#ka;starter

[xhxnne]

Stay || closed starter for @loversarcade

The lights are low, and the final applause still echoes in the room. Koen was crouched at the edge of the stage, unplugging cables, laughing with the other musicians. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted them lingering in the crowd, staying back, waiting.

Koen tugged his cap lower over his messy hair, threw a casual look over his shoulder, and called out, his voice quieter than before, "Stay after the show? It's better when the crowd thins out."

There’s something hopeful in the way he says it, like maybe the real magic hasn’t even started yet.

[isdeathlystill]

"You're quiet today. I don't like that." Kas had come back from fishing and came back to the fae castle after. It was weird coming back to the castle and not Pan's. "Tell me I'm overthinking if I am, but, are you okay?"

@acourtcfmuses || starter call. 👻

[the-rejected-princess]

STARTER CALL -- -- --

❤️ this post for a starter from the Jedi Pilot AND/OR the Jedi Princess! { Length will vary }

PLEASE SPECIFY IF YOU WANT A STARTER FROM JAINA SOLO, OR TENEL KA DJO. {or both.} If not it will be sent randomly.

[loveisxpromise]

Like for a starter from Kassandria, a Genshin Impact OC.

Pre-established Connections: Unlikely Most Wanted Connections: Traveller, Genshin OCs, Other Genshin verse characters Ships: Open with development and/or plotting Short Bio: Kassandria grew up with an adventurer father from Sumeru and a farmer mother from Mondstadt and many siblings. Growing up, she helped on her mother’s farm until she was old enough to choose whether or not she wanted to attend the Akademiya in Sumeru, like her father, or stay in Mondstadt. With a sense of adventure and a thirst for knowledge, Kassandria, affectionately called Kas, chose to attend the Akademiya.

It was while she was in Sumeru and adventuring during a school holiday with friends gone bad that she received her vision - an electro-vision. Kas took a year off afterwards to go home and train to use her vision with her father before returning to complete her studies.

After Kassandria passed the Akademiya with decent marks, instead of going home or staying in Sumeru, Kas chose to open a flower shop in Liyue. She often visits her home in Mondstadt and relishes any chance to explore. Occasionally, she’ll accept commissions from the Adventurer’s Guild.

[kasarian]

thinking abt oc pokemon au again. i did say that ike was missing for 2 years, but also gave him and his daughter amnesia... i wonder, im aware of the move amnesia, but in this case, it should probably be possible for a pokemon to inflict this to others through odd means (spores, stronger psychic ability, etc) right? could work right?

[haresvoid]

“&– - Sometimes the worst of them have the best disguises, and go as far as it takes to stay in hiding.” // @remaimed liked for a LYRICAL STARTER

[dravidious]

You're pretty neat

card games

[distoretion]

@wolfensongs

Dis picked her way through the underbrush, toilet roll in one hand and flashlight in the other.

She had come out for a night of drinking with her friends, but of course since most of them were underage they’d ended up in the woods. And of course, she’d had the bad luck to have to pee about an hour in.

“This should be far enough away…” She muttered to herself, setting down the flashlight beneath an old tree and lifting her skirt to start pulling down her underwear.

Before she could get too far though, she heard a rustling noise behind her in the bushes and whipped her head around to look.

Had someone followed her out here? Or maybe it was some sort of animal… didn’t Texas have coyotes?

[the-physicality]

Oh for someone to have the faith in me that N*elle Qu*nn has in her starters…

[xhxnne]

Crowded || starter for @caden-qt

The venue was buzzing, the crowd pressing closer to the stage, but Koen slipped away. He found a small, half-forgotten corner behind a pillar, just close enough to hear the music but far from the crowd.

He caught sight of someone else doing the same. With a lazy shift of his weight against the wall and a half-smile, he softly commented, "Are you here for the show too, or are you hiding like me?"

[isdeathlystill]

"What are you doing? Are you trying to leave?"

@acourtcfmuses || starter call. 👻

[writermuses]

[outcast-shadow]

Just to let you know whenever I stumble upon your unique design of Doey, it reminds me (and I mean this innocuously) of him getting a new paint job like Lightning McQueen. He screams "Ka-Bling!" and it always give me a good chuckle.

Awww!!! I really love that idea so much! Super fun and silly to see it like that! I couldn't help but make a mini comic based on your take.

I do actually have some headcanons on his wacky patterns! For starters, dough tends to blend and mix over time when squished around enough! :)

Pretty much I like to think that he didn't look like this, until after The Hour of Joy, when he was free to roam around the place and had to morph himself to get through tight spaces. After 10 years, I'm certain he'd be really messy and have clusters of colors here and there.

