#they’re just syllables!!! no words! no english words anyways

[mars-ipan]

i gotta say i HATE IT when people try to put english language on splatoon songs. they AREN’T SPEAKING ENGLISH. they are speaking inklish or octarian or salmon….. salmonese? idk what you’d call that one POINT IS IT ISN’T ENGLISH

[dkniade]

Wriothesley and Neuvillette: Accents in Pronunciation and Phonetic Spelling of Names in Hanzi and Katakana

Feat. Tartaglia, Kazuha, Kokomi, Wriothesley, and Neuvillette, from Genshin Impact

(Listing characters like this is usually for reader-inserts yet here we are! Let’s have them sit in a circle and introduce their names or something haha— Just kidding.)

I initially wanted to deduce approximate name pronunciations for Wriothesley (in English) and Neuvillette (in French) based on how their names are written in Chinese and Japanese. I started with Italian and Japanese examples to show how phonetic stylization in Japanese (katakana) and Chinese (hanzi) work, but I ended up asking a French-speaking friend instead. I also included “approximate guides” to clarify the official English dub’s pronunciations for comparison purposes, but will not be doing “approximate guides” for the Chinese or Japanese dubs.

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Please note that while this does talk about pronunciation, each accent varies and each language has phonetic restrictions, thus I’m not claiming that there’s one single “correct” pronunciation, but rather proximity to the root language. I’m also not criticizing the voice actors as I understand they’re often told to pronounce names in certain ways due to the voice directors.

I can speak Mandarin Chinese, some Japanese, and a bit of French. I know some very basic phonetics in general, but I don’t speak Italian. (That point will soon be relevant). In this post, when I say Chinese, I mean Mandarin. The French pronunciation is thanks to my French-speaking friend Exanguine Hart (exanguine_hart on Instagram).

In-game pronunciations are taken from the respective “Hello” voicelines except for Neuvillette’s name (which is from the 4.0 quest dialogue) and Wriothesley’s name (which I did not find an in-game pronunciation for), in addition to their Japanese and Chinese illustrated character introductions. For simplicity’s sake, however, I will refer to names from official non-game media as “in-game”. (Since I’m only doing the pronunciation of their names and no plot details I doubt it’ll be a spoiler…? I don’t know the plot myself anyway.)

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Something interesting:

The good thing about Genshin Impact having Chinese and Japanese voiceover/subtitles is that in terms of character name pronunciation, (non-Chinese & non-Japanese) names are typically written phonetically and not by their original spelling. Meaning even if the official English pronunciation is not as close, there’s a higher chance that the Chinese and Japanese phonetic pronunciations are closer to the original language.

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Every character in Chinese hanzi and Japanese katakana (Japanese phonetic writing system for non-Japanese words) has one syllable. In other words, four hanzi or katakana characters = four syllables in Mandarin or Japanese.

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CELESTIAL NARWAL CHAPTER:

Italian: Tartaglia* (approx. “tar-TA-lia” or “tar-TA-iya”)

In-game Chinese: 达达利亚 / Dadaliya

In-game Japanese: タルタリヤ / Tarutariya**

In-game English: Tartaglia (approx. “Tar-TA-glee-ya”)

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*His name comes from one of the stock characters in the (I believe…) early form of Italian theater, the Commedia Dell’arte. Of course the pronunciation varies a bit depending on the accent… The former opera singer/video game music enthusiast MarcoMeatball pronounces it in Italian in his reaction video about Tartaglia (and his boss themes). Again, I don’t speak Italian… Please correct me if there are inaccuracies about this.

**His voice actor pronounces the タル part in his name in such a way that the two phonemes join into one and the name is moreso three syllables.

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In comparison, it could be hard to tell how to read a Japanese name from kanji since Japanese kanji often have more than one reading. And often how it’s read in Chinese is either somewhat or very different from Japanese, depending on which Japanese reading it is (on’yomi or kun’yomi).

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SLEEPING DRAGON CHAPTER:

In-game Japanese: 珊瑚宮心海 / Sangonomiya Kokomi (approx. “Sahn-goh-NOH-mi-ya Koh-koh-MI”)

In-game English: Sangonomiya Kokomi

Alternate Japanese*: 珊瑚宮心海 / Sangomiya Shinkai

In-game Chinese reading: 珊瑚宮心海 / Shanhugong Xinhai**

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JAPANESE MAPLE CHAPTER:

In-game Japanese: 楓原万葉 / Kaedehara Kazuha (approx. “KAE-deh-ha-rla KA-zu-ha”)

In-game English: Kaedehara Kazuha

Unofficial Alternate Japanese reading*: 楓原万葉 / Kaedehara Man’you

In-game Chinese: 枫原万叶 / Fengyuan Wanye***

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*and the one my Japanese keyboard recognizes to output the kanji…

**Chinese pinyin “x” approximately sounds like a light “sh”. Note that Shinkai and Xinhai sound similar, and Man’you and Wanye are also slightly similar compared to their official readings. This is because the alternate Japanese readings are in on’yomi which (to oversimplify it) is Japanese reading based on the Chinese reading back when the characters were first introduced in Japanese. If anyone can explain it better, feel free to elaborate…

***“Feng” ends in a nasal sound. The next syllable is “Yuan”. The “g” and “y” sounds are not connected in one sound.

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FONTAINE

Written with the help of some scenes from 4.0 for name pronunciation. Consulted Wikipedia about “Wriothesley” and asked my friend Exsanguine about “Neuvillette” instead. Here are some possible pronunciations:

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HELL’S GUARD DOG CHAPTER

English: Wriothesley (approx. “RYE-seh-slee”)*

In-Game Chinese: 莱欧斯利 / Laiousili

In-Game Japanese: リオセスリ / Riosesuri

Unofficial Japanese: ライセスリ/ Raisesuri

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*according to Wikipedia.

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IUDEX OF FONTAINE CHAPTER

French: Neuvillette* (approx. “nuh-vee-YET”)

In-Game English**: Neuvillette (approx. “NER-vi-let” or “Nur-vi-LET”)

Unofficial English***: Neuvillette (approx. “New-vil-LET”)

In-Game Chinese: 那维��特 / Naweilaite

In-Game Japanese: ヌヴィレット/ Nuviretto

Unofficial Chinese****: 纳维耶特 / Naweiyete

Unofficial Japanese: ヌヴィエット / Nuvuietto

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*my French-speaking friend Exanguine’s guess

**First pronunciation is Lyney’s when the Traveler first meets Neuvillette. Second one’s Paimon’s in the same scene but only because she’s asking a question hence the upwards tone.

***My initial guess with my very limited French knowledge

****Both my unofficial Chinese and Japanese stylizations are based off of the French pronunciation

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Summary of Some Possible Pronunciations

CELESTIAL NARWHAL CHAPTER

Italian: Tartaglia (approx. “Tar-TAH-lya”)

In-game English: Tartaglia (approx. “Tar-TAH-glee-ya”)

In-game Chinese: 达达利亚 (Dadaliya)

In-game Japanese: タルタリヤ (Tarutariya)

SLEEPING DRAGON CHAPTER

Japanese reading: 珊瑚宮心海 (Sangonomiya Kokomi)

In-game English: Sangonomiya Kokomi

Alternate Japanese reading: 珊瑚宮心海 (Sangomiya Shinkai)

In-game Chinese reading: 珊瑚宮心海 (Shanhugong Xinhai)

JAPANESE MAPLE CHAPTER

In-game Japanese reading: 楓原万葉 (Kaedehara Kazuha)

Alternate Japanese reading: 楓原万葉 (Kaedehara Man’you)

In-game Chinese reading: 枫原万叶 (Fengyuan Wanye)

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HELL’S GUARD DOG CHAPTER

English: Wriothesley (approx. “RYE-seh-slee”)

In-Game Chinese: 莱欧斯利 / Laiousili

In-Game Japanese: リオセスリ / Riosesuri

Unofficial Japanese: ライセスリ/ Raisesuri

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IUDEX OF FONTAINE CHAPTER

French: Neuvillette

Unofficial English: Neuvillette

In-Game Chinese: 那维莱特 / Naweilaite

In-Game Japanese: ヌヴィレット/ Nuviretto

Unofficial Chinese: 纳维特 / Naweite

Unofficial Japanese: ヌヴィエット / Nuvuietto

[almost-a-class-act]

It's Hot Roy Summer, baby!

I wrote some Cobb/Hoobler, because why not?

For the Gremlin Town group chat, who do nothing but enable.

--

They are all so accustomed to the sound of Sobel’s voice by now, and the fact that it’s never good news to find yourself within earshot, that nobody winces anymore unless they specifically hear their own name. It's situational self-preservation, as much as they're learning to work together as a team, including - maybe especially - where Sobel is concerned. As Roy frantically rummages through his things looking for the PT shirts that apparently never made it back from the laundry, he keeps an ear out for familiar syllables in the tirade.

“Hey.”

Someone speaks beside him, but the sound of everyone fumbling into their gear and muttering to each other is so loud that Roy assumes it’s not directed at him until someone knocks his arm. He half-spins, aggrieved and ready to dole out some hell, when a white t-shirt hits him in the chest.

He looks down at it, and then up at Don Hoobler, who sleeps a few beds down.

“Swap me back when you get yours back from the laundry,” he says with a shrug. He doesn’t say, you could’ve asked. Maybe he already knows that’s not Roy’s way.

There’s no time to question it, though. Roy yanks the white fabric over his head. By the time he can see again, Don has vanished and the room is emptying. He turns, stumbles, and hurries for the door.

“Thanks,” he says later, when he drops a clean t-shirt onto Hoobler’s bed.

Don glances up from whatever card game he has going on with Perconte. “Don’t mention it. Couldn’t leave you at the mercy of Sobel. You play poker?”

Roy has been in the army a while. Everyone plays poker. “Sure,” he says. “I’ll take your money.”

Don grins, shifting to make room. He might be the easiest friend Roy has ever made.

--

Showing up after Normandy is not the same as having been in Normandy, not that anyone holds it against him. Roy has been in a brittle mood since North Africa anyway and sees no reason to stop now, fresh out of an English hospital and listening to war stories already so incredibly embellished that he doubts they’ll be recognizable by the time they’re told back home.

“Anyone seen Hoobler?” he asks, whenever he can get a word in.

As it turns out, Don finds him rather than the other way around. He sets a beer in front of Roy mid-movement as he climbs over the bench to sit next to him, jostling their shoulders together accidentally-on-purpose.

“Cheer up, buddy,” he says, pitching his voice just loud enough to be heard over the noisiness of the pub – not meant for anyone else.

Roy pulls a faint face, but he does pick up the beer, nearly burying his nose in the foam as he takes a few quick, angry swallows.

“I didn’t even get to jump,” he mutters, which is not a sentiment he has expressed aloud to anyone else. He is not in the mood to see their faces if he did.

“I know,” Don says. It’s not pity, and he’s not trying to jolly Roy out of anything. He’s just sincere, as always. “Don’t worry. There’ll be other jumps.”

Roy’s scowl deepens.

Don knocks his knee gently against his. “Not a one-beer problem, huh?” He braces his hands on the table, already getting up. “Alright. I’ll be back.”

--

Don gets along with the kids better than Roy does, because it doesn’t seem to occur to him not to.

Roy pins it down to the fact that Don doesn’t worry about dying after Normandy any more than he did before it, which is a marked difference from most of the rest of the company. His own death doesn’t haunt him and neither does anyone else’s, so he doesn’t look at the eighteen-year-old replacements and make those gloomy prognostications like the rest of the men do, without even keeping their voices down – I give it a week, or, don’t even bother learning their names. Roy wonders if a person can learn to put things away in the back of their mind the way Don does, or if you have to be born that way.

He therefore gives the kids shit less often in front of Don, mostly because Don seems to find unkindness in it. He tries to explain it, once, after Don tells him to go easy on them.

