss is your disturbing Yankee fashion sense.” Tamaki then snapped his fingers. “Now, Hitachiin brothers…”

“Sir!”

“It’s your job to make this man more fashionable.”

“Rodger!” The two leaped over grabbing Kasanoda and forcing him into the changing rooms.

After a moment he stumbled out, now wearing fake dreads, sunglasses, a bandana, and holding a teddy bear.

“Dear god…” Y/n cringed.

…A day Later…

“Huh? Somebody’s out to get Mori-senpai?” Tamaki tilted his head to the side.

“No doubt about it. I was there. I saw everything. He’s obviously gotten on somebody’s bad side.” Kasanoda bluntly spoke.

“Nah, that’s impossible.” Hikaru waves a dismissive hand.

“There’s no way Mori-senpai would ever be on someone’s bad side.” Karou makes a similar motion.

“How can you be sure? You don’t know that.” Kasanoda grumbles.

“It’s just very hard to believe.” Y/n poorly explained.

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that.” Tamaki then slides in a white-board with a cartoony drawing of Kasanoda on it.

“Operation: Bossa Nova’s Total Image Make-over is in full-effect as of right now!” He gestures towards the board.

“Yes, sir!” The club does a soldiers solute.

“Hold on!” Kasanoda stands up from his seat, his shoulders tensing.

“What the hell are you talkin’ about? What do you mean you’re startin’ right now? You trying to pretend that yesterday never happened? Thanks to yesterday’s makeover, people were even more afraid of me than they usually are.”

Tamaki slides behind Kasanoda, now adorning a more stern expression.

“Now hold on a second. Let me explain, Bossa Nova. Yesterday, the twins were just getting a little carried away. I hope that you forgive them.”

“I’m sorry. I will follow your lead from here on out.” Kasanoda mumbled. Now the host club goes back to the drawing board, literally. Leaving Kasanoda with Y/n.

“Kasanoda, they probably aren’t the best bunch of people you want to help you.” Y/n sits down next to him.

“Well, thank you, but Morinozuka recommended these guys to me. Besides, I don’t have much of a choice. Without their help, I got nothin’.”

“Yeah I guess.” Y/n fiddled with the cuffs of his school jackets sleeves.

“It’s been forever since I’ve seen you, last time I saw you was what? Beginning of middle school?” Y/n grinned.

“So, Y/n, do you still like to play kick the can?” Kasanoda nervously asked.

“I mean it’s not my favourite game in the world, but it might be fun to play for old times sake.” Kasanoda just stares at Y/n.

“Is there something wrong?”

And before Y/n can get a response he of course gets interrupted by the host club.

“Bossa Nova!” Tamaki called out, the other behind him.

“Yes!” Kasanoda’s voice cracked.

“I think we’ve come up with something that’ll change your tough guy image.” Tamaki shoved on black cat’s ears on Kasanoda’s head. The club simply just stared in disbelief, disappointment, and other things.

“The cat monster.” Honey so bluntly put it.

“It’s not that bad.” Y/n chuckled taking a picture.

“It is that bad, freak.” Hikaru deadpanned.

The group turns away now in a huddle.

“Well that didn’t work. I don’t know what went wrong. Renge said that kitty ears were all the rage. She said that they were a perfect lovely item. What could’ve happened?” Tamaki pounders.

“Be realistic. Putting kitty ears on him isn’t going to affect how people perceive him. He still looks mean.” Kyoya comments.

“No kidding. That was pretty lame, boss.” Hikaru complained.

“For real. If you’re gonna take it that far…”

“You might as well go all the way and make him a kitty-eared maid!” They hold up a frilly maid dress.

“Are you guys making fun of me?” His voice growled.

“Just. Let. It. Happen. The more you protest the worse it is for you.” Y/n spoke, sadly from experience.

…

A door creaks open.

“Sorry to bother you, but is the young Lord Kasanoda in here?” He stops in his tracks as he sees said young Lord, now dressed up as a cat maid surrounded by dudes. The guy gasps as he takes a step back.

“So here you are.” Kasanoda then goes up to the guy and grabs him by his shirt collar.

“Sir, it’s no big deal. You can do whatever you want in your spare time.” He nervously spat out.

