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i-am-a-closet-fanfic-fiend · 4 years

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Carnival of Hearts (Part 1/6) ~ Bucky x Reader College!AU

A/N: Hello my lovelies! I hope you’re all doing well and staying safe. I’m here with a new series because I have no self control. If you’ve been here for a while then you know this is my typical behavior but if you’re new my apologies. Good news, I do have specific plans on what I’m tackling, so hopefully things will happen soon. But I do have a lot of (good thankfully) things going on in my family life so it’s a bit chaotic.

This is my entry for @buckysknifecollection ‘s 3k Follower Challenge. Congrats on the milestone lovely! Go check out the blog. Personal fave is Hush (a must read if you’re into soft!Biker!Bucky)

Prompt: Our friends set us up on this carnival date but we’re both pining after someone else and this a bit awkward

Summary: When you’re set up on a carnival date with Bucky Barnes NOTHING turns out the way you expected.

Rating: T

Warnings: Language

Word count: 1074

“I have found you the perfect guy,” Nat announced as she flounced into your room.

“Oh joy, oh happy day. I shan’t die unwed,” you deadpanned without looking up from your book.

You squawked indignantly when she flicked your ear and yanked your book away from you.

“What the hell? I was reading.”

“I’m serious,” she huffed. “I had lunch with Wanda today and she mentioned that she has a friend she thinks would be perfect for you, and after scoping him out I have to agree.”

“Wonderful. Can I have my book back now?”

“His name is Bucky,”

“Someone actually named their kid Bucky?”

“It’s a nickname. And he’s a sweetheart,” she continued, ignoring you. “He’s a linguistics major. Minor in creative writing. You’re really gonna like him.”

“I’m sure I would if I were actually going to go out with him.”

“Oh come on. You haven’t been on a date in over a year.”

“Which should have been your first clue that I didn’t want to get set up. I’m enjoying single life. Thanks ever so much.”

You plucked the book from her hands and rolled over onto your back, trying to find your page.

“Sitting here pining over your best friend is not enjoying single life.”

“Number one, I’m lying down. And number two, I’m not pining over you. Though you certainly are a sight for sore eyes.”

You batted your eyelashes at her flirtatiously. She rolled her eyes and took your book again only to swat you with it.

“Cute. You know that’s not which best friend I’m talking about.”

You sighed and sat up, moving back against the headboard, slightly out of reach.

“I’m not pining over Steve either.”

Your arms crossed tightly over your chest weren’t very convincing.

“Y/n, you know I love you and I just want what’s best for you, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then just trust me and go on a date with Bucky. He’s exactly what you need.”

You sighed.

“You’re not going to let this go. Are you?”

Her smile was triumphant.

“Nope. And I’ve made it as easy as possible for you. He’s going to be your date to the carnival.”

“But Steve and I are going to the carnival together.”

It was tradition. It was not a date.

Unfortunately.

“Not until after Steve finishes volunteering. This is the deal. You, me, Wanda, and Bucky all meet. If you hate him immediately I’ll let you bail. But otherwise you hang out for a few hours; we’ll all meet up for lunch. And then you can spend the rest of the night with Steve. Deal?”

You mulled it over. It wasn’t the worst deal. Your date would have a set end point if it wasn’t going well. And if it did go well you had a buddy to go on rides with while Steve was working.

“And I promise not to set you up again for a month,” she added.

“For the semester,” you countered.

“Fine. Deal.”

“Deal.”

You shook on it.

“Excellent. I’ll tell Wanda to give him your number.”

“Buck, you home?” Wanda called as she let herself into the apartment.

“In my room,” he shouted back.

Picking up a few stray papers, Wanda stacked them neatly on the coffee table before heading down the hall towards Bucky’s room. He was hunched over, scrawling in a notebook.

“Academic or inspired?” she mused.

“A little of both. I really liked the flash fiction prompt we got in class today.”

“What was it?”

“Everyday romance.”

“What’s your story about?”

She smiled fondly at the shy excitement blossoming on his face.

“It’s kinda weird.”

“I’m sure it’s not.”

“It’s a series of descriptions of everyday items, but the descriptions are the way it’s special. Like: coffee in a novelty mug purchased at gift shop in Hawaii. The brew was set seven minutes ago with two teaspoons of sugar. Just the way he liked it,” he read aloud.

“That’s really sweet. You really do have a way with words.”

Bucky beamed.

“Thanks. So what brings you over?”

She perched on his desk, legs swinging back and forth.

“I have found the perfect girl for you.”

He rolled his eyes before she finished speaking.

“Wanda, I don’t need you to set me up.”

“Buck, you should be out experiencing love instead of only writing about it.”

“I’m just not looking for someone right now.”

“Then how come you went on a shitty date with Dot last weekend?”

“It wasn’t a date. We just went to dinner.”

“On a Saturday night in Little Italy.”

“She just wanted to thank me for my help with her paper.”

She leveled him with her stare.

“You don’t actually believe that do you?”

He silently met her gaze before crumpling.

“Okay, no. So it was a date, but it was enough of a failure for me to not want to do it again any time soon.”

“Or you can go out with the very sweet girl I’ve picked out for you.”

“How do you even know her?”

Wanda smirked, knowing that if he was asking he would likely agree to it.

“I don’t personally. She’s Nat’s best friend.”

Bucky’s brow disappeared into his hairline.

“Mainlines vodka and coffee and still has a 4.0 Nat?”

“Yup. That’s the one.”

“Not exactly my type.”

“Well, she’s the opposite of Nat so that works perfectly.”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“Why are you forcing this, Wan?”

“Because you deserve to be happy and I can’t watch you go on another shitty date. Although that’s a lot better than pining I suppose.”

“Fine,” he conceded, not wanting to argue that particular point.

He never won that argument.

“Give me her number. I’ll set something up.”

She plucked a card from the front pocket of her purse and handed it to him.

“Here you go. But the date’s already set up. You two are going to the carnival together.”

“That’s in two days.”

“Do you need more time to fix your hair?”

“Wanda,” he growled.

“I’m teasing. Relax. We were going anyway. Look, it’s super low pressure this way. You meet her in the afternoon and if it doesn’t work out, you say goodbye when we meet up for lunch. I will give you a built in out.”

“Promise?”

She smiled warmly at his innocent pout.

“Cross my heart.”

“Alright. Fine.”

“Great. You’re gonna love her. I promise she’s exactly what you need.”

A/N: This one is gonna be fun. Hoping to finish and have it queued to post regularly soon, but wanted to get this part out there. I hope you enjoyed!

Tag list is open (please send an ask)

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#Bucky x Reader #College!AU #buckysknifecollectionchallenge #Bucky Barnes x Reader #Bucky Barnes #Carnival of Hearts

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word-scribbless · 4 years

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Smile Again Part 10

It’s a long one but one of my favorites!

Masterlist | Smile Again Masterlist

Things get a little angsts! But lots of cute too

——————————

About 2 weeks after Y/N and Aaron’s first date the team caught a local case that baffled them all. The Unsub was killing women and leaving notes on their bodies. He was also sending threats to their families. The interesting thing was he was using several languages at once to create a whole new language to write them in. Some of the languages, not even Reid knew and reworking the whole thing would take a very long time.

“Reid can you make any of this out?” Emily said looking at a letter the unsub left at the scene.

“I’m good but I’m not that good, I could work on decoding it but it’ll take me a hours to even figure out the languages used.” He replied.

“We need you in the field, and we don’t have hours.” Hotch said. He knew Reid could do it, but they couldn’t be a man down.

“It’s local, there are tons of colleges around maybe we can find an expert to assist Reid and figure this out.” Morgan added.

“Reid do you know anyone?” Rossi asked, Reid began to think before JJ cut in.

“Uh Hotch I know someone... but you’re not going to like it”

“Who?” Hotch asked. He suddenly had a gut feeling he really wasn’t going to like her suggestion, but he wasn’t sure why.

“Y/N” JJ said, nervously looking at her boss.

“Y/N? Like my-our-your Y/N?” He stumbled out.

“Yeah, our Y/N.” JJ chuckled at how flustered her cousin made her boss. “She’s spent her whole life since age 13 studying languages and what makes them up.” She continued.

“13? Is she a kid genius like pretty boy over here?” Morgan asked, patting Reid on the back.

“I mean she didn’t graduate early, she’s just always been interested in languages.” JJ answered, still keeping an eye on Hotch’s reaction.

He clearly wasn’t excited about the idea of her being involved, but was trying to hid his emotions. He knew she was brilliant and had heard her speak several languages, most of the time just to entertain Jack. He also liked to watch her work when she would bring the books she was translating to movie nights if she was near a deadline. He couldn’t deny working with her would be interesting to say the least, but he really didn’t want her near the types of people they saw. Like usual, JJ saw straight through him and gave him an apologetic, but pleading look.

“You think she could work this language out?” Rossi asked interrupting the two agent’s eye contact.

“I mean she once wrote half a thesis in a made up language to prove her theory on how our brains intupret and learn languages.” Jj shared with a proud smile.

“That’s genius” Reid said.

“Plus, I happen to know she passed a field agent test not that long ago to help out a local department in PA that sex crimes was helping with.” She added quietly.

“Really?” Morgan asked.

Hotch froze and JJ began to explain how even though she didn’t go in the field again after swat, she has volunteered to assist on a few cases with local PDs and the FBI office, but to do that she still had to test and prove she was capable for anything. Hotch knew she was capable of anything at all, but he didn’t want her to have to be in any situation to use those skills.

“I don’t want her in the field.” Hotch said with a strict tone, cutting off the other agents chatter. ‘Hell I don’t want her involved at all’, he thought, but he knew he couldn’t make that decision for her.

“So is that a yes?” Emily asked.

“It’s an I will ask her” Hotch grumbled

Rossi follows behind him as he stomps up to his office to reluctantly call his girlfriend. He loved how brilliant and kind she was. However right now he was cursing that two of his favorite things about her were what made him have to call and ask her to put herself in danger.

“Why doesn’t JJ ask?” Rossi asked with a smirk,following him up the stairs.

“Cause Y/N’ll feel inclined to say yes.” Hotch grumbled.

“And she won’t with you?” The older agent wondered.

“I’m hoping she’ll be inclined to say no to me”

“Have you seen the way she looks at you, I don’t think she ever wants to say no.” Rossi smiled.

“Dave” Aaron warned

“You know I’m right... because you’re even worse.” Dave said causing Hotch to roll his eyes and walk into his office.

Hotch picked up his cell phone to call Y/N, really wishing he didn’t have to, but their case really needed it.

“Y/L/N” she answered. He smiled, she must have been in the middle of work. Answering that way when busy was a side effect of her years in law enforcement.

“You sound so official, should I call back later Ms Y/L/N?” He chuckled. Hearing her voice made his nerves vanish,until he remembered why he was calling.

“Hey you!” She said, voice perking up. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah everything is fine.” He answered but she could tell he wasn’t being entirely truthful by the tone of his voice.

“What’s wrong Aaron?” She asked, fully stopping her work to listen.

“Before I ask this promise me you’ll think about it and not automatically say yes.” He prefaced.

“Oookay” she said skeptically, urging him to continue.

She heard him take a deep breath and sigh.

He dove in to explaining the case and the reason they needed help. He again explaining that she could say no, or even suggest someone else that could help. She listened intently and thought about it even though she knew her answer.

“Of course I’ll help” she said when he finally stopped his explanation.

“Y/N you do not have to do this.” He explained again.

“You want me to say no.” It was a statement not a question and her tone made him wince. He didn’t want her to think that he didn’t think she was right for the job or that she couldn’t take care of herself. He just really didn’t want her near danger.

“I just don’t want you to feel obligated” he sighed.

“I don’t Aaron, I want to help! But just linguistics no tech stuff.” She tried to joke but he knew the seriousness of that statement.

“Deal, you won’t be anywhere near the field if I have anything to do with it.” He chuckled lightly but just like him, she knew how serious he was.

“Did JJ make that rule?” She tried to joke but became more worried when instead of his usual chuckle he just huffed.

“I think your cousin would have you leading the team of I let her.” He said and she caught his irritated tone.

“Aaron what’s wrong?” She asked, not wanting to end the call and agree if he was going to be upset.

“I didn’t want you wrapped up in this.” He practically whispered and it made her heart hurt.

“If you don’t want me to help-“ she began before he cut her off.

“That’s not it Y/N, I’m sort of excited to work with you.” He admitted, making her smile before he sighed, “I just don’t want you hurt.”

“I’ve got you and Jayje and the team to protect me, baby. Plus I’m a badass remember?” She assured him and he couldn’t deny how much he loved the way the pet name sounded from her lips.

“Promise you’ll be safe for me?” He asked

“Yes, do you promise?”

“Always am, for you and jack”

“I know,” she said softly, before continuing with a smirk “So you’re excited to work with me?”

“Mmm it’s really sexy to see you in action.” He admitted in a low husky voice she loved.

There was no shortage of making out and boarder line groaping during their last couple movie nights after jack went to bed but they hadn’t gone past that since the first time. She absolutely loved hearing him talk like this.

“Oh yeah?” She asked and heard him grunt. “The language or the ass kicking?”

“Mmm both, but hearing you speak in other languages, god I don’t know what you’re saying but i love it.”

“ mm buono a sapersi bello” she hummed and heard his breath hitch.

“Be careful with that baby, I’m at work.” He purred

“Mm well after the case I’ll have to explore your love of my work some more.”

“Please do” he cleared his throat then and she laughed

“Oh buniness Hotch is back! Should I head in to the BAU now?”

“Yeah I can send someone to get you.”

“Unless it’s you I can handle getting there.” She laughed as she heard him cough again.

“I’ll see you soon, have Garcia email me all the evidence that’s in his ‘language’ so I can start working on it on the train?”

“Will do, I’ll also remind her not to get to used to you working with her.”

“I’d be too much of a distraction for you boss man.

“Bye y/n”

“See you soon Aaron.”

“So she’s in?” JJ smiled and asked when Hotch renterd the bullpen.

“Yeah” he grumbled “We keep her safe and out of the field.”

The team all nodded and JJ cheered quietly about getting to work with her cousin. Hotch chuckled at JJ’s antics and hid his own excitement about working with Y/N.

Hotch gave instructions of where to got, y/n would meet them at the BAU where read was doing the geo-profile and after JJ and Hotch met with local pd they’d come back and brief her.

In the car JJ could feel Hotch’s anxiety. She knew it wasn’t about the case, rather the idea of Y/N helping with the case.she felt guilty for suggesting something that caused him so much stress, but she knew her cousin could handle it.

“Hotch I’m sorry if I put you in a shitty situation suggesting Y/N.” She watched him tense even lore at her words. “But my cousin is a super hero, she can do anything and I trust her with my life, and our teams lives. Trust me when I say I’d never have suggested her if I thought she couldn’t handle it.”

“I know that, and I trust her too but Jack and I can’t lose her.” He admitted, surprising himself and JJ. Truth was, he couldn’t keep much of anything from the blonde agent even if he tried.

“Are we okay?”

“Yeah Jennifer, we’re okay. I can’t very well stay mad at the person who introduced Y/N Y/L/N into my life can I?

They both chuckled and felt the tension ease just a bit.

Y/N set up a little space for her to work in the conference room and set to work. She knew she shouldn’t be having fun during a murder investigation, but she couldn’t deny she loved this kind of work.

Derek has nicknamed her and Reid the nerd squad, after he walked in on them spewing theories and slaw itching between languages in a way no ‘normal human’ would comprehend. Hotch couldn’t help but stop and watch Y/N work for a moment when he and JJ got back with the lead detective.

He was snapped out of his trance by Rossi making a vaguely inappropriate comment about the ‘true reason’ he didn’t want y/m on the case. The sputtering cough he did in response to that comment caused his girlfriend’s beautiful eyes to snap up and lock with his.

She smiled widely at him and began to explain the progress they had made to him and the detective. He couldn’t help but love her even more for the way she was so professional, yet still somehow made him feel noticed by her.

Aaron thanked her and explained to all in the room their next steps. He left Y/N to it and called Reid to follow them to go check out a lead. Y/N suddenly felt a flash of anxiety listening to Aaron talk about breaching the house if they had to. He didn’t miss the look on her face and told the team he’d meet them at the SUVs.

“Hey, I’ll be fine” he whispered moving closer to her. He knew it was risky but pulled her into his arms anyway. Kissing her head and then quickly pulling back.

“I did t think it’d scare me this much, I mean I know what you do but being here and hearing it all... what if you don’t come back? What if I have to watch-“ she started to break and he took her hand.

“Y/N I won’t let that happen! I WILL come back to you”

She nodded and squeezed his hand

“I’m sorry”

“Don’t be sorry sweetheart, JJ had to talk me off the same ledge in the suv.” This caused her to giggle and calm down a bit.

“Get going boss man, be safe.”

“Anything for you” he smiled and headed off.

Y/N moved her operation down to be with Garcia I case they needed help with the language, but mostly because she didn’t want to be alone. The lead was a dead end so the team headed back and were working on the profile again when Y/N decoded a journal entry that talked about an abandoned warehouse that he used to frequent when he was homeless.

“Let’s go, Garcia stay online, Reid-“

“Hotch Y/N should probably ride along.” Rossi just got out before Aaron boomed “NO”.

Y/N looked just as startled by the idea as Aaron.

“Hotch she needs to be with us decoding the journal in case there is a new location, or he starts talking in his language.”

“I told you, she doesn’t go in the field” y/N could feel the anger radiating off of him, she saw JJ thinking about how to calm him down.

“Hey”, she whispered to Aaron, pulling him to the side, she locked eyes with Rossi who immediately understood and began to lead the team to the cars.

“Don’t worry you d-“ he started before she cut him off.

“I’m going to come with you.” She said and braced herself for his reaction.

“NO Y/N.” He said steadily but still gentle as he always was with her.

“I will be so careful, I won’t go anywhere near the scene. You need me Aaron”

“Yeah I do need you, alive.”

She felt her heart clench at his words and stroked his cheek, “I will be safe, please trust me.”

“I do!”

“I know, so remember that, you’ll be right there, so will JJ.”

“What if I can’t protect you?”

“Sweetheart, I just want to catch this guy, so I can spend time with my favorite boys! I’ll be okay.”

“Promise?”

She nodded and pulled him along to the cats.

“Dave was right...” he huffed

She looked at him to explain and he continued.

“I can’t say no to you”

She smirked and responded “I’ll have to remember that.

When they pulled up to the scene y/n pushed down the fear and memories of the case that changed her whole life and took her husband. If she was going to do this. She locked eyes with Aaron in the rear view mirror and smiled when he sent her a sweet wink.

That was the last moment of calm before all hell broke loose. The unsub was in the warehouse holding a woman hostage. Hotch broke all his rules and kissed Y/N lightly before putting on his vest to assure her he’d be okay. He left her in the safety of the SUV as he went to the staging area.

After about 15 minutes the unsub began to lose it even more.

“Hotch he’s speaking the language we have to send Y/N in.” Reid said, earning him a nasty glare from his boss.

“Not a chance. We’ll just wire someone.” Hotch responded.

“He’ll know” JJ said with a defeated tone herself. He knew she didn’t want her cousin to go in either but they had no choice.

