#L1 and L2 seem like the best for it

[doolallymagpie]

a welcome side effect of writing this fic is i have a general idea of where lagrange points are

[destinedfordiaperstories]

Sammy's Little Problem, Chapter 16

Read Chapter Fifteen here.

Alyssa smiled. They were making progress. At least Sammy decided on the rest of her diapers without much more of a fuss. Still, there were plenty more opportunities for meltdowns ahead.

It wasn’t easy, but Sammy managed to pick out her daytime, nighttime, and swim diapers without feeling horrible. Even when she looked at the nighttime diaper samples, which she swore were twice as thick as the daytime diapers. But she found some cute—and she hated that she thought they were cute—pink ones that had a different Disney Princess on each one.

Choosing swim diapers felt even more strange. The thought of needing diapers even to swim made her blush harder than she anticipated. Another thing to worry about. And how she could hide those poofy diapers under her swimsuit was something she wouldn’t let herself dwell on. That’s future Sammy’s problem, she said to herself.

Sammy had to distract herself from watching Allie scan all the diapers, though. She kept scanning and scanning. The number of diapers piling up. And she would go through every single one, whether she wanted to or not.

She still wasn’t used to the idea she’d be in diapers every day for the rest of her life. Knowing that her last diaper-free day was behind her. That she would never use the toilet again. The toilet would become nothing more than an ornament, a memorial in the bathroom. Everything will end up in the seemingly endless supply of diapers Allie was scanning.

Sammy was startled back to reality. She felt Allie’s hand reach under her skirt, checking her diaper. It was done so casually, so mechanically that Sammy felt even more infantile. Apparently, Allie decided that she’d check her diapers the same way as any other toddler.

“You’re a little wet, Sammy,” Allie said matter-of-factly, “but I think you can go another hour or so.”

“Okay,” Sammy responded meekly.

“Now, there’s a few more things we need in the L1/L2 combined section before we move on. Sippy cups and bottles are the next aisle over, then—”

“Alyssa? I thought I recognized you!” A woman interjected, happy to see Alyssa.

“Oh, wow, hi Linda, it’s great to see you,” Alyssa responds, “didn’t expect to run into you in the diaper aisle!”

Linda was one of the few women that matched Alyssa in height. Her smile was contagious. She seemed every bit as warm and comforting as Alyssa. Standing next to her was a shy girl who looked to be a few years older than Sammy. She was dressed a bit more…mature than Sammy, though still obviously looking every bit like a Little. Sammy could detect no diaper bulge, though.

“Yeah, Emily here has been having a bit of a problem staying dry during naptime at preschool. Her pull-ups aren’t cutting it anymore, so her teacher recommended she bring some diapers until she gets it under control.”

Emily’s face flushed red. Unlike Sammy, she clearly never expected to be in diapers. She looked at Sammy, almost daring her to say something. Sammy offered her a sympathetic smile.

“But enough about me, Allie, you didn’t tell me you adopted a Little! That’s so exciting! I’ve been wondering when it would happen!”

“It only happened a few days ago! This is Sammy, my Little.”

Linda beamed at Sammy. “Hi, Sammy! It’s nice to meet you! You’re a lucky girl, Allie is probably the best person I’ve ever met!”

Sammy stood there, embarrassed. “T-thank you,” Sammy mumbled, “it’s nice to meet you.”

“Sammy is my little sister Lindsay’s best friend. You met her a few times when we were at USC. She took her classification results pretty hard. She’s an L2, but I knew I couldn’t let her go to an adoption center. I’ve known her too long to let that happen.”

Emily gave Sammy a piteous look upon hearing Sammy was an L2.

“Well, I’m happy to hear that! I know it can be hard at first, Sammy, but you are in great hands,” Linda says before turning to Emily, “this is my Little, Emily. She’s an L3.”

“Hi Sammy,” Emily adds.

“Nice to meet you,” Sammy says, trying to sound as mature as possible.

“Well, I hate to run, Allie, but we need to run, I need to drop Emily off with her diapers before I rush to work,” Linda said, “but we should schedule a playdate soon so we can catch up!”

“That would be great!” Allie agrees, “it’s been way too long. I’ll call you soon to set something up!”

Moments later, Allie and Sammy are alone again. Sammy was still recovering, she’d never met another Little in person. Seeing an L3 made her jealous, if she had to be Little, why couldn’t she have been an L3?

“Linda is so sweet,” Allie says, “she was one of my best friends when I was at USC. I don’t know why we lost touch…but, anyway, where were we?”

Sammy didn’t want to be the one who reminded Allie about her sippy cups. So she just shot Allie an innocent look of uncertainty.

“Oh, that’s right! We need to get you some bottles and sippy cups!”

“Do I really need bottles, Allie? Or sippy cups? I’m not a baby and I can drink without spilling.”

“You’re not the one who will have to clean up the spills, Sammy. And besides, won’t it just be easier not having to worry about spilling?”

Sammy was willing to concede the sippy cups, but not the bottles. “I guess so, Allie, but do I really need a baby bottles?”

“You don’t need to use them all the time, Sammy, but I’m sure every once in a while it will be easier for you. Especially when you’re really tired. I’ll only get a few and we can figure it out as we go.”

“Fine,” Sammy whimpers.

“Oh, look at these Sammy!” Allie exclaims, pointing to a set of cups, “these match your diapers! Look they all have princesses on them!”

Sammy wasn’t sure about this new Disney Princess motif. Sure, she loved them growing up, but to go back to them like this wasn’t what she ever expected. “Those are fine,” Sammy says.

They move to the next aisle. A whole row dedicated to pacifiers. A seemingly endless supply of colors, variations, and sizes. Just looking at them filled Sammy with emotion.

“Okay, Sammy, try not to get overwhelmed with choices,” Allie says, mistaking the look on Sammy’s face.

Sammy’s eye’s begin to tear up again. Pacifiers were for babies. Not her.

Alyssa realizes in the nick of time what Sammy was thinking. She found a cute pink pacifier, scanned it, and opened the packaging. Before Sammy could react, she placed it in her mouth.

The foreign object startled Sammy. But to her surprise, before she could spit it out or yell at Allie, her mouth started sucking on the nipple. It was…calming. Her mind wanted to reject it, but couldn’t. No, this was okay.

Alyssa smiled as she watched Sammy accept it. She’d been waiting for this moment since she asked Sammy to be her Little. Nothing soothes a tantruming Little faster than her pacifier.

“How do you like it, Sammy?” she coos.

It took a few seconds for Sammy to respond. “ith nithe I gueth,” Sammy said clumsily, not used to talking with it in her mouth.

“Well I think you look so cute,” Allie laughs, “now can we choose some pacifiers?”

Even Sammy was startled how much her pacifier calmed her. She almost didn’t even care how she looked. A few minutes later, Sammy had picked out a collection of them. As they moved to the next aisle, she didn’t even think about taking it out.

The next section was changing tables. Alyssa didn’t bother asking Sammy her input for this. She looked at each one in detail, deciding which one fit her needs best. Each of them looked the exact same to Sammy, but Alyssa looked at each like it was completely different. Finally, Alyssa looked satisfied and scanned the one she wanted.

They reached the changing table pad section. Alyssa had Sammy lay on each one, asking her which one felt the most comfortable. “Make sure you choose a comfortable one, Sammy, You’ll be spending a good amount of time on it!”

Once Sammy chose, they went to the bedding section. Sammy’s heart sank when she saw most of the selection was cribs. “Do I really need a crib, Allie?”

“Well, that depends, honey. If I catching you sneaking out of bed too often, yes. But for now I think we can settle on a hybrid bed. The ones over there have much smaller railings to keep you from falling out of bed. But if necessary, it can convert into a crib.”

The process went remarkably similar to the changing table. Alyssa looked at each model in detail, ultimately choosing without Sammy’s input. Sammy, however, got to choose her own mattress.

“We’re making great time!” Alyssa grinned, “you’re doing such a good job, Sammy. I’m proud of you!”

“Thankth,” Sammy responded, blushing at the realization she’s had her pacifier in the whole time.

Sammy watched Alyssa as she fumbled with something in the cart. She saw a flash of something pink before Alyssa turned around and walked over to her. Alyssa was checking her diaper before she could react.

“Wow, Sammy, you really soaked this, I’m glad I checked! We need to get you changed really quick.”

Without warning, Alyssa picked Sammy up and carefully placed her in the cart, making sure Sammy’s feet went through each opening. Sammy felt her diaper squish as she was placed down. She didn’t remember having a single accident.

Though that was the least of Sammy’s concerns. Being picked up without any warning made her feel so tiny. Especially now, as she was essentially face to face with Alyssa pushing the cart. She looked down, realizing her swollen diaper was on full display, her skirt unable to cover the diaper.

“Sorry, Sweetie, but it was just easier this way.”

As Sammy was pushed to the back of the store, she tried to ignore the smiles of other Caregivers as they saw her, eyes always drifting down to her diaper. There were the “awws” and “she’s so cute!” every time she passed anyone.

Finally, they reached the changing area. The women’s bathroom had a series of changing tables. Alyssa swung the diaper bag on her shoulder before picking Sammy up, laying her down next to another Little. The Little showed no sign of reaction, nor said anything in return to her Caregiver’s questions. Sammy assumed she must be an L1. The Caregiver gave Sammy a wave.

As she watched, Sammy felt the tabs being ripped from her diaper. She suddenly felt embarrassed again, sucking on her pacifier harder than ever. To her horror, Sammy realized Alyssa had picked out a nighttime diaper for Sammy. It’s size was immediately apparent as Alyssa fluffed it.

Alyssa noticed Sammy’s apprehension. “I know it’s a nighttime diaper, Sammy, but we have to go look at clothes and car seats next, and I want to make sure everything we choose one that fits all your diapers, okay?”

Sammy didn’t want to wear it but wanted to get out of this changing room as soon as possible. Public diaper changes were always so embarrassing. She just nods silently.

As the diaper is pulled up to her stomach, Sammy realizes just how much thicker it actually was. Even dry it felt thicker than the soggy diaper she was just changed out of.

“There, all done, Sammy,” Allie bubbled, picking Sammy up and putting her down.

Sammy realizes how much harder it is to walk like this. She couldn’t put her legs together even if she wanted to. The diaper was clearly visible below her skirt. Sammy can only imagine how she looks right now, standing there in a diaper her clothes do nothing to hide, a pacifier that matches her diaper in her mouth.

She doesn’t think it could get any worse until she tries to take a step. She started waddling like a baby taking their first ever steps, unsteady on their feet.

“Okay, Sammy, you ready?”

Go to Chapter 17.

[inkwolvesandcoffee]

Another Adventure from the Bakery!

(A.k.a. my workplace😹)

So, today’s Sunday which means… the Young Alfie look-like was on duty! And I as well, having taken over a shift from a colleague.

In other words, it was us and another colleague.

And, for the life of me

I COULD NOT GET A SINGLE WORD OUT NOR CONCENTRATE🙀

Now, this might also be due to being underweight and a massive introverted air-head who’s practically made her L2 her L1 and thus is a social mess whenever she has to speak Dutch. Doesn’t help I don’t know him all too well because we haven’t worked together that often (yet, I hope).

Quick side note: L2 = second language, L1 = native language.

*claps* Now, we apparently worked together until closing even though he was supposed to go home earlier. He’s working extra to save up money for his holiday, but the fact he stayed longer after I confessed to him the closing shifts make me kinda anxious and he took the extra stock on him after me bitching about it to my other colleague has me kinda delusional. Look, there’s no way he’d remember I told him I get stressed out or that he heard me from the back with the Bluetooth speaker on full volume and fully focused on the bakery’s set-up.

But, hey, I’m gone with the fairies when it comes to him.🫠

Anyway, the one time I did manage to get a sentence out smoothly, he responded playfully. We’re polar opposites. I’m quiet and introverted (despite my other colleagues claiming otherwise) and he’s very outgoing and seems to get on with literally anyone.

Which created a melancholy thought, one that comes storming in the one moment I’m grounded in reality.

He’d never fall for a girl like me.

If anything; the best I can hope for is that he sees me either as a friend or, if I’m really pushing my luck, a younger sister.

Until then, I’m here, wrapped in self-hatred.

Tongue-tied.

Speechless.

Buried beneath a chaos of words.

[820619]

Update 2 - Oct 2023

I like tech, and i like tinkering with automation and programming, so part of my ambition for Sanctuary is to automation where it makes sense and make things easier when a) I have guests over to entertain, and b) should I need help with something in an emergency.

I've always been interested in the idea of a smart lock, and having remote access to a home without a key, however most devices look really obvious and I wanted something discrete from a manufacturer I vaguely knew. I started reading into it and the lock company Yale actually released a new smart lock whilst i was doing my research, the Conexis L2. The L1 was met with lukearm reviews, as the app was janky to use, it didnt always work, and some of the most obvious features were left out of the device. Luckily though, reviews of the L2 seemed to suggest that this was all addressed with the new device, so I decided to give it a shot.

One of the best things about this lock is the ability to check if the doors locked from wherever. I constantly leave for work, lock the door, walk 3 steps and then think "did i lock the door?", go back and then check it. Now I can just check from my phone (even though I always lock the door). Its also very useful for house sitting, as i can get spare keyfobs, assign them a name and then hand them out to immediate family. Similar for contractors too - if im at work, I can either unlock the door from my phone should they ring me, or give them access through the app via a guest email address and account. I can then restrict access as and when they do work for me. This is basically the same as giving them a key, but i dont have to chase them up to get the key from them should they forget to give it to me.

It does have a Geofencing feature too so that it primes the unlock when youre in a specific range, and then when your phone is near the door it will unlock for 30ish seconds before locking again, but this is only really useful if you have your hands full with shopping and you cant really get to your keys - otherwise its a bit of a gimmick.

Overall, pretty happy with it - its not overly "look at me - im a smart lock" and its been faultless since i installed it.

The dishwasher also arrived, so I spoke with R - a work colleague who suggested i get a dishwasher and he could help install all the pipework and get it all set up - and we penned in a date to get it all plumbed in. I got all the bits and pieces he specced out for me beforehand.

On the day, we took the washer out of its slot, removed the cabinets either side of it, and then looked at the plumbing. We just needed to put a T piece in and another line for the washer water supply - we did this with JG Speedfit components, that are simply push fit fittings and snap together like Lego.

We noticed that either side of where the washer was, there were tiles missing. This wasnt an issue, as we put some wood board in the slots, but made levelling the washer a PITA.

We also had to relocate the plug socket on that wall so that it didnt foul on the back of either of the appliances.

At that point, I realised the cupboard next to the washers new position wouldn't open because it didn't have enough clearance, so we moved a door from the other end of the kitchen cupboards with hinges on the opposite side, and put it next to the washer. This meant i could now open the washer door and the cupboard door.

The last thing to do in terms of pipework was replace the pipework under the sink with a U piece that had two waste points instead of a single waste point. This involved some cutting of the cupboard sides to accommodate the pipework, but that wasn't an issue either as I have more than enough cupboard space and could relocate things if needed.

Once it was all connected, we ran both appliances at the same time to make sure the connections for the waste water were all tight and could handle both lines being pressurised at the same time, and then started measuring out the new end-board, as previously this was the side of the small cupboard we had removed.

The end-board was due to be delivered that day, so we waited for it to get here. When it did, we measured it to size, cut the board, and then fit it into place - we cut snuggly and reinforced its location with some L brackets that went into the sideboard and the wall. Pleased with the fit and it was a pretty close match in terms of colour and surface to the rest of the kitchen, so I was happy with that too.

Once all that was completed, checked the connections for the waste water and noticed the washer was leaking a little - i hadn't tightened it up enough it seems! We retightened, and then ran the washer again to check if it leaked and when we were confident it hadn't, we then spent half an hour levelling the bastard thing. Super annoying and some of it was guesswork as the far corner had to be levelled, pushed back into position, then we had to rock it gently to see where it moved, pull it back out and adjust and rinse and repeat. Even now, in March 2024, its not perfect and I am going to have to replace the wood board with something else as it seems to be getting noisier with each cycle, but its running for now and that's the main thing.

Overall though, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and the appliances themselves have been faultless so far. Both are LG, with "smart" functions, which are somewhat useful and somewhat gimmicky.