“You think this is a hobby of mine? Damn it!” He lets go of the guy, throwing his cat ears on the ground and bolting out the door, the guy following after him.

“I can’t take this anymore!”

Haruhi looks down methodically at the cat ears on the floor. “Maybe an image change isn’t really what Casanova needs.”

“I think you’re right.” Honey walks up towards Haruhi.

“I sure hope he realizes it soon.”

Y/n quietly walks out the club door as well.

…

He steps foot into the garden section of the school yard, looking around for Kasanoda. As he did his eyes finally landed on the familiar red head crouching by a water fountain holding a weaved basket.

As he walked closer he could hear him speak.

“Hey, it’s looking pretty good!”

“It’s that a sparrow you got there?” Y/n sits down next him, looking down at the basket in Kasanoda’s lap.

“O-oh, Y/n. What are you doin’ here?”

“What happened to his wing, it’s all banged up.” Y/n mumbled, not hearing his question.

“I saw it fall from its nest the other day. I could tell it was hurt, so I took it to the vet. They said he’d be fine in no time.”

“That’s sweet, so, do you mind if I feed the bird.” Y/n smiled at Kasanoda.

“Go ahead.”

Y/n gently holds the sparrow, as he placed seeds in his palm for the bird to eat. He let the bird do its own thing as his watched it move around. Kasanoda

Began to have an inner monologue of his potential gay awakening, however Y/n was too fixated on the bird to see.

“Look out!” A voice called out, Haruhi? Then Honey quickly dropped kicked the paint can that was hurtling towards them, and due to some luck of god the majority of paint landed on Haruhi, while only small splatters landed on Y/n’s uniform. But the ruckus startled the bird in Y/n’s causing it to fly away.

“It flew away.” Y/n very astutely remarked.

“It flew away.” Kasanoda repeated, his face softening as his looked up at the bird.

“HARUHI!” Tamaki ran over to Haruhi, tears in his eyes.

“What happened? That’s not blood, is it?”

“Calm down Tamaki.” Haruhi sighed.

“It’s just a little paint.” Y/n picked up the can, showing it to Tamaki.

“Are you sure you’re alright, Fujioka?” Kasanoda looked over at Haruhi.

“What, was everyone just here now?” Y/n looked to see Kyoya behind Tamaki.

“Let me go you bastard!” A man said.

“Damn it! You big behemoth!” Another spoke.

Mori was right behind the group apprehending two guys.

“You’re playin’ dirty, Kasanoda! First you go and kidnap our gang boss’ kid, and then you make us deal with your damn muscle bound lackeys?” The man struggled, trying to speak free of Mori.

“We know that you kidnapped the kid. Just give him back, now!”

“We’ve heard enough out of you! Well shut you up!” The twins hold up two sets of rope.

“So I was right everyone is here.” Y/n looked amused, watching the twins tie the two students.

“What the hell is goin’ on here?” Kasanoda mutters.

“Don’t you get it? See, Takashi wasn’t on anyone’s bad side. These guys were after you.” Honey looked up at him.

“Until we caught them, we decided not to say anything to you, because we didn’t want you to have to mess with them.”

“I can’t believe it.” Kasanoda exhaled, walking up towards Mori and Honey.

“So you helped me? But how come?”

Mori reached out and gave Kasanoda a heat pat.

“We can tell who the bad guys are by lookin’ at ‘em.” Mori stoically said.

“I should probably go back and change clothes.” Haruhi looks at her paint stained uniform.

“Want us to come help you?” The twins grinned.

“Drop dead.” Haruhi walked away.

“Looks like you got a bit of paint on yourself.” Karou points at the small paint splatter on Y/n’s sleeve.

“Oh right, I’m just going to wash this off inside then.” Y/n walks away as well.

…

He sighed, looks like his jacket will have to properly washed at home. Y/n ultimately decided to just not wear his jacket for the rest of the day. As he leaves the bathroom he saw Kasanoda walk up towards the changing room Haruhi was in.

“Wait-“ but of course Y/n was too late and Kasanoda opened the door seeing Haruhi changing.

“Get out!”

Kasanoda did just that and slammed the door closed, now leaning against the door.

“Peeping Tom!” The twins towered over the red-head.

“You saw.”

“Didn’t you, Bossa Nova?”

“Kasanoda.” Y/n corrected.