“Fine” he sighed “but I go with her.”

“You’re too intimidating I’ll go.” Jj countered

“Jj you keep her safe.” He sternly whispered as they ent to brief Y/N.

“Hotch I know you love her but so do I, I’d do anything to protect her.” She said quickly before they reached you

“Jj I-“

“Don’t try to deny it Hotch, I know you haven’t told her yet but I know it’s true.” Hotch flushes a bit.

“I know you’d do anything to protect her JJ, I just, I can’t lose her and I hate putting her in this position even though I know she can handle it.” He admitted and knew JJ understood.

They briefed Y/N and after a brief moment of panic Y/N assured them both she could to it. She put on a vest and they entered the building.

Everything was going well, Y/N was speaking to him in his language, she was doing everything by right. That was until the hostage began to yell and insult him. He shoved the victim towards Y/N sending them both fattening down a flight of steps.

Jj secured the unsubscribe and cleared the team to come in. She hadn’t looked over towards her cousin yet but could tell the victim was fine.

She rushed down the stairs to see her cousin laying unconscious with a gash to the head.

“No no no” Jj said taking her hand as

took team came in and Rossi began to move the unsub to the SUVs

“Y/n!” Hotch wailed. Running to Y/N’s limo figure.

“Hotch I’m sorry Jj said, but Hotch couldn’t hear anything as he rushed to Y/N’s side, grasping her hand in his.

“Y/N please”

“Hm hi handsome” she said opening her eyes and groaning as she held her head. It took her a bit to realize what was happening, but the smell of the old warehouse brought most of the recent events back. “Don’t look so worried you two, I’m alive.” She said with a weak smile

“I’m going to get the medic” JJ said before kissing her cousins head and running off.

“Aaron I kn-“ she began

“I love you” he cut her off

“What?” Yn breathes

“I’m in love with you, I know it’s crap timing and you probably have a concussion but god I don’t want to waste anymore time with out you knowing I love you.”

“I love you too Aaron.”

He held her face and kissed her soundly. Pulling away when he heard Rossi wolf whistle behind them.

“I guess they all know now, sorry I know you like to be secretive.”

“they’ve known how I’ve felt longer than I did. Plus I don’t plan on keeping you a secret y/n ever.

He was insanely happy he finally told her how he felt and got to hear that she loved him too. Now he had to face JJ knowing he let her cousin get hurt.

Outside with the medics JJ was terrified to face her boss knowing she let Y/N get hurt. She was holding back tears that she could have lost her best friend.

Y/N was just happy to be loved by Aaron and JJ, and to be alive she was happy about that too. And dizzy she was also dizzy.

Smile again tag list:

@thebadassbitchqueen @violetclifford @kyleetheeditor @thelostallycat @mac99martin @stop-drop-and-drumroll

Tag list:

@diesinspanishbcimhispanic @averyhotchner

#criminal minds #criminal minds imagine #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds x reader #aaron hotchner imagine #aaron hotchner

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aflyingcontradiction · 3 years

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The Magnus Archives Relisten: Episode 111 - Family Business

Julia: It’s not a… Trevor doesn’t like using the book. I don’t either. Makes me feel off. Dead should stay dead.

"Dead should stay dead" is a very apt statement for an avatar of the-process-of-methodically-making-things-dead but also I can't say that I disagree, exactly.

Gerard: Nice lighter. You a spider freak, then?

Jon should perhaps have at some point gone "Huh." about the mysterious lighter, shouldn't he? But then again, neither did I.

Gerard: Yeah, the world changes in horrible ways. For you. I’m a book.

This seems perfectly fair, you know!

Gerard: She travelled light. Left things behind.

Oh, ouch, the tone he says that in makes me want to give him a hug, even if he is currently a book. Yeah, she left "things" behind for sure.

Gerard: Well, Fairchild’s just a name, they’re not really family. The Lukases, though, yeah. Thing is, it’s harder than it looks. What’s out there… doesn’t care about blood. Jon: Well, I-I mean, except for the vampires…

I want to say "Oh, Jon" but I can't guarantee I wouldn't have made the exact same dumb comment.

But mum didn’t need the help, and after me she wasn’t able to have kids again, so she killed him in his sleep to practice her bookbinding. I guess she failed. I always thought he was in here, but when I eventually got hold of it, there wasn’t a page in there. - Gerard

That's because Gertrude did for him what Jon later does for Gerard. Weird sort of parallel, that, the father and son, both rescued from undeath by the Archivist of their time.

We met with things that almost made me throw up, I was so afraid, and she’d talk to them like old friends. It was awful, but I suppose in many ways, it worked. Whenever I tried to run away the ‘real’ world seemed so… ignorant I could never be a part of it. So I did my best to find my place within my mum’s world.

God, he was just so fucked up from the start, his whole life tied to the Entities - his death, too - even though he tried so hard to make his own choices.

And honestly, there was a part of me which thought a life in prison was an alright price for freedom.

Damn, that's a gut punch of a line.

Gerard: And if you’re having an omelette for lunch, not every moment is spent eating the omelette. Some things take preparation. Especially if, you know, your spatula has a bit of free will.

I love this run-away metaphor, I really do. Especially the spatula with free will.

Gerard: A lot of it’s kind of arbitrary. I mean, why are navy blue and sky blue both called blue, when pink’s an entirely different colour from red? Y’know? I don’t know, that’s just how it works.

It's kind of funny in an almost-too-perfect way that this is the example that Gerard picks because colours are one of THE go-to examples people always go to for unexpected cultural-linguistic differences and the way they change how we perceive the world. The blue thing, for instance: Russian actually DOES have two entirely separate words for dark blue and light blue (maybe other languages do too, I just happen to know some Russian). I wonder if Johnny knew that when he was writing these lines and this was perhaps deliberate.

Gerard: O-Of course, with these things it’s not a simple spectrum, y’know, it’s more like – Jon: An infinite amorphous blob of terror bleeding out in every direction at once. Gerard: Now you’re getting it. Jon: Like colours, but if colours hated me.

If I add a "Favourite quotes" segment to an episode it's mostly for things that need very little context to feel like pieces of poignant writing and this needs a lot of context but if it weren't for that, the description of "Like colours, but if colours hated me" would DEFINITELY go into the favourite quotes segment!

Gerard: Needing to know, even if your discoveries might destroy you.

An explanation of an almighty terrifying fear Entity. Also an explanation of the reason I try and mostly fail to keep out of the comment section.

Jon: Which is… spiders a-and control. Your, your will not being your own.

I've said this before but the Web always struck me as a bit funny in that way. There's that deep existential fear of being manipulated and controlled from the outside ... and also spiders. Someone needs to make one of those Marge Simpson "I just think they're neat" memes except with the labels "The Web" and "Spiders".

Jon: Yeah, I-I mean, are we really so afraid of being… eaten? Of our bodies being all twisted up, i-i-is that… I mean, some people sure, but… how is it one of the fourteen great fears? Gerard: What? You think people are so special it’s only our fear that counts?

Oh my god, the revelation that some of the fears originate from animals just left me open-mouthed when I first heard it. I'd never even considered it and it's SUCH A GENIUS IDEA! IT MAKES TOTAL SENSE! It's an animal fear and it gets extra-super-weird when it hits humans!

Jon: I suppose. And again, when an animalistic fear touches a human… Gerard: You get the Predator’s granddad out there.

Pffft. I love it. Trevor "The Predator's Granddad" Herbert.

Gerard: They… kind of ‘shift’ the world, just enough for the Power to come through. Merge with reality. Some say, or well, they guess, that it could bring other entities through with them.

Oh god, I didn't realise they seeded this idea THIS EARLY ON!

Gerard: Well, think of it this way: right now all the entities have to act like a hunter, they pick off the weak ones around the edges, the ones that wander too close, and the rest of the time they have to just graze on whatever fear we all passively give away. Jon: And if one of the rituals succeeds? Gerard: The world becomes a factory farm.

... gotta hand it to Gerard, his analogies WORK. Perhaps a little too well, that image really hits the target.

Gerard: Said she thought she’d found him. I tracked him down, but it… well, it wasn’t him. (...) It was just some pathetic old man. Couldn’t have been him.

How on earth does Jon maintain enough of a pokerface to not make Gerard suspicious right then. I mean, this is amazing. Gerard kicked the shit out ouf ACTUAL LEITNER ("Three years ago, I made the mistake of spending a full night outside my safehouses. I was almost beaten to death by an angry goth.") and concluded that he couldn't possibly be Leitner because the man responsible for filling so much of his life with fear and misery surely had to be IMPRESSIVE and POWERFUL, not just some whiny old jerk.

My impression of this episode

This episode is very info-dumpy, but somehow it bothered me a lot less than the other info-dump episode (the Leitner episode). Perhaps it's just because I enjoyed Gerard's voice (again expressed personality rather than voice-voice, I feel the need to clarify this every time because it gets confusing when you're talking about a podcast rather than a book) more and also because learning about the fear categories was genuinely a fun revelation. I mean, give me categories to play with and I will absolutely play with the categories! (Me and most of the rest of the fandom...) All in all, it was a fairly skillful info-dump actually, even though it was very clearly a bit dumpy. Aside from the infodump there's also a lot of plot development, though, and Gerard's statement is genuinely interesting. Damn, I feel bad for Gerard, he was just so fucked from the start.

#tma relisten #the magnus archives

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lingthusiasm · 5 years

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Transcript Episode 34: Emoji are Gesture Because Internet

This is a transcript for Lingthusiasm Episode 34: Emoji are Gesture Because Internet. It’s been lightly edited for readability. Listen to the episode here or wherever you get your podcasts. Links to studies mentioned and further reading can be found on the Episode 34 show notes page.

[Music]

Lauren: Welcome to Lingthusiasm, a podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics. I’m Lauren Gawne.

Gretchen: And I’m Gretchen McCulloch. Today, we’re getting enthusiastic about emoji and gesture. But first, my book about internet linguistics is coming out in less than a week from when this episode goes up.

Lauren: Yay! It will be out July the 23rd, 2019. It’s called Because Internet and it’s available in all major booksellers – including an audiobook which you read yourself, Gretchen.

Gretchen: Yes, I did. So, if you like hearing me talk here, you can now listen to me read the book. Or you can read the book in the conventional way with the words in front of your eyes – is also a thing you can do. I’m really excited to get to share this book with you – to finally get to hear what people think about it. It is a really good thing to get it when it first comes out, because if it has any likelihood of hitting any sort of bestseller list, pre-orders and sales in the first week are what’s gonna make that happen. If you can help us make more people pay attention to the book by getting it on any sort of lists, that would be super cool.

Lauren: This episode is a bit of a taster for the chapter on emoji that’s in the book.

Gretchen: Which you were kinda involved with, Lauren.

Lauren: Which is why we’ve chosen this chapter. But there are lots of other topics covered in the book. I’ve been lucky enough to read – you’ll hear how that went in the episode – I’ve read this book. I’m very excited for it. Other topics include things like how we use punctuation to signal tone of voice, the language of memes, and how the first social network you joined influences your internet life. That chapter I felt very seen.

Gretchen: I’ve had a lot of people contact me about that chapter. Because Internet – there are links in the description. There are links on lingthusiasm.com. You can get it. You should get it. I’m really excited to get to talk about it more with people once they get to read it.

Lauren: In other exciting Lingthusiasm news, we’ve added a new tier to our Patreon.

Gretchen: Several people have asked us, very nicely of you, "Is there a way we can support the podcast even more than the $5.00 a month for the bonus episodes?" Now, there is. If you sign up for the Ling-phabet tier – fancifully named ling portmanteau names – for $15.00 a month, we will assign you your very own symbol of the International Phonetic Alphabet based on our super scientific personality quiz. We had a lot of fun coming up with this quiz. Then we will add your name or name of choice and symbol to our Lingthusiasm Supporter Wall of Fame on the website where it will live as long as you wanna stay at that tier.

Lauren: We are also happy for you to nominate your favourite character of the IPA. We’re happy to put any name within reason. This also makes a great gift for the lingthusiast in your life.

Gretchen: Yes! We’re really excited to provide a way for people who have a bit more money at their disposal to help support the rest of the episodes that remain free for anybody to access. So, think of this as a way of becoming a generous person to support the free episodes which remain free. We really wanna keep them accessible to everybody. Plus, in celebration of both the new tier and the new book, anybody who joins this new tier by August 15th, 2019, will get a book plate – which is a little sticker that you can put in the front of your book for Because Internet – which is signed by me with your name customised on it. We’ll have a form you can fill out. You will get a sticker in the mail that you can put on your copy of Because Internet. The two things go together. Or I guess you could put it on your laptop or something if you wanted to.

Lauren: You could just put it in another book and be like, “Gretchen has signed this book for me.” Stickers are a very flexible thing. Having access to our bonus episodes means that you will be able to access our latest one, which is all about words that only your family use.

Gretchen: We had a lot of fun talking about familects and hearing about all of your familects in the familect bonus episode. So, it’s a lot of a fun. And, of course, if you join at the higher tier, you still get access to the bonus episodes. You don’t lose your access to anything. It’s just an extra thing that you can do if you wanna be super supportive.

Lauren: We’ll also be recording an upcoming Patreon bonus episode that takes you behind the scenes on Because Internet.

Gretchen: You can read the book when it comes out and then ask us your questions about internet linguistics or what it’s like to write a book. Tweet them to us @Lingthusiasm or email us at [email protected]. Both of those are also on the website if you don’t have a pen on you right now – also by August 15th. Same deadline for both. We will answer them in an upcoming bonus episode. You get to hear all about what it was like to write a book about the fast-moving pace of the internet.

Lauren: So much book excitement. So much Patreon excitement. It’s all happening. I’m so excited.

Gretchen: Everything is coming up internet.

[Music]

Gretchen: The reason we wanted to do a very special Lingthusiasm gesture-slash-Because Internet emoji episode is because this is the part in Because Internet where Lauren actually makes a cameo.

Lauren: Yay!

Gretchen: The story goes I was working on the emoji chapter, and I was kind of stuck, and I was complaining about this to Lauren, and Lauren very kindly said, “Well, why don’t you send it to me, and I’ll read and see if I have any comments?”

Lauren: I was really just wanting to read it because I was just really excited to see how the book’s shaping up. It was entirely selfish.

Gretchen: Well, it seemed very altruistic of you. I remember I had this list of gestures and emoji. I had like “thumbs up” and “nodding” and “winking” and “rolling eyes” and “playing a tiny violin in false sympathy” and “high five” and “giving the middle finger” and “shrugging” and all of these things.

Lauren: I highlight this list and I’m like, “These are all very nice examples, Gretchen, but we have a name for these in the gesture literature. We refer to these as 'emblematic gestures.' We can talk about what they are." But I kinda just made this passing comment and sent it back to you.

Gretchen: You sent a bunch of other comments, and they were nice, but this was the one that really stuck with me because you were something like, “You know we have a name for this in the gesture literature, right?” And I was like, “I didn’t know there was a name for these.” I was just making a list of gestures that came to mind because when I was talking about emoji, I like gesture as an analogy to what emoji are doing because gestures and words work in concert with each other. You don’t generally just do one or the other. You often do both. I thought this made a lot of sense in terms of how people integrate emoji with the words that they’re typing. But I was just making a list of gestures that occurred to me. It turns out that what I was also doing without realising it was making a list of gestures that had common names in English because that’s the kind of gesture that’s easy to write down in words.

Lauren: There’s good reason that you did that, because these types of gestures tend to be useable with speech, but they can have a meaning on their own. They’re very culturally specific. For example, not everyone uses the “thumbs up” to mean “good.”

Gretchen: Right. Because in some cultures it means “Sit on this.” It’s like the middle finger. It’s a sexual kind of insult.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: Yeah. My list didn’t include stuff like the gesture that you make if you’re trying to give someone directions or if you’re trying to say, “Here’s how I got from my home to this café. I went down this street, and then I went up that street, and then I went over here.” Those kinds of gestures that don’t have conventional names are harder to describe on the page – harder to describe in an audio podcast �� but those are another kind of gesture that I wasn’t really thinking about at all.

Lauren: We talk about those gestures that kind of illustrate the speech that we make in our gesture episode. That’s why we did the gesture episode as a video.

Gretchen: Yeah. We did the gesture episode entirely because you were like, “Oh, well, there’s a name for this.” And I was like, “Yeah. Oh, wait. Okay.” So, I’m sitting there, kind of googling/Wikipedia-ing like, “What is this?” I think you were asleep in Melbourne at this point. I’m like, “Lauren, send me all the things. I wanna know more about gesture!”

Lauren: If there’s one thing I like more than talking to you about linguistics it’s the chance to get to talk about gesture, which is one of my all-time favourite subjects. I think I sent you basically my entire undergrad language and gesture course reading materials.

Gretchen: I definitely recall a syllabus – yeah. You’ve taught courses about gesture, and I was like, “Oh, my god. Send me all the things!” So, you sent me – you know.

Lauren: I sent you all the things. So much enthusiasm.

Gretchen: All the things. I started falling down this gesture rabbit hole, which was really cool to me because as a linguist I’m used to being able to have a conversation with someone and just kind of be sitting there being like, “Yeah, well, what you’re saying is fairly interesting, but what I’m actually doing right now is analysing your vowels,” which is a thing that we’ve all had happen to us, have we not? But also, in this case, I could be like, “Oh, well, I’m analysing your vowels and I’m also analysing your gesture.” I’m at a café trying to keep working on the book, and I’m just looking around at everybody and analysing all of their gestures.

Lauren: I always love this point when people start studying gesture, and they’re like, “I just can’t stop paying attention to how people gesture.” And I’m like, “Yeah. It’s pretty great.”

Gretchen: Study linguistics – we’ll render you completely incapable of an ordinary conversation! But, yeah, it was really exciting. That was what kind of gave me – like, “Oh! We should actually do a gesture episode.” And then, Lauren, you were like, “But we have a podcast. This is why I have not suggested that we do a gesture episode.” So, we ended up doing the video gesture episode because I got so into gesture, and it was like, “We’re gonna need to figure out how to do a video.” The thing that made me really excited about learning about gesture was that it actually explains a lot about how we use emoji because there’s a distinction in the gesture between gestures that have conventional names and gestures that don’t. We can see this kind of pop up in emoji as well.

Lauren: I think this is because emoji are really – humans want to gesture. I mean, we all gesture. People who have been blind since birth will gesture even though they’ve never seen other people do it. It’s a really strong compulsion in human communication. I think emoji are allowing us to kind of return having a body to online communication. We always think of typing in chat as really disembodied. But having options like emoji allows us to start expressing those things that we want to express in conversation again.

Gretchen: A lot of times, when we think about having a body online, we think about kind of a video game character-picker body, where you get the hair colour, and you get the clothes, and you have the haircut, and the eye colour, and these kinds of things, and what the figure looks like. But in actual fact, what people are doing with emoji is a lot more about what you’re doing with your body rather than necessarily having a character picker, like an avatar, that kind of follows you around and does all the stuff. You do that in video games, but it’s less common for conversations. So, it was that interesting, like, “What role do gestures actually have in conversation?”

