#I'm not actually sure how syllables work in english

[anonymous-gambito]

Nimona: "I heard you're also queer, neurodivergent and evil so I've decided to keep you"

Ballister: "How did you get inside my house???"

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Okay every time I read one of your celtophobia posts I am filled with immediate and incandescent rage, enough to propulse the responsible idiots into space but not to bring them back again. I'm really sorry about the """""lecturer"""""" you had to sit through this morning, and any other instances that happen. Hugs.

That said, I am very worried of doing the same thing and want to make my utmost sure I don't, so I thought it'd be okay to ask someone from a language that has to fight for space for politeness tricks. Apologies if this is not okay!

Context: I'm from continental Europe, which means English is my second language (I speak three languages and a half ish, the half is in process, because #languagenerd). I'm moving to Ireland come September, and I'm absolutely terrified of offending the good Irish people when I don't know how to pronounce their names, surnames, street names, or anything else; or, worse, try and end up butchering them in the manner of the British.

Dilemma: How can I ask for help when pronouncing things in a delicate way? I was thinking of signing up to Irish courses once I'm there, but for now I'm panicking about the actual move so I can't get a head start with that because my brain space is limited, and other than watching YouTube videos with the most common Irish names/words ahead of arriving, I honestly don't know. I want to be culturally sensitive and make sure they feel respected and not Colonised, Part Three Hundred, but also they shouldn't have to bear the weight of my lack of cultural knowledge and Teach Me? Idk. Just thoughts.

Good question! I suppose it's a two-part procedure:

Step 1: Learn a pronunciation guide. By that I just mean get to grips with the alphabet, common phonemes, etc and how those are said. With something like Welsh it's super easy (because phonetic), something like English it's super hard (because not phonetic); Irish is a bit more complex than Welsh, but still more phonetic than English. You might not be able to get to a "perfect every time" place, but you can get yourself to a "right most times" place.

Step 2: If you encounter a name you aren't 100% sure of, offer your best educated guess when asking. This shows that you have done the work, you are making a genuine attempt, but you still have the humility to ask to make sure.

When I say "best educated guess", I mean it's clear that you're guessing based on a working knowledge of the language rules in question. In Welsh, for example, if someone asks me how to pronounce "Cymru", there is a world of difference between someone saying "Sim-roo" (based on English pronunciation rules transposed onto Welsh) and "Kim-ree" (based on Welsh pronunciation rules, they just forgot which pronunciation of 'y' to use for the syllable it's in.) If someone says to me "How do you say that? Sim-roo?" then I know they haven't attempted any prior learning (though points for being interested enough to ask.) But if they say "Am I right in thinking it's Kim-ree?" then I know they've made the effort themselves, they've done the work, they just have a carry error that's skewed the answer.

Plus, you may well be right! And will be right more and more often the longer you're in Ireland.

If it helps, there's an Irish pronunciation guide here that's pretty good (or was back when I used it), and teanglann.ie is a pretty good resource for this, as it's a dictionary that lets you hear the words aloud and explains grammatical uses. (Irish people please feel free to add any other resources to the notes if you feel so inclined!)

As a final note, mind, given that you don't have time atm to dedicate brain space to this, speaking as a Welsh person I would be absolutely fine with someone saying to me "Sorry, I haven't had chance to learn yet, how do I say this?", or some variant thereof. Or, frankly, anything that's just... a polite request, and not laughing about it. I would take a thousand instances of "How do I say that? Sim-roo?" over even one "I don't know how to say that, haha" because the former is still caring enough to ask. So don't panic! A polite request will see you right.

[heliopauseentertainments]

Thinking about the language fic post, but honestly... I'm more tempted to conlang some stuff together because that's really the best way to actually get underlying language bits to reference. Otherwise it won't make much sense.

Downside: I have too many questions to ask based on the limited information available about the language(s) used by alien robots. I'm not really sure where to start.

I'm not touching on varieties of "speaking hand" yet. Yet. That is a threat.

Let's start with: PHONOLOGY & PHONETICS

For example, question number one: what would any given language spoken by Cybertronians sound like?

There's no reason alien robots should use verbal speech in ways familiar to us, either via human-like vocal tracts even via "verbal" means at all.

Because they are aliens. Because they are robots. Both separate reasons that are somewhat independent of each other.

Some things have to be assumed to be similar as part of the conceit of the material of the material given to us. Material between continuities is quite different so for sanity, lets pick IDW1.

Conceits we're forced to work with:

Cybertronians are repeatedly shown to whisper, shout, and make sounds with their mouths or some sort of vocal apparatus in the mouth/throat area if their mouths have been removed. Therefore, their vocal tract is mostly analogous to ours for most intents an purposes. Perhaps some of the sounds that come out are necessarily different or could have additional features or limitations based on the shapes and motion ranges of their articulatory organs.

Cybertronian speech (for Neocybex specifically) in the original writing of the continuity is rendered in English (under the guise of scifi Universal Translator tech). Sometimes British English varieties, sometimes American English varieties, depending on the writer. While this is a necessary conceit for a comic book meant for an English-speaking audience, this means we don't actually encounter a lot of the sounds (or renderings thereof) of Neocybex and its varieties as it's spoken. This also biases us to understand their cultures through the lens of localization to English (but that's a secondary problem).

Limited stock of Neocybex words are available as a result of the previous point. Mostly we have toponyms (place names), religious vocabulary (the roots of which are usually Latin or Greek and thus could also be seen as the result of localization rather than the original vocabulary), and personal names (many of which are also localized for our convenience). Even legal terminology is translated into English words. We really only get toponyms as a source.

The available word stock is rendered in the English version of the Roman alphabet for the necessary conceit of "writing in English for the audience." That means that sound capture of those Neocybex words is inherently imperfect since it's limited by the writing system. Also as the material is written, we don't know what it actually sounds like (broadly). Romanization is a loose approximation at best.

That makes what their available phonological and phonetic systems look like a bit of a headscratcher.

But we do know one thing for sure.

Windblade can't pronounce /θ/ (the voiceless dental fricative at the end of "earth"). This sound is reportedly difficult to pronounce for Cybertronians and the English toponym of our planet is also not being picked up by their Universal Translator (which amusingly also doesn't work on non-Neocybex Cybertronian languages like Primal Vernacular).

I still have no idea what Neocybex sounds like, but I know it doesn't have /θ/.

Anyway, I'm going to keep pondering this.

I have many more questions.

Are there forbidden syllable structures?

Is it a tonal language to some degree? How is the language timed (mora, stress, syllable, etc.)?

What is the orthography like (because the ones we're given are English ciphers, which is bullshit)? Are there non-verbal components only present in the orthography?

How related to modern Neocybex is Primal Vernacular? Is it the ancestor language? Was it restricted to liturgical use after a certain period?

What is the grammar like? What features are marked and in what way? Does it have grammatical case? Does it have noun classes? Does it mark animacy? Does it use word order to make grammatical meaning?

What is the syntax like more specifically?

What is the morphological typology?

[voice trails off into the distance, still asking questions]

[paradoxcase]

Harrow the Ninth Pronunciation Guide

I keep coming back to that idea that he might have picked this name because of Caesar. It would be so funny if that was actually the case. Like, it would be like if in some future where the US had somehow ceased to exist, I don't know, conquered, destroyed, disestablished, whatever, only subject matter for historians now, etc. and some world leader was like, man, George Washington was really cool, I really admire that guy, I want everyone to think about George Washington when they hear my name. So I'm going to change my last name to George, because who else was there even who was named George? I bet this is exactly what the ancient Americans did to invoke this great man

But now I'm curious about how much of Earth's old cultural whatnot was still public knowledge 100 years after the Resurrection. Like, people don't seem to remember anything about that era anymore, but surely the people who were resurrected all knew about it, and I doubt all that knowledge just disappears in a generation. Did people know John's name back then, and its links to Christianity and at least that Gaius was a Roman name?

Ok, so, not really related to the pronunciation at all, but it occurs to me that we've now learned that Augustine and probably also Mercy and Gideon and their cavaliers would have been born on pre-Resurrection Earth and resurrected by John, since they are the founders of their Houses, right? And if supposedly all of the people who were resurrected spoke English, and English is still the operating language of the Nine Houses, they should have English names, right? Alfred is a perfectly traditional English name; Cristabel is not exactly traditional but perfectly believable as a name that someone would be given; Gideon, sure, biblical names never go out of fashion in the anglosphere, even the weird ones, for real I went to college with a guy named Cain; Augustine, well, Augustus has a fine tradition as a name, that seems like a believable variation on that. But are we meant to believe that there were English-speaking people on Earth before the Resurrection named Mercymorn and Pyrrha? I could buy Mercy by itself as a woman's name given by some incredibly religious Christians or something, but "Mercymorn" seems to be following the standard we have in these books of two part names like Harrowhark and Coronabeth and Jeannemary, which is not something that i think came from any Earth tradition. And I can't imagine anyone would have been named Pyrrha. Maybe her parents were Classics nerds, or something?

