#and then I google the same thing in Russian and bam

[chaos-bringer-13]

I can't check if DP is on Netflix but I'm always ready to show people the ways of piracy, so here, have a site that does have Danny Phantom: gostream.to

It has ads and is sometimes glitchy but it's free. Also if you ever need to find a site with free streaming of some series, try using Tor Browser or googling in Russian (leave the name of series in English and then add "смотреть онлайн бесплатно на английском" or something like that. It's gonna be harder to find what you need because you're gonna get Russian sites but piracy in Russia is so common people don't even realize it's piracy, so you often can find some stuff that way. Although this method didn't work with DP for some reason).

@lovelesslittleloser it is so very important to me that you know that every time I reblog a dcxdp post I curse your name

Have a good day

[darke15]

THE SOLDIER & THE SPY || EP 3 // THE AGENT

WORDS : 4800-ish

SERIES SUMMARY : Before they were Glitch and Libra. Before they were Ghost’s right-hand pair. And before they were two of Aftermath’s greatest operatives, they were the Soldier and the Spy. And they hated each other.

CHAPTER SUMMARY : Boone's in prison. Boone decides she doesn't like prison. Boone escapes prison.

WARNINGS : Just read Battle : Scarred Aftermath (Bucky Barnes x Reader) and you’ll know what you’re getting into, or don’t and uhhhhhh … Violence. Knives. Prison Breaks. Murder.

A/N : Hi! Hello there! This is a spin-off mini-series of Battle Scarred : Aftermath I would definitely recommend getting caught up to at least Chapter 45 // WARGAMES before you read it. Also, if you’re wondering when this takes place, it’s around the same time as Chapter 5 // AEROCELL

ALSO : Any and all Russian was translated using Google Translate, if there’s an issue pls let me know

Join the darke side TAGLIST

EPISODE 2 // BAM BAM DUGAN

I'll be honest I haven't really spell checked this...mah bad

┍━━━━━━━━━━━ ★ ━━━━━━━━━━━┑

Boone heaved a heavy sigh, squeezing her eyes shut and gently setting her head against the concrete wall of her cell, allowing the coolness of the rock to seep into the bruise that was forming on her cheek.

Three months.

She’d been in prison for three months.

She’d been stuck in this hellhole for three months.

She could deal with the never-ending interrogations and the incessant rambling of the crazy old Russian man that was one of her cellmates. She could even deal with the terrible prison food and the seven riots that had rocked the walls…that she most definitely did not cause.

But the thing that Boone couldn’t stand was the boredom.

Every day was the same. The beatings, the people, the food. Nothing new.

And it was eating her alive.

What made it worse was the fact that they had moved her to a different wing of the prison after the riots…that she may have caused.

Boone had attempted to use the riots to camouflage her escape, unfortunately, they beat her at every turn. They’d upgraded the prison a few years prior, to electronic locks and state-of-the-art security systems.

There was no escape.

They took her to a smaller cell, no windows and three cots crammed inside the narrow room. It was almost a form of solitary confinement if it wasn’t for the two cellmates she had.

The first was named Dimitri, at least she was pretty sure that was his name. He didn’t talk much, just mumbled to himself incoherently. She was pretty sure he was a scientist from Ukraine that had threatened to defect to the west when the Russians decided to arrest him and send him away. From what she could tell, he’d been there at least fifteen years. He had wily hair that was so long it weaved together with his beard. Beady black eyes peered out from behind the wiry hair before being hidden again as he dove into the corner and began scratching formulas into the wall again.

The other was Ilya. A younger man with blond hair and piercing blue eyes that stared into her across the room. Black tattoos peeked out from underneath his deep blue prison jumpsuit. A mobster from Moscow that had been arrested running weapons throughout the country.

But there was something about him that had her on edge, the way he moved…the way he watched. He was quiet and they allowed him to interact with the rest of the prison population, much to Boone’s annoyance.

The guards let both men out into the yard once a day. She, however, was only allowed to leave the cell during meal times…if she got them.

The rest of the time, she was alone in the cell. In the silence. By herself…and her racing thoughts.

Was her family okay? What did the CIA tell them? Did they tell them anything? Did they know she was okay? Did they know she was alive?

Her thoughts were worse than the endless interrogations. Her mind’s own questions were torture enough. She didn’t have the answers.

There was only silence and her constant need to fill it. And the eternal boredom that accompanied it.

But it was boredom that inspired her best ideas…

“Тебе отсюда не уйти…” Dimitri muttered, his black eyes locking with hers. A shaky hand smoothed hair into his face as he turned to stare out the cell door, “Я пробовал. Так много раз…” You’re not getting out of here. I’ve tried. So many times…

“Shut up, Dimitri,” Boone snapped with a frown, pulling her knees to her chest and rocking slightly.

“He’s right, Беда,” Ilya spoke as he relaxed back into his cot without a care in the world, “We’re in the middle of nowhere. You’re not going anywhere.”

Беда…trouble. A nickname he’d given her after she triggered her sixth riot.

“Listen here, Mister Pretending to be a Russian Mobster—”

“Сколько раз я должен тебе говорить?” Ilya rolled his eyes, “I’m not pretending to be anything.” How many times do I have to tell you?

“C’mon, Ilya” Boone grinned, tugging a loose string on her jumpsuit with a wink, “I’ll bet you’re Spetsnaz. C’mon, admit it…”

“Aww,” she cooed, hopping off her cot and onto his, “Admit to the American spy that you’re a Russian spy. Go on…go on—”

“No.”

“Я когда-то знал шпиона…У нее были волосы красные, как кровь на свежем снегу.” I knew a spy once. She had hair as red as blood in fresh snow.

“Нет, старик. Держись подальше от этого,” Ilya rolled his eyes again. No, you didn’t, old man. Stay out of this.

“Ilya—if that even is your real name—just tell me.” Boone held the ‘e’ in a whine before Ilya kicked her off of his cot and onto the floor. She groaned, folding her arms over her chest and glaring up to the ceiling, “Who am I gonna tell?”

Ilya returned her glare before his gaze flicked to Dimitri.

“Who’s Dimitri gonna tell? That motherfucker’s nuttier than a squirrel trapped in a bag of peanuts…”

“No.” Ilya shook his head, closing his eyes and leaning back against the wall.

“Fine,” Boone sighed, rolling to her front and pushing herself to her feet. She flopped down onto her cot, knotting her hair up to the top of her head with a hissed sigh. The black dye had faded into a strange green-brown and her blonde roots were beginning to grow out.

She sighed, her gaze flitting back to the cell door and her attention drifting past the doors. A small sniffle warped past her nose, one she wiped away quickly as she brought her knees up so her chin could rest on them.

A subtle flinch snapped through her as the cot dipped and Ilya appeared beside her.

“Spetsnaz,” he mumbled, fiddling with his fingers and avoiding her green gaze as it snapped to him, “Undercover. My name is Christopher. Christopher Belov.”

A small smile cracked across her lips, “What’re you doing here?”

“Like you said, undercover,” his voice dropped as a guard walked past, “Sniffing out a drug ring. I’ll be out in a few months.”

“Nice,” she scoffed, “Maybe I’ll see you on the outside…”

“The only way you’re getting out of here is in a bodybag,” Ilya—no—Christopher warned, “And that’s if they grant you the courtesy. You’re not getting out of here, American.”

“Give me a map of the prison and a paperclip and I’ll get outta here in no time.”

“You would have to be crazy to even think you can get out of here,” Christopher said, patting her knee and moving away from her to sit on his own bed, “You’d have to be stupid to even try, and you’re not stupid.”

“No,” she shook her head as a wide smile stretched across her face, “but I am crazy.”

“Беда, there is something wrong with your eyes.”

“Now you sound like my mother.”

Boone chuckled to herself but her smile dropped.

Her mother, her father, her gaggle of brothers…home.

Her gaze snapped back to the cell door.

A map and a paperclip and a whole lotta luck…

“You’re not getting out of here…American>,” Dimitri muttered, staring intently through her.

“We’ll see.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━ ★ ━━━━━━━━━━━━

It was a few days later by the time they allowed her to leave her cell for a meal. Christopher had snuck her a few scraps here and there, but he couldn’t do much without raising suspicion.

But, today she was finally allowed into the ‘outside’ world. She pulled her gnarly hair up into a bun and straightened her bloodstained jumpsuit and followed Christopher and Dimitri into the cafeteria.

Because, if there was one thing Boone knew, it was:

She looked damn good in that prison jumpsuit.

There was even a small smile on her face as she grabbed a tray from the stack and moved down the line. The smile faded as she reached the end of the line and her tray of food was snatched away from her by one of the servers.

Boone frowned, staring at her empty hands before another tray was shoved into them. She glanced at the tray, then to the server that was holding her old tray, then back down.

He returned her gaze, grunting darkly and flicking his head to the side, ordering her to keep on moving. And she obliged.

She found a spot next to Dimitri and Christopher, eyeing the food cautiously.

“Eat,” Christopher murmured, “You don’t know when they’re going to let you again.”

She let her eyes rove the tray once more before digging in. Spooning up a pile of mush and beginning to take a bite before she froze. Hidden underneath the mush were lines and words, all coming together to make a building.

Boone paused for a moment, making sure her eyes weren’t deceiving her and reaching past the mush. Laminated plastic met her fingertips as she quickly pulled out the map, cleaned it off, and shoved it down the front of her jumpsuit.

“I saw that,” Christopher hummed with a small smile, his eyes watching her back.

“No, you didn’t.”