Useful features including telling me when it is time to run a cleaning cycle with some sort of cleaner , as well as the washer auto stopping if it senses too much vibration from an unbalanced load. It will then send a message to the LG ThinQ app asking me to remove some items or to rearrange them in the drum - this will stop it damaging itself or from running across my kitchen. The dishwasher has a steam mode to really clean glass or ceramic items, like stained glasses or casserole dishes with years of baked on crap - whilst not tied to a smart function as such, its been pretty handy to use. The dryer function on the washer/dryer is also pretty energy efficient, i think in part because its got a heat-pump to generate the heat which it then just cycles round for a few hours, and on the other hand its about 10 years newer than the previous dryer left behind by the previous owner.

Gimmicks include being able to download "niche" cycles onto the machines, which so far has been pointless since none of the cycles that you can download offer anything you cant already achieve with the standard, in machine ones.

Having a dishwasher is much better for me as an individual, as its a good way to make the most of my time outside of work - it can do the washing whilst i sleep :)! Still, at this point Sanctuary didn't feel like my home. It felt like i was house sitting and being a super generous house sitter by maintaining it and buying new appliances whilst it is under my watch... I think as I put more of my own mark on it, it'll feel much more homely - even now, 8 months into ownership, im 50/50 feeling like a house sitter and like this is my own space.

[dragon-snoots-a-boopin]

I don't know if I have said this a lot here but I tend not to play a lot games on my phone as I am really not all that big into the mobile game stuff as, in my opinion, 98% of mobile games are either terrible or are littered with constant, annoying ads that one is forced to watch a million of. Anyway, out of curiosity, I decided to give Call Of Duty Mobile a try and here are my thoughts on this one.

Graphics: for a mobile game, the game doesn't actually look all that bad. Yeah, it's one of those mobile games that boasts about having console quality graphics and I'd say the graphics are close to like PS3/Xbox 360 era which is pretty decent for a mobile game to have.

Controls: I'd say that the controls are fine enough at best. There's the option for simple controls and advanced controls. They have a virtual thumb stick on the left side of the screen and on the right is the ADS, fire weapon, jump and reload buttons. The only difference between simple and advanced is that advanced gives you a button to fire your weapon whereas simple lets you aim at an enemy and the weapon just fires at the enemy you are aimed at. The middle of the screen from left to right is your scorestreaks, switch weapons and grenade. Also, the top right of the screen is where your like operator power weapon is. It's not a terrible control layout but it can lead to some issues I have found. This games causes my phone to warm up and that causes my finger to stick sometimes and sometimes makes screen taps not register. The point is that when I tried playing CoD Mobile with a controller is was SO much BETTER, it's like a night and day difference. I used a PS4 controller. R2 & L2 are ADS and fire weapon, R1 & L1 are grenades, X is jump, square is reload, triangle is switch weapons and the D Pad are the scorestreaks and that makes playing the game a thousand times more comfortable to play, so much so that I need to keep playing it this way.

Maps: It's a pretty decent selection of maps here but the problem is a lack of creativity because all of one map is actually original and the rest are from past CoD games. I don't remember the names of all of the maps but they are from CoD 4, MW2 (2009), MW3 (2011), Black Ops, Black Ops II, and Modern Warfare 2019 and I am pretty sure that is it. The maps are small to medium size and that works here with matches being 5V5.

Music: The music only exists in the main menus and is pretty awful if you ask me. I really love rock and metal music and this game uses this generic rock music that just isn't very good at all and doesn't make me think of CoD at all either. If they're so obsessed with past CoD games in this one, why not use past CoD game music for this one? What's worse is that when you get into a match, there isn't any music at all and that makes the match feel kind of lifeless to me.

Weapons: The weapons all look pretty good. I do find it weird how a lot of the weapons do not have their proper names anymore. I recently unlocked the SCAR but it has a completely different name and that seems weird to me. Did CoD like lose the rights to actual names to these weapons that they use the designs and just name them something else? They all sound pretty good too but they sound better in the PC & console CoD games.

Modes: I'm sure it's obvious but, this game doesn't have any kind of single player campaign and I feel like that's expected. Multiplayer has a lot of different modes like TDM, Free For All, Kill Confirmed and so on. There's also the Battle Royale and I have no idea how that is because I've not tried it because I don't like Battle Royale games. The last thing it has is zombies which I also have yet to try. I am not a fan of CoD zombies but I will probably give it a go at some point just to say that I did.

Overall, I think that CoD Mobile is a pretty decent little phone game. The thing is that I'd really only recommend this to people who are obsessed with CoD and people who can only play games on their phone because I'd definitely highly recommend a controller for playing this game and that's not something I'd recommend to someone who plays mobile games casually as a controller that connects to ones phone isn't cheap.

[sims-4-friendship-cheat-11]

sims 4 friendship cheat 100% working O3S&

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 What you'll need to do is enable your cheats and then go over to a sim you wish to add to your household or remove from your household and hold. Press Control + Shift + C to open the cheat console, a small command line in the top left corner of the screen. On console, you press all four triggers (L1/L2+. LTR_SimtoPet_Friendship_Main is the cheat that influences friendship between a Sim and their Sim-pets. You'll need the Cats and Dogs Sims 4. Method 1: Use friendship cheats · Enable cheats: Press Ctrl, Shift, and C on PC · Then, type testingcheats true to open the cheat console · Type in relationships. How to Use The Sims 4 Relationship Cheats? · For Microsoft Windows: Press Ctrl + Shift + Alt · For MacOS: Press Ctrl + Shift + Alt · For PS4: Press. Ah, love. Meet a partner, fall in love, get married, have a couple of baby Sims, and teach them the ways of the world as they grow up and go out into the world to meet sweethearts of their own. And just like in real life itself, building the perfect Sims 4 companionship takes time. Like, a lot of time. Just like any part of The Sims 4, there are friendship cheats you can use to enhance your health and happiness without all the heartbreak. There are, too, friendship cheats to help with those not-so-romantic interactions. Sims 4 friends can be fickle, and while it seems like your friends always want to hang out, there can be too much of a good thing! After all, The Sims 4 is a simulation game. Cheats help you enhance your experience in The Sims 4 by allowing you to play the game exactly the way you want. But this is your game, and it should be an experience you enjoy. In order to use any cheat for Sims 4, you have to enable cheats through the cheat dialogue box. If you need to deactivate cheats during the course of gameplay for any reason, you can input the reverse of this command to disable cheats. When cheating, The Sims 4 gives you full control over your Sims and their stats. This means that some of the cheats in the game have several variables you need to account for, but it means that you can tweak your Sim world to be exactly the way you want it. You can build or destroy a romance between two sims, you can create or sever friendships between Sims, and you can even increase the affinity your Sim has with cats and dogs. There are three primary cheats, and they all fall under the ModifyRelationship command. Your cheat will look like the following:. Remember, this works on cats and dogs, too! The Amount represents how much you would like to modify the relationship. A relationship between Sims can have a value between and The closer to , the closer the Sims are to being best friends. Remember, The Sims 4 is an inclusive experience that allows any two Sims to enjoy romance and fall for each other! Each object should be capitalized the same way as everything shown here. In short, you can use the cheat console to increase points or decrease points in each type of The Sims 4 companionship. You can even increase your relationships with your Sim-pets if you have the right Sims 4 mods or expansion packs! Instead, use the Sims 4 friendship and relationship cheat ModifyRelationship to alter the basic relationship stats between Sims and see how their interactions play out! You can play god in The Sims 4, but even god has to give his Simoleons free will. Of course! For other cool Sims cheat codes and tips, check out our guide to The Sims 4 skill cheats and The Sims 4 cas cheats. We cover cheats for all expansions from Discover University to Journey to Batuu. This series has so much in store for you— how will you build your ultimate Sim universe? Can You Edit Relationships in Sims 4? Dane started off gaming at the tender age of 3 with the first Atari console. Read more

[lifeaftermeteor]

Bravo Quadrant, Residential Block L1-B10201 15-16 July 212

Duo had called off of work on emergency family leave. His team would be fine, he knew. And if the ESUN collapsed because he wasn’t herding cats, well.  Probably meant it was doomed to failure from the start.

He told himself that the dissolution of global government over the span of a week was an unlikely crisis scenario, but he also knew full well revolutions didn’t take much once you got one really going. 

But all of that paled in comparison to the days ahead. Heero needed him. Heero was strong and brave and harder to kill than anyone Duo had ever met, but… everyone had their limits. And the haunted look he’d seen in Heero’s eyes a few days prior, sitting there surrounded by what Duo could surmise was the story of his parents’ deaths… that was a lot to carry. 

Duo knew, since he’d carried it too. During their trip star-side, he had caught himself remembering the packet of information from L2 that had been dropped on his doorstep in Jakarta. The photo of a young woman with a lopsided grin and eyes like his and a name he didn’t remember. It had hurt so Goddamn-fucking-much that he hadn’t known what to do with himself except keep moving. He had mourned lost chances and had woken up with a bitch of hangover the next day, but had kept moving all the same despite the half-formed memories and ghosts whispering in his head.

Glancing sidelong at his partner as they checked into their hotel, he wondered what the ghosts told Heero.

*****

They spent the bulk of the next morning at the Preventers branch. Heero provided a statement and a blood sample, which the lab technician assured would provide an answer the next day. Heero’s Preventers buddy Nilsson did his best to lighten the mood and treated them both to lunch, a gesture Duo appreciated. Before they had even received their meals, the tension had bled from Heero’s shoulders and his smiles came more easily. 

But like all good things, this peaceful comradery would not last. As they finished their lunch, Nilsson cleared his throat. “I realize it wasn’t exactly protocol,” he began, “but I called the leasing office to the building. Same company as when this all happened, if you can believe it. The unit isn’t currently occupied. If you think it would…help, in any way… I’ll call ahead and let them know you’re coming.”

The offer hovered between them, dark and foreboding. But Heero eventually said, “I’d appreciate that.”

The trip to the old apartment building passed in silence. Whenever it tipped toward oppressive, Duo would reach down and take Heero’s hand in his. I’m here, it said and although the words were never spoken, the message was received—Heero would give his hand a squeeze back in acknowledgement and the weight of the silence between them would lift for a time.

The Blossom Courtyard leasing office—like their property—had seen better days, but the staff were friendly enough if perhaps a bit intrigued by these newcomers. Access key in-hand, an older portly man with a thick mustache and receding hairline guided Duo and Heero into the walk-up building toward the unit in question.  

Heero stopped at the railing overlooking the courtyard for which the complex was presumably named and asked suddenly, “What happened to the plum tree?”

Duo and their guide stopped and turned, startled by the question. The older man answered, “Poor thing got sick a few years back. We had to cut it down lest whatever got to it spread to other trees on-island.” He then turned and continued down the walkway. 

Heero acknowledged the answer with a nod but seemed to struggle to tear his eyes from the courtyard itself. Duo retreated several steps and took Heero’s hand in his own again. I’m here, I’m here. Heero shook his head and seemed to push back the memories that had infiltrated the present. Their eyes met and held for a long moment before they turned together and moved to rejoin their escort.

The man from the leasing office stopped in front of an otherwise nondescript door, unit number 27 if the number on the frame was to be believed. Turning the key in the lock, the door swung open and he gestured for them to step inside. 

How long the unit had been unoccupied, Duo couldn’t tell. The walls were painted, but flaking here and there. There was an old musty smell to the place, one that poked and prodded at Duo’s own memories of abandoned spaces. Not rotten or terrible, just...old. Unkempt, unloved, unlived in. A forgotten place where humans used to be. 

Duo turned to Heero and watched him take a few shuffling steps into the center of the room, his arms wrapping defensively around his midsection. Heero looked...small. Duo turned to the older man and asked, “Can we have a minute, alone?” Their guide hesitated as he sized them up but then nodded and stepped back, indicating that he wouldn’t be far away. Duo thanked him and shut the door. 

“Do you remember what you asked me, when you found out about your mom?” Heero asked, his voice bouncing around the empty room.  He turned to face him and Duo was startled to see the unshed tears welling in his eyes. “You asked if I remembered them, my parents.”

Duo nodded, taking a step towards him. “You said you didn’t.”

Heero gave him what Duo could only describe as a heartbroken smile. “I lied.” Before Duo could reply, Heero turned away again and began to move slowly throughout the apartment. “We lived here,” he said as he walked. “They died here.”

But then Heero stopped as he moved past the bedroom.  Ducking inside, he crossed to the closet and sat down just inside. “What are you doing?” Duo asked, gently as he crouched next to him.

Heero ran his hands over the baseboards, the paint flaking under his fingertips.  “There was something… a secret…” he muttered. He ran his raw fingernails over the seams of the false wood there but then clutched a section of the panel and pulled.  Duo winced at the popping and cracking of years of paint giving way, crying out against the abuse as…

A drawer slid forward.  Disguised and hidden in plain sight, the shallow drawer at the base of the closet wall was all but invisible to casual onlookers, its presence entirely disguised by the panel itself. 

Inside the hidden drawer were the remnants of a little boy’s most treasured possessions—a toy car, an action figure, a few well-used crayons and a roll of paper. Heero reached out and withdrew the paper, gently unspooling it in his lap so that they could both see.  Three stick figures holding hands, one of them much smaller than the others, smiled up at them. There was a tree with flowers in its branches and a building that looked like a crude representation of the one they currently occupied. There were lines at the top of the page juxtaposed with blue clouds floating in between them and the figures below, a child’s rendition of colonial living. 

A family. A happy family.

A strangled, broken sound escaped Heero’s lips and he dropped the drawing back in the drawer, his hands coming up to hide his face. Duo was on him in a heartbeat. He pulled Heero against his chest and whispered the words he’d only thought till now. “I’m here, I’m here, I’m here.”

*****

Heero was despondent the whole way back to their hotel. Together they had collected the contents of the drawer and stashed them away in various pockets to avoid questions upon their departure. Once bidding the leasing office goodbye and safely underway, however, Heero had pulled the toy car from his pocket and spun the wheels with his thumb. His eyes were unfocused, locked on some world Duo couldn’t hear or see and it worried him.  Shock, Duo told himself. 

Any doubts Duo had held in reserve about this excursion had evaporated with the discovery of the hidden drawer. Heero had had a loving family. And then they had been taken from him. That singular act of violence had only been followed by more violence. Years of hurt and death unmeasurable. One could argue that night had set Heero on the path to becoming a Gundam pilot… much as it had for Duo himself. He grimaced at the bitter taste in his mouth and instead focused on getting Heero home.

Once inside their hotel room, Duo bolted the door and guided Heero to the bed. “Strip and get in,” he directed, not bothering to turn on the lights. They undressed in silence and climbed under the sheets. Duo immediately pulled Heero flush against him, arms wrapped tightly around the man’s shoulders. Heero ducked his head under his chin, his breath ghosting over Duo’s clavicle.  

They lay together in silence for a long time, their breaths and beating hearts the only sound in the dark room.  

At last, the sound of Heero’s broken voice reached Duo’s ears. “I don’t know why he took me,” Heero murmured. “He was never unkind, but I don’t know why he took me. Why he didn’t kill me when he killed them. I don’t know why they didn’t run away, or at least hide with me. I don’t know why… why it hurts so much.

“How did you do this alone, while you were at school?” Heero asked, voice muffled against Duo’s chest.

“Drank heavily,” Duo answered with a grimace. But then he added, softer, “And I called you. That helped more than anything.”

The silence stretched between them again, this time raw and bleeding. Duo could feel hot tears against his skin but said nothing about them. He just held Heero tighter, kissed the crown of his head, and ran his hands through his hair. 

“I don’t want to come back here. Ever,” Heero said. 

“We don’t ever have to.”

“Don’t leave.”

“I’m not,” Duo answered, knowing there was more to the request than Heero could ever say. “I won’t. I’m here.”

[rigelmejo]

Idk if anyone’s studying French but googling Merlin saison 1, buffy contre les vampires saison 1, dailymotion will be there for u with the whole show dubbed (which is good listening practice for my ass that can read ok but barely follow listening)

Also any French show recs? Particularly modern fantasy or sci fi? Or detective/mystery?

—

On the Listening Reading Method front i have HIT A SWEET SPOT. FINALLY. Months of trying and I found a way to do it more conveniently and in a way much more doable if you like me cannot fucking focus for long periods.