Augustine and Alfred were like quite possibly the very first people to ever have an arithmonym. How could there possibly have been any implications about any use of them at that point?

Honestly, I feel like it works much better as a reference to Pyrrhus, just in terms of names being significant in the context of the story, because of what happened to Gideon in the fight against Number Seven

It's kind of funny that she wrote a whole paragraph about this, but at no point did she actually define "dactylic enneameter" for anyone who didn't recognize the roots, as, presumably, a poetic meter where each verse consists of nine metric feet, which each consist of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one

This pronunciation makes me realize this is supposed to be apo + pneumatism. But the pneuma root is about movement of air. Is thanergy a force that only moves or exists or emanates/radiates due to the presence of air molecules, like sound? Is that why there is so little thanergy in space, and not just because there isn't a source of thanergy nearby? Light can obviously travel for huge distances from the source through space, because it doesn't rely on air molecules

I'm fairly certain that every other English word that derives from Greek meso- is pronounced either /mɛzoʊ/ or /mɛsoʊ/, so why is this one /misoʊ/?

[journey-to-the-attic]

I don’t know if I actually said this yet since I keep falling asleep while checking tumblr at night but the song parody you’re making for oh dear me is super cute!!! It’s also doubly cool because you’re making it for two languages at once and it was neat to see some of your thought processes when explaining how you were changing Beel and Belphie’s canonical name spellings to share the first character.

thank you!!!! actually, to talk about this a little bit because i've just realised how much i'd like to... the thing with my level of chinese is that most of the new lines, i have to come up with in english first, then translate in a way that still fits the flow of the lyrics+rhyme scheme (then re-translate because of the differences in phrasing or exact definition lol)

there were some things that i didn't notice unless i went back and actually sung through the lines for myself, where e.g. repeated homophones or slight differences in rhyme made it feel awkward. in most cases this just entailed further changes to the original lyrics, which by now are only really fully intact in the final chorus

so the "why aren't you saying anything?" line from the og got changed to "you haven't punished anyone lately" because a change to a previous line meant that the "hua" sound was repeated, and that sounded weird. ultimately though i like the change better, since it tailors the song even more towards lucifer lol

actually i wanted from the start to have one of the items on lucifer's schedule be "argue with satan over something pointless", but that particular section of the song is tricky because it's delivered very fast, and i had two issues, both of which i wasn't sure what to do with, mostly owing to a limited vocabulary:

my translation of "argue over something pointless" took up too many syllables to fit into a pretty short line

i wanted to leave the last "zhui" intact - or at least the "ui" sound -bc the whole flow of the thing sounded just a little off when i changed it

i was saved very recently by remembering the phrase "抬杠拌嘴" so now the line is this

final note on the demons' names... there are standard chinese phonetic translations which as far i can tell are what the game uses? i'm sure there were reasons for the characters/sounds chosen for those that surpass my limited knowledge, so for the most part i'm just sticking to them-

(even though i have no idea why they chose dan for satan when there IS a tan sound in the language? satan -> 撒谈 -> sātán c'mon guys!!!! 谈 even has the character for fire in it! fire as in hell where he lives!!! it works!

（side note again but i was really amused by how simeon becomes ximian which yeah that makes sense but i was expecting something more complicated. btw if you switched one of the characters in mammon's name it'd translate to horse door)

-but for the twins specifically i just really wanted to make the change bc it's very common for siblings to share characters in their name, and bei'er as a sound fit better with how beelzebub is pronounced in english (to me)

[linkemon]

Summertime Odyssey Event headcanons 1

Friendly reminder that English is not my first language. You can check my Masterlists both in English and Polish here.

AN: it's very hard to keep up with haiku syllables in English but I'm trying my best to modify my orginal poetry.

You didn't quite know what adventure awaited you when you agreed to go with Lumine and four new friends to a mysterious island...

Kaedehara Kazuha

✧ As an old Angel's Share regular, you met Kazuha a day earlier than the rest of the group. He can't handle alcohol well. Unfortunately for him, he met you and Venti. While the two of you were barely drunk, he was already falling asleep on his stool. You decided to help him. You didn't know where to take him, so you stayed with him. His surprise in the morning was huge...

✧ He purposely didn't suggest you explore the island with him and Lumine right after you arrived. He felt trouble in the wind. He wanted to spare you pain so that you could have a nice rest. And yet, you pushed yourself in, curious as to where they were going. He just smiled, not wanting to refuse you. He promised nothing would happen to you.

✧ He taught you to play the leaf. You've never heard of it before. You were impressed that even that was able to make an instrument. You can't wait to show this trick to Venti.

✧ You have no vision, so he kept you very close. He saved your life when one of the Hilichurls, lurking on the small islands, unexpectedly released an arrow in your direction. You fell on the boat in a rather awkward position. He seemed calm as you lay over him. You, on the other hand, turned red in the face and Paimon laughed about it the rest of the way. If only you knew what was going on in Kazuha's head:

Dancing sea and the waves' sound

Strong wind in the sails

The heart fluttering fastly

Mona

✧ You didn't want to believe her when she said she could tell the future. At the beginning of the journey, you did not manage to get along with each other at all. When you finally said you'd believe when you saw the miracles work, it turned out that your future couldn't be seen. You burst out laughing.

✧ She gave you a kiss on the cheek when you helped her deal with Fischl. Sometimes she really couldn't stand her and would look for you just so the girl would leave her alone. After a while, she realized that she actually wanted to be with you, not just because of the annoying princess.

✧ She patiently explained to you the types of constellations in her mirage. Without her, you would surely get lost in this great place. You completely forgot most of the layouts but she doesn't need to know that...

✧ You took her hat to see how you look in it. As you looked at yourself in it, in the water, she splashed it in your face. You hit her back. A water battle has broken out in which you have failed miserably. You were both soaked to the bone.

Xinyan

✧ Your favorite activity in the islands was cooking. You were a very good team preparing the delicacies. During one of the group's meals, you deliberately over-salted it to see if your companions would react. Only Lumine and Kazuha were silent. The rest almost murdered you. Especially Paimon.

✧ You have been basking in the sun for a very long time. Xinyan has quite a dark complexion but she gladly accepted the sunscreen you had in your bag. They cannot be purchased at Liyue, much to her sadness. You, on the other hand, coming from Sumer, would not have made it without him in the desert.

✧ You were very impressed with how she was able to respond to her family's annoyances without hurting them. You've never been braver than her to follow your dreams alone as an artist in a land of scholars. She was the first person to understand how you felt and you were grateful for that.

✧ You promised to take her on a trip to your country when you return from the islands. She can't wait to spend more time with you. She will definitely take her guitar with her to sing to you along the way.

Fischl

✧ If there was a person you had a hard time getting along with at first, it was Fischl. However, once your bard abilities came into play, things became simpler. Fischl expected flowery words and you delivered them. She hailed you as the Smartest, Able to break through mundane life and a Brightly enlightened singer with skillful fingers. You helped the group throughout the trip, otherwise they would have had a hard time with her.

✧ Oz blurted out that his mistress has a special crush on you. Of course, she denied it and confirmed it at the same time. All in the most roundabout way possible.

✧ You cheered her on to face her dark side. You were relieved when her mirage case was finally resolved because you were genuinely worried about her. When you complimented her new outfit, she forgot for a moment and thanked you in simple words.

✧ Afterwards, you tried to ask her about her parents and real name but she's not going to talk about it again. You respected it. She asked you to play her a love ballad by the fire, which you gladly did.

[shebeafancyflapjack]

A Slip Through Worlds (Part 2)

(Part 2 of my horror crossover between canon and @idiotwithanipad 's Gore AU)

The blind teen continued to giggle as she poked and prodded the new person before her.

"Ow!"

"Sorry! Hehehehe." She quickly moved her finger away from what must have been the man's eye; "I do that sometimes, hehehe."

"It...it fine. Eyeball not fall like marble." The gravelly, broken English voice responded in good humour. "Moonah Girl, what happen?"

