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physalian · 5 months ago

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How to Make Your Writing Less Stiff 8 | "to-be" and auxiliary verbs

Part 7

Part 6

Part 1

As I go through editing my latest manuscript, I'm faced with the dilemma of when to drop a to-be verb, but also when to keep it and how the differences between the two in any given situation can make just a little... a little *garnish* of a difference.

To-be verbs:

Am, is, are, was, were; a subset of auxiliary verbs

Auxiliary verbs:

To do, to be, to have (simplified)

Auxiliary verbs tend to indicate tense, but we use them more often as crutch verbs, filler verbs, because you can just conjugate the verb itself to the proper tense without the need of the auxiliary verb.

The advice generally goes to remove these, as they count as filler words when followed up by a second verb. Versus the TBV or AXV and an adjective.

He does look / He looks She is cooking / She cooks They were standing / They stood I am fishing / I fish She does cry / She cries We have slept / We slept

He is afraid / He fears She was sorry / She regrets They were happy / They cheered I was confused / I hesitated

The verb+adjective combo can't so easily drop the verb without changing either the tone, the flow, or the actions of the characters, because one is an act of doing, and one is a state of being (for the most part, 'fear' is one of those exceptions in English).

You would have to rearrange the sentence, e.g. "I was confused by this" to "This confused me," to elimiate the TBV. Which, most of the time, does help the narrator feel less passive in the story, but, again, we're here for flavor text, not an MLA formatting guide.

So, sometimes the inclusion of the TBV or AXV adds subtext to the action itself.

"He does look" has slightly more urgency and weight than simply "he looks" because the AXV emphasizes that this is an action the actor might not have taken otherwise, for better or for worse.

In the silence, she stands there huffing, voice wrecked from crying as he heads for the open door. “Don’t you walk away from me.” He turns, face impassive. “There’s nothing left to be said.” vs He does turn, face impassive. “There’s nothing left to be said.”

The latter indicates that this might be hesitation or regret on his part, as opposed to a decisive, quick action, or that this is an action that she, the narrator, didn't expect him to take.

It also helps convey the tone of voice (or at least the general direction of the level of emotion in a voice). This absolutely varies on a case-by-case basis and the context of the action and should not be abused.

One of the juicier verbs for subtext here is "try"

He tries to coach her through how to do it properly. vs He does try to coach her through how to do it properly.

The former is direct and simple. He is attempting (he attempts) to help but through the act of "trying" and not "doing" there's an indication that she isn't getting it.

The latter is a little more hopeless, where he and she both know that whatever she's attempting to learn, she won't succeed, but he's doing it anyway. Maybe because he cares or he feels bad, or, that he wasn't going to help her, but something changed his mind.

Deciding when to use these helps convey the inner thoughts of non-narrating characters without head-hopping, and also shows the biases of the narrator.

Hope this helps!

#writing #writeblr #writing a book #writing advice #writing resources #writing tools #writing tips #writing style #syntax #verbs #narrative structure

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berliner-baerchen · 11 days ago

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Omg about the ai fics i didnt realize that a few of these acc were using ai and it made me feel really inadequate as an author for not being able to post or write as much as them and then i read one and i was like hey wait a minute this doesnt seem right. Then it all clicked and i got really mad

Write your own shit. If english isnt your first language or you're bad at grammar then... imrove. You wont get better at it using ai.

I don't understand people who forego the process of creating and growing.

Genuinely! This was my exact thought process. There was a time when it didn't even occur to me that people would post AI fic. After all, FanFic is inherently transformative. The ability to share your scenarios and communally engage in ideas is part of what makes fanwork so great.

Then this author, doing a daily posting challenge, dropped a bombshell in their Author's Notes. They'd been using AI to "help" because English isn't their first language... which felt like a betrayal since English is not my first language either. It was so frustrating. Beta readers exist! Fandom is a community, and people will have your back if you simply reach out and ask if somebody more experienced in English will read your work before you post it.

I use your ask to post a list of things to look out for. None of these should be treated as a "gotcha" since LLMs are trained by scraping real people's writing. However, since LLMs are calculation models, they use predictive wording and structure, and it's possible to clue into something being AI-written.

1. Overuse of Similes

Almost every author will use similes. However, AI over-relies on them and typically uses them every other sentence. You will see many of the same similes word-for-word repeated across AI-written fics.

“He walked in like he owned the place.”

“His voice cracked like glass under pressure.”

“The silence was heavy, like a wet blanket.”

“The anger surged through him like a tidal wave.”

2. Overly Formal Dialogue

Some AUs make this type of wording far more fitting. However, both Tyler and Josh speak in an informal Americanized way, using conjunctions and filler words (uh, like, you know).

“I am not sure what you mean by that, but I would appreciate some clarification,” he said.

Instead of the more natural: “The heck are you talking about?”

3. Dramatic Em-Dash Constructions

I love a good em-dash and hate how AI uses them too. Many good writers use em-dashes since they convey information differently from semicolons. But LLMs attempt to mimic emotional fragmentation in a way that's supposed to create emphasis, but often comes across as unnecessary.

“He was trying—trying—to make things right.”

“He couldn’t breathe—no, wouldn’t breathe—until he knew Josh was okay.”

“It was over—everything they’d fought for—gone.”

4. Generic Reactions

Again, since LLMs scrape data from human-written FanFic, they emulate common reactions that real people use. However, like with similes, they tend to overuse them in ways that don't always fit the context.

He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

His heart beat hard in his chest.

His jaw clenched.

A shiver ran down his spine.

5. Repetitive Sentence Structures

Writing is like music. You have cadence and flow. But AI relies heavily on a certain sentence rhythm, like "[Character] did [action], [adverb/adjective] doing [something else]." Also, the overuse of "something" and stilted one-sentence lines, and having one-line paragraphs.

Tyler turned away, shoulders trembling, his breath hitching in his throat. He followed, footsteps echoing, his heart pounding like a war drum.

Something about the day felt different. Promising. Not just another cycle of practices and performance but a branching path leading somewhere else. Somewhere new. Something… exciting.

But no. Not yet. Not now.

6. Emotional Beats that Don't Land

AI likes to insert intense emotional reactions without proper build-up or payoff, creating tonal whiplash.

Josh glanced at him—and suddenly, his soul shattered into a thousand pieces of longing.

7. Stacked Descriptions

I keep emphasising this, but plenty of human authors do this too. Still, AI often layers adjectives and adverbs in a way that reads as cluttered and devoid of subtlety. It should not be seen as an indicator of LLM usage by itself.

His dark, glistening hazel eyes pierced through the dim, hazy light of the cramped, dust-choked room.

My final note is that none of these should be taken as irrefutable indications of AI use. I do not want to engender hostility. However, as somebody with access to an AI detector that's used in academic fields, I can assure you... There are authors in the tag who are posting heavily AI-written fics. Many of them are doing it in a disingenuous/deceptive manner, too. I do ask you, however, not to harass any person who might be using AI! It is far more effective to simply not engage with their work.

As always, please feel free to vent in my inbox. I like to know I am not alone in my frustration.

#anti-ai #joshler fanfic #joshler fanfiction #joshler #ao3 writer #anon ask #i apprecite you op #let me know if you didn't want me to post this ask

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stuff-lost-in-time · 2 years ago

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What is the word for a noisy rattle in hruˀovaPō?

Handling Loanwords

I hates it but I have to admit that it would be useful for me to develop an idea of what the original B language mentioned here is like. The reason I hates it is because B language is much more word order and helper word based like English instead of having a tasty derivational system like Latin. Usefully I think many of the helper words that I already use in hruˀovaPō probably came from B language (which only makes me wonder how A language would do those things before the A/B creole emerged - oh no!)

Some other useful things to consider is if the B languages words are actually close to their most common form; take ˀihä, which means rattle / noisy/noisily - in hruˀovaPō's context it's always used as an adjective or adverb, but it's original most common use in B language would have been as a noun, when it would refer to a musical instrument, and possibly as a noun it would have had a different form, like ˀihäk or something. Does it make sense that a noun looses an ending to come an adjective, instead of gaining an affix? Maybe if ˀihäk means rattle and ˀihälu is the verb meaning to rattle?

Another thing to ponder: How does hruˀovaPō deal with noun loanwords from B language?

They can't just absorb them as is, nouns always start with consonants and a word starting with i conotates 'their/them.'

So, ˀihäk needs to be assigned to one of the four hruˀovaPō classes. Let's go with the bo/du class.

bo - prefix meaning a standard noun

bohäKää - loan word for the musical instrument that rattles.

I chose -ää as an ending because it reduplicates the -ä sound in ˀihä. ˀi- gets dropped from the start of the word because neither language likes putting two vowels next to each other without a consonate or a glottal stop to break them up. boihäKää is a nono.

The stem word that would sound most like it would be boKää - sport/game, or boˀihäKää - noisy game - but there is more than enough differences to make it easy to tell the words apart (and homonyms aren't the worst things I guess.)

bohäˀihäKää - a noisy rattle

#hruˀovapō #first conlang problems #conlang #conlang loanwords #noisy rattle

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a-pop-of-korean · 4 years ago

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Advanced / Lesson 19: -(으)ㅁ Sentence Ending

안녕하세요 여러분! Hey everyone! Welcome to this long-awaited lesson about the -(으)ㅁ sentence ending! Let’s get into it!

What is the -(으)ㅁ Sentence Ending?

-(으)ㅁ is not used as a sentence ending too often. The first instance that comes to mind where you will see it is if your iPhone is in Korean and someone leaves your text on “read.” In English, it just says “read” below the text. But in Korean, is says 읽음. Why not 읽었어요 or 읽었다?

The -(으)ㅁ ending is used in this context because no formality/politeness level is needed. There’s no conversation going on here -- your phone is simply noting something as “read.” It’s just labeling it. In that case, it doesn’t really make sense to try to assign it a formality. Thus, -(으)ㅁ is used! There’s this really great TTMIK video that uses the same 읽음 example -- I recommend checking it out if you want another explanation!

According to this post by sudy-korean, you may see this ending in “memos, warnings, reports, dictionaries, laws, notices, etc.” So basically, in places that note something without really “speaking” to a person in particular and thus a formality level isn’t really necessary.

Also, you’ll pretty much always see this sentence ending in written Korean. If you try to say it orally, it’s very informal and you’ll actually sound really childish, so I would advise against using it in conversation. You’ll probably also see it in places like a YouTube comments section, which is appropriate since the commenter isn’t really speaking to anyone and is just noting something, and also a comments section is pretty informal.

Before we get into some examples to better illustrate its usages, let’s look at a formula!

[verb / adjective stem] + (으)ㅁ

Attach -음 to stems ending in a consonant

Attach -ㅁ to stems ending in a vowel

Examples

My phone is in Korean, so here are some examples from my phone!

연결 안 됨 = Not connected

I see this when nothing is connected to my phone via bluetooth.

지금 업데이트됨 = Just updated

I see this right after I refresh my emails.

켬 = On

I see this when something is turned on, like my hotspot.

So those are just a few examples of this sentence ending! You don’t see it incredibly often, but it’s def good to know! I hope this was useful! See you in the next lesson! 다음에 또 봐요!

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glitchyalchemist · 3 years ago

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A fic where Kindle needs unexpected therapy and Percy just wants to vibe with his bird

you can also find this from ao3

this is random and I post it without context (context sold separately). but it's from my canon compliant bdsm verse set after the events of MTMTE that I'll probably end up writing more stuff for at some point, hopefully with some explanation on how the nerds even ended up here because it might seem weird when you just jump in from this point lmao. I just got possessed by a self-indulgent demon and wrote this out because reasons. enjoy.

All Kindle had needed was two minutes of Perceptor’s time to ask him about the maintenance on the laboratories’ security, and when he had seen that the scientist was still marked as present in the labs he had thought to simply drop by when he was already in that wing of the ship anyways. Of course he could have taken care of his business through comms but it was always nicer to deal with people in person than through calls, and that’s why he didn’t really think twice before some moments later he was letting himself in through the locked lab door unannounced. But he only managed one and half steps in before he registered the sight that had opened up before him, and the words that he had been preparing the whole way here died instantly in his suddenly fritzy vocalizer.

It wasn’t an unusual sight to spot Brainstorm wherever Perceptor happened to be, the two had been practically attached by the hip lately (and as such, a source of much gossip and betting at Swerve’s). But he would have expected to see two geniuses hard at work maybe, or in the middle of a heated debate about something that went way over Kindle’s head.

Whatever he might have expected definitely was not seeing Brainstorm on his knees, sitting pretty in front of Perceptor who was seated on a stool with his legs crossed, gazing calmly down at the jet with a hint of an amused smile curling on his lips like this was a completely normal sight for him.

And maybe Kindle could have thought of a good explanation for it still. Had Perceptor also not been baiting Brainstorm playfully with what looked like energon treats between his fingers, the jet looking completely transfixed by them as he tried to follow the hand with little slow bobs of his helm, his optics soft and hazy. He looked like some kind of a timid kitten.

Kindle’s awkward presence unfortunately did not go unnoticed, because Brainstorm’s focus was broken when he belatedly registered the sounds of the door opening and closing, starting to turn his helmet to see who it was. But Perceptor quickly stopped him with firm fingers on his chin, turning Brainstorm’s face back towards him before the jet could actually see Kindle, and spoke to him with a tone that was filled with such casual and demanding confidence that the pyrobot was hit by shivers as well.

“Optics on me,” Perceptor ordered, his expression now much more sober but still gentle, and to Kindle’s eternal surprise the famously stubborn and proud jet didn’t argue at all. Brainstorm actually looked almost pleased at being corrected and ordered around, a soft flush visible on his naked face plates as his whole attention was dedicated to Perceptor again like hypnotized. He looked odd. So calm and relaxed and attentive. A lot of adjectives that Kindle never would have thought to attach to Brainstorm’s name before. But the jet looked the very picture of serene and happy sitting there on the floor at another mech’s feet, even his wings having pressed back and slightly down to appear smaller. And Kindle felt like he had intruded on something so intimate that a simple apology couldn’t make up for it.

Perceptor waited for a beat to see that the other was actually listening to what he had been told, before he nodded with a “good” and offered Brainstorm one of the energon treats. Rewarding the jet like he was a pet in training. The little sprinkled cube was eaten eagerly but carefully from between Perceptor’s fingers, and after it disappeared into the jet’s mouth Perceptor was slowly unfolding his legs so he could then lean in closer to gently pet his cabled cheeks.

“That’s a good jet,” he cooed, and Kindle felt increasingly awkward in the room as he swore that he could hear Brainstorm’s engine softly purring all the way from here, seeing his optics closing as his face was petted and he leaned into the touch.

But Kindle was unable to just turn around and make a run for it, rooted in place from pure shock surely. But once Brainstorm was distracted by the petting, Perceptor’s sharp optics were discreetly turning to their guest now, and Kindle was hit with a comm request that gave him more anxiety than it surely should have when combined with the stern expression that now graced Perceptor’s face. And once the channel was established a moment later, Perceptor’s carefully controlled terse tone was a stark contrast to the warmth that he had been addressing Brainstorm with.

