#and every variation thereof

[iindigoeyed]

opening tumblr to see people debating Why The Season Finale Sucked or Why The Season Finale Is Actually a Secret Masterpiece or Secret Third Thing for the five thousandth time this month

[edandstede]

don’t be surprised when people come for your shitty takes and wish bad shit on you. bestie you don’t respect our unicorn, we won’t respect you or your tits. cry to your mommy about it 😂

unbelievably not satire

at this point i’m just publishing so you guys can see the canyon for who they really are, if for some reason you aren’t aware already lmao. what a fucking mess

[snowdrop-yoongi]

i'm seeing a spate of her ads again (she somehow always has money for ads despite constantly begging for rent money) so reminder that kate havekost, currently @/mod-mig-i-maneskin, is a violent T*RF and scam artist and you should not buy her paintings or donate. she changes her blog name whenever people bring up her T*RF blog or raise suspicions about her financial situation, but you'll know it's her bc her v*nmo is kate-havekost and her p*ypal is havekatart@gmail.com

[blujayonthewing]

Anon confession: You inspire me! Your unabashed love for the stories and characters and art you create makes me want to embrace my own work more fully, and your love for nature and especially bugs makes me want to pay more attention to the world around me!

[halemerry]

On the Bookshop, the Concept of Home, and Going Too Fast

So, weirdly enough, I want to start with a scene that has very little to do with the actual Bookshop: 1967. We get Crowley planning a heist and being interrupted by an angel clutching a thermos full of holy water and promising that someday, maybe, they could let themselves have the life they want together. And we get that line. You know the one. You go too fast for me.

This one line of dialogue went a very long way to cementing the fanon perception of their roles in the relationship as we've largely been shown them - Crowley gently pushes and gives Aziraphale space to slowly feel comfortable setting his own boundaries or adjusting his worldview. And I’m not saying this is wrong - it’s definitely what we're primed to expect in their pattern - but I do think it ignores a fairly common variation of their pattern. See, sometimes, Aziraphale is actually the faster of the two of them - he's just not quite as flashy about it.

Crowley very rarely actually does any pushing without getting some kind of signal from Aziraphale first. Aziraphale, whether consciously or otherwise, quite frequently is the player making the first move on their metaphorical chess board. We see that he's the first to push for them to work together in the story of Job. We see that he's the first to invite Crowley to socialize together in Rome. We see as early as the Globe that Aziraphale has discovered and weaponized how to ask Crowley for things with a simple look and that Crowley has gotten very good at reading those asks. We actually see this dynamic in real time as Aziraphale drops signals to Crowley on how he should form his deception of the angels in the Book of Job. Even the Arrangement itself is something Crowley doesn't push for until he knows explicitly that Aziraphale isn't happy with the terms of his work. In other words, Aziraphale sets a cue, Crowley picks up on it and adapts.

So what does this have to do with the Bookshop?

Well. The Bookshop is a prime example of Aziraphale getting there faster. Because the bookshop, whether he knows it at the time or not, is absolutely a nest.

Nesting is behavior typically associated with birds, but is actually something lots of animals do. Even humans exhibit this behavior to some degree. It’s functionally gathering a bunch of stuff to create a safe, comfortable place, typically constructed for the purpose of raising children or attracting a mate. In other words: the creation of a home.

Because the Bookshop is their home. It is their safe space and sanctuary. It is a space for them to meet and just Exist without worrying about being seen. A home base where they can just Be themselves. It’s a constant in a world ever shifting around them. It’s a place for them to come back to. A place that will always be waiting for them both. And a place that they both have to be able to check in on each other. This is why the Bookshop burning hit as hard as it did. Their home was destroyed in fire and flame. And they both know it. Every expression and shift in tone when they talk about it speaks to the gravity of that loss - even if it was only temporary. And I think it was always intended to be just that on some level from the very start.