“If you were here why did you let him creep on Haruhi!” Hikaru scolded.

“I didn’t let him, I just got here, I didn’t have time.” Y/n placed his school jacket on an empty table.

“No I didn’t see! I mean, I caught a glance, yeah, but it was all so fast that I didn’t—“ Kasanoda closes his eyes in embarrassment.

“It was an accident. I swear to you that I am not a pervert!” He covered his face.

“Of course you would say that.” Honey glared at him. “Sure sign of a guilty conscience.”

Kasanoda yelped out in fear.

“So, then, Fujioka’s a girl?”

“Red alert.” Hikaru looked over at his brother.

“He’s on to Haruhi’s little secret.”

“That’s not good.”

“So let’s hear it. How much of her maidenly terra incognita did you actually see?” Karou sneers.

“Well she was changing so I saw her underwear.” Kasanoda signed his death warrant.

“YOU SAW HARUHI’S UNDERWEAR!” The twins roared.

“So what do we do?” Karou gritted his teeth.

“There’s only one thing to do. We have to induce amnesia.” Karou holds onto Kasanoda, while Hikaru holds up a bat.

“That’s enough, you two. Leave assault and battery to the professionals.” Kyoya calmly states.

“What are you, made of ice? How can you be so calm about this?” Karou yelled.

“Look!” Hikaru points the end of his bat over to Tamaki. “The boss is so deep in shock, he’s regressing.” Tamaki looked pale as a ghost as he stained up at the ceiling.

“Yeah, but Tamaki is not the best judge of character when it comes to reacting normally.” Y/n cringed at Tamaki.

“Well, now the it appears the proverbial cat is out of the bag,” Kyoya pushes up his glasses. “Let’s talk.”

“Haruhi is compelled to hide the fact that she’s a girl due to certain mitigating circumstances. While we can’t physically force you to cooperate exactly, there is something I would like for you to bear in mind. Coming from the sort of family you do, I’m certain you hear all of juicy little rumours. Enough to know what is true and what is not.”

Kasanoda’s back could not be pressed any harder against the door as it is now.

“-Take the Otori family’s private police force, the Black Onion Squad. It is said that they can be mobilized against our enemies in the blink of an eye. You have heard of them, right?”

“Cmon guys, stop. Scaring Casanova.” Haruhi looks over at the man in question. “Sorry about all this.”

“Hey, Fujioka.”

“Look, it’s all right. Doesn’t really matter to me. You can tell whoever you want to.” Kasanoda looked nervously at Haruhi, still feeling all eyes on him.

“Well, Bossa Nova, since you know she’s a girl, are you in love?” Karou squinted his eyes at him.

“Uh-“ Kasanoda looked back at Y/n, his face becoming redder. Kyoya stared at Kasanoda, almost picking apart at him in his head.

…

“Tetsuya, how is the young lord?” A member asked.

“Did he refuse to eat dinner again?”

“Yeah.” Tesuya sighed.

“Damn it all, what is wrong with him? Are we not giving him the moral support like you told us to? When is he going to snap the hell out of this?”

“What about kick the can? Did I chug all those drinks for nothin’? We were supposed to play.”

“I mean, did you see his face when he came home from school today? The young lord looked like he’d just killed somebody.” A man cried.

“Stop it now! Please, everyone. You mustn’t be discouraged. The emotional support has been getting through to him, I know it. It’s just…” Testuya trailed off.

“What?”

“Well, it’s obviously that there’s something different weighing on his mind today.” Testuya looked off to the side.

“Well, then, what’s the matter?” A man called out.

“As I was bringing the young lord his dinner earlier this evening…”

…

Kasanoda was holding a daisy a plucking each petal, “like. Love. Like. Love. Like. Love.” He picked off the last petal. ‘Love’.

“I knew it, I’m in love with Y/n.”

…

“So you’re saying he’s…”

“In love?” All the men in the room chimed in.

“Does the young lord even have a chance?”

“Oh yeah. They both knew each other back when they were young, and I even see them talk in between classes.” Testuya smiled.

“Knew it each other when they were younger…?” The group repeats back.

“You don’t mean?”

“Y/n L/n does have a charming personality, I mean for a guy.” Testuya sets off chaos in the room.

“I don’t understand. What does this mean?”