"Hmm? What do you mean?" She asked with an innocent tilt of her head.

"Your eyes no work. You nose and ears, they leaking blood." He noted, sounding aghast, then his tone deepened with anger; "Someone hurt you?!"

"What? No, silly, hahaha. I've always been like this! Well...ever since I died, which was my own fault. So I guess I did it to me? Hehehehe."

She felt his hand, which seemed to be partially sheathed in fur, hover close to her face.

"It hurt big?" He asked, concern thrumming deep.

"Hmm, not really. Except when the headaches come, hehehe." She moved her own hand up to meet his, lacing her fingers through his larger ones; "What's your name?"

"I....You no remember me?"

He sounded sad at that, which made her feel guilty.

"Have we met before? Sorry if I forgot. Mummy says I'm such a scatter brain, hahaha." She laughs without intent, "It's strange...You feel ever so much like a friend of mine."

"Friend?" He asked, hopeful, she assumed.

Silver nodded; "He's super fluffy, just like you. Except he can't talk and doesn't walk upright. Actually I'm not sure if he's an animal or human, hehehe. He's like my big grumpy puppy. His name is a secret. Is yours?"

"No. Well...not one friends call me. It Robin."

"Hehehe, you told me! Does that mean I'm your friend, Robin?" She gushed, bouncing on her toes and clutching at his forearms.

He stilled a little at her touch but did not move away.

"...Yes. Of course, Moonah Girl friend."

"Awesome! Robin, Robin, Robin," She repeated, running her tongue over each syllable; "Like the pretty birds! Or Robin Hood! He was one of my favorite Disney heroes, pretty hot for a fox, hehehe."

"Was name after Robin Goodfellow."

"Oh! Mummy told me stories about him! Is that what you are? A cheeky fairy?" She began to giggle.

Her new friend joined in. Part of her was tempted to feel his smile just to get an image of his face in her mind.

"Me have been call cheeky." He laughed with her, deep and full.

"Same! Mummy pretends to be cross when I'm cheeky but I know it makes her smile really..." the sudden memory of her mother's face when she was in trouble (but not too much trouble) made her chest ache; "....I should really try to find Mummy. She wasn't at my bedside when I woke up like she always is..."

"....You mean Mary?" Robin asked. "That Mummy name?"

"I dunno. I've always just called her Mummy, hehehe." But if this stranger thought he knew her name, that was a good sign, right? "Do you know where she is? Can you take me to her? Please!"

The voice didn't reply. She couldn't see any expression on his face, or anything for that matter.

Everywhere was too dark. Even what her ecolation allowed her to 'see' felt limited. It scared her a little. Mummy was supposed to turn the lights on for her. Bring their wonderful enchanted forest back into her view.

That fuzzy hand tentatively brushed over her face, a finger stroking aside some blood from her lips.

Then she heard a sob.

"Hey...Hey, what's a matter?" She reached towards the man, who seemed suddenly creased up; "Oh, please don't cry. Tell me what's wrong and I'll try to help?"

The man sniffled; "It my fault. It all my fault. Had one job. ONE job. Look after Moonah Girl. Now look...Look what you done, Robin!"

For a second she was ready to remind him that he was Robin, not her, but then that seemed foolish.

"You mean me, Mr. Robin? But how can you be 'sposed to look after me? We only just met, hehehe."

She felt him cringe then. Was that the wrong thing to say? Gently, he took her hand and brought it to his weeping eyes.

"M'sorry. So so sorry. One last thing she ask me. As if she knew...She say 'Take care ofs my little girl.' I tell her yes. I swear on the stars and the moonah..." He shed his tears onto her knuckles; "I fail. I fail."

"...No you didn't, silly." She decides to humor the poor man, "I'm still in one piece. See? Just my eyes that don't work but the rest is great! Hehehe. If you...made a promise to Mummy to look after me then, I'm sure she'll be happy with you..."

It would be easier if Mummy was here. Where was she? And Mr. Floof?

"Maybe you can look after me until Mummy comes?" She suggests, moving her hand to touch the man's fuzzy jaw. "She'll be really grateful if you just keep me safe."

"Safe?...Yeah, 'Course." He swallowed his last sob and took her hands; "Will look after Moonah Girl. Keep Moonah Girl safe. Promise. No breaky this time."

As if he were a Knight making some sort of solemn vow. If only she were wearing one of her witchy princess gowns.

For now, she just giggled and gave his knuckles a kiss.

"Thank you, sweet Robin. Hehehe."

"You come with Robin now? Will take Moonah Girl somewhere safe. You stay close." He instructed, softly.

She nodded; "Okay. It's not too far, is it? Needs to be close enough for me to smell Mummy coming. She might be cross if she thinks I've been stolen away again, hahaha."

"...No steal. No trap. Moonah Girl free to wander and dance in good light if want." He reassures her.

"That's good then." She agrees to follow the man, finding it oddly easy to trust this stranger. "D-don't let go? Please? So very dark here..."

His hand gave hers a squeeze as he lead her, carefully, with each step.

"Won't ever let go of Moonah Girl. Promise."

-

As if being held in the cage formed by branches of an ancient tree wasn't already the worst, Silver had discovered that the more she tried to struggle and kick against the wood, the more it tightened in on her. Now she was curled in a fetal pose, barely able to sit up without hitting her head. She'd already had to calm herself through two back-to-back panic attacks.

It might not be possible for her to die. But, in this world at least, it seemed to be possible for her to be crushed like an impounded car. No thanks. No bloody thanks.

She takes another look through the gap. Robin....Not-Robin (Nobin?) has grown weary of his pacing and has settled down on his front, leaning across a flat bit of rock. He ignored all attempts she made to call for him using his name.

Or perhaps, she wondered, he wasn't just ignoring her. Maybe he didn't recognise it in this world?

"Robin? Robin..." She called out, softly.

Nothing. His head twitched but only for him to thump his own ear, like he had some irritating ringing in it constantly.

"...Rogh?" She tried.

He turned around. Face of thunder.

Literally, static seemed to crackle beneath the canapé as he glared up at her. He bared his teeth. Some were dripping with blood...

Good Lord and Lady, help her.

"That's your name, yeah? Rogh?"

He furrowed his brow, neither to confirm or deny.

"You weren't always like this, were you?" She guessed, "If you died the same as my Robin...You didn't always crawl. And you could speak, sort of, didn't you? You weren't an animal."

As if to prove her wrong, he let her have his best roar.

It was enough to raise the hairs on her arms.

"If you were also that man...Then you were a good one, weren't you?" She kept testing, "You had a tribe that you loved and took care of. You had children..."

Every word only seemed to raise his hackles more. Leaning back onto his knuckles, he started to pace beneath her again.

"You didn't hold young women captive in cages. You wouldn't let them be scared. Please, Rogh. I know it's probably been a long time, but...Try to remember." She put her hand through the gap in the branch; "I'm not what she thinks. Honest. I am Silver, I'm just not...the same Silver. I...I think I fell into a parallel world. Or I'm trapped in a nightmare. Either way..."

She couldn't even find the strength to laugh.

But he was looking at her now. His disjointed lip twitched, eyes assessing her, a fragment of that brilliant and insightful mind flickering somewhere within.

Silver stretched her hand out towards him.

"Please. Help me. I'm not bad, promise. Tell her to let me out. I need to get home to my Robin. And Kya-."

Why at that moment she remembered the precious wolf cub who had gone for too long without a cuddle. Silver had barely let her go when Amy first disappeared, at least until Humphrey's body began to stalk her.

But the name enraged this Robin, who took a ferocious warning swipe at her hand. She pulled it back, whimpering as he slammed his fist against the bark and roared at her.

Fuck. Fuck this. Fuck this to Hades and back.

-

The ghosts all stared at the poor girl, currently holding hands with Kitty, spinning around and practicing dance moves together. Like a true pair of children, except the Georgian's smile was a mask to hide the concern for her friend, which had been clear the second that Robin lead her by the hand into Higham Suite.

She first seemed overjoyed to meet so many 'new people', as if most of their voices were brand new to her. Thomas, Pat and Captain she seemed to have never heard before, but was thrilled to have new friends, as if she'd been kept under a rock all this time.

Julian's had sounded familiar to her.

"Hehehe, you're the one Mummy got cross with for getting too close. Hehe, is your bottom half all better?" She'd asked.

"I....uh, it's fine, w-what happened exactly?!" The Tory had asked in terror.