So timeline wise the closest scene we know about to Aziraphale starting his plans for the shop is the scene at the Globe. This takes place in 1601 and features the two of them being very conscious of being seen and the potential consequences thereof. They pick going to the Globe expecting it to be busy enough to blend into the crowd and Aziraphale's objection re the Arrangement has shifted onto the idea of Hell destroying Crowley.

It is less than a century later that Aziraphale buys the land that will eventually become the bookshop. In 1630 he purchases the land with his own money. That’s his money. Money that he made mostly the human way. Although this space would eventually become an embassy to Heaven it was made via earthly means. It’s his, not Heaven’s. Less than 30 years after we first see them express concern for how dangerous it would be to be seen Aziraphale starts making a space for them to retreat to.

And he does it slowly. He spends decades slowly buying up the land in the area. In fact, it’s nearly 200 years before the Bookshop will be ready to open. By the time we hit the Bastille, he’s clearly decided on a bookshop and has clearly told Crowley all about it. They’re comfortable with each other and already trust each other to a frankly absurd degree. Aziraphale risks discorporation on the sure thing that Crowley will know he’s in danger and come save him just because he wants to see him. In other words, by the time they’re at the point where they’re making elaborate excuses to see each other, Aziraphale is less than a decade away from naming the home he has been carefully making for himself A.Z. Fell and Co.

The and Co is important here for obvious reasons. We all know there’s only one person that it could be referring to. Even as Aziraphale is still denying that they are friends, he is plastering the idea that they are a unit all over the front door of his home long before even he realizes that what he is feeling for Crowley is love.

This is part of why the conversation about ‘our car, our bookshop’ comes much easier to Aziraphale. And it is an easier jump for him to make. He's the one that brings it up and he does it quite casually. He's testing the waters a bit, but is confident the conversation will go his way. Of course we have a car. Just as we have a bookshop.

The thing is I don't think Crowley ever really got that memo on a conscious level. We can see his relationship to the shop shift in the way he moves around the shop shifts over time. The earliest we see him in the shop itself is 1941. It's night time which gives the whole thing a bit of clandestine air, which is fitting for where they're at on the timeline. He stays mostly in one spot in his shots here, sort of hovering about the shop not getting too close to Aziraphale but not drifting out on his own either. He also stays as close to sitting normally as we tend to see Crowley ever sit and his glasses stay on. Which that's not to say he doesn't relax at all. He takes off his hat and make himself comfortable and, most telling, doesn't bother with fixing his glasses when they slip off his nose. He's comfortable and familiar here but it's in a strained sort of distant way. There's trust there, for sure, but he is clearly a visitor in this space.

The next we see of Crowley in the shop is the mid 2000s. It's still night time. His glasses stay on until he's drunk and the he takes them off of his own accord. He moves about the shop, touching various objects and leaning against various pillars and shelves and furniture. He's more comfortable here, but he still he needs a bit of alcohol in his system to get there.

We then see him briefly in the daytime after they realize they have lost the Anti-Christ. The glasses stay on here and alcohol is notably present. And then we do not see him in the shop again until it is burning. All and all most our shots of the bookshop from season one are Aziraphale alone moving about his space. We know Crowley's there enough that his smell lingers in the place, but we don't actually see that much of it beyond those first tom scenes.

Season 2 couldn't be more different in this regard.

Crowley moves in and out of the bookshop as it suits him. At one point he wanders off in the middle of Aziraphale zoning out in a memory without bothering to shake Aziraphale out of it. We even get him doing what is functionally a bird courtship dance right here in the middle of the shop. Aziraphale in turn takes active steps to get Crowley into the shop whether it's leaving him to watch it while he's gone or suggesting that Crowley likes waiting in the shop for him - a thing Crowley does not outright deny beyond objecting to Gabriel's presence there.

And we get a lot of Crowley in the shop this season- both with and without Aziraphale. And regardless of Aziraphale's presence, Crowley's behavior doesn't really shift too much. He's moving around the shop far more that we've ever seen him historically and he spends half that time sprawling on the furniture like it's his.

