#linguistics database

[oxalisvstartrekblog]

I've noticed that people assume this site is dead since the old links from before the server move don't work. Here's the proper link.

[babybluesquid]

I get so frustrated when people say that young children don’t use contractions. Young children use contractions all the time BUT they use them as a single unit. So while an adult understands “don’t” as the contracted form of “do not,” a young child understands “don’t” as its own word, inseparable into parts, and that’s FAR more interesting from a developmental linguistics standpoint. “Young children don’t use contractions.” Are you being for real right now? When’s the last time you talked to a child? Young children say “wanna” all the time and that’s a contraction of “want to.” A classic little kid utterance is “I don’t wanna.”

Anyway write young child dialogue with contractions in it. It’s good for you.

[yurislavlcathedral]

multitasking writing hetalia fanfiction while playing recorded lectures about the establishment of writing systems and language globally is a very humbling feeling. the hetalia to history major pipeline is real

[linguisticdiscovery]

Database gives insights into language loss

A new global database of grammatical features in different languages also gives us new insights into the consequences of language loss.

The first study to use the new database—called Grambank—shows that grammatical diversity is decreasing in the areas of the world in which languages are most endangered.

You can explore the database yourself here!

An incredible book about what types of grammatical diversity are lost when languages stop being spoken is When languages die:

[triflesandparsnips]

Is there a database, or maybe a wiki, of written descriptions of physical actions? Because-- because gosh, if only as a resource for writers, there should be.

To clarify: Every time I come across a novel way to describe a physical action I'm always fucking delighted, because describing common actions in such a way as to be immediately obvious and not interrupt the flow of the text/reading is my (and, I imagine, other writers') bête noire. I therefore collect really good ones as I come across them, and I bet I'm not the only one-- case in point?

She toed off her shoes.

That's a very (very) popular -- and fanfic-originated, I think, based purely on usage history -- description for an action that regular shoe-wearers are absolutely familiar with: Using the toe portion of one foot to hold down the heel of the other, allowing the wearer to pull their foot out of the held-down shoe without needing to sit or use their hands.

A huge, annoying, and still kinda unclear paragraph reduced to a beautifully economic five words -- two words, even, if you just count "toed off".

One of my favorite descriptions-- that I saw for the first time in a Marvel fic (Good Boy, by triedunture) and have kept on my mental mantlepiece for the day I get to finally use it-- is:

his hands laced on top of his head

This one requires a little more context, but not by much-- the full quote is:

"Get it together, Rogers," he whispers to himself, pacing the floor with his hands laced on top of his head.

And look at that, right? In my mind, the most obvious visual accompanying that action would actually be Steve's arms raised, elbows winging out. The fingers laced together on his crown are incidental to the intended visual of those arms/elbows-- but the economical description of the single action ("hands laced on top of his head") implies all the rest of it, letting the reader's kinesthetic imagination do the actual heavy lifting. Amazing.

Anyway, I've seen body-language cheat sheets for writers, but I think what I'm asking for falls into a sliiightly different category-- those cheat sheets are more about, like, "emotion as motion" objective correlatives.

No, what I want is just a database, or a wiki, or even just a list outside my own, of damn good descriptions of actions-- highlighting the craft of writing economically (to give me more space for Other Nonsense) and collaboratively (to provide the audience all they need to fill in the blank with their own experiences and not get distracted by my authorial presence).

[hellsitegenetics]

String identified: aa ca t tat c tg "" 't tg cca "c" t t a t t t tat g "a" " g g ga" a ta c ta c t at ct t a

Closest match: Cannabis sativa cultivar ERBxHO40_23 chromosome 3

(image source)

Our Japanese class found it funny that in common terminology "food" isn't very distinguished from specifically "rice" until it was pointed out to us that in English "meal" is "loose roughly ground grain"

[saja-star]

this autotranslated russian database is amazing

[saucerfulofsins]

My friend made a super cool language guessing game that is now fully functional!

https://langle.uk/

The database has a lot of minority languages (especially in level 3) and if you don’t guess correctly, you get a hint based on linguistic relatedness.

[botaniqueer]

Rebuilt one of my older projects as a modern iOS project! This is the Morpheme Dictionary! It’s an etymological project for folks who like linguistics and words. Morphemes are the smallest divisible unit of meaning in a word. For example “dictionary” -> ‘dic’ + ‘tion’ + ‘ary’. Did you know that “disaster” (‘dis’ + ‘aster’) literally glosses to “bad star”?

I like learning what all the word bit means and how our words are constructed so I started compiling a database of them years ago. I’ve been wanting to get back into programming so I figured this would be a good re-introduction project.

Also if folks end up enjoying and getting a lot out of it, feel free to shoot me a tip! (Esp since that Apple dev license is costly to renew! @_@)

Eventually I’d like to release Android and Windows Desktop versions of the app once I’m more comfortable programming again and can learn those platforms so everyone can join in on the language fun!

[kailan-sunshine]

...and now it's de-activated. Does anyone have an updated link? or was it taken down entirely?

Seeking Help: Looking for a database

I’m looking for a database of language resource books available online. It was compiled by a university student in (New Zealand? I think) and I can’t find it anywhere now. There were thousands of books in hundreds of languages available.

I was studying several books there, but my bookmark has vanished, it isn’t showing up in my history, and I can’t find it anywhere on Tumblr.

Does anyone have a link to the site?

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Doodles Made by a 6-year-old Boy Named Onfim, from Russia, c. 1240-1260 CE: created nearly 800 years ago, these drawings were scrawled onto the homework/spelling exercises of a little boy in Novgorod

Over the last 75 years, excavations in and around Novgorod, in Russia, have led to the discovery of hundreds of documents dating back to the Middle Ages. These documents were made using pieces of bark from the local birch trees; they include letters, notes, spelling exercises, shopping lists, receipts, and legal documents, among other things.

The most famous examples are the panels that contain the writing exercises of a 6-7 year-old boy named Onfim, whose work was often accompanied by drawings of knights, fantastical beasts, battle scenes, and depictions of himself in various forms.

These are just a few examples:

Birch-Bark Document no.199: on the back of a panel that had been used for his spelling exercises, Onfim drew this picture of himself as a wild beast, writing "I am a wild beast" in the center of the drawing; the beast is also shown holding a sign that says "Greetings from Onfim to Danilo," likely referring to a friend or classmate.

Birch-Bark Document no.200: Onfim began writing the Cyrillic alphabet at the top of this panel, but he then stopped to draw a picture of himself as a warrior on horseback, labeling the figure with his name; the drawing shows him wielding a sword while he impales his enemy with a spear.

Birch-Bark Document no.202: the boy's mother and father are depicted in this drawing, which accompanies another writing exercise.

Birch-Bark Document no.206: Onfim began to copy a liturgical prayer (the Troparion of the Sixth Hour) onto this strip of bark, but he apparently got distracted after writing just the first few words, and started drawing a row of people along the bottom of the panel instead.

