#me infodumping

[ihatearbys]

miss power lore hc

[tuberosumtater]

TAKARAJIMA HEADCANON THAT WOULD MAKE SOME OF Y'ALL DEVASTATED 'CUZ YES:

(Copy-pasted from a thread that I posted on twitter lol)

What if I told you I headcanon that adult Jim dyed his hair into a darker shade of brown as a way to pay homage to Silver, which is why his hair color looks different in comparison to his younger self??

And between the events after the final episode and before the OVA, Jim just let his dye come off for whatever reason.

Which is why his hair color in the OVA is lighter than his hair color in the anime's final episode. Also, I'm using this screenshot of Jim and Silver's kid to compare OVA Jim's hair color. Since the kid's hair has a similar color to Silver's during his prime.

Additionally, rosiipilli (aka @rosiimoon) mentioned in the replies of a twitter thread that Jim made himself look like Silver as his way to remember the one legged man who became crucial to his life. And also to immortalize Silver's legacy through Jim:

So to sum it up: Jim made himself slightly resemble Silver as a way to pay homage to him. At this point this post is less of a headcanon and more of a theory.

But I digress, Adult Jim having a different hair color to his younger self is most likely just the animation team being inconsistent lol.

Thank you mateys for reading this infodump that doubles as a cope post. Hope y'all have a great day! (or afternoon or night depending on whatever timezone you're on : P

[tricornonthecob]

Dialect notes! Dialect notes! Dialect notes!

Because I missed my calling in academic research, I've spent a non-zero amount of time going down rabbit holes on early North American dialect for Along The Northern Heights. Is it worth doing all this research for a fanfiction of a PBS kids show from 20 years ago? Well it gives me considerable amounts of joy to write, so yes.

Anyway! I want to share a massive infodump, because writing gives me goodfeels and so does sharing! Please let me know if I am inaccurate or wrong about anything. I am not an academic and furthermore I do not want to spread misinformation.

MASSIVE WORD BLOCK UNDER THE CUT

A Pregame With Disclaimers About "Good" English

The history of Modern English is rife with Big Oof moments, and I'm not just talking about The Great Vowel Shift or Noah Webster deciding that the "u" in "colour" was silly. Especially in the late 18th century, there was a push to make accents more uniform and to establish a single "Good" English - and there is so much aggression towards what those scholars considered "Bad" English. And, in my extremely uneducated opinion, it seems like it's a conveniently moving target, just like "whiteness." In the context I'm in when writing, it positively reeks of shitting on any of the world's population groups that aren't Southeastern England. And, being from the United States, I know all too well the absolute shit that's been lobbed at AAVE for not being "Good" English.

This "Good" vs "Bad" way of looking at dialect is reductive, destructive, and boring, and I think it goes without saying I don't condone it in the slightest.

A Further Pregame With Received Pronunciation, or RP

the "generic" British dialect many of us outside the UK think of when we think of a British accent (a shame, I think, because the UK is so dialect-diverse and there are some absolute bangers on that damp island!) There are certainly a myriad of reasons for this, but probably the most common reasons/claims I've heard through my life are

A) 19th-century upper-class British folk wanting to have a more separate dialect from the other classes.

B) associations with the way the Royal Family has spoken English since at least Queen Victoria (a generic reasoning that we see happen along populations: imitating those in power)

C) 20th-century RP became "generic" in a similar way that the broad North American dialect* now associated with the United States and, to some degree, Canada, did - that is, it was further developed and use encouraged as the easiest to understand when recorded and played-back on period audio recording equipment (specifically radio and television.)

*a timeout is to be made here for the so-called Mid-Atlantic dialect at the dawn of "talkies" and early Hollywood. Its the delightful way of talking you'll hear in old black-and-white movies: slightly musical cadence, and combining the broad north american dialect with a bit of the non-rhoticity of RP. This dialect was mostly affectation and as anyone with living American relatives born before 1960 can tell you, mid-20th-century Americans largely did not speak it in normal settings.

Now, all of this is to say, RP as a dialect doesn't really appear until mid-19th century (although it would seem the loss of rhoticity we so associate with RP was a gradual shift starting in the very end of the 18th century.) Furthermore, the ways that we, 21st-century denizens, know RP don't come into their own until the 20th century and proliferation of audio-based mass media.