And, of course, nearly every time we see him enter the Bookshop to engage with Aziraphale, the glasses come off.

He lets his face stay exposed in the shop, even eventually in front of Gabriel. The only other place we've ever seen him take his sunglasses off by his own choice are in his own flat or when he's trying to make a point about his own nature. Even when he's engaging with Hell, so long as he's not grabbed unexpectedly, he has them on. Crowley wears them around people well before sunglasses had technically even been invented. But not here. Not anymore. Not in this story that is framing the bookshop as a literal safe haven.

Even the palette for the Bookshop this season speaks volumes. Now Season 1 in general is a little grayer than Season 2 (this is in part because of the general aesthetics of when they were made and in part because of the difference in tone between the two seasons) and it's very very noticeable in the shop itself. Here's some side by sides of similar areas of the shops between two seasons, I bet you could guess which was which based on the colors themselves.

The palette season 1 suits Aziraphale just fine. It's more neutral tones like he tends to favor on himself. It's still cozy but in a dusty sort of way. The palette of season 2 is warmer. Less white and more orange to the point where even the pillars holding up the bookshop are more vibrant. There's more natural light and we see it more often during the day. It's a warm, shared, space now. They both get plenty of use out of it.

And Crowley now looks like he fits there too. The shift in his palette makes him feel in conversation with the bookshop in a way his season 1 red can't quite mesh with the more washed out palette. I won't repost all these images I was going feral over last night but you can find a lot of shots of him in the shop windows here that really show the ways he works with the colors of the shop.

So why hasn't Crowley moved in officially if he's practically done so already?

Because this is their whole problem in a nutshell. It's a prime example of the way their pattern doesn't work anymore. It's not built for a world like this. Its built for a world where they have to hide and make excuses. And while being free of that is objectively good it also means they have none of that to hide behind anymore. Subtext doesn't have to be subtext anymore and that can be as scary as it can be exciting. Freedom from things like Heaven and Hell can be hard when that's all you've ever known. This is all new territory for them. The meaning of what home can be to them shifts a lot in a space where they can more or less do as they like.

Aziraphale doesn't need to be indirect about what he wants anymore but can't quite figure out how to be more direct in the asking. He's ready but can't quite parse how to say that out loud. Or why he would even need to when he's been saying it quietly for more than a century. He built a shop full of human knowledge into a safe haven for the demon that fell for asking questions. He invited Crowley into the shop on day one, just like everything else he loves. He's already left the door open for Crowley to come and go as he pleases and as far as he's concerned Crowley has already half moved in anyway. From his perspective he's already set a large blinking neon sign up that says 'this is your home too'.

Crowley, for his part, can't read this cue. Not without thinking about going to fast or starting a battle with his own sense of self worth. He's been in keep them alive mode for so long I'm not even sure he really knows how to let himself have needs outside of that on any conscious sort of level. There's nowhere to push if you don't have an endgame. And even if he did have one the last explicit boundary he had established by Aziraphale was telling him to slow down.

But I do think they both realize this. Crowley grumbles about what's the point from the start of his first scene and of course eventually does take a shot at expressing his wants. Aziraphale's fixation on the Ball comes into play here too. He says they allow humans to realize they have misunderstood each other and that they're actually in love. Which is just flat out their whole problem summarized for us nice and neatly.

They're not understanding each other. They haven't had the conversations they need to have. But they are trying. They still trying, even if they don't understand the ways each other is doing so. And at the end of this season even as they are separated again, the nest still stands. And, maybe the next time we get to see them, they'll decide it's in good hands right now and start building another nest together in in South Downs, but, no matter what, the shop is still home. And even if it is a place they have lost each other twice, there is no doubt in my mind that it is a place they will find each other again.

