#and if a native speaker just tells you to drop the topic YOU FUCKING DROP IT.

[cerealandchoccymilk]

oh shit. completely forgot about namehunting....

[lady-sapphire]

Indomitable focus - Solas/Male Adaar

Solas was deeply ashamed. Ashamed of himself. Falling for the Inquisitor. A man! One of these damned qunari! And Solas was lost to him. He, of all people! But one look of these warm amber eyes and one whisper with this soft voice and Solas felt his knees weaken and a drop in his stomach. He was helpless, unable to withdraw himself from the presence of the other man.

“Indomitable focus?” “Presumably. I have yet to see it dominated. I imagine the sight would be … fascinating.”

It had happened the first time shortly after the Inquisition had arrived at Skyhold. Solas had spent an evening visit at the Inquisitor’s private chambers, drinking wine and talking about spirits and the Fade. Addar had chosen the specialisation of riftmages recently. Solas loved talking to Adaar. He was such a thoughtful person, an attentive listener with well-thought-out arguments during their conversations. They have talked and joked with Adaar wandering through his room. Then the Inquisitor had picked up a book from his desk. A treatise about spirits, Solas remembered. In the next moment Adaar had been by his side, showing him a paragraph in the book, but Solas’ concentration had gone out of the window. Adaar smelled good, a slight mix of musk and something Solas couldn’t identify. Warm radiating from this big body with strong muscles, trained from the years of being a mercenary. Solas had seen Adaar lifting heavy rocks, bars and enemies like nothing. He had studied the movements of the other man’s body more than he should have done. But as said, Solas was unable to withdraw himself from the qunari. The next thing he knew was the kiss, hot and wet against his own lips. Without hesitation, Solas returned the kiss. Lust grew in his crotch. Mouth against mouth, tongue against tongue, teeth and skin and hands and hot breath. Adaar pushed him gently to the big bed. Without force, but determined nonetheless. They lost their shirts on their short way. Large hands roamed over Solas’ skin, made him shiver and moan. He grasped Adaars large horns to keep his head in place and deepened their kiss. They laid on the bed between the pillows and covers and furs. Solas couldn’t remember when his pants had gone. He laid on his back, naked, under a big, strong, male qunari who was nearly as naked as he was, wearing nothing more than his smalls. But he wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. Adaars lips kissed their way down from his mouth to his neck, licking and nibbling at the soft skin. And Solas moaned out loud because it felt so good, wrapped his legs around Adaars waist and rubbed against him. Faster. More. Adaar pressed him in the mattress, left just enough space for Solas to move his hips. Solas came. It was such a long time ago that he had felt anything like this. Everything was too much and not enough at the same time. He couldn’t open his eyes, stars danced behind his lids. His skin was covered in sweat. Adaar lifted his upper body from the mattress, a large hand covered Solas’ cheek. He nuzzled against the palm, weak and missing the weight of the other man on his chest. Solas looked up. Warm amber and dark grey. Messy long silver blond hair between horns.

“You mumbled.” “Did I?” “Yeah. Everything alright?”

Silence. Realization hit Solas but he really couldn’t bring himself to care. He felt too good.

“Do you wanna go?” “No.” “Good.”

Adaar kissed him again. Slowlier this time. Solas’ mind went blank. He just felt the other one’s lips on his, his skin at his chest and Adaars big swollen cock against his groin. Never in his whole life, Solas had allowed anybody to take him. He had had sex before, yes. With female elves and as the active part. He allowed Adaar. Without fear or a second thought about it. And he loved it. The way the other man prepared him with oil and his fingers, the feeling of being stretched and filled, the slow movements and Adaars deep, soft voice in his ear, telling him how good he felt and how much he had wanted that. His second orgasm blew Solas’ mind away and he needed quite some time to recollect himself. Adaar stroked his back with soft fingertips and a hum deep in his broad chest.

“It’s alright. Just sleep.”

Solas was alone the next morning, a note on the bedside table. I’m sorry, I’m not with you. War table called. Make yourself at home. Solas left without a word or a note, unseen by the guards. He felt so ashamed. He, an ancient elf, gotten his brain fucked out by a qunari. But the feeling didn’t last long. That same evening Solas went back to Adaars chambers. And the next. And the next.