Lauren: We have a few decades' worth of literature of people trying to unpack this and come up with descriptions of the different functions that gesture have. We’ve returned to the existing literature in this area that’s been researching this problem for years and looking at emoji in the context of that.

Gretchen: Yeah. It was really exciting to be like, “Actually, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.” There’s this distinction that seems to work pretty well that people may have been subconsciously porting into emoji. The thing that made me really excited about – so the gestures that have names are called “emblem gestures.” Emblem gestures are things like “thumbs up,” “middle finger,” “peace sign,” and things like that. Emblem gestures have these really narrow constraints for how you have to produce them in order for it to be the right thing. My favourite Canadian-Australian cross-cultural example of this is like when I make the peace sign, I can make the peace sign with my palm facing out away from me or I can make it with the palm facing towards me, and it’s the same peace sign. It’s fine.

Lauren: No, don’t do that! Don’t come to Australia or New Zealand or the UK and do that.

Gretchen: Why not, Lauren?

Lauren: Because that meaning is basically the same for us as the middle finger is. It’s an offensive gesture.

Gretchen: That’s like “up yours,” right?

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: One of my favourite stories about this is apparently Winston Churchill, during WWII – so during WWII, they had this “V for victory” gesture, which basically looked like the peace sign. But Winston Churchill would often do it backwards. And there’s historic records of people telling him, “Winston, man, come on. You gotta stop flipping off the Nazis.” And he’s like “No, no, no. I’m gonna keep doing this.”

Lauren: Well, no. Winston said, “Oh! Oh, golly. Goodness me. I am a posh man. I didn’t know that it had that meaning –"

Gretchen: And then he kept doing it though!

Lauren: In public. Then, in private, he was like, “Yeah, I totally knew it.”

Gretchen: So, gestures have really narrow standards of form. You have to produce a peace sign in the exact right way, or it might mean "eff off". But these ones that have names and standards of form, they also add an extra layer of meaning to what you’re saying. If you say something like “Good job!” with a thumbs up versus “Good job!” with the middle finger or “Good job!” with rolling eyes or a winking or something like this, those all have –

Lauren: They all mean very different things.

Gretchen: Some of those are sarcastic. Some of those are an innuendo.

Lauren: As you noticed in that list, there’s a lot of – because emblematic gestures are so good at conveying a lot of meaning in a single visual form, a lot of them have been made into emoji. But there are other emoji that also have a similar property that aren’t gestures physically.

Gretchen: Yeah. Exactly. Some of the emoji that became popular in the early stages of emoji – things like the eggplant and the peach and the smiling pile of poo – also seem to act in a sort of emblem sort of way. If you say, “Good job!” and then the eggplant emoji or like, “Good job!” and then the smiling pile of poo...

Lauren: Or "Good job!" and the flame – just to give a nice positive spin.

Gretchen: Yeah. Or the flame to make it positive – that adds this extra layer of meaning to “Good job!” in the same way that adding a thumbs up emoji or a middle finger emoji adds this extra layer of meaning.

Lauren: But I think, importantly, just in the same way that gestures have clear cultural differences between different languages or different communities, those emblem uses of emoji also have really specific communities of use.

Gretchen: Yeah. Exactly. Not everyone knows that people use the eggplant as an innuendo. If you don’t know that, then you might use it in its literal sense and be like, “Oh, I’m making eggplant parmesan. Here’s an eggplant.”

Lauren: No, Dad, don’t!

Gretchen: If you search for, I think it’s “eggplant parmesan”/“eggplant emoji” on Twitter, you see a lot of younger people complaining about their parents.

Lauren: But also you can’t use a corn or a cucumber to have the same phallic meaning.

Gretchen: Yeah. Even though the shape is pretty much the same. But they’re not substitutable in the same sort of way, just like you can’t do – the “peace sign” backwards and the “peace sign” forwards are not the same thing.

Lauren: These emblematic ones – basically, because you can name them, they’re easier to spot. But there are other uses of emoji.

Gretchen: Yeah. One of the things that I liked about this is that some of the emblems like the dancing lady in the red dress, which is just – officially, it’s just a dancer. For a while, a bunch of the different platforms had it encoded as different types of dancers. Google had this yellow blob with a rose in its mouth, and I think Microsoft had this disco guy, and Apple had this lady in a red dress. People got really confused when they thought they were sending a lady in the red dress and then their friend got the blob or the disco guy because they had these narrow ranges of meaning. Yet, yeah, these non-emblem-like gestures – they have a lot more room for variation, right?

Lauren: Yep. For example, if I’m wishing you “happy birthday” in a text message, I might send a few emoji to illustrate that. I might send a balloon and a birthday cake and the little party popper, because it’s very celebratory. But I could just as easily send celebratory popper, birthday cake, champagne bottle – because why not?

Gretchen: Or the wrapped gift or some of these other ones. The birthday cakes, for example, they’re also really different across different platforms. They have different numbers of candles. Some of them are chocolate. Some of them are vanilla. Some of them are strawberry. They’re quite different across different platforms. But this doesn’t seem to bother people in the same sort of way. Sending someone a birthday cake emoji doesn’t really have any additional meaning beyond just “This is a birthday cake.” If you know what a birthday cake is, you can interpret a birthday cake emoji. It doesn’t have the additional meaning the way the eggplant or the fire or the dancing girl in the red dress has.

Lauren: And you don’t have to send them in any particular order. You don’t even have to include those emoji. You could just send “Happy Birthday!” like a boring monster.

Gretchen: I really over analyse my birthday messages now because we’ve been doing so much analysis of what people use for birthday emoji. But, yeah, you can send a whole bunch of different things and they’re all equally birthday-like, which is not true of words. If I say “merry birthday,” I am clearly making a joke.

Lauren: Hmm. That is not the standard greeting.

Gretchen: Or if I say, “Birthday happy,” you’re like, “Excuse me, what? Sorry?”

Lauren: You’re not speaking English as she is known.

Gretchen: Exactly. What I liked about this is that these unnamed gestures – so the gestures you use to be like, “Okay, here’s the path that I took to get here,” or, “Here’s the motion that it takes to catch a frisbee or to throw a ball of this particular size and weight” and something like this – those gestures also have a large degree of latitude for variation.

Lauren: Yeah. We see a lot of variation in how people use gestures. Whether it is present or not is not necessarily – it’s not obligatory in the same way that syntax is, for example.

Gretchen: Yeah. There’s all this variation, and you don’t have as many of the communication errors and problems when you’re doing these kinds of gestures that just illustrate what’s actually going on. If I send you “happy birthday” and I put a birthday cake or I put the gift or I put a balloon, that doesn’t change the meaning the way sending you “happy birthday” with thumbs up versus “happy birthday [middle finger]" ... that really changes the meaning there.

Lauren: Thanks. Great.

Gretchen: “Happy birthday – you annoying person.” “Happy birthday – I hate you.” Or like “Happy birthday [rolled eyes]”? Like “Whoa! Excuse me?” “Happy freaking birthday, all right?” So, yeah, it was really exciting to get to kind of realise that this distinction between, okay, there are some emoji that seem to cast a different light on the meanings of the words that they’re associated with. And there’s also some gestures that cast a different light on the meanings of the words they’re associated with. And there are some emoji that don’t seem to change the meaning of the words involved and also gestures that don’t seem to change the meaning of the words involved. They’re just kind of the supplementary illustration. The fact that these distinctions seem to exist for both types was really fascinating to me. Then, I had to be like, “Lauren, can I write you into my book because I figured this out thanks to you. I can’t take credit for inventing this. Is it weird if I make you a character in my book?”

Lauren: I mean, it’s kind of delightful. It’s kind of an interesting extension of our podcast life. But the more I thought about this in relation to the data that you already had in the chapter, the more I was like, “Actually, I think we need to do a really systematic analysis of the parallels between gesture and speech, and emoji and written language.” I was like, “Well, how about we actually write an academic paper together that really drills down into the literature on gesture to see just how far we can take this?”

Gretchen: This actually solved a problem for me too because, I mean, I love a good taxonomy.

Lauren: Who doesn’t?

Gretchen: Who doesn’t love a good taxonomy? Here’s a way of carving up the world into different pieces that illuminate some of the differences between different situations. It’s fascinating. But the other thing about a taxonomy is that it does give names to a whole bunch of different areas. This book is a pop linguistics book. It is a fun book. Like, fun is in the definition. It needs to be fun to read. The problem with saying, “Okay, here’s this academic taxonomy where we have six different names for different categories of gestures” – I was restricting myself deliberately to one or two new words per chapter because that’s about as much as a person can handle.

Lauren: And I was like, “No, all the terminology.”

Gretchen: “We need all the terminology!” And I was like, “Well, this is great. I agree with this terminology. But I just can’t use it all in a book that’s aimed at the general public because most people do not have your decade-plus of experience in gesture studies, Lauren. I really hate to break it to you.”

Lauren: One day.

Gretchen: Writing an academic article meant that I could say, “Okay, here’s the kind of basic distinction, and if you wanna see more with all the terminology in place, go check out this academic article that we wrote together.”

Lauren: One thing I really like about the article is it allowed us to revisit some data that you already had and come up with an analysis of how that fits into this emoji-as-gesture paradigm.

Gretchen: It let me solve some of the questions and things that I had been wondering about from this earlier data. One of the things that was really interesting that came up – so I did a study with a smartphone keyboard app looking at millions of anonymised examples of how real people use emoji in aggregate. One of the things that we came across really early on in this data – so I got them to extract examples of the most common sequences of two, three, and four emoji, because this is a common thing that people do for a large data set of words is they’ll say one of the most common sequences of two, three, and four words. So, let’s try to do the same thing with emoji and see what happens because, obviously, we couldn’t read individual people’s messages. This is a way of kind of extracting from that and figuring out what the common sequences are. The most common sequence of emoji overall is [tears of joy] [tears of joy].

Lauren: Right. Okay.

Gretchen: The second most common sequence is [tears of joy] [tears of joy] [tears of joy].

Lauren: Okay. Hmm...

Gretchen: Do you wanna guess what the third most common sequence is?

Lauren: I’m going for, hmm, [tears of joy] [tears of joy] [tears of joy] [tears of joy]?

Gretchen: Yeah. Four of them.

Lauren: Amazing.

Gretchen: Once you get to number four, I think it was two kiss faces. So, it did change eventually. We did eventually run out of [tears of joy].

Lauren: Just moved on to more repeating sequences.

Gretchen: Turned out, we looked at the Top 200 sequences of two, and then Top 200 of three, and Top 200 of four, and about half of all of these lists was just straight up repetition of the exact same emoji. This was really interesting to us because a lot of the emoji narratives and media at that point were really excited about the idea of telling stories with emoji of like, “Okay, if you have a [person] and then a [tongue sticking out] and then a [hamburger], maybe that means a person is eating a hamburger,” or something like that. But that’s not what people were doing. People were doing the exact same emoji a whole bunch of times in a row.

Lauren: I remember when you did that paper because I was like, “Huh. That’s some really nifty data.” When it came to thinking about this in relation to gesture, there’s nothing that really fits that with words. If you look at the top combinations of words, it’s like “and the,” “I am” – there’s no repetition. You might occasionally get a “very very,” especially in formal conversation. But that’s definitely further down than [tears of joy] [tears of joy]. If you look at gesture, you often get these repeating movements in gesture, often like an up/down – if you ever watch the news without the sound on, you’ll just see politicians doing these up and down repeating gestures.

Gretchen: These very, like, podium gestures.

Lauren: They’re known in the gesture literature as “beat gestures” because that movement is so rhythmic and observable.

Gretchen: Yeah. When I found out about beat gestures, I was like, “Wait. Okay.” First of all, it’s one of the most common gesture styles. You can observe anybody doing this. When I was in a café trying to write the book, I’d look over and be like, “Oh, that person’s doing beat gestures.” You don’t often see people doing emblems in the wild. For all they’re very exciting, they’re fairly rare. Occasionally, someone will flip someone off or “thumbs up” or something like that, but it’s fairly rare. Whereas, you look over to any conversation, you’re gonna see beats. I was like, “Wait a second. Maybe people are writing [tears of joy] [tears of joy] [tears of joy] because that’s what they would do in gesture.”

Lauren: It makes sense in terms of the function because a beat gesture is often analysed as being used to emphasise the particular words that they occur with. The more [tears of joy] I send you, the funnier I find something. Or the more heart eyes emojis I send you, the more I completely love something.

Gretchen: Or the more plain heart emoji – even though that’s not a face – the more you love and support something or you wanna indicate your enjoyment of something. All this repetition, even when they aren’t specifically hands or faces – even though they often are hands or faces – seems to be serving a similar kind of emphatic function as the fact that we repeat our gestures so much. It was really exciting to be able to drill down into all of these different things that gesture can do and be like “Oh, wait, yeah, emoji can do that too.” Even though the stories that I had been like, “Oh, well, that’s not real emoji use because that’s just this stunt thing that people do,” it was like “Wait a second. But people do that with gestures too.” People play games like charades where they act stuff out in gestures. It’s just that it’s not your typical type of gesture. But it’s definitely one sub-type of gesture.

Lauren: It’s definitely in a playful context.

Gretchen: Yeah. It’s a similar sort of playful context that people try to retell “Les Misérables” or something in emoji. It’s the same thing as trying to get people to guess, “Oh, this is Les Mis” in gesture as well. It’s often treated as a sort of guessing game where the fun thing is can you guess what the other person is trying to depict here. Yeah. So, I wrote you into this book. We started working on this academic article. By the magic of how publishing works, the academic article and the book are coming out pretty much the same time.

Lauren: I’m very excited for both.

Gretchen: You’re also writing up a piece in The Conversation, which is kind of a more accessible summary of the academic articles. There are lots of different ways to engage with this if this is something that you wanna dive into more.

Lauren: I’m really excited that it’s our first full, academic publication together.

Gretchen: Me too! Because we’ve been collaborating on this podcast for so long and yet there’s an academic collaboration too, which makes us just collaborators on more levels.

Lauren: This is further knitting into my day job.

Gretchen: I think the most awkward part about this though was, when I wrote you into the book – and I had your permission to do that – and I was writing this all along and then I was like, “Wait a second. I’m gonna have to refer to Lauren by her last name because that’s how I refer to everybody else in the book.” I’ll say their full name the first time, and then in subsequent references I just say their last name. I can’t be like, “Oh, well, this person, just because we’re friends, I’m gonna call her by her first name. That’s gonna be weird.” But it’s also like I don’t call you, “Gawne.”

Lauren: Oh, my gosh. It’s gonna be so weird reading that.

Gretchen: Yeah. You’re in the index.

Lauren: Oh, I’m super excited about being in the index.

Gretchen: I’m really excited about everything in that index. There’s two different kinds of sparkle punctuation in the index. Oh, my god. The index makes me wanna read this book, even though I wrote the book myself.

Lauren: Of course, we’ve been talking a lot about emoji but even though obviously I think it’s the most exciting and important chapter in the whole book for selfish reasons...

Gretchen: You’re a little bit biased here.

Lauren: I’m a little bit biased and I don’t want people to think that the whole book is just about emoji because there’s obviously a myriad of other great language-y things that exist on the internet. This has really just been a taster of Chapter 5 of the book, which is the emoji chapter.

Gretchen: Chapter 5. I have had people say, “Gretchen, is your book gonna tell me what this particular emoji means?” It is not an emoji dictionary of “Here are all the emoji and their cultural connotations,” because that’s still something that’s changing. That’s still something that’s in flux. Your best bet is still to go somewhere like Emojipedia or dictionary.com, which is providing specific definitions and cultural notes about particular emoji. If you want kind of a bigger story that’s less like “Here’s a list” and more like “Here’s a bigger-picture view at how emoji actually fit into conversation, and why we’re using them, and why they caught on so quickly, and are they still gonna be around in 50 years or 100 years,” that’s what’s in the book – plus all this other stuff about internet linguistics like punctuation and memes.

Lauren: The book is out 23rd of July 2019. For many of you listening to this now, it is out in the wild. You can read. I am excited for you to have this in your future.

[Music]

Gretchen: For more Lingthusiasm and links to all the things mentioned in this episode, go to lingthusiasm.com. You can listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, or wherever else you get your podcasts. You can follow @Lingthusiasm on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr. You can get IPA scarves, IPA ties, and other Lingthusiasm merch at lingthusiasm.com/merch. I can be found as @GretchenAMcC on Twitter, my blog is AllThingsLinguistic.com. My book about internet language is called Because Internet and is available at all good booksellers.

Lauren: I tweet and blog as Superlinguo. And I’m in Because Internet as “Gawne,” apparently. To listen to bonus episodes and help keep the show ad-free, go to patreon.com/lingthusiasm or follow the links from our website. Recent bonus topics include animals, a very cool linguistics job about figuring out how to pronounce all the names on the radio, and direction words like “right” “left” “north” “south” in different languages. If you support us at our new $15 Ling-phabet tier, we will assign you your very own symbol of the International Phonetic Alphabet and we will recognise your support on our website. Plus, anyone who joins this tier by August 15 will get a very special signed book plate from Gretchen to add to your copy of Because Internet.

Gretchen: Can’t afford to pledge? That’s okay too. We also really appreciate it if you can recommend Lingthusiasm or Because Internet to anyone who needs a little more linguistics in their life. Lingthusiasm is created and produced by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our audio producer is Claire Gawne, our editorial producer is Sarah Dopierala, our editorial manager is Emily Gref, and our music is “Ancient Cities” by The Triangles.

Lauren: Stay lingthusiastic!