[helloaugustmoon]

·˚◌༘͙[Michael x Short/s/o]!ˊ

- would like to start this with a relevant tiktok that goes out to all my fellow shorties who’d like to visualise these hc’s more accurately 🫡

- Michael’s like 5’9”, so most people are shorter than him by at least a little bit, but we’ll specifically be referring to an ACTUAL short person who’s 5’4” and under

- it’s worth noting that he wouldn’t ever be more/less attracted to someone based on their height/lack thereof, but your height is something he adores bc it’s part of you

- Michael LOVES the height difference between you

- every time you look up at him, his heart just aches in his chest

- there’s something about that angle of you that really does it for him

- he loves all the stereotypical things, too; seeing you stand on your tiptoes to reach things, seeing you in clothes that are far too big, etc

- will only hesitate for a few seconds to help you reach something bc he can’t deny himself the adorable view of you standing on your tiptoes

- is forever buying you oversized clothes and demanding (lovingly) fashion shows in which you parade around for him

- loves giving you piggyback rides and carrying you around bridal style

- ever a man that loves the class of old Hollywood aesthetics, Michael loses his mind whenever you wear high heels

- sure, they only add the few inches required to make you average height, but your little legs? looking that much longer in heels? and the fact you’re still looking up at him ???

- every time Michael hears the click of your high heels in the distance, he will start running at full speed to find you and literally collapse to his knees in a dramatic gesture of worship

- not kidding

- he does already love getting on his knees to hold your face and give you the sweetest kiss, the gesture of affection always so silly it leaves you both giggling

- your forehead will have an imprint of his kisses btw

- so will your temples

- and the top of your head

- Michael is obsessed with amending normal petnames (and his own unique ones) to praise your height

“Good morning, little love.”

- that’s a classic

- whenever you have the smallest (pun intended) gripe about something, he’s all:

“And why is that, my little lady?”

- then there’s the time you asked him why he calls you variations of ‘star’, ‘little star’, ‘lucky star’, and ‘starlight’

“Stars, like you, appear small but remain to be one of the most beautiful parts of our universe. That, my star, prompts the names.”

[cuubism]

more dreamling fic tropes that hit so good every time:

dream thinking he has to repay hob somehow for saving him. hob being like bitch what the fuck. we are friends

hob encountering dream in eldritch nightmare form and instead of being afraid he just like. pets the eldritch creature on the head.

(alternatively. dream is like 'you won't like my Nightmare form.' hob's like 'jokes on you i'm into that shit')

dream just. appearing in hob's living room. or in his bedroom. or on his bed.

the absolutely feral rage of hob when he sees dream in the fishbowl.

dream yelling at desire because how dare they make him have feelings for hob???? desire just like ?????????????

Desire trying to seduce hob. Dream being like I will punt you to the other end of the earth do not test me

hob's students being deeply deeply confused by hob's cryptid goth boyfriend like what the fuck is this relationship actually?

hob and death becoming bffs. perhaps through their combined power they can get dream to practice basic self care.

hob built the new inn for dream. (i frequently forget this isn't explicitly canon).

relatedly - the new inn as a temple.

hob as dream's knight in the dreaming. the king & his loyal knight dynamic generally speaking.

hob calling dream 'my king,' 'my lord' or some variation thereof and dream just bluescreening.

hob defending dream from some innocuous threat he definitely didn't need help with. dream deeply charmed by hob coming to his defense.

on the flip side. someone saying something mean to hob and dream yeets them into outer space. ("that was a bit of an overreaction." "it was not")

Hob doesn't get nightmares anymore because the nightmares are afraid of being unmade by Dream

meowpheus. in all incarnations

Hob making Dream finally eat something ("you didn't eat for like a hundred ten years." "Ughhhhhhhh")

Hob beating the crap out of people at the Burgess manor

That moment at the new inn reunion when oh my god. Their hands. TOUCHED

Hob wrapping his coat around Dream's shoulders after rescuing him.

Pressing their hands together through the glass.

Hob's friends/coworkers etc seeing him making heart eyes at this random goth and being like ????🤔😳??🤔??😳

The Dreaming residents seeing Dream mooning over this incredibly average guy and being like !!!!😑😑🙃🙃???🤨🤨??

