#notes section

[slugchild]

finally finished the Dante’s Inferno tunnel book i was making for a friend’s 21st birthday an entire 9 months ago!

[tiffanyachings]

Matching T-Shirts for You and Your Weirdly Codependent Cousin

based on this excellent post by @casgirl

[nenoname]

the stan conspiracy board my love....

his birth certificate being marked as fake fascinates me though...... i wonder if he managed to alter it (apparently they mention if you're a twin?)

it is funny that the only thing under "illegal acts" is him trying to steal the animatronic badger but i guess that's the main thing that first caught the agent's attention (other than stan helping the kids break into the minigolf course)

(the photo of his car only shows up in that initial shot cos it's the episode's keyword btw)

[smallsinger5901]

the worst part about Light Yagami is that he’s just… nothing. Not only in the sense that he’s pathetic or evil or whatever. But that, fundamentally, he is just mask after mask after mask after mask after mask that’s welded onto nothing, a completely hollow thing, empty. He will act and play the part from what he sees other people doing, and he will assume everyone else feels the same way inside. He will assume that he is just the only one brave and strong enough to do what others are simply pretending to dislike, because to him pretending and being are one and the same. If you were to remove the mask of ‘Kira’, and the mask of ‘Light Yagami’, and all of the façades he puts on based on the people he’s around and what is most advantageous to him, what would there be left? Would there be anything at all?

[serpentface]

Come On Man.

(Extensive linguistic notes for this 'balls in my mouth' comic under the cut)

The extensive linguistic notes for this "balls in my mouth" comic:

Brakul's first language is the West Rivers dialect of the broader Highlands language, which is part of the Finnic language family. It first split from the Proto-Finnic spoken north of the Viper about a millennia ago with migrants traveling south overseas, and further split into what are now the two native Finnic language groups in Wardin (the Highlands and North Wardi tongues). The Highlands language is a dialect continuum- most neighboring dialects are mutually intelligible, but people from opposite ends of the language's home region would have troubles communicating clearly (though the continuum is not wide enough for any to be fully incomprehensible).

Brakul knew some very, very basic Wardi from occasional contact with Ephenni traders as a teenager, and would later become fluent in the South Wardi dialect as a second language. Wardi is from a wholly separate language family than the Finnic languages with EXTREMELY distant common ancestry, and very different in form and function. Wardi is in many ways less specified and direct, having a smaller variety of individual words to communicate emotional/sensory states and instead imparting many layers of meaning to the same words in different contexts, which Brakul sometimes finds difficult and irritating to navigate. This is one of a number of reasons he often expresses himself more fully in his mother tongue.

Janeys is a native Wardi speaker (South Wardi dialect), fluent in 'Seaway Burri' (which is a lingua franca of the Mouth sea powers, many people along the coastal cities know it as a second language), and semi-fluent in 'High Burri' (state language of the Burri Republic), and in the present day has a modest comprehension of the West Rivers Highlands dialect. This takes place 4.5 years after he and Brakul met, and he mostly just knows basic utilitarian conversational terms and parts of speech, and has a decent understanding of the grammar and how to conjugate verbs. After 13 years of exposure to Brakul talking at him and occasionally deigning to explain what he's saying, Janeys can Sort Of hold a conversation.

---

NOTES ON THE POST ITSELF:

I = Sí

My= Sig

You= Mí (casual) Mís (formal)

---

Mí vírim is “I love you”.

The unconjugated form of the verb is vírir. The dead literal translation is “to need”, but "mí vírim" translates more accurately as "I love you" than "I need you". It DOES have connotations of need, it expresses love as a sense of wholeness and natural dependency- you say it to express affection towards someone to whom you owe your existence, to a line of ancestors, to your descendants, to the people you create or provide for your descendants with. It says "you are part of my sense of place in this world, you connect me to something greater than myself that sustains me". It will mostly be spoken between immediate kin (parents, children, siblings), husbands and wives, and in practice of venerating your ancestors. This is a gay as fuck thing to say to an unrelated man.

There's at least three other ways to directly say "I love ___" one of which is an affectionate expression of camaraderie, one of which communicates strong aesthetic appreciation, and one that is used in practice specifically to express affection/gratitude towards livestock (though can be used more broadly).