[Music]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

#language #linguistics #because internet #because internet book #lingthusiasm #transcripts #episode 34 #emoji #internet language #internet linguistics #gesture #gesture studies #emojis #emoticons

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ladyofpurple · 5 years

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answer all of the questions!!

holy SHIT ok bless you omg

(sorry it's a full day late i took this shit SERIOUSLY. don't ask me how many hours this took, i was in A Mood™️ last night. removed the ones already answered xoxo)

angel; have you ever been in love?

yeah. didn't end too well, but i loved him.

petal; favorite novel and author?

this is like asking me to pick a favorite child. i guess favorite author would be stephen king, if only based entirely on the sheer quantity of his books i own alone. favorite book would probably be special topics in calamity physics by marisha pessl, and i'm only saying that because it's been my go-to response for years. i have lots of favorite books. ask me again in five minutes and i'll give you another one.

honey perfume; favorite perfume/scent?

freshly made coffee. lilacs. jasmine. cut grass. the ground after it rains. chocolate chip cookies in the oven. cigarette smoke on skin. my mom's shampoo. my grandma. my dog when he's just had a bath. thanksgiving dinner. acrylic paint on canvas. sawdust. that one cologne i can't name but can smell on a guy from a mile away. mulled cranberry and apple juice. vanilla. coconut. fresh laundry. peppermint.

sweet pea; what’s your zodiac?

virgo sun, pisces moon, scorpio rising ✨

softie; talk about your sexuality.

i'm biromantic asexual, primarily attracted to men more than women (but have had too many crushes on girls to consider myself het), generally sex repulsed when it comes to the thought of having it myself. i prefer to call myself queer in passing conversation, it's easier than explaining asexuality and the differences between sexual and romantic attraction. if someone asks more specifically, i'll usually just call myself bi for simplicity's sake, even though the ace part is a much more important (to me) part of my identity. monogamous as fuck.

i'm still struggling with internalized homophobia and a lot of "am i even queer enough" thoughts, which is super fun. took me a long time to even consider the fact that i might like girls at all. i'll probably never come out to my parents. not that they'd, like, disown me or whatever, but they're juuuuust homophobic/transphobic enough that my few attempts to educate them when they say something A Little Yikes have shown me that i should probably just stay in the closet unless i absolutely have to come out. like i'm getting married to a woman or something.

sugarplum; what’s the color of your eyes and hair?

i usually say my eyes are green because it's easier, and they mostly are, but i have rings of greyish blue around the irises and sometimes they're more hazel in the middle. they always have a green tint to them though, even if the intensity of the green varies.

my natural hair is brown, a little on the darker and slightly ashy side of completely generic. currently a former blonde, although i'm hoping to bleach my fucking YEAR of growout soon, and then go some crazy color as a last hurrah before i have to go dark again. being broke fucking sucks.

wings; coffee or tea?

tea!! black tea. chai, to be specific, with an irresponsible amount of milk and sugar. chai lattes are a fucking drug okay? coffee makes me sick (not a judgement, a literal fact. last time i tried some i threw up).

fairytale; are you a cat or dog person?

cat!! but my family has a chihuahua named sonny and you can pry that little monster from my cold dead hands ok i will fight you.

snowflake; favorite time period?

okay, i wrote and rewrote my answer to this about 10 times. then i tried to divide it up into categories (aesthetics, history, fashion, vibes, geographical location, etc), but that didn't help. so basically: i don't have one, because i have too many.

i like the american 20s-60s for the aesthetic, music/movies, and the fashion. i also like the european 1600s-1800s for the interesting history and also vibe. i love the french and russian revolutions — the fashion! the art! the wars and political upheaval! I FUCKING LOVE HISTORY. then, of course, we can't forget the rennaisance. or the witch trials (pick your continent). and ancient greece? the roman empire? hello?? did i mention empires? how bout we mosy on over to south america — can i interest you in the mayans? incans? aztecs? what about china and japan? korea? vietnam? and don't even get me fucking STARTED on the black plague.

ancient egypt? sign me the FUCK UP. vikings? yes please. the celts? oh boy. the MYTHOLOGY. the ARCHITECTURE. the LANGUAGES and POLITICS and LITERATURE and REVOLUTIONS and GOD HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN ANY OF THESE

i uh. might have gotten a little excited. basically i like history a lot. and mythology. and linguistics. and cultural practices. and the politics and prejudices behind wars and stuff. and learning in general. moving on.

vanilla; do you believe in ghosts?

let's put it this way: i don't not believe in ghosts??

listen. we don't know jack shit. we don't know what happens after we die, there are constant scientific revelations that turn our understanding of the universe completely upside-down, and there is literally no way to know which religions or myths or urban legends could have some grain of truth to them. like, dude, i've literally thought i was haunted before. psychology is bananas and the universe is infinite.

demons could be real. ghosts could be real. what if we just haven't invented the necessary technology to prove it yet? what if we never do, and they just fuck around alongside us, moving furniture and making shadow puppets on the walls just for kicks until the earth explodes? what if that one tumblr post was right and ghosts are actually real people from alternate universes or timelines that we see accidentally bc some cosmic wires got crossed? who fucking knows.

i love horror movies and scary stories and ghost hunter shows just as much as the next gal. but listen. psychics? mediums? people who accept every single creepypasta retold third-hand from their neighbor's kid's classmate's second cousin who "totally knows a guy"? doubt.jpeg

i don't understand the sheer amount of assumptions made willy-nilly about the nature of ghosts and demons and things that go bump in the night. the assumption that "oh this machine that totally doesn't look like a coathanger taped to a walkman will work because ghosts have this temperature and can always communicate like this and are electromagnetic" or whatever just baffles me. to a certain degree, following a general consensus is one thing — some basic things everyone can agree on? that's cool. ghosts can walk through walls and are probably dead people or whatever. but oh my god, taking every single story as absolute, undeniable proof?? taking these stories and expanding on them to infer intentions and scientific facts to something that by it's very nature is unknowable and assuming, like, every spirit is created equal?? and yeah, ghost hunting shows are fun and campy and kinda creepy but like. you really, genuinely don't think any of them have ever faked anything at all??? even if ghosts are real, it's fucking reality tv, my dude. it's the entertainment industry. at least maintain the slightest ounce of critical thought before taking zak bagans' word as the goddamn gospel.

and sidenote, maybe it's just my limited exposure as a white woman in the western world, but of all the shows and podcasts and movies and documentaries and whatnot i've been able to find and consume, there's the constant use of christian ideology applied to every situation that just really burns my bacon. what, there's never been an atheist ghost? if you see a shadow person and you don't know the lord's prayer by heart, are you automatically fucked? why are there never stories about, i don't know, viking ghosts? does your religion in life preclude you from becoming a ghost in the first place? is that why people never mention buddhist ghosts? i don't get it, and that's why even though i'm self-admittedly the most superstitious person i've ever met, true believers make me roll my eyes so hard they almost fall out. makes me come across as more skeptical than i theoretically am. I HAVE VERY STRONG FEELINGS ABOUT THIS OK

but like, you couldn't pay me to fuck with a ouija board. i'm not stupid.

delicate; diamonds or pearls?

both have their appeal and their place, but diamonds, i guess. i like the sparkle. but fake ones!! or synthetic. diamonds are overpriced and artificial scarcity is a scam and i don't need a dumb rock that some poor person in a mine somewhere was exploited and possibly died for. no blood diamonds in this house, thank you very much.

if i ever get engaged, i don't want a diamond ring. i'd want something cool, a little unusual, like a ruby or a sapphire or some other sparkly gem that isn't literally shoved in your face every waking moment as the expected standard symbol of True Love. they're cheaper, they're cool-looking, as a ring they still hold the cultural symbolism of an engagement/wedding ring. and honestly, as long as it's well-made and durable, whatever hypothetical gem it is doesn't have to be real either. i'm a woman of simple needs and demonstrably low standards. no point in going into debt for a fucking piece of jewelry, regardless of ~tradition~.

lavender dream; favorite album?

oh lord. welcome to the black parade, i guess. or anything by panic! at the disco. there are dozens of possible options — my interests are mercurial and my memory is garbage. but i'll always be an emo little shit. black parade and vices and virtues were also the first two albums i ever listened to where i loved every single song on them, and i happened to listen to them for the first time at around the same point in my life (i got into mcr super late. like, 2012 late. rip).

silky; what’s your biggest dream?

it's cheesy but i guess i just want stability and, by extension, happiness. emotional stability, mental stability, financial stability, stable living situation, stable routines, stable relationships... you get the idea. i have ambitions and passions, of course, but my ultimate goal is happiness at this point in my life, and i'm pretty sure stabilizing all those things would go a pretty long way in achieving that goal.

a little apartment with walls i can paint because white walls make me angry. bookshelves and posters and fandom merch on every wall. a computer i can actually play games on again, and somewhere i can paint and draw and record my podcasts. someone who loves me, maybe. a cat, if i'm stable enough. space for people to come visit me, and a place for them to sleep if they need. a tiny balcony, if i really want to shoot for the stars. a job i don't hate. the spoons to hang out with my friends, and the money to not worry about buying little presents for the people i care about sometimes. i don't need much.

strawberry kiss; do you have a crush right now?

nope.

glitter; favorite fictional character?

another loaded question. like books, if you ask me again in five minutes i'll probably give you a different answer. but in this particular moment, caleb and jester from critical role (please don't make me choose between them). i won't go full shipping mode rn, but jester is so funny and silly and sweet, so much more complex than she seems, and she tries so hard to make everyone happy even when she's so sad inside. the healer who treats healing as an inconvenience in battle (she's so fucking valid and also mood), the glue that keeps the party together. and caleb learning to trust again, facing his trauma and coming out of his shell. he loves his friends so much he plays wizard as a support class and i love him so much.

i love the mighty nein in general, of course, and all the guests/honorary members they've had. pumat!! pls don't be evil reani!! keg!! shakäste and grand duchess anastasia!! cali!! kiri!!!! the brotps! empire siblings! chaos crew! nott the best detective agency! i still love molly and all his assholery to bits (fight me), and mourn his lost potential. i adore yasha, even when she's gone; fjord has grown so much; beau and nott and caduceus — i love all their flaws and disagreements and their character arcs and the excitement of watching them grow and learn. but if i had to choose, caleb, jester and molly have always been my top 3 since day 1 and, well, molly isn't really an option anymore.

but like i said, ask me again in a minute. i have a fucking list.

swan; share a quote or passage that means something to you.

a collection of things off the top of my head:

Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition. — Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen

a tired feminist Mood™️

"What I say is, a town isn't a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it's got a bookstore, it knows it's not foolin' a soul." — American Gods, Neil Gaiman

i got my love of books from my grandma — some of my favorites i got from her. sometimes, as a treat, she used to take my sister and i to bookstores and we'd stay there for ages, getting to pick one out, roaming the shelves, the mental torture of having to choose. the peace of being surrounded by thousands of potential worlds, so much information, so many stories just waiting to be told; being surrounded by strangers who share that same wonder. the anxious drive home so we could read them, being unable to wait that long so i inevitably start reading in the car and make myself sick. telling her in excited detail all my favorite parts. if we were lucky, maybe we got to split a bear claw, or she'd drive past starbucks and get us something there too (tall vanilla soy steamer with one pump of vanilla syrup, whipped cream on top that always melted too quickly and squirted out the hole in the lid, so hot it burned my tongue but so good i didn't care). i have never felt more at home than i do when i'm surrounded by books.

"There are a lot of different types of freedom. We talk about freedom the same way we talk about art, like it was a statement of quality rather than a description. “Art” doesn’t mean good or bad. Art just means art. It can be terrible and still be art. Freedom can be good or bad, too. There can be terrible freedom. You freed me, and I didn’t ask you to." — Alice Isn't Dead, season 1, chapter 2: Alice

as cringey as it is to admit it, this line made me cry a lot after my breakup.

"So you aren't American?" asked Shadow.

"Nobody's American," said Wednesday. "Not originally. That's my point." — American Gods, Neil Gaiman

[side-eyes white america real hard]

there's more, of course. there's always more. don't even get me started on song lyrics, we'll be here all day.

lace; what’s your favorite plant/flower?

lilacs and roses.

mermaid; do you prefer the forest or the ocean? why?

both, i guess. but in different ways, and in different circumstances.

the sea is wild. it is endless and deep and unknowable. it is beautiful and dangerous. i am terrified of the ocean, and yet my favorite place in the world is an empty beach on the oregon coast. i have picked sand from between my toes for days with hair crusted in salt, danced around bonfires and watched the stars while marshmallows burn, gotten pulled under the waves as a child and nearly swept out to sea. picked starfish and crabs from small pools in the rocks, and swum (accidentally) with wild sea lions. in a long skirt, too early in the year to be swimming, i once took off my shoes and waded fully clothed into the water to my waist and just... danced. splashed and kicked and laughed with a boy i barely knew until our throats were sore and our toes were numb, walking home hours later with our soaked clothes clinging to our legs, shoes squelching, dripping algae as we went. the ocean is freeing and overwhelming all at once. i love it and am petrified by it in equal measure.

the forest is beautiful in a different way. it is silent and dense and serene. you are surrounded by life and yet, somehow, completely alone. there is magic in the forest, and history, and even when all else dies, that will remain. the trees grow from the corpses of their ancestors, and some have lived dozens of our lifetimes — with luck, a few dozen more. it is quiet there, peaceful, even the tiniest wood in the middle of a city muffling the outside world through the trees. you can feel the ancient ways deep in your soul as you follow winding paths strewn with fallen leaves, the mystery and wonder and superstitions of your forefathers. you wonder what it would be like, to run your fingers over the moss, to take off your shoes and socks and just run, leaping and dancing over rocks and roots, hair wild and air filling your lungs in deep, pure gulps as you shed the responsibilities and struggles of modern life, for just a moment remembering what freedom tastes like. it is primal, this connection to nature, one we have nearly forgotten over time. and as the sky grows dark and the silence of night presses against you, shadows looming, every footfall deafening, perhaps you begin to understand why some believed in monsters.

honeymoon; do you keep a journal?

i used to. honestly, that's a good idea, i should start doing that again. lord knows i have enough empty journal-type books.

starlight; do you believe in love at first sight and soulmates? why/why not?

i want to. i want to believe there's someone out there for me, the love of my life, someone to whom i'll be the love of their life, and that when i meet them i'll just... know.

but when i met my ex, i didn't really look twice at him for a while — no love at first sight. and when we were together, when i loved him and he swore he loved me back, i thought he hung the stars in the sky and knew i would marry him someday. couldn't even consider the idea that that wouldn't happen. and then when he broke up with me, he ghosted me so suddenly and thoroughly that he even preemptively cut contact with every single one of our mutual friends he thought might side with me in the breakup, before anybody even knew we'd had a fight. so, not soulmates either.

i really want to believe that someday the perfect romance will just fall into place and i can have the happily ever after i've always dreamed of. but the reality is i might never even have another s.o. for the rest of my life. maybe i'll get hit by a car tomorrow, or my hypothetical soulmate moves to argentina to become an alpaca farmer on a mountain somewhere and we never even meet. maybe i'm so traumatized by the betrayal and lies that i'll never have the courage to even try again.

and even so, happily ever after doesn't have to include a fairytale romance, regardless of whether i want it or not. i still like to cling to that hope though, deep down.

princess; what do you value most in people?

i'm going to assume you mean "real people" as in people i have positive relationships with, and not random strangers on the street.

loyalty. kindness. support. humor. similar values. patience. being able to grow together and teach each other things, so we can make each other better. honesty. trust. compassion. confidence. emotional vulnerability. communication. intelligence, or at least a willingness to learn. strength.

#nobody asked me to go this hard and yet here we are #my favorite pasttimes: talking about myself and being pretentious on main #Lady answers stuff #anon good nurse #Lady of Purple's slice of life #ask meme

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lvcius · 5 years

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⌠ JOHN BOYEGA, 23, CISMALE, HE/HIM ⌡ welcome back to gallagher academy, LUCIUS HARTLEY-LOPEZ! according to their records, they’re a THIRD year, specializing in LINGUISTICS, CULTURE, AND ASSIMILATION; and they DID NOT go to a spy prep high school. when i see them walking around in the halls, i usually see a flash of (a rubber band permanently around your wrist, deep breathing, showtunes playing too loudly ). when it’s the (pisces)’s birthday on 03/03/1996, they always request their CHOCOLATE CROISSANT from the school’s chefs. looks like they’re well on their way to graduation.

uhhh, so, this is luci, i am lena, let’s GOOOO:

background: - lucius was born in nyc to parents that weren’t equipped to raise him and was thrown into the system headfirst - when he was four, though, he was adopted bye ava hartley and luz lopez and that was history - they adopted two little girls after him and boy LOVES his little sisters so much and 100% tries to play the protective big brother role even tho he’s a complete Softie - has loved musicals and theatre ever since he was little and was made fun of for it in junior high and they started calling him ‘luci’ - ya boy embraced it though and started calling himself that and all his friends and family picked it up too- RECLAIMING that shit - luci went to a performing arts high school and wanted to pursue it in college - but both his moms are spies and it’s sort of been Expected that all the kids would be too - so, he was sent to blackthorne and now is at gallagher studying linguistics, culture, and assimilation bc it lets him use acting ~kinda~ bc he gets to pretend to be from somewhere else personality: - the Softest - like, not a bad bone in his body - anxiety-ridden - like, always a step away from a panic attack (same bro) - the only place he’s never nervous? onstage- love that for him - would literally do anything for anyone and is the best friend you could ever have - NOT a fighter, but would 100% beat someone up for the people he loves - uhhh mostly straight, but def bicurious, he just loves love y’all idk - ok so he loves love but is also terrified of messing up any potential relationship bc of his anxiety and, so, can get rly weirdly distant - BUT he wants to love someone like plz someone love him- he deserves it - sharing musicals he loves with people is his love language possible connections: - exes: plz, he is soft and probably still tries to be friendly as possible - best friend(s): he is SUCH a good friend, hella supportive, super loyal- let him love u - first heartbreak: idk give me a girl he was in LOVE w, but they way they ended hurt him and so he’s big Sad Boy energy when it comes to her- maybe from nyc??? maybe not, idc idc - rival: is not mean at all, but probably gets a little competitive when it comes to school stuff, let him have a friendly rivalry - hookups: sure - study buddy: they nerd out over school work together idk - bad influence: he’s a Good Boy, someone make him let loose - literally anything idk idk

u know the drill!! plz love us !

#gallagher:intro

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spiderfilesarchived · 6 years

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INTRODUCING PETER'S INTERPRETER !!

Name: Lisa Davis

age: 29 ( april 23rd, 1990 )

Nationality: American Russian

Sexuality: bisexual / biromantic

Height: 5′10 / 5′11 with her boots.

Languages: English, Spanish, russian, ASL, german.

Job title: Interpreter / Linguist

current job: Interpreter for Peter B Parker ( main client ) & on call for interpreting jobs in any of the above languages

Skillset:

Fluent in multiple languages: She had been learning languages since she was younger and decided to make that her career, her family has members fluent in multiple languages and she learned from them at a young age, thought she tends to focus on ASL, she could interpret for other languages as well.

able to hold her own in hand to hand combat: Lisa isn’t skilled in hand to hand combat, but she is able to hold her own and make due with what she has including any guns and other weapons, which she had to learn how to use in case of an emergency, she has a taser with her at all times when she’s out. Peter also given her some gadgets in case she gets in trouble for associating with him, though that’s more paranoia on peter’s part seeing as she could handle herself if anything goes wrong.

Skilled vocalist: Lisa is a skilled singer, she started singing as a way to train her voice to be more clear and it stuck with her, she now uses it as practice for different languages, translating and singing songs from one language to another as well as mixing her own music. she does this more for fun though.

Aliases: N/A

Personality / history: Lisa is an easy going person, she’s more or less an expressive person as most interpreters are and won’t hesitate to translate anything her client tells her to, she’s nice to people and tends to make friends easily, but she doesn’t get close to clients unless she’s going to be around them often and in the case of Peter Parker, she has been around him for eight years and they’ve gotten pretty close, enough where she usually refers to him as a friend rather than a client.

she was born in 1990 and grew up in a family of 6, her mom, her dad, 2 brothers her sister and herself, her sister went on to be an engineer, and her brothers both went into the field of chemical engineering, while she with the aid of her aunts and uncle learned languages and went into linguistics. one of her brothers were deaf and the entire family grew up learning ASL and she decided that would be her main focus.

she found out peter was spider-man when peter was 16, and had been spider-man for about a year, Peter was worried she would tell but she assured him she wouldn’t, she kept that secret.