Example:

In addition to this, I like to think that the boys gave Doey some more personal features that they themselves had when they were still kids! Such as freckles, 3 heart patterns on his back (representing the boys), proper clothing (tie), freedom of expression (through the form of his stripes, flaming patterns, and splotches) and desire to protect the younger toys (being why he's got big ol' chompers and claws out in case of an emergency).

Thank you for sending in this comment! My ask box has been collecting dust lmaoo. Oh and uh...I'll stop rambling now! 😅

[loveisxpromise]

( Open Starter );

Kassandria waved at her father who stood outside the family house. She stood on the edge of their family farm. She breathed in the fresh Mondstadt air and smiled. Even though she loved living in Liyue, it was good to visit and be home once in a while.

She adjusted the pack on her shoulder and set out towards her first stop - the city, where she'd check for any commissions that lined up with her plans for gathering seeds which she would take back to Liyue and plant to eventually sell.

By late morning, Kas reached the Adventurers' Guild. She was checking the commission's board when she realized she was in the way. "Oh, I'm sorry." She apologized quickly.

[berylcups]

SDC x Reader + Dios Minions : Learning their Language

CW: Beryls Limited understanding of languages, Eclipse Mention, disability mention

Notes: FINALLY! I finished it! 😩 this took me literally months to do. Well…not really but personal stuff came up in between and I also had to get a new car and that was a nerve wracking experience so yeah… I’m still alive. I really hope you enjoy because I really took my time on this and did plenty of research for each one. Please enjoy! 💜 Beryl

Joseph - Standard American English & British English

You wanna learn English??? Oh boy! He’s gonna learn ya’ a thing or two about English. For starters, “learn ya a thing or two” isn’t proper English. This man isn’t proper either.

He's not the best teacher but if you don’t already know the Alphabet it might be worth memorizing beforehand. Because he’s going to show you the difference between American and UK English spelling. Which spelling is the correct way you ask?

“Don’t worry about it! Spell it anyway you want! If we can read it then it’s fine!”

Also don’t be discouraged by all the silent letters you come across in the English language. It’s tricky but once you pick up on the patterns in writing, it gets a little easier. And remember-Native English speakers struggle with reading too so don’t feel bad! You got this! Joseph believes in you! (& Beryl does too 💜)

His favorite way of integrating you into his language is by snuggling up with you and watching his favorite movies with subtitles so you can read along. Just don’t get too frustrated if he falls asleep when you try watching Lawrence of Arabia with him. It’s one of his favorites but he watched it a million times already!

Jotaro - Japanese

Yare yare daze. You want him to teach you Japanese? Do you know how much of pain in the ass that’s going to be? First you have to learn hiragana and then katakana…and don’t get him started on kanji. He’s flattered really, but he thinks this is going to be too much effort than it’s worth.

Don’t worry, that’s where Holly pops in! She’s going to give Jotaro an earful about how she learned Japanese from his father and that’s how they got closer and eventually married. She’s going to give you her (probably outdated) workbooks and translation guides, and dictionaries for you to learn from. (Isn’t she so sweet???🥹)

Ok—he finally gives in and help you learn Nihongo. He’s not gonna talk to you in your preferred language anymore. You’re going to have to decode and guess what he’s trying to say from now on. (So mean 😭) but he's not a complete ass. He will speak slowly and clearly to you so you can keep up.

He’ll point to things and tell want he wants through simple sentences: “I want you to give me… I want to drink … I want to eat … I want to read …”

Once you get a hang of the language a bit, he’ll want to go to the aquarium and have you interact with other Japanese speakers a bit. Don’t worry if you can’t figure out what you want to say, he’ll translate when you get a brain fart.

“Wakarimasu ka? (Do you understand?)”

Kakyoin- Japanese

You want to learn his language? He’s so flattered, he can’t help but blush! He’d love to teach you Japanese!

He’s not sure where to start first…of course you need to learn how to read. But he’s wondering if teaching through video games, manga, or anime would work the best. You should pick for him to help him not overthink it. 😅

He’ll try to teach you through a mix of genres like horror, comedy, drama, fantasy, etc. He wants to teach you about the specific humor Japan has that might go over your head, jokes, tongue twisters, and double entendres.

If you’re brave he’ll teach you about all the different yurei, oni, and yokai Japan has to offer.

You might want to have him slow down because he’s going to info dump on you so hard.

“Hold on a minute Y/N! You’re reading that manga backwards! You’re going to spoil the ending for yourself!”