And now? Now, months later it had become an unwritten rule Solas spent the night in the Inquisitor’s bed. The rare exception was when he didn’t follow Adaar on his journeys. Solas had grown aversive to sleeping alone. They had never talked about it. They spent the evenings together, chatted like friends and fucked like lovers. Solas avoided every conversation about this topic and Adaar didn’t seem to concern. It worked. They both got what they wanted.

Next week they would march to the Arbor Wilds. The final battle against Corypheus was approaching, Solas could feel his old powers coming back more and more. His time at the Inquisition was coming to an end. And so his time with Adaar. His people needed him. The world needed him. He was the Dread Wolf, the only hope the elves had left. He couldn’t allow himself to kept back by petty feelings. Not for the people in this world, not for the world itself. Not for Adaar either. No matter how much it hurt Solas.

He knocked at Adaars door, unable to withdraw himself.

my AO3 Thanks to the lovely @kemvee, who helped me a lot by telling me about the @rare-egg-hunt. I had no clue about this. I had just seen @edda-grenade's wonderful art and muse kissed me. Please, don't judge me too hard. I'm no native speaker.

[lobsters-on-their-heads]

How to correct someone’s non-native language

I see a lot of posts about “How DARE you correct someone’s English when you don’t even speak a foreign language?!?!?!?!”

Often preceded by an image of some dumb American correcting an immigrant who’s just trying to get through their goddamn day.

And yeah. Don’t do that. Don’t be a dick.

But here’s the thing!

I teach ESL, and many of my students bemoan the fact that none of the Americans they interact outside of class ever correct their English, even though my students know that their English is not perfect. Their coworkers might laugh at them sometimes, but never correct them.

“How can we improve our English if no one tells us what we’re going wrong!” they cry. 

The laughing, of course, is the biggest issue. If you laugh at someone’s speech, you’re probably an asshole, unless that person is your president or something, and then go right ahead. Punching up is fine, punching down makes you an asshole. For my students, though, they just want to know WHY they’re being laughed at.

So it got me thinking. Most of us don’t want to be assholes (I assume), so how can we help non-native speakers out without being an asshole?

1: Ask permission first, or listen for them to request correction. If they don’t want it, never ever give it. Some of my advanced, professional-level students complain about excessive, nit-picky correction. Don’t do that, either. 

1a: It’s okay to ask for clarification if you don’t understand what someone is saying. Just like you would with a native speaker.

2: Get to know the person, even just a little bit. Correction from a trusted coworker is different than correction from some rando at the grocery store checkout. 

3: Try to offer correction one-on-one. Very few people appreciate having their errors pointed out in front of others. This is especially true if other people have been laughing, or if the person said something offensive without meaning to.

4: Do not offer correction when the person is busy with another task. Thinking about another language takes mental work. I’ve heard that operating in a foreign language takes 14x as much energy as operating in one’s native language. That could be bullshit, but it is very tiring. Let people focus on one thing at a time.

5: Pay attention to the context and topic. If you’re just shooting the shit with the usual “How ‘bout that Washington Football Team?” it’s probably okay to point out an error. However, if your coworker is ranting about a fight they had with their mom, or describing how they dropped out of school in 4th grade because roving gangs kidnapped and murdered kids on the way to the school.... 

Don’t even fucking think about mentioning grammar then. Same rule applies when talking with native speakers, too, actually.

6: Focus on important corrections. If someone says “My father gave me an advice,” everyone still understands them. However, if they say they attended a “manifestation,” people could be confused. I had students who pronounced Coke as “cock.” That’s definitely something they appreciated me correcting. 

7:  Be understanding, always. Language learning is a bitch for adults - ALL adults, no matter our social class or education level. English is especially convoluted. Don’t tell your worker that a rule is “easy” even if it seems so to you. Understand that they might make the same error even after you’ve corrected them. That’s normal. We do it when we speak other languages, too. And on that note....

8: (And this is my favorite one) Learn some of their language too! Language learning can be fun, and now your coworker can laugh at all of YOUR errors just as people laugh at them for theirs! You can honestly sympathize with them when you’re struggling to remember verb conjugations and you can’t master the Spanish R or the Mandarin tones to save your life. 

And also, learning another language, even just part of one, makes you less likely to be an asshole. And no one wants that.

[houseofnotedswords]

Rules

About the Mun

I am 21+

I am Argentinian, English is my 2nd language.

OOC will be tagged under mun.