“Means he’s in love with a dude! And one of our clients no less!”

…Somewhere else…

Y/n abruptly sneezes.

…

Kasanoda steps in the host club, and every guest is staring at him as he sits down on one of the sofas in the room.

“I’d like to request Y/n.”

The room erupted with gasps.

“What is this?”

“Is he for real?”

Renge twirls up on the host club with her platform with a playful laugh.

“The genuine article. At long last!”

“Renge, is it true? Is he really?” A girl walked towards Renge.

“Could he really be that kind of persuasion?”

Kasanoda eyes widened as he all the girls stare at him.

Then Y/n walks in going over towards Kyoya, and now the attention is spilt between the two.

“Sorry, I had to grab-…” Y/n looked over and saw Kasanoda at a table by himself.

“Oh! Is he requesting Haruhi? That’s nice.” Y/n smiled.

“No.” Kyoya looked up from his black notebook.

“Mori-senpai and Honey-senpai, then?” Y/n is clearly not getting the hint.

“Wait, is it me?”

“Yes. Don’t keep the guest waiting.” Kyoya looked back down at his book.

‘Harsh.’ He thought as he went over to Kasanoda’s table, now holding a tray of tea cups.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. I’ve heard you’re my guest today!” Y/n places the tray on the table as he sits down next to him.

“Yeah that’s right.” He nervously spoke, his face turned pink.

“Do you want to have a drink? I grab us some tea, but I can get something else if it’s not what you want.” Y/n holds up the tea pot.

“Uh-, tea’s fine.”

“Do you usually have sugar or anything in it?” Y/n spoke, pouring a cup for Kasanoda.

“Here, uh, let me help.”

“You’re my guest, I’ll do it. And besides I don’t mind.” Y/n slides to cup over towards him.

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s your first time at a place like this.” Y/n leaned in a little closer towards the male, causing him to jump back a little.

“Y-you sure have this down, huh?” He nervously bounces his legs under the table.

“I mean it took a while to get used to this. But eventually I learned if I just act the way I usually do around others, the people who like it stay and the people who don’t leave. It made it a lot easier to deal with once I got used to it.” Y/n gave a toothy grin.

“Hey, don’t just stand there, Kyoya-senpai. Get him out of there.” Karou gritted his teeth.

“If he’s getting along so well with his goons so well now, why does he need to be here in the first place?” Hikaru barked, matching his brothers anger.

“He’s kept Haruhi’s secret, and he’s a paying guest. I have no reason to turn him away.” Kyoya’s grip on his pen got tighter.

“But the other guests are afraid!” The two both yelled.

“No I think not.” He motions towards the star-struck guests.

“The look on his face is just priceless.” A girl cooed.

“I’ve never seen someone so in love before!”

Renge even was enjoying the scene play out, hell she was even calling her friend.

“Hello, Sumire? Forget about your stupid violin lesson and hightail it to the host club! I’m telling you, this is a one-in-million chance to witness something truly amazing!” And apparently she wasn’t the only one.

“See? We’re just fine.” Kyoya stares at his black notebook. “Thanks to him, we may even set a new record.”

“You money-grubbing enabler!” Hikaru shakes his fist at Kyoya.

“I don’t buy it for a second, you’re just as bothered by this as I am.” Karou narrows his eyes.

“Here let me just-“ Y/n grabs Kasanoda’s hands as he holds the cards, “Hold it like this, so when you shuffle the cards it won’t slip out of your hands.”

“Uh, yes. I see.” His face is just as red as his hair.

“Oh, no, he’s giving him the innocent touch approach.” Hikaru watched with his brother.

“The one which no one can resist!” Karou is seething.

“Wow. Usually you guys wouldn’t waste any time interrupting the two of them.” Honey remarks.

“Yeah, but our hands are tied. After our screw-up in Karuizawa, we’re worried Y/n will have a similar reaction as Haruhi if we butted in.” Hikaru turns to Honey.

“Karuizawa was really your screw-up, Hikaru.” Karou nudged his brother.

“I don’t really see what the big deal is, he seems nice enough towards Y/n.” Haruhi sighed.

“Hey, boss, are you done being shell-shocked yet?” Hikaru looked down at Tamaki who is in ball on the floor.

“We could use a king, right about now.” Karou also looks.