"So then I went to hell." "Oh ok-- hang on hell is REAL?"

Hob: oh hey cool raven. Matthew: thanks. Hob: oh it talks too hahaha *dies*

Hob making friends with all the dreaming residents. dream's feeling a little personally attacked by the way they all gang up on him now

Dream just Chillin in Hob's classroom while he teaches. Hob definitely not Sweating at all

Hob giving Dream some of his clothes. But making sure they're black

[princessfbi]

BT cuddling thoughts (yes I'm reclaiming BT, it's been long enough and I'm sick of writing bucktommy every time):

birthmark kisses

stretched out on the couch with buck between tommy's legs, tommy's arms clasped over his stomach

buck climbing into tommy's lap and turning his face into his neck when he's especially tired and just wants to feel small and protected

tommy with his head resting on buck's shoulder, buck gently massaging the nape of his neck when tommy's stiff and sore from flying all day

backwards hugs, tommy wrapping around buck from behind and swaying them gently together while he kisses his shoulder

spooning. every variation thereof.

It’s the way I read this like four or five times today like I was taking a hit of adrenaline.

[allthatmay]

Silly Shanks Headcanons:

Whinges about the weather, especially to Benn. I can just see Shanks being a baby when it's too hot or cold. (He doesn't tell anyone, but sometimes extreme weather makes his arm, or lack thereof, hurt.)

Missing arm jokes. Endless amounts. Sometimes, when he's really drunk, he puts a baguette up his sleeve and tricks strangers into "shaking his hand." It causes catastrophe when he tries to use it, grabbing his drink with both hand and baguette.

Doesn't carry any money with him, anywhere. All he's got is a trusty sword and a clever mouth. He often ends up inveigling the bartenders into forgiving his debt through some other manner, such as a game, bet, or favour—unless, of course, the price is too high. Then he has to get Benn to pay.

Personal space problems. A friend asks him a quick question? He's their problem now, and he will use every trick in his arsenal to get them to stay; any excuse for a bit of fun. The easiest way, of course, is to wrap an arm around them—but he's not above tying their sashes together like they're two dogs leashed to each other. The man has no concept of personal space.

Runs off with the joke. If you make a joke in front of him, you better be prepared to go all the way with it. Shanks will go to, and has gone to, extreme measures to commit to the bit. Just ask him about his tattoo.

Singing all the damn time, especially dirty limericks. He does it regardless of time or place. Imagine, if you will, an in-universe variation of:

There was a young sailor from Brighton, Who said to his girl, "You're a tight one." She replied, "Bless my soul, You're in the wrong hole; There's plenty of room in the right one!"

[Overheard by poor Makino, who dropped a whole cask of beer in her haste to cover her blushing cheeks. She had never before heard such filth.]

[marzipanandminutiae]

i'd love to learn just how victorian rational dress reformists would react at contemporary feminine hairstyles!

...in a similar line of thought do we have any records about their opinions on the Practicality of little girls hair or even the 20's bob (if some lived to see it)?

I'm not sure!

One of their biggest beefs with hair in their own time was often with hairpieces: false buns, curls, bangs/fringes, etc. used to augment one's natural hair. I'm not sure if they felt it weighed the head down or the extra pins were uncomfortable or what, but they didn't like it. false hair still exists, but its popularity has vastly waned. so maybe they'd think we had solved some issues- though long hair worn loose all the time would probably be seen as Hampering to women's daily activity

You do see some advocacy for short hair as an easier and sometimes healthier (??) option, but more often I've seen artistic and/or Dress Reform-oriented women with short hair who said nothing about it. You also have men who are...clearly just into ladies with short hair writing long Ye Olde Thinkpieces about how great it is. I mean, no shame there, I guess- everyone has their Thing. And while short hair on women was unusual, the Victwardians didn't seem to regard it with the same massive distrust and hand-wringing as conservative commentators of the 1920s did. Perhaps because it was less widespread?