“They’re going to get themselves killed,” he says, the two of them going through the process of finding and lighting their respective cigarettes, almost in lockstep. They are not long for England; everyone smokes more than they used to.

Don shrugs, his face mostly in shadow under a smattering of stars. “You’re gonna hold that against them?”

“Yeah.” Roy says it pointedly. “I might.”

Don reaches out and taps his shoulder knowingly, twice. “I’ll keep an eye on them,” he reassures him. “Don’t worry.”

Roy pulls a face. “Who says I’m worried?” He doesn’t say: keep an eye on yourself. Roy has assigned himself the role of watching Don’s six, just because someone should.

--

Scouting is synonymous with scrounging, the opportunities too good to pass up when the houses they pass are deserted and the streets eerily quiet. Don laughs, jubilant, when they find the bottles of beer on the table in the farm house, and quickly stows them in his pack as Roy rummages through the handful of cupboards.

“You think they left these for us?” Don asks. He doesn’t wait for an answer. “I think they left these for us.”

“I don’t know,” Roy says distractedly, trying to read the labels of cans as he pulls them out of the pantry.

“Hey.” Don corners the edge of the table and reaches out to knock his knuckles against Roy’s arm. “I don’t think we should take anything else.”

“Why?” Roy asks, glancing at him. “Because they left beer for us?”

Don shrugs. “Yeah,” he says. He’s not going to explain any further. Sometimes Don has a conviction about something and it’s for Roy to make sense of it. “Maybe.”

Roy eyes him for a moment. Don grins, that jubilance again, and Roy rolls his eyes. “Yeah, alright,” he agrees. “Fine.”

They end up sharing the bottles out amongst the kids. It seems like it’s in the spirit of things.

--

A lot of places have been the worst place Roy has ever been, until he goes somewhere new.

The assault landing in North Africa had been enough to instill in him that the next time he does this, it will definitely be from the air. The acrid saltwater taste of being evacuated from a sinking troopship, weak with fever and in the company of a several hundred other men in an equally and understandably shitty mood, is nearly as unpleasant, and as it turns out, so is being in a dark, rattling plane over Normandy, bleeding and furious that he hadn’t been able to jump, as anti-aircraft fire split the night far too close for comfort.

By the time they get to Bastogne, he almost feels a curious sense of acceptance about it. Sure, okay. The worst place I’ve ever been. He’s good at being in the worst place he’s ever been by now.

Don volunteers to go on patrols out of a need to do something; when he’s huddled in his foxhole next to Roy, their helplessness drives a hunch into his shoulders, makes him quieter than usual. Roy tucks an arm around him and curls over him every time the shelling starts up again, pushing his helmet down under the safety of Roy’s body, and they wait it out like that, gritting their teeth against the rattle and roar of explosions that rock the earth itself. Don never says anything about Roy protecting him, his first concession to fear since Roy has known him, and Roy is reminded every time that he’s twenty-fucking-two, that Roy has eight years on him and they are an eight years that make a difference.

Don says, the way they all do, that he never gets any sleep out here, but he often passes out in the small hours when exhaustion wins out over the cold and the anxiety, slumped into Roy’s side. When he wakes up gasping, minutes or hours later, he never says what he’s been dreaming about, and Roy doesn’t ask.

“Can’t wait to go home and forget all about this place,” Roy mutters, when the siege finally breaks.

“Everyone knows it’s bad luck to talk about after the war,” Don tells him, in a tone of voice that suggests he knows exactly how hard it will make Roy roll his eyes. He almost sounds like his old self.

--

1944 has bled into 1945 so seamlessly that it’s hard to remember what day it is, one icy winter morning dawning much like the next. Don carries on cheerfully volunteering himself for patrols, and Roy carries on scowling at the snowy landscape as though it has personally offended him. When Don clambers down into the mostly-dug foxhole on one of these unremarkable mornings, he doesn’t leave Roy guessing as to what’s got him in such a good mood.

“I got my Luger,” he says, presenting it proudly, like a boy at school.

Roy dutifully examines it. “What’s the story?” he asks, because of course there is one.

Later, after Don has wandered off to seek the suitable amount of awed approval from anyone who will listen, Roy finishes squaring away his foxhole and straightens, dusting the snow from his gloves. He is craving a cigarette, but he’ll have to scrounge one; Hashey, not far off, seems a likely target.

When the shot rings out, the sound of it rocketing through the trees, Roy flinches and then automatically does what he always does when things go sideways, and looks for Don.

--

The trucks that trundle into Haguenau have hard, freezing seats and apparently no shocks to speak of, and the soldiers in them smell like unwashed uniforms and the cold. They are all so tired that they could sleep for a week. It is nevertheless such an improvement on everything that came before that most of them just clock out mentally for a little while, mutely passing around cigarettes and eyeing up the bland white sky without really looking at it.

Roy hunches his shoulders and doesn’t think about anything. There is too much to think about, and it is easier than you’d think to pile it together and shut it away. He can still feel it – grief, loss, the shut-away thing – sitting like a hard knot under his sternum, but it is quiet, and subdued. It is a thing that is happening to him, but he’s not listening to it.

Webster, clean-faced and clean-shaven, wearing a uniform that doesn’t smell like anything, says something like, what about Hoobler? Where’s he?

Roy has been in a shitty mood since North Africa. He sees no reason to stop now.

[booskwan]

hi hiii Theo(ry!!) can I ask why you call SeongJoong “madz” and not “matz?” :0 /gen

yeah no problem! it’s just a different romanization of the korean word/phrase but i’ll give a quick little rundown. so it comes from 맏형 which means oldest guy or oldest brother and this character > ㄷ < is the equivalent of an english “d” sound. the way madz is written in korean is 맏즈 “m a d j eu” and you can transliterate it as a t sound but in my opinion it doesn’t make as much sense here. there are letters that can make what are called t-stops when put at the end of a syllable and they’re called that because they make a sound similar to the last “t” in “that” if you’re someone who doesn’t put emphasis on it, which is probably why people write it as “matz” with a t. ㄷ is a t-stop (which i may have forgotten till just now) and another common thing with t-stops is that in pronunciation they kind of get dropped and instead you place more emphasis on the next letter, which in this case is ㅈ, the equivalent of j. so it doesn’t really make a difference because it’s not big in the pronunciation anyway but yeah i just kind of transliterate it more directly ? i guess :)

[alangdorf]

Hi :) I finally made my Magolor conspiracy theory board! I know the text is small so I’m gonna write out a transcription plus all the stuff I couldn’t fit without making everything completely illegible. Be warned, this is gonna get long.

By the way, please don’t take this overly seriously; I’m just shaking thoughts out of my head. I used to be all “yeah Magolor is exactly the type of character I would like but I’m just not that crazy about him.” But then the Epilogue came along and we had a blackout where I barely had internet access for a couple days and these two things combined flipped a switch in my brain and I thought about/talked about nothing but Magolor for literally a week straight. And so here we are!

First off, a note about the Another Dimenion creatures (Doomers, Darpas, Deppas, Dippas, and Dupas). In Japanese, Sphere Doomers are called Sphere Lowpers – Lowper being the romaji spelling used in the files, although in Japanese it’s pronounced Rōpā (ろーぱー), and most likely originating from the English words “interloper” and/or “robber”. B and p are closely related in Japanese writing, both being a slight alteration of the consonant h (via diacritic marks called tenten [two little lines] and maru [a circle]), so は is ha, ば is ba, and ぱ is pa.

The other creatures are variations on Rōpā with different vowels in the first syllable (they’re actually called morae [singular: mora] instead of syllables though): Rāpā, Rēpā, Rīpā, and Rūpā. These are changed in English to match the fact that Doomer starts with D: Darpas, Dippas, and Dupas, according to the Magolor Epilogue song titled “VS Darpa-Dippa-Dupas”, and then Deppa for Rēpā as a logical extrapolation of that.

(Side note: since this game came out before Kirby localization teams were given a lot of guidance, the names in other languages for Doomers are alllllll over the place in terms of meaning. Sphere Chimera, Sphere Spook, Spectre Sphere, and my favorite is the Italian, “Fenix Sferix”, meaning Phoenix Sphere. For their translation of “VS Darpa-Dippa-Dupas” they went with the same play on the vowels, so it’s “VS Fanix-Finix-Funix”. But then?? What are their Deppas called???? Probably Fonix but it’s still funny lol)

Now is probably a good time to talk about Magolor’s name; get all the translation fun facts out of the way. In Japanese, his name is Mahoroa (まほろあ). “Mahō” is the word “magic” in Japanese, so the English version starting with “Mago”, derived from “magic”, is a good close translation. “Lor” and “roa” are both their respective language’s name for the Lor Starcutter, and are roughly equivalent in Japanese pronunciation. The devs have said in a Miiverse post that Magolor’s name was also partially derived from the Japanese word “Mahoroba” (まほろば), which is the name for the concept of a “far-off land full of bliss and peace” (per the Wikipedia page for Mahoroba), which could certainly be translated as “paradise” (note on that in a second). With ba and pa being almost the same letter, it makes me wonder if Mahoroba and Rōpā (まほろば and ろーぱー) are meant to be so similar as a cheeky wordplay thing. Mostly because I think it would be really funny if that was the case.

The aforementioned note which is about the meaning of “Magolor” in the language the Jamba speak: there is a pause screen in Star Allies that lists a bunch of translations for words in their language, most notable here being “Mafo = lie” and “Lor = paradise”. “Mafo” having a different third letter than “Mago” is hardly an issue; fo and ho are written the same in Japanese unless you’re being really pedantic about loanword spelling (ホ vs フォ), “Maho” being equivalent to “Mago” is already established, and Star Allies had a notoriously messy localization anyways, so I would hardly be surprised if they just forgot to change it to “Mago”.

Also, given the fact that Return to Dreamland Deluxe added a line for 100%ing the game that clarifies that Mags was lying about being from Halcandra but studied Ancient culture there for years and that this whole post posits the theory that he was originally some sort of Another Dimension creature like the Doomers and co. (Side note: in the context of whatever possible relationship the Doomers and Ancients used to have [Rampaging Doomers are implied by Sphere Doomers EX pause screen lore to be ancient Doomers and have the gear aesthetic and that could mean any number of things], and the limited individuality of the Doomers/Darpa-Deppa-Dippa-Dupas and their subservience to Grand Doomer, I see this less as cultural appropriation and more like uhhhh trans coding, kinda. Please don’t come at me about this; I often joke that Kit, my nickname, is short for Catboy Discourse but I don’t actually want to fight on the internet about this catboy), the fact that this pause screen is for a version of Unhooded Hyness from the SAME UPDATE that added Magolor to the game is so hysterical. Maggie rocks up to a fight with someone he’s never heard of (Hyness claims in his rant that the Ancients erased his sect from their history after the schism), they reveal themself to be an actual Ancient, and the game itself calls him a liar???!? Like dude you had at least one other outfit you could’ve worn today lol

Anyways, I have some loose appearance similarities to point out between Magolor and the Doomers and co. His ears are shaped, striped (his hood is at least, though I know it’s more similar to Hyness’ ears), positioned, and even move similarly to the top two projectiles on a Deppa. The ears do have more jiggle physics now, unlike the Deppa projectiles, but they’re often portrayed as horns instead of ears in his boss forms (and concept art but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything for current Mags) anyways. Also, Dupas’ feet are a little strange. With the way that they move back and forth unrelated to how the Dupa actually moves and the way that they can stand upside down, it definitely could be that those appendages are disconnected similar to Magolor’s hands and the Dupas actually move by floating around. Admittedly they’re not the same color yellow and this one is a vague connection at best, though the Dupas are also slightly egg-shaped like Magolor. Oh, and in Magolor Epilogue his projectiles and the Rampaging Doomers’ projectiles look almost exactly the same to me. I could also point out the fact that Magolor’s 2nd phase/Soul form has a large mouth like the Doomers, Deppas, and Dupas, though it doesn’t look very similar. Girl what is that thing. Why do you look like W.D. Gaster.