“You’re so distracted about one of your ‘kids’ that you might end up losing the other!” Karou scolded as Hikaru picked him up from the floor.

“Go get him!” They shoved him towards the table.

Tamaki robotically moves over to Y/n’s table and sits in between Y/n and Kasanoda.

“Tamaki, what do you think you’re doing?” Y/n furrowed his brows.

“Yeah no-“ Y/n got up and sat back next to Kasanoda, now sitting closer than where they were before.

“I know you’re still processing Haruhi’s whole situation, but if you gotta sit with me you can’t be between me and the guest.” Y/n tries to speak in the nicest way towards Tamaki.

“Look just-“ Y/n pulled out a rubix cube from his bag and placed it in his hands. “Play with this as a distraction.” Tamaki begins to fiddle with the cube, and not long he solves it, handing it back to Y/n.

“Look, I solved it, Y/n.” He talked robotically.

“Oh wow, that was fast.” Y/n picked up the cube and scrambled it again and gave it back to Tamaki.

“See if you can do it again.”

‘Why does it feel like I’m babysitting now. All I wanted to do was talk to an old friend of mine.’ Y/n tiredly thought. Suddenly a phone rings, Tamaki picks it up and simply says, “Ma?”

“Earth to boss! Will you snap out of it already? The longer you sit there like an idiot playing robot, the worse the situation becomes for all of us!” Karou spoke from the other side of the line.

“Ma?”

“Now listen to me carefully. You can’t let this happen. If him and that two-bit thug hit it off, he’s going to spend his life as a mob boss’s husband!”

This finally got to Tamaki, he gets up.

“Daddy won’t stand for that!” Tamaki shrieks.

“Tamaki not now. Just don’t, please.” Y/n rubbed his face, feeling a headache starting to rear its ugly head.

“Bossa Nova!” Tamaki grabs Kasanoda by the shirt collar as he continues to yell.

“Just what do you think you’re trying to do here? You established a bound with your henchmen, didn’t you? Why aren’t you with them right now?”

“Yeah! You tell ‘em boss!” Hikaru cheered.

“What about kick the can? You remember that? You should be out there enjoying life to the fullest with your friends, while you’re still young enough to appreciate it, before it all slips away right under your nose!” Tamaki ranted.

“Why are you harassing Y/n!”

“As his father, I forbid you to see him.” Tamaki points right in Kasanoda’s face.

“Wait, what?” Kasanoda muttered.

“You’re telling me that you’re Y/n’s dad? You have got to be kidding me. That’s just not possible. I’ve actually met the man and you’re nothing like him.”

Tamaki freezes in his spot.

“Oh, no.” Hikaru stares.

“He’s painted the boss into a corner.” Karou’s eye twitches.

“Well, we might not be related by blood.” Tamaki’s voice shakes.

“Okay, so, what, are you his mom’s side piece, then?”

Tamaki deflates, lowering his finger from Kasanoda’s face. “No, as a matter of a fact, I’ve never met the woman.” He whimpers.

“So I guess you really aren’t his father, aren’t you?” Kasanoda glared at the shocked blonde.

Tamaki stumbled backwards his face turned pale.

“Strictly speaking, I’m not Y/n’s real father, or even Haruhi’s.” he muttered.

“Uh, strictly speaking or otherwise.” The twins both said.

“If supposing I’m not my Haruhi’s daddy after all…”

“We don’t have to suppose it, boss.” Hikaru rolled his eyes.

“Then how can it be that I’m so fixated on her, that I neglected Y/n and let him fall in the hands of a low life punk.” He muttered pathetically. Every looks surprised at Tamaki, is he gonna put two and two together?

“What are you talking about?” Karou asked.

“When I see Haruhi with another man, why is it that I become so insanely jealous? I don’t feel similar things with Y/n. I have no right to be so protective of her. No right whatsoever.” He stared off into space.

“So then, uh, tell me what exactly is with the whole ‘making Haruhi your wife one day’ thing?” Karou’s eye twitched.

“I know! Daddies don’t typically want to marry their little girls when they’re all grown up, so they?”

“What about keeping her from kissing anyone?” Hikaru now asked.

“I only wanted to preserve those precious lips.” Tamaki spoke, a little too honestly.