/’ Whatever it is, it can surely wait a bit. ‘/

Kindle jolted from surprise, barely able to look the other in the optic. But he was even more afraid to let his optics wander to the unnaturally compliant Brainstorm again. And he was kind of starting to dread the idea that he wouldn’t be able to even look at either of them anymore after this, and certainly not in the optic. It would have been way less awkward to walk in on them doing something traditionally lewd. Why couldn’t they have just been fucking over the table like normal people??

/’ Uh, yeah. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to– Uh, interrupt... Whatever this is. ’/

Perceptor’s optics narrowed just slightly, but the warning tone was crystal clear. Watch your step because you’re treading on thin ice, and Kindle didn’t exactly feel brave enough to try an ex-Wrecker today. Not when he was clearly so protective of the jet at his feet and famous for his deadly aim.

/’ It’s none of my business, got it! ’/ the pyrobot added hastily and made awkward little flailing movements with his arms as he finally avoided his optics away from the whole scene before him. Oh Primus, it would be burned into his memory anyways wouldn't it.

Perceptor turned his attention back to Brainstorm, gently petting his face with the backs of his knuckles now, tracing the bottom edges of his closed optics and the cabling on his cheeks, making soft little sounds to keep the other in his happy little bubble. The movements and sounds were way too soft compared to his tone as he spoke over the comm line again as if he wasn’t gently petting his co-worker in broad daylight right there at the same time.

/’ Don’t make any sudden movements or sounds. ‘/ Perceptor almost scolded him for the fidgeting, making Kindle immediately stop shuffling around awkwardly. And when Perceptor spoke again he didn’t look up from Brainstorm’s face, as if pretending that their intruder and the headaches he brought simply didn’t exist. /’ You will turn around and leave quietly before you actually manage to cause a mess. Then, you will leave me a message this time, detailing whatever it was that you wanted to ask me. I will reply to your original inquiry and whatever other questions you might have once I am free to do so. Am I clear? ’/

His tone didn’t leave much room for arguing. Not that Kindle would have wanted to. He was happy to be showed out the door; to pretend that absolutely nothing ever had happened.

/’ Yes sir, perfectly. ’/

/’ Good. I will talk with you later then ‘/

The comm call was dropped without a warning, and Kindle took that as a clear sign that he had been dismissed. This time he kept his movements deliberately slow and quiet as he turned around and opened the door from the control pad, and he slipped out and made sure that the door behind him closed fully before he was practically running towards the elevator.

He wasn’t even thinking about work anymore. He could worry about that maintenance job later. After he had downed a few drinks to flush out the mental images and the shock. He thought of the betting pool that had spawned after Perceptor had started to willingly spend more time with Brainstorm, and how no one could have made a bet like this. He didn’t doubt that someone had bet that the geeks were getting up to something kinky in their private time, but absolutely no one could have predicted that Perceptor would manage to teach Brainstorm some actual manners.

–

Back in the lab Perceptor allowed himself to relax minutely once the door was closed, but it was impossible to relax wholly as he knew that that wouldn’t be the last that he heard of that. Not just from Kindle, but others as well if he couldn’t keep his lips closed as gossip spread like wildfire onboard Lost Light. It would certainly be a whole headache, but he didn’t allow those thoughts to show in his touch or field as he gently continued petting Brainstorm.

He was monitoring both the jet’s EM field and frame language to see if he had been distressed by what had transpired. Fortunately it looked like he was so properly lost to the world that it couldn’t reach in to touch him in his happy little bubble. And Perceptor felt relieved, because he couldn’t imagine the damage a sudden outsider could wreck on Brainstorm’s confidence and trust. Getting him to act so compliant and polite was the result of hard and consistent work, and Perceptor would surely take more precautions to protect that precious gift in the future.

Running his hand down Brainstorm’s cheek once more, Perceptor then gently hooked a digit under his chin to raise his face up and to get him to flutter his beautiful and hazy golden optics open once more to better pay attention to his master.

“You did such a good job, Brainstorm. Now I want you to lay down for a bit to rest, okay? Get some rest and then we can work on clearing up your head.”

Brainstorm couldn’t even verbalize a response, he didn’t need to, just gently kissing Perceptor’s fingers gratefully and then the palm of his hand with his soft lips, his whole expression looking so dreamy. Before he was laying down obediently, curling up around Perceptor’s pedes to calm down just as told, happy to just get to linger in that strut deep state of relaxation with no worries in the world. Seeing Brainstorm so relaxed and happy under his control was almost enough to allow Perceptor to forget about his worries too, but just almost. One of them had to worry for both of them.

“That’s right, you’re so good for me, aren’t you,” Perceptor praised softly as he watched the other settle down, his wings folding down to fit under the desk. You wouldn’t think that a jet of this size would be comfortable curled up under a table but Brainstorm made it look like he would rather be nowhere else. Maybe Perceptor could get him a cushion to rest on if he kept showing enjoyment for staying on the floor.

He was making a mental note of the time and thinking that he would let Brainstorm enjoy his peace for fifteen more minutes before he would start to gently nudge him back to the real world. And in the meanwhile he could pretend to finish his laboratory scheduling for the crew while thinking of how he was going to deal with Kindle.

#maccadam #simpatico #brainstorm #perceptor #nsft tag #just to be safe #although it's actually pretty wholesome #canon kinky verse tag #tag for my writings

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tl-notes · 4 years ago

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Kobayashi’s Maid Dragon S2 Episode 9 Notes

...設立から大分地盤が固まってきており、少しずつだが、業態は改善されている。

One thing to note here is that Kobayashi(‘s narration) isn’t saying the company has already made solid improvements, it’s that the company has finally established itself somewhat (as it was only founded relatively recently, and typically new companies are especially busy while trying to get off the ground) and now is starting to make improvements.

Similarly in the second sentence, it’s not “was” slow going, it’s “is still” slow going, and the working conditions “are” improving, not “have improved.”

This is がんば ganba, short of course for がんばって ganbatte, which I’m sure most of you are familiar with: the (in)famous “do your best.”

I only mention it because I like this shortened version of it. Ganba!

This is a fun little idiom(?)/saying: 鼻で笑う hana de warau (conjugated as hana de warawareta), lit. to laugh using the nose. It’s used to describe laughing at someone you’re looking down on for whatever reason (not necessarily in a super serious way, could just be a friend being dumb etc.; in this case it’s Elma’s being naive).

Typically it refers to like a “heh-but-through-the-nose” kind of “laugh,” but as you can see in this scene (where clearly Kobayashi is laughing with the mouth, even starting with “pff” lips) it works idiomatically even if the laughing isn’t only through the nose.

You may have heard that Japan is/was a “lifetime employment” country, where typically people would get hired right out of school and stay at that company until retirement. While that’s much less true today than it was even a couple of decades ago (and has become kind of controversial in ways), it’s still much more common of a practice than in say the US.

One result of this is that there’s a much bigger distinction placed between hiring people in spring as part of the annual graduation rush (the Japanese school year ends in March), and mid-career hiring. Typically you can’t participate in the fresh grad hiring if you aren’t one, even if you’re new to the field in question.

For larger employers (i.e. 5k+ employees), roughly two-thirds of all hirings come from fresh grads, and only small employers (<300 employees) hire more mid-careerists than people directly out of school.

Of course, this split tends to apply mostly to “standard” full time jobs, not so much part time, and is not necessarily a thing in every industry/at every company.

Just as a minor point of clarity, this “organized text” in Elma’s document refers to the phrase まとめられた��章 matomerareta bunshou. In a literal sense, matomerareta can mean organized/consolidated etc., and bunshou text/passages, but meaning-wise it’s more like “writing that gets its point across clearly/cleanly.”

This is a pretty big compliment and a very useful skill to have in organizations like this, as writing such that people can quickly and easily understand exactly what you’re trying to say often saves a ton of time and frustration.

我々はエルマの気迫に押されるがままにその書類を読み始めた。

Another minor point, but where the English could imply that they were overwhelmed by Elma’s intensity through the act of reading her report, the Japanese implies more that they started reading it because of how intense Elma was being.

It doesn’t really make much of a difference either way, but it stuck out a little for me.

To justify mentioning it, I guess I’ll explain the grammar point Kobayashi uses: されるがままに sareru ga mama ni. Sareru is a generic verb/verb conjugation for having something done to you (technically here it’s 押される, to be “pushed/pressed/pressured”), and mama refers to a state, condition, or “way” (like “do it this way”).

Put together, the whole phrase is used to indicate “you” do/did something that someone else wants you to, without (meaningful) opposition. (Something similar in raw meaning but with a very different connotation would be “going with the flow.”)

If a friend says “hey let’s go do something,” and next thing you know you’re out bowling despite preferring to stay at home, this is you.

You can stick the mama ni to various other things as well to come up with a similar idea, but without the sareru the nuance may end up different.

The word for clairvoyance here is 千里眼 senrigan, lit. “eye(s) [that can see] a thousand li”, li being a Chinese unit of measurement for length (shorter than a mile, but for general purposes “eyes that see a thousand miles” is basically the gist).

Despite the perhaps physical-sounding nature of the term, it does actually describe the same power as “clairvoyance” in English: being able to perceive things outside your actual range of vision, including potentially into people’s hearts and minds etc.

Hence why it’s a thousand screen display, when she updates it with tech knowledge:

“Tainted by work” here is 職業病 shokugyou-byou, lit. an occupational disease. The “proper” definition is a disease one gets from working in a particular job, such as black lung for coal miners or even posture-related health issues for desk workers.

Additionally, it’s used colloquially to refer to noticeable habits or quirks that people in a certain profession pick up, like a baker always waking up super early or a programmer using programming lingo out of context in normal conversation. The latter being especially noticeable in Japanese, as a lot of such terms are English in origin.

“Shocking” here is a fun word: ドン引き don-biki. “Don” here is added just for emphasis; the main meaning revolves around 引き hiki/biki, from the verb 引く hiku, meaning to pull.

The idea is that someone does/says something that you recoil from. Maybe it’s gross (“I only shower once a week”), maybe it’s mean (“They didn’t smile enough so I didn’t leave a tip.”), maybe it’s creepy (“I sent like 30 texts yesterday but still no reply.”), just anything that has you feeling like you might want to create some distance because... phew.

It’s kind of similar to the current use of “cringe” as an adjective/noun, though with less of an internet-slang feel* to it, and generally used more as something the speaker is doing rather than describing whatever/whoever is being cringe.

(*I think it started being used popularly in this way in the early-to-mid 90s, with the “don”biki variant specifically popping up around 2005.)

A “Premium Friday” is the last Friday of the month, where you get to leave work at 3 pm. It is largely theoretical.

The idea was created by the Japanese government as a way to reduce working hours and encourage domestic spending (boost demand), but it has not been implemented by all that many employers, and especially not many smaller employers. There isn’t, after all, any mandate or government-provided incentive for doing so.

Evidence from the places that did implement it suggests it is actually good for the economy, but good luck convincing bosses to give extra paid time off.

“Last Friday of the month” was chosen because most people get paid on the 25th each month (Japan tends to pay monthly instead of every two weeks), so it would usually be right after payday, when people are more willing to get spendy.

Kobayashi saying eight hours here reminded me of a “fun” fact: the typical Japanese work day is eight hours plus a one hour break. Plus a one hour break, not with. So a typical work day is actually nine hours. Most commonly 8 to 5 or 9 to 6. Not many “nine-to-fives” here.

The characters for Joui are 上井, which usually read as Kamii or Uwai. It’s “Joui” because that means, when written as 上位, “superior.” As in “a superior life-form.” Like a dragon, say.

でも、ゆっくりやる事業改善案を見せてもらえたじゃない？

This one is actually kind of a critical mistake. In the English it sounds like she’s talking about the improvement proposal that Elma made and that the boss looked at. In the Japanese though, she’s talking about a different plan, one the boss showed them*, that is similar in idea but is going to take longer to be fully implemented**. So we’re being told that while Elma didn’t get what she wanted as fast as she wanted it, it is still basically going through at a slower pace.

*In ”見せてもらえた misete moraeta,” the misete vs mite means they were the ones who got shown something, rather than the ones who got someone to look at their stuff.

**Which you can tell from the ゆっくりやる yukkuri yaru, where yaru is basically “do” and yukkuri means (in this case) at an unhurried pace.

(Re previous note: Hence why she says “immediately” here.)

“Black (ブラック)” and “white (ホワイト)” in the context of Japanese employers refers to how well employees are treated: a company with good benefits/pay, reasonable levels of overtime, and feels safe to work at is “white,” while a company that has excessive overtime, often pays poorly, breaks labor laws, and allows harassment to fester is “black.”

While “white company” was created simply in contrast to the term “black company,” the latter finds its origins in front businesses for organized crime, which were called “black” in the sense of “illegal” (similar to “black market” or something being in a “grey area”). Given the international reputation of Japanese work life, you can imagine that “black company” as a term sees much more use.

There’s been some discussion about maybe replacing it due to the racial implications (especially since it uses the English word “black”), but while typically English translations drop the color for that reason (e.g. ブラック企業大賞, an “award” given to Japan’s worst employer each year, is officially “Most Evil Corporation of the Year Award” in English), it hasn’t really penetrated to the mainstream at this point.

The rice there is in a 飯盒 hangou, a metal container that looks… like that, and is the stereotypical item of choice for cooking rice while camping. It has its origins in the mess kits used by the military, but these days they’re primarily marketed as portable rice cookers for camping use.

You can get round ones too, but the bean shape is very popular.

“Settings” here is 設定 settei, lit. exactly that, “setting(s).” E.g. if you open a computer program and look at the settings menu, it’ll be settei in the Japanese language settings (settei).

I bring it up here because there’s a bit of a difference in how it gets used colloquially like this. In English, the “setting” for a story typically refers to where and when it’s set. In Japanese, “setting” in that sense is usually 舞台 butai. But settei is still used when talking about fiction, just in a different, more expansive way.

Often in these cases settei is used to refer to the various conceits that provide the context in which the story takes place. In this show, for example, one such “setting” is that dragons are real: another is that magic exists. It comes up especially often in fantasy/sci-fi type stuff where there are major distinctions between that universe and the real world—not that stories in a real-world setting don’t have settei of their own, but they often are lumped into descriptions of the plot in that case (”a dragon comes to live with an office worker in her apartment”).

It also refers to the “settings” of characters, like name or age, and things like “they run a bakery that’s going out of business and are trying to save it.” Basically all the details you’d have in a character profile.

It also gets used in conversation to refer to pretend things or (basically) lies: like here, where Saikawa thinks Shouta is playing pretend with his ley-lines talk, or e.g. if someone is trying to tell you some outlandish story (“my uncle works at Nintendo…” or someone asking for love life advice for “their friend”) and you’re just like “Okay so that’s the settei here, I see.”