Janeys comprehends the phrase "Mí vírim" as “(I) [UNKNOWN VERB] you” and he's able to discern from Subtle Context Clues that it's something like 'I love you'.

He guesses the unconjugated verb inaccurately as (v)írer, as -Er and -Ur verb endings are more common than -Ir endings, and -Er/-Ir verbs share all the same conjugated forms.

Wardi languages have no ‘v’ sound to begin with, and the ‘v’ here is very soft, between a ‘vuh’ and ‘fuh’. This doesn’t come naturally to Janeys (or most Wardi speakers in general) and comes out as a 'wuh' on first impulse and a hard ‘fuh’ when he tries to replicate it.

This is something he never gets good at and Brakul is grateful that it’s his brother who was named ‘Vrailedh’ (Vrai-lehd-hh)) and not him so he doesn’t have to hear ‘Wrai-lehd’ or ‘Frai-lehd’ all the damn time by his Wardi compatriots. (Many of them don't even get his actual name right, but it's a lesser sin of not rolling the R and under-emphasizing the -ul)

---

"Sí brūlmim fágh filshíbe" is “I am very gullible”. The use here is not particularly cruel and is more just that his first impulse upon realizing Janeys will repeat anything he says right now is to make a "someone wrote gullible on the ceiling" level joke at his expense.

Fágh is a word used to emphasize an adjective and some nouns, functionally close to 'very' but used specifically for non-physical/non-sensory qualities (emotion, personality, etc). You could use fágh in the sentence “I’m so sorry” "he's such an asshole".

Brūlmim is "I am" in present tense. The unconjugated form is brūlmur, meaning 'to be' in a permanent sense, as a matter of nature. Other verbs are used for ‘to be’ in a purely transitory sense (“I am tired”) or describing a prolonged but impermanent state, usually past tense (“I was a stupid teenager”).

Filshíbe straightforwardly means 'gullible'.

The 'h' at the end of fágh is vocalized as an exhale, sounds a little like 'fog-uh' with a VERY soft and breathy 'uh'. The '-e' at the end filshíbe is also exhaled, coming out as a quick, soft 'eh'. Neither of these sounds are natural to a Wardi speaker (especially the breathy 'eh', most -e ending words are pronounced with a strong '-ey').

Janeys is comprehending “I’m (very/so) [UNKNOWN WORD]” here, and his face is being touched so softly so [UNKNOWN WORD] is very compelling and he's learning new things and is kind of in the zone so might as well say it back.

---

"Mísig uns drótes vísti sig bahrég, s'vaige do mi?" means "Your balls in my mouth, please?". What makes the sentence Particularly funny to Brakul here is that it's Excessively polite (using a formal and deferential 'your' and very gracious 'please') and jarringly accompanied with lowbrow slang for testicles. A more tonally accurate english translation would be "Sir, may I please perchance take your fat fucking sack in my mouth?"

Mísig means 'your', but specifically implies deference- it's a word you would use to address an elder or authority figure, or to use while being very, very polite. (Mís is the equivalent deferential 'you').

Uns drótes is one of several slang terms for testicles. This one uses the word 'boulders', and is thus Specifically implying 'big balls'. It's lowbrow and a very mild expletive (in the same degree 'ass' is in English).

Vísti means 'in' or 'inside', as a physical state of something being inside of another thing- you would use it for 'there's a bird in that cage' but not 'there's fear in my heart'.

Bahrég means 'mouth', which is almost always used in the purely anatomical sense. The other word for 'mouth' in the language more commonly refers to the mouths of animals (might be better translated as 'maw') and also gets applied to non-anatomical objects (ie 'the mouth of the cave').

S'vaige do mi means 'thank you' (dead literally 'my gratitude to you', the S in S'vaige is a contracted sig/'my') but is translated here as 'please' for clarity. There isn't actually a word that directly correlates to 'please' in the Highlands language, a polite request is accompanied with a 'thank you' instead (IE: "Could you pass the salt, thank you?"). This is one of two direct ways to say 'thank you' and this is the more intensely polite of the two.