The idea that little girls not only could have short hair but should was fairly common throughout the 19th century, obviously with variations. Similar reasoning was in play to that you might expect nowadays: that it was easier to care for, and that an active child wouldn't be hindered by it. there was also an idea, similar to that which led some women's hair to be cut off during serious illness, that short hair kept the head cooler and prevented or lowered fevers. I've actually read an admonition to keep children's hair short for just that reason in a book from the 1830s- The Ladies' Medical Oracle, by Elizabeth Mott. obviously this wasn't universal- see also: the original Alice in Wonderland illustrations, although it's worth noting that the real Alice Liddell had a bob as a child

(yes, little girls were expected to be active to a degree- even more if you're reading a book by someone who has experience with Actual Human Children. some doctors fretted that the uterus would be damaged by too much physical activity, but it seems like in practice, parents' were...again, aware of how real children behave. Longfellow's 1860 poem The Children's Hour describes his daughters storming his office to shower him with affection, quite energetically, and it was a smash hit)

as for how they reacted to 1920s bobs...well, most of the adult adopters thereof had at least lived through part of the Long Hair As Default For Women Edwardian era, and their thoughts ranged greatly on the subject. In fact, essays by Irene Castle (believed to be the originator of the trend in her late 20s c. 1913 or 1914, long before it caught on properly) and Mary Pickford (a late adopter at age 36 c. 1928) on why they had vs. hadn't cut their hair are often paired together as a commentary on how the trend was seen, along with others. sometimes these essays are rather strange- one wonders why these women, who must have lived when adult women all wore their hair up every day, describe the alleged oppression of "long, trailing locks." I guess when what you like has some social unacceptability, you might be inclined to phrase things in black and white thus

Dress reformers of the 1920s were more concerned with the deleterious effects of high-heeled shoes and the general idea that young women were encouraged to be too frivolous- and too loose in their sexual morals, as represented by the "short skirts"- actually about calf-length -and low-backed evening gowns of the era. that sounds kind of weird today, in the era of sex positivity, but earlier dress reform had, with a few exceptions, disavowed ideas of sexual freedom as thoroughly as mainstream society did. and I kind of get it- the notion that they advocated "free love" was often used to discredit genuine women's rights groups. still they weren't totally immune to sexual mores of their time, and some likely genuinely believed what they were saying

and that's not even getting into the Coiffure a la Titus trend of the late 18th-early 19th century, which had advocates claiming it was the best thing ever and detractors insisting it would result in women catching colds all the time. it was ever thus

anyway that's a bit of a long-winded answer, but I hope it helps!

[verifying-gimmick-posts]

Could you verify the blog @i-say-ok ?

I'm not sure if it is genuine...

My initial thought was to check every post and reblog on this blog to see if anything other than "ok." has ever been posted, however this blog has seemingly been used as a personal blog for almost a year now with well over 3,000 posts, so instead I just spent an hour scrolling through each month on the Archive page. My hope was to create a spreadsheet, but this is the best I could do in my time.

Semantically, you could argue that from their first reblog they said something other thank "ok", that being "ok." with a period, but it's obvious the goal of this blog is just to respond to everything with a variation on "ok" and not exclusively "ok" in lowercase with no formatting. However, they have in the past used words other than "ok" in the tags when contextually appropriate (f-slur in source). The full list of words they've said in the tags, according to the Tumblr Archive page from Dec 3 2022 to Oct 27 2023, are as follow:

bugs

cw

eyestrain

f

flash

flashing

long

minor

oo

post

slur

transphobes

tw

unreality

warning

Counting the blog name, they've also said "i" and "say".