The examples above are just a few of the many documents that have been unearthed in Novgorod (now known as Veliky Novgorod) and its surrounding areas. More than a thousand birch-bark manuscripts and styli have been found throughout the region, suggesting that there was a high rate of literacy among the local inhabitants. Most of these documents were created during the 11th-15th centuries, when Novgorod served as the capital city of the Novgorod Republic; they had been buried in the thick, wet clay that permeates the local soil, in conditions that allowed them to remain almost perfectly preserved for hundreds of years.

I know that Onfim's drawings are pretty well-known already, but my most recent post involved a very similar writing exercise/doodle from a child in Medieval Egypt, so I just thought I'd post some of Onfim's work, as well.

Sources & More Info:

Institute of Slavic Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences: Birch-Bark no.200, no.199, no.202, no.203, no.206, & no.210 (the site is in Russian, but can be translated)

Institute of Slavic Studies: Full Database of Birch-Bark Documents

The New York Times: Where Mud is Archaeological Gold, Russian History Grew on Trees

Russian Linguistics: Old East Slavic Birch-Bark Literacy - a history of linguistic emancipation?

[mysteryshoptls]

SSR Ortho Shroud - Platinum Gear Vignette

"Happy 100th Anniversary"

[Land of Dawning – National Museum of Art]

Ortho: So, this is the Land of Dawning's National Museum of Art… It really has such a large and diverse collection of various genres of artwork. This is essentially a database of art.

Ortho: According to the map I installed, this exhibit should hold the painting I'm looking for…

???: An enormous dog with three heads and sharp fangs… A frightening creature, indeed. I would have loved to have seen it personally.

Ortho: Hello, Jade Leech-san. I was just here to check out the Cerberus painting, too.

Jade: Is that so? As a creature that served the Lord of the Underworld, the Cerberus truly did have a powerful aura about it.

Jade: I'm sure with all 6 of those eyes keenly trained on the entrance to the underworld, it would have been a difficult endeavor indeed to attempt an escape.

Ortho: They're really cool, don't you think?

Ortho: But, according to lore, if they got tempted by their favorite sweets, they would end up lowering their vigilance.

Jade: Fufu, I see. So, perhaps it was a more charming creature than it looked… Would you agree?

Ortho: Yep. Also, they had one body, right, so each of the three heads ate a smaller amount of food…

Ortho: And they'd get in fights whenever they wanted to go in different directions… There's so many other cool stories about them, too.

Jade: You're very well-informed. Is this something that all Ignihyde students must know?

Ortho: Mmm, I'm not sure. I probably just know a lot since I really liked the stories in which the Cerberus would show up, and I'd read them all the time.

Ortho: Back when I was a kid, me and my brother would read picture books on the legends of the Lord of the Underworld, see…

Ortho: And even after coming to Sage's Island, whenever I learned of a new tale involving Cerberus, I'd update my database.

Jade: I see, so that's how… Well, I appreciate having been able to hear some unexpected anecdotes.

Ortho: Most would say that they look ferocious, or seem really strong, but the more you get to know them, the more cute you'll find them.

Ortho: Since Cerberus is considered a dog-like monster, I've also been collecting data on regular dog behaviors too.

Ortho: Recently, I've gotten to pet some dogs out for a walk down in Whistle Park. Of course, I ask their owners for permission, first.

Jade: A real dog… That's astounding. As I do not have much experience with them, I'm afraid I'm a tad hesitant to actually touch them, myself.

Ortho: I was a bit hesitant too, at first. I didn't really know how much strength I should put into touching a living creature…

Ortho: And since I'm a technomantic humanoid and smell different than humans, they'd be super wary of me.

Jade: Ah, that makes sense. They do have a powerful sense of smell.

Jade: So then, how is it that you've become able to interact with those dogs, Ortho-kun?

Ortho: I just would strike up a conversation with them on a regular basis and slowly built trust.

Jade: That is astounding. This is the first I've heard that you are well-versed in animal linguistics.

Ortho: I'd always had an app installed that'd let me talk with animals, but…

Ortho: Once I became a student at Night Raven College, I actually developed an animal linguistics translation tool.

Ortho: By talking to the animals first hand, I was able to improve the translations that seems a bit strange…

Ortho: Not only has was I able to improve the translation accuracy, but now I've gotten close with a bunch of dogs that they'll actually come up to me themselves once they catch sight of me!

Jade: So, in addition to achieving your goal of petting dogs, you were able to update your own translation tool… Absolutely fantastic.

Ortho: Heheh! Thanks, Jade Leech-san.

[Land of Dawning – National Museum of Art]

Ortho: This is a painting depicting one of the scenes from the Mermaid Princess's legend, isn't it? That's the Sea King riding that sleigh, right?

Jade: That's right, and what a dignified and gallant figure he is. What a shame he was unaware that the princess would be absent for the concert.

Ortho: He got really mad the moment he learned that the princess was going to be absent for her own debut… or so the story goes.

Ortho: I feel bad for the king, that she slipped out without telling him. But it's pretty cool that he gets to ride that dolphin-led sleigh.

Jade: Did that dolphin-led sleigh catch your eye? Then please, you must visit the Coral Sea.

Jade: They are primarily used for special events, however there are many such sleigh services geared towards surface-dwelling tourists.

Ortho: Cool, what sort of stuff? Let me search up "Coral sea dolphins sleigh" real quick…

Ortho: Here we go, there's a ton of tours, like… "Tour the Majestic Sea on a Dolphin Sleigh" and "Explore Undersea Ruins upon a Dolphin Sleigh"

Ortho: "Dolphin-led sleighs are safe and secure! Feel like a king as you partake in an elegant tour of the sea!" …Wow!

Jade: Safe and secure… I am a tad doubtful of that statement.

Ortho: You mean it's actually dangerous?

Jade: About 2 years ago, there was an incident where tourists from the surface were left stranded in the middle of the ocean.

Ortho: Let me search for any incidents having to do with dolphin sleighs. Ah, I got a hit on a news article from 2 years back.

Ortho: The stranded tourists were able to find their way to land on their own, and were all okay in the end, but…

Ortho: The touring company responsible got a ton of bad reviews after that. Looks like they got flamed pretty badly online.

Jade: Well, now… A corporation built at the bottom of the sea in which fire cannot thrive was "flamed pretty badly," you say… How wonderfully ironic.

Jade: According to the news, the dolphins merely left on a whim. If this all happened because of their mood, then what's to stop this sort of thing from happening again?

Ortho: You're right, Jade-san. This is a completely different story than just trying to fix the bugs in the system.

Ortho: I wonder if there's some sort of pattern to the timing of those dolphin mood swings. I'll have to search up on it later.

Jade: Fufu, you are quite cautious, aren't you?

Ortho: Yep! 'Cause, if I'm going to go check them out, I'd want to go when they're in one of their flippant moods!

Jade: I was not expecting that response. I completely expected you to be wanting a "safe and secure" tour.

Ortho: It might be fine just strolling around the ocean depths, but I feel like it wouldn't be as satisfying being stuck on a set path.