She turned back to her meal, not letting her eyes wander and lifting the glass of water off the tray before stopping again.

A paperclip sat folded neatly under the cup.

She snatched it, rolling it through her fingers before whispering to Belov, “You didn’t have anything to do with this, did you?”

“Нет, I’ve known you for three months, why would I do anything like that?”

Boone shrugged, “I’d like to think you actually like me, just a little bit.”

He chuckled, “If you survive the tundra, I’ll see you in Moscow.”

“If I survive getting outta here…I don’t think I wanna go back to Moscow.”

“Probably not. Good luck.”

“Thank you,” Boone smiled, hugging his shoulder lightly as her eyes flicked between the guards. As she stood to her full height, Dimitri grabbed her sleeve and tugged twice.

“Good luck…American.” He mumbled through broken English with a slight sparkle in his dark eyes.

“Thank you, you crazy old man. It’s been a pleasure, you two. До свидания.” Goodbye.

Getting out of the prison had been a breeze. Quickly study the map, find the blindspots, exploit them and use the paperclip to temporarily disable the security alarm. Easy.

The hard part was staying alive in the Russian tundra in the early spring, with a pack of soldiers on her tail. A part of her had hoped they would just give up and let her go. But, then again, the Russians didn’t take too kindly to the fact that an American spy had almost successfully broken into the Kremlin.

And out of a Siberian prison.

Boone had moved quickly through the tundra, hopping trains and borrowing a few cars here and there before finally breaking over the border to Finland. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, they didn’t stop following her.

She’d taken her time moving through Russia after she got out of the tundra, carefully watching and calculating the movements of the soldiers sent after her.

As spring faded into summer, she moved along the coast. Taking small jobs here and there to keep a small bit of change in her pocket. The first thing she bought when she gathered up enough money was new clothes, and she made sure she blended in. They didn’t offer any hair dye in the villages she went through so she kept a hat securely on her head to hide her disaster of a dye job.

The second thing she bought was a knife. She felt naked without one on her person at all times.

Summer sunk into fall soon after and a glimmer of hope appeared. There were fewer soldiers as she neared the Finnish border, meaning there was more opportunity for her to make a run for it.

And she took the opportunity…like a moron.

It was another trap she should have seen coming.

Boone Cavanaugh has always had a particular knack for getting into trouble.

And now, as snow began to swirl around her again and she sprinted through the forest with soldiers on her tail, she was in really, really big trouble.

The soldiers’ boot falls weren’t far behind her, their yells and the snarling of dogs ricocheted into the forest.

Boone slid down a hill, tumbling over herself at the end before correcting herself and continuing her sprint. Her heart was pounding in her ears, drowning out the sound of her breaths and footsteps. Her back smacked against a tree as she tried to catch her breath and still her racing mind.

She didn’t have an escape plan, not this time.

A sigh escaped her throat as she calmed herself and the sound of footsteps came closer. She took another breath, the smell of the forest reminding her of home. The pine that wafted down from the trees, the wet dirt, the…cigar smoke?

She blinked, her brows furrowing as she pushed off the tree.

“Agent Cavanaugh,” a deep American voice came from behind her.

Boone swung around, her knife slipping to her fingers before flinging toward the voice. The man moved his head to the side, only just avoiding the knife as it dug into the tree behind him.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said after a moment, taking a deep drag of his cigar and flicking the knife in the tree, “You made good time.”

His hair was dark, his eyes darker as he leaned back into the cloud of smoke he created. He was about her height and he held himself tall. He was ex-military, definitely.

“Thanks,” Boone finally muttered, glaring at him, “I hold the world record for the Great Siberian Prison Escape Race. It’s like the Boston Marathon, but worse. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I gotta get outta here.”

“Agent Cavanaugh,” he said, leaning back against the tree as she began to move, “I think we can help each other.”

“Listen, homeboy, unless you have access to a fantastic psychiatrist and therapist, I doubt it.”

“Agent Cavanaugh—”

“Look, dude, I don’t even know your name. You honestly think I’m gonna just stop what I’m doing to talk to you?”

Boone huffed, snatching her knife from the tree and slinging it through her fingers to calm herself down.

“No,” he scoffed, shaking his head and leisurely glancing over his shoulder as the dogs grew closer, “I think you’re smarter than that.”

“Thank you,” Boone nodded, glancing around her surroundings to figure out her next move, “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

“What would you say if I said I could help you?”

“I’d say what my mother always said: never make deals with sketchy old men in the woods. That shit never turns out good.”

She turned on her heel, giving him a mock salute before moving back through the trees. His footsteps crunched in the snow as he followed her, “What if I said I knew who betrayed you? And I can help you track him down.”

Boone paused in her tracks. She’d been so busy working on escape plans she hadn’t stopped to think about what had actually happened. She thought they’d just caught onto the ruse and Everett couldn’t get her out in time…that he’d been forced to let her go. Not that she’d been…sold out.

No. That wasn’t right. She’d been careful…

“I’d…” she trailed off as she began walking again, fighting every instinct to turn back toward him, “I’d call bullshit and keep on walking.”

“Konstantin Vasiliev.”

Boone swore her heart stopped right then and there. Her breath stalled in her lungs as a lump formed in her throat. She swung around, “No. That’s not possible. No…Bullshit. That’s bullshit.”

“Ya know, kiddo,” he chuckled, taking another deep drag and puffing the smoke out slowly, “There’s a lotta rules in espionage. But I think ‘falling in love with your mark’ breaks about 19 of them.”

Boone swallowed thickly as the man came to stand in front of her. The sound of the dogs and the men drowned out as her heart started beating again, “Prove it.”

He reached into his pocket, handing her a stack of photographs. She frowned as she reached for them and flipped through each one carefully. With each image, her face darkened before she glared back up into him.

“You were supposed to use him, Cavanaugh,” the man said softly as she handed back the photographs, “But he played you like a fuckin’ fiddle.”

“What do you want?”

“I want you to finish the job.”

She scoffed, a dangerously curious glint in her eyes, “You’re tellin’ me, you’re getting me outta this because you want me to kill Konstantin.”

“No, no,” he shook his head, pinching the cigar between his fingers, “Think of this as an audition, Agent Cavanaugh. You do well, I’ll keep the Russians off your back and you work for me.”

“And if I fail?”

“The Russians won’t take you to Siberia twice.” He shrugged but she didn’t need him to tell her anything, she already knew.

They’ll kill you.

Her heart was racing again, this time not out of fear and exhaustion but anger.

“Deal.”

Boone Cavanaugh has always had a particular knack for getting into trouble.

The man smiled, reaching into his pocket and tossing her a set of keys, “There’s a red truck parked a mile southwest. You’ll find everything you need there. I’ll meet you in Moscow.”

“Affirmative.”

“Good luck, Agent Cavanaugh.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━ ★ ━━━━━━━━━━━━

Konstantin opened the door to his darkened apartment slowly, groaning as he stepped in and placed his keys on the table next to the door, and shrugged off his coat. It was late and he was tired. He sighed, rolling his shoulders as he stepped further into the room and reached for the bottle of vodka that was sitting on the bar cart in the living room.

He poured himself a glass before moving back through the room, unaware of the green eyes that followed his every move. Konstantin flicked on the light before freezing, spinning on his heel and making eye contact with the shadow in the corner.

He licked his lips nervously as he took her in.

Boone’s frown deepened as his eyes wandered her body.

Black, pin-straight hair fell to her jawline and a tight black dress fell off her shoulders. She swirled a glass of wine perched between poison red nails. A pair of tall red heels adorned her feet and they clicked dangerously as she stood.

“Браниа … дорогая … где ты был?” He asked after finding his composure and forcing a smile to his face. Brania, darling, where have you been?

“Cut the shit, Konstantin,” Boone spat, any trace of Brania’s Russian accent gone as her drawl cut through, “I’m not an idiot. You used me!”

She pushed herself to her feet, setting down the glass of wine and surging across the room.

Konstantin shook his head, raising his hands in an almost surrender, “No…darling…they made me…I never wanted to hurt you..darling…please…”

His blue eyes searched hers as he pushed blond hair from his eyes. Konstantin’s face remained soft as he moved toward her, gently setting his vodka down as he did.

“Are you gonna lie to the very end?” Boone asked, her voice cracking.

“The end of what, darling?” He asked, cocking his head to the side as his muscles tensed, “Please.”

He was within an arm’s length of her now and she could smell his cologne. God, she used to love that smell.

Boone shook her head, sniffing away the memories as his hands landed on her hips.

“Let me make this better,” Konstantin hummed gently, bringing her closer with a smile but his grip on her sides tightened as he leaned down and murmured against her lips, “Тупая маленькая девочка.” Dumb little girl.

“Сука,” Boone spat, hooking her leg around the back of his knee before kicking it out. Bitch.

She slipped out of his grasp as he fell and wrapped an arm around the back of his neck before throwing him over her shoulder. Konstantin flew through the air and tumbled into a glass table, shattering it in its entirety. He rolled as soon as he hit the ground, returning to his feet in a clink of glass.

“You used me,” she snarled, jumping out of the way as he charged for her and she threw a punch in his direction. Konstantin caught her wrist, dragging her toward him and hurling her against the wall. She yelped slightly as he pinned her against the wall, knocking down a painting in the process.

“‘You used me,’ please,” he mocked her, grunting when she kicked him and he tossed her to the ground, “You’re a spy, сука. You should have seen this coming.”