Not really a big deal, but Elma’s line here in Japanese implies she won’t let Tohru call her that anymore (see her もう mou). Tohru’s response is also more of a “I haven’t been?”, since of course she wasn’t aware of Elma’s-mental-image-Tohru tormenting Elma in the previous scene:

The word for “full of” in the title here is ざんまい zanmai (a suffix form of 三昧 sanmai), usually meaning that there’s a whole lot of [whatever] to immerse oneself in. I mostly bring it up because there’s a famous restaurant chain called Sushi Zanmai that specializes in, obviously, sushi.

And you know, Elma is a water dragon that looks kinda like an eel… I’m just sayin’…

Not really a translation note, but wild that Elma didn’t even touch her parfait. (Not so wild that Fafnir finished his so quickly.) Serious business ahead...

“Genuinely” here is 素直に sunao ni, where the “ni” is used like “-ly” to make sunao work as an adverb. Sunao itself is an interesting word that falls into that category of “simple concept that is often hellish to translate.”

For some context, the first character, 素, is also used in the word 素顔 sugao, which is a face without makeup and 素材 sozai, basically raw ingredients/materials. The second, 直, is used in words like 直線 chokusen, a straight line, or 正直 shoujiki, honest.

Put them together, and you’ve got a word with connotations of directness and being unadorned. The original definition of the word tends toward “simple, natural” in the sense of e.g. life growing up on a rural farm.

The more common use for it these days is to describe people and their actions. Positively, it can mean something similar to a person being happy to help, or kind of like the opposite of conniving; open, frank, genuine. Less positively, it can mean someone is too trusting and easy to trick into doing things OR someone who is “too honest” and says hurtful things.

(If it helps: tsundere characters are often described as explicitly not sunao.)

In this case, the idea is that Tohru accepted the invitation easily as-is, without putting any conditions on it, or doing any “ugh, what a pain, do I have to, jeez” rigamarole—she just accepted. Another way you could put it in this case might be “It’s even more unusual for Tohru to accept an invitation like this without a fuss.”

Just to point out the hand on head thing again.

Also just to point out that this is another example of otsukare, as a reminder of how ubiquitous that word is.

And it makes a good place to end on: thanks for reading!

#maidragon #Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid #kobayashi-san chi no maid dragon #translation notes #anime

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kjack89 · 4 years ago

Note

For the prompts for 300 fics, some kind of angst and reconciliation fic? I know that’s vague but I’m in the mood for some angst with a happy (or not!) ending, and you’re my go to for that :)

Angst with an optional happy ending? Nonny, you know me too well.

This is part 1 of what will be either multi-chaptered or just longer once I get it on AO3, so at the moment we’re just dealing with some light angst, and who doesn’t love that on a Saturday night. Hopefully the second part will be posted in a few days.

E/R, modern AU. Former relationship.

Enjolras pulled his hood even tighter over his blond curls and glanced over his shoulder before reaching up to feel for the key hidden on top of the door jamb. He was surprised, and more than a little concerned, when his fingers touched nothing but very dusty wood, and he chanced another glance over his shoulder before rapping lightly on the door.

The door opened no more than an inch. “Password,” a gruff voice barked, and Enjolras sighed.

He really should’ve known.

“Grantaire, if you don’t let me in, I will break down the door and use one of the splintered pieces of wood to kill you,” he said, as patiently and politely as he could, just in case someone was listening.

Grantaire opened the door enough to admit him, closing it after him and locking the doorknob lock and deadbolt before sliding the chain into place. “Firstly, I’d like to see you try,” he said with a grin that Enjolras did not return. “Secondly, for future reference, the password we were looking for was ‘my full glass’, with a security question of ‘what do I believe in?’.”

Enjolras tugged off his hoodie and balled it up before tossing it onto the couch, one of the few pieces of furniture in the tiny, cramped apartment. “Would you also have accepted ‘nothing’?” he asked waspishly.

“No, but I would’ve accepted ‘absolutely fucking nothing’,” Grantaire said cheerfully. “Adjectives matter.” His smile faded when he caught sight of the shiner beginning to darken around Enjolras’s left eye. “What happened?”

“Same thing that always happens,” Enjolras said.

Grantaire’s eyes narrowed. “Meaning you have other, less visible injuries that you’re not going to do anything about until it’s too late to keep them from getting worse?” he asked dryly

Enjolras rolled his eyes and dug his phone out of his pocket to send a quick text. “What are you even doing here?” he asked, purposefully ignoring Grantaire’s question.

He didn’t see the look Grantaire gave him, but he could hear it plainly enough in his voice. “It’s a safe house,” he said. “I think that’s somewhat self-explanatory.”

“No, I mean—” Enjolras did glance up then, to examine Grantaire for an impatient second before telling him, “I didn’t even see you at the protest.”

Grantaire shrugged. “I’m pretty sure we can charitably refer to that as a riot,” he said.

Enjolras rolled his eyes and looked back down at his phone, which he powered off before disassembling it to remove the SIM card. “Whatever nomenclature you want to give it aside—”

“Speaking of nomenclatures,” Grantaire interrupted, “can we talk about how we’re referring to this as a safe ‘house’?” He flopped down on the couch. “This is a safe studio apartment. And I’m being generous with the term ‘studio’.”

“It’s illegal,” Enjolras informed him without looking up from his phone.

“Well no shit, this place is just plain criminal.”

Enjolras tucked his SIM card in his wallet before setting his phone down on the coffeetable. “No, I mean it was illegally built. It won’t show up on any building schematics or floorplans.”

Grantaire blinked. “Meaning…?”

“Meaning as long as you and I are in here, we don’t exist.”

Understanding flitted across Grantaire’s face. “I can see how that would have its advantages,” he murmured before glancing up at Enjolras. “Speaking of, how long do you think you and I will be staying in this lovely 250 square foot box?”

Enjolras shrugged, going to pour himself a glass of water from the tap in the corner of the apartment designated as the kitchen. “Hard to say,” he said, carrying the water over to the coffeetable and hesitating for only a moment before dropping his cellphone into it. He looked at Grantaire. “I assume you took care of any of your electronics with a GPS signal?”

“Yeah, but unlike you, seeing as how I don’t have the disposable income to just buy a new iPhone after every riot, I just left mine at home.”

“I don’t buy a new phone after every riot,” Enjolras muttered, feeling his ears burning red, and he sat down on the futon with a huff. “Only ones that ended badly and with potential criminal charges.”

“So...every riot.”

“I certainly hope you find yourself amusing enough to get through the next few days,” Enjolras said sourly. “Because we’re going to be here awhile.”

Grantaire groaned and tipped his head back to rest it against the back of the couch. “What did you do this time?” he asked, sounding resigned. “Molotov cocktail? Improvised incendiary device?” He turned his head to give Enjolras a wink. “Of course, that’s more Courfeyrac’s style than yours…”

“None of the above,” Enjolras told him, suddenly wishing he still had his phone to give him something to do with his hands. “I, uh, may have – shoved a cop.”

Grantaire’s eyes narrowed. “Shoved?” he repeated. “What does shoved mean in this context?” He didn’t wait for Enjolras’s answer. “And keep in mind that I’m not a cop or a prosecutor before you decide to obfuscate or lie.”

Enjolras shrugged again. “Maybe not, but you could also be tried as an accessory if I explain further.”

“As if I wouldn’t immediately execute my fifth amendment right against self-incrimination.”

Enjolras half-smiled. “Cute,” he said. “But you weren’t there.”

Grantaire arched an eyebrow at him. “And it’s on them to prove that,” he said coolly.

“So you’d risk a perjury rap for me?” Enjolras asked skeptically.

Something darkened in Grantaire’s expression. “I’ve risked worse for you,” he muttered, and Enjolras looked away, feeling his face color and hating himself just a little for it.

He bit back his initial response of defensiveness, of turning the tables back on Grantaire and asking him just what, exactly, he had risked over the course of what one could charitably call a relationship and more accurately call a friends with benefits arrangement – but then again, when had they ever been friends? – but something in Grantaire’s expression stopped him.

Or maybe it was just because he was stuck with his ex for the foreseeable future, and even he knew this was a bridge not worth burning right that moment.

“A cop decided to beat up a Black girl,” he said. “She couldn’t have been more than 14, and he didn’t even bother with his baton. She was on the ground and he wouldn’t stop, so I…” He trailed off and shrugged. “I stepped in.”

Grantaire let out a low whistle. “So you’re looking at aggravated battery,” he mused, looking up at the ceiling. “That’s, what, a class X felony? So you’re looking at 6 to 30, unless you can plead it down.”

Enjolras made a face. “Battery’s a stretch,” he said dismissively. “I’ll probably get slapped with aggravated assault.”

“Because the state’s attorney’s office is going to take one look at your record and decide to be generous.”

Enjolras barked a laugh and shook his head. “How do you know all this anyway?”

Grantaire shrugged. “I watch a lot of Law & Order reruns.” He gave Enjolras a critical look. “But potential criminal charges aside, are we just supposed to wait here with no link to the outside world until things blow over or something?”

It was Enjolras’s turn to shrug. “Or something.”

Grantaire sighed. “Great,” he said mournfully. “Well, thankfully, I was planning on quitting my job anyway, or I’d definitely be fired after this next round of no-call, no-shows.” He shoved himself up off the couch and slumped over to the small refrigerator humming ominously in the kitchen, and he opened the tiny freezer portion, pulling out a miniature ice cube tray. “That’s just pathetic,” he said, shaking his head.

Enjolras frowned. “Please don’t tell me you’re already making yourself a drink.”

“Hilarious,” Grantaire said. “But I already checked, and the only booze someone thought to stock this joint with is a couple bottles of bourbon, and I take my bourbon neat.” He cracked the ice cube tray into a ragged dishcloth, which he bundled up before carrying it over to Enjolras, holding it out for him. “This is for you, to try to keep that eye from getting worse,” he said, a little gruffly.

“Thanks,” Enjolras said, hesitating for only a moment before taking the dishcloth-wrapped ice and holding up to his eye, wincing at the cold.

Grantaire looked at him carefully. “I’m guessing from the way you’re sitting, you’ve also got hit in the ribs – bruised or broken?”

“I’m sure they’re just bruised,” Enjolras assured him, but judging by the look on Grantaire’s face, he didn’t believe him.

Instead, he returned to the kitchen and refilled the ice tray, placing it back in the freezer. “So what are we gonna do now?” he asked off-handedly.

Enjolras shrugged. “Honestly? I have no idea. I’ve never exactly been someone good at relaxing.”

Grantaire snorted. “No shit, Sherlock.”

Enjolras arched an eyebrow, watching with his one good eye as Grantaire flopped down on the couch again. “You know, there was once a time when you would’ve given anything for it to be just you and me, alone, with no outside world for a few days.”

He had intended for it to be a funny, lighthearted memory, but he knew immediately by the way Grantaire sucked in a breath that it had landed as anything but that. They clearly weren’t to the point of joking about what they’d once had yet – if they’d ever get to that point. “Yeah, well,” Grantaire said, carefully avoiding Enjolras’s eyes, “that was a long time ago.”

Enjolras felt himself flush, but before he could offer some kind of apology, or explanation, Grantaire cleared his throat. “I think I’m just going to take a nap,” he said, still avoiding looking at Enjolras. “Riots really take it out of me.”

“Oh, right,” Enjolras said, hurrying to stand. “You can have the futon—”

“Nope, I got dibs on the couch.”

Enjolras frowned. “Take the futon,” he said. “I’m not going to make you sleep on the couch.”

“And I’m not going to make the person with potentially busted ribs sleep on the couch,” Grantaire shot back. “Besides, I checked out the futon before you arrived, and trust me, you’re not doing me any favors by switching.”

He said it with a sort of forced levity that told Enjolras not to push it further, so he didn’t. “If you say so,” he muttered instead, standing up and making his way over to the small pile of books stacked along one wall, hoping he could find something to keep his attention.

By the time he returned to the futon with a novel that looked like it might do the trick �� or at least make him angry enough that he’d have written a very thorough letter to the book’s publisher by the time he got out of there – Grantaire had rolled over onto his side, his back to Enjolras, ostensibly asleep.

But even though it had been a while since they had slept in the same bed, let alone the same room, Enjolras still knew Grantaire well enough to know when he was faking being asleep. And as he cracked open the book he had grabbed, he knew that Grantaire’s too-even breathing definitely indicated that he was not actually sleeping.

Which meant he preferred pretending to sleep to Enjolras’s company.

If that was any indication of how their time stuck together in the safe house was going to go, Enjolras couldn’t help but feel that they would both be very lucky if they made it out of there alive.

>>Read part 2 here>>

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mymelancholiesblues · 4 years ago

Text

No, Mia isn’t "low-tier" compared to Ada (morally speaking, or w/e) – a measured answer?/essay

So, a couple of Ada haters tried to put up a false symmetry between both of these characters there on twitter, and it inspired me to put my own thoughts down in a more articulate essay as to why that's (Ada's somehow being morally worse than Mia) not sustained by canon in Resident Evil.

standing there, killing time

can't commit to anything but a crime

all the good girls go to hell

'cause even God herself has enemies

and once the water starts to rise

and heaven's out of sight

she'll want the Devil on her team. ⁕

First things first: let us debunk the false symmetry that they tried to establish between these two characters with extremely distinct archetypes – and worse, the following replies to this false symmetry and its poor arguments trying to validate it, pointing out that, in fact, no, character B (that would be Ada, btw) – which is so evidently and ridiculously different from character A (and that would be Mia) – is, in fact, WAY WORSE than character A, and then proceeding to assert some unsupported propositions about misogyny in Resident Evil (which, tbh, definitely IS a recurring problem in the franchise, but that in this case particularly, little or does not apply AT ALL) and how Ada contributes to "the perpetration of a biological cold war".

Starting with what differentiates Mia from Ada grotesquely: we know NOTHING of Ada's true alliances in RE's world. Mia, however, canonically worked for a group that participated in the importation and exportation as well as the manufacturing, testing and marketing of biological weapons: "The Connections", a CRIMINAL SYNDICATE which, amongst other things, was also involved in money laundering, assassinations as well as weapons and drug trafficking. I don't care at all about Mia, so I don't intend to waste much of my time going on about her role in the plot, but people should've already realized by just that much how infinitely dishonest is to try to put these two characters as "similar" ones, or argue that Ada is somehow worse.

Another detail that shouldn't escape anyone's attention too, are the origins and nationalities of both – and yes, I intend to briefly bring up racism against eastern-Asian looking characters (a silent plague that takes form by each passing day in all fiction fandoms) and anti-China xenophobia, but for now, hold this tea there just before I drop it: Mia is canonically American, and previously a Texas-state resident; meanwhile, we have no confirmation of Ada's nationality except for her pretty evident Chinese ancestry. But, as I said, hold it there for a while.

i) espionage — the job

red so silent

wait a minute

or just a little while.

what are you looking for? ⁕

At all times that Ada's "job" was brought up in this franchise, in ALL of her cameos, she has NEVER been called a mercenary in the original Japanese. She's always referred to as a SPY. Even in RE2R, the most recent title in which she's featured in, the original text of the game makes a point of labelling her as a SPY (and not a mercenary) in the dialogue that transpires between Annette and Leon.