Janeys will have understood this sentence as "(polite 'Your') [UNKNOWN WORD] (in? inside? within?) my [UNKNOWN WORD], please." This one throws him off, but he's pretty sure he's about to be kissed on the mouth for the first time in his life so he's willing to go with it.

[kalwithatrenchcoat]

In the world of cartoons and the power of indie horror games, anything is possible. Now, who's gonna tell 'em?

[bubbytheliverstealingskeleton]

The silliess

Finally finished this yesterday after leaving it to sit mostly finished for like. A month

[anonyanonymouse]

I don't know what to say. It was beautiful. It was everything I wanted out of the book and I am so happy. They went through with destroying his horn (just one!) and he is experiencing the long-term consequences of it. Lilia died and both Malleus and Silver brought him back with true love and a wish, because true love conquers all... Just what the original movie would have wanted 😭

And Malleus, Silver, and Sebek sobbing so much over him. He really got to find out just how much he means to them 😭😭😭 and I adore how after all this time, when Silver and Lilia finally got the chance to talk one on one, they were just talking casually about trivial things in their lives. Silver even said there was so much more they should have talked about... But that normalcy is just what they need after everything

The way Lilia still after all that time thinks so little about what he's done for Silver, asking him if he'd rather keep his blonde hair color. The way Silver was so happy to describe just how much he loves his hair and how important it is to him. Ohhhh,,,,,...,,.,,....

I really like that Silver gave away his armor. His reason for it is so him. He wouldn't want to keep a weapon that he just puts up on a wall and never uses, he wants it to be used for something important. It's such a nice way for him to give back to STYX and the island!!! He doesn't directly say it's because of the armor's association with KOD, and I think that's fine. He really made his peace with having KOD as his father, he's accepted it as part of his life now!

AND THE ADOPTION. IT'S EVERYTHING I COULD HAVE ASKED FOR!!!! Silver and Lilia are both so so. Oh my god. They mean the world to me. I can't believe Lilia's reasoning for not giving Silver his surname is the exact same reason Silver was afraid to ask for it. He didn't want to burdon his kid with the name of his "real parents" enemy. Lilia when I GET YOU. And Silver LAUGHS AT HIM FOR IT!!!! The only other time we ever see him laugh is when he's a kid!!!!! And his laugh is just as sweet now as it was back then 😭

Lilia Vanrouge's adoption of Silver Vanrouge is officially valid in the country of Briar Valley. Silver is now Lilia's true son. The game has been building us up to this moment for 5 years and I am so happy 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 Silver's profile now officially says Silver Vanrouge. I can stop tagging him as twst Silver / twisted wonderland Silver / ect and just tag him as Silver Vanrouge. I'm so happy

All the ghosts of the past got to come back to life and dance in peace with each other at last. Malleus got to meet his mother and Silver got to properly meet his parents, and we got to see Leah!!! Both Malleus and Silver got to thank their parents for protecting them so that they could live in a world with their loved ones, and got to tell them to rest in peace at last. It's sooooo sugary sweet oh my god. THIS GAME!!!!!!

[slugchild]

it’s fine i know they’re all just in Au of my Tism

[silver-stake-through-the-heart]

Dean: [shown bruised and defeated]

Castiel, two minutes later: I'm considering disobedience. (...) For the first time, I feel...

[tiffanyachings]

“Fiat lux! If you want to talk improbable, let’s talk about this”—a scrape of stone on stone—“being three thousand and some years older than this.” A heavy clunk.

“Inexplicable, Warden.”

“Certainly not. Like everything else in this ridiculous conglomeration of cooling gas, it’s perfectly explicable, I just need to explic-it.”

“Indubitable, Warden.”

“Stop that. I need you listening, not racking your brain for rare negatives. Either this entire building was scavenged from a garbage hopper, or I am being systematically lied to on a molecular level.”

“Maybe the building’s shy.”

“That is just tough shit for the building.”