His foot connected with her stomach, launching her across the living room as she struggled to return to her feet. Boone groaned, not bothering to get all the way to her feet and tackling him. He stumbled backward, turning them both midair to pin her to the ground.

“You actually came back here,” he growled against her ear with a grin, moving from pinning her wrists to wrapping a hand around her throat, “You’re dumber than I thought.”

Boone’s face darkened as she clawed at his hand, gaining the upper hand for just long enough to bring his arm to her mouth and bite down. The screech that left Konstantin’s lips was almost inhuman, but it gave Boone enough time to kick him off of her and clamber to her feet. She darted toward the door but a hand yanked her backward by her hair.

Konstantin’s arm curled back around her neck, “You were nothing to me. Just like you were nothing to them. Just a little glitch in the system.”

Boone snarled, stomping her foot down on top of his and feeling the heel of her shoe pierce his. Another shriek from him and she was shoved against the wall. She spun as he pressed up against her and he froze, glancing down at her hand.

Her fingers were curled around the handle of a knife, its tip now buried in his gut and seeping scarlet. Konstantin tried to back away only to find Boone’s grip on his shirt, not allowing him to back away. His eyes locked with hers, cold and green and ruthless as she twisted the knife and more ruby liquid stained her hands.

Konstantin coughed, gripping onto her as his knees buckled. Boone pushed him away letting him hit the floor with a thud and pulling out the knife. She wiped the blade on the dress as she stepped back into the corner where he had found her.

Boone perched on the arm of the chair, watching him writhe and try to stop the bleeding.

“I never loved you,” he gurgled, choking on blood as she kicked off her heels and pushed away from the chair. She tiptoed over the glass in the room and plucked a black bag out from behind the couch before tossing it back over to the chair.

Demon green eyes watched him as he began to relax back and blood pooled around his body. Boone pulled a plastic bag from the black bag and stuffed her shoes inside before slipping her dress to her ankles. She used the fabric to clean herself of any blood on her skin before putting it into the bag as well.

Her gaze flicked back to Konstantin as he struggled to breathe and she removed the black wig from her head. Silvery, platinum blonde hair fell to her waist and she placed the wig into the bag. She sighed, flopping down in the chair and taking sips of red wine as she snapped off the red acrylic nails from her fingers. She took all ten, along with the wine glass, and stowed them in the plastic bag when she was done. She then took a makeup wipe and rid herself of her foundation, revealing the freckles that littered her face.

Sealing the bag she took a white sundress from the black bag and slipped it on, all the while keeping her gaze on him.

Rasping breaths were all that was left of him now as she slipped on a pair of brown boots and shrugged on a tan coat. She clicked her tongue as she turned the black bag inside out to reveal another in a mauve color and she placed the plastic bag inside before zipping it shut.

Putting the bag on her shoulder Boone walked toward Konstantin, careful to avoid the growing pool of blood. His tired eyes flicked to hers, only a hint of anger left until there was…nothing.

A final rasp sounded from his throat as his chest stilled and his gaze froze.

“Funny,” Boone sighed again, shaking her head away from the scene as she moved toward the door, “I loved you.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━ ★ ━━━━━━━━━━━━

Boone moved quickly through the darkened streets of Moscow, her blonde hair swaying as she moved. Snow had begun to blanket the city, the large flakes gently twisting through the air.

“Well done, Agent Cavanaugh,” a familiar voice called from an alley as she passed, making her pause. She didn’t flinch this time. She knew he’d be around here somewhere. He appeared from the shadows and studied her face, “I gotta say, I’m impressed. You work quick.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Feel better?”

“No. My mama always said revenge is the worst medicine.”

He scoffed, nodding for her to follow him and the two began strolling down the streets, “Always interesting to see how an operative reacts to revenge. Some love it, feed on it even, others…”

“It hurts worse.”

“He burned you, Cavanaugh. He’s nothing—”

“He was everything to me.” She held back the crack in her throat, pulling her coat tighter around her.

The man nodded, almost understanding, before handing her a folder, “You’ll be happy to know I’ve got the Russians off your back. Bad news is, you can’t go back to Russia.”

Boone chuckled, shaking her head as she took the papers from him, “Little late for that. What’s this?”

“Your next objectives. Armand Russo and Nick Fury.”

“Armand Russo…” Boone started, her eyes flicking over the information in the folder, “Amateur terrorist. Nick Fury…head of SHIELD.”

“You’ve got some research ahead of you, Agent Cavanaugh,” he nodded, “And while you’re at it.”

He pulled something else from his pocket and handed it to her.

It was a metal rectangle with rounded edges, smooth and cold. It looked almost like a circuit board, traces moving across the surface to connect in the middle forming a Spade.

The Ace of Spades.

“We found it inside of this. Well, what was left of it anyways. My sniper destroyed the real thing but we transferred its data onto the drive,” he held up a flash drive and handed it to her, “They call it Aerocell. Tracks anything and everything.”

Boone turned both items over in her hands, her brows knitting together.

“That.” He pointed at the card, “Was in the original case. I think it’s a calling card. I need you to figure out where it came from.”

Boone shook her head, eyes flicking to him, “I don’t need to research this to know who it came from. It’s a programmer, an inventor, a gray hat. He’s malicious.”

She frowned, rubbing her thumb over the Spade, “They call him Ace. I had a run-in with him a few years ago when I was working with the NSA. I’ve only ever seen his signature embedded in code…never an actual, physical…calling card. If this was in your case, that means he was—”

“There when Aerocell was made,” he nodded, flicking a cigar from his pocket and lighting it, “Do some digging. My team and I are heading to Columbia. I need you in Paris, keeping an eye on Russo and a remote eye on SHIELD.”

“Your team? There’s more than just you?”

He scoffed with a puff of smoke that made Boone’s eyes water, “Nighthawk, Ghost, Outbreak, and Blackhat. Then there’s me. My call sign’s Kingpin. For you, I was thinkin’ Cheshire.”

Boone was about to nod when a frown tugged to her lips and she shook her head, “No. Call me…Glitch.”

The man smiled, hailing a taxi and opening the door for her, “I like it.”

Boone stepped into the cab and he shut the door. She blinked, telling the driver to wait as the man walked away and she shoved the door open.

“I never caught your name.”

“Name’s Weston. Commander Weston,” He called over his shoulder. Weston turned, smoke flowing from his nostrils, “Welcome to Aftermath, Glitch.”

Boone Cavanaugh has always had a particular knack for getting into trouble.

┕━━━━━━━━━━━ ★ ━━━━━━━━━━━┙

The name Konstantin is primarily a male name of Russian origin that means Constant, Everlasting.

Lemme tell ya, that's bullshit.

EPISODE 4 // THE VIGILANTE

[rigelmejo]

Just a bit of a self reflection:

Studying Multiple Languages at Once: 

French and Japanese were generally easy to keep separate in my mind, because they are quite different, and also because I had a good 6 months of French study to the point where I was in the A2 area of using the language before I started Japanese. So, they were at different levels - my french was getting close to intermediate when my japanese was starting at bare bones beginner.

And that is a tip polyglots have often given, if someone plans to study multiple languages at once: to get some level of skill in one language before starting another, and/or to have each language you’re studying at different levels. In this way, you’re rarely studying the exact same skills in both languages at the same time. For example, when you’re first learning japanese pronunciation, you are well past basic pronunciation in french and more focused on intermediate grammar. When you are learning basic everyday conversational skills in japanese, you’re learning how to write letters and essays and talk about special topics, etc. When you’re learning how to read kana in japanese, you’re already past basic reading in french and moving onto slightly more difficult reading etc. And then theoretically, you’d wait until you’re japanese (or equivalent 2nd language) is past those beginning learning tasks before adding another language to study.

For a short time I did have a 3rd language I was studying - Russian. At that point, my French was pretty solid, my Japanese was in the “starting to struggle to read manga” stage lol (but that was beyond absolute beginner, since I already knew many common words, basic kanji, all of Genki 1 and some of Genki 2, some other grammar etc). So Russian was the only language I was an absolute beginner in. I only needed to learn Russian because I was dating someone who spoke russian, who’s roommates all spoke russian, who’s family and baby brother all spoke russian, and it was helpful for me to be able to understand basic russian so I could understand all the daily household conversations I ran into. Also, so I could understand texts, and help babysit their baby brother. So I really just focused on basic everyday conversation skills. I learned high frequency words, words they used, the writing system, glanced through a summarized grammar guide, and listened to a podcast focused on speaking conversationally (and some basic grammar I’d need to speak/listen to others). In a few months I got where I needed to be. I ended up dropping Russian when that relationship ended later, since I didn’t need Russian anymore (although one day I might study it again so I can read, since I’d just started managing to read stories in Russian toward the end). My point though is, it was not hard to study it in addition to the other two languages.

I think that is because: Russian’s different enough from both French and Japanese in order to not cause confusion, I was not a beginner in either other language so I was never studying the same level or topics in two languages at once, and my French was advanced enough that I could put it on “pause” or only study 20 minutes every few days for some moderate improvement over time. Most of my French study at that point was just immersion reading/watching. Japanese in contrast was more difficult, I had to spend either most of my time on Japanese or on Russian to see significant progress in either - so of course both were slowing the study of the other down. I didn’t make significant gains in Japanese until I dropped Russian. So ultimately, I think it’s easier to study multiple languages, if only one language needs large amounts of study for improvement - and the other language(s) just need maintenance and improvement through immersion (so improving listening skills, or reading skills). I once had some success just working on French grammar, while more actively studying Japanese - but that was because the grammar study was mostly review and me formally filling in “blanks in knowledge” so it wasn’t very intensive.