It's the North-American translation and correspondent localization that now and then falls for the equivocal use of this other term. This distinction is important since espionage NECESSARILY implies operating in an organized service for, perhaps a country, or a political cause, or a class/group, or a corporation, or whatever. While a mercenary is someone who's acting per their self financial interests, indiscriminately selling their specialized "labour" and skills to anyone who'll offer more.

Ada's not a mercenary, she's a spy. But Mia, in addition to being hired to a canonically criminal company, was also the handler personally assigned to Eveline. I don't care how exactly Mia got in that predicament but the fact is: Mia was canonically employed by a company that profited over illicit activities and directly watched as a family was destroyed and toyed with by this new killing machine (Eve). Yet, we can't state for sure that we know to whom or to what Ada is truly affiliated with.

ii) sources — check them

who's a heretic now?

am I making sense?

how can you make it stick?

and I'm on a trial

waiting 'til the beat comes out. ⁕

This fandom should put a little more thought into which translation and localization of the game texts, dialogues and files they are using to support their arguments. I know that in some cases the United States people have a bit of an inclination to think of themselves as the owners of the planet and deem English as the only language that matters in this world, but let's not forget that RE is a Japanese franchise (wow, insane, right?!). Therefore, the most valid script, with the greatest amount of details, and highest credibility, is the Japanese original. Throughout these years, there have been several errors in translation and localization of the Japanese original to North-American English. And, believe me, curiously enough, plenty of those concern Ada, since she's often mentioned or referred to in a very vague way – without the use of pronouns or adjectives or adverbs that could help in indicating gender. This ended up causing those details and mentions to her to get overlooked, even though in the Japanese text it was a clear reference to her character (per observation of context).

iii) the good guys — one of

head in the dust

feet in the fire

labour on that midnight wire

listening for that angel choir

you got nowhere to run

careful son, you got dreamers plans

but it gets hard to stand. ⁕

Yes, as much as haters try to minimize it, it is SIGNIFICANT that Ada saved so many important characters and stood for unquestionably heroic actions in so many moments - like stopping everything she was doing so she could help completely random Chinese civilians with the helicopter she managed to pilot in that chaos in China (yeah, I know you haters love to forget about this, but it happened, it's there in canon, and no, it wasn't her direct OR indirect responsibility what was going on in China: REPLAY RE6 and for the love of GOD, never again argue that what she did was somehow "the equivalent of evacuating a city after selling a WMD to destroy that same city". It's a case of pure intellectual dishonesty to say such a thing. It's canon that Carla was the one who caused what happens in China, PLEASE, PLAY RE6).

Furthermore, Ada shows compassion on some occasions even for characters who are directly putting her in harms ways, like Annette (in RE2 OG, right after - in order to defend herself - she slaps Annette leading her to lose balance and collapse over the sewers fences, Ada makes an effort in trying to pull Annette back and prevent her from falling) and Carla.

Replay RE4 and pay attention to it, pay attention to her solo campaign: getting involved with Leon's journey in Spain hasn't brought any real benefit to her mission or herself: Ada deviates from her main path several times due to worrying about him and trying to help him and almost ends up dead in several of these occasions over her insistence in doing so: by saving him from Bitores Mendez, by helping him and Ashley against Sadler, by confronting Krauser and stopping him.

It's so lazy to only read/listen to a file in which she says in English that "Leon might be useful to her plans" (this is way more nuanced in the Japanese original of Ada's Report), and ignore everything that was SHOWN in the game: every effort she made to ensure that Leon could rescue Ashley, remove the parasite from his and her bodies, and escape from that hell-island.

The jet-ski she left for their escape was ALREADY there before she was captured by Sadler (or you think she arranged it while she was caught?). Leon having to intervene and save her from Sadler WASN'T her plan. It WASN'T her plan to take the sample from Leon's hands. She wanted to help him get out of there with Ashley and she guaranteed he could do so, she wanted to get the sample by herself and escape too while sending that hell to kingdom's come. But, because she chose to help Leon rescue Ashley right in front of Sadler, she ends up captured.

On her end, Mia never did anything minimally compared to that, and all of her "selflessness" or self-sacrificing actions involved a much, MUCH smaller scope than Ada's: wanting to help her husband and HERSELF is not at all comparable to saving a few dozens of unknown Chinese civilians. So no, they aren't "cut from the same cloth". They don't come from the same place, nor do they share the same intentions or goals, and their contributions to the RE storyline are quite different.

iv) unknown true purpose (shades of grey)

lining up in the background

waiting for the crowd shot to be seen

in the shadow of the big screen

everybody begs to be redeemed. ⁕

In databooks, Ada is recurrently described as "a Chinese spy with extraordinary physical abilities, vigorous health and composed mind and spirit, capable of coping with grim situations and handling even the most difficult requests without losing composure". If we are paying attention to the storytelling ingame, however, we know that this isn't always the case: Ada did let her mask of unswerving emotional and physical strength fall and showed a very fragile side under strenuous circumstances a couple of times already.

Also, in these databooks, they often point out that "she has her own 'true purpose' and has FREQUENTLY betrayed organizations and clients to achieve it". Huh, we can AGAIN, by this only, see how completely different she's from Mia, who personally watched an entire family being driven to insanity by Eveline's hand.

Furthermore, in these databooks, it's often said that "this true purpose is still obscure and whether she truly cared for anyone or simply used her charms to manipulate people that crossed paths with her isn't ever clear". If people are willing to be open-minded and exercise their text comprehension skills, though, they'll see that in multiple occasions of emotional confrontation it has been established time and time again that yes, Ada DOES care. She wasn't capable of shooting Leon and there has been a couple of other times that failing to choose a cool, sociopathic calculation and pragmatical demeanour over empathy and humanity towards others has put her in harms ways: nonetheless she still chose it.

v) positive impact

I'm gonna break the cycle

I'm gonna shake up the system

I'm gonna destroy my ego. ⁕

To this point, RE's plot systematically leads us to believe that Ada has been covertly acting behind the scenes of multiple biological incidents COLLECTING INFORMATION (the job of a spy, who would've thought! lmao), that is valuable to numerous organizations, companies, groups and different contexts, but at the same time of allegedly offering to handle this knowledge for the right price to the big players involved with bioterrorism and clandestine trading of bioweapons, she's also working to sabotage said players.

This is evident throughout the franchise: she intended to hurt Umbrella's business. She outwitted and deceived Wesker multiple times. She even undermined Simmons, someone who was in a position of power in the US government and actively using that position to lead bioterrorist ventures on the parallel side.

There's no concrete evidence or hint as to what she does with the information she collects, and for all purposes and effects, I can presume that she's gathering this knowledge to assist in the discovery of countermeasures and vaccination studies. I might as well argue that she is a Chinese spy who is working against European and North-American capitalism and the imperialism that creates such monsters like the biochemical and bioweapons industry and that her real objective is to dismantle the market for bioweapons and bioterror supported mainly by the USA (see: Simmons and The Family).

That is, as long as it is unclear what her true purpose is, I have the freedom to surmise whatever the heck I want and that all of what she's been doing was for the sake of the greater "good" - and I'll even have canon moments to support this reasoning as it's clear that she regularly sabotages her customers (customers that are unquestionably established as playing for the "evil" side, with perverse intentions) - throughout the franchise. She did this on RE2, RE4, RE6 and Damnation. It's there, transparent in canon, people just choose to ignore it.

She laughs in the face of whoever she's talking to by the end of Damnation, saying she doesn't intend to deliver the Plaga; she scoffs at Simmons; she betrays Wesker and kills Krauser. She had been sabotaging Wesker for so long, that he sent Krauser to be the main agent in the mission in Spain, and Ada was just a "side effect" that he didn't have in control and had to keep an eye on, so he ordered Krauser to keep tabs on her. It's not a mutually beneficial dynamic. Ada doesn't want Wesker to succeed, she despises him; this is clear in the games in which they interact. There are even files that indicate that she was trying to double-cross and get in the way of his plans for at least 2 years before Spain, and he was constantly catching up with her. See here and here.

On her end, Mia was employed by and consciously working for a criminal syndicate.

vi) a (secretly) helping hand

oh, I'm a master pretender

just felt more alone

the further I'd go

but I'll stick around

I'll be your master defender

yeah, I'll stick around. ⁕

Ada approached characters such as John Clemens and Luis Sera, and both had a canonical intention to, in addition to putting an end to their connections with the criminal companies and organizations they've been working for, also expose and denounce them for their crimes. It's in this context that Ada comes into contact with them. And why is that?

Check John's background: he had made up his mind about disclosing Umbrella's crimes to the public. Check Luis' background: Ada went to Spain to assist in his extradition since he feared for his own life if he resolved to turn his back on the cult of Los Illuminados, and also dreaded the consequences of the liberation of Las Plagas on an international scale.

Keep in mind that Ada handed over to Wesker a USELESS Plaga sample. Wesker only got the sample currently circulating in the underground market because he went after Krauser's body. We don't know what Ada did with the master Plaga sample she obtained. We only know from Ada's Report and the Plaga Recovery file that she didn't deliver it to Wesker, and he needed to go out for a plan B to get it.

Even the G-Virus sample that fell into the hands of the clandestine business, it's possible to argue that Ada's involvement in it was flimsy, since Simmons CANONICALLY made over a thousand laboratory tests in Sherry, and, as we know, he was a leading figure in bioterrorism and bioweapons trading with the aid of his position in the US government.

But, guess what, Ada clearly is a non-white character with obvious Chinese heritage and Mia is white, so of course, OF COURSE, someone can so nonchalantly affirm that Ada, this "vile bitch", is somehow WORSE than Mia. The same Mia who watched the Bakers being destroyed. Right.

Also: trying to validate one's point by claiming anything related to the misogyny present in RE franchise, while IN THE SAME BREATH AND TWEET reducing Ada's entire character arc to that of "a sociopathic bitch cured by the magic dick of her love interest" is supposed to be a joke, right? No, really. Joke.

conclusion and a word against misogyny

we are waiting on a telegram to

give us news of the fall

I am sorry to report

dear Paris is burning after all

we have taken to the streets

in open rejoice, revolting

we are dancing a black waltz

fair Paris is burning after all. ⁕

To any Ada fan that has been reading this so far: PLEASE, I ask to consider refraining to use the "oh yes, Ada did some bad shit, bUT" take to defend the character because that isn't sustained by canon in RE, lmao. She didn't do anything evil that had an indisputable bad impact on the plot and other characters arcs. For one, I myself do love some villains, but that isn't the case with Ada.

She did do some unconventional shit yes, since she's a morally GRAY character and an anti-heroine, but by the end of the day, each and every action of hers had a positive impact on the journey of other characters and main plot. Just pay attention to it.

Like idk man, Black Widow, Elektra Natchios, Scarlet Witch and Black Cat from Marvel, Catwoman from DC, Yennefer from The Witcher (some pop culture examples that come to mind).

Saying that this is an "extremely selfish prototypal bad bitch except when it comes to the magical redeeming dick of her love interest" it's a grotesque reduction of a complex female character, and, in its attempt to critique the misogyny present in RE's franchise an expression of misogyny in itself.

Remember: Ada has actions and impact on the franchise ASIDE and IN ADDITION to her romantic involvement with Leon.

#Resident Evil #Ada Wong #Leon x Ada #Ada x Leon #Aeon #Leon Kennedy #[mine]#[meta]#//#Aeon fandom

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mvmmoney · 4 years ago

Text

solomon spicy thoughts have entered the chat!!!

this came to me in a fever dream and I typed as fast as I could. I have no context for this, just straight up h hours with my favorite evil wizard overlord.

🔞 if under 18 🔞 do not interact 🔞

tw // sub!mc, light choking, nb!mc (they/them pronouns)

"So what's this potion do exactly, Solomon?" MC watched the sorcerer pour a lilac colored fluid into a small glass, notes of honeysuckle releasing into the air as he did so.

He finished his pour before answering, making sure the measurements were precise. "I suppose it's more or less what you could call a truth serum. Though it's far less potent and doesn't make you divulge the truth inexplicably. More like...gives courage to live in ones own truth freely, without feeling hesitating factors like shame, or fear." He placed the glass in MC's hand and shrugged, a response to MC's raised brow. "A witch I know has taken in a human apprentice, but she suspects he's sharing her craft with those who oppose her. I owed her a favor from long ago that has now been payed, well, depending." His hands motioned to the sweet smelling drink MC held. Solomon had assured them all previous tests went without a hitch; after a moment of contemplation, MC nodded their head. "Alright then, bottoms up."

There was nothing at first, just the scent honeysuckle and rain. It was calming, or maybe that was the potion at work, MC couldn't really tell. Solomon was standing in front of them, eyes focused and sharp. "Okay, you should be feeling more or less at ease right about now, would you say that's true?"

MC nodded. Ah, it’s the potion then.

"Good. Let's give it a test. Do you enjoy your time here in the realm of demons?"

"Sure do," answered MC, a grin on their face, "that's an easy one."

"Fair enough," Solomon agreed. He gestured over to a large couch that looked like something Belphie would have loved to sleep on. "Shall we?" He asked. MC headed in the living area’s direction, walking past him in the process. Being near him like this, even for a second, had always stirred something in MC. Neither of them had made advances towards each other before, but MC had sure thought about it once...and then maybe more than once. They wondered if Solomon had thought the same.

He asked the next question as they sat down adjacent from each other. "Describe to me what it feels like to make a pact with a demon."

MC closed their eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling his minty scent. They felt goosebumps raise up on their arms. "Feels like...feels like power. Feels ancient and alive." MC opened their eyes, a little in awe of their own answer. It had been impossible to describe before, but now the adjectives they needed were clear as day. Solomon looked pleased, "Couldn't have said it better myself."

He looked down and noticed the glass still in MC's hand. "Let me take that. You've done me quite the honor in proving the effects of my gift, I could at the very least be an attentive host." His hand brushed against MC's as they handed him the empty cup. It felt like fire as it lingered on MC's skin. They clasped their hands together in response, bringing them to their chest.

Solomon immediately looked from the glass to their hands. "What is it? Are you alright?"

MC nodded, though their brows were still pulled together in slight confusion. "I'm fine. It's just, just...my hand feels warm, specifically where you touched it."

Solomon cocked his head to the side, curious. "Where I touched it? Are you in pain?" MC shook their head. He put the glass to the side and reached for MC's hands. They let Solomon take them in his own gentle grasp, the same tantalizing burn tingling their skin again. MC shuddered, unable to stop a fluttering feeling growing in their stomach; it slowly radiating throughout their entire body.

The man in front of them was still closely inspecting their hand. "There doesn't seem to be any physical marks. A warm feeling you say? Are you feeling it now?"

MC nodded, though now it was a lot more than a warm feeling isolated to their hands. For the past couple seconds they hadn't been able to focus on much other than Solomon's lips. Their cheeks felt hot.