A slightly stronger connection is the eyes. Flat yellow eyes (upright ovals with variations for expression in this case) aren’t that uncommon on Kirby creatures, but a lot of notable examples, such as Hyness, the other Jambas, and Wester, have their eyes on a black background, likely to symbolize shadowed, glowing eyes. In Hyness’ case at the very least, this is proven by his unhooded appearance. Magolor, on the other hand, has his on a brown background, which, as indicated by his visible ear in the Epilogue, is just his skin color. (Meta Knight is similar in this regard, but he has his own whole thing going on species-wise, and his eyes were white when not shadowed until like Brawl anyways which just supports my point.) It being a solid color, and comparatively a dull one at that, is dissimilar to the Doomers, though it makes sense with his design to not make it too busy. Also a couple of the Doomer types have different eye colors, but that’s also clearly for the purposes of making a good palette.

My favorite evidence, however, that links Magolor to the Doomers is his first phase boss theme, Welcome Your New Overlord (née Under My Control). I think it’s so similar to Another Dimension (the song that plays in the rift segments before each Doomer fight) and VS Sphere Doomer (context self-explanatory) that they were intentionally written in the same style. (Grand Doomer is also somewhat similar, but to a lesser extent in my opinion.) All these songs have synth chords through most (less in Grand Doomer) of them that, well. I didn’t take enough music theory to be able to identify chords more complex than triads, but I would describe them as “dissonant” or “jazzy”, and they step around to different keys relatively frequently (Oops, just realized I wrote “chord structure” instead of “chord progression” on the board, oh well. It’s probably non-functional harmony anyway but either way, I just meant this). They also have very similar rhythms, playing the same chords multiple times in a row, often falling on offbeats (again, Grand Doomer is the outlier here). Pre-final boss themes in Kirby are often written to be complex and disorienting, but the way that these songs are similar is specific enough that I think it’s reasonable to assume it was on purpose. Also can I just say how much I love Welcome Your New Overlord? Amazing song.

Overall, the trick to all Kirby lore is trying to judge whether things are done by the developers for the purposes of gameplay and game experience or for the purposes of canon lore, and I’m not gonna make a judgement call on this one, but I really like it as a headcanon at the very least. A couple more related headcanons about Magolor for reading this far: Not sure whether I think that Mags named the Lor after himself or himself after the Lor, but I think for the “Mago” part, he either named himself after the Ancient word for “lie” on purpose as an inside joke for only himself (not knowing the Jamba were still around to call him on it) or he named himself after the Ancient word for “magic” and it just so happens to be either a homonym or synonym for the word “lie”, possibly because of negative opinions toward the Jamba. Possibly both options, even. Also I think the reason he talks Like That, at least in English (in Japanese he just uses katakana instead of hiragana a lot, which, katakana is usually used for foreign words so it gives a “foreigner” feeling), is because he’s a very studious and book-smart foreign language learner, but unfortunately the first native speaker of Kirby’s language he met was Marx (there’s a well established fan theory that he has met Marx before based on his dialogue that he knows someone who knows Kirby) and he internalized entirely too many of his speech patterns. On purpose. Mini speech headcanons: At Merry Magoland he either addresses to the patrons as “parkgoers”, “paying customers” (he doesn’t charge admission but he got used to saying it at the Shoppe and thought it would be funny to continue saying it in an inappropriate situation; it does make some people freak out thinking they were supposed to buy a ticket), or “gamers”. Also during the beginning of Return to Dream Land he laid the flattery on a bit thick with calling the main group “kind strangers” and “my saviors” and he still calls them that sometimes after they’re friends for real just to be annoying.

Thank you for reading!

[padawansuggest]

I don’t dislike people with accents. But. I have a heavy speech impediment that’s gotten worse over the years because of medical problems… and tinnitus… so. They can’t understand me… and I can’t understand them… I’m dropping half my letters and they’re too quiet for me to comprehend… frankly I’m probably too quiet too. Either way, sometimes you just gotta sit in silence while the doctor hooks you up to a million wires for a sleep study cause neither of you gonna hear what the other is saying. Great guy tho, he’s awesome.

This mainly applies to people who are ESL because first they have to translate the words, and THEN they have to try and grasp what my words were with all the dropped syllables. English as a first language people tend to get it on tone and context.

Anyways. I’m terrified cause I’m about to go on vacation (celebrating a wedding, meeting my long-term long-distance gf for the first time in person, seeing my sis for the first time in years, my birthday is tomorrow and hers is the 16th, so, lots to celebrate) and it’s gonna be 9-10 days of… people… and I’m not good at speaking…

My gf can’t spell for shit she’s illiterate af and I’ve got a speech impediment to stop conversations, it’s MY turn to the the unintelligible one here.

[beneaththebrim]

Opinion on the translation of 本座

I have a translation opinion that is just straining at the bit but since I’m just a beginner I’m gonna post it here rather than on twitter so I don’t get ‘Silence, HSK5-6′d about it (tbh idek what my hsk level is at this point bc my skills are so skewed toward reading/translating fantasy novels, like I can often read several straight paragraphs of shangxian without having to look anything up but if faced with, say, cooking instructions in chinese I’d probably still have trouble, and my speaking/writing/listening skills are probably still hsk3-4 at best, when faced with a font change I am rendered illiterate, etc).

But anyway I think it’s become really common to translate 本座 (benzuo) as ‘this venerable one’ and while things like self-appellations are just, so difficult to translate into english, I feel like ‘this venerable one’ is just not an effective translation, for a couple main reasons.

1) It takes a two-syllable phrase and turns it into six syllables. To borrow the words of another, it’s a bit like translating 师弟 (shidi) to ‘junior martial brother’, but if you’re in the moment, shouting “师弟！”, you’re not gonna have time to spit out that mouthful. Granted, 本座 is a self-appellation, which makes it more awkward to translate as anything other than ‘I’ in English--can’t just keep it in pinyin like you would do with 师弟, and moreover keeping it in pinyin would open up a big can of worms for a bunch of other non-我 self-addresses: 在下 (zaixia, humble self-address)，朕 (zhen, self-address for the emperor)，孤 (gu, self address for a prince)，贫道 (pindao, humble self-address for a Daoist)，etc.

2) 本座 tends to be a self-aggrandizing self-appellation, and the ‘this’ and ‘one’ in ‘this venerable one’ just automatically connote humility--they de-center the self, and ‘venerable’ can only do so much heavy lifting to make up for that. But 本座 doesn’t de-center the self, it reinforces it, it puts the self on a pedestal. Like, I’m not opposed to translating 在下 as ‘this one’ or even 贫道 as ‘this humble Daoist’ (sparingly, only at the beginning of paragraphs, see reason (1)), because in those cases, they do effectively convey humility. But the only way I could see ‘this venerable one’ being an effective translation of 本座 would be, say, a grandmaster/immortal/deity who is humble by nature, and only uses that appellation to be in keeping with their fellow grandmasters/immortals/deities.

So, what would I do? Well, I’m actually not in favor of just erasing the various context-laden self-appellations by turning them all into ‘I/me’, especially because it’s often important to characterization to see when a character switches between different self-appellations, how they’re modulating between formality and informality, pride and humility, distance and intimacy. In fact, I even distinguish between 你 (you, informal) and 您 (you, formal) by capitalizing the latter, despite that not being standard practice.

I can think of two main ways to go about it:

1) In the past, I’ve translated 本座 using the royal ‘We/Us’, much like I’ve done with 朕, and just put a footnote indicating it’s not quite the same. This, to me, seems like the best option short of changing typeface.

2) But actually, I’ve been thinking about it, and think maybe one could also convey the grandness of 本座 through ‘I/Me’, that is, capitalization and boldface (or maybe just ‘I/me’, just boldface). The eye pauses slightly on the word, but doesn’t get bogged down by a big mouthful.

[timetrees]

this is really mean but one time i saw someone on here offering con lang commissions & what they were doing to create the language was using vulgarlang.com which like. it’s good for constructing the sounds of a language (in 1 or 2 syllables) but if you want a language for a story or something that makes sense and has an internal logic it’s going to be pretty hard just using vulgarlang, i think especially grammatically and with word relations. it’s also a $10 program which has a free version which is almost as good so paying someone to use the program for you doesn’t really make any sense

they were also offering script commissions where they would write an alphabet with whatever sounds the client wants which is Actually really valuable and useful esp. for people who don’t have much imagination for symbols so idk why they wouldn’t just offer that, esp. since they offered for clients to send in the sounds that they want in the language. the vulgar software is just so simple that if you already have the IPA i don’t understand why you wouldn’t do it yourself?

but also i have a weird autistic mind & the way i make con-langs is very... involved idk. i put probably too much thought into it & how it works logically b/c it feels wrong to me otherwise, and not everyone wants a con-lang that has it’s own grammatical quirks & etymological histories. i think a lot of fantasy con-langing can get very “exact english translation with different sounds” - eg. matching the english sentence word for word without changing grammatical structure or realizing what conjunctions, adverbs & prepositions do in phrases; so a phrase like “keep an eye on him,” while the preposition ‘on’ could theoretically translate using a term meaning “to” (“keep an eye to him”) or “with” (“keep an eye with him”), a con-langer might automatically choose a word that they’ve designated as meaning ‘on,’ even if they’re usually using that word in a different sense of the translation (on top of, about, etc). so stuff in that vein.

anyway this post was just an excuse to ramble about con-langs for a while i love con-langing

[deardragonbook]

A couple of things I experience being bilingual (for your writing)

Writing a bilingual character is probably very difficult for someone who isn’t bilingual. So, here’s a quick post on a couple of things I do and experience as someone who is bilingual. 

For context my first language is English, but I’ve lived in Spain for over 15 years now and my partner who I live with only speaks Spanish, so I do speak more Spanish on the average day than English. 

1.-I forget words, all the time, in both languages. Sometimes my brain is only going to give me one version of that word and that may not be the language I’m aiming for. Depending on the word or circumstance though, I’ll often just throw it into the conversation and hope for the best. This works a lot because usually if my brain doesn’t supply the word, it’s actually because they’re very similar. Examples of words I may forget (supposedly/supuestamente, acusation/acusación, salary/salario...) a sentence I often say to my roommate is, “I don’t know the word in Spanish but I’m just a couple of letters or a syllable away.” 

2.-Expressions are my worst nightmare. Seriously, the amount of times I forget which expressions exist in which language and just say them anyway is concerning. In the best of cases, this ends up with people simply not understanding. But in the worst of cases, you get the fact that the Spanish expression for being put under anaesthetic is “le van a dormir” literally translates to “they’re putting him to sleep”, so when I told my mom my cat had a urinary infection had to stay at the vet because they were putting him to sleep... well, she interpreted something slightly different (for anybody who English isn’t their first language, being put to sleep is an expression that means to put down, like... medically induced death). 

3.-Despite the fact that I am bilingual enough to realice five episodes in I forgot to change my streaming to English, I can’t do two languages at the same time. By which I mean, if I have a show on in the background in English, I can still write, in English. But if I an hear the TV in Spanish, then I can only write in Spanish. I don’t know why this happens, but it does. Also if I’m witting in English and someone starts speaking to me in Spanish, I have to ask them to start over. 

4.-Translating. So, I’ve heard people complain about the whole “oh I struggle to switch sometimes” when referencing bilinguals in writing. But I genuinely experience something similar while translating, so I most often translate for my boyfriend when my family speaks to him in English, and then I translate what my boyfriend says in Spanish back to them. Yep, that’s how translating works, the problem is, if say my boyfriend knows how to say something in English, he then does that, and I’ll automatically translate what he said in English to Spanish for my English family. 

Hey, you give me one thing, I give you back the other. It’s not my job to pay attention to what goes in and out. 

5.-Sometimes cultural difference and language differences are blurry lines. For example, in English if someone were to offer me something, say a sandwich, and I didn’t want it, I’d say, “no thank you,” and when the same thing happens in Spanish I say, “no gracias.” However, most Spanish would just say “no”, and I have had people say to me, “you don’t say gracias when it’s a no, only when it’s a yes...” 