Another tip polyglots tend to give: try not to study two similar languages at the same time. And, if you do, see the above point about AT LEAST making sure those languages are at significantly different levels so you don’t further add to your own confusion by studying the same “level” similar pronunciation/grammar/writing system topics etc at the exact same time. So like, do not start French and Spanish at the same time. You certainly can - and I think any progress is good progress. But I have tried to do this, and it definitely made everything more confusing for me. I tried to start Spanish after a year of French study. That was TOO SOON for me to try. I still did not have a solid grasp on French pronunciation, because I hadn’t studied it enough. Likewise, I had a vague recognition of French spelling but could not really easily differentiate it from Spanish or Italian. So when I started studying Spanish at that time, everything just meshed together in my head and both languages confused my understanding of the other. I did not make much progress. So I put off Spanish for another time. The upside of that experience is that I definitely realized where I should be focusing my goals in French - I read a lot more grammar at that point paying much more attention to conjugation endings and spelling, and I made listening a main goal of mine and did listening/shadowing practice regularly after that until I improved a bit. I still think my French listening, and pronunciation, is pretty basic at best. But I’m a lot better at differentiating between French and Spanish and Italian now. I am much better in my own internal mind voice, at sounding out words differently depending on the language - they’re no longer one “meshed” sound in my head, but very distinctly different sounding languages. A lot of that had to do with lots of French listening practice, and then when I started Spanish again I did a lot of Spanish listening practice to really hammer home how different they sounded. At 2 years, Spanish was a lot easier to start studying. I no longer ran into the confusion issue between the languages nearly as much. 

At that time, there was no great concrete need for me to progress in Spanish - I was not trying to read, watch, or speak with anyone in Spanish regularly. I had mostly been studying out of a simple broad desire to learn some Spanish. So I ended up putting that off for a later time - for when I’ve got more concrete motivations and goals for the language. Meanwhile, at that point, I’d been doing French mostly just through immersion and comprehensible input - very easy to do or not do, just over time picking up more words, and since i’d accomplished my goal of being able to read the novels I wanted to read, I was fine with that “mostly maintenance and a bit of listening improvement/vocabulary improvement.” I had also been doing Japanese - as usual, intensively, as either 30% or 70% of my time depending on the day or my goals for the month (versus spanish for the other portion). I’d been doing Nukemarine’s LLJ Memrise Flashcard Set, still chipping away progress at improving my reading comprehension. Eventually I got burned out from flashcards (because I TRULY hate flashcards, and while I APPRECIATE how much SRS seems to help people learn, I deeply desire a spaced repetition study method where I don’t have to touch any flashcards at all...)

So I paused my japanese study a bit, moving it to just ‘immersion’ like french - every once in a while playing Kingdom Hearts in japanese, and slowly chipping my way through some of my simple manga.

Then Chinese came in like a surprise. A big megalith of a surprise. Weirdly enough, I had deja vu of seeing a clip of Guardian, in a dream I had, like a month before I ever actually saw or heard anything about it in real life. Then I got into SOTUS and the thai drama community on tumblr by extension, and Guardian popped up occassionally as a show mentioned - which I had zero recognition of. Then, one day, that video clip from my dream was on my tumblr dash in real life, and I felt mega deja vu upon seeing it. And I played it, and it was just like my dream. Which was bizarre. So, since I’d seen this show name dropped a few times, and it’d been in my dream before I ever knew about it, and deja vu finally happened as I ran into the exact same thing in real life - I decided I might as well check it out. 

So I did. And it was exactly, specifically, everything I love in a story. It also immediately reminded me of that one semester in High School I took of Chinese - because when I was watching the show, the words learned back then were all I recognized (the numbers, ni hao, xie xie, zai jian). So while I watched I picked up some words, since it was frustrating (and a disappointment to my old Chinese class and teacher’s efforts) that I clearly knew so little. I used google translate to look up some characters and phrases. I looked into the hanzi a little in my spare time. By the time I finished the show, I was aware there was a novel for the book and at the time it was only 1/3 translated into english. So BAM - there was one giant motivation to learn chinese. So I could read the book. 

Nothing interests or motivates me like characterization and stories, and the details that build those things. Nothing in my whole life, for any of my life, ever captures my attention and my passion like these topics. So yes, wanting to learn to read in a language JUST to read a novel and get the full story, the characterizations and metaphors and themes the author originally intended with their creation, is exactly the kind of thing I do. 

(Incidentally, that’s also what drives me to study Japanese - some of my favorite artists and writers from childhood to adulthood create japanese stories, and at some point in my life I WANT to experience them in japanese with their most authentic intent and delivery... because often nuances are changed from a small to quite large degree in translation, and I want to also get to experience the original story closest to how it was intended.)

So with Chinese, once I was sure I wanted to learn, I made myself a somewhat solid study plan - since I’ve studied languages enough now to have a rough idea of what helps me most. I stuck to it. And I dropped all other language studies, except as passive immersion (on occasion I pick up a French or Japanese book and just read a bit to make sure I’m retaining what I know passively, even if the ability to actively recall words is fading a bit). I have been intensively studying Chinese. 

A great thing about Chinese, is it has so much art - shows, novels, music, active fandoms, communities around the world. The chinese internet feels as vast as the english one, with just as many endless things to discover. Even if I only ever had wanted to read priest novels - Priest has written a TON, and a TON are going to be adapted into dramas, and MANY have audio dramas if I ever want to listen to them! That’s years, decades, of content I already know I’m interested in! Then if one expands the content they explore, like I did, there’s so many other artists to run into and fall in love with! I ran into MXTX’s The Untamed, then mdzs, and that’s yet another megalith of content and fan communities and other novels by that author! That’s also an intro into a genre I didn’t even know existed, and there is SO MUCH MORE in that genre to be discovered! It’s an endless treasure trove of fantastic beautiful breathtaking creations, and efforts, and art. It’s bottomless, and once it caught my interest it ensured I’d have ample motivation to keep studying, and knowledge that whatever improvements I make will pay off for years and decades because I’ll have all of this content to enjoy over time. I’m guessing... for english learners, a similar thing is experienced. I would imagine, if I’d been as passionate about Japanese content, then I might have experienced this with Japanese. (However, for me, I’m not actually interested intensely in very much content in japanese except for my specific lifelong favorites... I imagine that might change if my ability to read improves, then maybe I WILL discover jdramas and jnovels that capture my overall lifelong interest more overwhelmingly... another big difference between my interest levels surely has to do with me being able to usually find english translations of the japanese stories I love, whereas with Chinese probably 40% of the things I’m interested in have no english translation - some of Daomubiji, some dramas with actors I like, some audiodramas, many novels, and FAN CONTENT which is HUGE is often untranslated like amazing fanvideos and fanfictions and fancomics).

I knew based on my Japanese studies, how long I should estimate it was going to take to do absolutely anything BASIC in chinese. So I dropped any other intense language studies, focused all my attention on chinese, and am still doing so. I knew both Japanese and Chinese are considered Category 5 languages by  FSI, taking a minimum of (88 weeks) 2200 hours to learn. I knew based on my personal experience with Japanese, just how long it took me in that language to hit what I consider milestones for my personal goals. 

Like: how long until I know the 1000 most common words, how long until I understand past/present/future tense, how long until I can parse what sentences mean if I have a dictionary (recognizing the different sentence components), how long until I can understand the gist of short captions and lines in daily life situations, how long until I can watch short basic videos for the gist of meaning, how long until I can read very simple stories like short daily life comics, how long until I can read straightforward summary texts (like wikipedia, news articles), how long until I can read Graded Reader stories for gist meaning, how long until I can read short stories in general for gist meaning, how long until I can read short things for complete/near complete comprehension, how long until I can read a page of a novel for gist meaning, read a page of a novel for near/complete comprehension, then a chapter, then a book, how long until I can watch a show in the language for gist meaning, how long until I can navigate a game menu screen or website navigation in the language, how long until I could talk about basic A1 topics, how long until I could discuss most any topic on a basic level, how long until I could start discussing topics more in depth, etc. 

In French, I had the “easy” baseline of how long these things took me. In Japanese, I had a “hard” baseline - because these things took YEARS in japanese and I only ever reached a few of those milestones in japanese. I still have a long way to go in Japanese. But, for the milestones I did reach in Japanese, I had an example of how long it took me in a Category V language to reach them. 

I planned my Chinese study accordingly. I knew what helped speed me up in Japanese the most, so I added those study methods to Chinese immediately - learning common characters, listening. I knew what helped with all my language studies and added those too - learning most common words, past/present/future tense, reading a grammar guide, and READING/consuming target language content frequently. I immersed myself in French often when I’d studied French, but with Japanese I rarely did that until 2+ years into studying the language. I knew it was a good way to gauge my progress, and suspected I’d improve in reading/listening faster than I had in Japanese, if i DID IT MORE this time around for Chinese.

---

Reading Specific Tangent: 

I was right. My Chinese has been steadily improving about half as fast as my French. The slower speed is to be expected, since Chinese generally takes much longer for native english speakers to learn than French. But my Chinese is also improving significantly faster than Japanese - twice as fast so far. Which is extremely motivating for me, and exciting. I could not be more grateful. I am so absolutely ecstatic that I can currently watch Chinese tv shows without subtitles if I want to and follow the gist - I still can’t do that in Japanese! I’m so excited I can read Chinese sometimes without a dictionary, and often with a dictionary - my Japanese lags behind at basic-reading-with-dictionary and absolutely NO ability to read complex text like paragraphs or light novels or news even with a dictionary.