Avdol- Masri(Egyptian Arabic) & Standard Arabic

You can see the fire in his eyes from excitement when he hears you say you want to learn Arabic. Now…you better be serious about learning this because he’s not going to let you back out just because you get a little intimidated by its difficulty level. He says if he can learn English, than he has no doubt in his heart that you can learn Arabic!

What he didn’t tell you though was… you’re actually learning 2 dialects at once. It’s very important for you to know Egyptian Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. Egyptian Arabic is needed because that is what most people in Cairo speak. This form of Arabic will help you get to know the locals on a more personal level and get more used to the culture and customs. Modern Standard Arabic is used for formal settings and when you are writing. Speaking of writing…they read and write from right to left! But if you have a good understanding of Arabic writing, you probably already know that.

He’s going to really focus hard on your reading and writing. Al-abjadiyah is the Arabic alphabet and each letter changes form depending on where in the word it is! Don’t worry, he knows this is going to take a while. He’s going to take his time with you. Unlike Polnareff, he is patient.

“Pfft! Ahem, Remember: write right to left, Habibi/ti.”

Once you get used to the language a bit he’ll sit with you and read to you to help you understand the spelling of words and see the patterns of the letters in the different forms taking place in each word. …They’re definitely books for little children but you’ll be making it to more complicated wordy books soon enough!

Polnareff - French

You want to learn the language of love? There’s no better man to learn it from than this pervert romanticist! At least…that’s what he says. The guy is good at teaching but he’s impatient and fussy as hell! 😩 it’s almost as if learning a 2nd or 3rd language is hard! Who would have thought???

“Non non non! Parler français comme un vache espagnole!(your French is very broken!) Come on! You’re using the wrong gendered noun! No..I’m sorry but there’s no gender neutral version for house. Please don’t despair! You can use iel/yel but it might cause some confusion and you might have to use some explanation if someone doesn’t understand… or you could use flip flop between male and female nouns if that doesn’t cause you distress! If anyone has a problem, I’ll tell them “Je vais lui sonner les cloches!”(tell them to mind their own business!)”

Now as an English speaker, you are going to have to rewire your brain on how the Alphabet works because nearly half of the letters in French sound like they’re silent in English! 😰 But that’s okay! You have an enthusiastic but impatient teacher, Polnareff to guide you along the way! The best way to get you involved into the language is through the culture. And that’s through a wine and cheese tasting and then a visit to the very famous Louvre Museum. (This feels more like a date than an educational opportunity…)

Looking at the names of the bottles and how he pronounces the names will help you pick up on the consonants sound and hearing other civilians will help fine tune your own accent and pronunciation.

“Blanc Sauvignon? Did I say that right?”

“Haha—magnifique! you’re getting closer! Say it more with less emphasis on the V.”

Hol Horse- American English (southern)

You wanna learn American English? Well hold your horses, I’m fixin’ to teach you. Just give me a cotton pickin second! English is already a complicated language and we in the south like to make it even more complicated. What’s the most difficult southern saying? It’s “well bless your heart!” It’s usually used to be sassy, but it’s also used to show sympathy…so bless your hearts wisely.

It’s going to be best if you already have grasp of the bare basics of the English language if you ever want to understand whatever the hell Hol Horse is saying. But for you, he’ll take his sweet time and explain everything he means. ❤️

“Don’t take anything I say in English to heart baby girl/boy. You don’t understand something’ you let me know, ya hear?”

For starters, we don’t use proper grammar. Ain’t got no time for that. The best way to understand southern American English is through your stomach…at a family BBQ.

Don’t worry, he’ll make your plate. You might wanna tell him to take it easy, I don’t think that paper plate can handle all that food. 😅 you’re gonna be fuller than a tick! Also if someone offers you a coke, they’re gonna ask which one. Coke doesn’t mean just cola, just soda in general.

“It’s safe to eat funeral potatoes I swear! It has nothin to do with no funeral. It’s just hash brown casserole. It’s good! …I mean, it CAN be served at a funeral but you can have it at any time!”

Devo- Diné Bizaad(Navajo language)

You want to learn his language??? You’re going to melt this cold blooded killers heart!❤️ It’s a sad fact that his language is a dying one. No thanks to the European settlers, but that’s a story for another time. He wants to share all of the goodness of his culture with you and the language of his people-Diné Bizaad which means “people’s language”.

I hope you are serious about his language because it is the hardest language in the world to learn.

In all honesty, he doesn’t really expect you to be a fast learner. You are going to have 33 consonants and 12 vowels to memorize and make your mouth replicate.

He doesn’t want to scare you off so he’s going to start you off easy with simple words that are important to his culture. You’ll learn about the four sacred colors, native symbols, traditions, food, and artwork.