Step 1: read the chapter in a language you fully understand (or some chapters ahead so you don’t have to do this as much later, or the whole book). Aka read in your native language (or a language you understand well) to get context. This is L1 language. You don’t have to do this if it’s a book you already read once and remember well, and you don’t have to do this right before you do the rest (if you can remember the overall context you’re good even if there’s a month between this and the other steps etc).

This is obviously tolerant of breaks - read however you like, just get some context.

Step 2: listen to target language (L2) audiobook, while following target language (L2) text.

Ideally, this is where you might read it in the target language if you can keep up with the audio. If you are reading digitally then a quick popup dictionary will benefit you (if you want to comprehend what text you’re following along and need the dictionary). Alternatively if you have a parallel text next to each other - that also helps if you want to look up a word. But word lookup isn’t necessary.

I’ve been doing this either in Pleco - just clicking a word as desired, or by looking at an online parallel text (bilinguis.com works amazing). Both of these options work very easily IF YOU GET AUDIO THAT MATCHES TEXT. The key here is FIND MATCHING AUDIO AND TEXT.

I can’t emphasize how much easier Listening Reading Method is when the text and audio MATCH. Mine FINALLY match and it makes my life so much fucking easier.

Ideally if these match you will find this much easier: audio starts and ends at same time chapter text starts and ends (seriously this is the biggest thing). The audio ideally does not shorten/omit sections of text (however you can adapt if it’s only small changes like a few missing sentences/changed phrases in a while chapter). The text is the same as the audio generally (not edited text - I tried to use the print text guardian with the audiobook based on the webnovel and wayyy too many sections were different it was too hard to follow). If you can find a source where everything (except maybe a few sentences/phrases) are the same, it will be much easier. It will be so easy you can start and pause whenever you want - breaking L R into 5-10 minute chunks if you like me can’t fucking do something too long without breaks. If the text and audio match very well, it is much easier to just pause the audio, notice the place u left the text, and come back to it.

Step 3: follow along with your L1 text (native language/language you understand) while trying to understand the L2 target language audio.

How to make this easier: if you have Pleco, simply click the dictate text button. It will popup every definition as it reads it. I actually find I practice LISTENING skills more when during this step I don’t look at the Chinese text much (because when I look at the Chinese I start tuning out the audio more). I have noticed I can often predict what the word means before I actually see a definition. Also in Pleco since it’s word by word, you don’t spend time figuring out the place in the English text the audio corresponds to - the audio dictation tool highlights the Chinese it’s reading constantly. For me, constantly following along to the Chinese text (or French if doing it for french) makes this step much easier. Alternately: use a parallel text, and glance at L2 target language text whenever you get lost/it gets hard to follow where you’re at. Simply having the target language L2 to refer to makes it so much easier to NOT get lost when listening.

Tools that make L R easier:

Literally look up on YouTube “audio target-language” and “target-language text.” Do it. Make your life easier! There’s a lot of them on YouTube that have for example both Chinese and English text on screen, Chinese audio. All of the work is done for you - you don’t have to keep your place in a text, you can pause and continue whenever! Even if you can just find target language audio-text, makes life much easier that someone else set it up for you.

Also japanese audiobooks sometimes have auto captions which are decent enough.

If you’re doing a Chinese book, get on ximayala app you might find well a matching audiobook. Youtube may also have a decent audiobook (also try bilibili i just found an unofficial 天涯客 audiobook - also tbh sometimes with Chinese the unofficial audiobooks will match chapter beginning/ends better than official ones but it depends).

For text, try bilinguis.com. While the selection of stories is small, they have very convienient parallel texts (which makes keeping yourself from getting lost easier). I was easily able to find audiobooks on YouTube or ximayala that would match the bilinguis texts.

Bidireader, a tool I linked the other day, can generate parallel texts if you can copy paste the texts in. Again, makes it so much easier to not have to focus so hard if you have a parallel text and can glance at the target language to keep yourself from getting lost.

Screen Reader tools - if you have a phone/computer, you may have a screen reader tool to read audio on screen aloud. Not ideal, but will work if you just want some audio practice with text you see and can’t get an audiobook to match it! Also Idiom app can read text aloud.

I mentioned above - I just use Pleco app dictation to do step 3, so that’s my step 3 audio. It’s not as good as the audiobook! But for quickly giving me a chance to match audio to definition, it works fine. Sort of like using a textbook with very stilted audio/just a pronunciation guide (Pleco), and a natural audiobook. It works fine. If you can find a parallel text, you can technically just do some computer generated audio (Idiom app, Pleco, Screen Reader, etc) and look at the L1 language for step 3 (if you absolutely can’t find an audiobook that you like that matches and want to use that text).

—

Notes:

Native audiobooks do sound so much better than generated audio, so if you CAN use them, do. At least for step 2 I think (target language audio with target language text).

Bilinguis.com has nice free parallel texts, YouTube has some perfect premade videos to do L R, Pleco can do step 3 in a pinch (if you can’t find a parallel text). Bidireader tool allows you to make parallel texts.

I find I actually find step 2 THEN step 3, as originally intended, helps me most? I’ve tried it both orders.

When I do step 2 first I practice extensive reading since I don’t look words up generally, I practice listening to audio in the bg so I can skim ahead and skim backwards (so training myself to pay partial attention to listening). I get an overall context for the story (I pick up most of what’s going on), I work on speeding up my reading speed (I need to keep up with audio, and often I’ll read a little ahead of the audio). I like it a lot - it’s like regular extensive reading, but I get some sound reinforcement. And I can look up a handful of words if I want. And I’m forced to CONTINUE so I don’t read too slow. (However - regular extensive reading has its place, I have more time in regular extensive reading to figure out new Hanzi and sayings and remember them).

When I do step 3 LAST I find that because I already know most of the chapter (since in step 2 I followed almost everything), I can focus all of my attention into listening. I really hear what words are being said (especially since I just practiced listening once before in step 2). Especially doing it in Pleco, where the English popup definitions show up and disappear so FAST, I really rely on my ears most. Especially when I barely look at the Chinese - because the English shows up so fast and isn’t always the best definition, so I mostly am following based on my listening skills. Also it means in step 3 since I’m comfortable with the main plot, and sound, I can focus my attention on really looking at the new words I want to learn. 插 缩 宿舍楼 权利 were some words I could focus on last time, actually listening to their pronunciation better. Etc. So I do think... for me doing it as actual step 3 when doing it this specific way seems to help more. That way step 2 is mostly reading and sentence flow when listening, and step 3 is more time for new word focus and listening skills in general. Also I find the word-reinforcement I get in the next chapters step 2 anyway.

I’ve done 5 chapters of Guardian in 2 days (so yeah I’d say this way of L R is easier for me to do lol!). 1 chapter of Alice in wonderland in chinese (again bilinguis with a good audio from ximayala worked perfect), 1 chapter from a YouTube premade video. I do think in some ways step 2 actually helps me the most (reading wise, and maybe even over all?). I find there’s definitely value in me doing step 2 on its own, even if I don’t do any of the other steps.

I find the L R combo steps have already helped my listening skills this small amount I’ve done. Which is kinda shocking to me tbh. When I did the Alice in wonderland chinese chapter, first I just listened to the audio in the background. I could follow all of it about Alice’s sister reading, her following a rabbit and falling, her picking up a jar and setting it on another shelf as she fell, without any text to look at. I think part of it is simply Alice in wonderland has more short words I know and less descriptive words I do Not know compared to Guardian. And I have prior context for what happens in the chapter. Still. I found it much easier to catch some details since last time I tried. So I’m going to keep doing L R while I feel like it, see if it helps any more.

[r0h1rr1m]

rambly inception thoughts p.2

this has been kicked off, specifically, by disliking that i failed to include yusuf in this post but there’s already so much going on there re: exact limits/mechanics of imagination in dreams, how to call down projections, moral relativism, crack chara psych, and speculating on the future of ari’s career--and i explained most of it poorly anyway so it’s probably for the best!

to start with, i’ve always imagined that there’s a huge variety in the caliber/class of chemist u can hire in dreamshare. the title probably applies even to people whose capability starts and stops at sourcing base product for somnacin and/or the finished drug. the next level up can maybe mix up different kinds to standard specifications. idk how much education/training u’d need to be able to do this, bc i v much do not chemistry, but i’d bet there’s a lot of variety in ppl’s qualifications in this category, too. a standard formula might affect different ppl slightly differently, like any psychotropic drug (is that even the most sensible analogy to real-world science? idk and i don’t want to risk hours of ultimately fruitless wikipedia spiralling), but in the same vein, the variances will all probably fall within a reasonable range of the same functionality. without, like, some sort of neuro degree, probably, the most fine-tuning a chemist could do is optimize doses/known variants of the drug through trial and error in preparation for a job.

our man yusuf definitely has a high-level neuro degree

so, just like the rest of the team, yusuf is obviously a total powerhouse in his field. like i said, it must take sophisticated knowledge of brain chemistry in order to do what he did on the fischer job, as well as the same mad genius as the rest of them. (as an aside, can i just say how utterly delightful a team dynamic is “group of geniuses who surround themselves with enough people who are the same kind of batshit to normalize it”? i’m weak) and idk how someone gets famous in like neurochem but yusuf is so brilliant he was probably p well known. js imagine the comedic potential of whatever rising-star chemist meeting yusuf and js going dr. ____?! who published those completely revolutionary but completely balls-to-the-wall studies on x and then after throwing the discipline into an uproar either a) dropped off the face of the earth and is now known as smth of an urban legend/cryptid in the community or b) still corresponds w experts in the field but now about the wildest shit and ppl kind of have to mythologize/not think too hard abt the dude who walks in ppl’s heads in order not to risk js breaking everything

so yusuf knows his shit and his initial assertion that 3 levels is impossible can be trusted to carry a lot of weight. which means the fact that he proceeded to do it more than secures his place in the cast of demonstrable prodigies

now, bc this is ostensibly a continuation of a post that’s loosely focused on charas’ moralities, let’s look at the 2 parts of the movie where we most directly confront yusuf’s: his dream den and hiding the sedation from the team. i’m going with the assumption that any legitimate/legal research and application of dreamshare has been discontinued.

come yell at me for over oversimplifying, but that makes the question of the dream den seem p straight-forward. yusuf faced giving up dreamshare research (or came onto the scene after it was already illegal, which could make for some rly interesting stories abt how he would’ve found out abt it) and couldn’t, so he had to find a way to continue on his own. and since it would be in rly bad faith to assume he doesn’t have the full consent of all his test subjects, that’s js that. (i’m not going to argue abt the difference b/w ethics and morals, and i’m laughably unqualified to discuss the ethics of human experimentation anyway so moving on)

hiding the fact that the team was sedated was a major plot point and is discussed w according frequency, so i’m sure most ppl have their own opinions abt what this says abt the parties involved. i’ll readily admit that my view is heavily colored by the fact that i js plain like yusuf. he’s a likeable guy. (i’ll try not to go off on a tangent, but i know that my reasons for disliking cobb are a little unfair; it’s more about narrative structure than any of his personal failings. the fact is i have a weakness for hypercompetence, and cobb is presented as someone who used to be the best, but is no longer reliable. he shows flashes of his old brilliance running the mr. charles gambit successfully and improvising capitalizing on the appearance of fisher’s browning projection on l2, but he’s desperate enough to be untrustworthy and further, he’s untrustworthy in a way that is eminently predictable by the audience. we know from the get-go that his shade is gonna sabotage something, and it’s hard not to blame him for that. we also know from the get-go that he’s desperate enough to drag other ppl into a fool’s mission, and that he’s hiding something dangerous from arthur, who by all appearances should be the person cobb can trust, and the person to whom it’s most important to know that kind of shit. i’m not gonna pretend i anticipated that big twist in the parking garage on l1, but it makes a ton of sense in retrospect and all this makes it easy to see why cobb is so widely mistrusted/disliked by the fandom. and i went off on a tangent, whoops.)

so picking back up at yusuf is a likeable guy--he seems p friendly and easy-going and i thoroughly enjoyed every scene of him on l1. i’m gonna say a lot of his moral considerations come in the form of deciding what is or isn’t his responsibility. mbe he avoided or suitably resolved the thorny ethical question of human experimentation in the same way i kind of did: by saying that the participants agreed to it on their own and leaving it there. this kind of reasoning is how he would’ve let cobb take responsibility for sedating and then informing the team. it’s also probably how he decided to cue the kick early on l1 and make it everyone else’s problem. which i do think was the right decision! it would be absurd to suggest that this highly intelligent man’s patterns of reasoning are always questionable. but i do see a pattern.

as for the advice he’d give ari, i think a lot of this relates back to my mention in the earlier post of whether or not she could let an institution/legislation dictate her ethics to her. i’ve since decided that it’s simpler to assume the institutions are all outside the law, though, so i’m not going to think abt that anymore unless directly prompted. one thing we do know abt ari, though, in contrast to my suppositions abt yusuf, is that she has a v strong sense of responsibility. she took it upon herself to manage cobb, and she took it upon herself to save the job, fisher, saito, and cobb when it looked like everything had been ruined. thinking abt it now, this makes for further interesting contrast w arthur, whose sense of responsibility seems to revolve around personal loyalty, eames, whose sense of responsibility is acutely pragmatic, and saito, whose sense of responsibility is on the grand scale of stopping a monopoly (suitably ironic).

again, idk if i’ve rly made any kind of point, and now i want to go back and build elaborate hierarchies of skill in each job description (architect, extractor, etc) like i kind of did for chemists but, well. if u made it this far bless u, i hope u have a wonderful day. vote

[arandomgirl23]

Misadventures of A Random Girl - Diary - Chapter 1.1 - Drama

03.03.2020

Do you ever have someone that you just can't hold a conversation with? Like, no matter how hard you try to be calm and reasonable, you still end up yelling at each other? I think we all have someone like that. I do too.

There are some things I can talk to her about, but there are some topics that just don't dare be touched, lest I light an explosion.

It's funny though. It's for this exact reason that children have two parents. Either one parent doesn't know about what you want to talk about, or the other parent is really sensitive of a topic, but there are some topics that you can go to one parent about, and some topics to talk to the other about. It's important to know what you can speak calmly with one parent about, and what is best not to talk to them about.

It's actually pretty surprising how much just choosing a topic for discussion wisely can affect your relationships. And this goes far beyond parents. This affects friends, acquaintances, superiors, you name it.

This brings me to a funny experience I had a few years ago, though I would not have called it funny back then.

This was almost three years ago; I had recently moved overseas, and I had little social experience due to the fact that I had been home schooled almost my whole life except for six months when I was seven (I have some experiences I will talk about from then as well). The town I moved to was quite small compared to the big city I was used to, and because I was the only American that was living there, I became very popular, very quickly (to give you an idea, it took about 3 weeks - 1 month for the whole city (≈ 80,000 people) to know who I was, having seen me for the first time). So, I started at the school I would be studying at for the next ≈1.25 years, and naturally, because I was from the US, and I was so popular, most of the girls wanted to be friends with me, and everyone wanted to know more about my life in America (to the point where I was cornered with people asking me questions). I remember, the question I got the most was, "Say something in English!!" :D  

So, as I was trying to fit in more with the collective, I tried to find out more about what everyone was interested in. I quickly learned that anime was something very popular, that probably 50% of teens were into (the other 50% was into makeup or being cool : | ). I had heard of anime at the time, but because there was a language barrier, (and I honestly had no idea if the anime they were talking about was the same anime I knew lol) I was hesitant to get into it (and then go, "Hey everyone, I watch aNiMe!!!", like what if I got it wrong lol :D).

This brings me back to the friend thing.  At the time, I had two BFFs. One was into "anime" (at this time I still had no clue what people were talking about :D), the other was into making Likee and TikTok videos. She got me into that, and I honestly enjoyed it, but I was still DYING to know what that "anime" was :D. So, I asked my friend that was into anime. . . . . . DUHHH.

Lol

I figured out that, yes indeed, it was the same anime  I knew.

...

So what was stopping me?

.

Nothing.

So I watched it.

* clapping * * clapping * * clapping * * clapping * * clapping ** clapping *

.

So, yeah, everything was fine. I got really into anime, the anime friend of mine was happy because we had something to be weird about together lol.