I plan to keep focusing a lot of structured study on Chinese until I can read Priest novels comfortably with a dictionary. Right now, I can read them with a dictionary, but the speed is so slow because I have to look up too many words per page, so it’s not comfortable. I think, if I’m being optimistic, I’m about halfway there. As long as I keep studying consistently. Measurably, I’m in the middle of HSK 4 knowledge wise, and while I think getting to HSK 6 will only make me ‘intermediate,’ I do think that should be enough knowledge to be able to read what I want with the help of a dictionary a bit more comfortably than I am doing so now. If I’m supremely lucky, all the reading I’m doing right now will pay off, and maybe reading will be very comfortable with occasional dictionary lookup once I get to that rough HSK 6 goal. (I definitely think personal ambiguity tolerance matters - in Chinese, the statistics I’ve often found indicate readers at HSK 4 go in generally knowing only around 50% of words in target language texts, which is brutally low compared to the statistic of 98% comprehension to comfortably read extensively. Now... when I was first starting to learn French, I immediately dived into reading when I had pitifully little comprehension, like 50%! So I’m used to it feeling brutal at first, and still trying to do it! Then as my French improved, I experienced 70% comprehension and up as so refreshingly easier, that I didn’t personally see it as a slog (even though it very much still is a slog of ambiguity, dictionary use, and accepting you can only understand the gist usually and only occasionally specific details). 

With Chinese, pessimistically you hit the 70s percentage of comprehension in HSK 4 - HSK 6, and don’t get to the 90% at all. Optimistically, you hit the 70s% in HSK 3, and by HSK 5-6 you’re at 95-98% comprehension which is MUCH more comfortable for pretty much everyone. Which.... I can say from my own personal experience, that lines up. Once I passed HSK 3 knowledge and in the middle of HSK 4, I feel much more comfortable reading anything I want. Yeah, it’s still BRUTAL. But it’s more the slog French was at 70% comprehension - it’s hard to read for more than a few pages if the material is difficult, and its easier for me to read difficult materials for ‘gist meaning’ rather than precise details, and it’s easier for me to read simpler-materials for longer periods of time. But I can, technically, read any material with a dictionary without feeling lost and incapable of comprehending the main ideas. So if this trend continues, by HSK 6 I should actually be closer to the 90s% comprehension wise, if not well into them, at which point reading will genuinely feel comfortable in comparison to the difficulty of it so far. In contrast, if someone has a lower tolerance for slogging through ambiguity than I do, they might find 70% comprehension absolutely unbearable and give up. 

According to studies (one is “The Percentage of Words Known in a Text and Reading Comprehension” by Norbert Schmitt,  XiangYing Jiang, William Grabe), people generally do not feel comfortable reading to learn new words/for enjoyment until around 98% comprehension. Even in the 80s% and low 90s%, often people will find it too frustrating. So for a language like Chinese... where often the official study levels like HSK may theoretically get you to the 90s% but not always the high 90s%... then even after the highest HSK level some people will find it too frustratingly ambiguous to read! And with the pessimistic estimate, HSK 6 will only get them to 77% comprehension - so if they’re uncomfortable with a level of ambiguity I am used to, they’re going to hit a wall at how frustrating it will be at first to start reading! And all these percentages are based on spoken language comprehension - its likely all novels/long text are going to be at least somewhat more difficult, further lowering the % likely comprehended.

So... for a Chinese language learner, it is beneficial to either have a high tolerance to consuming content despite high ambiguity, or else to get yourself used to it. Because no matter how high an official level like HSK you study to, you’re likely to have to start off at a frustratingly low comprehension level when you first start diving into target language content. A comprehension level low enough that it’s expected for you to be frustrated. I... already went through this kind of intense frustration and just kind of slogged my way through it in French, and thankfully I studied French long enough to see what the payoff down the line was for such an attitude. I personally think my reading comprehension in French improved as rapidly as it did, precisely because I did start reading immediately (even when I was reading stuff I only comprehended 50-70%). I was fortunate to experience in real time that comprehension % increase through the months as I read more. This gives me an example of how the process should work with Chinese and other languages eventually, if I do the same thing. 

With Chinese, my comprehension % has increased half as fast, so the difficulty is harder for longer, but ultimately I’m still seeing the difficulty slowly lessen as my comprehension slowly improves. In my own experience, I also feel I had to consume a lot more chinese content than I did French content, in order to see my comprehension increase. So: Chinese is taking 2 times as long to improve, and also I am consuming content almost every day in comparison to about half with the once-or-twice-a-week French content I used to consume. So not only am I bearing the less comprehensible % levels longer, but I’m also dealing with it more often with more content regularly. Of course it is going to take a tolerance to bear ambiguity... in order to make yourself do this the way I did. A tolerance where, even if you had it for another (in theory easier) language, you will have to exercise that tolerance more for Chinese. At least, once you’ve decided to start reading. 

My point is that... one should try to be willing to tolerate to a higher degree of ambiguity when consuming content in Chinese, then they would normally tolerate in their native language. Because it seems like whether one starts at a low level, or a ‘high’ level, they’re going to eventually have to dive into content with a higher ambiguity than they’d probably prefer at first. And it will take practice building up that comprehension level through consuming real content, until that level finally gets up to what is considered more universally ‘comfortable.’ And if you, like me, can view what’s less comfortable as ‘more comfortable’ in comparison to where you started, that perspective has made the experience feel more bearable for me. It might help make it more bearable for others? 

When I browse Chinese learning forums, I usually see a few kinds of approaches to this steeper comprehension percentage, in comparison to say a language like French. 1st approach some people do is to learn ALL the characters they can beyond HSK (usually 3000-4800), and learn 5000-10k most frequently used words (if 5000, then some words outside of what HSK covered) - before they dive into reading. 2nd approach is those that decide to dive into reading at HSK 4-6, and make flashcards for the new words they come across - deciding that they’ll have to keep learning new words/characters anyway, for a significant amount of time, until they can read comfortably. This 2nd approach further splits into people who use software to make unknown-word lists ahead of time and pre-study all of them, and people who use SRS flashcard software to either pre-study those words or study while reading. The SRS flashcard crowd usually either also bases their cards on all the new unknown words they’ll need, or at least the words that pop up frequently in the new material they’re reading. A 3rd approach is people who rely on graded readers and learn words mostly through reading (outside of focused HSK/course/other study), then eventually get to the HSK 5-6 level and get frustrated by the low comprehension % they have of native target language material, so they move next to drama subtitles/comics/simple novels and either bear through the low comprehension for a while, or also use approach 1 and/or 2 above once they branch into the more complicated stuff. 

These approaches all overlap each other a bit. The big differences are just how some people deal with the low comprehension % by pre-studying huge amounts of material (to boost their comprehension at least for the one material they’re trying to consume) - like pre-learning all the new words in a book before trying to read it, or learning all the new words in the first chapters of a book so that in the future your comprehension % of the book is a higher level then it was at the very beginning. And the other people, who decide they’re going to bear with lower comprehension % for the sake of wide exposure and volume of material consumed. This second group would be - people following the Massive Immersion Approach, people who read for gist comprehension of main ideas rather then near/full comprehension of text (so 2nd approach SRS people who might add new words to study if they pop up frequently, but will also skip studying a lot of unknown words they run into), 3rd approach people who generally don’t make pre-study lists or plans and just kind of brute-force consume the content until it gets easier, etc. While I’m sure there’s MANY arguements out there about which way works better, which ways are more ‘efficient’ - I personally think either way eventually results in improvement in comprehension. The big difference is a decision on trade off: do you decide to study much bigger BULKS of information upfront, in order to temporarily make comprehension % higher for a specific new material you’re trying to comprehend, or do you study nothing upfront and bear with lower comprehension % for a longer duration of time as you consume a specific new material? Over time I would assume both approaches will result in future content eventually being more comprehensible, until it eventually becomes a high enough comprehension % that the learner no longer feels it requires bulk study ahead of time or high tolerance for ambiguity. 

I feel that, at least with studying Chinese, that question above about trade offs is relevant for a longer duration of time than it is for languages categorized as ‘easier’ for a learner to study. Like, French? I would guess, that if UNLIKE ME, you learned the 3000 most common words immediately, then started with graded readers (either during that word learning or after to increase vocabulary level more), and worked your way up to native target language content, you would generally find reading to be a comfortable level of comprehension all the way through. 3000 high frequency words in many languages gets you to about 95% comprehension. That’s still a little under the 98% comprehension you need to start reading and picking up most new words comfortably from context. But the 95% would get you close enough that graded readers, and simple texts would be easy to read extensively. And hopefully eventually, even more complex texts would be bearable with a dictionary and you’d quickly get to a point where your comprehension eventually increased to that comfortable comprehension % level. 

[sturlsons]

french in 1.5 years anon

Kinda random but I just found out that I’ll be required to be intermediate/advanced in French by the next 1.5 years; ALL I KNOW IS THAT MEIRDE IS A BAD BAD WORD! Idk if you’re a native speaker but I was wondering if you could provide me of any good French language resources (or language in general since I’ll be needing to learn Arabic soon as well), and like tips for language learning and how to go about it? Sorry to bother you haha this is MY stress but I appreciate any help! Have a great day!