On to My Actual Point : 18th Century American Dialect (non-AAVE)*

*I make this distinction because the history of AAVE is a massive topic all on its own and I feel even less qualified to speak on it

It can't be ignored that the base strata making up Anglo-American speech patterns would have been as varied as where the original settlers/invaders came from, nor can it be ignored that the American Colonies were made up of more than just Anglo-Saxon descendants. Even back then, they were a mosaic of cultural interaction, which is why Thomas Paine declared America (at least the white part) a European, and not British, culture.

That being said, multiple primary sources indicate that the dialect of Anglo-Americans at the late 18th/very early 19th century was similar to "well-bred" Londoner dialect of the time (assuming there's enough of a distinction here from broad Southeastern UK,) and that this particular dialect was broadly spoken with less regional variance than the family of dialects in the UK.

This is made clear in vol 3 of Timothy Dwight's Travels in New-England and New-York, a collection of letters sent to colleagues in England:

"I shall not, I believe, offend against either truth or propriety if I say, that the English language is in this country pronounced more correctly than in England. I am not, indeed, sanguine enough to expect, that you will credit the assertion, nor that you will believe me to be a competent judge of the subject. Still I am satisfied that the assertion is true. That you may not mistake my meaning, I observe, that by a correct pronunciation I intend that of London; and, if you please, that of well-bred people in London."

(Dwight, Timothy. Travels in New-England and New-York vol 3 p 265)

Now in context he is only speaking of the New England region, and he does make a disclaimer here that he's not "a competent judge" of the subject, and we are certainly ignoring his hope that he won't be cited on the matter. But, his observation holds true from other primary accounts, especially William Eddis' Letters From America, which are composed of his observations (mostly of Maryland gentry) from 1769 to 1777. (His letters also happen to be an invaluable primary source for observations on culture and political commentary on the rising crisis between the colonies and Britain, from the perspective of a loyal well-to-do British subject.)

On the uniformity of language, Eddis has this to say:

"In England, almost every county is distinguished by a peculiar dialect; even different habits, and different modes of thinking, evidently discriminate inhabitants, whose local situation is not far remote; but in Maryland, and throughout the adjacent provinces, it is worthy of observation, that a striking similarity of speech universally prevails; and it is strictly true, that the pronounciation of the generality of the people has an accuracy and elegance, that cannot fail of gratifying the most judicious ear."

(Eddis, William. Letters from America, Historical and Descriptive. p 59)

if the odd comma placements are making it hard to read, you're not alone. 18th century writing is choc-full of what we might today consider run-on sentences, comma splices, or just generally cumbersome. Here's me paraphrasing as best I can:

"In England, almost every county has its own dialect, habits, and modes of thinking, noticeably different inhabitants that don't live very far from each other; but in Maryland and adjacent provinces, there is a notable similarity of speech, and its absolutely true that the generalized accent/pronunciation has an accuracy and elegance that won't fail to gratify a discerning ear."

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All this background I'm giving comes to this point: late 18th-century "well-bred" Londoner is the dialect I have chosen to loosely base what I write in Along The Northern Heights. I listen to alot of Simon Roper's work on youtube regarding the topic. I would say these two are probably the most valuable videos on the accent.

He makes disclaimers about not being formally qualified to speak on linguistics, and I would be remiss to not pass along those disclaimers.

That being said, what's in my mind is pastiche of that, the local "country" (read: appalachian) dialect in rural Virginia, the dialect work used in Turn:Washington's Spies and HBO John Adams, as well as some of the dialect you hear in PBS Masterpeice's Poldark, and various media I've watched/read from Living History re-enactors about reconstructing dialect.

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Since I've made it a headcanon feature that James Hiller has a bit of a brogue that he feels pressured to correct, but slips into when he is excited or upset, I'd like to dig more into less-"proper" dialects of the time, and, if possible, the less-proper Philly accent. For shits and giggles, here's what I suspect is a dramatization of a modern-day Philly accent:

And then a very similar, a very real Baltimore Baldmer accent:

Honestly? Hearing both of these warms the cockles of my heart, because my late grandparents (especially grandma. *Especially* grandma) spoke with a Baltimore accent, which has similarities with the Philly accent. My aunts and uncles all speak it; its been normalized and blended with a virginia rural accent in mine (I say wadder, my grandma said wooder. I say toosdaye, my grandma said toosdee. I say ahn, grandma said ooowan. I say y'all, grandma said all youse/all you. I say "d'jeet," she said d'jeet, and you can pull d'jeet from my cold dead hands.)