In terms of variations on "ok", the blog has used:

Punctuation marks (question marks, exclamation points, ellipsis, variations and combinations thereof, etc) [secondary source containing post content instead of tags]

Differing capitalization

Repetition

Emoticon

Emoji

Ascii art, font colors, typographical symbols

Strikethrough

Differing text formatting

There isn't typically much to verify with gimmick blogs that are just doing a consistent bit compared to gimmick blogs claiming to present facts (thus the lack of verification status), especially considering how such aforementioned blogs work solely off of semantics and their own loosely defined (if any) rules. Despite this, I had fun navigating this blog in order to determine what the unspoken rules of "i-say-ok" are. For instance, "Okay" is not allowed. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

I keep feeling like I want to say more things about Current Events™️ but ultimately there's nothing else for me TO say. I've said everything I had in me and there's nothing more I can say that will convince antisemites to see Jews as human or Islamophobes to see Palestinians as human or to care about the deaths of every innocent person. Everyone who already cares already knows and everyone who wants to treat this like a video game or a particularly purile YA novel is either blocked or not reachable with words on the internet.

I haven't stopped caring because I've stopped posting, and I have somewhat stopped talking about it even though I still have things to say. They're just the same things, or variations thereof, and I don't like repeating myself. It's a waste of breath and I'm completely exhausted.

Anyway, please G-d let there be peace - a lasting peace, a just peace - swiftly and with as little loss of life as possible.

[astrum-aetherium]

henry is so tall and intimidatingly imposing that i simply cannot help imagining him as being so skilled, so dexterous… in certain aspects regarding physical activity… that i doubtlessly see him as the type of person to fasten a firm grasp around your shoulder, or the slope between it and your neck, in any position that requires your being on your hands and knees for him… all the while, he does maintain a controlling, steadying grip on your hips, but i’m thinking his arms would be long and strong enough to provide additional support in your shoulder area… only driving you back into him with that much force, reaching you deeply but also strikingly… each and every time… with each movement…

to cut a complicated elaboration short, he’s the type to hold and thereby guide you by your shoulder in doggy, or any variation thereof. furthermore, in a slightly more rough scenario, i’d say he’d also be willing to instead wrap his palm around your throat… and it’d be large enough to wind all the way around… and he’d keep steady pressure upon it, adding or subtracting might — depending on your preference… sensing your climbing pulse beneath his fingertips… in a sullen hyperbole, your life at his solemn command…

but, you know, just a thought.

[visualtaehyun]

Pronouns, my beloved!

Disclaimer: not a native Thai speaker, still learning 🙏

นี่คุณจะไม่เลือกผมจริง ๆ ใช่ไหม /nee, khun ja mai leuuak pom jing jing chai mai?/

-> คุณ /khun/ = polite, formal 2nd pers. pronoun -> ผม /pom/ = polite, formal, respectful male 1st pers. pronoun

As Mahasamut is the younger one, he might just keep using ผม /pom/ throughout the entire show, just as Sky did in LITA. What he calls Tongrak is surely gonna change though! คุณ /khun/ feels too distant for P'May characters - even LomNuea in Wedding Plan, who met in a professional context and long kept using คุณ /khun/, ended up switching to the more familiar and informal พี่ /phi/ to refer to Lom.

So my predictions include:

a variation on his name, e.g. Rak, instead of any pronoun (like Prapai calling Sky just Sky, no pronouns), or later down the line maybe just ที่รัก /thee rak/ (= lit. beloved, comparable to darling, honey etc.) as it's sweet and would be a lovely switcheroo from Tongrak ต้องรัก /dtawng rak/ (= have to love)

a more intimate pronoun like เธอ /ter/ (based on YiwaMarine from Wedding Plan foregoing seniority by having younger Rine call her older girlfriend เธอ /ter/ for most of the show)

or simply พี่ /phi/ (as a 2nd pers. pronoun) which- I was just considering how that might not be sweet enough for a P'May top but then the sheer potential of P'Rak พี่รัก /phi rak/ sounding so close to ที่รัก /thee rak/ occurred to me and now I'm gonna need that to happen!!