Later in the year 2023 was pulled into an organization formed to help deaf and HOH heros, in which she was one of the original funders and helped build it from the ground up, which was her goal ever since he found out Peter was Spider-man, starting plans almost instantly and finally being able to make her dream a reality.

general headcanons:

1: the organization she forms is DHOHHA ( Deaf and hard of hearing hero alliance ) and specializes in getting super powered beings who are deaf or hard of hearing the help they need or can’t get as their regular persona such as hearing aids and interpreters, later she would expand this and become more like a hub for international heros to help find interpreters for languages in an attempt to thin the language barrier.

2: She speaks a lot, and is very chatty, she loves to travel and loves learning new languages, and has friends all over the world that she keeps in contact with on the daily

3: thanks to her brothers being chemical / engineers, she has the vocabulary for peters future bio-mechanical engineering jobs, and so she was able to stick with him throughout the entire ordeal,

4: she was with peter when he made the web fluid, and he attributes the success of it largely to Lisa, since Lisa gave him tips when he was barely learning which eventually led to the creation of his iconic web fluid.

5: she could also be the inspiration of the tech he uses in his mask, and eventually his mask only covering his mouth, as she continued to give him tips.

6: peter has her on skype and facetime under favorites.

#░ ▸ » LOCAL BIRD GAY YELLS ☽ ▹ ( OUT ) ❜#░ ▸ » FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD BLAH BLAH BLAH ☽ ▹ ( HC ) ❜#long post/#AAAAAAAAAAA #lsatagtba

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boofmont · 5 years

Text

- ̗̀ * ( liana liberato + cisfemale + she/her ) have you seen ( saige beaumont ) walking around campus ? they are a ( 20 ) year old, studying ( linguistics + criminal psychology ). we hear they are in ( theta sigma eta ), and can be ( passionate & irrational ), maybe it’s because they are a ( cancer ). they sort of remind us of ( drunk stick n' pokes at 2am, avoiding cracks in the sidewalk, the familiar riff of an old song ), maybe we can find out more ! ( jamesy the fool + 20 + EST + she/they ) * ̖́- + newspaper photographer, campus tour, swim

lmao hi here’s my final baby she is the love of my life i’ve known her for 8 years i think and she’s come a long way sdfkgh please love her as much as i love her. if i was fictionkin i’d identify solely with her (and she’s not even a self insert ! wow !) **IM STILL ON HAITUS UNTIL MONDAY BUT I HAD THIS READY TO GO LMAO**

TW: ALCOHOLISM, DRUG ABUSE? MENTIONS.

gen. info

full name: saige alouette beaumont

nickname(s): she...doesn’t have any in this timeline but PLEASE, she LOVES nicknames. she’s a nickname slut.

b.o.d. - july 7th, 20 whole yrs old.

label(s): the hedonist, the icarcian, the reveler, etc. etc.

height: 5′7″ thank u very much !!

hometown: thibodaux, louisiana

sexuality: firstly when aren’t my babies bi as FUCK (minus aster). but she also prefers masc-presenting folks

biography

the only child of a world renown fashion designer named manon lévêsque (surname kept b/c Branding) and US lieutenant general robert beaumont

manon’s brand is like...on the level of chanel, and dior, and shit, y’know??

manon’s...obv french, very french. born n raised in france.

robert beaumont comes from a very southern family, all located in louisana. also french, just more...american.

they’re fucking loaded

saige’s childhood wasn’t the...Usual, childhood. they moved around a lot as due to both of her parents’ jobs. (’cos robert wasn’t ALWAYS a 4-star army man smh)

the longest they’ve rly stayed in one place (minus saige’s ucla yrs) is like...two yrs, tops ??

due 2 that she didn’t rly make...a lotta friends?

but when she DID , it was always the most interesting ppl she could find

but her parents were always SUPER strict

it was like they came together purely to mold the perfect child

like, they controlled where she went! what she wore! who she interacted with! what she watched or read or listened to!

she’d have bodyguards on her when her parents were busy, not nannies

she was taught all the proper things ladies were to learn, like cooking and sewing and ballroom dancing, and more

she was also taught how to drop a man to his knees in less than 10 seconds and how to shoot a gun, but that was it in terms of self defense skdfgh

eventually saige got bored with a life of being carefully watched and attending military balls and fashion runways

how do u surround a girl w/ so much culture and expect her to not want to experience life for what it is?

she learned how to dodge guards in order to go canoeing in the full moon with strangers she’d met five hrs prior, and how to blend in at festivals filled with throat-melting sweet drinks

she almost landed in a tabloid at the age of 15 for sneaking out w/ a boy three years older and her parents paid a lot of money to hide it.

no matter how much they tried to keep her rooted, saige always found a way to bend the rules and escape her lil golden cage

like they even had her homeschooled w/ the best tutors one could pay for n she still yeeted tf out whenever she could

born for the party life t b h

they decided that the best course of action to deal w/ her was to finally keep her in one place so they p much made her go to ucla lmao

homegirl did NOT want to go at first, just ‘cos she HATES being rooted to one place, is used to traveling the world and seeing shit and learning other cultures n shit, y’know ??

but then she joined theta sigma eta lmao n the parties ??

fucking amazing

it didn’t take a lot for her to be convinced to stay, esp ‘cos her parents didn’t quite realize...how big the party scene is

(not like they could’ve sent her to like...harvard or smth...homegirl’s smart but not THAT smart lmaooo)

unfortunately, saige has piss poor self control; and this was too much freedom for her. she was being Too Wild

anyWays the summer before her current year (i ... think she’s a sophomore ?) she went to a particularly wild party and somehow ended up at one of her mother’s collection launch parties w/ a pal of hers !!

and she totally embarrassed her mom !! in front of everybody !! being lil’ ol drunk n freshly 20 yr old !

after that saige was NOT welcomed at home (wherever home was, at the moment, that is). she wasn’t DISOWNED ‘cos that’d be HORRIBLE for the press n god, imagine the media ?? it would worsen it all

but she wasn’t allowed at home. wasn’t allowed with them. wasn’t allowed to see them unless at events they specifically ordered her to come to for press reasons

doesn’t really...know where she’s going to go in the summer ‘cos the summer she Fucked Up she lived out of hotel suites and friend’s couches. n like yeah she can just Buy a place or smth but ?? commitment ?? adult decisions ?? christ !

nobody knows her parents have essentially kicked her tf out and aren’t even talkin’ to her, ‘cos homegirl’s ashamed

it isn’t rly hard to hide it tho ‘cos her parents still give her a shit ton of money LMAO rich privilege

but it can’t fix how absolutely hurt she is

the alcohol , however, COULD

started partying more, and more intensely, and didn’t stop when the parties did

alcohol became part of her diet.

irish cream in her mornin’ coffee, coke n rum at lunch, vodka and like...23 packets of crystal lite in her hydro flask during lectures

without alcohol, she suffers terrible withdraws and those turn her into a completely different person

noBoDy KnoWs

or if they do, they don’t realize the extent of it! just how bad it is! ‘cos she’s a big ol’ faker

she’s fine it’s FINE

personality

i actually have...traits i’ve written for her

positive traits:

kindhearted, optimistic, energetic, dreamy, charismatic, intelligent (to...a degree, lmao), active, charismatic, sympathetic, amiable

negative traits:

naive, dumb (to...a degree, double lmao), self-destructive, spiteful, stubborn, defensive, inattentive, unstable, loud, reckless

but ANYWAYS

if she wants to do smth, she’ll do it

there’s no way to talk her outta whatever she has set in her mind, even if it’s fucking STUPID

‘cos she’s stupid and we love her for it

uuuUuUuUuUUUUhh

she’s a vegetarian, loves animals too much 2 do it

has adhd but she’s not medicated ‘cos her parents suck n young girls r always severely under diagnosed ‘cos doctors also suck

she’s allergic to cats, pumpkins, and penicillin

loves cats

she does her own stick n’ pokes, n will do ur stick n’ pokes if u ask. Loves doin ‘em, but she can’t draw for shit LMAO

however ! she does play three instruments:

piano, violin, n bass guitar

hates piano w/ a burning passion ‘cos she was p much forced to learn. thinks violin is lit as fuck. bass guitar? her fav thing ever. did it as an act of rebellion.

also, even tho she’s just....a whole ass dumbass, she knows like...four languages

yes including english

anyways she knows uUUuUH french, spanish, n latin (for funsies)

is also learning mandarin, german, n irish gaelic (for funsies)

is a big language slut, essentially

and a uh...slut in general

like she just rly loves everybody

she’s SUPER friendly, super confident, like...the best gal to know, ‘cos she’s got sm energy n if u don’t talk a lot ? that’s fine ! she’ll talk for u ! even if u don’t ask her to !

but yes she’s not like EASY but she’s easy

she’s had a few short-term relationships and even fewer long-term relationships

and she doesn’t ! have commitment issues !

doesn’t like getting hurt but also ! she will fall in love w/ anybody !

(i’m kidding every time i’ve ever played her in all my years she’s always, always attracted to like...grumpy tough ppl. that’s her type. do u sell drugs? she loves u. do u get into pointless fights and have constantly bruised knuckles? she loves u. did u sell ur soul to the devil? oh, she rly does love u.)

actually thinks rly low of herself but would NEVER let ANYBODY know that ‘cos god forbid

just keep smilin’ :)

probably uses finger guns

skateboards into EVERYTHING she’s fucking CLUMSY and stupid

will wear gucci on top of her thrift finds (stop going to goodwill if ur nearly a billionaire u dumbass)

that being said she’s not always........aware? she’s not shallow but she’s kind of just...she’ll throw her money at u if u can’t afford smth, and like...doesn’t know how taxes work? and also...doesn’t know how poor ppl go on living?

like she’s highly dependent on her money

she has three fucking cars ‘cos she just thought they were PRETTY

one’s a pick up truck w/ LED lights, one’s the literal car from the princess diaries, and the other’s just a real fast sports car

totally does illegal street racing but ? only sometimes ? mostly for funsies rly doesn’t care abt money at all LMAO

she’s...not very independent

she’s got an addictive personality, y’see?

does MANY drugs, like mdma (ecstasy? molly?), coke, shrooms, acid, the marijuanas. i think that’s it.

a lil bit of a cokehead but only at parties okay uwu

idk how but she always manages to be laidback and yet also super energized at the same time. she just truly, does not give a single shit

also i said she was dumb earlier and like...TRUE

excels at english, history, etc. etc.

but as soon as math or science is involved? fart noise

bad shit

hate it

she can’t focus on shit she doesn’t like so like...that doesn’t help

in other news, she can be best described as a DRUNK TINKERBELL

as she was originally a pixie. it’s suiting

she’s ... almost ethereal

will tease u. will act like she’s known u for years. this is normal for saige.

she’s just rly BUBBLY and FUN okay ! pls love her

like pretty please

she’s my best muse by far and i’ve been rping since 2010

OH okay so like fun fact: her mother still sends her pieces that she hasn’t released yet so saige’s closet is filled w/ clothes she will nvr wear ‘cos she refuses to in order to Spite her Mother

also will GIVE these EXCLUSIVE UNreleased articles of clothing to her FRIENDS as GIFTS as a big FUCK U to the MAN (mom)

she’s just a dumbass

wanted connections

ok so gimme a blackmailer who knows abt saige’s like...issues, n instead of tryn to help her they use it to their advantage to get whatever they want from her :^)

also a TUTOR ‘cos she’s stupid in math n science

party pals like do i even have to explain

childhood friend(s) or like...acquaintances ?? she’s traveled for so long

da PLUG gimme her DEALER

ex boyfriend(s) - she loves ppl, sometimes too much. were they in love? maybe not. did she get bored? did he? who knows?

i mean same applies to girlfriends

just ?? a dude who has completely caught her attention. saige finds him SO INTERESTING for some fucking reason. reminds her of travelling, reminds her of her years of exploring. reminds her of a lotta things, rly. he might b a good person. or ! he might not !

random hookups - past ? present ? fwbs ? one night stands ? i’ll take them all !

best friend - y’know. her ride or die. celeste. i mean there can b another, but celeste. try n compete w/ celeste.

other close friends!

fake friends!

frenemies!

(also am a big slut for the on-and-off relationships where theyre both horrible for each other n it’s not.. Good , but they can’t stop ! they won’t stop ! it’s not abusive but it’s toxic just ‘cos they’re both fucking enablers smh breaking up n getting back together all the time)

bad influence ? good influence ?

roommates ??

#uclas:intro #i hope this formats right on mobile lmao #anyways gimme a like n i’ll hit u up #eventually

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curufins-smile · 7 years

Text

I never thought it would come to this

But I’ve reached Peak Irritation so here we go.

Feanor’s treatment in this fandom is frankly unfair and I’m sick of it. No other character gets so consistently called “crazy” and is derided so much. Feanor and most of his sons are often treated worse than Sauron and Melkor and I don’t understand at all. So I’m going to address some of the key misunderstandings i see all the time here. No references, i wrote this at work, if I’m wrong on anything please forgive me and correct me. Also I’m really very angry about some of the things I’ve seen recently so forgive the super confrontational language.

I’d just like to state a disclaimer.

I am not saying Feanor did nothing wrong. I am not minimising his misdeeds. I am addressing character issues that are frequently mishandled or overlooked.

1) Feanor is a bad father.

First, I don’t accept amrod dying at losgar as canon as it isn’t in the actual silm so don’t start about that. Secondly, why on earth would his sons have immediately sworn the oath if he was a bad dad?? I wouldn’t instantly swear a life binding oath for my dad and i love him very much. All quotes in regards to feanor and his sons describe a relationship where he cares for them a great deal and they him, with them travelling Valinor. I just can’t really understand how this hc has propagated because all evidence is to the contrary.

2) Feanor was awful to his stepmother

This is a sticky one as I am not denying that this is a two sided issue. Feanor was certainly not the best stepson/brother. But I feel here that there’s a wilful lack of empathy that goes on. If going with the timeline where feanor is an adult when Finwe remarries this is a different argument. However a lot of the fandom goes with the timeline where Feanor is still a kid (and this is my personal timeline so let’s argue that).

Real life families struggle with divorce and grief. A divorce or bereavement can often create issues for someone struggling with the loss. There is a reason that grief counselling exists and is often heavily recommended if someone is grieving so strongly. Magnify this by the fact that Finwe and Feanor are the only family in Valinor to even have this problem, and there likely being no one who can empathise with their pain, and you have them unable to even get help if they wanted it.

This is also two sided. Indis is the adult in this situation. Please don’t accuse me of hating on her, because i think it’s a very difficult situation for her. But as the adult, she’s capable of more rational thought than Feanor, and she should have assured him that she wasn’t attempting to replace Miriel.

Also, Indis is literally the reason Miriel can never return from death. You can argue that Feanor should be hating Finwe instead, but Finwe has been raising Feanor alone for pretty much his entire life, and Feanor *can’t* hate him. So Indis bears the brunt of it, which isn’t fair on her but nothing about this situation is fair.

3) The thing about the Þ

As someone who has had their name mispronounced their entire life, that shit fucking sucks. Also please i beg you stop calling it a lisp. I’ve got a damn lisp and it took a lot of work to get over so can we not make fun of that shit. I don’t have any nuanced arguments about linguistic shift, I’m just sick of people making fun of my speech impediment and my wish to have my name said fucking right thanks.

4) Feanor was hysterical and irrational in his feud with Fingolfin

No hate to Fingolfin but. He literally was spreading shit. There were two sides to the feud. Fingolfin handled it much better than Feanor, but Melkor was whispering in his ear probably more than he was to Feanor even. I’m not saying that Feanor didn’t overreact, but let’s not pretend Fingolfin was a perfect saint because you’re actually removing a lot of the agency from his character. Fingolfin genuinely was talking shit about Feanor and angling for the throne. It wasn’t just Feanor deciding one day to threaten his innocent brother. Was Losgar too paranoid? Yes. But one promise from Fingolfin that they’re besties now isn’t going to magically remove that feud mistrust.

5) Feanor was wrong to refuse the Valar the silmarils

No. This is bullshit. As someone whose work relies on materials manufactured by someone else this is legitimately a huge peeve for me. This is like DMC laying claim to all my cross stitch because they made the threads. It’s ridiculous.

Was Feanor wrong to refuse them when the trees had been destroyed? I think personally it’s a moot point as they were already stolen by then. But let’s look at the situation Feanor is in here.

He’s at a party he was ORDERED to go to. He’s been banished due to manwe interfering where he frankly shouldn’t have, and then made to go to this event. The valar have a history with the silmarils (I can’t imagine feanor actually being too pleased about Varda hallowing them). If i were put into this situation I’m fairly certain I’d tell them to get fucked too.

6) Feanor was crazy and took his people to war over shiny rocks

I am sick of seeing people calling Feanor crazy and then seeing their blogs full of “your mental illness is valid uwu” stuff. You don’t get to do both. Feanor suffers some kind of mental break due to his grief over his father. His actions before and his actions after Finwe’s death are two totally separate things. Feanor partly wants after Melkor for the silmarils of course but what is often forgotten is that he wants revenge for Finwe. Finwe is possibly the person Feanor loves most in the world, every single line of text about their relationship describes Feanor as loving him more than the trees or “the peerless works of his hand”, so more than the silmarils. Finwe is gone, and Feanor is now having to deal with that loss, and as said above historically grief has not been well handled among the elves. There’s no time for counselling if there even were such facilities so Feanor again has to work through it himself. Which he clearly can’t.

I am not stating Feanor is “broken” or what he did was not wrong.

There is absolutely no shame in needing help to get through mental illness or difficult periods. And mental illness such as depression (which i have so don’t start at me) is no excuse for the first kinslaying etc. I am just attempting to provide a more nuanced view about this since i so frequently see people just assigning it as Feanor “being crazy”. He’s grieving.

I’m going to leave off here because otherwise I could rant for days. The point here is not that I am trying to say Feanor did nothing wrong. I like my characters nuanced and I don’t think that can be done by erasing their misdeeds. But I just want to address a lot of the things I’ve been seeing because it’s really irritating to me that Feanor is being criticised for things exclusively when there were many factors.

If you want to shout at me about this please don’t, 90% of the fandom thinks the way you do. I wrote this to vent steam.

#feanor #tolkien #silmarillion #text #long post #sorry if readmore doesn’t work i wrote this on mobile #not cross stitch #fandom wank #the Discourse

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defineguilty · 6 years

Text

FULL CHARACTER INFO SHEET

BASIC INFORMATION

♛┋FULL NAME: Neal George Caffrey ♛┋NICKNAME(S): Do aliases count as nicknames? ♛┋OCCUPATION: FBI Consultant / Former Con-Artist ♛┋AGE: 32+ depending on verse ♛┋DATE OF BIRTH: March 21st ♛┋GENDER: cis male ♛┋PRONOUNS: he/him ♛┋ORIENTATION: bisexual biromantic ♛┋NATIONALITY: american ♛┋ETHNICITY: white ♛┋RELIGION: catholic, but not really practicing actively

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

♛┋FACE CLAIM: Matt Bomer ♛┋EYE COLOUR: blue ♛┋HAIR COLOUR: brown ♛┋DOMINANT HAND: right ♛┋HEIGHT: 5' 11½" // 182cm ♛┋BUILD: athletic ♛┋TATTOOS: none ♛┋SCARS: none to speak of ♛┋PIERCINGS: none ♛┋GLASSES: occasionally when undercover/under an alias, but he has perfect vision ♛┋STYLE: Sophisticated & elegant. He very rarely leaves the house without a suit, often accessorizing with a hat. Usually somewhat vintage, but styled on the modern side. The most casual he usually goes is suit pants with a T-shirt or sweater.