Solomon placed his finger under MC’s chin, lifting their face slightly to meet his gaze. MC's heartbeat sped up. "This is a little unusual, I must admit, but not entirely unpredictable. Tell me, what are you thinking, right now?"

Though MC felt their face flush, the truth flowed right out of them, no hesitation. "I can't stop thinking about kissing you. And about how I want your lips on my neck."

Solomon's eyes tightened, though nothing else about his body language betrayed him. "Ah, I see." He dropped his hand, but not his eyes. “Must be a side effect," he said finally. His voice was careful, they could hear the restraint underneath the coolness of it all.

“I wouldn’t say it’s entirely all the potion,” MC protested with ease. They leaned toward him, a dangerous feeling building within them, “and according to you, all powerful man, I wouldn’t have been able to say that if it wasn’t the truth.” MC felt smug and confident — and they liked it.

A smirk formed in the corner of Solomon’s mouth as he mirrored MC’s movement. “I suppose not.” Neither of them moved for a moment, tension building with every passing second. MC’s heart was beating loud in their ears, sure that Solomon could hear it too. They had been here before in fantasy, but hadn’t realized how badly they truly wanted this until now, him inches away.

MC felt charged, like they could take on the world - or rather one of the most powerful men in it. They closed the distance between them, drifting their lips to his and stopping just as they brushed against each other. “MC...” Solomon trailed off in a cautioning voice, though he didn't back away. Then his lips were on theirs. Slow and gentle kisses began to shift into a passionate dance between their mouths. Each of their breaths coming more and more jagged as their lust for each other was winning against the need for air. MC moved forward, pushing him back slightly to make way for them to straddle him. Solomon was happy to oblige, his hands finding their waist.

The energy flowing between the two was electric. MC began rocking their hips on top of him, feeling his growing bulge between their legs. His kissing became more and more aggressive in response. Small moans escaping each of them as their hands explored each other. Solomon pulled away from MC, looking up at them above him, “You don’t know what you’re doing to me,” he warned. MC smiled, reaching down to the mound in his pants, “No, I think I do.” They kissed him again, tongues eager to be tangled once more.

Solomon placed his hands under MC and in one swooping motion, Solomon had them underneath him. He pinned their arms above their head, one hand holding both their wrists. He was stronger than MC had imagined. They were aching for him.

"I can't say I haven't thought about you like this before. It doesn't take an elixir for me to admit that." His hand ran across their chest and over their mound. MC whimpered. "Speaking of which," he continued, leaning down to whisper in MC's ear, "what would you like for me to do to you?"

MC shuddered as they felt his breath move from their earlobe down to their neck. His playful kisses and bites made MC's nipples hard. "I want you to touch me," they breathed. He was kissing their chest when he mumbled, "Where?" He was teasing them and they both loved it.

MC bucked their hips in response to his question. "There, please..." they pleaded. He looked up at them and smiled. His free hand moved down MC's stomach and into the waistline of their bottoms, stopping right above their most sensitive area. He held their gaze, "How badly do you want me to touch you?"

MC sucked in a sharp breath, their desire for him overwhelming them. He had them in the palm of his hand and he knew it. The cocky bastard. They wanted to smack that smug look right off his face, and then ride it.

"Please, Solomon. I need you to put your hands on me, please." They pouted their lips at him. “Very well,” he said, finally plunging his hand lower. He rubbed them, up and down, up and down; slowly picking up his pace with each stroke. Their chest heaved as their breathing became more and more erratic. Their moans filled the air as they squirmed underneath Solomon's grasp. "How does that feel?"

MC grinded against him, "S-so g-goooood." If he kept this up they were going to cum soon, their orgasm already building. As if hearing their thoughts, Solomon suddenly pulled his hand from their pants. "Not yet, MC," he said with a devilish grin. He let go of MC's wrist to sit up on his knees. He pulled his shirt off his body and undid the buckle of his pants, which he fell out of immediately; his member hard and dripping with precum. MC starred at it, wanting nothing more than for him to slam himself inside them until they forgot their name.

MC was pulling their shirt off up over their head when they felt Solomon tug down on their pants, removing them in mere seconds. Climbing back over them, Solomon moved one hand to around MC's neck, and the other around his shaft, rubbing his tip at MC's hole. "Tell me, do you want me to fuck you like the slut you're acting like?"

"Yes, yes please. Please Solomon..."

He pushed slightly at MC's entry, "Beg me." His voice mischievous, full of lust.

MC whined in anticipation. "Please fuck me, I want—I need you inside me.” They pushed their opening against him. “Please, please. I need to be fucked. I need it, I need you. I’ve wanted this for so long. I want your cock stuffed inside me, please give it to me Solomon, please, please, please, please...” They trailed off as his grip around their neck tightened.

"Good," he cood, "you make a good little fucktoy." He waited only a second before he slammed into MC all at once, they gasped as his balls slapped against them. MC squeezed tightly around him as he pulled out slowly before slamming into them again. They arched their back and moaned as he rocked his hips, thrusting in and out of MC’s dripping hole. They could feel him stuffing them completely, their entire body in ecstasy. They clenched around him.

“That’s right,” Solomon said between huffs, “Take it all you cum slut.” MC growled in pleasure at his words. It was as if time stood still, the outside world ceased to exist. It was just them, bodies tangled together, skin slick with sweat.

MC wrapped their legs around him then, allowing Solomon to pull MC up and onto him as he fell backwards into a reclined position. He dug his fingers into MC’s hips and they gripped his silver hair. He pushed and pulled their hips as they rode him, bitting their chest in the process; marks sure to be seen in the morning.

"Solomon, S-Solomon," they moaned, "I'm so close, please make me cum. Please l-let me cum for y-you. Fuck!" MC could feel their legs begin to shake as they bounced on his cock. Their body longing for release.

Solomon had that same cocky smile on his lips as he looked MC in the eyes. "You think you've deserved that, pet?"

"Yes, yes please!"

"You want to cum all over my cock?" He asked, voice deep with desire.

MC's body was on fire. Pulsing with every word he spoke. "Yes! Yes!"

"Yes, what?" He teased.

"Yes I want to cum...cum all over y-your cock! Please! Please let me cum!! Solomon please!!" MC's breathing was heavy, sure to explode any second now.

Solomon's eyes were wild, MC could feel his heart pounding in his chest, he was right at the edge as well. "I love hearing you beg. Do it then, cum for me MC, look me in the eyes and cum for me," he demanded. They locked eyes, it taking only seconds before MC's body released with a force they hadn't known was possible. They cried out sounds of pleasure as every single one of their nerves fired at once. "That's right. Don't you dare look away," he said as he hovered MC above him, pounding away at their hole. "Cum on my cock, cum with me still inside you...fuck!"

As they convulsed in their extended orgasm, they felt Solomon's seed fill them up. Their eyes hungry for each other as they came together.

Finally they collapsed into each other, unmoving as both of them caught their breath. It was Solomon who regained motion in his limbs first, carefully sliding out of MC as they lay on top of him. MC could feel his load slowly drip out of them and onto him, neither of them cared.

"Well," he said, kissing the top of their head, "Remind me to call on you for help with all my future potions, will you?" A small giggle escaped MC's lips, "Give me ten minutes, then let's try the next one."

#solomon nation RIIIISSEEEEEE #obey me!#obey me #obey me! solomon #omswd #omswd solomon #tbh i havent spent much time w him but i had an idea and ran with it okay!!!#might seem a little oc for him but in my mind he is a cocky dom who likes to call mc a cumslut 💆🏽‍♀️💆🏽‍♀️#let me be h**** on main in PEACE!!!! w peace & love <3

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mybg3notebook · 4 years ago

Note

I LOVE reading those, so just right from the beginning, I wanted to say that I'd love to see you keep up the good work, but with that being said, I just wanted to add my two cents if that would be okay!

Overall, my thoughts on those analysis, is that they're really on point huge majority of the time. But they misunderstand the most basic part of his character. He is not psychopathic. He has emotions, feelings, but just as you said, is also a victim turned abuser, that is in constant survival mode, and is actively trying to insure his survival by means of manipulation.

The scar reading scene is the biggest example of them being, to some degree, fundamentally wrong. He is vulnerable in that scene, showing trauma and genuine shame. Even though he is doing is very consistently, he's not manipulating Tav in that instance. It's one of those rare raw moments where he drops the facade.

He was a bad, corrupt man as a mortal, but that doesn't exclude him from also showing the subtilty of simply being quote "human"

Underneath that mask, he's scared, and traumatized. And those factors manifest as him entering the cycle of abuse and that 24/7 survival ensuring strategy.

Hello!

Thank you very much. It's very nice to read someone disagreeing in a mature way, since I've been receiving several hate messages from Astarion fanatics (because there is no other way to call them, defending a fictional char as if it were a holy symbol when in the end it's all about EA and the interpretation done by a nobody). I'm glad you enjoyed these notes and I thank you for your insight. However, I'm afraid that I’ll stick with my interpretation because, so far, I don't see strong enough proof to see him in another way yet.

If you check the list of approvals and disapprovals of Astarion, he has a very psychopathic behaviour in my opinion. Psychopathy is characterised by lack of empathy and remorse, and disinhibited, egotistical traits. Reading the list of meta-knowledge I've compiled, it seems fair for me to use that adjective to describe him.

The whole interpretation of his character would be very different for me if he truly would have been a victim before turning into a vampire. But he was a victimiser before, and ended up as a vampire because of his own greed and abuse (again, all EA). In a way, Cazador “brought” justice to Baldur's Gate (a wicked justice, that is). This is why I insist that I see the story of an abuser who found a bigger abuser, not the story of a victim turning into a victimiser. He started as victimiser, and as a spawn, he became victim of Cazador, aspiring to retake his position of victimiser.

I agree with you. I never denied his “humanity” as vulnerability. I emphasised many times that, like any victimiser, he suffers his own pain. Being evil doesn't make him immune to it. But it's always about him and himself. We all agree that since he is free for the first time in 200 years it's reasonable that he is more than eager to just think only about himself. So, once more, all these characteristics we agree revolt about himself and his pain, which is what psychopath cares about. I just add the context of his mortal past, which was of an abuser as well.

For some reason if you describe Astarion with what we see in the game, some people think you are judging him, and there is this need to justify all his list of evil approvals and disapprovals because he became a victim of Cazador after failing in outsmarting him in his corruption. But the raw description of his persona is that: a psychopath, who approves most assaults, and assassinations without being provoked, he approves all sorts of cruelty, animal cruelty, slavery, torture, humiliations. He even comments/approves Arabella death's and Mayrina's tragedy as “funny” shows. We don't see remorse when he accidentally kills Tav, supposedly the unique ally he has so far. He was sure that he had gotten ridden of Tav—his secret was safe—, so he is surprised when he sees them alive, and then he dismisses Tav's anger, adding that they should thank him even, because he is not a true vampire. The datamining scenes only show he suffers his own curse, and aspires for more power to be free first, and to bend the will of others, later. I only see a reiterative psychopath behaviour mirroring Cazador. I know that if Tav doesn't fail those checks during the bite scene, Astarion says that he won't forget the gift (a gift Tav doesn’t know because only via datamining we know that scene was not about thirst). I point this out just to show how, in the only reasonable situation in which we could have seen remorse, we see none.

The scar scene, in my opinion, is about vulnerability as you say, true. And shame, shame for having been too careless in outsmarting Cazador and ended up as his spawn after accepting his bite. We see this is an issue since he is pretty sensitive when Tav suggests to outsmart Raphael. He feels that mistake deep in his bones.

I see you understand the scar scene differently, and it's totally valid. My main goal in doing this blog was to keep my own interpretation in one single place, to easily share with friends, and to keep it as an archive for when the game is fully released so I can see how wrong I was or how much the characters changed. And also, as a side-consequence, to share it with the fandom if they want to read these long posts since an Astan friend encouraged me to do it. Evidently, this was a terrible mistake according to a certain group of his fans.

Again, I never denied that he is not traumatised, nor scared (therefore his paranoid attitude with Cazador), but he comes from an evil past, passes through vampirism (which increases even more his evil traits) and spent 200 years under a sadist master. Then you see all of his approvals and disapprovals, all the confrontations you can have with him with a good-aligned Tav, and the bear-drunk scene (which implies that any attempt to keep a facade is lowered because he is drunk on blood), I can't see, so far in EA, any hint that can tell me he wants to be something different of what he is in terms of evilness (also, why would he be? Bg1 and Bg2 have many wonderful Evil chars that never changed their alignment in the 2 games, not everything is about redemption, which is exactly my point in the post of Power). He only wants to kill Cazador, hinting that he may be the next most powerful vampire afterwards (with the help of the tadpole). We all see how much he enjoys the tadpole powers to bend the will of others. But he doesn’t care in the slightest to inflict upon others that mind control that tortured him for more than 200 years. The lack of empathy in him is obvious to me: he doesn’t even hesitate to inflict on others what tortured him for centuries. All these details bring me to interpret all what I wrote. And again, I’m describing him, this is not to judge evil chars. I like evil chars too, my point is I work with what I see.

It's also true that all the info we have is in EA, but like I said before, my interpretation is neither “sacred word” nor “unable to change''. So far, I see all that list of content in EA, the datamining information, and the Dev's notes (which were really key for me to see many details I was not seeing) and I conclude what I did in those analyses. The devs notes made me realise that more than one situation was manipulative when I was understanding it in a more honest way. For this reason dev's notes were removed from the game. Sven said that the core concept in the relationships with the companions was going to be trust. Evidently Dev's notes were ruining that process. So, sadly, no more narrative peeks in the code.

So, I agree to disagree. I never had the slightest pretension of being... I don't know, “the truth” of anything. If some people think so is because they love to misinterpret what's plainly written. Or my English is truly that bad.

With all this said, once more I thank you for being the first mature message in a while, and I thank you for your opinion. I also would take advantage of this message to say that I will refrain myself from doing Astarion-related content anymore. I'm very tired of these attitudes in fandom. I don't want any more headaches. From now on, I will focus on the rest of the companions instead.

Thank you again.

#bg3 early access - answers

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trangs-studyblr · 4 years ago

Text

The Imperative Mood: ~아/어(요), ~(으)세요, ~아/어라, (으)십시오, ~지 말다

There are many ways to end a sentence. Depending on who you are speaking to (and many other factors) the way you end a sentence can vary tremendously. In the imperative mood as well, there are many different ways you can give a command to somebody.

Verb stem + ~아/어(요)

The easiest (and least formal) way to give a command in Korean is simply by adding ~아/어 to a verb stem. Adding ~요 to the ends of the sentences above make them more formal.

밥을 천천히 먹어(요) = Eat your food slowly 열심히 공부해(요) = Study hard

Notice that in both English and Korean, the subject isn’t usually used in a sentence when giving a command. This is because the person you are giving the command to is usually the subject, so it is omitted.

You can use this form when you are giving a command to somebody who is younger than you or the same age as you, or somebody who you are close with.

The formal addition of ~(으)시 could be added to the construction as well. In these cases, ~아/어(요) is added to ~(으)시다.