But if that was it, then I wouldn't be talking about this now, would I? :D

Well, I quickly learned that the other friend I had absolutely HATED anime, like, she just couldn't even stand the SIGHT of it, I'm serious. = > =    But, somehow, she was friends with these other girls in my class, and there was no problem, even though they were really into anime and all that. It FASCINATED me, I really wanted to know what was going on, because she really seemed to have a problem with the friend of mine that was into anime.

Fun fact (that is actually really important): These two BFFs of mine had the same name.

Let's call them L1 (into anime) and L2 (into Likee and TikTok)

I had also recently became friends with two other girls, let's call one of them T, and the other S.

One day, I was eating in the cafeteria with L2, and I got a text on Instagram from T, and she was telling me things about L2, and giving me reasons why I shouldn't be friends with her. I was really confused = > = (naturally) and, having little social experience, I showed the text message to L2, like, wut do I do with this ....  She took the phone from me and started writing to T. The conversation went approximately like this:

L2: What is your problem? Why can't you just leave me alone? Now you have to go and try to manipulate R(me)?!

T: This has nothing to do with you! I wasn't talking to you!

.....

...

..

.

I don't remember the rest of the conversation that well, but I know that L2 showed a side of herself that made me think to believe T, not to mention I could tell that something had happened before I moved there, + I didn't have much social experience (had this happened now, I would have known not to get involved in their drama lol), so I wanted to figure out what happened before I moved (and deep down inside I think I really wanted to get involved with their drama because I had never been involved in drama before, I only realized this after I was in deep and regretted getting involved). So I found T alone with L1, and I asked them about it.

In short, if I don't say it like they did, and bluntly give you a synopsis of what they told me, they told me L2 was a backstabbing b***h that I shouldn't be friends with, because she would just stab me in the back like she did them.

Having little social experience (I swear I think I'm going to die just from typing this :D) I went to L2 and was basically like, "HeY, L1 and T told me that you're a bAcKsTaBbInG b***H! Is this true :DDDDD"

Of course this didn't end well.

In the end I ended up sparking a match where there was gasoline ...

It wasn't good.

I'll give you a summary of what happened before I came there (of course there's always the chance that all this was a lie that they came up with to make fun of me and get me to leave and go back to America, but I don't really know so we'll leave that theory of mine alone lol :D). I also want you to know that this information was all gathered from gossip, rumor and me piecing things together and coming to my own conclusions, so I can't prove any of it. I have no material evidence at all. I'll give a short summary and then explain further.

L2 has some bad character traits, like jealousy. S really likes to manipulate people, and found L2 as a nice target, since she could take already existing gasoline and matches (drama) between L2 and L1, T, and light an explosion, after which she could just watch them burn from the sidelines. This is really what it seems like, because she wasn't really on anyone's side, she would participate in gossip on both sides.

Before I met anyone, L2, L1, and T knew each other. They all went to dance classes together, and they were the bestest of friends. Then a new girl joined the dance class. Let's call her A. A became pretty popular (I still don't know why), so everyone wanted to be friends with her. She wanted to be friends with L1 and T, but she couldn't care less about L2 (I'm guessing the popularity got to her head, it happens to the best of us). Naturally, because L2 wanted to be friends with her, L2 became very jealous. L2 ended up following the three of them around, but was pretty much left out, making her even more jealous.

Finally, she just turned on L1 and T, "Well if you won't pay attention to me, I won't be friends with you anymore!". Basically she played tit for tat. (Let me remind you that they were pretty young, so this is expected behavior). The gamble was that she would throw their relationship out the window, hoping for them to pick it up, and come back to her with apologies. This, however, did not happen. Instead they just thought of her as jealous and tried to disconnect themselves from her. But, due to the fact that they were young = > = ... they did this with many mean words which did quite the opposite.

You see, mean words cause this effect -- I call it "The Very Last Word Effect" lol

It works like this :D

L1 and T: Your a backstabber! You mean! We don't want to associate ourselves with you! ;P

L2: Well you're meaner! You don't want to be friends with me!

L1 and T: Like it's not your fault that you have and insufferable attitude!

L2: Well you're ugly and mean! I had a friend that was just like you! I hate her!

L1  and T: * insert mean things *

L2: * insert meaner things *

L1 and T: ...

L2: ...

...

..

.

I think you get the idea. Once someone says something like that and the "The Very Last Word Effect" starts, it becomes a competition for saying the last word. Thus, L1 and T did not disconnect themselves from L2 at all. And they became a weird sort of frenemies. They all quit dance classes at some point, but the drama stayed. And then it started about anime. L2 decided that she hated anime, and L1 decided that she didn't like L2 at all because of that. And then T decided that she couldn't decide if she wanted to be friends with L1 or L2, so she was constantly stirring things up with her involvment.

But get this- THEY ALL WALKED AROUND THE SCHOOL TOGETHER ALL DAY LONG LAUGHING AND CHATTING, such that an outsider who had no clue what was going on would think that they were best friends.

This is where S comes in. Somewhere along in here, S became friends with this hopeless trio. She lit matches here and there, and sparks started flying. Sometime around here is also where I came into the picture. My position with anime really made L2 feel helpless, like maybe I would leave her too. Knowing that L1, T, and S + another friend group that I haven't even started talking about yet were all against her, and afraid that I would leave her, she pulled THAT SAME CARD that she pulled so many years ago. She made up a reason for me not to be friends with her.

She told me, in short, that I had to choose. L1 and T or her.

I didn't want to choose. They were all my friends. I thought it would be wrong of me to choose friends. It IS wrong to choose friends.

But she insisted. She gave me a bunch of reasons to choose her. "I defend you from your bullies!" she said. I don't remember all of them, but I know there were a lot.

I kept repeating, "I don't want to choose!".

And then she started saying things, like, "See, it's all that horrible anime! You started watching that anime and now all you want to do is hang out with L1!" she said.

"I had a friend like that! She stabbed me in the back like that! I don't talk to her anymore!" she said.

That was ... kinda the last straw for me. What she said made me really upset. I started saying mean things, calling her names and a bunch of other stuff. The argument really heated up. I started recording everything. Finally, I just ended the conversation and left with L1 and T to go home.

____________________________________________________________

In Part 2:

I got sick soon after, and then I started hearing from my friends that L2 had been talking behind my back about me with S and that other friend group ...

____________________________________________________________

AN: I hope you enjoy this story. This is just part 1. I originally planned to have it in just one part, but I really want to post something, and this is getting pretty long :D

These are all my personal experiences that  I wanted to write down someplace ^^

____________________________________________________________

-----------------------------------------

by @arandomgirl23

------------------------------------------

[purplebass]

Hey! I saw on your about me page that you speak French, Italian, English, and Spanish and I was wondering if you had any advice on things that make learning languages easier. Spanish was my first language and I learned English when I was really young as well. I am currently learning French and Italian and could really use the advice. Also, congratulations on 8.8k!

Hi! 😀

I guess it depends on the language. I often used an app called Memrise to memorize the terms and conjugations. This app/website uses flashcards to help you remember things and I found it very useful for romance languages because it also has listening exercises other than typing exercises. But of course this is very basic (but here are different courses according to your level). I’d suggest to use this when you are not familiar yet and want to learn vocabulary and how a sentence is constructed. It needs to be paired with a good book which contains grammar and exercises so you also understand how to apply the vocabulary etc. in context. For Spanish I’ve used a series of books that are divided into levels. It is called “Uso de la gramatica espanola” by Castro ed. Edelsa. This series also has books focused on the past tenses and the subjunctive form (because those are super hard). For Italian I don’t know because books for people who speak Italian as an L1 are different from books for students who want to learn Italian as a L2. It needs to be a grammar divided in units with exercises made especially made for non-speakers. 

Italian is my mothertongue but it is hard. The good thing is that in Italian written texts are pronounced the way they are written. You need to learn phonetics to understand how each letter is pronounced, but you can easily read words after. Maybe the “R” would be hard to pronounce or the double letters like “LL” “SS” “TT” etc but they are not super difficult after a bit of practice. We don’t “eat” letters like for eg. English or French do when they speak. We have a few accented letters but once you understand the sound they make when you have to read them, is not difficult.

If there is one thing I always tell people to do when they are learning a new language is to read books in that language to get used to the snythax etc. and learn new terms. The synthax etc of romance languages is very different from English. Not only because we have several tenses to refer to specific moments of time (in Spanish and Italian this can be very confusing because there are different past tenses). The best thing is to find an easy book to read after you’ve mastered a few words and read about a bit of grammar so it doesn’t look confusing. Then another thing is watching shows from that country. In Italy we have RAI, which is the main television platform, and they stream movies and shows for free and they often have subtitles. This will help you hear the accents of people and connect the words by reading the subtitles. The subtitles need to be good, though. XD To improve your writing you could try writing texts. At first they would seem wrong, but as you practice, they will get better. Another important thing which I think helps a lot with any language is music. Listen to a lot of songs from the language you’re learning and try to translate them. Or the radio! There are a lot of online radio services. And going back to books, audiobooks are also a big help to learn pronunciation. Last but not last, try to speak with native people even online if you can’t speak with someone face to face. 

No idea if these can help, feel free to ask more 😊

[faranae]

Sorc!sam tag is sorcerer? Does Sam is sorcerer in 5e? Its good for a class!

Sam's a wild magic sorcerer yes, though he does have one level in rogue! I’m in a homebrew Ravnica game with @spudinacup playing as her boy Funnel! 

Sam’s spell list is something that’d make a power gamer cry, I think, but I’ve been careful as this campaign progresses to only pick spells that are in-character for him even if it means less pure combat potential. This is also why his stats are so odd for a sorcerer. (CON is actually his best stat! He’s the party tank!) 

Replicating Sam’s skillset and affinity for water in a Dungeons and Dragons setting was very fun!  

Cantrips: 

Acid Splash, Poison Spray, Shape Water, and Mending all fit his area of study and background as a Simic researcher. He also has Light as a cantrip, which he studied to learn later on after getting tired of being the only party member that couldn’t see in the dark. 

L1: 

Detect Poison and Disease and Sleep, again fit his areas of study in his guild. He USED to know Fog Cloud as well, but after a few unfortunate instances of the party finding it to be a pain in the ass he later learned to make the effect more localized (my in-character rationale for trading that spell in to learn Gaseous Form later on!)

L2: 

Mind Spike - This one seems out of nowhere unless you know Sam’s canon characterization better. He is a kind enough character, but when startled or angry he tends to lash out with his power. My DM has house-ruled that when Sam kills characters with this spell there is a very high chance their head just fucking explodes. I think we’re up to 8. Funnel’s been keeping track and seems oddly indifferent to Sam’s insistence that is not an intentional side effect of the spell. 

Spider Climb was a fun in-character thing! Funnel early on crossed a large gap by walking on the walls as he can do that inherently as part of his race (Simic bioengineering is fun, yo). When Sam pointed out he couldn’t follow him, Funnel snidely asked “Have you ever tried?”. The matter was thought resolved until several levels later when Sam surprised him by following him up to the ceiling on an expedition. Since then, many combats have been cheesed by the two parking on non-floor surfaces out of reach.

L3: 

Gaseous Form came about as Sam tried to make his Fog Cloud less hindering to Funnel in combat. Turns out monks kinda like being able to see what they’re doing. Who knew? 

Lightning Bolt is another very fun in-character learned spell. I mentioned above that Sam's magic is powered by the Wild rather than any sort of Draconic or otherworldly ancestry. To those of you who don’t know D&D, wild magic has a relatively high chance (depending on your DM) of misfiring with additional effects off a randomly-rolled table. This can be anything from accidentally turning your entire table invisible while checking if your food is poisoned to literally cooking a band of angry enemies by accidentally calling down a lightning strike on their heads. 

Needless to say those are both actual examples of how Sam’s magic has misfired so far in this campaign. On seeing the destruction wrought in the latter incident, Sam promptly set about studying to see if he could replicate the effect. 

He most definitely could. It is very destructive and he really only uses it when extremely pissed off. 

[crimsoncityhq]

The night has been advertised by multiple commercials in the civilian’s homes, and even dead bodies littered on some residence lawns. It’s dusk on a Thursday in February. The gates to the Fire and Ice Festival are lowered after hours of waiting in the biting Chicago tundra, and the crowd, over 4,000 strong, rushes in. Most are expecting a night of drunken freedom, cozied up by the outdoor heaters that promise a warm welcome, but some foresee the chaos bound to erupt across the lawn.

The first act takes the stage, and anyone who isn’t inebriated, courtesy of the open bar, is perceptive enough to realize that, no, that’s not Kanye West. Instead they are mesmerized by the lyrical lip syncher Dante Yeast—he looks enough like him, it’s better not to question it. One would think that the O’Sheas, Vasiles, and the Fausts all gathered in one spot would spell disaster, yet the evening rolls on without a hitch, despite the tensions slowly building in its periphery. Fausts members, too, are scattered across the ocean of bodies, but some faces are missing, figureheads who pull the strings.

 Maybe they’re absorbed by the crowd; maybe they thought better of attending, but there’s a sense of unease that settles in the air. It’s not quite right, but no one can put a finger on why. Another beer, and the thought is lost is the swell of the music—if they didn’t know any better, they’d think the bass replicates the sound of distant explosions.

You’re free to start plotting. You can start posting starters/threads tomorrow, February 20th, 2020 at 7:30PM CST !  Part II coming February 24th ( Plot Slots can be found below the cut ! )

We’re going to allow each person to choose two plot slots for two characters max .If there are any leftovers, we’ll let members know when they can sign up for thirds.

You’ll notice that some of these plots are public, so feel free to have your character react to them/ notice them even if they aren’t happening directly to your character. However, if something feels like it happened privately to another character, please check in with their Mun to see if it’s okay for your character to know.

To be clear: these are not the only things that happen to your character during this plot drop and you are more than welcome to cook up your own trouble.

To sign up for a plot slot message the main! You can start doing that as soon as right now!

CHARACTER A, CHARACTER B, CHARACTER C, are approached by the venue to play as impersonators for the opening act of the show. However, it turns out…they are the show along with other noteworthy impersonators. 

CHARACTER D & CHARACTER E end up camped out at the ticket box office on the other side of the lawn seats. They want a refund for the musical event after their cards were erroneously charged the next day on ADAM & EVE. Much to their surprise they come face to face with CHARACTER F( Faust ).

AUTUMN DAWSON is shitfaced prior to arriving at the music festival. They try to crowd surf before the opening act, and would get immediately dropped if NATHAN BURR didn’t catch their fall. 

CHARACTER I & CHARACTER J purchased tickets to meet the bands backstage. They are led by the security detail of the event to two tents filled with a scent of gunpowder. Upon further inspection, they find a crate of fireworks. Do what you will.

CHARACTER K jumps on stage to hijack the mic and accidentally falls and breaks their ankle.

CHARACTER L & CHARACTER M are dosed with PCP by a stranger serving up “free” cocktails. Everything is a blur and they both snap back to reality an hour later, but they’re in the middle of an intense fist fight.

EFFIE FAUST & CHARACTER O engage in a mud wrestling contest that is being judged by no one whatsoever. 

CHARACTER P & CHARACTER Q make out in a port-o-potty, but realize shortly after they’re locked inside. It’s up to CHARACTER R to either let them out...or tip them over.

CHARACTER S is mistaken as Pat Benatar. ASLI DEMIR drunkenly convinces them to go on stage to sing LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD.

 CHARACTER U & CHARACTER V go hard on the alcoholic beverages & psychedelic treats  at the start of the festival, by the end of it neither of them know where their shoes or wallets are. 

CHARACTER W finds their soulmate in a drunken stupor and grinds on them for the better half of two hours, only to realize the grindee is ZHI ROU, who has been uncomfortably shifting away from them this entire time. 

CHARACTER Y breaks all of their glow sticks and covers themselves in the liquid. It’s all fun and games until that shit starts to burn. CHARACTER Z does their best to quench CHARACTER Y with every bottled water they can find.

 CHARACTER A1, CHARACTER B1, & CHARACTER C1 are hired security guards for the event. They have no clue who hired them to do it. 

INGRID VASILE  starts to overdose on COCAINE. LEV VASILE notices their struggle and assists them to the med tent. DOMINIC MURPHY is around the med tent and notices the commotion. 