[icys-junkyard]

Unova Battle Subway maps

My personal preferred map of the railways (one with blue markers, one with color coded markers)

An alternate map, taking the in-game subway map slightly more literally. (Bonus map with a few non-canon markers I added purely to help myself make sense of the seemingly pointless shapes of some of the routes)

Bonus extra map of the routes taken by Ingo, Emmet, or both of them, for those who want a more specific visual of those routes on their own. (Of course Emmet's line goes through the Pokémon World Tournament lmao)

Misc notes/thoughts under the cut

I'm not a train person, take all these musings with a grain of salt lol

Canon map note: I imagine this map only shows the large, intercity railways. Cities like Nimbasa, Castelia, etc likely have smaller, more complex subway lines all over the city like we tend to see IRL.

Canon map note 2: In an IRL setting, these rail lines are likely far less straight and angular than on these maps and could probably make a lot more sense if drawn with a freer hand and consideration for the landscape, but I tried sticking somewhat close to how it's presented in the game.

International (wi-fi) line: In the game it's the wi-fi line. In a non-game context I imagine this line is one that actually leaves Unova and goes to a neighboring region.

Subwayness: While not all of these lines are 100% underground like they might be in the cities, I like to think quite a few of them are partially or primarily in tunnels. Many lines go across water without a major bridge* on the map, or straight through harsh environments like mountains or deserts, some of which may be more convenient long term to go under rather than through. With the technology of the Pokémon universe, I imagine large stretches of underground train tunnels are entirely possible. (*Maybe there's smaller unshown bridges for the trains, but at least the line that goes right through Castelia's port to an island I'd like to believe could be underground under water)

Battle Subway: The Battle Subway itself likely only runs on these intercity lines.Assuming IRL distances rather than in game walking distances, depending on the length of the line, a lap or two could be a full days work for the bosses. Non-battle trains likely use these same tracks.

Anville Town: The branching path on the Anville line is strange, as it doesn't seem to point toward any known location. It could be pointing toward some unlabelled town or landmark, though I've seen some people posit that it stops at the Celestial or Dragonspiral towers (though they seem too far away for me to agree). My personal headcanon is that rather than the large branch shown on the original map, it's actually two branches going to Anville Town; a large alternate rail to help with rotating/moving trains going in and out of the rail yard there.

Pokémon World Tournament: Located in or very near Driftveil City, it was added in BW2 by Driftveil gym leader Clay. Considering Driftveil is a city, it could have multiple subway stations, one of which just happens to be close to the PWT. Alternatively, it could be a bit of a distance away and thus have it's own station.

PokéStar Studios: Located in or very near Virbank City. As the major intercity lines don't quite hit Virbank itself, I imagine Virbank only has one intercity station near the studio if it's within Virbank itself. That, or it has no intercity stations and one must travel the distance between Virbank and the studio to travel further.

Unity Tower: Literally this train goes through a port and right into the ocean to reach an island. This island is only accessible by boat. I'm convinced this train goes under the seafloor. That or it has a super cool Marine Tube situation where it's a subway tunnel, but the tunnel is transparent and the ocean and water pokémon can be seen out the train windows.

[a-most-beloved-fool]

fic wherein some of the TOS crew is being questioned by an entity who seems to think that the best way to take (and keep) control of the enterprise is to ensure Kirk's cooperation by figuring out which girl he's in love with and using her as collateral. The entity has got a truth compulsion thing on Kirk and keeps asking him things, forcing Kirk to answer, but... well.

ENTITY: You're in love with a woman. Who is she?

KIRK: I'm not.

ENTITY: Sure you are. You're James T. Kirk. You're always in love with a woman. Fine, if you won't answer that, then who's the most beautiful woman on the Enterprise?

KIRK: There are many beautiful women in my crew. I don't know if I could pick a most beautiful, though. I don't think about that when we're working. I'm their captain; it would be inappropriate.

ENTITY: Give me a real answer! It's a simple question! Who's the most beautiful person on-

KIRK, INTERRUPTING: Spock.

ENTITY: ... what?

KIRK, BLUSHING: Uhm. isaidspock.

[chainymail]

What if I was your Knight and before I rode out for the joust I made you promise to drag me out and bury me with my family if I died on the field and the priests would not touch my broken, prideful body. Would you swear this to me with a kiss yes or no. (source)

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

So for new year cards...