Notice that these imperative conjugations are no different than any regular present tense conjugation. For example, the following two sentences are conjugated into the present tense, but the addition to the verb is exactly the same as an imperative conjugation:

져는 월요일마다 운동해요 = I exercise every Monday 저의 할머니가 여기 에 자주 안 오셔요 = My grandmother doesn’t come here often

In these cases, distinguishing between a regular sentence and an imperative sentence is done through context.

이거를 봐요 = Look at this 빨리 올라오셔요 = Come up quick 먼저 올라가 = Go up first (you can go up first) 이 길에서 직진해요 = Go straight on this road

Although they differ in their respective levels of politeness, all of the above are acceptable ways to make a command. That being said using ~(으)셔요 is less common. Instead, the construction of ~(으)셔요 is often pronounced and written as ~(으)세요.

Verb stem + ~(으)세요

~(으)셔요 can be used as a formal way to make a command. However, nowadays, it is much more common to pronounce and write ~(으)셔요 as ~(으)세요. This can only be done when you see ~(으)셔요 and not with any other form that ~(으)시다 can create.

가셔요 = 가세요 공부하셔요 = 공부하세요

However,

가셨어요 can not be said as 가셨으세요 가셔 cannot be said as 가세 가시다 can not be said as 가세다

Only when you see ~(으)셔요 can you use ~(으)세요.

One of the reasons why you would add ~(으)셔요 to a word is if you were making a command. This means that ~(으)세요 can replace ~(으)셔요 in each of the examples above.

이거를 보세요 = Look at this 빨리 올라오세요 = Come up quick 이 길에서 직진하세요= Go straight on this road

More examples:

구고하세요 = Work hard! (A common greeting when people leave a place of business) 열심히 운동하세요 = Work out hard! 먼저 가세요 = Go first 칠판을 올려다보세요 = Look up to the board 시선을 돌리세요 = Turn away your eyes 보안을 위해 대통령을 내일까지 감시하세요 = For security, watch/guard the president until tomorrow

Imperative endings are often added to 있다 to command somebody to “stay” in a place or in a state. 있다 is often an adjective, but there are times when it is considered a verb. When telling somebody to “stay” like this, 있다 is seen as a verb.

집에 있어 = Stay at home (be at home!) 잠깐 여기 있어 = Stay here for a second 그냥 집에 있어= Just stay at home

The adverb 가만히 (to stay still or to not move) is often used in sentences like this to tell somebody to “stay” still.

가만히 있어 = Stay still!/Don’t move!

계시다 is the formal equivalent of this usage of 있다. When ~아/어요 is added to 계시다 to create a command, the construction 계셔요 is formed which you now know can be presented as 계세요. This is where the expression 안녕히 계세요 (which translates to “stay in peace”) comes from.

Use the ~(으)세요 form when giving a command to a person who deserves respect, but at the same time be aware of the ~(으)셔요 form in case it comes up.

~(으)셔요 can be added to make a command. ~(으)셔요 is also a regular present tense conjugation.

엄마는 매일 운동하셔요 = My mother exercises every day

When you see ~(으)셔요 can you use ~(으)세요.Therefore, the sentence above could also be used as:

엄마는 매일 운동하세요 = My mother exercises every day

This can be applied to any situation.

네, 가능하셔요 = 네, 가능하세요 = Yes, that is possible (This is often heard when asking if you can do something [like use a card or combine coupons] at a store/restaurant)

이 분은 제 엄마이셔요 = 이 분은 제 엄마이세요 = This person is my mother 선생님, 어디 가셔요? = 선생님, 어디 가세요? = Teacher, where are you going? 그 사람이 언제 오셔요?= 그 사람이 언제 오세요? = When is that person coming?

Adding ~(으)세요 (or ~(으)시다) to a stem can create irregulars. If added to a word with the ㄷ irregular:

걷다 = to walk 걷다 + ~(으)세요 = 걷 + 으 + 세요 걷 + 으 + 세요 = 걸으세요 걸으세요 = walk!

If ~(으)세요 is added to a word with the ㅅirregular:

짓다 = to build 짓다 + ~(으)세요 = 짓 + 으 + 세요 짓 + 으 + 세요 = 지으세요 지으세요 = build!

One weird thing is that people rarely (if ever) say ~(으)세요 connected to 먹다 (to eat). Instead, it is much more natural to add ~(으)세요 to 들다 (which is a more formal way to say “eat”). Another change occurs when adding ~(으)세요 to verbs that follow the ㄹ irregular:

들다 = to eat (formal) 들다 + ~(으)세요 = 들 + 세요 들 + 세요 = 드세요 드세요 = Eat!

Verb stem + ~아/어라

Another way to give a command in Korean is by adding ~아/어라 to a verb stem. The formality is similar to the ~아/어 form you learned previously.

빨리 가라 = Go fast! 그렇게 해라 = Do it like that 내 말을 들어라 = Listen to what I say 밥을 먼저 먹어라= Eat (rice) first (you can eat first)

However, the ~아/어라 form is generally used by much older people (parents or grandparents) when they are giving orders to younger people. The formality is very similar (if not the same) as ~아/어, but I would much prefer to use ~아/어 over ~아/어라.

Verb stem + ~(으)십시오

Adding ~(으)십시오 to a verb stem is done in the same manner as when adding ~(으)세요. That is, the same irregulars come in to play. However, adding ~(으)십시오 to a verb stem allows you to give a command very formally for speaking to people who deserve a ridiculous amount of respect. If you were meeting your girlfriend/boyfriend’s grandparents for the first time, you might use this ending. It is also sometimes on government buildings/stores/restaurants on signs saying “come again,” etc.

여기서 내리십시오= Get off here (this is broadcasted in the Seoul subway at every stop)

To tell somebody to “go,” add one of the many ‘imperative mood’ conjugations to 가다 (in order of formality).

가다 + ~아/어 = 가! 가다 + ~아/어라 = 가라! 가다 + ~아/어요 = 가요! 가다 + ~(으)세요 = 가세요! (가셔요) 가다 + ~(으)십시오 = 가십시오!

Negative Imperative Mood: ~지 말다

You can also use the imperative mood to make a negative command to tell somebody not do something with 말다, which means “to not do something” or “to drop the intention of doing something”.

When used to make a negative command, ~지 말다 should be added to the stem of a word and then conjugate it using one of the many ‘imperative mood’ conjugations.

가지 말다 + ~아/어 = 가지 마

가지 말다 + ~아/어라 = 가지 마라

가지 말다 + ~아/어요 = 가지 마요

가지 말다 + ~(으)세요 = 가지 마세요

가지 말다 + ~(으)십시오 = 가지 마십시오

Notice that numbers 1, 2 and 3 go against the normal grammatical rules of Korean. 말다 is an irregular verb in this respect and no other verb follows this pattern. (These irregular conjugations only apply when specifically attaching the additions shown above. In all other situations, 말다 follows the ㄹ irregular like a normal verb ending in ㄹ.)

All five of those conjugations are possible. However, the two most common are # 1 and #4. When speaking to somebody informally, you will most likely hear 가지 마. When speaking to somebody formally, you will most likely hear 가지 마세요.

밥을 너무 빨리 먹지 마세요 = Don’t eat your food too fast! 부끄러워하지 마세요 = Don’t be shy! 그렇게 하지마= Don’t do it like that! 집에 가지 마 = Don’t go home! 앉지 마 = Don’t sit down! 여기에 오즘을 싸지 마세요 = Don’t pee here 권력을 남용하지 마세요 = Don’t abuse your power/authority 오늘이 유쾌한 날이라서 슬퍼하지 마세요 = Today is a delightful day, so don’t be sad 사람들을 학력 수준으로 평가하지 마세요 = Don’t judge people on the basis of education level 그 학생들에게 허가를 해 주지 마세요 = Don’t give those students permission

Ways to use these imperative sentences

~지 말고

You can also add ~고 ("and) to 말다 to make expressions such as “not ... but ...”, or “do not ... and do this .... [instead]”.

A 말고 B: When saying “not A, but B” where A and B are nouns, use 말고 between the two nouns.

우유 말고 커피 주세요 = Give me NOT milk BUT coffee ( Do not give me milk, give me coffee) 이거 말고 저거 살게요 = Not this one, but that one over there, I will buy it (I will buy that one over there, not this one) 내일은 여기 말고 다른 곳에서 만날 거예요 = Tomorrow, we are going to meet NOT here, BUT in a different place [instead] / Tomorrow we are going to meet at a different place rather than here.

[Verb A]지 말고 [Verb B]: When saying “do not do A, but/and do B” where A and B is a verbs, add ~지 after the verb stem of Verb A just like with sentences ending in ~지 마세요.

When used with verbs to connect a negative command with another clause, the clause after ~지 말고 is typically a positive command. This type of sentence is used when you want to tell somebody what not to do, and then also tell them what they should do.

매일 같은 운동을 하지 말고 많이 쉬세요 = Don’t do the same exercise every day, and get lots of rest 그렇게 하지 말고 내 말을 들어봐 = Don’t do it like that, and listen to what I have to say 한 사람에게 다 주지 말고 사람들과 동등하게 나누세요 = Don’t give them all to one person, hand/divide them out evenly 걱정하지 말고 그냥 해 봐요 = Do not worry and just give it a try 늦지 말고 일찍 오세요 = Do not be late and come early 전화하지 말고 문자 메시지 보내 주세요 = Do not call me but [rather] send me a text message 저 기다리지 말고 먼저 가세요 = Do not wait for me and leave first / Please go first without waiting for me 차가운 물에 넣지 말고 뜨거운 물에 넣으세요 = Do not put it in cold water but put it in hot water 지금 사지 말고 조금만 기다리세요 = Do not buy it now and wait just a little while

Giving Directions

Commonly used direction-like sentences:

오른 쪽으로 가세요 = Go right 왼 쪽으로 가세요= Go left 직진하세요= Go straight 건물을 지나가서 오른 쪽을 가세요= Go past the building, then go right 건물을 지나가서 오른 쪽으로 가지 말고 계속 직진하세요 = Go past the building, then don’t turn right, but keep going straight

Imperative Mood with ~아/어 보다

~아/어 보다 can be added to words to create a meaning that is similar to “attempt/try.”

엄마가 요리한 음식을 먹어 봤어? = Did you try the food mom cooked? 결혼하기 위헤 남자들을 만나 봤어요 = In order to get married, I tried meeting a lot of men

Just because of the meaning of “attempt,” it is very common to see an imperative ending attached to ~아/어 보다.

그것은 확인 해 봐! = (Try) check(ing) that! 이것을 먹어 봐! = (Try) eat(ing) this!

Although the typical translation of ~아/어 보다, in these cases is “try”, it is often eliminated. Especially when used in the least formal imperative form (~아/어 봐), it is very common to see this used simply as a command without any meaning of “try/attempt.” Nonetheless, the meaning of “try/attempt” is often very subtle and doesn’t really change the meaning of much in the sentence.

여기 와 보세요 = Come here (Try coming here) 지금 앉아 봐 = Sit down (Try sitting down) 문을 열어 봐 = Open the door (Try opening the door) 먼저 가 봐 = Go first (Try going first) 이것을 봐 보세요 = Look at this (Try looking at this) 이거를 드셔 보세요 = Eat this (Try eating this) 이 차를 마셔 보세요 = Drink this tea (Try drinking this tea) 이 제품 수준을 높여 보세요 = Try to raise the level/standard of this product 그 강아지가 온순해 보여서 한 번 만져 봐 = That dog looks calm/gentle, so try touching it 직원이랑 잠깐 얘기해 보세요 = Try talking with a staff member 이 물체가 무엇인지 새각해 봐 = Try thinking about what this object is

Fixed Expressions

어서 오세요 = Welcome (lit. Come quickly) 안녕히 가세요 = Good-bye (lit. Go peacefully) 안녕히 계세요 = Good-bye (lit. Stay peacefully) 안녕히 주무세요 = Goodnight (lit. Sleep peacefully)

References

HTSK Unit 2 Lesson 40: The Imperative Mood: ~아/어(요), ~(으)세요, ~아/어라, (으)십시오, ~지 말다

TTMIK Level 2 Lesson 26. Imperative / -(으)세요

TTMIK Level 2 Lesson 27. Please do it for me. / -아/어/여 주세요

TTMIK Level 2 Lesson 30. Don’t do it. / -지 마세요

TTMIK Level 5 Lesson 19. To tell someone to do something / Verb + -(으)라고 + Verb

TTMIK Level 5 Lesson 24. Not A But B, Don’t do THIS but do THAT / 말고, -지 말고

Examples

~지 말다 attached to 내려가다 on a Korean sign

#korean #notes #endings #verbs #conjugation #grammar #imperative #honorifics

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starsailorstories · 4 years ago

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I’ve mentioned the grammatical registers of Altamaian here and there but I just now pulled together Info About Them and I’m really excited to share it because it’s one of the main ways it differs from Latin (which it’s a predecessor of in the SC universe) and also just a fun bit of worldbuilding that informs a lot of exchanges in the stories

Modern Standard Altamaian is notable for the way its grammar and vocabulary change based on social context and the expressive style of the particular speaker. Obviously the best Earth analog to this is probably Japanese, but Altamaian differs in that registers are conveyed solely through highly regular affixes and changes in syntax, rather than that + whole new polite forms of words. Shifts to simpler or flowerier vocabulary occur with shifts in speaking style just as in English, but they are not a grammatical part of the register--one can speak in a very formal register and use very simple language and vice versa. While some features exist in more than one register and features of different registers are often mixed to convey a particular tone, the basic divisions are:

Casual/direct: The most notable feature of direct speech in Altamaian is that it tends to be more topic-forward, ironically similar to Classical Syfrae considering its association with the uneducated masses. It uses direct forms of words with few augmentative or diminutive affixes (although there are exceptions in dialect/slang), direct address of listeners, and few separate subject words (relying on verb conjugation to indicate who is doing what). Commonly used among friends or, among the lower lumini, overtures to strangers which may range from friendly to aggressive (to put it in English terms, “Hey I love your outfit”, “Watch out for the snowplow back there!”, and “Put your turn signal on dumbass!” would all, when directed at strangers, be direct-register phrases). Also used for statements aimed at a general audience, such as announcements. Traffic and regulatory signs in the Rings use this register, breaking with the tradition on the planets of the Four Suns of using the formal/polite register (below)--this has led to a lot of memery amongst residents of the old cities around translating them as much more vulgar than they actually are (THE GAP, BITCH! MIND IT!)

Formal/polite: This is actually the most commonly used register for many people, as it tends to be expected of students and in public and professional life, as well as in most media properties funded by the aristocracy. The weirdly hint-of-gender concept of “gentlemaidenliness” is quite bound up with this type of speech although not everyone who uses it would be identified as such--it’s started to be a bit more class-flexible because this is a dying breed but it USED to mean “unbound (and thus not using humble speech) colony-daughter who works for her living (and thus not using benevolent speech) but is nonetheless the Right Sort of People (and thus not using direct speech).” Despite retaining most of the inflections of the regular grammar, polite speech uses rigid SOV word order in the second and third person and OSV word order in the first (so you’re always putting the other person first--an element it shares with humble speech, although formal speech is usually used between strangers/those without any particular relationship regardless of the social status of either speaker) and subject pronouns are generally included. The speaker will still usually address the listener directly unless she is of vastly higher social status (in which case you’d better have a good reason to be speaking to her at all).