FAMILY

♛┋PARENT #1: James Bennett (father) ♛┋PARENT #2: Angela Caffrey-Bennett (mother) ♛┋SIBLING(S): n/a ♛┋CHILDREN: n/a ♛┋PET(S): n/a ♛┋RELATIONSHIP WITH PARENTS: Non-existent. His father was a corrupt cop who killed a fellow cop and was arrested for it. Until his 18th birthday, Neal was led to believe his dad was a hero who died on the job and knowing the truth about his definitely messed up his entire world view. Add to that the fact that James tried to use Neal to get off after running from authorities for a murder he did commit and Neal certainly has all of the daddy issues. His mother, Neal feels less strong dislike and anger for. She was never a very stable presence in his life and the arrest of his father didn’t exactly help her. Instability and substance abuse made her a rather unfit mother and even though Neal would never say she was bad to him, Ellen was always the only real mother-figure he had. He hasn’t talked to his mother since he was eighteen and she hasn’t reached out either. ♛┋RELATIONSHIP WITH SIBLING(S): n/a

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

♛┋HOMETOWN: St. Louis, Missouri ♛┋CURRENT: New York City, New York ♛┋LANGUAGE(S): English, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, French, German, conversational Italian & Swahili ♛┋SOCIAL CLASS: middle class ♛┋DEGREE: three MBAs and two doctorate degrees but... none of them legit. (in reality, Neal never graduated High School) ♛┋RAP SHEET? bond forgery (at least that’s the only thing they caught him on) ♛┋PRISON TIME? 4 years for bond forgery, another 4 years after breaking out of prison just before his sentence was up -- to be served as a consultant for the FBI

PSYCHOLOGY INFORMATION

♛┋JUNG TYPE: ESTP ♛┋ENNEATYPE: Type 3 -- The Achiever: Focused on the presentation of success, to attain validation & 7w8 ( Type 7 -- The Enthusiast: Pleasure seekers and planners, in search of distraction & Type 8 -- The Challenger: Taking charge, because they don't want to be controlled) ♛┋MORAL ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Neutral / Chaotic Good ♛┋TEMPERAMENT: Sanguine ♛┋SCHEMA: Insufficient self-control (very strong). Other contenders include Unrelenting standards, Emotional inhibation, Abandonment and Entitlement hahaaa ♛┋INTELLIGENCE TYPE: Linguistic & Visual are at the same score. Interpersonal is second place. ♛┋NEUROTYPE: Neurotypical

PERSONALITY DETAILS

♛┋POSITIVE: charming, witty, inventive, creative, intelligent ♛┋NEGATIVE: sly, dishonest, distrusting, guarded, detached ♛┋DREAMS/AMBITIONS: Neal’s main goal is always a sense of fun and adventure. he doesn’t have a set end-goal either way -- not the white picket fence life, but also not the life of the fancy villa in some country that doesn’t extradite as some sort of crime lord. He likes the thrill of a con, so if he can make it happen, keeping that alive is what he cares about most. ♛┋FEARS: Among is main fears is definitely turning out like his father. Having idolized him for so many years before he knew who he really was and then seeing a few similarities between them after all really does scare him. He’s aware he’s far from the most honest person alive, but he likes to believe he would never turn to murder or betraying his own closest family and friends the way his father did.

RELATIONSHIPS / SEX

♛┋RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Verse dependent ♛┋PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIPS: Several ambivalent on-off relationships (see Alex Hunter), plenty of casual affairs and only a few more serious relationships. The first big one being with Kate which, obviously, was something he was incredibly serious and passionate about. Also the only relationship to date he was so open about and had no shame admitting he’s deeply in love and would do anything for her. The only other (canon) relationship, although also without labels attached, was with Sara which remains his most healthy relationship, though it was foiled by circumstance and perhaps, just Neal’s inability of honesty at the time. ♛┋LEVEL OF SEXUAL EXPERIENCE: high ♛┋STORY OF FIRST KISS: Technically, it happened in the third grade after he drew a girl in his class a nice picture and they then proceeded to date for three weeks, which really just consisted of them holding hands twice, Neal drawing more pictures and that one first kiss at recess. Showed Brittney Nicole too -- his tooth gap clearly wasn’t that bad. ♛┋STORY OF FIRST TIME: Neal had just turned 17 and at the time, had his first more serious girlfriend. They’d been dating for a few months at the time and it happened after a night of plenty of shenanigans on a random Saturday. For Neal, sneaking out was never an issue anyway since parental supervision wasn’t exactly a thing, so no sneaking had to take place, and she’d told her parents she was staying at a friend’s place. Originally, they’d planned to just do whatever they felt like, something they both enjoyed very much (usually that meant Neal rigging the games at a local Arcade and winning her a bunch of stuffed animals or them hanging out at his favorite pool hall where he’d regularly earn a little extra by making some older guys who underestimated him play for money) but that night, they decided to up the stakes a little. They stopped by a second-hand store in town, bought complete outfits (suit and a cocktail dress, respectively) and then proceeded to drive to one of the fancier hotels in town. Somehow, they convinced the guy at the reception that they were relatives of the owner and should have been announced. They ended up getting one of the nicer rooms in the hotel for the night (and, for free!) and the exhilaration of the con pulled off well led to both of their first time.

VICES / HABITS

♛┋SMOKES? No (unless it’s part of a cover) ♛┋DRINKS? Yes, but preferably something respectable and only for taste and enjoyment, not specifically to get drunk ♛┋DOES DRUGS? No ♛┋IS VIOLENT? No ♛┋HAS AN ADDICTION? Well, technically he did say that a con is an addiction and that he hasn’t kicked it yet, so. That. ♛┋IS SELF-DESTRUCTIVE? Yes. I think while he comes off very confident and considers himself very confident too, there’s a couple things he just doesn’t believe will happen in his life for him. Among those are stable relationships, so he can sometimes subconsciously be destructive towards those and therefore proof his belief-system. ♛┋HABITS: He likes to have something to do with his hands, especially when he’s nervous. Be it throwing something and catching it again, or just twirling a pen between his fingers. ♛┋HOBBIES: Art, Reading, Cooking, Languages ♛┋OBSESSION(S): Depends on what’s currently important. Kate and the music box definitely developed into a sort of obsession at the time. I think in general, when intense things come up, especially when they threaten his loved ones, Neal has the tendency to get obsessive about them and let those things take over his life (or at least his private life) for the time being.

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION

♛┋HOUSE: Raveclaw, though a serious contestant for Slytherin ♛┋VICE: Pride ♛┋VIRTUE: Willingness to do almost everything to protect/help those he cares about ♛┋ELEMENT: Air ♛┋MYTHOLOGICAL CREATURE: Siren or Centaur ♛┋ANIMAL: Fox ♛┋WOULD SURVIVE POST-APOC? Probably not. He’s very smart and would probably find a way to survive for a little while by somehow securing food and the like, but he has practically no combat skills and the second he needs to fight for his life, he would die ♛┋SONG TO DESCRIBE THEM?: Alibis by Marianas Trench

DETAILS / QUIRKS

♛┋PET PEEVES: All of the pet peeves. For someone with an affinity for the illegal, a lot of little things really annoy him. Some examples: the toilet seat being left up, gum on the sidewalk, people eating very fragrant food in confined spaces just to name a few ♛┋NIGHT OWL OR EARLY BIRD?: Night owl ♛┋LIGHT OR HEAVY SLEEPER?: More on the heavy side ♛┋FAVORITE FOOD?: He couldn’t pick. But he does have a real soft spot for cheese. Also risotto. ♛┋LEAST FAVORITE FOOD?: Deviled ham ♛┋FAVORITE DRINK?: Red Wine ♛┋FAVORITE BOOK (GENRE)?: Non-fiction for genre. I don’t think he has a single favorite book though. ♛┋FAVORITE MOVIE?: He likes classic Hollywood movies, ngl. Sunset Boulevard is among one of his favorites. Romantic movies, in general. ♛┋LEAST FAVORITE MOVIE?: Anything super action-heavy or overly crude. ♛┋FAVORITE PLACE TO BE?: Not in jail is a great start. France, though, if he could have his choice. ♛┋COFFEE OR TEA?: Coffee. ♛┋FAVORITE COLOR?: Navy blue. ♛┋CUSSER? No. Shit is probably the worst thing he’ll say

#hi i was bored and wanted to do things #┊ ♔ to be an artist you must know who you are 【 CHARACTER STUDIES 】#long post

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yourdlmatchmaker · 6 years

Text

I think this one is the longest match up I’ve answered so far… :’)

“Hello there, this looked fun. Could I have a long match-up please?

1. Physical appearance: 5'4" (163cm) 100lbs (45kg) very long dark reddish brown hair, dark brown eyes, olive skin (Mix of Thai, English and German) My look has been compared to a scaled down (in height) fashion model – that is long legs, very skinny, high somewhat hollow cheek bones, narrow face and a high forehead with almost no bust to speak of and a teeny tiny waist, I don’t know if that’s good or bad.

2. Personality: Oh my, where do I begin? Well, I’m definitely an extreme introvert. People usually seem to think I come across as very professional and aloof. I try to be kind and courteous to everyone I meet, but if they do or say anything that bothers me I can be a little prickly and sometimes downright vicious. Little do they know though that I’m like that, because I’m terribly shy around strangers and have a very strong desire to make people happy and protect them. I fear getting close to others, because I don’t want to hurt or be hurt and have a very hard time finding people I can bond with in both an intellectual and emotional way, so I hide behind distance and politeness. Just because I’m shy at first though, doesn’t mean I won’t be a chatterbox once you get to know me though. Once I’m comfortable with you I’ll share (almost) all of my ideas, random musings and gripes, if I think you’ll be receptive towards it anyways. That takes a very long time though and so far only two people have gotten to that point with me. For people that I’m friends with normally I tend to act in a sort of motherly way, giving them advice and helping them with their problems – sometimes admittingly to my own detriment. As well as taking care of them when they are sick or having emotional issues. I don’t like to help people, but on some level I feel like I must do so especially if I know them.

I’m normally a very logical person, so much so that I will occasionally say the wrong thing or offer ideas or advice when it’s not what the other person is looking for, which I realize after the fact but because I really like to just ‘fix’ things I have a hard time understanding that sometimes people need to emotionally vent, and I often just get confused by it. I’ll try to “be there” for them despite that but it is still difficult.

Despite my size and shy disposition I’m actually extremely hard to intimidate and will stand up for myself and other people very quickly. It doesn’t matter who my opponent is or how big, strong or powerful they are, I will stand my ground possibly to the end if I believe in my cause strongly enough (though because of my protective nature it is very easy to make me back down by threatening other people). No matter how many feminine things there are that I love, for some reason I always feel like I end up coming across as a bit too masculine and I often feel a bit more male than female. This isn’t necessarily out of a desire to be male, but rather I feel like I have more masculine than feminine qualities and also feel like I am sadly bereft in the supposedly more girlish personality traits of my sex. Despite this though I have no real desire to change my personality or sex, I am who I am after all. Nevertheless I remind people more of their brothers and sons, and my tiny social circle is all boys (at the moment.)

3. Scorpio (Sun), Gemini (Moon), Gemini (Rising) (The last two are important because despite having almost all of the Scorpio traits, once you get to know me I never shut up. ^_^;)

4. Hobbies/Interests: Drawings, painting (I like both fine art and illustration and can work in several different mediums – acrylic, watercolour, marker, ink and even digital art. Fantasy art, Surrealism, Manga and Impressionism are examples of styles I can do, and I’m still working towards improving my hyperrealist style.) I’ve been obsessed with making art since I was a very small child and at this point it’s really become my life’s work. I dedicate so much of my time, energy and resources to this that I forget to eat or sleep and become a bit of a shut-in. Reading: (Most of my books are non-fiction, though I do enjoy some older fiction on occasion – The Silmarillion, The Great God Pan and pretty much anything by H.P. Lovecraft being some examples. My library contains field guides, books on botany, mycology, medicine, artbooks, anatomy, geography, geology, microbiology, mythology, occult/witchcraft, religion, linguistics, phrasebooks, particle physics, cartography, calligraphy, history, psychology, genetics (…probably a lot more but we’ll be here for far too long.) Gardening: I love growing all sorts of things, but especially herbs and flowers. My living area is full of plants of many different kinds and I devote a significant portion of my time and energy to them. I also like to grow tropical plants from the seeds of fruit that I buy at the grocery store. Manga and Anime: I don’t seem immediately like the sort of person who would love popular culture, but the fact that I can enjoy some fun stories while reading or watching in a language that is not my native tongue has always been the main motivation behind this obsession. I’m also madly in love with cute things and ink drawings. Video Games: Another thing people probably wouldn’t expect by looking at me but… I have a HUGE collection of games (on my computer) of many different kinds. Like with anything else I do, I have to play everything in it’s original language (it’s more fun and respects the artistic integrity more.) I mostly like JRPGs and Visual Novels now, but I used to love Sierra games when I was younger, and some FPS like Doom. There is no type of game I won’t play. Though gaming is generally the lowest thing on my list of priorities these days. Cooking: I like to cook, can can do many different styles. Mostly Thai, but also frequently Japanese (both traditional and modern), Italian, German, English etc. I can cook pretty much anything though I don’t like baking as much. (I’m not super fond of sweets, except on the rare occasion when I must have them.) Fashion and Makeup: I am completely unable to leave the house without makeup and sunscreen and always have to make sure my clothing is at least presentable and neat. I actually enjoy applying makeup and like experimenting with it (I hate doing my hair though, the length is too much so I usually bun or ponytail it.) I also like a few Jfashions, Mori-Girl, Otome-kei and Classical Lolita especially. Unfortunately I’m also a very active person so I usually end up dressing in a more Korean style instead (tight high-waisted jeans, long sleeved tight black shirts and heeled boots – is running in heels a skill? XD), but when it’s practical to do so I love wearing the frilliest dresses I can find with a very poofy petticoat, a bonnet and floral designs. Hiking: I like to forage in the forest for mushrooms and plants when I can. I find that the fresh air and beautiful scenery calms me down and energizes me. Studying Languages: I haven’t had as much time for this lately, but it’s a side hobby. Unfortunately Japanese is the only one I’ve gotten particularly far in… (There are not enough hours in the day or night.)

5. I like: Tea (Especially Earl Grey, must be high quality or I get a stomach ache… yeah I know, its true. @_@), coffee (espresso in lattes or specialty black coffee made in a French Press, no drip :P), Self discipline, Quiet time, Nature, Music (all kinds, though especially symphonic metal), WalkingI love: My cats (though I get along quite well with all felinekind and animals in general (save humans :P), Plants (I mean every kind of plant, though trees and flowers stick out a bit), Fungi (even molds, though not when they’re growing on my food), Beautiful things, Art Supplies, Bright and pastel colours, Antiques, Books, Art, Paintings, Illustration, Shopping for art suppliesI dislike: When people look untidy, Foul smells, People that bore me, Small talk, Sloth, Loud noises, Erratic behavior, Selfishness, People who act overtly friendly and try to get close to you too fastI loathe: Cruelty (especially towards animals and children), Cowardice, Deliberate ignorance, People who complain a lot, Irresponsibility

6. I was unable to bond with my sole caregiver due to extreme child abuse and neglect on their part, In addition to that I was not allowed to attend school until my teenage years (I was educated very strictly at home, supposedly because I was too advanced to fit in at school – though it might also have been to keep me prisoner at home all the time. >_<). Due to this I have had a very hard time fitting in with society as my childhood was mostly spent alone, reading, drawing, playing computer games, spending time with the cats that I lived with and going out into nature (I made friends with a couple of squirrels.) Much of what I knew about people and the world was gleaned from books, magazines and the internet – although I was allowed to associate with a few family friends on occasion. I did have a very good intellectual education (though often held to impossible standards), but because I was so cut off from more normal ways of socializing I still have a very hard time relating to other people.“Relationship-wise” I’m umm… actually extremely submissive in private (^_^;) (Not something most people would expect as I seem very proud and dominant normally). I’m also very easy to embarrass as I’m not very comfortable talking directly about certain sorts of… umm… “romantic” things and avoid almost all forms of public affection. Above all else I look for people who can understand and relate to me via interests and experiences and who I can also relate to in the same way. Probably the same thing most people look for… but figured I should mention it. Would rather not be paired up with Ruki, I have a huge personal grudge against him that dates back to More Blood – and a part of me still plots his doom. (I apologize deeply to all the Ruki fans though.)

Hope this wasn’t too long, I feel a bit silly. (^_^;)

Take your time and have fun with this.

Could I please be anonymous?”

Admin Abi: Oh my~ what a long and detailed match up!! I really enjoyed reading it and I NEED to say that I felt identified with many parts!! Well~ I hope you get to see it “anon-chan” ;D and I thank you for the long wait. Long reply for a long match!

*finishing your match up*

Your romantic match is…

Reiji!

I must say/confess…I seriously I thought I was reading Reiji’s female description! I don’t intend to offend you and I apologize if I did. But you see…I want to explain myself a little more as to why I said it…

I'll tell you how you two met! After some time that you were studying in a school, you just wasn’t able to fit. Your parents then decided to change you into a more private school. They even changed you into a night-time school. During that time of the day, they thought you would be able to fit more since there would be less students as well as to keep your high level of education. They sing you up to this school and to be honest you weren’t very sure or excited about it. It would mean to adapt one more time and start all over again. Adapting to the time, education system and…met new people once again. On your first day you had a hard time finding your classroom…you were lost and let’s say you didn’t know exactly how you ended up in the chemistry laboratory. You knocked and…a handsome and elegant man opened. He seemed somehow annoyed, but he asked you what is that you wanted. You showed him your schedule and asked him where you could find your class. He gave you the directions and you thank him. This encounters seem to happen constantly since you seemed to always cross paths. He was always polite (and annoyed) and gave you instructions whenever you needed. One time you asked a girl of your class if she knew him so you could thank him properly for all his help. She was surprised and told you that he was no other that Reiji Sakamaki, the most popular family in school. She was more surprised that you get to be in good terms with the second eldest of the brothers.

“Reiji is well known to be the perfect gentleman…but he is unrechable. He’s cold towards everyone and thinks of himself above all. No one has see him dating any girl and he just closes himself in the chemistry laboratory, yet he is the top student in school. I really think you shouldn’t try to catch him, you’ll end up rejected” the girl told you. It’s not like you had those intentions with him in the first place, you just wanted to thank him. The next day you went to his class and simply left him a small note telling him how greatful you were. He was impressed? You couldn’t tell to be honest. You kept having encounters with him, you discovered that he was a little more open when you both were alone. He showed you his perfectionist nature as his sadist part. Yet…you seem to be unavoidable attracted to him. You of course were polite and a lady at first and that gave you extra points! He never confessed to you directly? He just simply let know that you now belong to him~.