 CHARACTER  F1 tries to charge their phone using the musical equipment & gets electrocuted. Also it starts to play the most recent song listened to on their phone which is SONG OF THEIR CHOICE. 

GRIFFIN DYER is held up at security when they try to enter the venue, because they tried to smuggle in a small animal. CHARACTER H1 isn’t really security and jacks the animal instead.

SERENITY MICHAELS starts to question their sanity when they see a small animal run in circles in front of them and jet off towards the direction of the port-o-potty. 

RACHEL BYRNE feels something small and furry scaling the back of their dress, and, assuming it’s someone’s hand, slaps DAHLIA CAVALLI in the mouth before the small animal scurries away and they have to apologize.

CHARACTER L1 chases the small animal and just when they are sure they’ve caught it, the animal bites them on the neck. CHARACTER M1, who is higher than a motherfucker and hallucinating, sees CHARACTER L1 cradling their neck and automatically assumes a vampiric transformation is happening. CHARACTER L1 has to survive the following attack from a stranger with a pocket knife.

CHARACTER N1 is on their fifth drink at the venue. They hear a loud slurping noise, only to find the small animal lapping their beer in hand. Out of surprise they scream which causes the animal to shit on their hand and run away. CHARACTER O1 looks on in amazement, wonder, and terror as CHARACTER N1 wipes their hand on an unknowing CHARACTER P1. CHARACTER O1 is conflicted if they should say anything but takes a Snapchat video of the whole scenario anyway. It goes viral on Tik Tok the following evening.

The small animal finally gets caught by SANTIAGO PEREZ in a battle that lasts 10 minutes. The small animal is then given to CHARACTER R1 whom they assume is the owner. 

CHARACTER S1 is lost to the world, and passes out directly in front of CHARACTER T1 that had just spent twenty minutes in line for a cup of water. The cup of water is spilled on top of CHARACTER S1.

NAOMI WASHINGTON & CHARACTER V1 become instant buddies when they chant to the sound of “SHOTS” around the crowd. IRINA KOSHKIN takes this literally and pulls out their gun ready to fire. 

CHARACTER X1, CHARACTER Y1, CHARACTER Z1 all show up to the venue wearing the same exact outfit. You have declared them your number 1 enemy for the entirety of the music festival. 

CHARACTER A2 is high as fuck and thinks they’re making a flower crown for CHARACTER B2…..except it’s a crown of shrooms instead. CHARACTER B2 wears the crown, but has to swat CHARACTER C2 away who keeps trying to eat them. 

CHARACTER D2, CHARACTER E2, CHARACTER F2 suffer from dehydration. They try to find help at the med tent, but they can’t find where it is. 

ROSA LEON gets handsy with the bartender at the open bar and leads them away for a quick fuck, allowing RYAN HAYES and CHARACTER I2 to raid the bar freely.

 CHARACTER J2 is the aforementioned bartender and realizes a moment too late their station is being cleared out. Instead of returning to their position, they throw on some neon bracelets and join the party.

 CHARACTER K2 is doing some sick backflips in the middle of the crowd and are called out by the currently performing act mid-set for drawing attention away from the stage. CHARACTER K2 does another backflip to retaliate, but accidentally kicks CHARACTER L2 in the face.

JESSE VALENCIA hijacks a ELECTRIC BLUE STRATOCASTER from the backstage, and they are not caught. 

DAVUT DEMIR feels like they’re being watched and finds a silhouette with a rifle narrowed in on them perched upon a nearby building. They quickly retreat to find OPHELIA O’SHEA and P2 and warn them about the occurrence, who realize there are multiple snipers surrounding the pavilion. 

CHARACTER Q2 swears they heard a sound of explosions over the music, being in front nearest to the stage. They grab the microphone and scream, “WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE.” CHARACTER R2 & CHARACTER S2 start to openly panic. 

CHARACTER T2 (O’Shea) gets into a physical altercation with CHARACTER U2 (Vasile). They don’t stop until one or the other is knocked unconscious. 

ANDREA REED & BIRDIE MENDOZA try to leave the event, but notice that they’re trapped in the auditorium. CHARACTER X2 makes it to their vehicle, but is stuck in place by the surrounding vehicles around them. Unable to escape fully, they return back to the venue. 

CHARACTER Y2 hates their life at this music venue, because they’re stuck behind a rather sweaty individual. Their sweat keeps hitting them in the face, and at one point, they catch it in their mouth. It incites a ferocious bout of vomiting, and CHARACTER Z2 is trying to help, thinking they’ve been drugged, but CHARACTER Y2 can’t even explain what it is that made them sick.

 TATIANA BLANTER is hit with a spare bullet, but no one is able to find where the source is. As no one around seems to have their gun out. CHARACTER B3 conceals their weapon perfectly. 

 NOVA DEVERAUX suffers a panic attack due to the crowd gathered, and clings onto CLARA DAVILLA who is unable to get them to the med tent.

 CHARACTER E3 feels something warm splash on their face. They are unsure if it’s warm beer or urine. They’re pretty sure it’s warm beer, but remain conflicted the rest of the festival. CHARACTER F3 offers the shirt off their back for CHARACTER E3 to wipe the liquid off their face. 

 CHARACTER G3 is doing photography for the event, but realizes midway through the show that the performers aren’t who they say they are. They spot a face they know to be Faust affiliated in the crowd and scurry off toward the exit, only to be stopped by CHARACTER H3 (Faust) at the door.

MILES ST CLARE is the first to notice the lack of Fausts at the start of the music venue. They make their way to the police station in hopes of figuring it out, but instead they encounter burning police cars and chaos.

[allagan-weeb]

Housing Glitch Master Post

(Valid as of 4.45)

There are probably more glitches out there that I am not aware of. Feel free to drop me a line if you wish to have it added in here, but please make sure it’s still currently working. Credit is there, but only of which I know of. There are a few new glitches in here, too.

Warning: This post is very long and video heavy

New Floating Glitch. Works On Almost Anything:

First  discovered: Here

Translated and shown by: Mercy & Shei Cloudbank

Also added my own easier tweaked version of the method linked above.

TLDR: From your INVENTORY, line up an item (with a table top that is lower in height to the target object to be floated) to the center of the target item. Place the item and exit housing edit asap. The target object should now be sitting on the nearest tabletop level of the object you just placed. Repeat with taller objects to float your target item even higher. To make it stick, switch to rotate mode (PS4 users switch to PC mode to do this) to rotate the object to your liking, then confirm.

Long Version: To make things simpler, and to give you maximum height available to you to float off of, I suggest you have an Open Partition, Oasis Open-shelf Bookcase, and a Riviera Wall Shelf.

The Open Partition has the lowest and highest available areas to put the Riviera Wall Shelf on compared to the other partitions, and the section of full wall that it has is narrow, serving as a sort of cross-hair. This will help you as knowing the center alignment of your target object to float is necessary for this glitch to work. Objects that are very large or odd in shape would otherwise become difficult to eyeball without this ‘cross-hair’. The available low and high areas to put the shelf on eliminates the need to have multiple objects with different heights.

The Oasis Open-shelf Bookcase’s lowest shelf is extremely low. In the original video, a Hingan Desk was used, but I noticed it doesn’t work on everything. I’m still testing as to why exactly, but it seems like some objects need a table that is extremely low for it to glitch snap to.

To begin with, the objects mentioned above must be in your inventory, and not in housing storage. 

Place your target item to float where you prefer. Try to place it precisely, as you cannot move the object around. You will only be able to rotate it in the end. Otherwise you will have to move the target item and start the process all over again.

Now, you’ll need to find the center of the item. Select it to see the red cross-hair pop up. Cancel, and then stand about where the cross-hair was. Select the item again to check to make sure you’re standing at center.

Next, pull out the Open Partition and place the full wall section directly next to you. This will be aligned with the target item’s center now to serve both as a cross hair in itself to eliminate eyeball guessing as well as a surface to use the Riviera Wall Shelf off of.

It’s time for the glitch. Take your Oasis Open-shelf Bookcase, which, again, should be in your inventory and not housing storage, and have it lined up over the center of the target item to float. Which way the Bookcase is rotated normally doesn’t matter. To glitch, place the Bookcase then immediately exit housing edit as fast as you can. If done properly, the target item to float should now be bumped up and sitting on the lowest shelf of the Bookcase.

To continue the process, repeat this method with the Riviera Wall Shelf from now on. Simply place the Shelf onto the Open partition just a little above the bottom of the target item to float, exit immediately to bump the floating item up, enter house edit, remove the Riviera Wall Shelf back into inventory, and repeat until the target item is as high as you’d like it to be.

Sometimes objects will be weird in shape and block your vision from knowing where to place the Shelf. If it helps, go into First Person view and stick your head into the object to see what you’re doing. You can also use your in game UI, currently places items nearby, ect as visual rulers to help you along, too.

Once satisfied, you need to switch to Mouse’s (NOT Controller Mode’s) rotation mode to rotate the object and confirm it. You are all done and the other objects being used are now safe to remove.

To switch to this mode, go to System => Character Configuration to switch between Mouse and Controller Mode. Go back to House Edit and the UI should now be that of Mouse Mode. If you are on controller, there is a virtual mouse mode to help you along. I only know Play Station Controller’s set up: L1 + R3 (Push down on the right joystick to make it click for R3) to enable Virtual Mouse Mode. In this mode, L2 is Left-Click and R2 is Right-Click. Push L1+R3 again to exit Virtual Mouse Mode.

Floating Wall Hanging & Tabletop Objects

No idea where credit goes

TLDR: Position exactly where you would like to float the target item. The item must be a wall hanging or tabletop object, and must be placed on something removable. Keep in mind that wall hanging objects cannot be turned, so face it in the direction you want it to be before hand by turning the partition it’s on. When ready, simply disable counter top item placement, pick up the item you wish to float, then cancel to force it back to where it was. The item should now be floating and the items it was resting on/against can now be removed.

Long Version: As mentioned above, do your best to position where you want the wall hanging or table top item to float by placing them on tables, partitions, wall shelves, ect. For table top items, I typically prefer placing them on wall shelves that are attached to partitions. Partitions can clip into main walls easily and the wall shelf gives you access to nearly any height you want. If you need something lower, try an Oasis Open-shelf Bookcase or a wall shelf on an open partition.

Your target will literally be able to float anywhere you can currently place it with the help of other objects. This is useful to place objects on things you normally can’t. Some examples are atop chairs, beds, mason work stove/fireplace, and even window casements. Again, keep in mind that wall hanging objects cannot be turned, so turn it accordingly by turning the partition it hangs from.

Once ready, disable counter placement. This makes it so the object you are currently manipulating will go straight to the floor and ignore walls and tables it could possibly rest on. Pick up the target item you wish the float and cancel to force it back to where it was. Since counter placement is disabled, this glitches the item and causes it to float. Remove the items used to position the target item before re-enabling counter placement, otherwise the glitched item will want to snap back to it later.

If you would like to double check to make sure that the item is glitched before moving things around, here is an easy way to tell. Normally when you highlight an object it will turn blue. Anything attached to the object will turn blue also. A tabletop item on a table will turn blue if the table is highlighted. A wall hanging item, or maybe a tabletop item atop a shelf, will also turn blue when the partition is highlighted.

After you execute the glitch, highlight the base item your target item to float was on/against. If the target item to float does turn blue, the glitch flailed and you should pick it up again and cancel again. If the target item to float does not turn blue, then the glitch was successful and the rest of the items are safe to remove.

Storage Glitch | Placing Items Where They Shouldn’t Be

No idea where credit goes

TLDR: Start out by having your target item to glitch put into your housing storage. Take it out and position it to where you want it, but instead of simply placing it, open sub menu and select place instead. Even if the cursor is purple, the item will place itself there anyway.

Long Version: As mentioned above, have your target item to glitch stored in your housing storage first. This glitch will let you place items where they normally cannot be placed. This includes furnishings on stairs and stair landings, windows on partitions, wall items against the side of other furnishings, ect. This glitch also works outside if you wish to place something on your stone porch for instance. 

However, the item to be glitched is still restricted to where the item can be placed natively. Ground furnishings must still be on the ground. This glitch will not let you float furnishings, but merely place them on ground areas that is normally not accessible. The closest acception to this rule is finding ‘flat ground’ on permanent architecture, such as above window casements, above door frames, stair railings, artistic pillars, the large open wall section on the second level to mansions, ect. If you can find a flat spot in architecture, you can place furnishings there. This is how most people create their lofts.

Anyway, from your storage, position where you would like the item to be, even if the cursor comes up purple. Don’t place it yet though. Not like you can. Instead, open the sub-menu for the item and select ‘place’. Most of the time this will cause the item to be placed anyway, regardless of the purple cursor. Keep in mind there has to technically be enough room for the item’s ‘hit box’ to fit. I say hit box since a lot of the time the range of room an item needs seems to be much smaller than what the item appears to need. If there is not enough room, the item will not place itself.

Clipping Items Through Walls or Having Items Flush Against Walls:

Found this myself although it has probably been discovered before

Have your item in your housing storage. Tick off Preview Object. Put your character flush against the wall where you wish your target item to glitch will be. Where the item drops will be directly in front of your character, but this is relative to your camera position and not where your character is facing. There are two methods of positioning, where the first method will do a better job at getting items clipped in as far as possible, but harder to position: Method 1) While standing flush to the wall and with your camera facing the wall, turn your camera while spamming the item in storage. It will keep saying unable to place item until your camera finally turns enough to give it room to drop. Put the item back into storage and tweak your camera position and re-dropping the item until you are satisfied.

Method 2) While standing flush to the wall and with your camera facing the wall, take tiny steps backwards while spamming the item in storage. It will keep saying unable to place item until you are finally far from the wall enough to give it room to drop. Put the item back into storage and tweak your distance from the wall until you are satisfied.

Remember, these glitches will let you put together almost anything you can dream up. Don’t restrict yourself into using furniture with how they were originally meant to be used. Take different items and combine them to alter one another. A favourite example is to just barely clip a book case over a window to give the window an entirely different look.

If you’d like, you could even combine glitches if need be. For instance, if you wished to precisely place a false window somewhere via place from storage glitch onto a partition. You could then do the disable counter top placement glitch to force the window to float on its’ own.

Be creative and build to your heart’s desire.

[vocalfriespod]

Practice Makes Easier Transcript

Carrie Gillon: Hi. Welcome to the Vocal Fries podcast, the podcast about linguistic discrimination.

Megan Figueroa: I’m Megan Figueroa.  

Carrie Gillon: And I’m Carrie Gillon.

Megan Figueroa: Well, happy 2020 to you.

Carrie Gillon: Oh, my god.

Megan Figueroa: I act like we never talk, by the way. [Laughter]

Carrie Gillon: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We only talk during our podcast and never at any other time.

Megan Figueroa: Yeah. We actually hate each other and never speak. [Laughter]

Carrie Gillon: Yeah, 2020. There’s just something terrifying about that number.

Megan Figueroa: I know. It doesn’t seem real.

Carrie Gillon: It doesn’t help that 2020 has already been a dumpster fire of a year.

Megan Figueroa: I know. It really has. And, I mean, it’s America’s fault. Let’s be real.

Carrie Gillon: Yeah. It is.

Megan Figueroa: I mean, mostly. And since – I mean, I’ve been thinking about Australia a lot and I know we have a lot of listeners there so sending loving thoughts to Australia.

Carrie Gillon: I know. I can’t even think about it too much because it’s so sad.

Megan Figueroa: I know. Yeah. I saw this thing – it was an article. It was a climate scientist, and the headline was “Things That Keep Us Up at Night.” I was like, “Oh, shit.” Yeah, I guess being a climate scientist is kind of a real shit experience.

Carrie Gillon: Yeah. I mean, I’ve seen these kind of articles for a long time now because they’re like, “We know what’s coming.” And now, it’s, “We saw this was coming, and here it is.” I’m so mad at some of my friends who would say things like, “Oh, this is all overblown.” Well, was it?

Megan Figueroa: Right? Yeah.

Carrie Gillon: Anyway. Let’s talk about language!

Megan Figueroa: Yes, sorry. Hi. The world is ending.

Carrie Gillon: Let’s pretend it’s not, just briefly.

Megan Figueroa: Yes. Yes. For about an hour. [Laughter]

Carrie Gillon: As FilmEssaying pointed out to us –

Megan Figueroa: On Twitter.