Humble (“admiring”): this register goes a step beyond polite speech and emphasizes the humility of the speaker while showing respect--sometimes quite impassioned respect--to the listener. It retains many traits of the polite register like “others first” word order, but in addition, the listener is never referred to by a second-person pronoun--only by a formal address title or phrase, or in the third person--and the speaker will use only diminutive words (including diminutive forms of verbs) to refer to herself, her equals, and her own actions, while referring to the listener with augmentatives. This type of speech is often used in a official context--formal appeals for grants or workers’ benefits, tax papers for businesses, and legal documents all generally exhibit some amount of it, as they’re necessarily addressed from commoners to nobles--yet it remains heavily associated with courtly love, and is often found in romantic sentiments between apparent social equals, especially (you saw this coming didn’t you?) when one party has screwed things up and is trying to salvage them. Although it’s not a formal rule, this register is also associated with phrases and modifiers that qualify one’s statements, akin to the English “I think” although a more accurate translation would be “in my humble opinion,” if a less formal version of that phrase existed in modern English usage.

“Loquelita” or cute humble speech: a subset of humble speech makes use of intensifying reduplication (the exact equivalent of saying “I am so so so so glad” except you do it to the main adjective not the modifier: I am glad glad glad!), doubles up or repeats diminutive and augmentative affixes, and draws vocabulary from youthful and childhood vernacular as well as archaic recitations which are standard knowledge among educated Basilean citizens. This is most often heard in contexts of delicisma or other direct relationships between a high-status lady and a significantly younger and lower-status hanger-on, although it’s associated with literal children (if you’re at a fancy private school this is how you ask your teacher if you can end the lesson early and play heads up seven up lol) and seen as a bit degrading past a certain age and above a certain career level, not to mention inappropriate with superiors who don’t already know and love you. Basically if you’re going to use the “you know how i’m your most favoritest and you love me so much” register variant you’d better be pretty sure the answer isn’t going to be “no? leave.”

Benevolent: Used by high-status leaders (nobles, politicians, some powerful commoners although usually not until their PR consultant tells them to) to speak to or about their inferiors. In Altamaian, “aiko”--the equivalent to the Latin “ego” subject pronoun--is a way of referring to oneself in an official capacity of rulership akin to the royal “we,” although it can be used by anyone in a circumstance where “I” or “me” would be the only word in the sentence (like “Who moved this?” “Me”). The use of this pronoun and of SVO word order are considered proper for describing decisions made from the top of the hierarchy for the (alleged) good of others; such descriptions will also generally use the formal-benefactive noun case to describe the object. Augmentative affixes for such actions, and diminutive ones for those of the listener(s), are also characteristic.

Familiar: Also sometimes called ��soft register,” this is commonly used by parents speaking to children and for reassuring or emotional exchanges between close friends or lovers. Familiar word order is often (though not always) object-first: an example is the most accurate Altamaian translation of the English “I love you,” “Esti quos amo,” literally “It is you that I love.” Diminutives are often used for both the speaker and the listener (but not others), and a special set of affectionate subject pronouns may be employed.

Intimate: Some people consider certain forms that can occur in familiar speech a sub-register known as “intimate speech,” reserved for intense moments and relationships. This mode retains the word order and affectionate diminutives but mostly drops pronouns in reference to the listener and employs an archaic, general first-person verb conjugation that blurs the line between “you” and “we”. It is almost always more direct than familiar speech and can be used to express passionate anger or hurt. This means Altamaian has the imo EXCELLENT feature of having a way to say “I love you” REALLY HARD, and it’s just “amaei”, one word, four vowels, GREAT for screaming out windows.

#conlangs #writing #sweet chariot

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allsassnoclass · 5 years ago

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another prompt!! “I wanted to say “I love you” for the first time without stuttering, but that failed.” with whatever pairing you want but honestly this kind of feels cake to me? cake or perhaps lashton or cashton?

I typically don’t jive with cake but this prompt is just. so them! so congrats on prompting my first cake fic

cake: “I wanted to say “I love you” for the first time without stuttering, but that failed.”

It's raining outside, a gentle pitter-patter hitting the window and providing good background noise for studying. Luke is grateful for it. The were in a hot spell, and hopefully the rain breaks it up enough to get some relief outside. Besides, it gives him an excuse to stay here at Calum's, holed up in his room while they both cram for their last exams of the year. There's only a few days of school left, and after that they have plans for London and an album and a full-fledged music career.

Exams are hard to focus on when all of that is taken into consideration, but at least Luke has the knowledge that his mum will skin him alive if he fails. Calum is dropping out after this year, but Luke's mum is a teacher. She's going to keep teaching him while in London, at least math and science, and part of the agreement about moving to London was that he would get good scores on these tests.

Calum sighs heavily, like he has been for a the past half-hour at least. It's a familiar and soothing soundtrack to mix with the rain, but his fidgeting is doing nothing to help Luke focus. They're both supposed to be studying, but every time Luke has glanced up, Calum has been looking everywhere but his textbook and notebook. A few times, he had been already looking at Luke, then blushed and looked down once he was caught at it. It makes something warm uncurl in Luke's stomach every time.

The thing is, they're kind of a Thing. They haven't really defined it, but Luke really likes Calum, in a I-want-to-kiss-you kind of way, and Calum feels the same. There have been a few vague conversations about it and a few kisses here and there and every time it's just the two of them hanging out Luke likes to think of it as a date, but they haven't actually discussed what's going on. Luke is scared to bring it up, because Calum is the best thing to ever happen to him. He gave him his first real friends, and the band, and now this entire future that they're embarking on together, and what if Calum doesn't really want anything serious? How would they handle that, in a band context? Are you even allowed to date your band members without it ending in tragedy?

Besides, Michael would make fun of them. Ashton wouldn't, but he might get weird about it, and things are good now. Luke doesn't want to disrupt the status quo, not when he could be content like this for a little longer.

Maybe Calum just doesn't want to jump into an actual relationship with everything else going on. The band alone is a lot to focus on, regardless of their upcoming move to a different continent, and maybe once things settle down there they'll have a conversation and Luke can have his first boyfriend.

Luke really, really wants Calum to be his first boyfriend.

Calum sighs again, then closes his book. Luke looks up and can't help but think that even when he's exasperated and frustrated, Calum is really cute. Luke loves the way his hair curls and how soft his cheeks are and the color of his eyes.

"What's up?" he asks.

"I don't want to do this anymore," Calum whines, scrubbing at his face. "I don't need these grades! I'm not going to be going back to school, and it's stupid that I still have to finish the year when it doesn't mean anything!"

Luke chews on his lip, because Calum is kind of right. If Luke didn't have his own mother breathing down his neck and promising continued education, there's no way he would be studying right now. They'd probably be watching a movie, maybe cuddled up a little bit, and Luke might take Calum's hand and Calum might smile in that way that he does when he's really pleased by something.

Luke shakes himself out of the fantasy.

"You promised we'd study together," Luke says. He can't afford to slack off, not when his grades have already been pretty bad this year, and he knows that if Calum suggests that they do something else he'll immediately agree. It's almost tragic how readily he'll agree to whatever Calum says, but at least Calum rarely uses that power for evil.

"I know," Calum sighs. "Hey, how about I help you study? I can't focus for shit on my own stuff, and you need it more than I do."

"We're studying the same thing," Luke says. It sounds entirely too fond for the situation. He sounds like a lovesick puppy and should be more bothered by that, but Calum's responding smile leaves no room for it. Calum's smile is the sun breaking through the rain outside, and Luke wants to bask it in forever.

"Yeah, so maybe this will do me some good, too," Calum says. "Come on, what are you working on?"

Luke shifts to accommodate Calum scooting closer to look at the textbook. It's open to a picture of the periodic table of elements, because Luke still has no clue how to read it and probably will never learn at this rate. If it hasn't clicked in his head by now, it probably never will, and he's quickly loosing hope.

"Oh, this," Calum says, leaning close. Luke wants to wraps his arms around him and keep him there forever. Calum looks at him out of the corner of his eye and smiles, like he can tell exactly what Luke is thinking. Then, something shifts, and he leans back.

"Hey, I have something to tell you." Luke frowns. "Nothing bad! Nothing bad. At least, I hope it's not bad. I don't know, maybe you'll think it's bad."

"Cal," Luke says, grabbing his hand to stop his rambling. "What is it?"

Calum takes a breath.

"I--well, I mean, I just--I--"

Calum stops, sighs, then flops back with an overdramatic groan.

"What?" Luke asks. "What is it?"

“I wanted to say “I love you” for the first time without stuttering, but that failed.”

Luke feels like everything freezes for a moment. The rain outside fades from his hearing, his breath pauses, and even his heartbeat seems to need a second to recover from those words.

Calum loves him. Calum loves him.

Calum seems to realize the gravity of the words around the same time Luke is getting his brain to work again, because he sits straight up.

"You don't have to say it back! I don't want to, like, pressure you or anything, but I thought--I don't know, I thought you might want to know."

"I do!" Luke says. "Love you, I mean. I love you, too."

"Oh," Calum says. "Okay. Cool."

"Cool?" Luke asks.

"Shut up," Calum says. "This has been a disaster. It was supposed to be a cute confession and then maybe a kiss and then I'd ask you to be my boyfriend but it all went to shit because I kept stuttering. I don't need you making fun of my adjective choices."

"You want to be my boyfriend?" Luke asks.

"Of course," Calum says.

"Oh," Luke beams. He feels like his smile might split his face. "I'd like that a lot."

"Good," Calum says.

"I'd like to kiss you, too," Luke says. Calum is leaning forward before he fully finishes the thought, and they're both overeager so their teeth class uncomfortably, but soon they settle into a rhythm, familiar enough to be comfortable but still causing butterflies to erupt in Luke's stomach. He thinks he'll always get butterflies from kissing Calum, but he'll have to keep doing it to confirm that.

Luke pushes his textbook away and kisses Calum again. Studying can wait. He can take a break and kiss his boyfriend, instead.

#my writing #cake #drabble #I promise I am working on the prompt fics! I'm chugging away at them!#writing has just been Weird lately

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innaminitus · 6 years ago

Text

Memories

Pairing: Loki x reader

Request: Loosely my idea is. Loki and reader were friends growing up. As they started to get in their teens he realized he was in love with her, but him being him, thought he was a terrible person and thought she deserved better. So he used his magic to make her forget about him. Fast forward and they’re grown up and he sees her again one day in the palace. Turns out she’s being taught by Frigga who realizes she has a spell on her and lifts it. Reader of course was in love with Loki before too. She runs off to find him and confront him. She’s upset of course because how dare he. He goes into the I’m a monster thing and she goes no you aren’t, you’re just hurt and misunderstood and she still loves him. Of course leads to tons of smut after that and probs him as king and wanting her to be queen and probs gets pregnant (from @fuckythebuckybarnes)

Warnings: smut, language, angst, fluff

Word count: 2478

A/N: (i am once again struggling with tags on this website. please reblog if you can.) hmm I don’t know about this one. I am happy with how it turned out, but I have absolutely no idea if you, my lovely and dear readers, will like it as well.

Loki watched you, dancing in the rain to the music only you could hear. The joy on your face was enough to bring sun into his life. He smiled each time a drop of water splattered on your nose and eyelashes, making you wrinkle funnily.

He was so in love with you. He loved you so much it hurt and ripped his heart to know he was probably the worst person to do so.

He, the second son, the pushover, meaningless boy with bad personality and even worse life choices. He couldn’t allow himself to be with you, to ruin your life.

You took the last spin and stopped, looking at him. Raindrops reflected the weak sun on your hair, making you look almost angelic. You were his angel.

“Are you going to dance with me or just keep watching?” You wiped the hair stuck to your cheeks and smiled widely.

“You know I’m not a great dancer.” He shook his head. “And you will catch a cold if you keep standing in the rain.”

You nodded and sat next to him on a bench under the arbour, fixing your dress as you did so. He tried very hard not to look at the sheer material sticking to your skin, showing every curve, every shiver, hard nipples…

Get yourself together.

You clenched your fingers on the edge of the bench, your bottom lip bitten.

“Loki, I think I have to tell you something,” you said, turning your head to him. He felt your fingers sneaking onto his and his heart started to race. “It’s something I’ve been feeling for a while now and–“

“Wait,” he interrupted you. “Wait, Y/N, you can’t–“

“No, you don’t understand, I’m trying to say to you that I l–“

“Y/N!” He was in despair. He couldn’t let you say these words, or else it would all suddenly become real and he would have to deal with the consequences, a thing he wasn’t ready for and wouldn’t be ready for in a long time. You watched him with your eyes wide, with pain and feeling of rejection. “Just… Don’t say anything, please.” It would be best if you actually forgot about him. If you’d never met, never became friends, if he’d never let these feelings develop. He couldn’t let you be with him, with the monster hiding deep inside, unpredictable traitor, without any perspectives.

There was no other way.

He had to make you forget.

That’s why he softly,

very softly

caressed your cheek, wiping the rain, the tears, and every memory you’ve had of him.

Days gone by, weeks, months, years, and he never saw your smile. It felt like giving up on air or water, like giving up on something keeping him alive, leaving him with a mere bits of the immortality that kept him on this world, pinching him every day with the realization of what he’s done.

There was not a day he wouldn’t miss you, even if your face became slightly blurred in his memory, even if he had difficulties remembering on which cheek you had a freckle on, or which corner of your lips lifted in a cocky smile.

He missed you so much as if he’d lost a body part. A heart.

And one of these long, never-ending days, the heart he thought was long gone, dead and forgotten, started to beat.

He would recognize you everywhere. The wave of your skirt and the clacking of your heels. Your soft voice.

It was like breathing again after drowning, clearing the lungs of water and getting rid of the sharpness in the throat. Like living after being dead for years.

He wanted to call you, hold your hand and crush in a hug, but he couldn’t. You didn’t know him, after all. Well, didn’t remember him. You would hate him anyway if he lifted the spell.

You saw this man, this prince, wandering around the castle with no real purpose, and yet always ending up where you were.

You were one of Frigga’s ladies now, helping her with the dresses and keeping her company, and knew how close she was to her youngest son, that’s why you didn’t ask any questions. Maybe he was just protective.

But the unexplainable sadness you felt each time you saw him, the warmth you felt somewhere deep inside of you didn’t let you forget about Loki. You felt like you knew him somehow. His face was familiar, yes, but so was the manner he talked with, the way he smiled weakly, the sparkle in his eyes.

“You can talk to him if you want, Y/N,” Frigga’s voice woke you from deep thoughts when she caught you staring at the prince. “I’m sure he remembers you, you were such a good friends, after all. Even if it was decades ago.”