He can’t believe how many things you both have in common. Just like you Reiji has an interest in botanics and science. You both have created a small garden with all types of herbs and a small section with flowers. You two sometimes have disagreements since you both are very logical, so you tend to discuss about some things. There were times in which you had troubles with him since he can’t stand being told what he should do (I mean it wasn’t your intention to offend him…you just tried giving him some advice!). Yet…even Reiji had it difficult to make you afraid…you were so difficult to intimidate, how you do it?.

He also had some troubles accepting or at least trying not to change you that much about your preferences. He sometimes have problems dealing with your more masculine nature…but well no one is 100% perfect. He sighs loudly and you know that you are doing something that is bothering him. He also doesn’t like that you tend to hang more with men that girls, yet he knows that even though you are nice and such with them…no one could provide you with the things he offers for you like a deep connection both mental and emotional. He also don’t mind the fact that you have social problems…I mean he manages to keep you with him almost all the time. He’s pleased whenever you dress like a lday or all cute just for him…it makes him feel good with the fact that he gets to know you better than anyone.

He understands what is like to grow alone and being force (in a way) to always give your best and being the best. He felt like he needed to have you all by himself and you fekt the same. You had someone to care for (well not literally but as a target to your attentions and love) and so has he. He always take care of you no matter the circunstances, he has found you and has no intention to let you go…never!

Your dates are mostly staying at his room, having a nice cup of Earl Grey tea (of the highest quality, who you think he is?) and discussing for hours about deep and serious topics. He enjoys your vast knowledge in literature, sciences, botanics, medice, linguistics, witchcraft (which he also has used), gentics…man, he can talk to you for hours and just like you said there are times you both wished the day had more hours to keep going. Even your drawings, pieces of art and knowledge in general never cease to stop to amaze him (he won’t admit it though…his biggest attempt to praise you, would be telling you “you did a good job” or “Indeed you are right about this”). Your interests are so vast that is incredible to make you both stop (Reiji is the one that always stops the conversation in order to go to sleep). Reiji sometimes have problems with your huge invest of time in your video games…but he accepts that a break once in a while is important. You small walks also doesn’t bother him that much…he has one of his familiars keeping an eye on you at all moments so he doesn’t have to worry and can concetrate on his chores and experiments in peace.

Reiji is a true gentleman: he always remembers the important dates, the things that you like and those you don’t. I can tell you that he knows perfectly that you are rather new when it comes with romantic things, so he doens’t push you into hand holding or kissing since he, himself, doesn’t like it. Your submissive nature with his dominant one makes a great combination, he feels so proud that he gets to see your true nature…and that you show it just for him…not just in a “pervert way”, but also as the chatty and even your akwardness. Because that true self with imperfections and all…is what makes you perfect to his eyes. You are so perfect together: YOU TWO HAVE SO MANY THINGS IN COMMON THAT HE SHOULD THANK HEAVENS FOR SENDING HIM SOMEONE AS PERFECT FOR HIM AS YOU!!

I hope you liked it and that I made sense? I feel that in some parts I wasn’t very clear or…maybe that was just my imagination…?

Either way hope you get to see it and like it of course…and thank you for your patience again!!

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elbowgreaserp · 6 years

Photo

One thing I love about us is our unparalleled lack of self control, well. That and our love for garbage shows, but hey. I love you, and am grossly excited and stoked to see how long these two last, you know, cause reasons. DEREK HALE and SCOTT MCCALL, ACCEPTED!

OOC INFORMATION

NAME, AGE, TIMEZONE: Amparo, 26, PST.

ACTIVITY LEVEL: 6+ what up.

TRIGGER ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Yeah, man. ITS WHY I’M HERE. (lmfao, Paro ffs, ily.)

ACTIVITY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: I got u, fam. AND HALLELUH I FIXED MY POSSESSED KEYBOARD (well finally disabled it for good bless)

NOTES: I came here to have a good time and I feel attacked rn.

IC INFORMATION - DEREK HALE

NAME, AGE, SEXUALITY: Derek Hale, 23, bisexual.

FANDOM: Teen Wolf ;/

HOMETOWN: Beacon Hills, CA.

CLUBS, ORGANIZATIONS, OTHER: boxing club, baseball, alpha sigma phi, outdoor club, american society of mechnical engineers, anthropology club, fish camp, arrow in arrow, ping pong club, basketball team, shooting sports club, street society, the climbing team.

CLUBS, ORGANIZATIONS, OTHER CREATION:

alpha sigma phi: Alpha Sigma Phi is social fraternity on campus here to Better the Man, enrich brotherhood, and promote character and leadership through charitable and school events.

outdoor club: The mission of the UCCS Outdoor club will be to engage students in the outdoor industry and activities available in Colorado and beyond. Our vision is to provide students with access and education necessary to engage in the abundance of Outdoor activities that Colorado is known for.

american society of mechanical engineers: The American Society of Mechanical Engineers fosters interest in mechanical engineering through competitions, tours and activities.

anthropology club: UCCS Anthropology Club is an organization for those who are interested in the study of humankind, past and present. We encourage members and our fellow peers to learn about, be tolerant of, and embrace different cultures, languages, and diversity around them. The goal is for our club to get involved and be active within UCCS, alongside Anthropology professionals and students regionally, as well as the community, learn and develop within the field of Anthropology, and become more well-rounded citizens.

fish camp: Colorado is known for one of the best fly fishing in the US. Our mission is to educate student of the culture of fly fishing. We would like to share the importance of conservation, and patience through fly fishing. Fly fishing does not only involve fishing. It involves hiking, watching the water, learning about the water system in the area, etc.

arrow-in-arrow: It is our mission to build a sustainable competitive Archery club program at UCCS to allow the students that practice the sport of Archery to continue their growth and compete at the collegiate level. It is our vision to have a club that has both active student athletes and coaches to guide the athletes in their development. The purpose of this organization is to provide opportunities for campus students and community members to be informed and participate in the sport of archery.

ping pong club: The purpose of Ping Pong Club is to foster good sportsmanship, interest in and expansion of the sport of table tennis, increase the knowledge and skills of the members, and awareness of the spirit and its benefits to the community. Our vision is to enable players to bring forward their skills in the sport and be able to play against other players with similar skill levels and interest levels. Our goals are to compete regionally with other schools in the area and perhaps go to the state level competitions.

shooting sports club: To teach and inform students about basic firearm safety and handling, and to teach the fundamentals of scholastic competitive shooting. To dispel common misunderstandings and fear of firearms. To gather like minded shooting enthusiasts and represent UCCS in local and state shooting competitions.

street society: Street Society is a club for fellow automotive enthusiasts at UCCS, motorcycles included. Our mission is to bring together enthusiasts to have fun and improve the automotive community. Our vision is to have meets with the students at UCCS with a passion for cars and motorcycles. Our goals are to improve the automotive community, create a connection in the school’s automotive community, relieve student stress through their passion for cars, and provide assistance for automotive repairs for anyone who asks.

the climbing team: We are a group of students (some faculty/employees/friends) of UCCS that love to climb. A large focus of our club is to teach new and semi-experienced climbers how to be safe while climbing.

FIVE POSITIVE TRAITS: selfless, protective, smart, patient, determined.

FIVE NEGATIVE TRAITS: Aggressive, broody, stubborn, cynic, arrogant.

BIGGEST FEARS & PHOBIAS: Losing his younger sister.

SCARIEST EXPERIENCE: Scariest or most heartbreaking ?? But getting pulled out of school to find out most of your family was killed in a freak fire, pretty much tops everything. So does finding out your older sister was murdered. Sorry, Derek. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

DO THEY BELIEVE IN THE GHOSTS/PARANORMAL?: Absolutely not.

ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER WE SHOULD BE AWARE OF?: He’s a postgrad !!

ANY CHANGES TO YOUR CHARACTER THAT SHOULD BE NOTED?: He’s not a werewolf, can u beliebe? Still a sourwolf tho :/

WHY IS YOUR CHARACTER PARTICIPATING IN THE PROJECT?: Scott made him, but also he actually isn’t afraid of manual labor (what? is this a jab at sebastian smythe? derek get dicked) and genuinely likes the outdoors.

IC INFORMATION - SCOTT MCCALL

NAME, AGE, SEXUALITY: Scott McCall, 21, pansexual.

FANDOM: Teen Wolf ;/

HOMETOWN: Beacon Hills, CA.

CLUBS, ORGANIZATIONS, OTHER: super smash bros club, impact, spectrum, active minds, paintball club, mountain lion ultimate frisbee club, acts of kindness, outdoor club, student alliance for gender equality, el circulo de espanol, film club of uccs, uccs pre-health society, catalysts video game club

CLUBS, ORGANIZATIONS, OTHER CREATION:

el circulo de espanol: “El Círculo de Español” has various linguistic, cultural, and community oriented objectives: A. To advocate the usage of the Spanish language. B. To promote a better understanding of the wealth and diversity of the Hispanic culture. C. To participate in community events and activities which promote the Hispanic culture. D. To foster leadership development through the coordination of the aforementioned educational and awareness projects.

paintball club: Paintball Club is the most adrenaline-pumping, exciting club that UCCS has to offer. In conjunction with SGA, members will be able to play paintball for free, with small exemptions. We will play in many areas across town, and will play any game-types and any major paintball variations.

film club of uccs: The Film Club is sponsored by the Visual and Performing Arts Department (VAPA) as an activity that coincides with the undergraduate Film student’s studies but welcomes participation from all students who are interested in film, from all major degree programs.

uccs pre-health society: The UCCS Pre-Health Society is a collective group of students dedicated to pursuing careers in health care. Students interested in becoming doctors, dentists, veterinarians, pharmacists, physical therapists, physician assistants, etc. can find a wealth of knowledge, as well as community and camaraderie among other students.

mountain lion ultimate frisbee: To build a fun and competitive team comprised of a group of individuals that compete at the highest level achievable through determination, practice, and teamwork.

acts of kindness: Acts of Kindness (AOK) The mission of AOK is to help people throughout our wonderful university and town have a better life through selfless acts of kindness! We want to make a lasting effect on people through kindness and encourage them to do the same.

catalysts video game club: Mission Statement: To provide a friendly game environment where people can meet, play, socialize, and ultimately have fun. We play a variety of video game genres, ranging from Fighters to RPGs to Co-op Adventures, and are open to much more.

student alliance for gender equality: The goal of the Student Alliance for Gender Equity is to provide a safe place for all UCCS students to talk about gender topics as well as discuss women’s rights and gender equity.

FIVE POSITIVE TRAITS: humble, natural leader, chivalrous, cheerful, agile.

FIVE NEGATIVE TRAITS: gullible, immature, stubborn, emotionally impulsive, worries easily.

BIGGEST FEARS & PHOBIAS: Losing his mom and friends, failure.

SCARIEST EXPERIENCE: Stumbling on a dead body once, never again. (lol sure, k, sorry about your luck scotty, boi)

DO THEY BELIEVE IN THE GHOSTS/PARANORMAL?: They’re open-minded enough to think maybe, but not without some hardcore proof. (famous last words)

ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER WE SHOULD BE AWARE OF?: Has asthma, but it’s improved since he was younger.

ANY CHANGES TO YOUR CHARACTER THAT SHOULD BE NOTED?: MY SON IS HUMAAAAAAAAAAAAAN. So no true alpha and the boy got that asthma, but it’s not going to hinder him too too much. ;/ (lol you’re an optimist, paro)

WHY IS YOUR CHARACTER PARTICIPATING IN THE PROJECT?: He genuinely thinks it’ll be fun! It’ll be tough, but what better way to spend the summer than with his friends and helping build something cool?

WRITING SAMPLE

it’s been too long, too many unanswered calls and texts. he almost feels bad, he actually might if he didn’t believe in what he’s doing. protecting scott. it’s been his main objective since leaving beacon hills, that and making sure his sister doesn’t get tangled up in one of monroe’s many webs. but thankfully she’s running with a new pack and isn’t alone. he’s not too sure about the priest, but the alpha is willing to do anything to make sure his pack survives. derek lets his hand find scott’s shoulder, squeezing gently before he lets it fall back to his side. an unspoken good to see you too. he casts the alpha a glance at the tone, it’s probably too dark to see, but he knows scott will sense it so he doesn’t let it linger. “ i can leave. ” he WON’T. “ but i thought you could use some help. ”

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

they’re sitting in beacon hills’ only diner in what’s come to be their spot. graduation is fast approaching and it’d almost be a relief, but there’s something holding scott back from celebrating. it’s been two days and he still hasn’t opened up the envelope from uc davis. he doesn’t know if he got in or not and part of him wants to keep it that way. he hadn’t even shown anyone yet, but malia had seen it on his bedside table the night before. she hadn’t said a word, understanding that’s what he needed. merely blinked her eyes before moving in close and they slept peacefully together, touching in the most innocent of ways.

now they were at breakfast together. scott dragged her out of bed in the morning, envelope tucked into his back pocket until he dug it up to put on the table after they ordered. he’s staring at it, heart racing and breathing unsteadily. his own fingers tap anxiously on the surface next to it. the alpha doesn’t stop until her touch is on him and he stills instantly. it’s not out of shock though, they’re long past that stage.

he relaxes because of it. the anxiousness is simmering below, but it’s more manageable. it’s gone completely by the time malia takes his hand. then when she squeezes, scott feels at ease in a way that’s become all too familiar when she’s touching him. besides with her, it’s not something he felt in a long while. he doesn’t want to let go, it’s the last thing he wants, but now he knows he’s ready to read his fate.

his free hand moves to wrap over hers and he squeezes back before pulling them both away. a sigh leaves his lips, regret at the loss of touch, but it’s also to steady himself for what’s to come. picking up the envelope is easy, opening it is even easier. scott starts to read, breath caught in his throat until another sigh leaves his lips. then he’s grinning and leaning into malia, turning his head and it’s almost a nuzzle when he moves it against her shoulder.

what it most definitely is, is a thank you and an i did it, i made it.

#eg scott #eg derek #eg accepted

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amieyhko · 4 years

Text

The Last (for now) Days of Being a Student

29 Oct 2018

Honestly though, my last semester in uni wasn't very studious. I had one course called Sixteenth Century English Literature in which the professor basically mocked all forms of religion and pointed out all the sexy details in Shakespeare's sonnets. For the final exam, which was three essays long, I wrote one very indignant essay about why I needed more women in literature and how all of the supposedly feminist writers in the sixteenth century were full of *$#% (but in a literary chic way). I got an A.

To top off the not-student like behavior, I TA-ed for my advisor's Freshmen English class. I survived a semester before and couldn't be prouder of myself for the job I was doing. It was mostly writing emails to students, making photocopies now and then, and sending reminders to the professor. The most excruciating part probably was correcting their essays' grammar and spelling. My friend said "Why bother? They probably won't read them," to which I retorted "CUZ I LIKE BEING RIGHT!" On the anonymous end-of-the-term survey, I've received many confessions of love to which I awww-ed and laughed. But most of them genuinely thanked me for the effort I put into emailing them, asking them questions, and drumroll correcting their grammar.

But why bother reading about my boring school life when you can read about what I have been doing not in school! Here is what went down in my life from April - June 2018.

The Diary of Anne Frank

The best way to cure jet lag is to go straight into tech week the following week. I have experienced many ailments from traveling and found jet lag from Europe to Asia is quite the worst. Fortunately, I signed myself up to run the lights for the Butterfly Effect Theatre's production of The Diary of Anne Frank. This was our second run but this play just doesn't get old. Fun fact about this play: this show's original Broadway cast had young Natalie Portman playing Anne. The Diary has been adapted into many plays but this version doesn't deify Anne into a hero figure but truthfully illustrates the inner drama of a teenage girl and the struggles of seven people living in a cramped up space. Honest to God, I cry almost every curtain call.

During the production, I read many young people don't believe that the Holocaust happened—this information killed me a little. It's absurd that someone wouldn't believe in a historical event with monuments and memorial sites all over the world with many primary sources and survivors who are still alive to tell their stories. Don't even get me started on how good some great works of fiction are based on WWII, like The Reader, Everything is Illuminated, and The Fiddler on the Roof… Also, there was a group of high school students in Taiwan that dressed up as Nazi soldiers and marched around the school for an event. Ignorance is not bliss, naïve is not cute—history is there for us to reflect and learn. I somehow took these news very personally, maybe because I grew up listening to the same Bible stories as the Jews, maybe because I cannot stand uneducated people, probably a combination of both.

A representative from Israeli cultural office was invited to open the show (we had free falafels, hummus, and pita during the last run of the show but not this time, insert whimpering). The weekend swooshed by. I was just thankful I could be a part of a show that spoke a story that some started to neglect.

That was the last time I worked with this theatre company because 1. they did have one last show August but I was helping another show the exact same time 2. rent issues with the theatre space 3. the artistic director got a new job in Vienna. He moved early September and he basically sold everything from costumes to lighting equipments. It was a hectic process to watch a theatre company that I truly felt at home turn into a goodbye yard sale. I learned a lot about running low budget shows, programming with too-old consoles, but most of all I made connections with people I know I will meet again in this tiny theatre world.

Fashion Revolution Taipei

April was a month where I went crazy juggling all about. I collaborated with Totes & Tees, a small social enterprise that focuses on ethical and zero-waste fashion. I have been following this small company for a while through a mutual friend and was really interested in what they did. The owner was also going to be one of the hosts for Fashion Revolution 2018 in Taipei. The idea was to have a runway showcasing up-cycled items handmade by many different designers. I was to crochet a beanie from a no-longer-used piece of fabric. Sadly, I couldn't participate on the actual day because I went on a family trip to…

Rome & Paris

To say this was a family trip would be a misleading statement. My parents were there to lead the seminars they have been running for 10+ years. As I mentioned in Update 3.0, their heart is for the Chinese speaking people all over the world. The Asians basically took over a whole hotel on the outskirts of Rome to host Fathers' School and Mothers' School simultaneously. This meant, there needed to be a baby sitting club. Slowly raise your hands if you're a pastor kid you basically did everything that was assumed of you! (Did I volunteer? Did I chose to be their child? We'll never know) No, I'm not being bitter, I just simply love poking fun at my stereotype. Besides, I was asked nicely to participate in taking care of the children—a member from the Taiwan side of the team had activities prepared for them, I just had to support. I said "WHY NOT? I JUST DID THIS A MONTH AGO!"

But, this crowd was tough. It wasn't like calming down super rowdy Hungarian-Romani children nor was it like being dragged around by crazy bubbly Filipino kids. These were well-educated, cellphone-hogging Chinese-looking kids who preferred classily sitting on chairs, not the floor, chattering away in Italian. Of course, they were all embedded in their Chinese-ness from their parents, so they still understood most of what we were trying to do. However, whenever the head teacher asked them to do something extremely "Asian", my TCK heart ached, feeling all the "well, they are NOT going to relate to that at all…."

Because the seminar lasted three out of the five days we were at Rome, we only had enough time to look around the Vatican and trot around to sneak peek here and there. One of the free days was taken over by a tour set up by the local church. They took us around historical sites that were related to the early underground churches and Apostle Paul. We visited way too many cathedrals that all of them started to look the same. The most memorable place was the underground tunnels where the early Christians escaped to and hid from the Romans. Going to a Christian school, we would always play Underground Church when we had class sleepovers—even though it was just a game, the danger felt extremely real. But as I stood in the tunnel, I could actually really imagine how real their fear must have been. I was in awe of the way these early Christians kept their faith even in the dark, cold underground.