Carrie Gillon: – on Twitter, Sharon Choi, who translated for Bong Joon Ho, who won for Parasite, which is an amazing film if you haven’t seen it.

Megan Figueroa: At the Golden Globes, right? Best Foreign Language Film.

Carrie Gillon: Right. Everyone was praising his speech that he gave in Korean. But really the words that we understood – unless you’re a Korean speaker, but for those of us who aren’t – were Sharon Choi’s trans – wow, not translator, interpreter – her interpretation of his words. What we heard was, “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films,” which is true. I love his films. The ones that I’ve seen, anyway, are all really great – and mostly in Korean.

Actually, T.K. of AAK!, or AskAKorean, on Twitter says, “A more direct and worse translation for Bong’s remark might be ‘The barrier called subtitles – well, it’s not even really a barrier – it’s barely an inch. Once you jump over that barrier, you can enjoy many more films.’” So, that’s a more literal translation of what he said.

Megan Figueroa: Huh. The sentiment is still, I think, 100% there. She said it in a way that feels very poetic because it was, I dunno, I guess in English at least it was less words. It was like – I dunno what it is about it.

Carrie Gillon: It was pithier.

Megan Figueroa: Yeah, that’s the word I’m looking for. Exactly. But I feel the same. Hearing that more direct translation of it, the sentiment for me is exactly the same.

Carrie Gillon: The sentiment’s the same. It’s just slightly more awkward, which makes sense because when you’re speaking on the fly, you can say the most beautiful things in the most awkward ways.

Megan Figueroa: Listen. That’s how I feel about everything I say on this podcast. [Laughter]

Carrie Gillon: Right? Yes. Because we’re not speaking from a script.

Megan Figueroa: No. Well, no shit. Everyone’s like, “No shit you aren’t.” [Laughter]

Carrie Gillon: Wouldn’t it be hilarious if we did write this all out?

Megan Figueroa: Oh, my god. If we wrote this all out, I think we’d actually be pretty good at dialogue.

Carrie Gillon: Yeah, no. It would be a really good skill, for sure.

Megan Figueroa: Yeah. So, I saw that. And, of course, Nyle DiMarco, the deaf actor and model that I follow on Twitter, he was like, “Yeah, deaf and hard of hearing people have been saying this forever,” you know, because subtitles make films accessible for them.

I think about this because, growing up, I had the privilege of – I am hearing. My parents are hearing. So, I just didn’t grow up in family where we watched subtitled films or any foreign films. When I was younger, I was like, “That’s what rich people do. They watch foreign films.” I thought it was a privileged thing to be able to watch foreign films. I never thought about it as an accessibility issue until I was older.

Carrie Gillon: Right. Yeah. I mean, I guess it is a privilege but it’s not a privilege in the sense of – it costs the same as any other movie. So, it’s not an economic issue. But there are people, I guess, who are not super literate. So, maybe for them – we don’t wanna say, “If you can’t read subtitles then you’re worthless” or anything like that – no. But, if you can, you should try! There’s many, many, many great films that are subtitled.

Megan Figueroa: Yeah. And I don’t have dyslexia, but it might be uncomfortable, too, for people who have dyslexia. Although, I have seen some dyslexic people share the type of font that you use may be more helpful. I wonder if that’s been done – if people have made subtitles using that kinda font or anything.

Anyway, if you know, let us know. I think that’s really interesting.

Carrie Gillon: Yeah. And I will say that not all subtitling is – it’s not all equal. Sometimes, the way that they’re – like, okay. There’s always the choice that you’re making, right, when you’re translating a movie – do you say it more directly or do you say it more poetically, right?

Megan Figueroa: Mm-hmm, yes.

Carrie Gillon: But also there’s the font choice or even the color of the font. Sometimes, it’s hard to read. It’s been better more recently than in the past. But there’ve definitely been movies where I’m like, “I’m glad that I have super great eyesight” – or, well, with my glasses anyway.

Megan Figueroa: It’s so tiny!

Carrie Gillon: But like, “I can actually read this, but it’s really hard.”

Megan Figueroa: Yeah. Sometimes, I just don’t think that they’re as large as I would like them to be.

Carrie Gillon: Which is another – there’s another constraint, right? Because if you make them too big, then you’re covering up stuff –

Megan Figueroa: It’s true.

Carrie Gillon: – some visual information. So, it’s tricky. But, anyway.

Megan Figueroa: Actually, this is kind of related to what we’re talking about today with our guest. Because I was thinking about how sometimes with Derry Girls, which is – it’s Irish English. And I sometimes put subtitles on just so that I can understand some of the words better. Obviously, we speak the same language, right? But I’m enjoying the show. Sometimes, it takes me a little bit harder to work through what they’re saying if I’m not also reading subtitles.

Carrie Gillon: Right. Yes.

Megan Figueroa: Yes. We talk about that today with our guest.

Carrie Gillon:   Well, we don’t talk about subtitles, but we do talk about the difficulties of understanding mostly non-native accents but also some native accents that are very different from our own.

Megan Figueroa: Exactly. And what that means to process that and how it is more difficult but not a barrier that cannot be surpassed with practice.

Carrie Gillon: Yes. It’s all about practice.

Megan Figueroa: You get better. Just like anything.

Carrie Gillon: Yeah. And if subtitles help, then definitely you should use them. There’s no shame. No shame.

Megan Figueroa: No. Are there some people that think that there’s shame involved?

Carrie Gillon: Yes.

Megan Figueroa: Aww. Of course. We’re so good at shaming ourselves and each other.

Carrie Gillon: Ugh. Yes. I don’t even wanna get started on that topic because – oh boy.

Megan Figueroa: I know. When did this become therapy? [Laughter]

Carrie Gillon: I think the very first episode.

Megan Figueroa: It’s really true. So, we wanted to make one note before we go over to our guest is that we talk about native and non-native accent. That’s just one way of talking about it. Carrie, have you heard other ways people talk about native versus non-native?

Carrie Gillon: I’m sure there are other ways of talking about, but I don’t think I know of another way of saying it.

Megan Figueroa: Yeah. I mean, I wanna point out that we don’t mean to other, right? It’s just one way of talking about –

Carrie Gillon: Other than L1 and L2, which is the way that linguists talk about it. But outside of that – no.

Megan Figueroa: So, this is an accessible way of talking about it because we all understand what we’re talking about. But we do wanna make a point that everyone has an accent.

Carrie Gillon: It’s impossible to not have an accent.

Megan Figueroa Exactly.

Carrie Gillon: I was editing a novel for the very first time. And in this novel, one of the characters basically has been turned into a cyborg, and the author describes this person as not having an accent. And I was just like – because they’re computerized. But I was like, “Hmm. [Laughter] Nope. There’s still an accent there.” Because there’s still pronunciation choices that you’re making –

Megan Figueroa: That’s true.

Carrie Gillon: – for the computer program that’s creating the sounds. Anyway.

Megan Figueroa: Oh, that’s a good point. Because Siri definitely does not know how to pronounce some Spanish words the way they are pronounced in Spanish.

Carrie Gillon: Right. Well, also –

Megan Figueroa: Siri’s got an accent.

Carrie Gillon: Well, I mean, the original Siri has a California accent because that’s where that woman – the voice per –

Megan Figueroa: Oh! Yes, of course. That makes sense.

Carrie Gillon: – the voice actor comes from.

Megan Figueroa: Oh, wait. That’s a person?

Carrie Gillon: It’s a person!

Megan Figueroa: It’s not computerized?

Carrie Gillon: Yeah. Well, the –

Megan Figueroa: I didn’t know that.

Carrie Gillon: – sounds are from – yeah. The words are from a person, yeah.

Megan Figueroa: Huh. Okay.

Carrie Gillon: Yeah. You didn’t know that?

Megan Figueroa: No.

Carrie Gillon: You can follow her on Twitter. Or at least you used to be able to.

Megan Figueroa: Huh. I mean, okay. That makes sense. So, they’re taking words that she said individually and then putting them together. So, that’s why it sounds like a robot to me.

Carrie Gillon: Yeah. It’s obviously not fluid human speech.

Megan Figueroa: Right.

Carrie Gillon: But it is human speech, yeah.

Megan Figueroa: Yes. Oh. Well, I learned something. Time to call it quits for today at 11:00 in the morning. [Laughter]

[Music]

Carrie Gillon: Today, we have Dr. Melissa Michaud Baese-Berk, who is an associate professor and David M. and Nancy L. Petrone Faculty Scholar in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Oregon. She’s also the director of the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching certificate program and the director of Undergraduate Studies. In her research she focuses on phonology and phonetics, examining speech perception and production with special attention to non-native speakers and listeners.

First, before we start on the question we really wanna talk about, can you explain what speech perception and speech production are?

Melissa Baese-Berk: Sure. Those are good questions. When I talk about speech perception, I’m talking about how we go from the acoustic signal, or the sound waves that hit our ear drum, to coming up with a linguistic message. I’m interested in everything that happens during that process, so how we turn those sound waves into meaningful sounds and then how we combine those sounds to make words that we can understand. Then, I basically stop at the words more than moving up to the sentences.

Then, for production, I’m talking about the other side of that process, which is how we go from having some sort of linguistic message that we know we wanna convey, some idea that we wanna convey, and how we turn that into speech sounds.

I do work primarily on speech, but a lot of the stuff that I talk and think about, I think, can also be applied to signed languages. I just focus on the speech side. So, when I say “speech,” I’m mostly talking about the sound side of things. But I think a lot of it can be applied to other modalities as well.

Megan Figueroa: I think that’s a really important – I’m glad that you asked, Carrie. I think about production and perception all the time as someone who looks at how babies perceive sounds. Because I’m looking at babies before they even start producing things and I think so much about how we know so much before we’re able to produce something.

And I think that can be said about adults too. We are doing so much internal calculus before we respond to someone or when we’re taking in the message. That’s what we really wanted to talk to you about today because we’re doing a lot of that and there’s a lot of, unfortunately, discrimination that can come out when we’re doing that internal calculus.

And we’re all guilty, that’s why, again, having the podcast it’s like, “I’ve been there.” We have all of these biases that are at play when we hear speech. Yeah. Really glad to have you on the show.

Melissa Baese-Berk: Good. I’m glad to be here.

Carrie Gillon: You also look at the interaction between speech perception and speech production. How do they interact?

Melissa Baese-Berk: That’s a really good question. It’s something that’s super complex and we’re still trying to figure this out. One common assumption has been that speech perception and production are basically the same processes, just in reverse. So, one ends with an ear and one ends with a mouth and everything else in between is exactly the same.

I think, because of what Megan was just saying, we know really that that can’t be true because we can perceive so much more than we can produce and there are different factors that impact these two processes really differently. What we’re interested in specifically in the lab is how they interact during learning, which seems to be something that is really, really complicated.

So, I think everybody has had an experience or many people have had experiences in classrooms or learning a second language where you feel like you’re not able to express the things that you want to express even if you can understand them. I have always been a person who was like that. I’ve been very jealous of my friends who, it feels like, the oral fluency comes really easily to them, but then you put them in a natural communicative situation, and they can’t understand what somebody’s saying, maybe.

And so we’re interested in why these two things may develop at different rates. We’re peeling it back to the most basic level, looking at speech sounds and how those are related in perception and production during learning. But other labs have been working on the higher-up stuff, how words and sentences and grammar are related in perception and production. There’s some really nice work out of, for example, Maryellen MacDonald’s lab at University of Wisconsin, where Elise Hopman, one of her students, is looking at those issues.

Megan Figueroa: How does speech production differ between native and non-native speakers?

Melissa Baese-Berk: This is also something we’re trying to unpack the specifics of. What we know for sure is that native speakers and non-native speakers produce speech in different ways. We know that your first language, if you are a non-native speaker, will impact how you produce your second language.

There’re some general properties of second language speech. It tends to be slower than native language speech and it tends to deviate on all levels. By that I mean, like, segments tend to be different. So, the actual sounds tend to be different, sometimes in more or less systematic ways. The prosody, or the rhythm and pitch and intonation information, also differs. And, of course, non-native speakers don’t have the same vocabulary that native speakers do in all cases. So, there might be differences in words or in grammatical structure, so how we put together a sentence.

All of those things are influenced by our first language, for sure, but they’re also influenced by the challenge of trying to communicate in your second language, which is – as many of your listeners, I’m sure, know – is a real challenge, right? It’s something that’s a really hard thing to do.

Megan Figueroa: Just beyond the individual sound, if you just take one sentence in your non-native language and you say it, and as someone who is a native speaker says it, the melody might sound completely different. The “melody” – is that the right word for that? Yeah. So, it’ll be influenced by your first language.

Melissa Baese-Berk: Yeah. Even if you get almost all of all of the sounds almost exactly right, people are really good at telling if somebody is a native or a non-native speaker. There’s one study – and I can find the citation to send it to you all – where if you just play a T-burst for somebody, the burst of the sound /t/ – and this is, I think, French speakers – people can tell at a much greater than chance level if somebody is a native or a non-native speaker, which is totally wild, right?

We have all of these cues that somebody is or isn’t a native speaker. Those cues are used by listeners. I think that’s a really important thing to know in production. We’re not just listening to the speech for the actual speech sounds, we’re also using it – as you all have talked about a bunch – to figure out other things about the speaker, who they are in terms of their identity. One of the clearest things, one of the things people are best at, is telling whether somebody is a native speaker of the language or not.

Carrie Gillon: How about speech perception? How does that differ between native and non-native speakers?

Melissa Baese-Berk: Again, this differs pretty substantially, influenced by our first language. For example, the most famous case study is Japanese R and L, right? Or R and L in English, rather, for Japanese listeners. It is a really tricky thing for Japanese listeners to tell the difference between R and L, and we think that’s probably because the cue that signals R and L in English – which is the third formant, for anybody who’s caring about phonetics. If you don’t care about phonetics, it’s fine. There’s a cue in the speech signal that differs, which is the F3. That cue is not used meaningfully in Japanese to differentiate speech sounds.

If you’re a listener from Japanese trying to learn English, you have to learn to pay attention to something that you have never really paid attention to before. That’s a really, really challenging thing. Any time you’re learning any new skill, trying to pay attention to something that you haven’t paid attention to before is probably the hardest thing, right?

Megan Figueroa: Especially since – so thinking about developmentally – we narrow down our sounds as babies, if we are hearing babies. In the first six months, it’s vowels. And then the first year, it’s consonants. We, of course, are able to recognize all sounds when we’re babies, if we’re hearing, but then it narrows very quickly. So, the fact that all of these things, like, there’re cues to know if someone hasn’t been using this language their whole life, it makes sense because –

Melissa Baese-Berk: It does make sense, right? And there’s a reason why we see that narrowing, which is there’s so much variation in speech in general and you have to know what variation to pay attention to and what variation to ignore. Otherwise, you’re not gonna be able to do speech perception. You’re just literally not gonna be able to do it.

Narrowing our categories into these really fine-tuned categories for our first language is a super useful thing, but it’s really hard to unwind that and make our categories either broader or able to be developed into a two-language system instead of a single-language system.

Megan Figueroa: I think it’s important – this is not a thing where suddenly – or not suddenly. This is not a thing where non-native speakers are not capable humans. It’s a thing where it’s like, “Oh, no, your brain is doing exactly what it needed to do.” And so, exactly, unwinding that is very, very difficult.

Melissa Baese-Berk: It’s something that we forget when we’re listening to non-native speakers that they are native speakers in another language and that they are able to communicate the way I am communicating with you all right now without a ton of conscious effort and a ton of conscious thought. We’re able to do that in our native language. And as soon as you put somebody in a second language, that job becomes so much harder.

There’s a great quote from Javier Bardem when he was interviewed on Fresh Air.

[Excerpt from Fresh Air]

Javier Bardem: There is this office in my brain full of people working at the same time that I’m talking to you trying to not, I mean, be wrong with the intonation, with the words. So, it’s very exhausting.

Dave Davies: The office is translating, right? Okay.

Javier Bardem: Exactly. If I speak Spanish, that office is closed. There is nobody in the office. I mean, I’m fine by my own.