Interacting and Following

My schedule varies, depending on the time of year, and what’s going on with my life, but if I’m going to be gone for any planned, longer periods of time, I’ll usually let you know.

I roleplay with everyone. This includes AUs, OCs and askblogs.

This is a sideblog, I follow from rpsideblogsmain. I have a handful of rp blogs all attached to the same main. In order to keep my dashboard clean, I am very selective with who I follow.

I am NOT Mutual Exclusive. Just because I did not follow you back, it doesn’t mean I do not want to write with you.

For that matter, neither of us needs to be following the other to rp. I keep a list in my drafts of blogs I interact with. If you want to interact with me but do not want to follow, just shoot me a message telling me to add you.

If you want to rp, go ahead and shoot a message (Ask or IM, both are OK).

If you have a plot for a thread, feel free to shoot a message to describe the plot.

Honestly, the biggest factor on wherever I will or not rp with someone is their blog theme. I suffer from photosensitive chronic migraines and have a damaged optic nerve. Some blog themes are just not friendly for me.

I ask that you show respect. If you have an issue with me then please address me like a civilized adult.

Try to keep an eye out for spelling and grammar. I’m not a native English speaker but I try my best to be grammatically correct, if I can’t understand what you’re trying to say on a regular basis, we’ll have a problem.

Remember to trim your posts. If it’s a longer rp, generally it’s best to trim your last reply off, every time you reply again. If it’s a shorter reply, you can usually allow a few older replies.

I am indiferent to reblogging asks. I will do as you prefer on that field.

No god-modding.

If you ever have any questions for the mun or the muse, feel free to leave me a message.

Content

This blog comes with a general Content Warning for Abuse, Violence, Miscarriage, Infertility and related topics.

If you need anything specific tagged, let me know.

Violent roleplay: I don’t have any triggers, so I’m up to not only action but also gore and torture (psychological or physical). However, if it gets to EXTREME Levels of Violence, I require that we put it under a “Keep Reading” and tag it accordingly [cw violent content , cw gore / torture / abuse].

Communication

If I forget your thread, it’s because either I’ve forgotten or Tumblr has fucked up. Never be afraid to remind me if I seem to have forgotten our thread.

If you want to drop a thread, or if you want to start a new one, or if you’re just sick of dealing with me, just drop me a message first so I’m not left waiting for a response.

I absolutely love the IM feature. If you have anything you want to discuss in private, it’s the way to go.

Yes, you can reply to that post. Matter of fact, I encourage you to reply to my posts.

If you want to contact me about a post privately, you are absolutely encouraged to IM the post to me.

I prefer to reserve asks for RP prompts and other IC stuff. But if you don’t like IM, feel free to contact me via ask. Just let me know if you don’t want me to publish it.

If we are having a thread, I like to ooc talk in the tags. Either for chit-chat or to plot.

Shipping

This blog is multiship friendly. Each ship I have with someone’s muse will be its own universe.

 Iwao and Kyoko are kind of an “item”. But I am open to explore ships in AUs.

Smut

The mun of this blog is 21+.

I’m not unwilling to rp smut, but I would rather have it in such a way that is not ooc.

If a thread happens to come to a point of containing smut, then it is to be put under a “Read More” and tagged accordingly: [NSFW, nudity, sexual content].

[mightbedamian]