She hadn't elaborated. As soon as she'd heard Kitty's voice, she'd squealed with joy and roped the other young woman into some games. For once, Kitty had seemed hesitant to play, with her friend seemingly in such a disturbing state. It had taken an encouraging nod from Robin for her to indulge Silver, if just to keep her distracted while the others talked.

"Gone mad? Truly?" Cap gasped, beside the caveman.

"Me tell you it happen to me. Many time. Always worry it most likely happen to Moonah Girl too. Sleep and time loss make her mind easy break." Robin tried to explain, his tears from earlier having dried with his resolve.

Pat shook his head; "The poor little love. She's been through so much. I once knew a bloke who came back from Falklands and found out his wife had done a disappearing act before he returned. He spent the rest of his days sat on the pier, naming every pebble he found."

"The mind is a fragile thing. And we no longer have any cocaine to help get us through it all." Fanny lamented.

Her voice had been familiar to Silver as well. All she'd mentioned was that she was happy she sounded in a 'better mood' and had let Kitty have some friends.

Pure nonsense.

"But what's with the...exorcist kid look? And losing her sight? Did any of that happen to you?" Julian asked, looking more than a little unease at the thought of his pal in a similar state.

Robin shrugged; "Dunno. All those times like big black space in mind. Friends who help me say little of what crazy thing I do. Maybe strange thing happen to ghost body, same as it make Moonah Girl blind. And like how Kitty go blaaargh sometime."

"You don't suppose it's permanent, then?" Asked Thomas.

Robin shrugged again. He had absolutely no idea.

"Could be till mind feel better. Could be forever. Dunno." He sighed.

Pat sensed his anguish for her sake and patted his arm.

"We'll all be here for her, mate. Same as your friends helped you." He reassured.

"Fanks. But she my response-libble." He struggled to say; "Her mind break because promise break. Need to make right."

He won't let her out of his sight again. Not while she's now so vulnerable. Has to keep her close.

For now, she seemed genuinely happy. Innocent.

Maybe too energetic, even for Kitty.

The Georgian plonked herself down on a chair.

"Aww, why did you stop? The song isn't finished!" She giggled.

Kitty panted, "Just need...a little breather, Silvy. That's all."

"Ah. 'Course. Sorry. Hehehe, forgot you're not used to being out of bed so long! Hope I haven't made you ill again, hehehe."

Kitty looked back towards Robin who just shook his head. The older girl just went along with her friend's delusions.

Silver began to stagger towards him, flaring her nostrils as if following her nose.

"Robin?" She called out.

"I here." He was at her side in a heartbeat, taking her hands; "You 'kay?"

"Mmm hmm." She nodded, "Just think we should get back to finding Mummy now. Don't want her to worry about me, you know."

His heart broke. Again. He looked around at his friends who, for once, seemed sympathetic to his plight. How to tell the girl that she would never find her 'mummy'? Not in this world.

He turned back to her and nodded, rubbing her hands in his, as he used to do to his kids to keep them warm.

"Okay. We can go walk 'round and look if Moonah Girl want." He didn't know how long he'd have to keep this charade up. Until her mind was strong enough to handle the truth again?

If it took another thousand years, he'd stay with her.

"Oi, what's going on? Not often he comes to pick me up and put me back on, must be something important." Humphrey said as he walked through the wall, neck firmly together for once.

Silver gasped with excitement.

"Oh yay! You're here too! Hehehe!"

She let go of Robin and skipped over to give the Tudor a hug. Humphrey blinked and then laughed, looking touched at the affection.

"Oh, good evening, Silver, love." He greeted with a fond pat on the back; "Glad to hear you..."

When she pulled back to smile up at him, the color left his cheeks. His face fell.

He stared at Robin.

"What the...?"

"Mr. Lord Humphrey, is Amy awake? Does she want to come play?" Silver asked, eagerly.

Robin cringed, seeing Humphrey's reaction. He stepped back from her as if wounded again, what little strength he'd regained in the past few weeks seeming to be drained.

"Silver...W-why would you ask me such a thing?" He said with devastation.

"What's wrong? I thought you were happy letting Amy come out to spend time with me?" She frowned, "We might not be able to see the dragons tonight, not till Mummy is back, but we can play other games and practice our talking in code. There's no Floof to watch us...but we have Mr. Robin instead and he's actually nicer! Hehehe."

There was a twinge of jealousy as well as confusion. She remembered Humphrey and Amy, even Fanny and Julian...but not him?

Not the thing to focus on right now, he scalded himself.

Humphrey winced and sniffed; "Silver...Kiddo, you know that Amy's-."

"Sick! She very sick." Robin stepped in, giving Humphrey a warning look.

The Tudor looked at him as if he were the one who'd lost it. But Robin laid a hand on Silver's shoulder, hardening his gaze at the other man.

His Moonah Girl's sanity was gone. Harsh truths, devastating reality, was the last thing she needed.

That much he could be sure of from unlived experience.

"She need big sleep in bed. Can't play yet." Robin said.

"Oh...Oh, of course. Hehehe, I make a habit of being besties with poorly girls." Silver smiled, a little sad; "Well can you please tell her that I hope she feels better soon? Especially before I have to go back to sleep, but there's no rush. Just want her healthy again, hehehe."

"That's....very sweet of you, Silv. I'll..." Humphrey's voice cracked; "I'll be sure to...To tell her..."

Luckily she couldn't see the tears brewing in his eyes.

Robin felt a pang of sympathy as well as gratitude. Couldn't be easy for the man to have to pretend his little girl was still with them for the sake of another child. But he did it all the same, as Robin would for his cub.

-

Silver is nearly nodding off, despite the severe discomfort of her current 'room', before she hears something beneath her.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

What? What was Nobin doing now?

She peered down through the gap. He seemed to have gone. Instead, wandering around through the woods, was a figure in a black hood with electric blue stars on the shoulder, a tartan skirt, black ripped leggings and big, stompy-

Oh thank Athena! Silver laughed with joy and relief.

[sailingshellsgames]

hey author! i just have a few simple lore questions to ask, i hope you don't mind.

does everyone in the leas universe have magical abilities? if so, it doesn't necessarily mean everyone uses magic? (for example, rin has magic but chooses not to use it, if i'm not mistaken)

are there kings and queens in this universe? even if they won't be real characters in the story, is there some sort of royalty in leas or any other city? i know we have nobles and lords, such as wren and virano, so far.

how do relationships with people from two different cities work, specifically between leas and delusin? i'm sure it's not a big deal but it was mentioned that a treaty between the two cities were made so is it difficult to get settled in that sense? is it looked down upon? etc.

this isn't a lore question but what inspired you to make this game? it's so creative and interesting and even the names of things and the way you describe them is out of this world, i wanted to know where you got these ideas from?

thank you so much for answering and have a great day/night! ❤️

Hi Anon!

I'm more than happy to answer, and thank you for asking such fun questions! I hope you won't mind how long my answers are❣️ And I hope you have a great day/night as well!

Everyone in the universe has the ability to do magic, yes! Which mostly stems from me reading books as a kid where only special people had magic and thinking 'that's so unfair!' 😂 How good someone's magic is is a lot like how good someone's ability to learn a new language is in our world - there's natural talent, but it also matters how much you practice/study.

There are no kings/queens! Each city's a little different but the basic structure is that a group of people form a city's Council, and they're the ones "in charge." The Council is a mix of the leaders of the city's various communities, which lends itself to a mix of both nobles and non-nobles. I'm hoping to put more about this into the game itself, later on.

It's a little difficult to have a relationship with someone from another city mainly because travel between cities is so dangerous most people never do it 😅 The exceptions to this are diplomats, nobles, and some merchants. And Den agents, of course 😉 Marriage is one of the few ways a regular person could wind up in another city. Someone meets a visiting merchant, say, and falls in love with them and the couple picks a city to settle down in. It's also much easier to get travel papers to return to a city you were born in, if for whatever reason you managed to leave it and want to go back. Inter-city marriages aren't looked down on, but people do recognize those relationships are challenging. Leas has a very communal culture, so someone moving from another city could expect a lot of support from their neighbors upon arriving, in most cases. As far as Leas-Dalusin relationships, take everything above and make it a little easier, lol. There are more regular trade caravans and slightly safer routes between the cities.