HEY. so i really fucking dropped the ball on this one, i’m sorry. 2019 has been one health fiasco after another (or more like the same fiasco again and again) and i kept telling myself i want to sit down and make a proper post for this, until i realised that that’s just never going to happen given the way things are rn. and i’d rather give you a quickly-written post which is actually helpful than never write that perfect bullet-pointed one. 

first of all, i’ve been in your EXACT position (so no, i’m not a native speaker) except i had about...six months to go from je m’appelle teesta to voyez-vous, le problème qui se cache derrière tout ça n’est pas le manque de respect mais la personne dont il s’agit or whatever. i was like, i can so do this. (spoiler: i didn’t, because i was 18 and overconfident and stupid and didn’t actually know how to learn a language.) GOOD NEWS: having learned 3 more foreign languages since then, i am now REALLY GOOD at learning languages REALLY FAST. 1.5 years is a good amount of time, so don’t stress.

i’m going to go generic on this, with some extra tips about french since i speak it, unlike arabic. 

first thing, that typical thing everyone hates to hear but knows is coming from the mouth of an accomplished person (pat on my back) in any field whatsoever: you’re going to have to work really hard and practice like fuck. 

there’s just nothing else that can replace it. i’ve filled up notebooks and notebooks with japanese verb conjugations, once i did like 1800 of them in one sitting. but you better believe that a bitch will never forget those now. resign yourself to putting in at least three hours of your day to this until you get to the level you need. (and three hours is...kind. at my peak i was literally reading through french dictionaries at the library, 10 AM - 8 PM. i treated it like a workday.)

now, what you need to establish is: are you a hands-on learner or a digital one. 

i don’t really care for all the auditory learner and visual learner stuff, i don’t know about anyone else but i personally used those as excuses to avoid certain exercises. unless you have actual disabilities preventing you from accessing certain methods of learning, you can train yourself into anything. it’s a matter of practice. i could barely understand a new song without reading its lyrics first, now i eat up podcasts. 

SO. the question here is different. a hands-on learner, like i used to be more or less throughout my bachelor’s, is someone who absolutely cannot retain information unless they’ve written it down BY HAND at least once. pen and paper. (i’m still like this but i’ve learned to combine it with digital methods to go faster.) if this isn’t a hurdle for you, congratulations. your process is going to go that much faster, at least for french. (you’ll have to spend hours practicing your written arabic however, if you’re not familiar with the script.) 

now, if you’re a hands-on learner, you need to add an extra hour to your daily time. no matter how fast you write, you will take that time. and you cannot shorthand your way into languages. you need to understand how french is spelt, what accents it uses, that they put a space before exclamation points, question marks, and semicolons. (side tip: learn the IPA. it will be useful to you forever in language learning, at least for the romance languages.) i’m not gonna teach you how to make notes since i’ve never benefitted from copying someone else’s style, so if you don’t have a set method start establishing that. you need regularity and rhythm when you learn a language. my grammar notes look the same regardless of the language. i don’t have my french ones since it’s been years and i didn’t take good ones then anyway, but here’s my japanese and russian stuff. 

JAPANESE NOTES // RUSSIAN NOTES

now, it bears mentioning that these notes are NOT the notes i take when i don’t know shit. these are final level notes. they’re brief, idiosyncratic, and only reminders. something to refer to when i’m revising and suddenly forget a rule. the first notes i make are much more elaborate, whether they’re pretty or not. i’ve gradually lost the fucks i had about really going ham on academics so my russian notes are very messy, but my japanese ones from back in the day are magnificent. here’s a look. during lesson one i realised that japanese and my mother tongue, gujarati, are syntaxically similar as shit, and i started taking notes with references in gujarati. it sped up my learning process 2x while my french classmates were still going “BUT WHY IS IT LIKE THAT”. 

PRACTICAL GRAMMAR // THEORETICAL GRAMMAR

if you plan to learn more languages in the future, this will be so valuable. sometimes a phrase i learn in russian doesn’t make sense in its french explanation, but a phrase in english might use the same logic. bam, put down the translation in english then. you get what i’m saying? the more languages you learn, the easier it gets to learn languages. 

now if you’re a digital learner, i’ve got great news for you. duolingo and anki are your best friends. duolingo’s memed to hell and has a system that might not work for everyone, but they’ll do the brunt work of compiling grammar notes for you in the beginnings/ends of their lessons. note those down and transform them into anki flashcards, and you can learn grammar concepts without doing 20 exercises. (do those exercises if you can, though, nothing beats mindless practice.) now anki is an intimidating-looking but actually super intuitive app that basically builds digital flashcards for you and shows them to you in a rhythm based on your own learning speed. it’ll show you the front of a card, let’s say merde. you say the english translation out loud, shit, and hit enter. correct! was that easy? anki’ll show it to you in 10 minutes. hard? it’ll show you in 1 minute. super easy? merde won’t come up again until tomorrow. eventually you get so good at it that you can bury a card for 2 months. anki will also show you the same cards reversed, which is harder but trains you better. you’ll see shit and have to remember what it’s called in french, which is more difficult than you’d think it is. 

you can use anki for more than just vocab, like i mentioned. it’s a little tricky learning to convert grammar concepts into front/back flashcards, but you can do it. for example, here’s a sample of one of my russian grammar cards: 

front ^^

back once i hit enter^^

see? not that difficult. now don’t be an idiot like me who manually entered every single flashcard into anki. you can find pre-made packages online (but you can’t guarantee they’ll be correct) or you can make your own without killing your fingers. what you wanna do is open up a spreadsheet and make two columns, A for front of the card and B for back. it’ll look like this:

then you’re gonna save that spreadsheet as a .CVS (comma separated values) and import that into anki. bam, your flashcards are made for you with half the effort. there’s also a script floating around somewhere to make excel translate words automatically for you, but i don’t recommend that unless they’re really easy words. google translate can fuck up. reverso is your friend. 

you need to review your anki cards every day. it’ll take less and less time as you go along. i can review 300 russian cards in 15 minutes now. but you need to keep the rhythm going. download ankiapp and sync your cards, review them on commutes or in the hallway or whatever. trust me, it’s magic. 

apart from this, if a traditional textbook helps, go for that. i’ve always used textbooks and workbooks, more as supports than as principal methods, but it does help. it’s structured and organised and these people know how to train you. bescherelle is a good go-to for french. 

media is always a great way of immersion too, until you get to the country itself. it’ll show you how french people speak french. when i first came to france i didn’t have that experience and even though i spoke an arguably decent amount of french when i got here, it was like, if this is french then what the fuck was i learning in high school. if you like watching movies this is your chance. watch the classics first so that you can get an idea of french pop culture. amélie (though the pop culture aspect here is about shitting on it) and les intouchables, for starters. watch your favourite films, first subbed, then subbed and dubbed, then just dubbed. i watched all ten seasons of friends with french subs, it was wild. with music you want to start off with some indie-ish singers since they will universally sing softer and slower, making things easier to understand than idk, la tribu de dana. (if you’re into bts there’s a hilarious video of their baepsae choreo set to la tribu de dana.) anyway - angèle, cœur de pirate, céline dion, fréro delavega, uhhh that fucking french sufjan stevens. what’s his name. VIANNEY. don’t fucking listen to biglo and oli or like, fatal bazooka right away. you will not understand shit. i barely understand it. white people are wild. ooh listen to stromae. orelsan too, he’s a rapper but he has a relatively clean diction imo. he also sang the french opening for OPM. they call him orelsan-san in japan.

last but not the least: if you have the opportunity to interact in french with people, DO IT. native speakers will do their best to help you and be kind about it. people who learned french might sometimes be assholes from experience. it’s a whole superiority complex thing, and very hypocritical. anyway - online or IRL, wherever you can practice your french, do it. it’ll be immensely helpful. there’s nothing like the frustration of not being able to express simple things to get you motivated to get better. do your best to immerse yourself - changing the language on your devices can make a difference too. 

i think that’s all i have and again, i’m sorry for taking this long to finally deliver, thanks for your patience! if you have any specific questions don’t hesitate to hit me up, on anon or not. 

good luck - it’s not going to be the easiest but nothing is as gratifying as beginning to understand the workings of a language. you’re gonna love it!

[silentauroriamthereal]

Thank you @thepersianslipper (it won’t let me tag you??) for tagging me! (I just did one of these, but his one has slightly different questions, so here you go!) 

Rules: answer these questions then tag 20 blogs you’d like to know better! Whatevs, you’re all tagged. Bam! 

• Nickname: SA

• Zodiac: Capricorn, like my beloved Sherlock

• Height: 5′4″ (stfu, I’m a hobbit, ok)

• Time: 9:34pm

• Favorite band/singer: I don’t really do pop music

• Song stuck in my head: none, happily

• Last movie I saw: Captain America: Civil War (not for the first time!)

• Other blogs: Actually, I do have another blog, on eating keto, intermittent fasting, and various other health and weight-related issues. If you’re interested, PM me. It’s not here on tumblr. 

• Last thing I googled: “interestesting duvet covers”

• Do I get asks: Not often, though @i-want-to-pet-your-dog has been sending some intriguing ones of late! 

Why did I choose this username: I chose “SilentAuror” way back in 2002 or 2003 for the Harry Potter fandom and when I came back into fandom life in general in 2013, I figured I might as well keep the same name, especially if there were HP folk that I knew now also in the Sherlock fandom (and there were!). When I joined tumblr five years ago, the name “silentauror” had already been taken (rude!), so I adapted it based on Benedict’s “I’m the real” sign back in the day. 