This is also is really weird because whenever I take my boyfriend out for dinner with my family and they offer him something he just replies no and it kind of sounds rude even though we all know it’s just the difference in culture. So, it’s a fun thing you can keep in mind when writing a character’s dialogue. 

As usual,  check out my socials and book here.

Any other bilingual experiences? 

[tortilla-of-courage]

The Hylian written languages are a mess, man. But it’s nice seeing how they vary and how that’d affect how the Links communicate. I thought it’d be fun to share this since apparently written Hylian isn’t like, common knowledge in the fandom. Might be useful for art or the alike maybe? not sure

(really long post so. under a read more it goes! TL;DR of what’s in here: talking about and showing the written Hylian in almost all Zelda games, similarities between some, brief appearances in other games, and what writing system each Link would use according to all of this (basing it on the LU AU’s Links, but it could apply to any other Zelda AU out there), plus me trying to Connect The Dots™)

Written Hylian jumps from English-based to Japanese-based then back and forth, so in theory they could also sound completely different between each other, but that’s another issue. 

Anyways, here’s a totally-not-messy timeline of the games with their respective written languages (note: when i say english or japanese, i mean english/japanese-based Hylian, except in Link’s Awakening where it’s literally just those languages)

for convenience i’m gonna show and kind of explain each Hylian here really quick

First off, “English 1″, or the Skyward Sword Ancient Hylian alphabet

The first one chronologically. The start of a language-evolution nightmare. Anything you find in SS with this can be translated to English simply by replacing them with the latin alphabet.

Then we have “Japanese 1″, or the most common Hylian syllabary (syllable-based language) across the games

For some reason, Hyrule decided to switch to a syllable-based writing system all of a sudden and everyone said ok. With this one you can translate anything in Minish Cap, Four Swords/Four Swords Adventures, Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks to japanese. It can be a bit difficult because of a lack of distinctions japanese has (double consonants and half-sized syllables for example) but it can be done.

(As a fun note, this one can be found in Ocarina of Time 3D in the carpet of the Temple of Time, and in Square Signs! And also in Twilight Princess, in some of Kakariko’s Gravestones)

Then we have “Japanese 2″, in Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask.

Alright still syllable-based. That’s cool. Though this one’s way more square-ish than the last one, and it’s missing some syllables, so it complicates translations. The missing syllables are the ones with the variation marks “Japanese 1″ had. So, for example, in this syllabary, “ha/ba/pa” are the same symbol.

Going by the Fallen Timeline first, in A Link to the Past we’re shown a variant of Hylian that is referred to as “Mudoran”... which is gibberish, basically.

As far as I know, there’s no visible Hylian or other in the Oracles games, but we can assume they’d speak/write whatever language Labrynna and Holodrum have.

Link’s Awakening seems to just... have English and Japanese. At the same time.

In A Link Between Worlds and Tri Force Heroes, we’re introduced to a new alphabet, “English 2″, which is also used in Breath of the Wild and Age of Calamity, often called “Modern Hylian”.

It’s really similar to Skyward Sword’s Hylian, to the point of sharing many of its characters... except they’re all mixed up and/or slightly modified. 

Here’s a messy comparison between the two for funsies. You can technically crossread between the two but it won’t make sense for the most part. The only word i’ve found that’s the same in both is “NO”

In Zelda I and II there’s no written language to be seen like, anywhere because of the game’s limitations. While we’re at it, Hyrule Warriors doesn’t show any distinct Hylian either.

So! Child timeline! Termina uses the same “Japanese 2″ syllabary as OoT. That one’s easy.

Twilight Princess introduces a new alphabet, “English 3″, that’s the most similar to the latin alphabet out of the others.

TP’s many signs with this alphabet though seem to use it with English, Japanese, and/or gibberish. It really depends on where it’s being used. Most one or two word signs base it off english.

Also, this alphabet can be found in... Skyward Sword! Yeah, all the way back there. You can find it in the Sealed Temple and the Sky Keep (though it’s gibberish), as well as on one of the game’s covers:

Then Four Swords Adventures, and all the games in the adult timeline (Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, and Spirit Tracks) use “Japanese 1″.

So. What does this mean for the Links, you might ask? After that stupidly long exposition text wall, I can finally go to that.

i’m basing these on the Linked Universe AU’s Links, but the info above could be used for the Links in any other Zelda AUs. For people unfamiliar with the AU, “Hyrule” here is the Zelda I/II Link, and “Warriors” is the Hyrule Warriors Link. “Legend” covers all the other games in the Fallen Hero Timeline, and “Four” is the Four Swords and Minish Cap’s Links. The rest I think are more obvious.

Sky uses “English 1″. He could, in theory, see Twilight’s Hylian and have the vaguest feeling of knowing it, but since it was on the doors of the Sealed Temple i’m not sure.

Four and Wind use “Japanese 1″.

Time uses “Japanese 2″. Like Sky, he could potentially see Four and Wind’s Hylian and think he’s seen it before, but since it was just on the carpet I don’t think he’d have paid much attention to it.

Legend and Wild use “English 2″.

Also besides “English 2″, Legend also knows Mudoran, English, Japanese, and Labrynna’s and Holodrum’s languages. Multilingual king.

Twilight uses “English 3″, and if he ever paid attention to the gravestones in Kakariko Village, might recognize Four and Wind’s Hylian too.

Warriors could use any of these tbh, considering the mess his game is.

I have no idea what Hyrule could use either. Probably English 2 like Legend? Something else entirely?

Sky, Legend and Wild look at each other’s writing like “oh that looks familiar :)” but when they try to read it it makes absolutely No Sense.

I’m pretty sure I had more points to this when I started this post but I seem to have forgotten about them and i’ve already spent maybe 6 hours on this.

Conclusion: Written communication isn’t really a viable option for the Links unless they teach each other their respective writing systems. Chaos ensues.

Bonus! Both “Link” and their nicknames in each of their writing systems (using “English 2″ for Wars and Hyrule as placeholders)

[pumpkinpaix]

hello there, hope you're having a nice day <3

so i've been reading a lot of fics lately, uk for sanity's sake, and i've noticed that in most of them, lwj doesn't use contractions (eg., says do not instead of don't)?? and i think he doesn't in the novel either but i don't remember lol so i can't be sure but anyway that made me curious - does chinese have contractions as well? does he not use it bc it's informal?

hello there! I’m doing all right, i started to answer this ask while waiting for a jingyeast loaf to come out of the oven 😊 many thanks to @bookofstars for helping me look over/edit/correct this post!! :D

anyways! the answer to your questions are complicated (of course it is when is anything simple with me), so let’s see if I can break it down--you’re asking a) whether chinese has contractions, b) if it does, how does they change the tone of the sentence--is it similar to english or no?, and c) how does this all end up with lan wangji pretty much never using contractions in english fic/translation?

I’m gonna start by talking about how formality is (generally) expressed in each language, and hopefully, by the end of this post, all the questions will have been answered in one way or another. so: chinese and english express variations in formality/register differently, oftentimes in ways that run contrary to one another. I am, as always, neither a linguist nor an expert in chinese and english uhhh sociological grammar? for lack of a better word. I’m speaking from my own experience and knowledge :D

so with a character like lan wangji, it makes perfect sense in english to write his dialogue without contractions, as contractions are considered informal or colloquial. I don’t know if this has changed in recent years, but I was always taught in school to never use contractions in my academic papers.

However! not using contractions necessarily extends the length of the sentence: “do not” takes longer to say than “don’t”, “cannot” is longer than “can’t” etc. in english, formality is often correlated with sentence length: the longest way you can say something ends up sounding the most formal. for a very simplified example, take this progression from least formal to absurdly formal:

whatcha doin’?

what’re you doing?

what are you doing? [standard colloquial]

may I ask what you are doing?

might I inquire as to what you are doing?

excuse me, but might I inquire as to what you are doing?

pardon my intrusion, but might I inquire as to what you are doing?

please pardon my intrusion, but might inquire as to the nature of your current actions?

this is obviously a somewhat overwrought example, but you get the point. oftentimes, the longer, more complex, more indirect sentence constructions indicate a greater formality, often because there is a simultaneous decreasing of certainty. downplaying the speaker’s certainty can show deference (or weakness) in english, while certainty tends to show authority/confidence (or aggression/rudeness).

different words also carry different implications of formality—in the example, I switched “excuse me” to “pardon me” during one of the step ups. pardon (to me at least) feels like a more formal word than “excuse”. Similarly, “inquire” is more formal than “ask” etc. I suspect that at least some of what makes one word seem more formal than one of its synonyms has to do with etymology. many of english’s most formal/academic words come from latin (which also tends to have longer words generally!), while our personal/colloquial words tend to have germanic origins (inquire [latin] vs ask [germanic]).

you’ll also notice that changing a more direct sentence structure (“may I ask what”) to a more indirect one (“might I inquire as to”) also jumps a register. a lot of english is like this — you can complicate simple direct sentences by switching the way you use the verbs/how many auxiliaries you use etc.

THE POINT IS: with regards to english, more formal sentence structures are often (not always) longer and more indirect than informal ones. this leads us to a problem with a character like lan wangji.

lan wangji is canonically very taciturn. if he can express his meaning in two words rather than three, then he will. and chinese allows for this—in extreme ways. if you haven’t already read @hunxi-guilai’s post on linguistic register (in CQL only, but it’s applicable across the board), I would start there because haha! I certainly do Not have a degree in Classical Chinese lit and she does a great job. :D

you can see from the examples that hunxi chose that often, longer sentences tend to be more informal in chinese (not always, which I’ll circle back to at the end lol). Colloquial chinese makes use of helping particles to indicate tone and meaning, as is shown in wei wuxian’s dialogue. and, as hunxi explained, those particles are largely absent from lan wangji’s speech pattern. chinese isn’t built of “words” in the way English is—each character is less a word and more a morpheme—and the language allows for a lot of information to be encoded in one character. a single character can often stand for a phrase within a sentence without sacrificing either meaning or formality. lan wangji makes ample use of this in order to express himself in the fewest syllables possible.

so this obviously leads to an incongruity when trying to translate his dialogue or capture his voice in English: shorter sentences are usually more direct by nature, and directness/certainty is often construed as rudeness -- but it might seem strange to see lan wangji’s dialogue full of longer sentences while the narration explicitly says that he uses very short sentences. so what happens is that many english fic writers extrapolated this into creating an english speech pattern for lan wangji that reads oddly. they’ll have lan wangji speak in grammatically incoherent fragments that distill his intended thought because they’re trying to recreate his succinctness. unfortunately, English doesn’t have as much freedom as Chinese does in this way, and it results in lan wangji sounding as if he has some kind of linguistic impediment and/or as if he’s being unspeakably rude in certain situations. In reality, lan wangji’s speech is perfectly polite for a young member of the gentry (though he’s still terribly rude in other ways lol). he speaks in full, and honestly, quite eloquent sentences.

hunxi’s post already has a lot of examples, but I figure I’ll do one as well focused on the specifics of this post.

I’m going to use this exchange from chapter 63 between the twin jades because I think it’s a pretty simple way to illustrate what I’m talking about:

蓝曦臣道：“你亲眼所见？”

蓝忘机道：“他亲眼所见。”

蓝曦臣道：“你相信他？”

蓝忘机道：“信。”

[...] 蓝曦臣道：“那么金光瑶呢？”

蓝忘机道：“不可信。”

my translation:

Lan Xichen said, “You saw it with your own eyes?”

Lan Wangji said, “He saw it with his own eyes.”

Lan Xichen said, “You believe him?”

Lan Wangji said, “I believe him.”

[...] Lan Xichen said, “Then what about Jin Guangyao?”