As for the final question, first of all thank you, that's so kind of you to say! My initial reaction to this was "idk I just daydream it up and if I hit a plot hole I bang my head against it until I figure it out?" 😂 (That one option in ch 7 of "no I can just think harder! My brain is a hammer and everything can be a nail 😃" is literally just a self-roast 🤣) But giving it more thought, I think it's just that I love things that are wild and weird and beautiful, so I wanted to write about the Fey. For naming things: I tend to favor the letters V, K, L and vowels for names in Leas. I throw in a lot of A's in Fey language and try to let the sounds feel rhythmic/musical (at least by my perception). I deviate from those general rules constantly because there are only so many letters/syllables in English and eventually you realize "I've spent 3 hours trying to name this character I need to get back to actually writing." 🤣 But I try to roughly stick to those rules.

Thank you so much for your ask!

[e-klair]

Happy STS! What’s your process for naming characters? How important is meaning or uniqueness or how it sounds? Do character concepts come with names attached when you first think of them, or do you struggle?

Oooof normally I only have an idea about how many syllables I want for the name (most of my characters only get one or two syllables, idk what that says about me) and if it needs to sound sharp, soft, calm, quick, etc.

If you're really interested, have a look under the cut, where I'm actually retracing some of the steps I took for the MCs of my WIPs:

Khorin (Dawn): The first idea I got for Khorin was "needs to start with a K sound". I ended up with Cory as a sort of temporary name, decided to switch the spelling to Kori, which was then replaced with Khorin. Her full name Khorin'do Tem Eira ("Fell into the glowing leaf bush") came to me a lot later when I actually found the time to work on Dawn's conlangs - which is something for another post (help).

Park (Park): From the beginning it was clear that the protagonist of Park needed a name suitable for both German and English readers which also needed to be easily identifiable as non binary. I first went with several names such as Alex and Jo until one of my friends suggested Park, because the story uses a certain park the MC used to spend their late teenage years for its symbolic meaning. In draft 1 Park also makes a joke about it being both their first and last name, though I'm still not sure about their actual surname and whether they even need one.

Sara Becker (Fears of an Unborn Planet and Fleur): With the band Oceansize pretty much inspiring the entire plot of Fleur (which is some sort of sequel to Park) and Fears of an Unborn Planet includes one of Fleur's scenes, here's the reveal: The name Sarah and whatever happened to her is mentioned in this particular track:

Yeah, I am talking about the part that says "Sarah's killer" and all the gibberish after that. Also, Becker is just a really common German surname. So yeah. Just a normal gal, eh?

[strixcattus]

Yvelse Lesson 1: Back to Basics

Because you can't learn a language without first knowing how to read it.

(Previous)

Welcome back! Been a while. But since you now know why I'm here infodumping about a fictional language, we can actually start, ah, you listening to me infodump about a fictional language.

Yvelse has a pretty easy phonology, until you get to the parts where even I'm not sure why I did what I did. Let's pretend everything makes sense and ignore the parts that don't, shall we? And, ah, promise not to get mad at me when we get to the consonants.

There are five vowels in Yvelse, as follows (in romanization and English alphabetical order): A: Going to be level with you, this one is a mess. Formally, a word which here means "it was written down this way in my Google doc which is only usually correct," until the writing of this post, this vowel was pronounced [ɑ] when lengthened or occurring before a syllable-ending consonant, and [ə] elsewhere. That is not how I've been pronouncing words like ansec (bake) and aϕel (sunset/sunrise). So I took a minute out of writing this post to add "at the start of a word" to the list of conditions for [ɑ]. Better, except even though words like tsetsa (star) are as you'd expect, I'm still not pronouncing words like saha (cat) or sa (and) with a schwa at the end (or at all, in the case of the former). I can't figure out if I need to shape up, or if Yvelse needs a new clause for this vowel, just... feel it in your heart. You probably won't need to pass as having a native accent anyway. E: [ɛ]. That's all. It's voiceless at the ends of words but connects to another E at the start of the next word if there is one. No, I don't know why. O: [o]. You are safe here. U: [u]. You are safe here as well. Y: [ji] at the start of a word, and [i] elsewhere. You are in only mild danger here.

The consonants are more straightforward. So much so, in fact, that I'm not going to bother listing every single one: just the ones that either need a moment of explanation or will make people mad at me.

C: [k]. It's an artifact of a character name—I wasn't about to make him go by Lakuna. (Even if he was, technically, given the name of an English word.) Don't worry, this is universal and consistent. F: You know this one. V: You also know this one. ϕ: Exactly what it looks like it is. In IPA to distinguish it from [f]. β: Exactly what it looks like it is. In IPA to distinguish it from [v]. R: Where is—which is it—[ɹ]. If you speak English, you probably understand this one. L: You know this one. ɾ: Exactly what it looks like it is. In IPA because R was already taken, and, though L is a less great substitute, that was also already taken.

Everything else you may encounter is exactly what it looks like it is. Except for [ts] and [ʃ], they're all the same in IPA and romanization anyway.

Hey, you did promise not to get mad about the consonants.

Yvelse also has its own writing system, but for the sake of "I don't really have a way to incorporate it anywhere" we'll gloss over it at least for now.

I'll close this post off with the number system. Can't really wait to explain that sort of thing.

Yvelse uses a base-eight system, derived from the eight phases of the moon. The first nine numerals, starting from zero, are as follows: 0: nyc 1: sen 2: levy 3: con 4: tantsutu 5: vly 6: heva 7: pol 10 (8): shoncu

After shoncu, the next seven numbers attach the prefix shon- to the number in the ones digit, kind of like the -teen suffix in English.

11 (9): shonsen 12 (10): shonlevy etc.

When you reach 20 (16), a number will start with the name of the digit in the eights place, and carry on as in the "teens"—even at an even eight. Here, you'll see:

20 (16): levy shonnyc 24 (20): levy shontantsutu 30 (24): con shonnyc 40 (32): tantsutu shonnyc etc.

100 (64) is read as showotse, and 200 (128) as levy showotse, similarly to how the eights work. Typically a large rounded number like this will be assumed to be an approximation, so if you'd like to stress that there really are exactly 384 of something, you can say heva showotse nyc (six sixty-fours zero).

Now you can count in Yvelse all the way up to 777 (448)!

Non-numeric vocabulary: Adjectives aϕy: Red, with positive connotation—like a sunset. cereln-noleme: Green, lit. "land-colored." Often shortened to cereln for convenience, which I'm sure kicked off both a convention of pulling in just any old noun to use as a color name and a bit of grammatical debate for the particularly pedantic. cor: Red, with negative connotation—like blood. mele: Pink, purple, and any color between the two. neɾa: Gray oɾatse: Dark blue ren: Blue, of something other than the sky. shen: Black vesha: Blue, of the sky or something considered to be sky-colored. ytan: White ϕylc-noleme: Yellow, lit. "bird-colored." Often shortened to ϕylc in the same vein as cereln. Nouns atsel: Evening or early morning. When the sun is not above the horizon or even shedding much light, but the sky is still lighter than at night. aϕel: Sunset or sunrise. etse: Sun lavel: In my notes it's "dawn or dusk," but not really—it's the time ranging from when it starts to get dark to the twilight time covered by atsel. Or the other way around—it works for morning or evening. saha: Cat (of any sort) shelse: Nighttime tsetsa: Star veshvel: Daytime wotse: Moon Verbs ansec: Bake Conjunctions sa: And

[littlelonelytree]

So I translated song from the Lion King 2 from my language to english I guess

Here goes a long post I rhink:

I watched the Lion king II with my sister recently becasue we relized we don't exactly remember what was the plot about

I always loved every song that was in this movie. They are just so good in my opinion

Anyway, I started to wonder what they would sound in english (as I am clearly not an eglish speaker) so i checked it and I was suprised how much they were different

And don't get me wrong, I understand that alway a lot of dialogs and songs are changed so it would make more sense in someone's language. For songs it is obiously to rhyme better and to have accurate number of syllables so it can be actually sung with good sound

So anyway I can say that i did my best to translate song "One of us" from my language to english so you can see the difference

(In blue my comments)

And there it is:

Trick

And deceive These seems to have the same meaning to be honest

From a distance, both his scar and his hair gave him away I mean that's a little racist

Trick (affront)

And deceive (to the core)

He was embodiment of evilness from the very beginning More like he was the Evil in person idk ?

Trick (affront)

And deceive (to the core)

 (He long ago disgraced the blood people) I never knew what it was supposed to mean

From a distance, both his scar and his hair gave him away

(it's time to hit the road)

Trick (affront)

And deceive (to the core)

He is not being kept by anything here anymore

(it's time to hit the road) It is actually a little bit different but I won't be translating proverbs literally so I choosed something that means the same thing.