ต่อให้ผู้ชายทั้งโลกเหลือแค่นายคนเดียวอะ ฉัน ก็ ไม่ เอา /dtaaw hai phuu chaai thang lohk leuua khaae naai khohn diiao a- chan. gaaw. mai. ao./)

-> นาย /naai/ = informal male 2nd pers. pronoun (it's kind of filed away as the male equivalent to เธอ /ter/ in my head, even though เธอ /ter/ is perfectly usable regardless of gender but might sound too flirty to Tongrak, maybe?) -> ฉัน /chan/ = informal, familiar 1st pers. pronoun, not respectful or polite but also not impolite; used when speaking to someone younger/of lower status or between equals, is used predominantly by women, and in turn by men when talking to women

I love this choice so much! 1) Because both ฉัน /chan/ and นาย /naai/ rarely make an appearance in BL, from male characters, even though they delight me every time I do hear it in a BL (e.g. NuerSyn in Cutie Pie calling each other นาย /naai/ for a good long while), and 2) because ฉัน /chan/ can give both Mafia Boss (as can นาย /naai/) as well as Sassy and no, I shan't elaborate 5555

My prediction is that these too might change. ฉัน /chan/ here feels like- attitude? almost? Like both a level of self-confidence as well as some sass so I'd wager that mellows out into:

พี่ /phi/ (as a 1st pers. pronoun)

or he might just as well keep using ฉัน /chan/ (if paired with เธอ /ter/ for example that's like prime romance trope right there lol)

or, which I think is most likely, he'll just use his own name or variation thereof, e.g. Rak.

I remember seeing Peat tweet something aaaages ago when the announcement for Love Sea first dropped where he called Fort 'Mut' -

/diiao juuhr gan loei, ai moot/ = See you then, Ai'Mut!

Except this is spelled differently from Mahasamut's name because หมุด /moot/ (= pin/needle) is the phonemic spelling of the last syllable in มหาสมุทร /ma haa sa moot/. So! I think it's entirely possible that Tongrak's gonna call him Mut หมุด or Nong Mut น้องหมุด in the future.

คุณต้องรักมหาสมุทร /khun dtawng rak mahaa samoot/

= Khun Tongrak Mahasamut = You have to love the ocean. = You have to love me.

The Thai title is ต้องรักมหาสมุทร /dtawng rak mahaa samoot/ = TongrakMahasamut; Gotta Love the Sea; Gotta Love Mahasamut

[olderthannetfic]

I've been seeing this video of a guy doing a bit where a Vietnamese dude is called "Me" and personal pronoun-related hilarity ensues and it's driving me a teeny bit nuts because

- It is the wrong pronunciation. "Me", depending on the accent, can be pronounced somewhat like "meh". If you want it to be pronounced like the English pronoun me, it's written "My"*

- Neither "Me" nor "My" is a guy's name in Vietnamese. As far as I'm aware, My and Mỹ are popular female names. I've never seen anyone named "Me" or any variation thereof.

People in the notes have suggested Yu and Ai for a comedy sketch and something's just not sitting right with me. Am I overthinking this? Idk. But I don't want to put a damper on their haha funny post so here I am, in your inbox ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

--

*unrelated tangent: one funny mistake I often see in schools is whenever the textbook mentions a famous place called Mỹ Sơn (/mǐˀ səːn/, written without accents bc it's the English textbook, probably means beautiful mountain I think). Most people including me, the teacher, who has seen it every year ever since I was a student, will read it as my son (as in, my child who is a boy) before doing a double take lol

--

No, you aren't overthinking.

Who's On First is funny only because it 100% works. No one is misunderstanding anything (well, aside from one character for comedic effect). It's pointing out a legitimately goofy aspect of English.

Doing this cross-linguistically can still be funny, but it has to follow the same rule where it all actually works. If you're straining to make the play on words work, it's not actually clever.

And, of course, if it's cross-linguistic, there's always that specter of "Hur, hur, foreign language wacky!"

[carlyraejepsans]

@wordbending yep! aside from filtering out any and every "male/female frisk/chara/kris" tag and variation thereof, if i catch an author misgendering them without signs of it in the tags, i make sure to filter out their profile so I don't risk stumbling into their work again. get filtered idiot