#TMIishTuesday - #58 - Re: A Poem to Society

Hey, Thanks for stopping by. Not much of an intro today. Hope you had a great Easter (if you celebrated). The following is a more in-depth discussion of the issues addressed in last week's #TMIishTuesday aka. A Poem to Society. Hey there mighty people of the internet! And welcome to issue #58 of #TMIishTuesday - my weekly Tumblr post about what goes through my weird mind and on what you guys want to know more about. It can be something very personal, it can be something political, it can be completely pointless - but in 99.9 % of the cases, it involves opinions. And mine as well. // Last week I wrote my first ever poem in English: Society. It's about how society treats people and expects people to treat it. I'm rather proud of it, so if you haven't yet, please click the link above and check it out! // In the poem I addressed some of the topics that - according to me - need to be fixed with today's society. But I just touched on them, instead of really discussing them. That's what this post is for. Let's do this in a chronological order. Starting with the first verse. Norms, standards, rules. It's kinda what this whole poem is about. Because these are such important concepts. And whether you like it or not: They are set up by society and basically everyone is following them. That is quite powerful. If society were a single person, the Western world would probably take Kim Jong-un as an example. A dictator leading what us Westerns see as one big people who are not allowed to think for themselves. Someone who makes you believe that you - and only you - know what is good for you. Someone who you can't touch. Someone who is basically assuming a godlike position. But it doesn't stop there. Society enforces the norms, standards, rules set by itself. And it also does so in other societies. It expects them to adapt to its own norms. Disclaimer: There are probably exceptions from the following (which is awesome!), but from what I experience in my age group and older, it is like this: Germany has quite some population. More than 80 million. And then there are Austria and parts of Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg that also speak German. If I may cite Wikipedia for once, there are roughly 95 million native speakers of German and 10 to 35 million more studying it abroad. Fair enough.  But: Us Germans like to play god from time to time. We just go abroad and expect everyone else to be fluent in German. Doesn't sound like a clever idea? You're German yourself and it sounds very absurd and rude to you? Thank you! We need more people like you! But trust me: I've experienced it SO many times when I lived in the Netherlands just around the German border. Germans who take the weekend (or even more so: German bank holidays like Ascension Day) to go shopping in the Netherlands and ask for directions. No problem so far. But the problem starts exactly there: They don't know any Dutch. And they just approach people in German. And guess what? They don't even apologise! They just start talking German. And most of the time they are lucky. They find a person who speaks enough German to tell them the directions they need. Actually most of the people are probably quite fluent in German. The Netherlands being a rather small country, they KNOW they probably will need more than just Dutch and English, if they want to be set for their career. That's why they learn French and/or German from early on at school. And - in contrast to German schools - Dutch schools know how to teach languages. Dutch people are fluent in the language they took for 6 years. Why can't we do the same in Germany? Anyway, my initial point was that society thinks that they can push their expectations onto everyone and everything. Point proven by Germans approaching people in German when they are abroad. Fun fact: The German constitution dates back to 1949 (roughly 70 years ago). And even if it is quite outdated in parts, keep in mind that it is one of the newer constitutions. Take the British one. Its basic concept is still in place - after being established in 1688. Or the American one - set up 101 years later. Don't get me wrong: All of the mentioned constitutions hold great principles. But there is no doubt that they also hold some that are just outdated. Like I said in the poem: The spirit has changed. We know globalisation, we have lots of people travelling far distances. And human rights have drastically progressed towards a more open and tolerant society. Thank God they have! But there's still a lot of work to do regarding the constitutions! Even though there might not be many "riots" in the Western countries, there certainly is a feeling of inequality. Over the last few years minorities have started to notice that they are not treated equally and fought for it. Most of the time in peaceful protests, sometimes police had to take action. And these protests have achieved a lot! Yet there is still so much inequality in place. Equal pay has been a goal for centuries - and we are still not there. Each and every year we have the "equal pay day" which marks the date it took women to earn the same money it took men to earn the same in the previous year. In Germany it was 18 March this year. We need to fix this! Everyone should earn the same for doing the same job - regardless their gender, ethnicity or whatever else people discriminate based on. "Riots" are also there because government doesn't treat people equally. Take a look to the U.S. where people of color are afraid of getting beaten up by police. Simply for being black. Look at Turkey where Turkish and foreign journalists have to fear imprisonment. Simply for reporting on what is actually happening in Turkey. But Erdogan wants to hide that from the world. We can't tolerate that! YouTubers and other people posting on the internet are - with a few exceptions - part of the younger generation. Teens playing video games or filming their make-up routines, people