Lan Wangji said, “He cannot be believed.”

you can see how much longer the (pretty literal) english translations are! every single line of dialogue is expanded because things that can be omitted in chinese cannot be omitted in english without losing grammatical coherency. i‘ll break a few of them down:

Lan Xichen’s first line:

你 (you) 亲眼 (with one’s own eyes) 所 (literary auxiliary) 见 (met/saw)？

idk but i love this line a lot lmao. it just has such an elegant feel to me, probably because I am an uncultured rube. anyways, you see here that he expressed his full thought in five characters.

if I were to rewrite this sentence into something much less formal/much more modern, I might have it become something like this:

你是自己看见的吗？

你 (you) 是 (to be) 自己 (oneself) 看见 (see) 的 (auxiliary) 吗 (interrogative particle)？

i suspect that this construction might even be somewhat childish? I’ve replaced every single formal part of the sentence with a more colloquial one. instead of 亲眼 i’ve used 自己, instead of 所见 i’ve used 看见的 and then also added an interrogative particle at the end for good measure (吗). To translate this, I would probably go with “Did you see it yourself?”

contained in this is also an example of how one character can represent a whole concept that can also be represented with two characters: 见 vs 看见. in this example, both mean “to see”. we’ll see it again in the next example as well:

in response to lan xichen’s, “you believe him?” --> 你 (you) 相信 (believe) 他 (him)? lan wangji answers with, “信” (believe).

chinese does not do yes or no questions in the same way that english does. there is no catch-all for yes or no, though there are general affirmative (是／有) and negative (不／没) characters. there are other affirmative/negative characters, but these are the ones that I believe are the most common and also the ones that you may see in response to yes or no questions on their own. (don’t quote me on that lol)

regardless, the way you respond to a yes or no question is often by repeating the verb phrase either in affirmative or negative. so here, when lan xichen asks if lan wangji believes wei wuxian, lan wangji responds “believe”. once again, you can see that one character can stand in for a concept that may also be expressed in two characters: 信 takes the place of 相信. lan wangji could have responded with “相信” just as well, but, true to his character, he didn’t because he didn’t need to. this is still a complete sentence. lan wangji has discarded the subject (I), the object (him), and also half the verb (相), and lost no meaning whatsoever. you can’t do this in english!

and onto the last exchange:

lan xichen: 那么 (then) 金光瑶 (jin guangyao) 呢 (what about)？

lan wangji: 不可 (cannot) 信 (believe)

you can actually see the contrast between the two brothers’ speech patterns even in this. lan xichen’s question is not quite as pared down as it could be. if it were wangji’s line instead, I would expect it to read simply “金光瑶呢？” which would just be “what about jin guangyao?” 那么 isn’t necessary to convey the core thought -- it’s just as how “then what about” is different than “what about”, but “then” is not necessary to the central question. if we wanted to keep the “then” aspect, you could still cut out 么 and it would be the same meaning as well.

a FINAL example of how something can be cut down just because I think examples are helpful:

“I don’t know” is usually given as 我不知道. (this is what nie huaisang says lol) It contains subject (我) and full verb (知道). you can pare this straight down to just 不知 and it would mean the same thing in the correct context. i think most of the characters do this at least once? it sounds more literary -- i don’t know that i would ever use it in everyday speech, but the fact remains that it’s a possibility. both could be translated as “I do not know” and it would be accurate.

ANYWAYS, getting all the way back to one of your original questions: does chinese have contractions? and the answer is like... kind of...?? but not really. there’s certainly slang/dialect variants that can be used in ways that are reminiscent of english contractions. the example I’m thinking of is the character 啥 (sha2) which can be used as slang in place of 什么 (shen2 me). (which means “what”)

so for a standard sentence of, 你在做什么? (what are you doing), you could shorten down to just 做啥? and the second construction is less formal than the first, but they mean the same thing.

other slang i can think of off the top of my head: 干嘛 (gan4 ma2) is also informal slang for “what are you doing”. and i think this is a regional thing, but you can also use 搞 (gao3) and 整 (zheng3) to mean “do” as well.

so in the same way that you can replace 什么 with 啥, you can replace 做 as well to get constructions like 搞啥 (gao3 sha2) and 整啥 (zheng3 sha2).

these are all different ways to say “what are you doing” lmao, and in this case, shorter is not, in fact, more formal.

woo! we made it to the end! I hope it was informative and helpful to you anon. :D

this is where I would normally throw my ko-fi, but instead, I’m actually going to link you to this fundraising post for an old fandom friend of mine. her house burned down mid-september and they could still use help if anyone can spare it! if this post would have moved you to buy me a ko-fi, please send that money to her family instead. :) rbs are also appreciated on the post itself. (* ´▽` *)

anyways, here’s the loaf jingyeast made :3 it was very tasty.

[farlynthordens]

Is Gen gay-coded or just an entertainer? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ random thoughts/observations about his speech in Japanese

Warnings: LONG. mentions of gendered language and homophobic characterizations

The concept of “role language” is super important in Japanese fiction, because how a character talks can tell you a lot about their personality. Unfortunately, it’s often lost in translation because languages like English don’t have the ability to play around with formality levels, pronouns, etc as much.

Ever since I first watched the dcst anime like a year and a half ago, I’ve had no idea if Gen is intended to be the “gay friend” character or just the “quirky famous guy,” or maybe both? I figured that writing out my thoughts might be interesting for some people! Take everything with a grain of salt tho since I’m not a native speaker

1. Backwards speech

I want to first cover backwards speech (localized as pig latin in the English manga) because this used to confuse the fuck out of me. It felt like a quirky teen thing or internet slang, but it’s actually [zuuja-go] (“jazz” written backwards + “language”) which originated in the 40s-50s.

It was revived primarily by male TV stars and comedians in the 80s-90s, and to this day zuuja-go is regarded as a type of [entertainment industry-specific language]. However, it’s hardly used anymore. It’s kinda weird then that Gen, who’s too young to have lived in the revival period, would use zuuja-go, but my guess is that it’s a funny and somewhat original way to show his “popular entertainer” background. I personally don’t know any other characters who use it as regularly.

2. Choice of pronoun + speech patterns

Gen ends nearly every sentence with ~ne, ~yo ne, ~yo, or ~sa, or otherwise no particle at all. Questions almost never have an ending emphasis particle, putting the rise in intonation on the final word (the standard is to end with ~ka, ~no ka, etc). He also always contracts the verb ending ~te shimau into ~chau/jau (Senku always uses the contracted form too, but a more boyish derivative (chimau). It probably sounds crazy but trust me). There’s more I could list, but these are the most notable points lol

This kind of speech pattern is associated with teen girls/young women, so when it’s applied to a perceived male character, it’s used to indicate that they’re an “effeminate man”. In most cases, “effeminate” = gay/trans (yeah it’s shitty and outdated thinking). It’s also been applied to male characters who are idols or internet stars, possibly as a dig at their masculinity or making fun of their attempt to appeal to female audiences.

One example of the latter is Pyotr from Carole & Tuesday, who’s their universe’s equivalent of an Instagram celebrity. His sentence structure is almost identical to Gen’s, with the girlishness turned up to 11 because of the very high pitched, nasal-y voice given to him in the show. More on this later.

We also can’t forget how he calls everyone -chan. It’s diminutive and cute, but literally no one uses -chan that much. Even in fiction, female characters normally use it for female friends or children, and guys almost never use it except for children and maybe certain girls they’re close with. It’s definitely the most exaggerated cutesy trait he has. “Effeminate male” characters often address others - regardless of gender - with diminutive honorifics or cute nicknames even when not necessarily appropriate, so this is just gay-coded behavior from what I can tell lmao

One thing that’s different about Gen compared to other characters with the same "effeminate male” speech pattern (that I can recall, at least) is his pronoun. He uses the masculine “ore”, like Senku, Chrome, and most of the other young male characters. In text, his “ore” is even in kanji (俺) like theirs. Had it been written in hiragana or katakana, it would have given more of a casual or stylish vibe. Just as a sidenote, this is also why his name itself is written in mixed hiragana/katakana instead of kanji! It’s a typical thing for Japanese celebrities to do with their names to seem cool.

Anyway, characters who are meant to be portrayed as “effeminate men” will almost always use watashi or atashi, the standard “female” pronouns, or at least “boku” which is generally male-aligned but softer than “ore” (Pyotr uses boku, as an example).

Pronoun usage is way more nuanced in real life, but for fictional characters, it tends to be broken down into these kinds of stereotypes based on Tokyo-dialect Japanese.

He also is missing some other key points in his speech pattern that would more clearly identify him as gay/trans-coded, like using the feminine ~kashira (”I wonder...”) instead of ~kana.

3. Voice acting in the show

I love Gen’s Jpn voice honestly, but it does play into the “effeminate man” stereotype a little. His voice is a bit higher pitched than the other guys and somewhat nasal-y, which are both common traits of this stereotype when used with the speech patterns I talked about above. The way certain syllables are stressed also highlights his feminine speech pattern. However, he’s comparably tame to “effeminate” characters in other series. For example, his Jpn voice actor does raise the pitch of his natural voice for Gen, but it’s not a falsetto imo. It’s pretty common for male voice actors to do falsettos for “effeminate” characters.

Gen also doesn’t fall under a lot of the tropes that plague many gay/trans-coded characters and quirky celebrity types - such as being a “diva” or uncomfortably flirtatious - which tend to get amplified in voice acting.

---

This stuff combined with my previous post about his clothes makes me wonder even more about what was intended for his character. There’s a lot about him that is notably “feminine” without him leaning too hard into gay stereotype territory. And it’s just like, why did you do that.

If you survived reading this far, I’d love to hear your thoughts<3

[headheartbellarke]

JEALOUS | Luke Patterson

Requested by anon: “5 times Luke gets jealous and one time he doesn’t have too. Luke x reader?”

PAIRING(s): Mercer!fem reader x Luke Patterson WARNING(s): angst, fluff WORDS: 2.3k SUMMARY: Five times Luke Patterson gets jealous and one time he doesn’t have to.

A/N: hi! sorry this took so long, lol. school sucks. :/ i promise im gonna be posting more frequently from now onwards! anyway, decided to make y/n alex’ sister, bc i’ve been wanting to try it for a while. hope u like it!! <3 also, song used is carry me by kygo ft. julia michaels.

1.

The first time that Luke Patterson feels that scorching, smoldering rage in the pit of his stomach is when he notices Y/N Mercer stare at his bandmate, Bobby Wilson, for the entirety of their hour-long Literature class.

At first, he doesn’t understand why he feels this way: Y/N’s just as much Bobby’s friend as she is his. Well, not really – Luke likes to believe that he is the one that she is closest to in the band, other than her brother, Alex, of course. Sure, Bobby and Y/N are friends – they say ‘hi’ when they pass by each other in the hallway, she helps him out with his Physics homework when he asks, and he asks her how her day’s been – that sort of friends. They’ve never really interacted more than it was required, and Luke knows that if Bobby wasn’t a part of their band, Sunset Curve, or if Y/N wasn’t their drummer’s sister, those two wouldn’t be friends.

Anyway, he thinks that maybe it’s because they are supposed to be partners, working on their assignment together – and instead, she is choosing to abandon him and stare at one of his best mates, instead. He thinks that maybe he’s mad because she promised him that she would help him out with this assignment, which is particularly hard, and now, it feels like he’s ditching her.

Instead of thinking about why he is so bothered at the fact that Y/N is staring at Bobby, Luke chooses to elbow her instead.

“What?” She whispers, a blush covering her cheeks.

“Can you focus?” He snaps as she rolls her eyes and opens their textbook.

“You’re annoying.”

2.

“Alex, Alex, Alex!”

“Luke, I’m sitting right beside you – you don’t need to yell.”

“There’s something that you should know.” Luke whispers, conspiratorially. Alex, who’s sitting beside him on the couch in the garage where they rehearse, leans forward, intrigued. “What?”