Ortho: If the dolphins act up, they might leave me stranded in the ocean, or take me to unexpected places…

Ortho: Doesn't it get your blood pumping to think about what sort of unpredictable moments might be waiting for you?

Jade: Indeed, I completely understand that sentiment. When everything follows organized harmony, it does get quite boring.

Jade: Then, how about I suggest a more stimulating tour for you? I assure you, this absolutely will not leave you wallowing in boredom.

Ortho: That sounds fun! I can't wait to see what kind of tour you come up for me, Jade-san.

[Land of Dawning – National Museum of Art]

Jade: Ah, this artwork depicts the scene where the Fairest Queen is sending out her most trusted hunter on a significant mission.

Ortho: I heard that when it comes to paintings depicting the Fairest Queen, you'll want to focus on the finer details, like the direction her face is looking, or the angle at which her finger is pointing.

Ortho: Vil Schoenheit-san told me as such when I was selected as a supporter for the museum.

Jade: That's good to know. I'm sure those in Pomefiore would be passionately moved while gazing upon this painting.

Ortho: Hmm, the concept of being moved by just looking at a painting is still a difficult one for me to grasp…

Ortho: But actually, something happened recently that's still stuck in my mind. I wonder if this is what they consider to be "moved" by something?

Jade: What a fascinating start. May I ask what sort of thing happened?

Ortho: The Film Research Club went to Crane Port for some club activities, and on the way back, I ran into this family that was fishing.

Ortho: They were chatting away about what kind of dishes they'd make if they caught anything, but their bucket was still devoid of any fish…

Ortho: Right as the dad said, "I guess we should head home," his kid caught a fish!

Ortho: Everyone looked so happy. But what do you think that family did next?

Jade: Did they not put the fish in the bucket and carry it home?

Ortho: Nope. They just said it would be a pity to eat a creature so small and threw it back into the ocean.

Ortho: But they did that after they had finally fished one up! It didn't really make sense to me, so it was hard to understand what I saw.

Jade: If I recall, there is a certain release size criteria that is implemented here on land in order to conserve water resources.

Ortho: Yep. But according to my measurements, that fish was about 5 cm larger than the release criterion.

Ortho: Based on the way that family was talking, once they had caught a fish that was "big," they should have taken it home with them.

Ortho: Even though it was an adult fish adequate for cooking up, they pitied it because it looked too small…

Ortho: No matter how many times I think it over, I can't really understand that mechanism.

Jade: I thought this would be a story where you were moved by their care for a small creature… But instead, I see you were more taken in by their incomprehensible actions.

Ortho: They spent time and energy into trying to fish up that fish, but in the end… I wonder if that sort of illogical action is what makes a human human.

Jade: Perhaps, perhaps not. For that family, it may be that was the most logical choice.

Ortho: Eh, what do you mean?

Jade: If it were a large fish, then the whole family could divide it up and eat it. However, a single, small fish would not nearly be enough.

Jade: In order for everyone in the family to eat their fill, they would need to cook up more dishes to go with it.

Jade: Then, if there were no fish to begin with, they wouldn't have to go through the trouble of making extra dishes… Perhaps that would be a better way to think of it?

Ortho: I see…! If I were to think from the eyes of the person who has to prepare the meal, that decision makes more sense.

Jade: This is only a possible scenario I've come up with… But I only mean it to illustrate that there are many ways to view something.

Ortho: Heh! See, this is why talking with as many different peoples as I can gives me so much new data… Plus, it's really interesting!

Ortho: Thanks a ton for listening, Jade-san. I hope we can chat about other stuff some other time.

Ortho: Okay, time for me to go check out another exhibit. Oh hey, this painting…

Ortho: It depicts the moment when the Son of the God of Thunder and his trainer is talking about his grand dreams.

Ortho: According to the lore, this guy's strength was way off the charts and was invulnerable, but… I bet I could find it.

Ortho: I know I could find a weakness that could bring even a hero like that down.

Requested by Anonymous.

[max1461]

Linguists deal with two kinds of theories or models.

First, you have grammars. A grammar, in this sense, is a model of an individual natural language: what sorts of utterances occur in that language? When are they used and what do they mean? Even assembling this sort of model in full is a Herculean task, but we are fairly successful at modeling sub-systems of individual languages: what sounds occur in the language, and how may they be ordered and combined?—this is phonology. What strings of words occur in the language, and what strings don't, irrespective of what they mean?—this is syntax. Characterizing these things, for a particular language, is largely tractable. A grammar (a model of the utterances of a single language) is falsified if it predicts utterances that do not occur, or fails to predict utterances that do occur. These situations are called "overgeneration" and "undergeneration", respectively. One of the advantages linguistics has as a science is that we have both massive corpora of observational data (text that people have written, databases of recorded phone calls), and access to cheap and easy experimental data (you can ask people to say things in the target language—you have to be a bit careful about how you do this—and see if what they say accords with your model). We have to make some spherical cow type assumptions, we have to "ignore friction" sometimes (friction is most often what the Chomskyans call "performance error", which you do not have to be a Chomskyan to believe in, but I digress). In any case, this lets us build robust, useful, highly predictive, and falsifiable, although necessarily incomplete, models of individual natural languages. These are called descriptive grammars.

Descriptive grammars often have a strong formal component—Chomsky, for all his faults, recognized that both phonology and syntax could be well described by formal grammars in the sense of mathematics and computer science, and these tools have been tremendously productive since the 60s in producing good models of natural language. I believe Chomsky's program sensu stricto is a dead end, but the basic insight that human language can be thought about formally in this way has been extremely useful and has transformed the field for the better. Read any descriptive grammar, of a language from Europe or Papua or the Amazon, and you will see (in linguists' own idiosyncratic notation) a flurry regexes and syntax trees (this is a bit unfair—the computer scientists stole syntax trees from us, also via Chomsky) and string rewrite rules and so on and so forth. Some of this preceded Chomsky but more than anyone else he gave it legs.

Anyway, linguists are also interested in another kind of model, which confusingly enough we call simply a "theory". So you have "grammars", which are theories of individual natural languages, and you have "theories", which are theories of grammars. A linguistic theory is a model which predicts what sorts of grammar are possible for a human language to have. This generally comes in the form of making claims about

the structure of the cognitive faculty for language, and its limitations

the pathways by which language evolves over time, and the grammars that are therefore attractors and repellers in this dynamical system.

Both of these avenues of research have seen some limited success, but linguistics as a field is far worse at producing theories of this sort than it is at producing grammars.

Capital-G Generativism, Chomsky's program, is one such attempt to produce a theory of human language, and it has not worked very well at all. Chomsky's adherents will say it has worked very well—they are wrong and everybody else thinks they are very wrong, but Chomsky has more clout in linguistics than anyone else so they get to publish in serious journals and whatnot. For an analogy that will be familiar to physics people: Chomskyans are string theorists. And they have discovered some stuff! We know about wh-islands thanks to Generativism, and we probably would not have discovered them otherwise. Wh-islands are weird! It's a good thing the Chomskyans found wh-islands, and a few other bits and pieces like that. But Generativism as a program has, I believe, hit a dead end and will not be recovering.