Jack SSR is actually so cool; I like it. Malleus SSR is beautiful and all, but he really reminds me of a bride in forced marriage tropes. 😭

[Referencing the Twst JP Jan 2025 schedule!]

Finally, some good fucking food for Jack stans 😭 Port Fest feels like so long ago… fbjssbdjjs I feel like I can’t appreciate his design as much as others can. I’m not into the skintight undershirt on a character as buff as Jack is, and I'm confused as to why his gloves are... like that??? But!! I do like his fluffly little boa thing and how enthusiastic his pose is. You can tell he’s really putting his all into the New Year Sale~!

Malleus got another new hairstyle (any hairstyle that's different than his default one is a win in my book www)!! I think it's a well-liked look among his fans; I already saw so many people commenting that he looks like a love interest in a reborn as a villainess isekai or something to that effect.

I also saw some chatter around the thin fabric that Malleus seems to have over himself. A common joke is that it's a "wedding veil", but given the traditional Japanese clothes everyone is wearing for the new year, it's more likely also a Japanese article of clothing. A friend theorized that it's a 被衣 (kazuki/katsugi), a garment worn over the head that fully covers the body. These are mostly donned by noblewomen to cover their faces when they go out--and that sort of makes sense, given that Malleus himself is a noble. How demure and mindful... I thought the veil could also be a frost blanket (you know, to protect the budding flowers from the cold)?? But I'm not entirely sure right now; maybe the vignettes will give us more context!

A friend and I were speculating as to what flowers might be featured in the initial card art and the conclusion we came to was ume (plum) blossoms. The color and shape are similar, and they're a classic flower in winter anime. Something else I noticed was that the same flowers seem to appear in Sebek's New Year Attire from two years ago! If you compare Malleus and Sebek, you'll notice that the lighting is much warmer in Sebek's too. In fact, all previous SSR cards are pretty much like that, save for maybe Trey but at least Trey is shown to be in front of the shop. It really makes Malleus's card "stick out", since he's the only one that appears to be in a lonely and isolated location, just him and the plum blossoms.

On the subject of clothing worn by Japanese women! The same friend and I talked about Jamil's New Year Attire too. (Figured I'd throw this in here since I'm already talking about the other three 2025 New Year boys. Don't wanna leave him out, y'know??)

You can see that he has his hood up in the initial card artwork; my friend joked that Jamil's a newlywed. Why? Brides that choose to dress traditionally for their wedding days wear a wide white headdress/hood called a 角隠し (tsunokakushi), which covers an elaborate hairstyle like Jamils'/j. The "tsuno" (horns, as I'm sure you're all familiar with) in the name refers to the "horns of jealousy"; the tsunokakushi is meant to blanket the jealousy so she can enter her new married life at peace.

Of course, the shape, color, and context of the tsunokakushi is very different than what Jamil's got going on and the Twst team most likely did not intend for this comparison to be drawn, but I thought that this was interesting to share ^^ (*feeds Jamuil yumes this delulu cultural trivia*)

Aaaand let's close out with Floyd! The answer to his question is simple, actually. To put one's arm inside the kimono is just a very casual or relaxed way to pose. It suits Floyd and his attitude, doesn't it?

[wickedsmille]

Tim stares at Jason at an event. Jason catches him. Tim steals some looks, Jason steals some looks. Then Tim goes inside to do the clean up after offering so Alfred could take a knee. Jason corners him inside.

Jason: I noticed you've been looking at me

Tim: Wow the ego

Jason: Tell me I'm wrong

Tim: You're wrong

Jason: Here's the thing, I'm great at spotting liars

Tim: Apparently not

Jason: Fuck, do I like 'em feisty and you? You're taking the cake, baby

Tim: As much as I love the unsolicited and unwarranted pet names, I was kinda in the middle of something

Jason, hoisting Tim up onto the kitchen counter and running his hands along Tim's legs: Have to wait, cause I'm in the middle of something too

Tim: You're used to getting what you want, aren't you?

Jason: Contrary to popular belief, being a crime lord isn't all sex, control and violence. That's reductive thinking

Tim: Oh and what's this then?

Jason: Seduction, is it working?

Tim, leans in a kisses him: I don't know, is it?

Continued here