“It’s forbidden to look at a solar eclipse. We stay inside our hogans and sit in contemplation about the sun and moon. We believe the sun and moon are interacting with each other.”

Rubber Soul- Singlish (Singaporean English)

Shiok! Lucky for you in Singapore, there’s a medley of languages spoken there! This man is a complete dumbass but he knows Mandarin, Malay, and English. Singlish IS English but the only catch is, it features a beautiful but complex patchwork of languages featuring Malay, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Tamil, and Teochew… So even if you are already an English speaker, you are in for an adventure!

He’s going to take you to hawker center and show you how to live like a true Singaporean! And first thing first is chope-ing. That’s probably the most important Singlish word you are ever going to hear. To chope is reserving a seat by setting your personal belongings down, like a handkerchief, a pack of tissues, or something bigger like a backpack. Low crime don’t mean no crime so don’t leave anything super important behind. Don’t worry about theft…Rubber Soul will be eager to give a back breaker to anyone who dares to try to steal your wallet. 😬

“Why does everyone talk like they’ve been google translated??? Pfft—don’t talk cock lah! That’s exactly what Singlish is. I told you that you weren’t going to understand it off the bat!”

Don’t try and argue with him on it. He’ll speak in complete Singlish and then not ask—but demand to repeat back what he just said in English. Only for him to laugh in your face. 😭

“Wah piang! So crowded! Where you want to makan? Chop chop—going to rain already! You go chope that table. Here have Indian, Thai, Sichuan, Malaysian, Indonesian, and Japanese. You want kopi ah? I SMS when ready. Ok—what did I just say?”

…

“Wah Lao eh?! I literally gave you the EASIEST Singlish phrases to translate! Man you are dumb—still love ya though!”

Steely Dan- Urdu

You wanna learn Urdu? Well of course you do! You might want to have an understanding of basic conversation in Urdu because he isn’t the best teacher despite how much boasts being otherwise. But he’s all smug and secretly giddy that you want to learn Urdu. If you know Arabic, you’re off to a good start! But you are going to have to rewire your brain to pronounce each letter differently and learn a few new ones.

“Of course you should learn my language! Do you know how much I go out of my way to communicate my love for you? Luckily for you I got top grades in writing and grammar in school so you have the best-most-handsome teacher ever.”

Oh boy, you have done it. You stroked his ego and now he’s going to non stop complimenting himself.

He’s going to expect lots of love letters in Urdu from you to him and vice versa. He’s going to have you read them aloud to him so he can hear his own flowery cheesy declarations of love for you. But tread carefully… he’s a grammar authoritarian and human spell checker! He’ll poke fun at your very hard attempts of writing this challenging language. (Just pretend to cry a bit or cry for real, he can’t stand crying and he’ll immediately start being much nicer)

“You call that Urdu?! Where’s your penmanship??? Those look like squiggly little worms!”

“Okay okay—don’t cry! I’m sorry ok?! I love you baby! I really mean it too! No more tears! I’ll help you rewrite your misspellings.”

N’Doul- Masri (Egyptian Arabic) and Arabic Braille*

He’s very flattered. He’d love to teach you, but due to his eyesight, he won’t be able to help you read but with his heightened sense of hearing he can really help you to pronounce everything correctly and get the accent right.

“Good effort, love. But you aren’t using your throat. You need to use your throat to pronounce the Al-Ahruf Al-Halqiyyah (6 throat letters). Try again. I know you can do it.”

Don’t worry about struggling. He understands what it’s like to struggle in life. He won’t baby you just like he expects you not to baby him because of his visual impairment. He’ll gently correct you each time you make a mistake.

—

Now if you’re blind too, or curious about a new way of reading, he’ll teach you Arabic Braille.

*Theres many different types of blindness and it doesn’t explicitly say what N’Doul has. But based off of his eyes and age he probably has congenital cataracts. This is just a HC. It’s all up to you!*

Now he can see just barely enough to guide your hand across the page to teach you each letter in braille. Braille in general is becoming used less and less so he is really intent on teaching you this important life skill as a visually impaired person. Interestingly enough, Arabic Braille is read left to right!

“I vaguely remember what Arabic script looked like before my sickness took away my vision. It used to feel strange reading from right to left and then left to right when I started learning Braille. It was a vast difference and took me a long time to learn. So please don’t worry if you struggle or make mistakes.”