Right, Generativism is sort of, kind of attempting to do (1), poorly. There are other people attempting to do (1) more robustly, but I don't know much about it. It's probably important. For my own part I think (2) has a lot of promise, because we already have a fairly detailed understanding of how language changes over time, at least as regards phonology. Some people are already working on this sort of program, and there's a lot of work left to be done, but I do think it's promising.

Someone said to me, recently-ish, that the success of LLMs spells doom for descriptive linguistics. "Look, that model does better than any of your grammars of English at producing English sentences! You've been thoroughly outclassed!". But I don't think this is true at all. Linguists aren't confused about which English sentences are valid—many of us are native English speakers, and could simply tell you ourselves without the help of an LLM. We're confused about why. We're trying to distill the patterns of English grammar, known implicitly to every English speaker, into explicit rules that tell us something explanatory about how English works. An LLM is basically just another English speaker we can query for data, except worse, because instead of a human mind speaking a human language (our object of study) it's a simulacrum of such.

Uh, for another physics analogy: suppose someone came along with a black box, and this black box had within it (by magic) a database of every possible history of the universe. You input a world-state, and it returns a list of all the future histories that could follow on from this world state. If the universe is deterministic, there should only be one of them; if not maybe there are multiple. If the universe is probabilistic, suppose the machine also gives you a probability for each future history. If you input the state of a local patch of spacetime, the machine gives you all histories in which that local patch exists and how they evolve.

Now, given this machine, I've got a theory of everything for you. My theory is: whatever the machine says is going to happen at time t is what will happen at time t. Now, I don't doubt that that's a very useful thing! Most physicists would probably love to have this machine! But I do not think my theory of everything, despite being extremely predictive, is a very good one. Why? Because it doesn't tell you anything, it doesn't identify any patterns in the way the natural world works, it just says "ask the black box and then believe it". Well, sure. But then you might get curious and want to ask: are there patterns in the black box's answers? Are there human-comprehensible rules which seem to characterize its output? Can I figure out what those are? And then, presto, you're doing good old regular physics again, as if you didn't even have the black box. The black box is just a way to run experiments faster and cheaper, to get at what you really want to know.

General Relativity, even though it has singularities, and it's incompatible with Quantum Mechanics, is better as a theory of physics than my black box theory of everything, because it actually identifies patterns, it gives you some insight into how the natural world behaves, in a way that you, a human, can understand.

In linguistics, we're in a similar situation with LLMs, only LLMs are a lot worse than the black box I've described—they still mess up and give weird answers from time to time. And more importantly, we already have a linguistic black box, we have billions of them: they're called human native speakers, and you can find one in your local corner store or dry cleaner. Querying the black box and trying to find patterns is what linguistics already is, that's what linguists do, and having another, less accurate black box does very little for us.

Now, there is one advantage that LLMs have. You can do interpretability research on LLMs, and figure out how they are doing what they are doing. Linguists and ML researchers are kind of in a similar boat here. In linguistics, well, we already all know how to talk, we just don't know how we know how to talk. In ML, you have these models that are very successful, buy you don't know why they work so well, how they're doing it. We have our own version of interpretability research, which is neuroscience and neurolinguistics. And ML researchers have interpretability research for LLMs, and it's very possible theirs progresses faster than ours! Now with the caveat that we can't expect LLMs to work just like the human brain, and we can't expect the internal grammar of a language inside an LLM to be identical to the one used implicitly by the human mind to produce native-speaker utterances, we still might get useful insights out of proper scrutiny of the innards of an LLM that speaks English very well. That's certainly possible!

But just having the LLM, does that make the work of descriptive linguistics obsolete? No, obviously not. To say so completely misunderstands what we are trying to do.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Twinkump Linkdump

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in SAN DIEGO at MYSTERIOUS GALAXY next MONDAY (Mar 24), and in CHICAGO with PETER SAGAL on Apr 2. More tour dates here.

I have an excellent excuse for this week's linkdump: I'm in Germany, but I'm supposed to be in LA, and I'm not, because London Heathrow shut down due to a power-station fire, which meant I spent all day yesterday running around like a headless chicken, trying to get home in time for my gig in San Diego on Monday (don't worry, I sorted it):

https://www.mystgalaxy.com/32425Doctorow

Therefore, this is 30th linkdump, in which I collect the assorted links that didn't make it into this week's newsletters. Here are the other 29:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

I always like to start and end these 'dumps with some good news, which isn't easy in these absolutely terrifying times. But there is some good news: Wil Wheaton has announced his new podcast, a successor of sorts to the LeVar Burton Reads podcast. It's called "It's Storytime" and it features Wil reading his favorite stories handpicked from science fiction magazines, including On Spec, the magazine that bought my very first published story (I was 16, it ran in their special youth issue, it wasn't very good, but boy did it mean a lot to me):

https://wilwheaton.net/podcast/

Here's some more good news: a court has found (again!) that works created by AI are not eligible for copyright. This is the very best possible outcome for people worried about creators' rights in the age of AI, because if our bosses can't copyright the botshit that comes out of the "AI" systems trained on our work, then they will pay us:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-appeals-court-rejects-copyrights-171203999.html

Our bosses hate paying us, but they hate the idea of not being able to stop people from copying their entertainment products so! much! more! It's that simple:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/20/everything-made-by-an-ai-is-in-the-public-domain/

This outcome is so much better than the idea that AI training isn't fair use – an idea that threatens the existence of search engines, archiving, computational linguistics, and other clearly beneficial activities. Worse than that, though: if we create a new copyright that allows creators to prevent others from scraping and analyzing their works, our bosses will immediately alter their non-negotiable boilerplate contracts to demand that we assign them this right. That will allow them to warehouse huge troves of copyrighted material that they will sell to AI companies who will train models designed to put us on the breadline (see above, re: our bosses hate paying us):

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/13/hey-look-over-there/#lets-you-and-he-fight

The rights of archivists grow more urgent by the day, as the Trump regime lays waste to billions of dollars worth of government materials that were produced at public expense, deleting decades of scientific, scholarly, historical and technical materials. This is the kind of thing you might expect the National Archive or the Library of Congress to take care of, but they're being chucked into the meat-grinder as well.

To make things even worse, Trump and Musk have laid waste to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a tiny, vital agency that provides funding to libraries, archives and museums across the country. Evan Robb writes about all the ways the IMLS supports the public in his state of Washington:

Technology support. Last-mile broadband connection, network support, hardware, etc. Assistance with the confusing e-rate program for reduced Internet pricing for libraries.

Coordinated group purchase of e-books, e-audiobooks, scholarly research databases, etc.

Library services for the blind and print-disabled.

Libraries in state prisons, juvenile detention centers, and psychiatric institutions.

Digitization of, and access to, historical resources (e.g., newspapers, government records, documents, photos, film, audio, etc.).