[End except]

He talks about how, when he is communicating in English, it’s like having an office full of people in his head who are trying to make sure that nothing goes out the door before it’s been fact checked. But when he’s speaking in Spanish, that office is closed. He doesn’t need the office full of people. I love that analogy because it really, I think, brings home the point of how challenging this is and how much work it is to communicate in your second language.

Carrie Gillon: That is a really good metaphor. And that is exactly how I feel whenever I’m trying to speak in any other language but English. Is non-native speech harder to understand than native speech?

Melissa Baese-Berk: Yeah. It is harder to understand. We know this about speech that we’re unfamiliar with in general. An unfamiliar talker is harder to understand than a familiar talker. You see this, for example, with parents with little kids. They can understand their kids totally fine, and you may not be able to understand their little kid as well.

Megan Figueroa: Yeah. When someone’s like, “He just said this.” I’m like, “Uh, did he?” [Laughter]

Melissa Baese-Berk: Right. We’re very good at understanding familiar talkers. We’re very good at understanding familiar accents and dialects. We’re less good at doing that when it’s unfamiliar. Again, this is just a practice thing, right? We have experience doing this particular skill, and when we have to step outside of that particular skill, it gets a little bit harder. I think we’ll probably get into this in a bit, but it’s not prohibitively harder. That’s the message I’m interested in spreading.

Megan Figueroa: Right.

Carrie Gillon: Yes, exactly.

Megan Figueroa: Us too. [Laughter]

Carrie Gillon: I mean, we’ve talked about it before. It’s just a matter of listening. So, how do language ideologies or attitudes impact our understanding of non-native speech?

Melissa Baese-Berk: It’s a good question. It’s something that I sort of have exasperated sigh here. Much more so than we, I think, would like them to. There’s been a lot of great work ranging from Rubin’s work to Kevin McGowan’s work looking at how just looking at a non-native speaker or someone who you think is probably gonna be a non-native speaker impacts your perception.

We know, especially from Kevin’s work, that that’s probably grounded in expectation. If you expect to hear an accent – if you see somebody who you expect to be accented – you’re likely to perceive them as, in fact, being accented. If you see somebody who is accented and you hear something that is not accented, that often can be – or if you see, rather, a person who you expect not to be accented and hear accented speech, that can also be disorienting for people. I’m using “accented” here to mean non-native accented, not in the “native speakers don’t have an accent” sense. I just wanna make that perfectly clear.

So, we know that that impacts things a lot. We also know that there are tons of individual differences in terms of people’s ability to understand unfamiliar speech. These individual differences can be driven by things like cognitive skills, so how big your vocabulary is can impact how well you’re able to understand unfamiliar speech. But they can also be influenced by social factors like attitudes toward non-native speakers.

We’ve done some work – a couple of instructors at the American English Institute, which is our ESL program here at University of Oregon and I –have done some work looking at how attitudes impact a score we call “comprehensibility.” When you’re talking about speech perception, especially of longer sentences, you can divvy this up into a few pots. You can talk about how accented someone is, and that’s just a sort of subjective measure of how accented you think the speech is. You can talk about intelligibility, which is how many words are you correctly able to transcribe. Then, you can ask people a question about comprehensibility or ease of understanding. How hard is it to understand this speech?

What we found is that, even when people have exactly the same intelligibility scores – so they’re able to transcribe the speech perfectly fine – you see comprehensibility scores differ, so their feeling about how easy the task was differs. The primary factor that predicted performance on that comprehensibility task was attitude about non-native speakers, which is a huge bummer because they’re able to actually understand the speech, but they feel like it’s really hard.

One thing we’re interested in doing – and one of my former students, Drew McLaughlin, is now doing this work at Washington University in St. Louis, looking at actual listening effort – how much effort are these people putting in, using physiological measures, things like pupillometry, where we can see how much effort people are putting into these tasks.

When I first saw these results, I wanted to figure out a way to make them slightly less depressing, and one potential option is you have a bad attitude about non-native speech because it is objectively harder for you to understand. It’s harder for you for maybe cognitive reasons. And those cognitive reasons might actually impact you having a negative attitude.

It could be this sort of vicious cycle where it’s really hard for you to understand and so you’re frustrated by that because we’re frustrated when we can’t communicate as well as we’d like to. So, you’re frustrated. You spend more effort doing this task. The more effort makes your tired-er. And we all know that when we’re tired, we’re really crabby. So, you’re crabby about spending more effort, and that makes you have a bad attitude about this.

I’m not sure about the causality in that direction. People could just be jerks. But I think that there’s something to be said about trying to unpack this idea of how much effort people feel like they’re putting forth and how much effort they are actually physiologically putting forth.

Carrie Gillon: Are they putting forth more effort?

Melissa Baese-Berk: We haven’t tied the attitude piece to the effort piece yet because Drew has been doing some really amazing work on pupillometry. We do know that even for fully intelligible speech – this is non-native speech that everybody can understand really clearly – Drew and her advisor have been doing work that shows that pupillometry measures demonstrate that people are putting forth more effort when they’re listening to non-native speech, even if it is fully intelligible.

We’re not making it too hard for them, it’s just more effortful. And that makes sense, right? It is something that deviates from the norm and we have to probably put forth a little more effort to understand.

Carrie Gillon: Has anyone also studied different dialects of English that are still native and how much effort you have to put forth? I’m just thinking, my experience, one of my grandmother’s cousins, I could barely understand him. He was Scottish. His wife I could understand, who was also Scottish. And they grew up pretty close together, so it was interesting. Yeah. Just that much effort I had to put into understanding this person who spoke English.

Melissa Baese-Berk: Right. Well, a few things there. One is there have been a bunch of studies that have shown that there are gender differences in intelligibility. Women tend to be more intelligible than men for a lot of reasons, including potentially socialization reasons. That’s speculation on my part.

I’m not sure if there’s been a lot of work on effort and unfamiliar dialects, but there is plenty of work on perception of unfamiliar dialects, including some of our work – this is work jointly with Tessa Bent at Indiana, and Stephanie Borrie at Utah State, and Kristin Van Engen at Washington University in St. Louis – where we’ve looked out how perception of unfamiliar dialects correlates with perception of non-native speech.

We show that on some metrics, it does correlate. On others, it doesn’t. It sort of makes sense because as you pointed out, Carrie, they are, in fact, native speakers of the language and so there are some things that they’re doing that are probably distinct from what makes non-native speech hard to understand. But it is the case that, even for unfamiliar dialects, it’s gonna be a really challenging thing for listeners to hear and to understand.

Probably some of that is the effort piece. Probably some of that is expectation. And those two things are probably linked in interesting ways as well. There’s a lot still to be examined. If anybody’s looking for a career, this is a great one. [Laughter]

Carrie Gillon: So, one of the reasons why I even thought of this, I think it’s the show – the British quiz show – QI, which has Stephen Fry. They had a Geordie speaker on, and the Geordie speaker said something like, “Cunny” something.

[Excerpt from QI]

Male Speaker 1: They make a cunny noise like.

Stephen Fry: I beg your pardon?

Male Speaker 1: Ferns make a cunny noise.

[End excerpt]

And it sounds like “cunt” to us. What he was actually saying was “canny.” But Stephen Fry also misheard it. And so there was this whole conversation –

Melissa Baese-Berk: Oh, interesting.

Carrie Gillon: Yeah. So, I found that really fascinating because I thought Stephen Fry would be more likely to know the Geordie accent than me, and he was on the same footing as me actually.

Melissa Baese-Berk: Yeah. I mean, I think it’s also the case that these things get harder the less context you have or the less frequency with which you heard the word. Maybe “canny” isn’t a word that comes up a lot, so he hasn’t had an opportunity to hear that particular thing. Perhaps for him the other lexical item is more frequent. Who knows. I mean, there’s a bunch of possibilities there. But I think it’s a really nice example of how all of these factors come into play.

When we’re listening to speech, we use every tool available to us. Some of those tools are things like, “What is the most likely word that this person has said?” And “canny” is a very low-frequency word.

Carrie Gillon: Absolutely. That’s exactly right.

Megan Figueroa: That goes back to how you said that vocabulary size will affect how you perceive non-native speech, so that makes a lot of sense. The thing that I think about automatically – and it’s because you’re at a university and this is where so many people, myself included, were introduced to so many different non-native speakers speaking English, etc. – is at university. And that might be the first time. These are also your subject pool, right?

Melissa Baese-Berk: Yeah.

Megan Figueroa: I also wonder about the opposite where we have students that are not native speakers of English having to listen to professors that are. I’m just thinking about how hard they’re working to learn new information and to listen to something that’s not their first language.

Melissa Baese-Berk: Right. This is a challenge in education broadly speaking, for both languages and dialects. If you put a person in a classroom, whether they’re a college student or a five-year-old, with somebody who doesn’t speak a language or dialect that they’re used to hearing, they’re gonna have to work much, much harder. I almost said, “twice as hard,” but that sounded like I was quantifying effort. Much, much harder than people who have the benefit of having their language or dialect match the faculty members or the instructors.

Of course, this is gonna have costs in terms of content that you’re able to learn. This is true, I think, across the educational system. It’s particularly marked in college students, I think, because we’re expecting college students in general to function at such a high level. I personally cannot imagine attending college in a language other than my native language. I think it would’ve been extraordinarily difficult.

Whenever I encounter students, as an instructor, who are doing this, I try to approach them with as much sympathy as I can because they’re doing something that I am certainly not brave enough to do and many of their peers are certainly not brave enough to do. Trying to be really patient about the fact that they are doing something that, to me, feels impossible and doing it actually with quite high levels of success. That is astonishing.

Megan Figueroa: I think it’s just a very important thing to remember when we’re looking at our peers too. If you’re college kids – listening to the college kids, like I’m so far removed from it – but, yeah, thinking, what is it – you just don’t really know what people are going through. But I think about that a lot when listening to speech because, yeah, think about how hard that is. How hard is it to learn organic chemistry? And then you’re doing it with, like – it’s another l – yeah.

Melissa Baese-Berk: Exactly. I think that is something that a lot of people just don’t think about. Because we think about maybe the outward things a little bit more. Language is so automatic for us that we don’t really think about the challenges – “They already learned English. They’re here. They’ve learned English. Everything’s fine” – but not realizing how challenging it is.

I think that’s one of the reasons why I love suggesting study abroad for students who are able to study abroad, especially in a country that is not an English-speaking country, because I think it develops so much empathy in students who are able to go somewhere, even for very brief periods of time, where communication is a challenge for them and where they are now in a situation where they cannot communicate as fluently as they would like to communicate.

Carrie Gillon: When their brain is constantly working and you’re just so much more tired.

Melissa Baese-Berk: Exactly. I mean, I think – I have never slept so well as I did when I moved to Spain and started being surrounded by Spanish all the time. It was so exhausting. And I mean, you’re jetlagged and all the rest as well, but I was so exhausted just from trying to unpack what was going on around me that I took for granted in the US.

Megan Figueroa: I wonder if that’s a little bit of what’s happening – so, like I said, maybe you’re living in a bubble, and that can sound like whatever it was. You go to university. And then, say you’re a native speaker of English and the professor is a non-native speaker of English, you’re just not used to being placed in that position because you have been living in some sort of sound bubble. That might be really frustrating for you.

Melissa Baese-Berk: Yeah. I think it is. I think it is really frustrating for students. We have more than anecdotal evidence that it’s frustrating for students. A year or so ago, the advising office at UO contacted me and some other folks and said, “We’re getting all of these complaints from students – we’re getting complaints from parents – about non-native, especially TAs, but also instructors in general. What can we do about this?”

This is where some of the training work that I’ve been doing comes into play because we’ve done some scientific studies suggesting that if you just practice, you can get better at understanding unfamiliar speech, especially non-native speech. When I say “practice,” the trainings that we’ve done have been 30 minutes a day for two days. We show really robust generalization to novel talkers and to novel accents.

For me, that’s an hour of work. And it’s considered work, right, you’re transcribing all of the speech and really practicing trying to understand the speech. But you get percentage point gains in intelligibility that are quite high. One thing we’ve been developing is some training for students that help them understand both what the non-native speaker is going though, so some basic literacy about how hard it is to understand – or how hard it is communicate in your second language, rather. We do some basic literacy about the fact that it is hard to understand non-native speech – so validating their intuition that this is a challenging thing – but then showing them that you can get better at it.

I think that has been a really important thing for us to share, both with advisors and with students and parents, to help them understand all of the social pieces that go into this as well as the cognitive pieces. One thing we’ve been doing that I love that we’ve managed to include – so a lot of our students are motivated, as any humans are, by external motivators.

One of the things we’ve talked about is the fact that this is a skill that you can use when you’re applying for jobs. If you can tell an employer, a potential employer, “I also have experience communicating across language barriers.” That’s something that is really important if you’re working for a global company or even for a company that has any diversity in it at all. If you’re able to communicate with individuals or at least are willing to try, you’re going to be more successful than somebody who is focused on native English only.

Megan Figueroa: I love that so much. I’m thinking about what a training might – you’re a freshman coming into university, just as an example, again, of college. And instead of – at the welcoming event or whatever – instead of talking about the pitfalls, it could be more of a, “Another exciting thing that’s gonna happen to you is that you’re gonna be introduced to so many different people that speak in so many different ways. It might be a little bit hard at first, but that’s normal.”

If only someone had – like, I don’t think that I really needed to hear that at that point because I understood that, I think, at 18. I understand it more now. But if someone would’ve said that, it still would’ve been like, “Oh, I love that someone’s saying that.” I feel like that would’ve been very validating for so many people.

Melissa Baese-Berk: Yeah. So, we’ve been working – and it’s, of course, slow because universities are huge bureaucracies – but we’ve been working with the folks at orientation which we, because we’re Oregon, call “IntroDUCKtion” with a D-U-C-K because of the ducks. [Laughter]

Megan Figueroa: Wow. Okay. That’s kinda cute.

Melissa Baese-Berk: Yeah. It is pretty adorable. “IntroDUCKtion.” And also working with some folks on our web design team to come up with ways to include this in really early-on communication with students. One of the things we’re interested in doing is developing an online training that’s a sneaky training. So, like, “Click here to learn some facts about the University of Oregon,” and we have those facts being delivered not just by native speakers but also by non-native speakers in a variety of dialects, so you get just a little practice listening to those things and understanding them in sort of sneaky ways.

But also being very clear to students that it is an exciting thing. We’re at a global, international university that attracts students from all over the world and attracts the best faculty from all over the world. That’s the other thing we try to frame like, “Your faculty and your TAs know a lot, even if they are not able to communicate with you the way that maybe a native English speaker is able to communicate with you. As part of that benefit, you also have this challenge which is trying a little bit harder to understand what these people are saying.”

Megan Figueroa: What would you recommend to people who are not in this environment? You know, you’re not a freshman student coming to your university, but you still want to learn how to improve your communication with someone who speaks a non-English language as their first language.

Melissa Baese-Berk: I think, again, the answer is to practice. There’s a bunch of different, creative ways you can go about practicing. With YouTube now you can find accented speech all over the place. There are other great resources that are open source, so the Speech Accent Archive is one of those at George Mason University. Northwestern University has a bunch of freely available non-native speech that you can listen to and practice.

And you can think about why you want to get better at it, right? Is it the case that you have a friend who is a native Mandarin speaker and you just wanna get better at understanding that person’s speech? Well, one really good way to do that is hang out with that friend more and practice with that friend more. Is it the case that you have a big community of Spanish speakers in your area, and you don’t speak Spanish, and maybe you’re trying to learn Spanish but you still wanna be able to communicate with people whose native language is Spanish? Well, then listen to a lot of Spanish-accented English. We know that if you train on a single accent, you get better at that accent.

And if you want something that’s broader, practice across a wide variety of accents and you’ll, we think, improve at novel accents as well. You can target your practice to whatever you’re most interested in doing, but there’s plenty of ways to do that both in person and online.

I think one thing non-native speakers really appreciate is if somebody says to them like, “I am having a hard time understanding you, but I wanna get better at it, so can we practice more? Can I talk to you more often?” I think non-native speakers would be happy to hear that instead of what they typically experience which is the sort of shutting them down because they are not as fluent as a native English speaker.

Carrie Gillon: Or told to get rid of their accent.