in their twenties filming their adventures or talking about topics like society's misbehaviour. To them equality tends to matter more than to the older generations. Overall we see a frightening tendency of a "generation gap" in voting behaviour: The younger generation didn't want to Brexit. The younger generation didn't vote for Trump. The younger generation voted hayır (no) in the Turkish referendum. But the older generation is still in the majority. They decide on the fate of the younger ones. To quote a tweet on the Brexit decision by @glenrules (again): "Ever been fucked by a pensioner before? You have now." That is a problem! It happens over and over again. If we can't get our shit - also known as our society - together, we have a serious problem! I can already see the results of the German elections for parliament in September: The “Catholic Dowdy Union” (CDU) wins the elections (for the third time in a row) and the “Alternative fucks Da World” (AfD) becomes the third-strongest party. Demographics for voters of CDU: older than average Demographics for voters of AfD: male. What does that tell us? If you're male: Use your brain. If you're old... well... don't vote! :D Oh and most importantly: You reading this, Generation Internet: Use your power! If you are allowed to vote on 24 September, do so! To quote Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong: "Don't let those bastards dictate your life!" If you don't stand out, you'll just be a small drop of water in the ocean. But if you decide to fight for equality, if you speak up when inequality happens, or simply "break the norms" by dying your hair, you can be that splattering wave that makes for a beautiful photo. And people will see this photo and will admire you for standing out. Voice your concerns! Step up and tell people who are doing wrong! And most importantly: Don't forget to check yourself, too! When the older generations (and the media, thanks guys...) blame video games for shootings. When they tell us that "the internet is evil" (or virgin soil, like German chancellor Angela Merkel once did: "Das Internet ist für uns alle Neuland"). When they tell us that we would be hunted down, if we put too much TMI on the internet, well... have you ever been hunted down cause you posted a tweet from your toilet? Have you been dragged because you researched on the internet about a cool band you liked? Have you been the persecutor in a shooting because you played a game of Call of Duty? No? Congrats! You are part of the 99.99 % of the younger population! The older generations still need to figure that out. Give them time. Eventually they will. Maybe. Who knows? Screw society!  Immigrants. Can I just copy-paste what I wrote about the younger generation? If you are an immigrant, you probably were not involved in the rape at New Year's Eve 2015. And you probably are more scared to have your home set on fire than setting something on fire yourself. And you probably are looking for a job, trying to adapt yourself to the German culture and society, rather than wishing you could go back to Syria, Turkey or Mali. Most of the Germans still need to figure that out. Give them time. Eventually they will. Maybe. Who knows? Screw society!  If you are part of the LGBTQ+ community, don't hide, if you don't feel like hiding. Be confident of who you are! No matter if your sexuality or your gender is not conforming the norm. No matter who does or doesn't accept you. Be proud of who you are! After all it's not a choice. Be proud and be loud! You are you - just the way you are. And no one can change that! There are some bastards in this world. Let's not let them have a say in who we are. In how we feel about ourselves. In how we behave.  If you are treated disrespectfully, be loud about it! Tell those who are disrespectful (they might not even be aware of it). And, if necessary, turn to others for help. Don't be ashamed for that. It's not a bad thing to look for help. I had to learn that myself. But it really does help! You do you. We do us.  Before I go, tell me your thoughts on the poem and this post. Should I try to post more poems? And of course, I wanna know what you think are some things that need to change with regard to society! Place a comment, tweet me, dm me, or do anything else you can think of to get to me. Queer Shoutout you say? German gay forum dbna wrote a post about The Travelin Bum. It might sound weird at first - an ass that travels? But it's just that. Pictures of naked male butts who pose around the world. Well the guys, not just the bums. It's definitely a little weird. But it has its own charm. Check out the page on Instagram. As always: Next #TMIishTuesday next Tuesday. If you have any questions in the meantime, just ask away. Whatever you’re curious about - I don’t bite. :) Until then: Stay mighty! Linkage: - Wikipedia: World language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_language#Living_world_languages - @glenrules on Brexit: https://twitter.com/glenrules/status/746228140792381444 - Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung: Wahlergebnisse und Wählerschaft der CDU: http://www.bpb.de/politik/grundfragen/parteien-in-deutschland/42068/wahlergebnisse-und-waehlerschaft - Alternative für Deutschland: http://www.bpb.de/politik/grundfragen/parteien-in-deutschland/211108/afd - dbna: Darum zeigen schwule Jungs gerade ihren Hintern bei Instagram: http://www.dbna.de/leben/meldungen/2017/03/nackte-hintern-schwule-jungs-bei-instagram-41526.php - The Travelin Bum: https://www.instagram.com/thetravelinbum

Oh, and here’s some self-promo: - Last #TMIishTuesday:http://mightbedamian.tumblr.com/post/159459231432/tmiishtuesday-57-a-poem-to-society - All #TMIishTuesdays: mightbedamian.tumblr.com/tagged/tmi - More #TMIishTuesdays on society topics: http://mightbedamian.tumblr.com/tagged/language http://mightbedamian.tumblr.com/tagged/me - More very cool stuff: www.twitter.com/mightbedamian - Even more very cool stuff: mightbedamian.tumblr.com