He has evil and anger in his blood Is evil a noun bc i doesn't really sound like it

The singing of betrayal lulled him to sleep Or he was hugging to sleep the singing of betrayel? it sound like "betrayel" is a person to be honest

May he run away Let him run honestly works here as well but this sounds more official or something

May he last I tried to found the perfect word for this and it said "subsist" instead of "last" but I'm not a tranlator

At this point I don't think that is even grammatically correct

We  don’t want to forget so our song sobs

He is not one of us anymore It's funny bc it imlpies they considered him one of them at some point

He has scar inside his heart I'm sure it's about a lion and the fact that he is flawed inside but read bellow for better context what I'm talking about

This is our voice, This is our judgement

He is not from around here

Someone once betrayed us I mean it hits harder than simple "lied to us" but both are true

And destroyed our faith in world I have no idea where did it came from

Today we know that and our sentence lasts

Scar’s son cannot become one of us so earelier it was said that he was one of them but now it is said that he couldn't like from the very beginning become one of them?

He is not one of us anymore again because why not

Trick

And deceive

Trick

And deceive

Trick

And it's funny that this version implies that Scar was Kovus's father, which wasn't true at all. Kovu says that even in the movie.

So i colored out word scar because it's not exactly translated correctly. I couldn't really find a word for it (maybe blemish?) but it is name for that bad lion from the first movie and in my language it's not translated like that. "Scar" of course is used in this song as a reference to this lion, but real translation from my language behind this name in my language goes more like this:

1.  «defect of an object in the form of a scratch, stain, etc.»

2.  "character defect or dishonorable act"

3.  "weak side of something"

From the dictionary because why not

So it propably fits the character for the second one

Maybe we can say it just means flaw, but in my opinion there is more to this word than just that

For me it's more specific like a flaw that makes something perfect look imperfect only because that flaw existence .

It's just anythng that makes something or someone imperfect. So "scar" is obviously in that category but doesn't mean that exactly.

I have no idea if Scar means in english somehing more than just old wound that is heald but visible and it stands out from rest of the skin, but maybe someone knows it who is smarter than me

Or maybe this "scar" was not meant to be about a lion at all and they were using this specific word (that nobody is using bc it's a little outdated) just because

Basically Scar means heald visible wound

In my language it means flaw or blemish not the wound thing but scar is incuded in this category

I mean, in my language you have a totally different word to translate scar but they used another one everywhere anyway so I don't think I'm as stupid as my sister claims me to be

I think this post is a big mess already so I'll add english version anyway :

Deception

Disgrace

Evil as plain as the scar on his face

Deception (An outrage!)

Disgrace (For shame!)

He asked for trouble the moment he came

Deception (An outrage!)

Disgrace (For shame!)

Evil as plain as the scar on his face

Deception (An outrage!)

Disgrace (For shame!)

He asked for trouble the moment he came

(See you later, agitator!)

Born in grief

Raised in hate

Helpless to defy his fate

Let him run

Let him live

But do not forget

What we cannot forgive

And he is not one of us

He has never been one of us

He is not part of us

Not our kind

Someone once lied to us

Now we're not so blind

For we knew he would do what he's done

And we know that he'll never be one, of us

He is not one of us

Deception

Disgrace

Deception

Disgrace

Deception

I'm curioss how other countries translated it. I won't be looking that up on translate google bc a don't exactly trust it to be correct

Sorry for the long post, I don't think that anybody will read that anyway

Let my stream of toughts flow

[the-arctic-commune]

Oh PLEASE go on with Techno and accents and portrayal?

LMAO this came in within SECONDS congrats.

I don't really have a ton of citations for you. I think this shifted a lot as the dream-team-centric part of the fandom incorporated and learned about Techno as a person and not just Dream's rival, and if I'm being honest I don't have Thoughts so much as I remember having Thoughts in like mid-2021. General attitudes towards Techno shifted wildly from his “monotone,” “emotionless” reputation in early 2021, and the things I remember thinking about kinda stopped applying. I don’t remember what posts bothered me or why I wanted to bring it up.

But. People talk a lot about Techno's speech patterns, and it's true that in an industry that encourages getting as close to newscaster-neutral as possible, his voice can stand out a bit.

In early days when Dream and Techno were very much set up as rivals and people were trying to justify who would/wouldn't win in certain scenarios, it was actually pretty common to claim that Dream has more mechanical and tactical knowledge than Techno. Techno was cast as the brute-force fighter in these essays - comparatively unknowledgable but mechanically gifted. This is a really bad analysis - Techno’s knowledge of the things he cared about was encyclopedic, and his and Dream’s strengths are a lot more similar than they are different.

Where this intersects with voice is that in a US speaker’s perception, Dream has a pretty standard urban American accent, and Techno, as has been noted by fanfic writers everywhere, does not.

The most notable aspect that gets commented on is "g-dropping," the change of the "-ing" sound to "-in." People who don't do anything else to indicate peoples' speech patterns in writing will make sure they write down that Techno's sayin' something, not just saying it.

(This is called an "eye dialect," the use of a nonstandard spelling to emphasize a pronunciation.)

But that's far from the only thing that marks out Techno's accent. If you've watched his introductions to people (i.e. SMPEarth), you might notice that it's not uncommon for people to assume he's from the South, especially Texas, and to be surprised he's from California. The most commonly-known "California accents" are all very urban- and middle-class-centric, while features of Techno's accent (he can sometimes sort of "break" dipthongs and slur or drop syllables, and most especially the g-dropping) are more associated with rural accents in the US, and especially the rural South. And I don’t think that’s entirely dissociated from the way that so many people were so quick to assume, all evidence to the contrary, that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Obviously we don't know a whole lot about Techno's background, so I have no particular thoughts on how he ended up with the accent he did (though it sounds to me like it shares some features with the poorly-described "inland rural California English"). The only thing I can say is how it's perceived, which is as containing a lot of features that US speakers are going to mark as rural and working-class.

(A really fascinating part of this is his seeming inability to really code-switch at all; his Sir Billiam voice contains just as much g-dropping as his normal speech, whereas most people attempting to sound like a rich person would focus on speaking "correctly" and get all those nasals in the right spots. My own g-dropping is markedly more noticeable when I’m with my family than when I’m [location redacted]. But this is more sidetracking linguistics than... ok ok uh back to the point.)

Well... I guess like I said I don’t have much of a point any more, and I probably should have written this post a year back when I did. I certainly don’t have anything quite as obvious and pointed as Xeph’s discussion of how stereotypes about Northern England get applied to certain people (esp. Philza, Jack).

I just have, like, people talk a lot about Techno’s voice, and other blogs brought up a lot of really good points about how perceptions of his speech likely intersect with his ADHD and how neurodivergence can effect speaking patterns (speaking of which, a lot of neurodivergent people can struggle with code-switching! hmm). But I think an aspect that got missed sometimes is the way that those perceptions can also overlap with accent.

And also sometimes I see people pointing out Techno’s speech in a way they don’t for any of the other Dream SMP members. If there's one feature that you consider notable enough to mark while keeping everything else textbook, I think it's worth taking a minute to ask yourself why the feature stands out, and what connotations highlighting it might have. It’s not always a bad thing to do so! It’s just worth taking a second look.

[onthecuterside]

BTS English songs

Bad Decisions prompted folks to rank their English releases/collabs yesterday.

I was going to reply off the cuff but decided to actually make a playlist on repeat and give them the attention they deserved. The results surprised me a bit. Criteria: mainly does the song move me some kind of way - eg to want to dance, or get in my feels? Are the lyrics, rhythm, melody, instrumentation etc interesting? Does the song stay in my head? How do BTS fare?

Who. This surprised me but it was the song in my head this morning, and in the playlist the first notes made my heart lurch with anticipation. It's a really pretty song and it brings back all kinds of heartache that I sometimes enjoy wallowing in. I love the pizzicato strings, the melody is interesting and builds so powerfully to the chorus each time. Jikook sound lovely (their English diction has definitely improved since then but their musicality is on point). Lyrics are OK, I don't cringe when singing along.

2. My Universe. Overall an uplifting bop, I definitely looked forward to it coming up on the playlist. The baseline is funky. The variety of sections and voices provide contrast but blend seemlessly, they keep the energy moving forward. BTS are at their best singing in Korean imo. My fave bit is the reprise at the end where the synths are staccato and everyone yells after the slight pause; I always want to slam dance at that point.