Literacy programming and support for youth services at libraries.

The entire IMLS budget over the next 10 years rounds to zero when compared to the US federal budget – and yet, by gutting it, DOGE is amputating significant parts of the country's systems that promote literacy; critical thinking; and universal access to networks, media and ideas. Put it that way, and it's not hard to see why they hate it so.

Trying to figure out what Trump is up to is (deliberately) confusing, because Trump and Musk are pursuing a chaotic agenda that is designed to keep their foes off-balance:

https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-donald-trump-chaos/

But as Hamilton Nolan writes, there's a way to cut through the chaos and make sense of it all. The problem is that there are a handful of billionaires who have so much money that when they choose chaos, we all have to live with it:

The significant thing about the way that Elon Musk is presently dismantling our government is not the existence of his own political delusions, or his own self-interested quest to privatize public functions, or his own misreading of economics; it is the fact that he is able to do it. And he is able to do it because he has several hundred billion dollars. If he did not have several hundred billion dollars he would just be another idiot with bad opinions. Because he has several hundred billion dollars his bad opinions are now our collective lived experience.

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/the-underlying-problem

We actually have a body of law designed to prevent this from happening. It's called "antitrust" and 40 years ago, Jimmy Carter decided to follow the advice of some of history's dumbest economists who said that fighting monopolies made the economy "inefficient." Every president since, up to – but not including – Biden, did even more to encourage monopolization and the immense riches it creates for a tiny number of greedy bastards.

But Biden changed that. Thanks to the "Unity Taskforce" that divided up the presidential appointments between the Democrats' corporate wing and the Warren/Sanders wing, Biden appointed some of the most committed, effective trustbusters we'd seen for generations:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

After Trump's election, there was some room for hope that Trump's FTC would continue to pursue at least some of the anti-monopoly work of the Biden years. After all, there's a sizable faction within the MAGA movement that hates (some) monopolies:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/24/enforcement-priorities/#enemies-lists

But last week, Trump claimed to have illegally fired the two Democratic commissioners on the FTC: Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter. I stan both of these commissioners, hard. When they were at the height of their powers in the Biden years, I had the incredible, disorienting experience of getting out of bed, checking the headlines, and feeling very good about what the government had just done.

Trump isn't legally allowed to fire Bedoya and Slaughter. Perhaps he's just picking this fight as part of his chaos agenda (see above). But there are some other pretty good theories about what this is setting up. In his BIG newsletter, Matt Stoller proposes that Trump is using this case as a wedge, trying to set a precedent that would let him fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/why-trump-tried-to-fire-federal-trade

But perhaps there's more to it. Stoller just had Commissioner Bedoya on Organized Money, the podcast he co-hosts with David Dayen, and Bedoya pointed out that if Trump can fire Democratic commissioners, he can also fire Republican commissioners. That means that if he cuts a shady deal with, say, Jeff Bezos, he can order the FTC to drop its case against Amazon and fire the Republicans on the commission if they don't frog when he jumps:

https://www.organizedmoney.fm/p/trumps-showdown-at-the-ftc-with-commissioner

(By the way, Organized Money is a fantastic podcast, notwithstanding the fact that they put me on the show last week:)

https://audio.buzzsprout.com/6f5ly01qcx6ijokbvoamr794ht81

The future that our plutocrat overlords are grasping for is indeed a terrible one. You can see its shape in the fantasies of "liberatarian exit" – the seasteads, free states, and other assorted attempts to build anarcho-capitalist lawless lands where you can sell yourself into slavery, or just sell your kidneys. The best nonfiction book on libertarian exit is Raymond Criab's 2022 "Adventure Capitalism," a brilliant, darkly hilarious and chilling history of every time a group of people have tried to found a nation based on elevating selfishness to a virtue:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/14/this-way-to-the-egress/#terra-nullius

If Craib's book is the best nonfiction volume on the subject of libertarian exit, then Naomi Kritzer's super 2023 novel Liberty's Daughter is the best novel about life in a libertopia – a young adult novel about a girl growing up in the hell that would be life with a Heinlein-type dad:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/21/podkaynes-dad-was-a-dick/#age-of-consent

But now this canon has a third volume, a piece of design fiction from Atelier Van Lieshout called "Slave City," which specs out an arcology populated with 200,000 inhabitants whose "very rational, efficient and profitable" arrangements produce €7b/year in profit:

https://www.archdaily.com/30114/slave-city-atelier-van-lieshout

This economic miracle is created by the residents' "voluntary" opt-in to a day consisting of 7h in an office, 7h toiling in the fields, 7h of sleep, and 3h for "leisure" (e.g. hanging out at "The Mall," a 24/7, 26-storey " boundless consumer paradise"). Slaves who wish to better themselves can attend either Female Slave University or Male Slave University (no gender controversy in Slave City!), which run 24/7, with 7 hours of study, 7 hours of upkeep and maintenance on the facility, 7h of sleep, and, of course, 3h of "leisure."

The field of design fiction is a weird and fertile one. In his traditional closing keynote for this year's SXSW Interactive festival, Bruce Sterling opens with a little potted history of the field since it was coined by Julian Bleeker:

https://bruces.medium.com/how-to-rebuild-an-imaginary-future-2025-0b14e511e7b6

Then Bruce moves on to his own latest design fiction project, an automated poetry machine called the Versificatore first described by Primo Levi in an odd piece of science fiction written for a newspaper. The Versificatore was then adapted to the screen in 1971, for an episode of an Italian sf TV show based on Levi's fiction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tva-D_8b8-E

And now Sterling has built a Versificatore. The keynote is a sterlingian delight – as all of his SXSW closers are. It's a hymn to the value of "imaginary futures" and an instruction manual for recovering them. It could not be more timely.

Sterling's imaginary futures would be a good upbeat note to end this 'dump with, but I've got a real future that's just as inspiring to close us out with: the EU has found Apple guilty of monopolizing the interfaces to its devices and have ordered the company to open them up for interoperability, so that other manufacturers – European manufacturers! – can make fully interoperable gadgets that are first-class citizens of Apple's "ecosystem":

https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-ordered-by-eu-antitrust-regulators-open-up-rivals-2025-03-19/

It's a good reminder that as America crumbles, there are still places left in the world with competent governments that want to help the people they represent thrive and prosper. As the Prophet Gibson tells us, "the future is here, it's just not evenly distributed." Let's hope that the EU is living in America's future, and not the other way around.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/22/omnium-gatherum/#storytime

Image: TDelCoro https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomasdelcoro/48116604516/

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

[gallusrostromegalus]

Is Tousen prescriptivist or descriptivist? As a librarian, he would certainly have strong opinions about it. For that matter, do any other characters have a notable stance on the topic?