With having you, Geb, and his heightened senses, he doesn’t really miss his vision. He just enjoys each passing moment with you, teaching you his language and sharing his culture

[croquis-el]

Authentic Japan in Gyakuten Saiban pt. 1

Those who played the Ace Attorney localization know that all the names authentic to Japan were either changed to common ones, or more or less explained by the characters watched movies/TV series and so on.

And what about the original Japanese version?

We encounter the decoration of a Japanese house in 2-2, when we visit the Kurain village. And what is noteworthy is that Naruhodō is well informed about such items and actively comments on each of them.

For starters, the curious name of one of the locations

同日 某時刻

綾里家・わたりろうか

Dōjitsu bō jikoku

Ayasato-ka watari rō ka

Same day, at a certain time

Ayasato family, Watarirōka

渡り廊下 (watarirōka) - passage

The word consists of the following kanji:

渡り (watari) - transit, ferry, cross

廊 (rō) - corridor, hall

下 (ka) - below, down, descend, low, inferior

I have an idea why the localization called this location "Winding Way", but I'm not a native speaker, so I can't be sure of the correctness of my conclusions. "Wind your way" fits the meaning quite well, but in my opinion, there was no point in reinventing the wheel and calling the "corridor" something else.

___________________________________________

灯ろうに、ししおどし。リッパな庭だなあ。

tōrō ni, shishi odoshi. Rippana niwada nā.

Tōrō lanterns and Shishiodoshi. What a nice garden.

････遊ぶには ちょっとせまいけど。

asobu ni wa chotto semaikedo.

... It's a little small to play in though.

でも、あの焼却炉が気になるなあ。

demo, ano shōkyakuro ga ki ni naru nā.

But I'm curious about that incinerator.

鹿威し (ししおどし) [shishiodoshi] - water-filled bamboo tube which clacks against a stone when emptied, device for scaring birds from gardens

___________________________________________

床の間。････ぼくにはどうも、 この空間のイミがわからない。

tokonoma. Boku ni wa dōmo, kono kūkan no imi ga wakaranai.

Tokonoma. ...I don't really understand the meaning of this space.

事務所にこんなものがあったら、 あっという間に物置だな。

jimusho ni kon'na mono ga attara, attoiumani monookida na.

If I had something like this in my office, it would just turn into a storage room.

しかしここには、きれいな花とシャレた掛け軸がかざってある。

shikashi koko ni wa, kireinahana to shareta kakejiku ga kazatte aru.

But there are beautiful flowers and stylish hanging scrolls here.

Tokonoma is an alcove or niche in the wall of a traditional Japanese home, one of the 4 main components of the main room of a Japanese aristocratic house.

Tokonoma should contain only art objects, such as kakemono - a scroll with a painting or a calligraphically written saying, motto or poem. Also, a small flower arrangement (ikebana) is a common attribute.

Interesting fact: according to Japanese etiquette, the most important guest sits with his back to the tokonoma.

Now pay attention to where and how the futon is located, on which the guest in the beret slept (if she had sat down on the futon, she would have ended up with her back to the tokonoma). Here you have a "simple student studying the occult".

Well, the fact that Naruhodo sees no point in having such a space in the house and is ready to use it as a warehouse, completely ignoring its original purpose, tells us that for him it is considered a relic of the past and has no sacred meaning (even as an art object). He is a modern resident of modern Japan, where there is no place for such traditions.

___________________________________________

そういえば、障子を見るのもひさしぶりだな。

sō ieba, shōji o miru no mo hisashi-burida na.

Now that I think about it, it's been a while since I last saw a shoji screen.

___________________________________________

青あおとしたサカキが まつられている。

aoao to shita sakaki ga matsura rete iru.

A blue Sakaki tree is enshrined here.

Cleyera japonica (sakaki) is a flowering evergreen tree. It is considered sacred to Japanese Shintō faith, and is one of the classical offerings at Shintō shrines. In Shinto ritual offerings to the "gods; spirits" (神, kami), branches of sakaki are decorated with paper streamers (shide) to make tamagushi.

It turns out to be quite interesting - if a person is not familiar with these interior items, then not only will he not tell anything about them, but he will not even know what they are called. Naruhodo, whose childhood fell at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century, could have learned about this only in a couple of cases:

1. He had been in a traditional Japanese house before, saw these items and was told about them by older relatives;

2. He independently studied old interior items (which is not surprising, because he studied art at the university).

This is also confirmed by his comment about shoji: "it's been a while since I last saw a shoji screen".

That is, he saw all this with his own eyes, but quite a long time ago.

Naruhodo is quite well educated in the culture of his own country, although some things have already lost their sacred meaning for him and are not used by him (and, possibly, his family) in everyday life.

Let's continue in the next part.