• Following: I honestly don’t know. Thousands, since I follow everyone back and only remove people selectively now and then. :P 

• Average amount of sleep: 5-6 hours, though frequently less :/

• Lucky number: My favourite number is 8

• What I’m wearing: Black tights with white palm trees on them and a black cami (it’s fucking HOT here)

• Dream job: Stay-at-home fic writer

• Dream trip: I don’t even remember what I said the last time I did this meme. Right now... let’s go with Bora Bora. 

• Fave food: Sushi, though Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean are all up there, too. Non-North American cuisine, basically. :P

• Play any instruments: Well, I’m a professional singer, so I guess you could say that I “play” my voice. I also play piano, have occasionally dabbled in flute and organ. Can make decent noises on stringed things like cellos and violins, but know very little about actually playing them. (My violin technique info for Sonatina in G Minor came from my bff, who is a professional violinist!) 

• Eye colour: Green or blue, depending on my mood. Sometimes they’ll change mid-sentence as my mood does! They’re more often green than blue, though. 

• Hair colour: Gold-y blond, fine, wavy/curly (depends how humid it is, lol). I used to straighten it all the time, but when I moved out east it was just too damned humid to hold it, so I relented and let it be the way it wanted to be. There’s an amusing parallel there about forcing things to be straight... 

• Describe yourself as aesthetic things: Walking slowly through a grove of brilliantly red maples in autumn. A very large cup of Earl Grey with milk. Pronouncing Czech village names from the train along the Vltava river. Watching a thunderstorm at 2am with the window open. Bakudan maki. Making soup from scratch without a recipe. Taking pictures of the sun. 

• Languages you speak: English, French, some German (I’ve forgotten a lot but it comes back when I’m in Germany or with Germans), little bits and pieces of Italian, Arabic, Spanish, Russian. 

• Most iconic song: Brünnhilde’s Immolation (lol)

• Random fact: Most people tend to think that I’m an extrovert because I’m a performer, teacher, choral conductor, feel fine standing in front of a large group of people and telling them what to do, whether it’s teaching kids how to ride horses, doing vocal warm-ups with a big choir, teaching ESL in French, etc, but the fact is that I’m secretly an introvert. It’s why I don’t really listen to music; I get enough of that when I’m in work-mode. When I’m at home, I like it silent. :)

[destination-of-fate]

(English Subs + Text) Soraru and Mafumafu’s new Cooking Videos

”I tried making Sticky Ramen for my friend” I’ve subbed Soraru’s latest video on his official channel where he tries to cook a meal for Mafumafu! :O If the English subs don’t pop up immediately, click the gear icon and enable them~ Below the “read more” is the full transcript for Mafumafu’s video! Watch Mafumafu’s video here. I can’t subtitle it because his channel doesn’t have community contributions enabled, sorry! ;_; But feel free to share the link to this post if you see people wanting to know what’s happening in the video! This goes line by line and might be a bit hard to understand without the video side by side, so feel free to ask if you have any questions~ I hope you enjoy both videos! :) (Please do not use these translations to upload a subbed version of either video to Youtube or anywhere else)

Title: “I made Medicine Curry for my friend [I’m sorry]”

(Lines not spoken)

Mafumafu: My face looks so bad today… Hey there! Everyone! Hello~ I’m Mafumafu. Well, you see~ Soraru-san, who I work with for certain things He’s… So physically frail! So as for that- I can’t cook or anything at all, but there’s- Medicinal cooking!! That word means-

(Lines spoken) Mafumafu: Siri~ “What’s medicinal cooking?” How do you activate Siri? Siri: I’m sorry, I didn’t quite get that. Mafumafu: SILENCE! What’s “medicinal cooking?” Siri: I found some information about “incidental cooking” on the web. Mafumafu: “Medicinal cooking is a variety of Chinese cuisine.” Eh… it’s Chinese food…? But I wanted to make curry. So for today I want Soraru-san to feel a bit better That was our plan So here! Medicinal curry That’s what I want to make! I don’t actually know anything about medicinal cooking But basically I just need to make something that’s good for your body, right? Here are our ingredients. Meat!!! *sniff sniff* Ginger I really hate this stuff G-garlic Potatoes! And this… Can you see this? “Lily bulb…?”

(Caption)

“It’s said that lily bulbs have positive effects on the throat” Mafumafu: It’s like sawdust… Aah, something came out! And finally, the curry. These are the items I want to work with What should I do? For now I guess maybe I should put this in The directions are written here! Huh, I see... Okay~! Wash my hands thoroughly… with soap First of all, since I’m not very skilled I think I should start with chopping the ingredients Is this right…? Soraru: It’s right, it’s right. Peel it Mafumafu: Do I have to peel it? If it were you, do you think you could eat it if it wasn’t peeled? Soraru: We’re eating it together. Mafumafu: Eating what? Soraru: Huh? Don’t say that Mafumafu: Eh, I’m not eating it. I don’t eat curry. And I just ate before this. Soraru: The thing about curry It tastes good Because You eat it together

(Caption) “No more forced comments”

Mafumafu: I wonder how long it’s been since I last cooked Ah, but I did cook during our DVD project Is this right? Do you even wash the peel with water first? Do we even have a peely thing (*He means a peeler) A peely thing (*He means a peeler) Uwaaaaa~ Let’s peel this potato I’m a little scared What’s with this? OW! I hit… my fingernail… Eh, can I stop now? As for why we suddenly decided to do cooking videos The truth is that Soraru-san was in poor health at the start of the year Soraru: That’s true Mafumafu: He couldn’t even sing… That’s why… We wanted to upload videos that weren’t songs… And put at least some kind of work out there Or maybe rather than “work” This is “rehabilitation...” He can’t do livestreams either… He can’t talk much… So I said I’d make something and he could eat it… He said “Me too~ Me too!! I want to cook too!! I want to post videos too!!”

(Caption)

“*This is an impression”

Mafumafu: He said to me all of a sudden: “I want to move to the countryside, where no one knows me-” (Impression Fade-In) “Maybe I’ll start a second life as a farmer or something” When he said that, I was worried about how depressed he was Of course, I was worried So I quickly bought a video camera…. Like… I said “It might seem weird, but do you want to film some video and post it?” “Want to do something for fun?” It was funny to see Soraru-san unexpectedly get so excited while preparing for it. Soraru: There’s something on my mind right now, more than that potato… Mafumafu: Yes? Yes? Soraru: Why do you have Lipovitan D on the counter? (T/N: Energy Drink) Mafumafu: Oh, no no, that’s just there because I wanted to feel fired up as I cooked. Soraru: Ah, you’re drinking it yourself. Mafumafu: Right, right. Don’t worry. Please don’t worry about that at all. I would never! I would never! www Soraru: Yeah, I guess not (Confirming) Mafumafu: Right, I would never www You see, I just… Soraru: Even someone as ignorant about cooking as you… Mafumafu: It’s so I can wholeheartedly cook a meal. And I do want you to get your nutrients (?) Soraru: Aren’t you the one drinking it? Mafumafu: Ah, that’s right! I’m drinking it! Of course, of course! Well, you can supplement some vitamins and such too (?) Soraru: Ehh ww Aren’t you the one drinking it wwww Mafumafu: I’m drinking it! Of course, of course! Don’t worry about anything. In fact, you can sleep if you want. Since you’re not feeling well. One is plenty, right? (potatoes) It’s just for one person, after all. Time to cut? I’m used to using silverware. *bam!* I’m good, right? Time for ginger! How do you eat this? Do you shape it like this? Soraru: Chop it small, at least Mafumafu: Soraru-san, you can go away now Soraru: No I can’t Mafumafu: I’m making the ginger around the same size as the potato Can you even tell the difference between them? Soraru: Yes, yes, yes I can. Mafumafu: Eh, could this be… Could it be that if I use this trick, you won’t be able to figure out that it’s ginger? Soraru: Is this Russian Roulette… w Mafumafu: Mmm. Okay. I think I can get away with this? Look, you can’t tell! (Delighted) Soraru: What would happen if you ate that… Mafumafu: I don’t know Should I grate it and fry it? I’ll grate it into the pot Ehhh I hate garlic~ I don’t want to touch it... Soraru: Can you put garlic in curry? Mafumafu: Yeah you can! I wonder if this will be ok… I’m sorry, Soraru-san Soraru: Stop it. Don’t apologize before you make me eat it. Mafumafu: I’ve never had this before. Lily bulb? What does it look like? What part of a lily bulb do you even eat? How do you prepare it? Alright… (He googled it) I wonder if you can really eat this I’m so sorry Soraru: Don’t apologize before making me eat it. Mafumafu: Let’s do this- Soraru: All the stuff is white Mafumafu: Yeah… Ok, first! Let’s cook the meat and vegetables Maybe I’ll start with the meat? Let’s cook it! I wonder if I’m doing this right It’s already scary! It’s splattering! It’s splattering! I’m scared! I’m scared! HEY! AAAAAH Wait, wait, wait Eh? I’m scared! Am I doing this wrong? Eh, ah, wait www eh, hold on- AAAAAH You need high heat for Chinese food

(Caption) “*Curry is not Chinese food”

Mafumafu: Seriously, stop it! Hey! Seriously! STOPPPPP ITTT!!!