For those of you who are not friends with linguistics nerds:

It is two truths largely universally acknowledged that 1. Words and Gramatical conventions mean specific things and 2. Language changes over time. Perscriptivisim is the perspective that WE HAVE RULES ABOUT LANGUAGE, DAMMIT. They have a point- for a lot of things we use words for like legal documents, manufacturing instructions, and medical research- Precision is KEY. But it isn't very flexible and doesn't account for some of the nuances of language. Descriptivism is a stance that is a bit more akin to your stoner buddy going "What even ARE words?". They have a point- language is, at it's core, a massive cooperative game of make-believe. But it'd not very helpful when you need to be clear about your meaning.

This can make editing... difficult.

Kaname had strong opinions on it when he was a librarian that have only gotten more insane and intense since becoming Editor-In-Chief of the Gotei-13's newspaper, but true to fashion, has managed to pick a position that pisses off everyone.

He's a Topical Perscriptivist.

There is a Meticulously updated and catalogued database of shifts in word usage, slang and novel grammatical structures. It's an incredible academic resource, and a helpful living translation document in the Gotei-13 where the last time the division policies got updated was in the Meji era. He's working on a mobile version for the newfangled 'smart' communicators. It's an incredibly useful tool!

Kaname pisses people off by using it to be a persnickety little shit about the grammatical rules of linguistic conventions invented last week.

"You know, if you want to annoy him back, you can try hosing your boss back with the constant stream of madness from the internet!" Keigo suggested to Shuuhei once. "There's a fun new term for throwing something real hard that could use an offi- You're kidding."

Shuuhei shook his head, handing the Official Conjugation of Yeet Document from the 9th division's Database of Current Linguistics to Keigo. "The Captain had this drawn up within an hour of the term hitting the 10th Division reports page. It's got a regular Perfect Tense, but Irregular and different Imperative, Continuous and Conditional tenses for maximum confusion."

"...That motherfucker." Keigo groaned, looking over the conjugation tables. "...I yeet, He yeets, we yote, I had yeeted, she had been yote, they will have been yet- Its so stupid but it makes so much intuitive sense! It's the perfect joke conjugation for a joke word!"

"That's why he's The Captain." Shuuhei nodded.

"I thought he was captain because he beat the crap out of Mugurama-san for the job? Twice?"

"Listen here you little shit-"

[snitchcrimsonwrites]

Drawn Together-Chapter 6

Pairing: Tech x Jedi! Reader

The Bad Batch are on the run after the events on Pantora when they run into a mysterious stranger who offers them assistance. Who is this stranger, and why does it seem like they know Echo? The story will follow the events of the series once established.

Dearest reader, thank you for sticking through 5 chapters of setup. Let the relationship develop!

Well, that didn't go as smoothly as you hoped. Enjoy some downtime with Tech while the Batch lays low.

Chapter 7

Outside the windshield, stars stretch into lines as the Marauder jumps into hyperspace, the blue tunnel washing over the cabin. Hunter breaks the silence, “We’ll lay low for a while. There’s a dead moon on the Outer Rim, barely a blip on any chart. We’ve used it before.” He pauses, looking at you. “You’re welcome to stay with us, or we can drop you somewhere quiet. Your choice.”

You consider it. "I... still haven’t made up my mind. Everything down there reminded me of who I once was, but it also highlighted how much has changed.” You paused, furrowing your brow. "Also, running with a Jedi puts your team at unnecessary risk; are you sure you want that?”

With a confident smile, Hunter states, “We wouldn’t be here without you. I think that earns you a spot on the team.”

“No rush. You’ve earned time to think.” Echo responds affirming his sergeant’s sentiments.

Everyone gets comfortable as the ship travels through hyperspace, the adrenaline fading and drowsiness creeping in. The ambiance on the ship is quiet, with most of the squad either asleep or resting. A solitary overhead light casts a gentle glow over the common area. Seated alone at the table, you are surrounded by several well-worn, leather-bound journals from your pack, jotting down notes in the margin of one page while quietly murmuring in an ancient dialect. Sleep remains elusive, even in your tired state.

A soft mechanical whir signals the door opening from the cockpit. Tech steps through the threshold, looking up from his data pad, surprised. “I didn’t expect anyone else to be awake.”

You react, looking up quickly, straightening slightly, while one hand instinctively slides protectively over your notes before you realize who it is.” Oh—Tech. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

He shakes his head. “You didn’t. I… don’t sleep much.” He pauses when he sees the spread of texts in front of you. “Neither do you, I take it?”

“Not since Order 66. Dreams have a way of finding me when I do.”

Tech nods, quietly understanding. He walks closer, eyeing the journals curiously. “Those are… ancient. Jedi in origin? The characters seem unique?”

“Some are. Others came from fringe temples and Force-adjacent sects. I’ve been trying to translate them for years. So far, all I’ve got to show is bits and pieces, my master was obsessed with uncovering lost history.”

Tech leans slightly, scanning one of the open pages. The script is narrow, flowing, and almost musical in its form. “This… isn’t any variation of Aurebesh I know. Nor does it seem to appear in any Republic linguistic database.”

“That’s because it’s pre-Republic. It’s called Tal’reesh. Root dialect of a forgotten civilization near the Unknown Regions. Some believe they were early Force-users…long before the Jedi Order existed.”

Tech’s eyes light up with a spark of genuine interest. “Fascinating. May I?” gesturing to the table.

You nod, and he slides into the seat across from you. He picks up one of the journals carefully, thumbing through a few pages.

“These characters… they feel mathematical. Not just written, but patterned. I wonder if the language is layered, like a code?”

You sit up straighter now, surprised at his observation. “You’re the first person to notice that. I have had the same suspicion. My master believed their language embodied the Force, manifested through symbol, rhythm, and intention.”

“Like linguistic fractals…”

“Exactly,” finding solace in the mutual understanding.

Both of you fall silent, leaning over the same text. The soft hum of the ship merges with the quiet scratch of the stylus on the datapad. Eventually, you glance up at him, your expression softer now. “You know… I didn’t expect to find anyone who could keep up with this kind of work. Let alone... be interested. It wasn’t exactly popular even among Jedi.”

“Well, I don’t often find people who speak in linguistics theory and ancient dialects at the same time. It is… unexpected. But not unwelcome.”

___________

Later the next day, the Marauder exits hyperspace and lands in the center of a vast canyon beneath a pale blue sky. The moon is quiet, barren, and windless. Just craggy rocks, shallow caves, and silence. The Batch has established a temporary camp just outside the ship. A small fire flickers in a rocky alcove, illuminating their faces. Tech calibrates a portable scanner nearby, while Wrecker lies back on a blanket of gear.

Another stretch of quiet hours passes before Tech lifts his eyes from his datapad, realizing you’ve disappeared. The next time Tech finds you, you’re again seated at the common area table on board the Marauder. He steps in, eyes immediately finding yours.

“I had hoped you would be here,” he says, voice low and almost warm with familiarity.

You glance up from your notes, lips tugging into a faint smile. “Couldn’t sleep.”

“I assumed.” He steps closer, but doesn’t sit just yet. Instead, he looks over the scattered texts again. “You’ve made progress since last time,” observing some new lines of translation.