Melissa Baese-Berk: Or told to get rid of their accent. This is a thing that, I think, one of the most frustrating things to me about perception of non-native speech is, as you all are very familiar in Arizona, the US has this big push toward English only in a variety of domains and insisting that if you live in the United States, you should speak English. Of course, there’re many, many, many problems with the viewpoint, which you all have covered in great detail.

But I think one of the things that is so frustrating to me is that even when people do speak English, they have learned English, it’s not enough because they’re not native English speakers. So, then we start to see it’s not really a problem with the language at all. It’s never been about Spanish. It’s never been about Spanish-accented English. It’s about the people. That, to me, is super sad and really frustrating.

I would like to give an opportunity to people who – it’s not the people, right, they just feel like non-native speech is hard to understand – an opportunity to them to say, “We’re asking people to do a lot by communicating with us in English. So, why don’t we do just a little bit” – my student Drew, who I mentioned before, has this great analogy that she came up with that I love, which is if you think about communication like moving a couch, if you ask one person to move a couch, it is going to be slow. It’s gonna be a really awkward process. Your floor is gonna get all scraped up from the couch getting dragged around the house. But if you have two people lift the couch, it doesn’t mean that it’s easy. It doesn’t mean that suddenly moving the couch is something that’s a day in the park. But you’re able to do the task. It’s easier when the communicative burden is shared across two parties.

So, I think even though you have to do a little bit of work, recognizing the huge amount of work that the other party is doing is something that, to me, is sort of a no-brainer in terms of wanting – I want to do that for communication. I think most people want to make communication be easier, especially when they realize the burden that the other person is carrying this case.

Carrie Gillon: Yeah. That’s a really great metaphor as well.

Melissa Baese-Berk: Yeah. It’s a lovely one.

Megan Figueroa: Well, it’s really helpful because then – I mean, I hope that this episode at least is just like one step in that direction. Although, our listeners are already taking those steps. But it’s kind of that thing where you’re like, “Okay, now that I know this, maybe I’ve been placing too much either blame or, like, just trying to figure out what the problem is and putting it on the person instead of a situation or whatever it is.” Just like how, when we discriminate against language, it’s not just about language, it’s about the person. We need to separate those two things so that we aren’t blaming people.

Melissa Baese-Berk: Right. I think being very clear – I teach a class called Language and Power even though I’m not a sociolinguist. It’s my favorite class to teach because our tagline, even before you all came around, was also “Don’t be an asshole.”

Carrie Gillon: Really? Nice!

Melissa Baese-Berk: Yeah! So, I love teaching that class. I think one of the things that I end the class by talking about is, you know, I’m not saying you can’t make any judgements about language. We all make judgements about language all the time. There’s stuff you like. There’s stuff you don’t like. There’s stuff that’s frustrating. But being aware of what those judgements are and whether or not they’re actually judgements about language – are they judgements about language or are they judgements about people?

And being able to unpack that for yourself or for the people around you is something that I think is so critically important because we make these judgements about language and we pretend like they’re just about language and there’re easy fixes, but we would never, ever, ever, ever tell anybody to change their race. That’s not an acceptable thing to say. But to say, “Get rid of your accent,” that’s something that people say. That’s something people make money on.

People make lots and lots of money helping people get rid of their accents, which is, to me, a little bit horrifying, but I won’t dive into that well today. But I think being aware of what we are asking people to do, and what we’re asking people to do especially for non-native speakers who are not always here by choice, who are not always speaking English by choice, and the fact that we’re asking them to change something about their identity that’s so fundamental to who they are, that to me is something we should be thinking very carefully about as we do it.

Carrie Gillon: Absolutely.

Megan Figueroa: Absolutely. I mean, I think you’ve already said it, but is there one main point that you feel is important that you could tell our listeners so we can all be less of an asshole about all of this?

Melissa Baese-Berk: Yeah. I mean, I think that just recognizing that it takes two to tango, right? It takes two people to communicate and recognizing that both sides have some responsibility for the communication to be successful, I think, is the most important takeaway from this work.

Megan Figueroa: Yeah. I love that. One of our guests, Ake, said, “Be good and be kind.” And I really – as we say, “Don’t be an asshole.” And we really mean it. I think that really helps relieve tension too when we say “Don’t be an asshole,” but “Be good and be kind” just gets me in the feels – like in my heart – and it’s like “Don’t you want to be good and be kind?”

Melissa Baese-Berk: Yeah. I mean, just putting a little bit of niceness into the world, if you can do something that is so – me trying a little harder to understand non-native speech is such a tiny thing. Why not just do this little tiny thing that makes somebody’s life a little bit easier? Because one thing we didn’t get into today, and I don’t wanna go into too much detail about, is some of the true horror stories people have about trying to communicate in their non-native language and the things that people say and do to them to shut them down. You know, bringing just a little bit of kindness back into those communicative scenarios, I think, is critically important.

Megan Figueroa: Absolutely.

Carrie Gillon: I agree.

Megan Figueroa: This has been a really great conversation. Is there anything that we haven’t covered that you wanted to talk about?

Melissa Baese-Berk: No. I think we hit all of the big-picture things that I’m really excited to talk about and things that I think are really ignored, I think, by a lot of our society. I’m super happy you all have this podcast. It is assigned as extra credit to my Language and Power students because it is so relevant for them. And it’s always exciting when they come in with, you know, they’ve gone through your back catalogue and found something that they’re really excited about.

Carrie Gillon: Oh, that’s amazing!

Megan Figueroa: I love that!

Melissa Baese-Berk: I appreciate the work you all are doing. I know it’s not – you cover so many topics that are not easy topics, but I’m super impressed with the work that you all have been doing.

Carrie Gillon: Aw, thank you!

Megan Figueroa: Thank you so much. And now I know that I’m impressed with the work that you’re doing in Oregon.

Melissa Baese-Berk: Thank you.

Megan Figueroa: Thank you so much for being with us.

Melissa Baese-Berk: Oh, thank you. It’s been wonderful.

Megan Figueroa: And everyone –

Carrie Gillon: Don’t be an asshole.

Megan Figueroa: Don’t be an asshole.

[Music]

Carrie Gillon: We would like to thank our newest patrons from December.

Megan Figueroa: And ya’ll are the ones that helped us go over the goal we had, right?

Carrie Gillon: Yeah! So, we finally met our second goal. Going forward – so from this episode on – we can transcribe our episodes.

Megan Figueroa: Yay!

Carrie Gillon: If you wanna help us meet our third goal, which is to pay for previous episodes – meanwhile, I’m doing them, but I would rather pay someone else to do them because it’s not my favorite thing to do.

Megan Figueroa: Yes. Yeah.

Carrie Gillon: You can also join us. But first, let’s thank our newest patrons! Kyle Wilkinson.

Megan Figueroa: Yay!

Carrie Gillon: Shiloh Drake.

Megan Figueroa: Shiloh! Thank you.

Carrie Gillon: Yeah!

Megan Figueroa: I know you.

Carrie Gillon: Stephen Murphy.

Megan Figueroa: Yay!

Carrie Gillon: Mike Mena. And Adam Hartzel. So, if anyone wants to join us at patreon.com/vocalfriespod, you can join us at the $5, $3, or $2 level. We changed it from $1 to $2 because Patreon takes such a big chunk of the $1. But, $3 and $5, you get a sticker. Actually, you get multiple stickers over time. And the $5 level, you get bonus episodes. So, yeah, thank you!

[Music]

Carrie Gillon: The Vocal Fries podcast is produced by me, Carrie Gillon, for Halftone Audio, theme music by Nick Granum. You can find us on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @vocalfriespod. You can email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com and our website is vocalfriespod.com.

[Music]

[seijuurouxryuu]

red sweater and biceps

Title: red sweater and biceps Author: Shiro (TeitoxAkashi [AO3]/ seijuurouxryuu [tumblr]) Rating: T Pairing: Fon/ Reborn Event: @khrrarepairweek Prompts: Mutual Pining | Social Media AU  Tags/Warnings: No Archive Warning

Day 5: Rain Day

It all started with a post on the College Confession site.

(Or, Reborn and Fon being dumb gays)

AO3

Key:

espresso/ espresso or die: Reborn soft: Luce Later Alligator: Verde (CREDITS TO BLUE-SENPAI [OnceABlueMoon] FOR THE NAME) War God: Hibari Kyouya give me your bank PIN: I-Pin Lal my qUEEN: Colonello bitch what: Lal Mirch No Money No Talk: Mammon PLEASE LET ME GO: Sawada Tsunayoshi

It all started with a post on the College Confession site.

#35867

To the red sweater guy with awesome biceps in class S344, you’ve taken my breath away the moment you walk through the door. Have a nice day.

p/s: Please let me touch your biceps.

L1: Oh wow OP calm your thirst.

L2: OP youre valid.

L3: IS THIS WHO I THINK IT IS?!

L4: red sweater guy omg @Fon yoU HAvE aN AdmIRer!

L5: omg it is fon omg omgo mgom

L6: TO THINK THAT I’VE LIVED UNTIL THIS DAY TO SEE FON GETTING HIT ON SO OPENLY

L7: Finally it’s not another confession-to-Reborn post

.

.

Lnth: OP’s words are never truer.

And from that moment onwards, wherever Fon goes, people would stare at him and whispers, giggling as he walked pass them. It was fine at first but it had soon gotten very annoying, because while Fon was fine with crowds or stares, he was of a Hibari and all Hibari Hates. Crowds. And Noises.

Fon rubbed his temple, lips pursing. It was a rare moment for him to expose his feelings in public, but he was far too irritated. He folded his sleeves of his button down—not red thank you very much—up as he made himself comfortable on the plastic chair. Or, as comfortable as plastic chairs can get because it definitely wasn’t.

If he could, he would like to find the culprit to the prank—yes, it could only be a prank—and have a good talk with them. And probably a punch. In fact, he would probably punch Luce for showing him the post if it weren’t for the fact that Luce is Very Scary when provoked. He would rather stay ignorant to all that, thank you very much.

To be honest, it wasn’t as though he didn’t want to find the culprit. He tried by asking Mammon, but they simply ignored him even when he offered the Materialstm, saying that they still wanted to live and something else that was incoherent to Fon. He tried by approaching his older cousin Alaude who definitely knew who but was ignored and sent away as well, only with a contemplating look. What did that even mean?

Anyways, long story short, Fon tried for the whole two weeks, but ultimately failed to find out who it was. He sighed as he spun his ballpoint pen, waiting for the lecturer to come in. It was S344 again, and this time he had come early to scrutinize all his classmates—not all whom he knew well—to see if he can figure out who it was, since that was the only clue given.

Sitting at the highest level in the lecture hall—he can effort not listening to the teacher so it doesn’t matter—he scanned through the class and stared at all the students that had arrived early, mentally cancelling whoever that didn’t seem like the one.

‘Not here yet, I guess.’

Soon, the class started to fill up and Fon simply just gave up. One, there were too many students and all of them are still buzzing around who god-knows-what reason. Two, this one guy with cute, curly sideburn and abyss-like eyes arrived.

A small smile and a statement in the smooth, pleasing voice shook Fon down to the core. “I supposed that you’re trying to find who posted that post.”

Holy shit.

“I-I’m sorry, what?”

The chuckle he gave Fon definitely made his legs weak and Fon was so thankful that he was sitting instead of standing. “Do you mind if I sit here?”

“I—no, no. Definitely not. Go ahead.” Shit, Fon was turning stupid from how hot the other was.

“Thanks.” And he slid in, sitting beside Fon. “So how’s the progress? Found any suspect?”

Fon didn’t answer for a moment as he blinked a few times to digest the question. (‘Stupid, you aren’t supposed to be this dumb. Granted, he is too hot…’) Then he frowned a little. “You know me?”

A snort. “Of course. You’re currently the hottest topic at the moment. One would have to live 15 feet underground to not know who you are.”

Fon looked like he wanted to groan out loud but stopped himself because it would rather rude of him and that earned a look of sympathy. “Don’t worry. Things will quiet down after a while.”

“How sure are you?” Fon tilted his head. “Trust me.”

Fon raised an eyebrow at that but didn’t ask further. If the other doesn’t want to talk, then he would rather not talk. Plus, the lecturer had arrived. The two of them turned back to the class—or, well, they tried to. Fon was very distracted with his seat companion’s presence and the dying urge to turn around and stare at the beautiful pair of eyes. It was the first time he had noticed so much of a person and wanted to know so much more.

Also, he would die to keep talking with him just to hear his voice.

A click and Fon paled slightly.

Oh god, did he just get himself a crush?

.

.

soft

Forget the confession. Forget finding the culprit.

Um, Fon, bby? Are you alright?

Fdskajfldsk

No.

Oh dear, what happened?

I saw the Devil

And I want to punch them

In the face

With my mouth

Softly

Oh?

OH

OHHHH

Luce please kill me I don’t need this

Oh babe, come over. We’ll have a Talk

.

.

Mission: PROTECT FON AT ALL COST

soft

@everyone please come over to our usual spot to give moral support to our beloved bby fon

Later Alligator

Is Killer 3.5 needed?

War God

@Later Alligator yes

Later Alligator

My invention is not for you Hibari back off

War God

You can’t stop me

give me your bank PIN

Hibari-san no

Also @soft who do I need to kill for master?

soft

No fighting. Anyone who brings weapons will be barred from entering the base.

War God

Bold of you to assume that I need my tonfa at all.

soft

I’ll tell Tsuna that you are the one who burnt his manga

War God

I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.

soft

screenshot.jpg

War God

I know where you live.

soft

and so do I. ANYWAYS! There’s no need to kill anyone! Just come and you’ll know!

.

.

The first time Reborn saw Fon was in S344. That day, he was sitting alone on the highest level because he liked looking down at everyone from higher ground. (Plus, it wasn’t as though he needed to listen to lectures; he was just attending because he had nothing better to do.) He was scrolling through the Confession site, snorting at idiotic posts, when Fon walked into class with a perfectly fitted red sweater that hugged his frame—especially his biceps—so beautifully. He was carrying a laptop bag and a few files, smiling at something on his phone as he climbed up the stairs.

Reborn was awestruck, eyes wide as he stared at the angel that gotten closer and closer. His heart had unknowingly started thumping louder as he took in the most perfect man he had ever saw like a lost, thirsty traveller who had not drank in days. Reborn had almost stopped breathing when Fon looked up to find an empty row.

Their eyes met.

And Fon smiled.

Shit.

He was so dead.

(He had spent the whole period staring at Fon’s back, especially his exposed neck and arm, thanking god that he was sitting directly in front of him. It wasn’t until Fon left the room that he realized that he was actually drooling.)

.

.

Leon is the best @espresso . 57s

Have you ever seen someone so beautiful that you just want to die?

.

.

Lal my qUEEN

OmG GuYs haVE yoU seEn Reborn’s tweet?!

bitch what

No???

Did he delete it?

Lal my qUEEN

@espresso or die WHY DID YOU DELETE IT GET OVER HERE fdhsaklfjdsAFJDSL

bitch what

What did he do again?

@espresso or die What did you do again?

Stop depriving us

I know you’re on rn

espresso or die

lies

Lal my qUEEN

KORA REBORN! STOP DISAPPEARING!

REBORN!

OI!

@espresso or die DUDE EXPLAIN

Fjflkds that’s IT!

@No Money No Talk RECEIPT! I’LL GIVE YOU FIFTY (50) AND A STRAWBERRY MILK!

No Money No Talk

Hundred and two, no less.

Lal my qUEEN

ALRIGHT

No Money No Talk

thirst.jpg

espresso or die

You’re dead to me, Viper.

No Money No Talk

It’s Mammon.

And you’re welcome.

PLEASE LET ME GO

fkldsajflkds omg

Are you okay Reborn? Are you sick? What temperature are you?

Do we need to call an ambulance? Or do we need to call for a priest?

espresso or die

Dead. You’re all dead to me.

Especially you, @Lal my qUEEN

I’m coming for you first.

Lal my qUEEN

Fldksjfl;dsarlwea

PLEASE LET ME GO

RIP

espresso or die

You’re next

PLEASE LET ME GO

WHY ME?!

A/N= As you can see, its not fully complete. I didn't finish it because I couldn't make the plunny move + no motivation/inspiration. I might pick it up again when I do have the motivation to.

At least this is longer and written just for this event unlike the previous one...

[I apologize for any grammar, spelling, etc. etc. mistake]