3. Left and Right. The song got in my head, it's well constructed pop, a catchy hook, the lyrics do "can't get you outta my head" in a more imaginative way than usual. I have a thing about lyrics that don't scan well (y'know, when the emPHAsis is on the wrong sylLAble) so JK's "how much more do I gotta do for the pain" grates just a smidgen, but that's not on him. Same for Charlie's "E-rase your body". That's just my personal bugbear, lol. The duet/harmony works well, imo. The bridge is a bit cheesy, musically ("did ya know you're the one...").

4. Bad Decisions. Also catchy, funky bass makes me want to bop. I like the oohs and aahs, I would have pumped the echo up, personally. Points lost for (1) my bare face making JK sick? Didn't come across as a compliment lol. Also JM wants my name. What? (2) The "I can't let you just walk away" bridge was a bit incongruous, musically. (3) Snoop's verses. Meh.

5. Butter. NGL this surprised me. Butter has a special place in my heart as the song in which I discovered that these guys had my soul (esp. hotter remix). But trying to listen objectively alongside the other songs, I winced a bit when the flat drum machine sound comes in. Otherwise the song hangs together well musically. The lyrics are... okay.

6. Dynamite. Truthfully this song captures the disco feel really well, but it's a cheesy sound. IMO the vocals are overproduced. Also, I just can't with the lyrics.

7. Make It Right. The original is one of my healing songs, okay, so how do I judge this version? On re-listening, I realise I'm just here for Jimin's voice, and Lauv's verse is simply a disappointment in comparison. Sorry, Lauv!

8. Permission to Dance. Unlike the members, this song just didn't know how to land for me. I won't say more.

****

I'm not sure @ the criteria for this list, because they are not all 100% English songs - like if Agust D's collabs were in there then Burn It would be #1 for me. I goddam love that song.

✌🏾Peace

[shihalyfie]

One thing I noted with dub names in Digimon is any name that exceeds 2 syllables is often changed or shortened (i.e. Yamato is changed to Matt, Hirokazu shortened to Kazu, etc.). This is let up with Tamers onwards and not always the case but I wonder if it's of the belief kids can't take names that're "too long." (I do remember learning syllables are counted a bit differently in Japanese).

Potentially, given that one particularly distinctive fact about Japanese names is that they often tend to be longer (due to how its syllable system works). Syllables are counted differently in Japanese, although I suppose the more accurate way to put it is that with only one exception, every syllable must have a vowel, which often leads to words and names getting pretty long. So because them being long-winded makes them look more obviously Japanese, we can't have that. To be fair, names that are overly long in length are much harder to put on marketing materials -- Japanese can compensate for this because of kanji and the fact even kana will have only half the number of characters -- and certain combinations of letters and sounds will pose genuine difficulty for the average English speaker as well, which makes marketing even more difficult (I'm sure the voice actors can get used to it, but I do get concerns about the less sensitive random person doing media coverage fumbling it and causing an embarrassment on an already hard sell series). But, again, the issue is not inherently the change as much as the fact it's so blatantly obvious this is not the minimum necessary; capitalism's terrible and I get worrying about hard sells or words that accidentally sound like other words, but for many of the changes, the only explanation really is just "anything that feels Asian is foreign and bad".

This obvious shortening happens even in video games -- and I know memory limitations are a factor, but you cannot tell me Fire Emblem Fates was doing this purely for memory limitations -- and, I mean, even in Tamers the characters with the most aggressive name changing just so happened to the characters with Chinese names that were difficult to obscure the origin of. (In the series where "racist microaggressions against Chinese people by refusing to acknowledge their names" was an actual plot point, at that.)

[jjmaybanksbaby]

Where It Leads (Rafe Cameron)

Summer IV

Part 07: Crashing Down

series masterlist | previous part

summary: A jarring family emergency forces you to consider the future of your relationship with Rafe Cameron.

a/n: I'm a little bit emotional about this series ending because I've had so much fun writing it! Enjoy the last part and, as always, please come share your reactions with me in my inbox. Okay, that's all from me!

word count: 2.1k words

Rafe Cameron knew how to text. He was somehow witty, charming, and hilarious all in less characters than a single tweet. Texting with most boys was like talking to a brick wall: single-syllable answers, unironic uses of punctuation, asking “What are you wearing?” before even listening to how your day went. Though, to be fair, Rafe had asked that same question a few times, which always earned him a sarcastic answer in return. Well, except for that one time.

You’d been forced to spill the beans about your dreamy summer romance to Alice and Kensie after one of Rafe’s funnier texts almost made you pee yourself laughing at the lunch table.

“Oh, so he’s a stud muffin,” Alice announced, peering over Kenzie’s shoulder at the photo on your phone.

“Please god don’t call anyone a stud muffin ever again Al,” Kenzie replied.

“What? The 80s are like making a comeback.”

“Yeah, not that,” you countered and Alice huffed.

“He’s totally hot though,” Kenzie said, handing the phone back to you. “And I kinda hate you for not telling us about him.”

You looked down at the picture. Rafe was kissing your check while you grinned up at the camera, the golden hour lighting made the whole thing look rather enchanting. It was your favorite picture of you and him.

“Oh shit,” Kenzie said causing you to look up from the phone. “You’re like in love in love with him.”

“What? No,” you protested. Yes, your brain corrected.

Kenzie glanced over at Alice for backup.

“Besides, I wasn’t hiding him. I just didn’t know if there was anything there to...tell,” you finished.

“I wish I had a handsome summer fling with spectacular cheekbones,” Alice sighed.

“Don’t let your boyfriend hear you saying that.” Kenzie chucked a fry off her tray at Alice who dodged it expertly.

“Oh, please. Matty knows I would dump his ass for someone who looks like a young Chuck Bass any day of the week. Gimme your phone. I wanna see the photos again y/n.”

“I seriously don’t know how you and Matthew have been together for two years,” Kenzie replied.

“Are you kidding? They’re practically made for each other,” you added.

“The phone, please,” Alice interjected. “I wanna thirst over your mans while my boyfriend is sucking up to his English teacher so she doesn’t fail him. Of course, I told him he needed to actually read Wuthering Heights and not just sparknotes it. But did he listen? No. I picked a real winner y’all,” she finished, taking the phone from your outstretched hands. “You sure Rafe doesn’t have any brothers? Not even like a half-step brother?”

So yeah, going great. Against the odds of three thousand miles, the whole thing was somehow working. Long-distance friends with benefits? Check. Well, except for those moments when that nagging feeling in your stomach came back and you’d start overthinking everything. His texts would sit, unread in your phone for days or even a whole week, slowly sinking to the bottom of your messages.

Then came the call from the Kildare Country Hospital in the early hours of a foggy April morning. You should have gone to sleep hours ago but were still up, desperately trying to cram Maria’s lines into your brain while also texting Rafe. The Sound of Music opened in three weeks and your director had already chewed you out twice for not being off-book, something about being an upperclassman and the lead, and what kind of an example were you setting for the rest of the program. Big speeches were kind of your director's thing, you learned to just ride them out.

Around 1 a.m. your phone ran with an incoming FaceTime call from Rafe. You pressed the green acccept button, a smile spread across your face as Rafe’s own filled the screen.

“Hey Broadway Star.”

“Hi Rafe.” The dim lighting of his bedroom made his feature especially striking. “What are you still doing up?”

“Can’t sleep. Plus you’re up too so. How’s the memorizing going?”

“Shitty,” you replied, closing your binder with a sigh. “I’m too tired to do anymore of it tonight anyway.”

“You know, I was thinking I could come to Oregon for your opening night?”

“Really?” The possibility of Rafe sitting in the audience made your heart race.

“Yeah, why not? I’ll ask Ward if I can borrow the plane that weekend and I bet Sarah’ll want to come too. I wanna see my girl kill it. I miss you.”

“I miss you too, Rafe. You know my friends think you’re hot.”

“Oh, do they?” Rafe replied, rolling over onto his back in his bed.

“Don’t let it get to your head, Cameron.”

The home phone ran but you ignored it, much more invested in your conversation with Rafe. The second time the hospital left a message. Your Nonna’s heart had given out. The prognosis wasn’t good. She had barely any time left.

Your heart dropped as the words echoed over the speaker of the answering machine.

“Rafe,” you said, cutting him off momentarily. “I gotta go. I’ll call you back later. I gotta-” you ended the call before Rafe even had the chance to respond. You dropped your phone on the kitchen table, dashing up the stairs to your parents’ bedroom. Your father was booking a flight for your mother back to the Outer Banks minutes later.