You tap the margin of one journal with a stylus. “A little. One of the root symbols here seems to repeat in ritual context…see the curve, and how it mirrors this passage from a completely different source?” You lift the journal, showing him exactly where. “ I think it might represent more than a word. A concept, maybe.”

He leans over your shoulder, studying the inked curves intently. “I’ve been thinking,” Tech says slowly, finally. “I’ve never encountered a language like this. It's as much a puzzle as it is text. I want to understand it.” He hesitates, as though the following words take a particular effort. “Would you teach me?”

You blink, not expecting that. “You want to learn Tal’reesh?”

“I do. I find the structure fascinating… plus there’s always a benefit to learning another language.. Even a dead one.”

You look at him for a long beat, then nod. “Alright. But I’ll warn you, it’s slow going.”

Tech finally sits, placing his datapad aside. “Some of the most worthwhile pursuits begin with a slower pace. That said, you might be surprised by my affinity for languages,” he finishes confidently.

You laugh, impressed by his confidence, and pass him a blank sheet and an old transcription key you compiled long ago. “Then let’s start with the basics. The root glyphs. They’re drawn, not written. Like... weaving meaning into shape.” As you speak, Tech listens with undivided focus, stylus in hand, and the night continues like this until the need for sleep calls you both.

_________________

The next morning a soft sun ascends above the rugged ridges of the deserted moon as dust dances lightly in the morning breeze. The Marauder lies quietly among the rocks, its hull shimmering in the faint light of dawn, as its crew gathers around their improvised camp, savoring their limited rations. Hunter speaks up, asking whether you have made a decision about joining them.

“Maybe I’ll stick around. At least until the next crazy idea gets one of you nearly crushed by a cave-in, or falls from ridiculous heights,” you joke.

Hunter smiles. “So… tomorrow, then?”

You laugh quietly, finally letting yourself relax a little. “ But seriously, I think I’d like to stay. With your squad. I feel this is what I’m supposed to be doing right now.”

“You’re sure?”

“I spent the war following orders, watching people fight and die for a Republic. I convinced myself I was just doing my duty.” You pause, not realizing the weight of those words until they leave your lips. “But now I think I understand. Maybe I wasn’t meant to be a general. Or a scholar. Maybe I was meant to be this. Someone who doesn’t abandon the people who need help, when it counts.”

“Then you’re welcome here.”

You chuckle slightly at his sincerity. “That said… I’ve been out of practice. If I’m going to pull my weight, I need to sharpen up. Would your squad be willing to run me through some training exercises?”

Hunter chuckles lightly, turning his attention toward the others. “You hear that?”

Wrecker grins, already hopping to his feet. “Training time? I love training time!”

Echo laughs, shaking his head, “You might regret asking.”

Tech is ahead of the curve; he is already making a schedule for you on his datapad. “We’ll tailor a hybrid routine. Close quarters, blaster defense, squad coordination—perhaps a Force reaction test.”

“I’ll help too! I’ve been training with them for months now!” Omega chimes in excitedly.

“Alright then. Let’s see if this old Jedi can still keep up.”

—------------

Later in the day, the sun sits high overhead, creating elongated shadows over the rough landscape. A new array of challenges is set up: barricades, close combat areas, “training dummies”, and designated dueling circles.

“I’ve scheduled a full day of targeted drills. Each of us will focus on a core specialization. We’ll focus on combat, tactics, firearms, and reaction testing,” Tech announces, gesturing to a schedule displayed on this datapad. “First will be a hand-to-hand combat exercise with Wrecker. We’ve set up a makeshift combat area right outside camp.” He gestures to the circle off to the side of the camp, indicating it was time to begin.

After a few moments of preparation, the others form a loose circle as Wrecker steps forward into the zone, cracking his knuckles and rolling the tension from his neck. He grins widely, shaking out the muscles in his arms. “Alright, Jedi, let’s see what you’ve got.”

Echo leans over to Hunter and whispers, “What do you think? I’m a little worried the General won’t go easy on him,” as he watches you approach the makeshift ring. Hunter laughs, “It could go either way.”

You approach keeping your stance loose, hands relaxed, knees slightly bent. The height difference between you two couldn’t be more comical. Any other observers would take Wrecker in an instant and claim you a longshot, but everyone in Batch knew size didn’t necessarily matter when it came to a Jedi.

Tech signals the go-ahead, and Wrecker charges in, broad and fast his full body weight behind him. You know you can’t meet his strength head-on; instead, you sidestep, pivot, and flow around him like water, allowing him to rush past you.

Unfazed, he returns once more, swinging broadly— he misses. You crouch low as he stumbles ahead. Spotting an opportunity, you leverage his momentum to slip behind him, tapping the back of his armor with two fingers. Wrecker trips over a rock, tumbling down and hitting the ground with a resounding thud.

“Okay… didn’t see that coming, “ he grunts from the ground.

A small smile appears on Hunter’s lips. “She didn’t throw a single punch.”

“Efficient use of energy and motion. Impressive,” Tech nods approvingly adding the outcome to his report.

“That was amazing!” Omega grins, absolutely fascinated.

“Best two out of three!” Wrecker shouts, unwilling to give in. The second round plays out similarly to the first, though to Wrecker’s credit, it lasts much longer this time.

Hunter is next, prepared to spar with improvised weapons this time. He twirls a training staff in his hand as you mimic the movement, showing you're not one to shy away from a challenge.

Like Wrecker, Hunter initiates the attack, delivering precise and purposeful strikes. You respond to each hit with quick parries, your staff slicing through the air to meet his with deadly accuracy. You move with clarity, anticipation guiding your every step. A series of rapid exchanges ends with you spinning around him and knocking his staff out of position.

“Whoa���” Omega breathes out, mesmerized by both combatants’ movements. Such distinctly different styles meeting in combat. Echo leans in to reply to Omega, “Nothing more impressive than watching a Jedi in action, I’m still not used to it.”

Hunter resets, coming in harder now, but you’re quicker. You feint, duck, and finally sweep his legs in one smooth motion, knocking him flat on his back. Hunter blinks up at you from the ground, your staff only inches from his throat, and holds his hands up, signaling defeat, “Alright. That one’s yours.”

You smile and offer a hand to help him to his feet. “Good match.”

Today’s final session involved blaster target practice with Echo and Tech. They created a makeshift firing range by stacking rocks of different sizes and shapes to mimic dummy targets at various distances. Echo and Tech fire first and deliver precise fire, taking down targets effortlessly.

You stand at the line, gripping a standard DC-17. Initially, your stance is questionable. "Too cautious,” as Echo noted, and work to correct with Tech’s subtle advice. With that adjustment, you manage shots that hit center-mass. Not always bulls-eyes, but consistent enough.

“Not bad. Stay light on your feet,” Echo encourages as you round to complete the last circuit.

Tech finalizes the last inputs on the data pad, assessing the results from your previous round. “Lateral reaction time is above average. Accuracy stands at 78%. Not terrible for someone trained with a lightsaber.”

You smile, brushing sweat from your brow. “I’ll take it for now.”