(Caption)

“*His highest voice of the day”

Mafumafu: Alright, I’ll add the vegetables now~ Here I go~ Yaay~! Soraru: I really can’t tell which pieces are ginger Mafumafu: It’s splattering. It’s splattering. (He’s a bit used to it now) Which is it!? Soraru: Eh, I can’t tell at all. Mafumafu: Doesn’t it smell good? I can measure the water by eye, right? I’m adding the water~ Is that enough? Ehh, should I open it? Oh! That looks good~! I’ll add the roux How much do you need? I guess I’ll add about half? wwwwww this is so rough www Even for me, this is really imprecise I want to put it in piece by piece while it gradually melts I should have brought some chocolate or something Soraru-san wouldn’t notice, I’m sure Soraru: Some people do add chocolate as a subtle seasoning Mafumafu: That’s not what I mean It would be completely chocolate… You probably wouldn’t notice it, right Soraru-san? “It’s sweeter than usual this time”

(Caption) “*This is an impression” Mafumafu: Like this? The work I’m doing here is quite tech-y

(Caption)

“Tech-y: To do something in a technical way. He’s using it to show off.”

Mafumafu: This is kind of a pain I’m sure this is fine ww Alright, it’s done~ Soraru: There’s definitely not enough roux in there Mafumafu: Eh, really!? I think it’s enough… This really doesn’t look appetizing at all I wonder if I’ll ever be able to get married Soraru: Definitely not at this rate Mafumafu: It’s bubbling now Ah, but doesn’t this look kinda good? Soraru: Has it thickened? Mafumafu: Yeah, it has! I think I want to use a bit more Hmmm~mmmmm Should I add the whole thing? I’ve been cooking properly up until now, so I want to be careful with this Little by little

(Caption)

“Putting in ⅓ of it at a time”

Soraru: No way wwwww You did it with so little hesitation I thought maybe my eyes were deceiving me... Mafumafu: Ah, look! It’s so thick! Yeah, it looks good! Soraru: Aren’t you playing this off a bit too much? w Mafumafu: You sure complain a lot… Such a pain… It’s a pain, but… There's no foam forming this time, huh Time for the secret ingredient! *clang* Soraru: He suddenly opens the fridge… Mafumafu: Honey~

(Caption) “He believes he is doing an impression. Please treat him kindly as you listen.”

Soraru: Oh, it’s honey The sweet curry is getting even sweeter *drip* *drip* *drip* *drip* Hey, hey, hey!! You added so much… Mafumafu: Eh? That’s normal I want to put more in Butter~ Soraru: Can you really put butter in curry… Mafumafu: Butter curry! Butter chicken curry! Soraru: Does that have butter in it? Mafumafu: Eh, it’s butter chicken, so wouldn’t it have butter in it? Soraru: I see… Mafumafu: But who knows What about Tabasco? Soraru: Wouldn’t that taste bad? Mafumafu: Maybe? Soraru: Ah, ah, ah, ah… Mafumafu: I tried my hardest to make this, so please eat it, ok? Ok, Soraru-san, you can leave the room now~ Soraru: Alright Mafumafu: The curry is almost done… But for the secret ingredient…

(Bottle Label) “Lipovitan D” (T/N: energy drink)

Mafumafu: Maybe that’s too mean? It might be a bit too mean It can’t be helped, then I’ll go with this

(Caption) “A meaner upgrade”

(Label)

“Yunker” (T/N: Nutrition drink to help with fatigue and illness) Mafumafu: He won’t figure it out, right? He’ll feel better, right? Healthy things + Healthy things = Healthy things This is fine, right? Soraru-san! I think it’s done~ It’s done now! Soraru: Yeah, that looks good Mafumafu: It’s still full! It’s still full! I didn’t drink any! Soraru: Huh, you really didn’t put any in. Huh??? Mafumafu: (Oh crap) I didn’t, I didn’t… Soraru: I thought so. Mafumafu: I just felt like I had a cold coming on… Soraru: I thought so. Mafumafu: Yeah~ (monotone) Although I don’t actually feel that way IT’S DONE!!

(Caption) “First taste” Mafumafu: I’m giving this the name “Mafumafu’s Medicine Curry” Soraru: But you didn’t put any medicine in, did you... Mafumafu: Of course not. Of course not w Soraru: Here I go Mafumafu: It’s curry that works like medicine H-How is it? The ingredients are: Meat Sliced garlic Ginger (chunks) Shredded ginger Soraru: Ah, the garlic… It’s so strong… Mafumafu: Really!? Soraru: But I actually like garlic quite a bit Mafumafu: There’s also~ (continuing) Lily bulb How’s the lily bulb!? Soraru: The lily bulb… Mafumafu: Did you eat it? Soraru: Is it… this thing…?? Mafumafu: The curved things Soraru: I can’t find any? Did they disappear...? They dissolved? Mafumafu: Eh, no way… Ah, that’s it Soraru: This? Mafumafu: Maybe that’s garlic Soraru: It’s garlic, it’s garlic www Mafumafu: Maybe they didn’t get added? Soraru: But you know~ It’s not bad Mafumafu: Ah, it’s like a gray area? It doesn’t taste good? Soraru: It’s like… Well, there’s garlic in the curry…. Mafumafu: Doesn’t it taste good? I thought it’d be pretty good

(Caption) “Ginger disguised as potato” Soraru: Want some? Want it? Here Mafumafu: Me? Sure, of course. Soraru: Want this bite? There, potato! (Huge lie)

(Caption)

“Agonizing”

Soraru: Isn’t that horrible? Mafumafu: The End

[12-little-roosters]

The Eleven Little Roosters Episode 3 Summary + Haywood Files 11 -15

Tats here with another update!

WARNING! SPOILERS BELOW!

MAN! This episode was something else! 

Starting off with Adam and Shannon I couldn’t stop laughing!! I was waiting for Putin to make an appearance! I can’t believe how stereotypical this show is of everyone. It’s fantastic. 

Cutting to Aaron and Barbara having a lovely lunch, we pick up a trick we need to find a file, the Red Filter. Though...we have no idea who Him is yet... I’m glad we got to hear lovely Ryan. 

And then to Gavin! Sleeping around again! This time with Annersby! How nice, a lovely Bi Gavin YAY REPRESENTATION! This scene also leans to how I think Gavin will die: the fake communicator gun. 

Then nothing else really for the rest of the episode. Glad my guess was correct in with IDD killing FAP.

Now for the Haywood Files!

Haywood File #11

The first file is pretty easy to spot, a QR code within Burnie’s room in the mirror. Just keep in mind it is seen in a mirror and needs to be flipped!

So this file has two sections. The first tells us to look in another SSB Video, the Italy one for another file. The second half goes into the Russian National Game, saying Adam (KGB) will be involved in next weeks case.

Haywood File #12

From the first file going into Trouble in Italy, it’s easy to spot a single lady wearing different shirts through the video. Same as the usual spotting the code and putting it into bit.ly. The code is 2 f 9 T T 9 X. Put ‘er in and BAM! The next file!

This file says the the SSB are safe and sound, so we don’t have to worry about them this week. And then it carries on in to the Russia National Game some more. It is starting to link into Tetris here, with a “strange mix of building and combat” Then a simple google translate of the Russian and we get WALL and LONG BRICK. More evidence this is Tetris, a game in which Adam is very lucky.

Haywood File #13

If you pay attention to the Book Aaron is reading, you’ll see it’s actually in relations to RWBY! So if you go to Volume 4 Chapter 3, you’ll see Yang watching some news and the code will be flashing by!  2 f r v w Y F. Punch ‘er in (geddit? Yang. Punch.) and you get the file. This file starts to lead in to who might else be involved with next week’s hit and it comes in the form of the Olympics. Russia had countless medals stripped away from them leaving both the US (CIA) and the UK (MI6) ahead of them in medal count.

Haywood File #14

Barbara lovingly points out a new trick to finding this code: the Red Filter. A huge shout out to @rosinna for helping me out with this (since I’m very blind).

“So there's a "2" and an "e" on Aaron's menu, an "a" on the note from Ryan under Barb's drink, an "a" on the first Annersby note card that they zoomed in on (for the communicator gun thing), (just a smiley on the second Annersby note card they showed), a "G" on the last note card they zoomed in on (for the "shrink" ray), and then an "X" and "N" on the dedication page of the RWBY book. So at the end you have 2eaaGXN”

Perfect!

Now right away you may notice that something is off about this file: and you’re right. The second paragraph has a weird format to it. If you google the bolded part at the start “Out of many, one” it actually takes you to a US coin on google, and since it is out of pocket, the US (CIA) is not participating this week. Leaving only the UK and KGB.

And the next part confirms that the National Game in question is Tetris.

Haywood File #15

Next this one was tricky to find since it had short screen time. It is found on the sheet music during the SSB scene. If you pause it at just the right time, there are two bolded words TWO and THIRTY (Also, these two bars are weird in the fact that in a 4/4 time signature, they are the only two bars that are 3/4). So if you take the letters of the notes in between these two, you get 2 e a a 3 0 D. The D is the note following the THIRTY (I tried both lower and upper, the upper worked this time).

So knowing that MI6 and KGB are the two fighting, this file helps us determined who is who (plus Josh answered my tweet saying this file is the deciding factor) 

So remembering that this is a battle tetris game, and from the Gavin/Annersby scene, Gavin got some neat toys. A ToP figure (four blocks tall) and a Shrink Gun that actually grows items. 

So when the file says that it’s hard to have someone sneak items in, it will be hard to out cheat Adam. Which, thankfully Gavin can! Putting the tweet and file together, it is safe to assume that MI6 is the Assassin and KGB is the Target.

(I’ll even go a step further in saying that when Gavin Grows the ToP (which has half the amount of deadly Cyanide in it) the cyanide inside will grow with it become this Deadly Amount Super Killing Cyanide. I can’t wait!!) 

- Tats