You frowned and turned to the queen, not understanding a word. You and Loki? Good friends?

“I’m sorry, your majesty, but I think you’re mistaking me for someone else.” You shook your head. “I don’t know the prince.”

She stopped adjusting flowers in the vase and looked at you with surprise on her face.

“You don’t know him?” She put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow at you, making you feel like a clueless child.

“No, your grace.”

She shook her head and peaked furiously at her son reading a book in the garden.

“Foolish, foolish boy.” She patted your cheek. “My poor girl, I cannot tell you how sorry I am for my son’s doings.”

You didn’t understand what she was saying at all. It made no sense, like quotes out of context. She was surely mistaking you for someone else, for she wasn’t exactly the youngest and perhaps the memory was fooling her.

She held your hand and looked deep into your eyes, suddenly making you feel as if you were drowning. Old thoughts and pictures dived into your mind, blinding you for a second.

And then you knew everything.

He heard you coming even before you stormed into his bedroom, all tears and screams.

He felt the spell being lifted and knew that earlier or later you would come to him to either kill him or… well, probably just to kill him. It turned out to be earlier.

“You son of a bitch, you ungrateful fuck, you freaking ass of Surtur, you–“ You were gasping, but didn’t finish, probably from lack of adjectives.

You were beautiful when you were mad. Cheeks flushed with red, as if an artist used his best paint on you. Hairs sticking out of delicate bun. Eyes shining as if every star in the universe was locked in them.

“How could you do this to me?” Your voice cracked and he put the book away, his eyes still on yours. “How could you make me forget?”

“I’m sorry–“

“You’re sorry? I bet you are. We were friends, Loki. We were friends for years, and you ruined it for what exactly?” You were visibly shaking and he fought the urge of wrapping a blanket around you.

“I fell in love with you,” he just said. As if it was the most ordinary thing in his life. He did make his peace with it, enough to say it out loud. “And you had feelings for me.” He watched you nod. “It… It scared the hel out of me. I am everything but the right person for you.”

“You are a coward, that’s what you are, Loki.” You shook your head, tears of anger flowing down your cheeks. “We would work it all out, you know? I was very much aware of who you were and how you acted, and guess what? I didn’t care at all. But, of course, you had to ruin it.”

“Y/N…” Loki sighed with resignation. “I can’t explain to you how sorry I am. I never should’ve done it, I know. It was stupid and I wanted to lift the spell, but when I realized that you were already away.” His shoulders felt heavy from the guilt he was carrying all these years, from bad decisions and angry thoughts. “Please, forgive me. Give me another chance. We can still work everything out.”

“How can I?” You angrily wiped the tears from your cheeks. “I don’t know you anymore. The only thing I know about this Loki is that he didn’t bother to fix anything he’s ruined.” He could see the muscles in your jaw clenching. “I loved you back then. These weren’t just any feelings. I loved you enough to give myself to you entirely.” His heart hurt when he was listening. “And now that Frigga lifted the spell they are all back.”

His head shot up, he was no longer looking at his shoes, his guts made a swirl and settled somewhere near his throat.

“Are you saying–“

“I don’t want to love you, Loki.” You shook your head, your cheeks ever redder. “You made me forget once, do it again.” You took a step closer, your chin high in a challenge.

He stepped closer, too, making you feel incredibly small somehow.

You wanted to punch him right across the smirk that wouldn’t leave your head. Right through the lies. Everything to make your legs steady, not like cotton.

You felt hurt, hurt so much it ripped you apart, and at the same time relief washed over you. You found the thing you were always missing. Not only the memories, but his presence in your life. His scent, voice and little touches.

“No,” he said, looking at you from above.

“What?” You suddenly lost your confidence.

“I said: no,” his voice was oddly calm as he wrapped a lost strand of your locks around his finger. “I am not letting go of you again.”

He leaned, slowly but surely, not giving you place for any protest. His lips touched yours, wet from tears and swollen from sadness.

You sunk into that kiss, let it consume you whole. Seconds later your mind seemed somewhere else, as if it flew through the tears and screams, leaving just the body, the body that was longing for touch, for his touch. The kisses were sloppy and wet, angry and painful, but you didn’t care. You just got the missing part back, the lost piece of your soul and despite everything you weren’t eager to give it back. Despite what he’s done to you, you still wanted him and no one else. He was all you needed.

Your back met the soft mattress, Loki’s lips went to your neck, his tongue created a path to the shoulder he exposed, to the collarbone, to the curve of your breasts. You let him take off your dress, take off every last thought, the bits of rationality. Naked, all his.

His delicate fingers traced the fullness of your breasts, and lower, the stomach, and lower, your hips. The thumb caressed the bone, led the hand along your leg to your knee, pushed it aside and showed your womanhood, aching for him, for the love he denied you for years.

He didn’t waste any moment of having you. His lips covered your folds, he licked a stripe through them, releasing a moan that filled the room entirely. And even if you wanted to come on his face, time after time, you needed something else now. You pulled his hair and pressed your lips onto his, not caring about your taste on his tongue, pulling his whole body onto yours, just to feel every bit of him touching you. Being with you.

His clothes were soon gone, too, and your legs around his waist were pressing him tightly onto you, into a bone-crushing hug you never knew you wanted. You breathed heavy, his chest raising and falling with yours, in perfect synch.

He dared to kiss you again and you welcomed his lips on yours, reaching down to find his hard member on your stomach. You guided it right to your entrance, not willing to waste any more seconds, for every moment you weren’t one, was wasted.

He slid into you easily, sighing loudly in your mouth, met your moan somewhere in the air. One of his hands was holding your hip while the other sunk into the pillows as he thrusted in and out of you, and you matched the movement of your hips to the perfect feeling of having him deep inside.

You’ve had lovers before, but none of them could give you what Loki could. If it was the love, hidden in the depths of your heart or the presence of him, you didn’t know. It didn’t matter now.

His hips grinded onto yours, caressing your clit and releasing wild noises from your throat, his lips whispering sweet nothings into your ear, occasionally leaving small pecks on your neck, collarbone, lips.

The faster he moved, the more control you lost, the closer he was bringing you into the edge of sanity and reason. Butterflies were raging in your stomach, your heart pumped blood in a mad pace, you greedy pulled Loki for a kiss and didn’t let go.

Orgasm almost blinded you, and for that moment you couldn’t hear anything, just your breaths mixing into one, your gasp and sharp moan as everything you knew, your whole world trembled at your feet, threatening to fall apart.

Loki’s cum shot deep into you, his lips covered yours, his eyes shut close as he tried to mute his moan with your flesh.

When your legs stopped shaking and his heartbeat came back to normal he slid out and lied next to you, silent.

“I love you,” he said after a moment, just when you felt his semen flowing down your thighs.

You turned to him and moved a sticky strand of hair from his forehead.

“I hope you do, because I’m not letting you go until we get even.” You smiled weakly, but happily.

“And after that? Will you let me go?” He raised an eyebrow at you in a cocky manner you realized you knew so well.

“I don’t think so. You deserve to be tormented until the rest of your life.” He laughed at your words and you moved to lie on your stomach, to hover over him.

His arm wrapped around you, his fingers gently stroked your skin and you never felt more fulfilled.

“I think I can take your tortures on one condition…” He whispered in your lips, daring you to kiss him.

“And what is that?”

“When I’ll be the king…” He kissed you right on the corner of your lips. “You will be my queen.”

Your heart jumped and you couldn’t hold back a smirk.

“It seems fair…”

And you kissed his smile, promising yourself to elicit it for the rest of your life.

___

TAGS:

💞: @taylorswiftloverforever13 @fuckythebuckybarnes @kaylig02 @daddyloki @it-jinxed-us @themusingsofmany @randomlea @annakohanasworld @theunofficialduke @prismroot-starlight0 @deathofmissjackson @tricksterwinchester @villanellevi

loki smut 💙 - @lucantis @amiablestyles @maybell88 @selemeworld @imjustaworldoffandom @lovesickforvillans @midnight-queen-1 @peachlobotomy666 @artanopolis @cherrygeek86 @fan-girly-girl @mercadez119 @lokislilslut @princerowanwhitethorngalathynius @darkprincessloki92@marvelrose@bluestaratsunrise@iamverity @lokilvrr @meraki–mei @sociallyawkwardbeanwhowrites @thathedonistgirl

#loki x reader #loki x y/n #loki x reader smut #loki x y/n smut #loki smut #loki #tom hiddleston #loki imagine #avengers imagine #marvel imagine #loki x you

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quilloftheclouds · 5 years ago

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Hey Quill! I was just wondering if you could spill some tips and tricks on how to foreshadow in a story, and how to keep readers guessing without telling too much. Hope you have a nice day/evening!

Hello hello, @insert-witty-writing-username! I hope you have a nice one as well! And oh, oh you’re asking me for writing advice? Hm! I haven’t really done this before!

We’ll see what I can give, but remember to only use what helps you---advice is only a suggestion, after all~

Advice for Writing Foreshadowing

Though not all stories need it or have it, foreshadowing can be used to enrich and deepen the ocean that is your plot, to excite the reader with anticipation for a later event, to build suspense for a great catastrophe or reveal, to give them the foundations for theories they can’t wait to confirm, or to act as that lovely little detail that on a second or third read through makes one go “Oh, wait!” with delight as they connect the dots.

But what is foreshadowing? A warning. Mostly, it’s the hints dropped in the writing that sets up for something happening later on, usually something big and critical to the plot. It can be blatant, like a statement direct from the narrator that something bad’s going to happen soon, or it can be subtle, like... oh, it’s rather odd that the writer mentioned that background object that doesn’t get used in this scene...

So, how do you write it?

First, you as the writer need to know what’s going to happen that you can foreshadow. You could attempt to use foreshadowing by pantzing (aka writing without an outline) but I think it would be a real mess if you have no idea of what’s to come. SO. Make an outline! Or at least get an idea of big important plot events coming up! Then go back and see where you can add in this foreshadowing, or add it in as you write your draft~

Types of Foreshadowing

I’m just going to go out and say this explicitly: there is no way I’m going to be able to cover all the types of foreshadowing in this post. There are soooo many ways of doing it, so I just briefly highlighted some that are commonly used! (Probably just typing “types of foreshadowing” into google or whatever search engine you use would bring up a lot more!) Also I have no idea what these are actually called, so bear with me with the made up names. ^^’

Leading Event: If a giant hole’s just been blasted into a boat’s hull, that ship’s probably not going to stay afloat for long.

Background Focus: Why did the writer focus in on that decorative sword hanging over the mantle? Can’t be because it’ll be taken down to fight with, later... can it?

Conspicuous Mention: When a character brings up something unusual or notable in conversation or narrative, it obviously doesn’t mean anything important whatsoever. Right?

Vague Names: Take my character, The Scientist, for example. Only referred to by that name and no pronouns are ever given (until much later, anyways). Curious! This can also be used for big events or important objects as well as characters, but be careful not to over use this one!

Vague But Direct: “This is going to be a long day,” the character says. Clearly, it’s going to be a long day! But... why?

Imagery and Symbolism: Wow, the writer really likes using bones and graves and stiff coldness to describe this character a lot. Interesting that they die in the seventh chapter. Oh... wait.

Magic!: Prophecies, or omens, or mysteriously real-feeling dreams... obviously it’s all fake though, right?

Little Act Now, Major Later: I’m sure that character who just stole and hid an important document isn’t going to end up being revealed to be an Evil Spy later. Nope. Definitely not.

Symptoms: *Eats some food* Oh, that was good! *Coughs* Oh no, I’m sick! *Coughs up blood* Oh no, I’m... really sick! *Passes out* Oh. They were poisoned. Nevermind!

Wait, That Didn’t Make Sense...: How did that person know where the villain’s lair was? *A few chapters later* OH HECK, THEY USED TO WORK FOR THE VILLAIN.

Any tips?

Foreshadowing early allows for the seed to grow, and is especially useful for the most major events. Once your readers reach what’s being foreshadowed, they may well have almost forgotten the detail dropped earlier on, but it will make it even more satisfying once the memory is brought to the forefront.

Not all of your foreshadowing needs to be picked up on in the first read through. Sometimes, leaving the most subtle of clues allows your reader’s second or third reread of your writing to be all the more satisfying, since they’re picking up on things they didn’t before! This shouldn’t be the case for particularly important details, though.

Though you don’t have to go to the point where every single one of your environmental details act as foreshadowing, it is important to not include things that are given more attention or seem unusual when they’re not referenced again. Why would you mention something’s flammability, if it’s not going to be on fire later? It breaks the reader’s expectations, and doesn’t fulfill that satisfaction of confirming the theory.

That said, make sure your foreshadowing details make sense in the context, too. It would just be plain weird if that object’s flammability was mentioned out of the blue... maybe the person who says it is conveying a warning to another character who wants to use the object for something else?

Also! Make sure the tone of the build up fits what it’s building up to! Don’t mention something in an ominous way and have the event it’s foreshadowing be happy and cheerful---the emotion clashes and feels like it’s letting the reader down.

It’s perfectly reasonable to wait until your second (or third, or onward) draft to add in your foreshadowing. Perhaps you’re the sort who doesn’t know enough about your story to hint at future event in your first draft, because you don’t even know what those future events are going to be!

Also, get help from readers to know how much and how obvious the foreshadowing you use should be! As the writer, you already know what’s going to happen. It’ll probably seem too obvious to you to know whether it’s a good application of foreshadowing or not!

And continue reading under the cut if you want some tricks direct from me! (Plus some other goodies~)

Quill’s tricks:

I have a few things that are a little more characteristic to my personal writing style. This is purely a list of foreshadowing tidbits that I myself really enjoy using, certainly that won’t be the case for everyone, but I thought I’d mention them anyways!

I really really really have a whole lot of fun dropping a foreshadowing hint that the reader later thinks is solved, and they then discover that this hint was foreshadowing more than just that.

Repetition! Only to be used sparingly so it doesn’t become overly predictable to the reader, but if you mention something otherwise inconspicuous multiple times... well, there’s this feeling that it’s important somehow, yes?

Imagery and symbolism is a big favourite of mine. Why yes, I do like to specifically use lightning and storm-related terminology for some of my characters a lot. This can be foreshadowed through appearance or physical description, adjectives or verbs you use for their behaviour or actions, or just about anything obviously connected to them! (Can also be applied to objects, places, etc.!)

If you’re okay with a bit more coincidence, having the environment change to reflect upcoming events can also be a great way of foreshadowing. Sure, those thunderclouds building definitely foreshadow a storm coming, but what if the storm is metaphorical as well? What if some major and tumultuous events are going to happen soon...?

Now, take this anchor-agement and make waves with your boatloads of foreshadowing!

... Might I have just used foreshadowing for a boat pun? Maybe!

#writing advice #writing foreshadowing #foreshadowing tips #writing tips #writing resources #writeblr #writeblr community #ask reply #ask #Quill's advice #foreshadowing #insert-witty-writing-username

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