He points at Y/N, who’s sitting in front of Reggie in the opposite side of the room, strumming a guitar – Reggie’s teaching her how to play. Unlike her twin brother, she’s not naturally gifted in music, which is pretty evident from her occasional frustrated huffs, and the obviously off-key tune. Rather, science is her talent, and has always been. The top spot in their class has been permanently occupied by her ever since their first exam as freshmen.

“She!” Luke whispers. Alex furrows his brows. “Yes, I know that she has no musical talent whatsoever –”

“No, no, no. I mean, yes, she doesn’t have that – but you wanna know what she does?”

“I have a feeling that you’re gonna tell me even if I don’t wanna know.” Alex mutters.

“She has a crush on Bobby!” Luke scrunches his face, a disgusted look taking over.

The drummer raises his brows and bursts out laughing. “Really, dude?”

“No, no, no, I’m not lying, okay! I’ve seen her stare at him!”

He raises his brows. “So? She stares at a lot of people.”  

“It wasn’t that way, okay? Last week, in class, she was ignoring me and staring at him. Plus, yesterday, when you were god knows where, she and Bobby were having a conversation. An actual conversation! I’ve never seen them talk that much. They were nerding out over Star Wars!”

“Dude, are you…” Alex pauses, looking around, “… jealous?” A smile spreads over his features.

Luke’s eyes widen, and he looks horrified. “What? Me? Jealous? Huh? Me? How?”

Inside, he is panicking. He hadn’t considered this possibility. Is he jealous? No, that can’t be. Y/N – he’s known her forever, and he is supposed to think of her as his sister. He does think so. He’s sure. He can’t – he doesn’t like her. She’s just… Y/N. Sure, he’s always thought that she’s beautiful. And smart. And so, so kind. He’s always admired her. OK, he might have had a little crush on her. But, in a totally harmless, admiring way! (In the way everyone seems to like Winona Ryder these days. Nothing more than that. Absolutely.)

She’s just Y/N.

Y/N, who’s always there for him after he has a bad day. Y/N, who’s the first person he hugs after playing an intense show. Y/N, who’s the only person who can understand his silence. Y/N, who makes sure that he knows that she appreciates him. Y/N, who he knows like the back of his hand.

Before Luke can panic any further, Bobby enters the garage, and Luke notices her attention immediately shift toward him. They exchange a smile, and Luke feels that rage, yet again.

He falls back on the couch, locking eyes with Alex, who is silently watching with a soft smile on his face.

“I’m not jealous.” He says weakly, and Alex nods – but he knows that it doesn’t convince either of them. His friend lays a hand on his shoulder, whispering, “It’s okay.”

3.

By the time the next month rolls around, Luke is positive that he’s jealous: so, he’s resorted to not thinking about it, her or even interacting with her – which is hard considering that she’s always around.

Now, he feels like shit. For their junior year, they are supposed to do a report on a Victorian era novel of their choice, with a partner. He and Y/N were supposed to partners – they had decided months ago and have also done previous assignments together. But now, since he hasn’t even dared to look at her in a month, she’s now doing the report with Bobby, of all people.

As he watches Bobby and Y/N sit next to each other with their arms brushing, he feels that rage again, and curses himself. Could he not have behaved like a normal person? He knows that she is confused as to why he’s suddenly ignoring and avoiding her – she has even asked her brother about it. But Luke had threatened Alex that he would tell everyone about his crush on Reggie if he even said a single syllable.

(Although Luke knows that he would never.)

He sighs, dramatically, and searches for someone else to pair up with, ignoring the way his heart clenches at the realization that he may be losing her.

4.

“Luke?”

He looks up and feels a rush in his veins.

“Are you… mad at me?” Y/N asks tentatively, standing at the door to his bedroom. Her eyes keep flitting between his face and around his bedroom, and he hates the fact that there seems to be an ocean between them.

“Uh…” He scratches the back of his neck, not knowing what to respond. She looks down at her feet, biting her lip and Luke feels a tug on his heartstrings at that. It’s been so, so long and he has so, so much to tell her, but he doesn’t know how to bridge the gap that he created.

He builds up his courage and says, “Yeah. I was kinda mad at you.”

Her eyebrows furrow, and panic flows into her e/c eyes. “What – what’d I do?”

Luke inhales sharply and wonders what he’s gonna say. It’s not like he can say that he was jealous of the fact that she liked Bobby, nor could he say that in the past month he has realized the fact that he may have a tiny, little crush on her and had to avoid her at all costs because she will never like him back and it’s too embarrassing?

He clears his throat. “Uh. It’s because you promised that you would do the English project with me but you’re doing it with Bobby.”

“But I’m only doing it with him because you won’t even look at me! Why won’t you?”

“I… You also ignored me for Bobby the other day?”

She throws her hands up. “What other day?”

“When we were working on the Shakespeare thingy!”

“I was not – now you’re making –”

“Forget it. Just go home, Y/N.”

A look of hurt flashes over her eyes, but she quickly clenches her jaw, and stands straighter, masking her emotions. “Asshole.”

She walks out his door, slamming the door shut behind her.

For the rest of the day, Luke lies on his bed and stares at his ceiling, and when Reggie comes over, he tells him that he’s ruined everything. Reggie lies beside him and asks softly, “You okay?”

“I think I like Y/N.” He whispers.

“We know.”

His lips part and he says in disbelief, “Alex told you?!”

Reggie shrugs. “He didn’t need to. Everyone can see the way that you look at her.”

Luke sighs, too tired to argue.

“Hey. It’s just a date, alright? It’s not like they’re getting married.”

Luke props himself on his elbow. “What?”

“Y’know, Y/N’s really picky –”

“What date?”

Reggie’s eyes widen. “Y-You didn’t know?”

Luke raises his brows, urging his friend to continue. He purses his lips and says, “Y/N and Bobby are on a date right now.”

Instantly, Luke feels as if his world has drained of every colour. Reggie looks uncomfortable, and whispers, “I thought you knew.”

“I, uh, I didn’t. Obviously.” He whispers, falling back on the bed again. His heart physically hurts, and he can feel tears prick at the back of his eyes. Mostly, he feels anger – at himself, and regret.

As jealousy claws its way to the surface, Luke mutters, “I hate Bobby.”

5.

Luke sits cross legged on the floor of the garage, with a Spanish guitar perched on his lap. His hands dance over the strings, trying to find the perfect melody for the song he just wrote.

Writing songs has always been his way of dealing with his emotions, especially when they got too intense. Right now, the situation with Y/N is exactly that.

His eyes dance over the notebook in front of him, and he closes his eyes, trying to forget everything that’s happened in the past couple of days.

“Cause I don't know how we How we got so far, you and me Almost like there's oceans between us, us So I need to know Could you carry me? Back into your heart again Could you carry me? Right into your distant hands Could you carry me? Right back to where we started from Could you carry me?”

“That’s beautiful.”

Luke’s head turns sharply to the side, and of course, it’s her. He clenches his jaws, and says, “What are you doing here?” He hates the fact that she looks so pretty, wearing a beautiful red sundress.

She bites her lower lip, and says, “We should talk, Luke.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

She giggles. “You’ve always been the jealous type.”

He raises his brows, opening his mouth to deny whatever she was about to say next, but she raises a hand to stop him. “Alex and Reg told me. They said that they’re tired of seeing you mope every day.”

“I –”

“Hold on. So, for the past month, you’ve been mad at me because you thought I like Bobby?”

Luke lowers his head, choosing to stare at his open palm instead.

“You ignored one of your best friends for more than a month because you were jealous, and you were too much of an idiot to tell her the truth?”

“Well, you don’t gotta be so mean about it.”

She laughs. “Luke. Bobby and I – we’re just friends, okay? I was staring at him because I really liked his hair. And you have to admit it – it’s nice. I actually asked him for his shampoo, too. But, well, you and him both thought that I liked him. That’s why he asked me out to the movies last day. But... uh, well, it didn’t work out.”

His heart races at the last sentence. “Why?”

“Because I like you, Luke. I always have. I thought I could like Bobby, I really did – but all I could think about last night was you.” She shrugs, and Luke feels like he’s falling. He thinks that the universe is playing a prank on him, but when he sees her crimson tinged face, the vulnerability in her eyes and her fiddling with her hands, he allows himself to feel the slightest amount of hope.

She looks down, continuing, “I, uh, I always thought that you only saw me as your best friend’s little sister. I didn’t ever think that, you know, that there could be something more. So, I kept it to myself and only Alex knew. But, last night, Reg came over and they were screaming for a while, about you and me, so I went to find out what happened, and they told me that you, uh, liked me too.”

Reggie. He must have told Alex that Luke was ugly crying on his shoulder.

“Please say something, Luke.”

He releases the breath he didn’t know he was holding. “I – I feel like you’re pranking me.”

She grins. “No. No, definitely not.”

“Y/N, god, you have no idea how difficult this past month has been for me. I mean, I never realized that I liked you that much until I saw you with him, you know? I always thought that I had a tiny, little crush on you but I never… and I thought that Alex would kill me if I did anything, but he’s been oddly… nice about all this.”

“He’s just tired of hearing me talk about you.”

“Probably. But yeah. I think you’re brilliant, Mercer. And I really, really, really like you.”

She jumps a little, and whispers, “I really, really, really like you too.”

“Do you maybe wanna go to the movies with me?” His wide grin matches hers.

“Only if we watch part two of Father of The Bride.”

“Deal.”

+1.

Luke watches Bobby smile at Y/N, looking at her as if she’s put the moon in the sky. Although, this time, he doesn’t feel the rage. He doesn’t need to, really, with Y/N’s hand wrapped in his, and the ghost of her lips still lingering on his.

 requests open! as always, feedback is highly appreciated <33

[lovingrosewho]

Fake Dating (pt. 1)

Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4 // Part 5

Hello again! I’ve been really busy with this one, I was bored/tired of not finding a lot of tropes involving Crowley that were SFW, so I decided to write my own :-) This has pretty much every major trope I can think of; Winchester!reader (although it’s not specified and you can decide that), fake dating, sharing a bed (sort of), lack of heat, etc. Maaaybe the last chapter will be NSFW but I haven’t decided that yet (if you have any thoughts or suggestions on this I’d appreciate them a ton) anyways, I’ll shut up now and let you read, PLEASE, if you have any feedback it’s gladly welcomed! I lately realized that I put a looot of dialogue into fanfiction and perhaps not enough context, so I tried to fix that <3 Usual disclaimer: English is not my first language, bla bla bla :-) Ly!

MULTICHAPTER

Pairing: Crowley x Reader

Rating: T. I guess fluff/crack?

Word count: 1.2k

Summary: Sam and Dean Winchester need your help with a case, which involves pretending to date the King of Hell.

Warnings: mild innuendos, summoning?

“Nuh-uh, I’m not doing it” you declare turning your back on the boys. Dean runs to you and gently grabs your arm without you stopping.

“(Y/N) come on, you’re the only one who can do it” he begs, which gains a sigh from your mouth and you finally stand still, tilting your head at him as a prompt to keep talking “It’ll just be a couple of hours, just until Sammy and I are able to get to the house and hide from those two jackasses before they get there”.

“Are you actually asking me to have dinner with a couple of psychos... pretending to date him?” you question Dean sincerely, a look of concern and disbelief plastered on your face. Said petition, coming from the most protective Winchester brother, was a true surprise.

“You know I wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t our only option. (Y/N), please” he supplicates one more time.

It had all started when Sam and Dean screwed up at catching the shape shifters you were after, it was a simple job, but of course, they went in guns blazing, walking into a trap, a set-up, and when they realized, the monsters were gone. Funny enough, they turned out to be quite the art collectors, which seemed logical, given the circumstances under which they were killing and stealing from. But who could possibly know a pair of loonies like that? Even better, be friends with them? Exactly.

The King of Hell.

It wasn’t as if Dean were asking the world from you, it was a simple date. A risky one, sure, but you’d had it worse and with far worse men. The plan was straightforward, you entertained the shifters pretending to be Crowley’s girlfriend, whilst Dean and Sam got to turn down the security system of the house and hide, surprising the shifters the moment they entered.