The end had come so quickly, so unexpectedly. It was almost like that made it harder. There'd been just enough time for your mom and uncle to get to the Outer Banks, sitting on each side of your Nonna as her final breaths passed through her lungs. Now, everyone was there to say goodbye one last time. Uncle Austin and his fiancé. Your mom and dad. Both your siblings. The entire population of Figure Eight.

☼☼☼

Rain drizzled down from the dark, gray clouds looming overhead. It was as if Mother Nature was mourning your Nonna too, hiding the sunshine away.

Three baby ducks followed their mama into the man-made pond at the edge of the cemetery. You watched their tiny feet kick up small waves disturbing the peaceful water and the tears silently slipped down your face.

The cars were waiting to take you back to your Nonna's house for the wake. The same house with the for-sale sign now stuck in the front yard. The for-sale sign with Rose's patronizing grin that you were starting to really hate. Your dad had handled that. Listing the house. He'd handled most of the funeral arrangement's actually because your mother had been too sunken into her grief to make any decision. Sending out the invitations, picking out your Nonna's casket, choosing the flowers. Your mother clung to him during the entire funeral, weeping into his shoulder.

“Y/n?” Rafe's voice called out from behind you and you turned to see him walked toward you. He’d stood at the back of the church with his family during the funeral. You had longed for him to be sitting in the first pew next to you, to have had his hand to hold onto to ground you, but it hardly would have been appropriate. Your Nonna would have sooner risen from the dead than have had a Cameron front row at her funeral.

As soon as he was close enough, Rafe reached for you, pulling your body tight into him. Your head landed on his chest and the sobs came moments later. God, he always smelled the same. He just let you cry, holding you close, smoothing his hand over your hair.

“I know you’re selling your grandma’s house but I was thinking you could stay with me for the summer," he said as your tears began to slow. It was hard to imagine that you wouldn't return to the Outer Banks once school let out. It was the first week of May already and you could feel the tourist-attracting town waking up. But selling the house just made more sense. Your older sister was already living her life in New York, a real adult life. Next summer, you'd be moving out too, headed to college. The house would sit empty for eight months out of the year, your family couldn't keep it and your uncle certainly didn’t want it. Selling it just had to happen.

You stepped back, slipping out of his embrace. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Rafe.”

“Why not?”

“Cause we’re like Romeo and Juliet.”

“I copied Cleo’s notes for that unit," he joked, trying to lighten to damp mood. “Plus I was never a fan of Leo DiCaprio so I didn’t finish the movie either.”

“It means we’re not supposed to be together, you and me. And whenever we try, the universe rips us apart. We hurt each other.”

Rafe shifted awkwardly on his feet, clearly wanting to reach for you again but stopping himself from doing it. “But I can't lose you.”

You reached your hand out, brushing away a strand of hair that had fallen in front of his eyes. “Oh Rafe, don’t you get it? You never really had me.” You stood up onto your tiptoes to kiss him just like you had the first time three years ago. Rafe barely parted his lips, kissing you back gently. Your hand cupped his face, your thump stroking over his cheek. It was a goodbye. Both of you knew it. It was an ending and this was your closure. You pulled away, your hand falling away from his face.

You couldn’t bring yourself to say the actual words. Your eyes fell to the ground. You needed to walk away now. You side-stepped Rafe but he grabbed your waist, turning you back around to face him.

“So that’s it? You’re not even gonna try to fight for us?”

“What even is there to fight for, Rafe? I’ve been fighting for us for the past four years. If we were supposed to be together that car wouldn’t have crashed into ours, I wouldn’t have fallen for Evan when I did, we wouldn’t be having this conversation at my Nonna’s funeral. What? Are we supposed to do long distance for all of college? I hardly know who I am right now. I have no idea who I’ll be in the next four years. Our future selves might not even like each other. I’m not gonna wait around for you Rafe and I would never ask you to do that for me.” You twirled the small, star charm between your fingers, a nervous habit you'd developed over the past year. His eyes dropped down to your neck momentarily and his adam's apple visibly bobbing as he swallowed his next weeks.

“You were it for me, you know. I tried to give a fuck about anyone else but I couldn’t get your gorgeous, stupid face out of my mind. I only wanted you.” Rafe paused gauging your reaction “I was falling in love with you.”

Your eyes wandered over his stoic expression. “The feeling was mutual, Rafe Cameron.”

He dropped your wrist but you both stood, not moving or saying anything. “Do you wanna walk me back to the car?”

“Yeah.” He reached for your hand, interlocking your fingers. Your other hand held onto his bicep so you walked together through the graveyard back to the parking lot.

The moment felt precious and delicate, like the fragile china your Nonna used to collect. You wondered what would happen to all that china.

Rafe placed a chaste kiss on your lips before opening the door of the car.

“I’ll miss you,” you said, the words hanging in the air meaning so much.

“Me too,” Rafe agreed.

You wanted one more kiss, one more passionate declaration of how much this all had meant but that would make leaving Rafe so much more impossible.

You climbed into the car, dropping Rafe’s hand in the process.

“See you around Cameron.” You knew it wouldn’t happen but it felt better than a goodbye.

He smiled back. “Maybe so.”

Perhaps Rafe was right and you’d both end up at a small liberal arts college in California taking the same second-year Econ class with a professor who always smelled like weed. Perhaps the stars would align and two of you would realize the universe wasn’t trying to keep you apart. It was just waiting for the right moment to show you that the love you had for each other was the soulmates, forever and ever kind of love. Perhaps you would get married and Sarah would be your maid of honor, of course. You’d buy back your Nonna’s house to raise your troubling-making kids in. Perhaps, you would find your way back and wake up each day and choose each other again and again.

Or perhaps, he'd always be your right-person-wrong-time. And, in the end, the passing days will steal away your memories of the blue-eyed boy from the Outer Banks.

taglist! @oreoenthusiast13

[steamberrystudio]

i'm not sure if anyone has asked this before but! have u ever described what the gilded shadow's characters sound like? i know u have described their accents but i'm not sure about their voices

I haven't - but I don't really think about this when I write. I have a unique character "voice" in my head for everyone. But what I mean when I use that phrase is more their manner of speaking and communicating. Not the actual timbre and sound of their voice. I think I've said that Magnus sounds like Howl from the English dub of Howl's Moving Castle - but I honestly think it stems from the fact that Magnus was originally part of a different story and was an arch-mage. So I just associate him with Howl since they were both blond wizards.

Otherwise, I don't have distinct voices for them.

I guess I can try to give some descriptors for how I imagine they'd sound:

Ari: I imagine he has a very soothing voice. He without much inflection and always in a very calm, deliberate manner. It's rare for him to speak with much emotion.

Caleb: Has a very commanding voice. Probably not excessively deep or high - just pleasantly in the middle. You can always tell when he gets angry because he'll start speaking in a very fast staccato, sort of punctuating each syllable with this face: >=C

Caissa - Speaks in a soft voice but not one you would be comfortable speaking over. Rather he has the kind of voice that people tend to stop and listen to. Very commanding despite that he almost never raises his voice. (It's very similar to how his father speaks though he doesn't realise he's adopted a similar speaking habit.) I don't think he has a particularly low voice.

Jack - I'm not sure about Jack. I feel like he has a very non-descript, 'every man' sort of voice. He nearly always speaks in a very friendly, engaging tone so I guess he just has the kind of voice that makes people around him feel comfortable. Just a "I'm a good guy" sort of voice (though he's not necessarily a 'good' guy.) LoL

Lance - Has a somewhat similar speaking manner to Caissa, but a deeper voice. He also doesn't have the same commanding undertone to his voice. Rather, he sounds very gentle and soothing.

Magnus - A deep, velvety voice that makes the stupid things that come out of his mouth sound even weirder at times. He can sound very, very cold and emotionless at times, but usually has a lot of inflection and speaks very quickly. There will sometimes be abrupt shifts in his speaking manner where all the emotion drops out though. In the right situation, it's the kind of voice that sends chills down your spine in a good way. And...in other situations, it sends chills in a very bad way.

Quill - Idk. I guess he sounds like an angry nerd? I don't know what he sounds like. He's the character I've developed least at this point so sometimes I'm still fuzzy on his details. OwO;;

Reuben - I imagine him with a fairly deep voice that can alternate between very commanding and very gentle. Usually speaks in a very calm, friendly way. Outside of work, he's very bad at hiding his emotion - it always comes out in his tone of voice. But during work he's much better at masking his emotions.

Yuu - A slightly higher pitched, silky voice. Very soothing to listen to when he wants it to be. Often has a slightly mocking quality when he's speaking to people who aren't his patients.

No idea if any of this helps! LoL