You complete the last round of training, and all gather at camp as the sun sets on the deserted moon. The Batch is at ease, weary yet content. You sit next to Omega, who radiates energy from observing the training throughout the day. “You were incredible today. Especially with the staff, like, really incredible.”

“Thanks,” you smile, happy that you managed to impress the young girl, hoping it is the same for the rest of the Batch.

Hunter confirms your thoughts. “You handled yourself well across the board. You’ve got the instincts, I think you’ll fit in nicely.”

“Still say I slipped,” Wrecker grins, not admitting a fair defeat.

Tech raises a finger coming to your defense, “Statistically, it was a well-executed maneuver. You tripped.”

“Yeah, yeah…” He grumbles.

“Thanks for doing this. I appreciate that you didn’t have to,” you smile at everyone. It felt great to be part of a team again.

As the night progresses, the Batch rests by the fire as it crackles low, casting a warm glow over their tired faces. You lean back against a smooth rock, the flames flickering in your eyes as you watch the others in the firelight. A comfortable silence lingers until you decide to break it.

“So… what’s the plan? I mean, after this. What are you all hoping for?”

Hunter looks across the fire at you. The question hangs heavy in the air, and for a moment, he doesn’t answer. “I think you’ve earned an explanation. We’ve only got one goal, really. Lay low, stay alive. Try to find a way to disappear before the Empire finds us again.” He pauses, leaning forward, elbows on knees.

“But first, we’re heading to Ord Mantell. There’s a contact there. Goes by Cid. Obi-Wan Kenobi passed the name to one of our allies before he… vanished. Apparently, they used to work with Jedi, helped them off the grid during the war. Smuggling, information, jobs. We hope they have some information on a bounty hunter targeting Omega. That’s the trouble we were running from on Pantora before we met.”

He stops allowing you time to absorb that information, then continues, “Unless you have any better options?” his tone hopeful that might be the key to uncovering this mystery.

You shake your head, “My contacts wouldn’t be beneficial unless you want to sell some artifacts, and if I’m being honest, I would not want any of them knowing I’m alive…”

“As expected. Looks like we’re staying on our current objective.”

"For what it's worth any contact of Obi-Wan's should be pretty knowledgeable, it's a good start."

_____________

Nightfall settles on the outer ring moon, and most of the Batch is already asleep, except for two usual suspects. Tech ascends the ramp to the ship with quiet purpose, datapad tucked under one arm. His pace is steady—he’s come to look forward to this time, your nightly language lessons. As he rounds the corner, he pauses.

You were nestled in the corner seat, rather than your typical spot at the table, with your knees drawn up and a medbay blanket covering your legs. A soft light illuminates the space next to you while you turn a page in a worn paperback.

“No journals tonight?”

You look up, startled, and then smile sheepishly. ”Ah—sorry. I needed something lighter. It’s just a novel tonight. My brain couldn’t take any more ancient syntax.”

Tech hesitates a beat. His voice faintly drops when he responds, “I see. I had hoped we would continue the lesson on interlaced root glyphs.”

You pick up on it immediately, your smile softening.”Hey—don’t go walking out on me now. It’s a mystery novel. The fun kind, where everyone’s a suspect and no one makes sense until the last ten pages.”

You hold the book out slightly, tilting it so he can see the cover. “You’re welcome to join. I’ve only just started, but I bet we can figure out the ending faster than the author expects.”

Tech considers. Routine broken, but not unpleasantly so. After a moment, he steps forward and lowers himself onto the seat beside her.

“Well... I am statistically inclined to detect narrative inconsistencies.”

You laugh. “Perfect. You're exactly the overthinker I need for this.”

The two of you scoot in close enough to share the book, heads occasionally leaning in to read the same passage, exchanging quiet theories between page turns.

“Wait. But this character wasn’t even present at the time of the disappearance. How could he have moved the body?” Tech points out.

“Exactly! That’s what I’ve been saying since chapter six. But I’m pretty sure the author forgot their timeline.”

A few more pages, and you reach the end. You read the final paragraph aloud—and then stare at it, stunned.

“Wait. That’s it?”

Tech blinks through the confusion. “That conclusion lacks all structural cohesion. The motive is shallow, the timeline fractured, and the supposed twist contradicts three previously established alibis.”

“In other words, that was awful.” You both begin to chuckle. Initially quiet, then gradually more openly. It’s soft enough not to disturb the others, but it's that genuine, hearty laughter.

“I cannot believe we spent three nights decoding forgotten Jedi syntax, and this is what finally defeats us,” his tone full of disbelief.

You reply, laughter still on your lips. “Well, to be fair, you were the one who said it might be 'beneficial' to read more literature.”

He adjusts his goggles and leans back with a long exhale, clearly relaxed in her presence.”I withdraw the recommendation. At least where this author is concerned.”

You nudge him lightly with your shoulder. “Still… thanks for sticking around.”

“It was… surprisingly enjoyable.”

______

The Marauder is being prepared for departure. Wrecker reloads the camp crates into the cargo hold, Omega checks supplies, and you stand off to the side, assisting Tech in recalibrating a damaged sensor array on the wing.

You laugh softly at something he says. Tech isn’t entirely sure what was funny, but the sound catches him off guard. He glances at you longer than he intends to.

Across the clearing, Echo stands with Hunter, both casually observing.

“You seeing what I’m seeing?” Echo states clearly in disbelief.

“Yeah. Tech’s… smiling. That’s new.”

Echo crosses his arms, smirking slightly. “I don’t think he realizes it yet, but he’s definitely spending more time with her than with his datapads.”

Hunter raises an eyebrow. “He’s still bringing datapads to her, though.”

They chuckle as Tech reaches for a tool, but when your hands briefly touch, Tech freezes. It’s small but significant. He fumbles slightly but recovers quickly.

“There it is.”

“Yeah. He’s in trouble.”

—-----------

Tech sits at his console, ostensibly running diagnostics, but he’s only half-focused. His fingers hover over code while his mind is elsewhere. The cockpit door hisses open, and Echo leans casually against the frame.

“You okay?”

“Yes. Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” he asks, confused at the assumption.

“Oh, no reason. Just asking why you’ve recalibrated that same sequence three times.”

Tech looks at the screen. He has recalibrated it three times. “Ah. I… may be preoccupied.”

Echo approaches and takes a seat, uninvited yet accepted. "Listen, Tech, you don’t really show your feelings openly, so I’ll be direct. It’s perfectly fine to care about someone, even in situations like this."

Tech hesitates. It’s subtle, but something in him softens.”It’s… unfamiliar. Logical processes tend to degrade when emotional input is introduced. I’ve noticed increased distraction, irregular thought patterns, occasional lapses in—”

“You like her, Tech.”

Tech blinks at him.

“And I think she likes you too. You’re allowed to let that happen. We don’t get many chances for this. You’re still you… just a version that laughs more."

There’s a pause before Tech nods slowly, almost unsure of himself for once.”I will… consider your analysis.”

“Just don’t overanalyze it so much that you miss the moment.”