After eating one too many cones of gelato and faking one too many Italian conversations in Spanish, we arrived in Paris. They were only going to host Fathers' School so umma and I had plenty of free time. However, being the only linguistically competent person in the group (but honestly, my French is basically nonexistent), I had to take everyone around the city. I was annoyed at having no time to myself and just my parents but thankfully, appa had three days free and the crowd let us be for two of those days.

Paris' reputation really proceeds itself, it's a bit dirty, there are more rude strangers than nice people, and they really hate you if you ask "parlez-vous anglais?". Despite all the negative stereotypes, I took my little tour group all around the places I've researched in advance. I was also allowed to go off on my own when I wore them all out by 5 p.m. I'm proud to say I've actually hit all the touristy places I wanted to visit with and without the group. We even visited Versailles kudos to the fact umma is so internet-savvy that she actually researched. She was very intent on visiting a few places like Château de Versailles, the top of the Eiffel, and the Louvre—her excuse always being "I'm never coming here ever again!"

After two-ish weeks of venturing around Western Europe, we emptied out the 99 cents cheese blocks at the local Carrefour market, squished it into our luggage, and sat on a long plane ride. Umma commented that I seem to be the "vacation type", she couldn't understand how I could still be so chipper being gone from home so long. Although her observations were accurate, I wouldn't have wanted to stay longer unless I started taking French classes or something—the language barrier was devastating.

Sharon McGill Memorial Service

My dorm mother passed away from cancer last fall. Her favorite drink at Starbucks, toffee nut latte, just came round again. I received the news via McGill dormie Facebook group while I scrolled through my phone during class, bad idea. My commute back home that day seemed five times longer than usual. Halfway through my walk home from the bus stop, I ran into umma. She asked if I wanted to go to Costco with them, then asked why I don't look so well. I honestly had no clue how to break the news. Appa's car rolled around to pick us up for Costco, I said Sharon died, we cried a little and had a moment of silence. I always thought about how umma and Sharon, appa and Terry are the same age. My mums and dads. They are some of the most important people of my life and one of them was gone.

I'd like to think I had enough time to process through this situation. Then I'd realize that not all valleys in life are empty holes. You don't just get over it. You live with their memories. Some days will pain you more than others but they're there to remind you that you are that much alive. You can still feel. As cheesy as I'm starting to sound, this is something I have been needing to remind myself lately.

After what seemed like too long, the day of Sharon's memorial service came. I hopped on the familiar bus from Taipei to Taichung. Visiting high school wasn't a big deal but I've never thought I'd visit because my dorm mum passed away. The auditorium was filled. Dorm kids had priority seats. Terry gave a bear hug to everyone who made it. The whole thing began with Terry mumbling to the mic "Alright, let's get this over with," to which I definitely chuckled. I didn't even bother holding back my laughter or tears or both as they came and went throughout the service. At the end, I could just feel this was a closure that everyone who knew Sharon deserved. I cannot describe what kid of feeling that was. The feeling of home? Feeling of clear certainty. Maybe everyone's love for Sharon somehow became a tangible atmosphere. I must say it almost felt like a wedding.

During the reception, there was a photo time where Terry was huddled around 30-something out of 120-something of his dorm children. Later on he said that was the highlight of his day. He also said no one was allowed to leave the dorms before midnight, to which most of us complied to. Most of the dorm kids that showed up all graduated around '02 or '03 so I was just a little bit very intimidated, mostly because I forgot the fact that we were all bound by the similar experiences of studying in Morrison while living in a dorm with the same dorm parents. It was a good evening to be a McGill Dormie.

Bye Hair Day

I have been notorious for the way I treat my hair. If you know the song "Grace Kelly" by Mika, well, in the chorus, he is singing about my hair circa 2013-2015. Then I stopped. I hated the way my hair felt dry and crinkly, I wanted my normal long hair back. I also remembered I've always wanted to donate my hair to a cancer foundation. It was just something I wanted to cross off my bucket list. So I've been growing my hair out ever since—it took way longer than I thought. Throughout my hair growth, two significant people in my life died from cancer. It felt like I had way more reason to donate now.

June 16th was the date. My friend also wanted to join in. We found Little Princess Trust, an organization that gives out free wigs to young girls who have lost their hair due to illnesses. Their guidelines said they love receiving longer hair because they're more popular. After some measuring I decided to get a buzz cut so that I could maximize the length of hair I could donate. Besides, I've been wanting to have crazy buzzed hair after a couple of years of freakishly long hair. Fickle me, I know.

My hair stylist washed my hair way thoroughly, dried it for what seemed like an hour, tied it up into sections, and snip, it was in a plastic bag. My buzz cut buddy and I couldn't stop rubbing our heads the following few days.

But my oh my, I did not know that a head of hair was keeping me warm all this time. I was constantly dealing with extremely cold overhead AC on buses and I eventually caught a really bad cough for three plus weeks. I now never leave my house without a hat of some sort.

My hair has become so short that I have been tracking my days with hair length. My best friend, Fanny keeps saying it's like watching a little infant grow every week. I told her to stop being so overly dramatic.

oh dear, this is getting real long

Instead of asking how someone's day was, Sharon would ask us three things: 1. what was the low point of your day? 2. high point? 3. what have you learned today? or what do you think Jesus is teaching you today?

So to boil down my April to June into a few pointers, it sucked that I got really sick for almost a month, but I loved getting to travel and do a lot lot lot of things. I'm learning that well-done goodbyes are possible. Currently, I'm learning to do just that—slowly closing up gaps responsibly, honestly, and kindly. God is also teaching me that I'm allowed to chose and do what I love (but more on that next update).

Thank you for catching up on my life, I promise the next post will be just as long.

#updates #graduatingishhh #taipei

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dillydedalus · 5 years

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december reading + top10 of the year

books.

a feast for crows, my main man grrm (#4 asoiaf) tbh i think this one is underrated - i understand feeling a bit underwhelmed on a first read bc it’s so much slower than asos & half the major characters aren’t in it & you get a bunch of new ones instead, but the thematic depth here! brienne seeing the devastation of the riverlands, thinking about outlaws & broken men & vigilante justice, sansa & arya both embarking on their apprentice arc & losing their identity in the process, the political intrigue in dorne, & the fucking hilarious shitshow that is cersei’s kings landing.... love it. 4.5/5

herkunft, saša stanišić (audio, sadly abridged) really good memoir/reflection about belonging, origin (national, ethnic, linguistic, familial, emotional), family, and living in germany as a refugee. it’s really smart, really heartfelt, really funny, and i’m sooo annoyed that my library only has the abridged version. oh yeah it won the german book prize shortly after peter ‘serbian war criminals’ #1 fanboy’ handke won the nobel prize, which was nice. 4/5

a brief history of seven killings, marlon james (uni) marlon james probably laughed his ass off at calling this 700-page book (very small print) a brief history. anyway, this is about the attempted assassination of bob marley in the 70s, the cultural and political context in jamaica at the time, and the fallout of that event. honestly, reading this on a tight schedule for uni was just wrong for this book bc i had to rush thru it & ended up skimming quite a bit. it’s an impressive achievement, but i can’t say i enjoyed it very much. 3/5

she would be king, wayétu moore a magical realist story about the foundation of liberia, told thru three characters - an indigenous woman, an ex-slave from the us, and a mixed-race jamaican - all of whom have magical abilities. i really wanted to like this, but while there are a lot of good ideas, structurally this is kind of a mess (the first part, which introduces the characters is way too long & not very interesting, the connection between the three is supposed to be super significant but it really doesn’t come across, one character gets way more page time than the others), the writing is occasionally p awkward, and there is an odd thing where the narrator (kinda a ghost, kinda the wind) intrudes literally only to call one of the characters her darling or whatever & it’s irritating af. 2.5/5

a dance with dragons, grrm (#5 asoiaf) tbh this is by far my least favourite of the series.... it’s just way too long, a bit of a slog (especially the tyrion chapters...) & there is not a single sansa chapter which is fucked up. a lot of the storylines are really good tho (jon, THEON, asha, jaime...). i ended up liking the parts i used to dislike a bit more this time around tho if i ever read it again i will probably do the combined affc+adwd read bc that sounds fun & interesting. 4/5

the sellout, paul beatty (uni) smart & pretty funny satire about the idea of a post-racial america, in which a black man in the LA region tries to segregate the local community. there’s a lot of cool stuff in here and i really liked the ambiguity & refusal to present any clear-cut answers, solutions, or closure. 3/5

tamburlaine must die, louise welsh fun little novella about the last days of kit marlow, which made for an entertaining 2 hours altho the ending is pretty weak imo & the language slips into entirely too modern occasionally. kinda disappointed because based on the blurb i’d assumed that tamburlaine actually, literally came to life out of marlow’s plays which. is not the case. but would have been super cool. 2/5

radiance, grace draven not to reveal how profoundly problematique i am: this is a book about a human noblewoman entering into an arranged political marriage with a dude from the off-brand dark-elves dynasty & it is. way too wholesome, there is little angst, ildiko & brishen get along very well from the start & like, where’s the fear, the tension, the delicious, delicious ANGST?? 2.5/5

water shall refuse them, lucie mcknight hardy atmospheric witchy folk horror set in a small village in wales during the '76 heat wave - narrator nif’s family comes to live in a cottage there to take some time off after the accidental drowning of nif’s younger sister - the mother is consumed by grief and guilt, the father is trying to hold everyone together, and nif is constructing a witchy creed out of bird eggs and bones and magical thinking to cope, comparing weird witchy practices with local outsider mally. i liked this & altho i saw the twist coming miles away, it still makes for a pretty disturbing ending, and the way the book evokes the dizzy blurry heat and nif’s state of mind - detached, angry, confused, compulsive - is really effective. 3.5/5

a knight of the seven kingdoms, george r.r. martin dunk! is! babey! (except for moments where he displays staggering BDE) anyway these are three novellas set about 100 years pre-asoiaf, about dunk/duncan the tall & his squire, egg/aegon, the OG secret targaryen. the stories are wholesome, funny, cute, have a lot of dunk being a true knight but not a real knight which is extra-sweet when you realise that he’s almost definitely true-but-not-real knight brienne’s (great?)grandpapa. 4.5/5

my cousin rachel, daphne du maurier philip ashley, our narrator, really is like ‘hmmm have i been misogynistic yet today?? better get on that’, he’s awful & so is his older cousin ambrose, who marries distant cousin rachel in florence & then gets ill and dies, making phil rather suspicious about rachel. did rachel poison ambrose? is she trying to seduce and/or poison philip? or are they both just paranoid assholes who hate women (they def. hate women)? this is some good psychological thriller type stuff, what we can construct out of philip’s distorted view of rachel is intriguing (and like, if she poisoned ambrose? #goodforher), the narrator is an ass but well-written, and the first/last lines.... chills. 3.5/5

top 10 of the year (no rereads!)

antigonick, anne carson

a canticle for leibowitz, walter m. miller

dedalus, chris mccabe

the complete maus, art spiegelman

the artificial silk girl, irmgard keun

o caledonia, elspeth barker

the sparrow, mary doria russell

sleep of the righteous, wolfgang hilbig

how to survive a plague, david france

rain wild chronicles, robin hobb

(the last three are kinda randomly picked from the high-4s based on my mood in the moment but they’re all really good so.)

#the books i read #long post

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wanderlustwonderlots · 7 years

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Day 10 - The Last Day

I’m writing this back in Canada, so forgive the delay! I’m a lil tired! But I’ll finish up with the last post </3

Final Fieldwork

On the last day, we didn’t have any participants set up for Team Nasal Harmony. Ideally we would have gone back to Austria to get more from the speakers there, but they weren’t keen on having us back. So, we drove out to the Prlekija region, about two hours east of Ljubljana, right in the corner of Slovenia hugged by Croatia. Specifically, we went to the town of Središče! Which I can sometimes pronounce properly! We brought another linguist with us, Karmen. She’s done research on presence of nasal [ j ] in Slovenian dialects, and we used her map and cited her in our presentation back at the beginning of the trip, so it was nice to meet her. She was really kind and spoke to us in English lots so Deepam and I wouldn’t get lost in her conversations with Peter!

I slept most of the ride there (and back) as I’d gotten up early again, as always, but when I was awake the drive was gorgeous of course. We were in a fairly flat part of Slovenia by the end of the drive, but “flat” still means lots of hills and mountains in the distance. When we first started out, still in the hills, I saw the coolest thing! The trees were steaming! It was so early in the morning and it was a little chilly and gloomy but the trees were still warm, so air was rising off of them. I had only seen something like this once before, back in Ontario, and much less substantial. We could see the trees way in the distance doing this. The air was rolling out of them slowly and calmly but we could still see it moving! What a beautiful thing to witness.

It’s always funny to hear how the navigation narration tries to pronounce Slovenian words, but the funniest was on this trip. We passed a town called Ptuj, but in the instructions the voice didn’t even attempt this one.. and just spelled out P-T-U-J. The poor software can’t keep up with all the unfamiliar sounds and consonant clusters! At first attempt I can’t either so I don’t blame it.

Once we got to Središče, we parked near the church and started walking around in search of someone to talk to. We really didn’t have a plan for the day! We saw a woman working in her backyard, so Peter and Karmen went to talk to her while Deepam and I stood around looking awkward. She wasn’t able to participate, nor anyone she lived with, but she pointed us in the direction of the local municipal building to find help. It was great of her to talk to them for so long and to try to help as best she could! So off we went to the next step. Just outside the building there was the TINIEST kitten I have ever seen!! I’m still thinking about it!!! I wanted to spend more time with it and pick it up and cuddle it but I didn’t have time :( I felt a little bad for it, its eyes were a lil runny and it was so small it was still unbalanced while walking!! Super cute though, and truly a good omen for the day.

So upon going into the municipal building, we found a woman who I think we were going to ask to recommend people or contact people for us, I’m not too sure. But she actually participated in the experiment for us! I’m not sure what her name was.. but she was very nice. So we set up the laptop and the nasalance mask at her desk as other employees brought us coffee and water. She seemed interested and keen on it and did a great job with the stimuli! The way it worked, similarly to in Austria, was Peter or Karmen would ask the participant how to say something or what a word for ___ would be, and the speaker would give their answer until we got the right term for it. Then Deepam and I record and save it, and Peter would ask them to say a similar word but with a segment changed out. At least based on what they were saying, this is what I’m fairly certain was happening. For example, “svila” but with a /j/ would be “svija”. This was a way to create minimal pairs from real words that already existed - an easier way to elicit sounds than nonce words, which can be tricky. She did really well with them though! After we finished the stimuli, she called up a couple people in town for us who might be able to participate as well. One man was out of town but another woman was able to do it so we went to her house.

One of the other employees was kind enough to walk us to the house rather than just showing us the way! It was a small town and very close so only took a couple minutes but I still found it very nice of her. The woman we recorded second was 94 years old! Born in 1923! Wow! We ran the same tasks as we did before, recording about 40 words. She did so well with the mask and a great job overall. Some things took multiple explanations from Peter, Karmen, and her son, but if I were 94 I would need the same. Her and her son were so hospitable, inviting strangers into their home to do experimentation, and offering us drinks and cookies afterward. It was what we’d been experiencing on each day of fieldwork but those were all after setting them up previously and this was straight out of the blue. Everyone I interacted with on this trip was equally as kind and inviting. We were there as researchers but also as guests, each time. It was valuable to learn how to be both, and even more so in an unfamiliar language and culture.

We could have potentially found another participant, but Peter had more stuff to do in the evening for Wenxuan’s project, so we called it a day with just the two. We stopped at a cafe before heading out for a snack - ice cream and coffees. I opted for one scoop of pistachio and another of mixed nuts, and an espresso as usual. I never used to like espresso but I’m glad I do now, because it’s all I was drinking when we got coffee out! So strong and satisfying, and this was an especially nice complement to the sweet ice cream. The cafe was beautiful too, a couple smaller rooms in the place, all with tons and tons of plants. It was a great atmosphere, very homey and relaxing. The woman that served us was lovely, Deepam and I chatted with her about why were there in Središče and Slovenia in general. She was really impressed that students from Toronto came all the way to the small town to do research! We could have talked longer but we had to head home again. It was a satisfying stop before we left though and made me even happier to have stopped in the town and talked to the people there.

After we got home, we ended up just relaxing for a bit. Peter had to leave soon after to record another person with Wenxuan, but we stayed back to clean, pack, and help cook dinner with Andrea and Rachel. I managed to pack almost all of my stuff between getting home and cooking dinner which was great! We listened to music and sang along as we cooked, it was so fun and happy! Lots of classics, some throwbacks, and a couple good sing-alongs. It was a nice home cooked meal to use up everything left i the fridge! We waited until Wenxuan and Peter were back to eat so it ended up being kinda late, but also we wanted it to be a family dinner with everyone! We had a salad with all the produce left, hard-boiled eggs, and homemade croutons, roasted carrots and whole garlic gloves, and baguette baked with either cheese or meat on top. The garlic was sooo soft and delicious, we just spread it on the bread like butter. I have to make it that way more often!! The salad was also super fresh and tasty. We also finished the bottle of wine we had started earlier in the week - a very satisfying cheers after 10 days of working hard.

It was a wholesome dinner with a wholesome bunch of people <3

Final Thoughts

I’m so happy I could be part of such an incredible trip, it’s an experience I won’t forget. I became so close with everyone and I feel like I’ve grown as a person. I’m on my way to becoming a true linguist! It was such a valuable trip and I’m a little sad it’s over. As nice as it is to be back in a familiar city with my cat, back to the usual days, Slovenia will be on my mind for a while. If ever given the opportunity I would absolutely come back here for research! I would very much like to come back by myself when I have the chance, to explore the city of Ljubljana, seeing museums and galleries and just walking around like I did on my last Europe trip. I do still love being by myself, being able to take things in at my own pace and on my own terms. It was really interesting traveling with a group though, and a lot of fun with everyone. I felt like I was able to be a classic tourist more comfortably, taking photos of everything and gawking, and it was nice having people to take photos of me too, something I really missed while traveling solo!

Having done real research on endangered dialects and working with real participants, I’m so excited for what my future holds for me. I’m incredibly happy to be in this field and explore the options ahead of me! I hope that I can do fieldwork again soon and see how it differs in different environments and on different projects. I’ve gained so much more than just data from this trip! But before looking onto what I can do next, I’ll have to buckle down and analyze everything for this project. We’ll be presenting at a workshop here in Toronto on August 15th, so lots to do before that! Peter plans on going back to Prlekija again (as he’s staying in Slovenia until mid-August) so he’ll have more data to send to us later as well. The rest of my summer certainly won’t be boring!!

All in all, this trip has been absolutely amazing. I met to many kind people, I made great bonds with the team, and I’m even more passionate than before about linguistics. Who knows what the future holds for me, and if it will involve this blog again... Thank you to all who kept up with my adventures and I hope you enjoyed reading about them! Until next time~

#slovenia #linguistics #research #phonology #travel #travelog #travel tumblr #20170712

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