“Fine” you mutter after a few minutes considering your possibilities. Dean immediately lifts you up the ground and kisses you all over the cheeks and forehead repeating again and again a series of ‘thank you’. You sigh for what seems to be the eleventh time this day and follow Dean towards the dungeon where Sam is waiting with the ingredients. You nod over at him to let him know you’re ready.

“Et ad congregandum, eos coram me” Sam proclaims as the blood from his ripped open palm runs across the dagger and through his fingers, dripping inside the summoning bowl.

A strong tug shakes the earth beneath you, and a low thunder sounds in the distance as the King of Hell himself, presents before your eyes.

Crowley looks directly ahead at the three of you, and then brings his gaze down, rolling his eyes in annoyance at the sight of the devil trap.

“Hello, boys” he salutes politely “(Y/N)”.

Your legs falter at the sound of your name in his voice, his lips savoring each and every syllable as your core twitches and you’re forced to bite your lower lip down not to hum in response. You had always been attracted to him even if you didn’t know how to act around him, it wasn’t as if they taught you in any manual nor hunter school how to make a move on the King of Hell.

“Aren’t we a little past the whole devil trap deal?” Crowley asks bringing you out of your musings “What is it that you want this time?”

“The shape shifters you were talking about the other day, the art collectors” Dean starts and is interrupted by the demon.

“What about them?” Crowley says with a bored look until his glare lands on yours. You arm with courage and mentally scold yourself for being such a nervous fuss, giving a brave step forward and speaking.

“We need your help to trick them” you tell him and catch an interested shine in his eyes.

“And why exactly would I help you with that? Mind you, they’re my personal acquaintances, very important, and very dangerous acquaintances” he exclaims, his stare not dropping yours “What’s in it for me?”

“A date with me and the three of us not kicking your delicate ass” you declare, crossing your arms in your chest, trying to maintain your tone neutral and your mind in place. Crowley’s eyes finally leave yours to roam throughout your body.

“Threatening, aren’t we, sexy?” he speaks at you, clicking his tongue. Dean takes a step forward, demon blade in hand and angry stare, you stop him right in his tracks grabbing him from the hem of his jacket and yanking him back again “Lucky for you, those shape shifters have been meddling in a... particular, and highly important, business of mine, so, I’ll gladly help”.

The three of you stare blankly at him.

“Just like that?” Sam asks him, which causes Crowley to roll his eyes once again.

“I’ll happily deny until you have something else to offer if that’s what you want, Samantha” he affirms and causes the youngest Winchester to frown in response and raise his arms in surrender.

“So it’s settled then” you declare, exhaling a breath you didn’t even know you were holding.

“Text me the details, will you love?” Crowley pronounces softly. You nod quietly and walk towards the devils trap to free him, but when you’re near enough you trip over some ingredients that were still on the floor, breaking the seal either way. Crowley catches you and holds you tightly by the waist.

“Eager much, (Y/N)?” he purrs in your ear and you feel yourself melting at his touch, but you readjust just fine and separate from him when you catch sight of Dean beginning to sense something odd. Crowley raises an eyebrow at your impassive glance, but says nothing, instead, to your surprise, he brings out your cellphone from his suit jacket.

“How did you...?” you start, looking into the side of your jeans you thought you had it in.

“Not so hard to pickpocket you, darling” he expresses, curiously eyeing you “I have very talented hands”.

You gulp as you turn to stare back at him, just to see him typing something on your phone, his smug smile not going unnoticed by you.

“I guess I do affect you at some level, don’t I?” he mutters so only you are able to hear him. You stay still, not saying a word, biting your lip down as he handles back your phone to you, his fingertips delicately brushing your hands, vanishing the moment the electronic touches your palm, the lights of the archive room seeming to fade at the singular contact and light up again when he’s gone. You check your phone to see what he did, the words “My King” read on the top of the screen and the number “666” at the center. You roll your eyes and put your phone back in your pocket.

“And? What’d he do?” Deans asks expectantly. You make a dismissive gesture with your hand.

“Nothing. It’s done” you declare turning to the Winchesters, proceeding to leave the room with both brothers looking at each other like questioning, what did they just miss?

Part 2

MASTERLIST (If anyone would like to be tagged you’re free to tell me! <3)

[applsauss]

Letters | War-tober #18

Description: “Read it to me?” When you speak your voice cracks with disuse.

Fandom: Band of Brothers


Pairing: Ronald Speirs/Reader

Word Count: 1.9k+

Warning(s): None.

      “We ain’t get any letters for a while now…” O’Keefe breaks the tepid silence without thought, as if he doesn’t spend every moment not filled with gunfire spiraling with dread. 

“Nope,” Perconte says around his toothbrush. 

You squint up at the white sun, then close your eyes and chase the colors dancing behind your eyelids. It is a dull pain that takes the edge off the darker thoughts prowling the corners of your mind. The acrid smelling smoke rising from the cigarette in your right hand fills your nose, and you flick it so the ashes crumble, then are taken by the breeze.

Germany is peaceful. Spring is melting the frigid countryside bit by bit and when the wind picks up, you don’t shiver anymore. It is the type of cold like shade on a summer day, not something bone chilling and desperate--a reminder of the dead.

The birches planted along the road sway while the countryside takes another long breath, their leaves flashing silver under the pale blue sky, and you watch this marvel of nature without comment, utterly still. 

"You think they'll come in soon?" O’Keefe asks. 

“Nope,” Perconte responds again.

"Well, I hope they do," O'Keefe barrels on with an optimistic lilt to his voice. 

This is the final straw for Perconte. He pulls the toothbrush from his mouth and braces his forearm on his knee. "Why? Got a dame back home to get ahold of? O'Reilly?" 

You let out a sharp breath from your nose. No matter how much the replacements bother you, they always seem to drive Perconte the furthest up the wall. Everyone's lost their fuses since Toccoa, the Krauts have gone around the circle with scissors halving them. Discipline helped you survive Sobel, but you've traded that, along with your patience, in for the reflexes and nerves honed only in battle. 

You are not so different that you are unrecognisable as that paratrooper who spent that night of nights praying to god for mercy over the English Channel, but you are changed, like that person you were before was nothing more than a cast, and now the common Easy Company soldier is poured and forged of iron. 

O'Keefe seems to consider Perconte's question, then after a moment he fumbles over his answer. "...Yes?"

Perconte turns sharply towards you. "Now that's a lie if I ever heard one." 

You are tired, the memory of the fear you felt in that flying fortress enough to drag your heart down until it is barely beating. You bring the cigarette dangling loosely from your fingers up to your lips and take a drag to try and calm down. "Leave the kid alone, Perco," you mumble. 

Annoying as he is, O'Keefe is right about one thing. You haven't gotten a letter for a very long time. Not just because they haven't been delivered, though. Nobody's writing anymore--not even your parents. It's not that they don't love you, but you think that they've already finished mourning you. 

Everyone back home, they've made peace with never seeing you again. Whether you die today or live tomorrow, it wouldn't make a difference to them because you'd still be gone. They've moved on, not for any fault of yours or theirs, it's simply been too long since they've seen your face. 

This is just one more thing that drives the wedge between the common Easy Company soldier and replacements deeper. There is this deep, ugly resentment that seizes your heart and fills your mouth when you watch those boys walk around as if they are still loved, while you know in your body that you are not. 

What’s worse than that is that the funny thing the men have been saying is right. Germany is the best you've had it this whole war--better than France, or England or even your own Toccoa. Germany is the closest you've felt to home since you stepped foot on the train that dragged you away from it. 

Perconte clicks his tongue at you, then sticks his toothbrush back into his mouth, the bristles nearly flat from use. "Take that fuckin' thing outta your mouth," you grouse. 

"Not everyone wants to rot their teeth with them cigarettes," he defends halfheartedly. Squabbling is a comfortable pastime you've honed. 

"Perco,” you shoot back, “you're one annoying sunnuvabitch." 

"He's not that bad!" O'Keefe is quick to jump to Perconte's defense, and the sound of his voice makes annoyance pinch in your gut. 

Both you and Perconte round on O’Keefe at the same moment. "Shut up!" 

Nobody shuts up. O'Keefe keeps talking about home like it's down the road, Perco keeps sniping at him, his sharp words flying right over the replacement's head, and you take another drag from your cigarette, then stare down at the mud between your boots. Fuck, you wish you had a letter to read. 

Gravel crunches under foreign feet, and all three of you glance up as Captain Speirs walks past in that dangerous, prowling way he does. He doesn't look at you, but the sight of him churns your stomach--just not in the same way it makes Perco gulp nervously. Everyone in Easy has gotten a little more comfortable around Speirs (Bar Talbert, who tries to compare him to Winters every chance he gets, only to disappoint himself), but the air still changes when he's near. It is the shocking cold feeling of being alert. 

You wait till Speirs disappears from sight, then put your cigarette out in the dirt and pocket it, fed up with your current company. “I’m gonna go sniff around for some food,” you say before standing abruptly and stalking off in the same direction you last saw Speirs. 

---

He's in your thoughts more often than not. 

When you're staring down at the puppy chow the cooks serve you, when you're shivering under your thin blanket watching the stars, when you’re washing your face in a bucket of dirty water, when you're pressed up against your fellow soldier being shelled to bits, more often than not he's in your thoughts. 

Speirs’ face is leagues better than the last one you were stuck on (your neighbor's while he waved you off to war, two years older than you and a college boy, too smart for you anyways).

"Sergeant." You nearly jump out of your skin when Speirs' voice rings out from the dark alley to your left. He steps into the light, emerging from the liquid darkness like he is born from the obscurity. 

You startle for a moment, your hand settled over your stuttering heart, then you close your eyes. "Sir." 

Speirs hums quietly and says your name then, cradles it in his mouth before the affection bleeds through the syllables and your chest expands with warm breath and something else--some emotion entirely too strong for you to name. 

There is a delicateness to his features that seemed foreign until you traced it for the first time with your fingers, learned that he tastes of the same liquor you and your pals pass around the fire. 

Now when you think of Speirs, of that low camber of his voice, of his dark eyes as he watches you, his long eyelashes and the bow of his lips, there is no danger. You are as familiar with him as you are yourself. 

“Ron,” you utter, voice unchecked.

---

In your memories, it is morning. The winter sun is struggling to peak over the horizon and the dawn is a solemn blue-gray, as if it is afraid to break the silence. You are afraid to break the silence as well, as you pull the covers off your naked legs and take in your first breaths of wakefulness. 

The radiators have no such qualms. It is so quiet you can hear the house whispering with each breath it takes, and then they click on all at once and the house is filled with the sound of that comforting rumble, a promise of warmth.

You make your way through the house, bare feet sticking to the cold hardwood floor, and you hear your father in the kitchen, fussing with the coffee pot. There is something sacred in the mundane, in the everyday. This moment in time will live with you forever.

---

You spoon the warm beans into your mouth and close your eyes. Eating this meager dinner feels better than anything ever has before after two days without, but there is an exhaustion that sits right behind your eyes now--always. 

“We’ve got it better here than we’ve had it anywhere else. Isn’t it kind of bullshit?” Luz gripes from beside you. 

You are sitting at the top of the steps of some shop front, leaning against the awning. Luz and Johnny are cramped in beside you, and Cobb, Liebgott, Malarkey and Jancovek are sitting below you. Liebgott is resting his back against your shins, you can feel the warmth of him through your pants and when he shifts, his shoulder blades knock against your knees. 

You don’t pay much attention to anything said after that. The night is turning dark and the silver clouds obscure the stars from sight. Faintly you wonder if the Germans feel the same way you do, or maybe they’re more upset because now they are fighting in their own country. 

“Hey,” Liebgott says suddenly, shifting so your legs move with his weight. “Any of yous got letters to read?” 

The question makes your heart twist painfully. You’ve lost your appetite. 