“Preserve? Really? That’s a very interesting choice of word, sir. You think everything is absolutely perfect just the way it is now. And having this family setting will keep it all from changing, right?” Karou reasonably took Tamaki’s words personally.

“Hey Karou.” Hikaru looked worried at his brother.

“I don’t understand.”

“Actually, he’s got a point.” Kyoya finally buts in. “I mean, you’re delusional, yes, any halfwit could see that, but who knew that you were so…”

“Tama-chan’s completely blind when it comes to himself!” Honey chirped.

“Karou, just want did you mean by things changing?” Hikaru questioned.

“Nothing. Just a little theory I have. Which I’m probably completely wrong about.” Karou’s voice is strained.

“Uh, you think everything’s all right over there?” Kasanoda looks from behind the sofa.

“I mean, I didn’t say anything to set him off, did I?”

“Everything sets him off. But in all honesty he does treat me and Haruhi like a dad, especially since he’s way more overbearing towards his ‘daughter’. Than the son.”

Tamaki immediately stands up from the floor, with a smug aura. “Did you hear that, gentlemen? Apparently, in some ways, I am like Haruhi’s father.”

“Well, to be more precise, I think what he’s saying is, that while you do share some traits a father would have, in actuality—“ Kyoya gets interrupted by Tamaki.

“I’ve got it! I’ve got it now! I’m like a farther to those two!” Tamaki cried out in relief.

“And we lost him yet again.” Kyoya noted.

“Y/n. Do you think that we could maybe do this more often? Because I was just thinking, since you entertain girls all day long, it might kind of give you a break from all that. You know, if I came around.” Kasanoda looks at Y/n whose eyes are now focused on him.

“I mean if…” He bashfully looks away, blush dusting his cheeks. “If you want that, that is.”

Y/n gave a big grin, not that Kasanoda could see it anyways.

“Yeah of course! That way we talk more often.”

“Here it comes!” Renge cheered. The girls watch all sitting at the edge of their seats.

“Y/n I—“ Kasanoda looks back at Y/n, his leg uncontrollably shaking.

“I, uh, have something to say.” Y/n looks more intently at him. Tamaki’s face paled, and Kyoya snapped his pen in half.

“I just wanted to tell you…” He gulps before restarting, “I wanted to tell you, that I’m…”

“You’re glad we can be friends again just like the old times.” Y/n smiled, no sign of ill intent.

“I mean, I know I am. It’s nice to have someone reconnect with you.” Y/n stands up from his sit, still looking at Kasanoda.

“We’re gonna be close friends just like before.”

“Uh-oh. Hung out to dry.” Renge bluntly said. Along with the crowd of girls:

“He totally just got shot down!”

“He didn’t even get a chance to profess his love!”

“Ooh. The friends thing. That really stings!”

“I bet that rejection haunts him for the rest of his life.”

“Aw, the poor guy.”

“It’s so tragic.”

‘Okay did not think that one through. I guess if a member has to live her life as a guy, who knows what other rules Y/n himself has to follow. So be it then.’

“Of course the two of us are going to be friends again! Bestest of friends!” He so strangely spoke.

“Bossa Nova!” The twins cried out in sympathy.

“Kasanoda!”

“Casanova!”

“What’s going on? What are they even talking about?” Y/n slowly slides away as the crowd gets bigger and bigger surrounding Kasanoda.

“What’s the matter, Tamaki?” Kyoya looks over at the blonde.

“When I think about how Bossa Nova must have been feeling, my heart goes out to him a little.”

“That’s strange, isn’t it? I mean, if Haruhi was the one getting confessed to, you wouldn’t nearly feel as sympathetic if that were the case.”

…

“So Hika-chan may seem oblivious, but deep down, he’s beginning to understand his feelings? And even though it’s clear to the rest of us how Tama-chan feels, he’s still completely in the dark about it himself?” Honey looks down at the host club with Mori, sitting high on a tree.

“Yeah.”

“On the other side there’s Y/n-chan, Kyo-chan and Kao-chan. Y/n is avoiding making any major moves towards either of them, seemingly oblivious towards the other twos feelings. Funny how they mirror each other like that.” Honey looks up at the sky.

“Considering that, I wonder if something really big is gonna happen before we graduate.”

“You never know.”

15 notes · View notes