In addition, you have the modern-day "High Tide" dialect of Okracoke, the Carolina Brogue.

trouble with Carolina Brouge, which is disappearing, is that its got too much modern-day southeastern drawl to really use as a basis for an 18th century Philly boy. Though it does seem like drawing out the "A" in water into wooder/woader is a commonality.

Anyway. That's been my infodump. I spent too long on this!

[cherry-flavoured-thot]

if i were in a farming sim it would be easy to max out my friendship stat because i’d love it if the new farmer who moved into town just gave me different coloured weeds 

[cookie-nom-nom]

Their entire relationship

[luriuan]

Sokka and Zuko get SO much funnier when you remember this is both of their first times talking to another teenage boy in years. Sokka had all the other boys leave the tribe when he was little and Zuko just hasn’t talked to other teenage boys. They wanna be friends but have absolutely no clue how to talk to other teenagers. I love them so much.

[emberglowfox]

he did get those braids after all

[dizzybizz]

"this is regrettably the best kiss of your life, you understand?"

[ogerpwned]

The idea of ghost obsessions is so funny id be so pissed if I died and it just made me somehow more autistic

[wszczebrzyszynie]

full version of the introduction post from a while back. The entire point of making oc introductions is to make them short and to highlight the most important things but i had to write 2k words of exposition about them otherwise i would just kill myself. thats just how it works

[scramratz]

My favorite pastime is finding archived queer buttons online. Heres some of my favorites-

This is from at least the 90s! Lesboys win again-

Is this term still used? If not, I think we should bring it back -

Me-

I think this is Allison Bechdel’s work? I know she did a lot of commission work in the 80s but this kind of art style was also popular amount queer artists around that time so idk-

Funny words-

THEY FORCE FEMINIZED CHE GUEVARA-

DEFINITELY DOING A REDRAW OF THIS ITS SO CUTE-

And last but not least, my favorite.

[c-kiddo]

cad and belle are just wee besties to me . and have lots of sensory pressure hugs. (from npc requests but i wanted to draw them together anyway so bonus cad)

[artilite]

have a lion dance for these trying times ♥♥

[amphibimations]

i dont know anything about limbus company other than a 10 minute google search and i think its cool that an anime literature hell game exists but i am obsessed- OBSESSED- with the fact that they made gregor samsa hot and then just gave him a single really cool murder bug arm as if thats somehow disgusting instead of being metal af. If i saw a guy who looked like that id be like ‘AWESOME bug arm bro can i take a picture’ and then hed probably kill a bunch of monsters with his cool bug arm. This is supposed to be Gregor samsa. The guy from the story thats all about being transformed into an unrecognizable useless hideous monster and struggling with everyone becoming disgusted with him. I cant get over how funny it is to me. any limbus company fans who see this please tell me all about anime gregor samsa i need to know more.

[essektheylyss]

It really is so fun that Essek started mentioning "my partner" like every three lines because he probably doesn't actually get the chance to talk about it that often.

I think there can often be an impulse when you really care about someone to want to shout from the rooftops all the great things you feel and notice about them, and Essek isn't really in a position to do that. The people who he can talk freely to already know him and Caleb, and the people who don't know them likely aren't safe to tell real personal details to. It's one thing to fabricate a parental relationship knowing that there isn't someone to trace that to, but it's an entirely different thing to tell someone honestly about the people you love when any small detail might put them in danger if it fell into the wrong hands.

The Hells are safe to say that kind of thing to—perhaps mostly on a meta level, in that the DM is aware that they are the protagonists—and they also characteristically tend to offer a listening ear to anyone they meet, and I think it's delightful that Essek actually recognized and responded to that.

[somewhat-very-insane]

normalize having interests.

guys. i swear. apparently, society decided its "shameful" or "childish" to actually care about things. especially if those things bring you comfort or joy.

you shouldn't have to be ashamed about your interests as long as they don't hurt anyone. you find a certain game or topic cool? you know a lot about the lore of this show, or a bunch of facts about a certain animal?

awesome. cause i wanna know. tell me about the things you care about.

special interests, hyperfixations, or just things you love and put a lot of time into.

cause if society is gonna shame us for having interests, i'm gonna shame them right back for telling us not to.