---

Despite how hard you fight it, when given a moment of respite your thoughts, without fail, turn homeward. You are no longer in Germany, aware of krauts or guns and bullets, but you are a child and the smell of food cooking in the kitchen fills your nose. You are a teenager tripping over the shoes in front of the door, late once again to meet with your friends. 

You are unaware of the world, laying on the hardwood floor with stripes of sunlight shaped by the windows across your bare skin. The window is open, the breeze smells like baked asphalt and grass. A dog is barking. The leaves on the tree in your frontyard shimmer and flash like scales. 

Your mother calls your name. 

Your father laughs. 

Speirs sighs, and you blink your eyes, suddenly staring at the cracked ceiling of someone else’s childhood bedroom. 

Night falls quicker than you’re used to in this part of the world. Candlelight bounces off a pile of silver in the corner and is alight in Ron’s dark eyes. 

He is sitting up, back against the headboard, the blankets around his waist as he stares at a letter he received today. 

You huddle into the quilt, curled up in your side. You trace the lines of his face with your eyes before your attention drops to the letter. There is a bitterness in your mouth you bite back. A loneliness--a longing you cannot control. 

Home. 

You think of your home.

“Read it to me?” When you speak your voice cracks with disuse. You clear your throat before repeating the question once more, only with less confidence.

Ron’s eyes flick to you and he regards you for a long moment before his eyes soften with something like empathy, something like love--and maybe those two things are in practice, the same.

He clears his throat and begins narrating the letter from his mother without much inflection, though in just hearing the kind words of a mother you can pretend to feel the love of one. And with that you close your eyes and slowly, slowly drift to sleep to the sound of Ron’s voice filling the gentle darkness, traveling out the window and into the night--warm like candlelight and soft like the shade of a tree in springtime.

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Where It Leads (Rafe Cameron)

Summer IV

Part 07: Crashing Down

series masterlist | previous part

summary: A jarring family emergency forces you to consider the future of your relationship with Rafe Cameron.

a/n: I'm a little bit emotional about this series ending because I've had so much fun writing it! Enjoy the last part and, as always, please come share your reactions with me in my inbox. Okay, that's all from me!

word count: 2.1k words

Rafe Cameron knew how to text. He was somehow witty, charming, and hilarious all in less characters than a single tweet. Texting with most boys was like talking to a brick wall: single-syllable answers, unironic uses of punctuation, asking “What are you wearing?” before even listening to how your day went. Though, to be fair, Rafe had asked that same question a few times, which always earned him a sarcastic answer in return. Well, except for that one time.

You’d been forced to spill the beans about your dreamy summer romance to Alice and Kensie after one of Rafe’s funnier texts almost made you pee yourself laughing at the lunch table.

“Oh, so he’s a stud muffin,” Alice announced, peering over Kenzie’s shoulder at the photo on your phone.

“Please god don’t call anyone a stud muffin ever again Al,” Kenzie replied.

“What? The 80s are like making a comeback.”

“Yeah, not that,” you countered and Alice huffed.

“He’s totally hot though,” Kenzie said, handing the phone back to you. “And I kinda hate you for not telling us about him.”

You looked down at the picture. Rafe was kissing your check while you grinned up at the camera, the golden hour lighting made the whole thing look rather enchanting. It was your favorite picture of you and him.

“Oh shit,” Kenzie said causing you to look up from the phone. “You’re like in love in love with him.”

“What? No,” you protested. Yes, your brain corrected.

Kenzie glanced over at Alice for backup.

“Besides, I wasn’t hiding him. I just didn’t know if there was anything there to...tell,” you finished.

“I wish I had a handsome summer fling with spectacular cheekbones,” Alice sighed.

“Don’t let your boyfriend hear you saying that.” Kenzie chucked a fry off her tray at Alice who dodged it expertly.

“Oh, please. Matty knows I would dump his ass for someone who looks like a young Chuck Bass any day of the week. Gimme your phone. I wanna see the photos again y/n.”

“I seriously don’t know how you and Matthew have been together for two years,” Kenzie replied.

“Are you kidding? They’re practically made for each other,” you added.

“The phone, please,” Alice interjected. “I wanna thirst over your mans while my boyfriend is sucking up to his English teacher so she doesn’t fail him. Of course, I told him he needed to actually read Wuthering Heights and not just sparknotes it. But did he listen? No. I picked a real winner y’all,” she finished, taking the phone from your outstretched hands. “You sure Rafe doesn’t have any brothers? Not even like a half-step brother?”

So yeah, going great. Against the odds of three thousand miles, the whole thing was somehow working. Long-distance friends with benefits? Check. Well, except for those moments when that nagging feeling in your stomach came back and you’d start overthinking everything. His texts would sit, unread in your phone for days or even a whole week, slowly sinking to the bottom of your messages.

Then came the call from the Kildare Country Hospital in the early hours of a foggy April morning. You should have gone to sleep hours ago but were still up, desperately trying to cram Maria’s lines into your brain while also texting Rafe. The Sound of Music opened in three weeks and your director had already chewed you out twice for not being off-book, something about being an upperclassman and the lead, and what kind of an example were you setting for the rest of the program. Big speeches were kind of your director's thing, you learned to just ride them out.

Around 1 a.m. your phone ran with an incoming FaceTime call from Rafe. You pressed the green acccept button, a smile spread across your face as Rafe’s own filled the screen.

“Hey Broadway Star.”

“Hi Rafe.” The dim lighting of his bedroom made his feature especially striking. “What are you still doing up?”

“Can’t sleep. Plus you’re up too so. How’s the memorizing going?”

“Shitty,” you replied, closing your binder with a sigh. “I’m too tired to do anymore of it tonight anyway.”

“You know, I was thinking I could come to Oregon for your opening night?”

“Really?” The possibility of Rafe sitting in the audience made your heart race.

“Yeah, why not? I’ll ask Ward if I can borrow the plane that weekend and I bet Sarah’ll want to come too. I wanna see my girl kill it. I miss you.”

“I miss you too, Rafe. You know my friends think you’re hot.”

“Oh, do they?” Rafe replied, rolling over onto his back in his bed.

“Don’t let it get to your head, Cameron.”

The home phone ran but you ignored it, much more invested in your conversation with Rafe. The second time the hospital left a message. Your Nonna’s heart had given out. The prognosis wasn’t good. She had barely any time left.

Your heart dropped as the words echoed over the speaker of the answering machine.

“Rafe,” you said, cutting him off momentarily. “I gotta go. I’ll call you back later. I gotta-” you ended the call before Rafe even had the chance to respond. You dropped your phone on the kitchen table, dashing up the stairs to your parents’ bedroom. Your father was booking a flight for your mother back to the Outer Banks minutes later.

The end had come so quickly, so unexpectedly. It was almost like that made it harder. There'd been just enough time for your mom and uncle to get to the Outer Banks, sitting on each side of your Nonna as her final breaths passed through her lungs. Now, everyone was there to say goodbye one last time. Uncle Austin and his fiancé. Your mom and dad. Both your siblings. The entire population of Figure Eight.

☼☼☼

Rain drizzled down from the dark, gray clouds looming overhead. It was as if Mother Nature was mourning your Nonna too, hiding the sunshine away.

Three baby ducks followed their mama into the man-made pond at the edge of the cemetery. You watched their tiny feet kick up small waves disturbing the peaceful water and the tears silently slipped down your face.

The cars were waiting to take you back to your Nonna's house for the wake. The same house with the for-sale sign now stuck in the front yard. The for-sale sign with Rose's patronizing grin that you were starting to really hate. Your dad had handled that. Listing the house. He'd handled most of the funeral arrangement's actually because your mother had been too sunken into her grief to make any decision. Sending out the invitations, picking out your Nonna's casket, choosing the flowers. Your mother clung to him during the entire funeral, weeping into his shoulder.

“Y/n?” Rafe's voice called out from behind you and you turned to see him walked toward you. He’d stood at the back of the church with his family during the funeral. You had longed for him to be sitting in the first pew next to you, to have had his hand to hold onto to ground you, but it hardly would have been appropriate. Your Nonna would have sooner risen from the dead than have had a Cameron front row at her funeral.

As soon as he was close enough, Rafe reached for you, pulling your body tight into him. Your head landed on his chest and the sobs came moments later. God, he always smelled the same. He just let you cry, holding you close, smoothing his hand over your hair.

“I know you’re selling your grandma’s house but I was thinking you could stay with me for the summer," he said as your tears began to slow. It was hard to imagine that you wouldn't return to the Outer Banks once school let out. It was the first week of May already and you could feel the tourist-attracting town waking up. But selling the house just made more sense. Your older sister was already living her life in New York, a real adult life. Next summer, you'd be moving out too, headed to college. The house would sit empty for eight months out of the year, your family couldn't keep it and your uncle certainly didn’t want it. Selling it just had to happen.

You stepped back, slipping out of his embrace. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Rafe.”

“Why not?”

“Cause we’re like Romeo and Juliet.”

“I copied Cleo’s notes for that unit," he joked, trying to lighten to damp mood. “Plus I was never a fan of Leo DiCaprio so I didn’t finish the movie either.”

“It means we’re not supposed to be together, you and me. And whenever we try, the universe rips us apart. We hurt each other.”

Rafe shifted awkwardly on his feet, clearly wanting to reach for you again but stopping himself from doing it. “But I can't lose you.”

You reached your hand out, brushing away a strand of hair that had fallen in front of his eyes. “Oh Rafe, don’t you get it? You never really had me.” You stood up onto your tiptoes to kiss him just like you had the first time three years ago. Rafe barely parted his lips, kissing you back gently. Your hand cupped his face, your thump stroking over his cheek. It was a goodbye. Both of you knew it. It was an ending and this was your closure. You pulled away, your hand falling away from his face.

You couldn’t bring yourself to say the actual words. Your eyes fell to the ground. You needed to walk away now. You side-stepped Rafe but he grabbed your waist, turning you back around to face him.

“So that’s it? You’re not even gonna try to fight for us?”

“What even is there to fight for, Rafe? I’ve been fighting for us for the past four years. If we were supposed to be together that car wouldn’t have crashed into ours, I wouldn’t have fallen for Evan when I did, we wouldn’t be having this conversation at my Nonna’s funeral. What? Are we supposed to do long distance for all of college? I hardly know who I am right now. I have no idea who I’ll be in the next four years. Our future selves might not even like each other. I’m not gonna wait around for you Rafe and I would never ask you to do that for me.” You twirled the small, star charm between your fingers, a nervous habit you'd developed over the past year. His eyes dropped down to your neck momentarily and his adam's apple visibly bobbing as he swallowed his next weeks.

“You were it for me, you know. I tried to give a fuck about anyone else but I couldn’t get your gorgeous, stupid face out of my mind. I only wanted you.” Rafe paused gauging your reaction “I was falling in love with you.”

Your eyes wandered over his stoic expression. “The feeling was mutual, Rafe Cameron.”

He dropped your wrist but you both stood, not moving or saying anything. “Do you wanna walk me back to the car?”

“Yeah.” He reached for your hand, interlocking your fingers. Your other hand held onto his bicep so you walked together through the graveyard back to the parking lot.

The moment felt precious and delicate, like the fragile china your Nonna used to collect. You wondered what would happen to all that china.

Rafe placed a chaste kiss on your lips before opening the door of the car.

“I’ll miss you,” you said, the words hanging in the air meaning so much.

“Me too,” Rafe agreed.

You wanted one more kiss, one more passionate declaration of how much this all had meant but that would make leaving Rafe so much more impossible.

You climbed into the car, dropping Rafe’s hand in the process.

“See you around Cameron.” You knew it wouldn’t happen but it felt better than a goodbye.

He smiled back. “Maybe so.”

Perhaps Rafe was right and you’d both end up at a small liberal arts college in California taking the same second-year Econ class with a professor who always smelled like weed. Perhaps the stars would align and two of you would realize the universe wasn’t trying to keep you apart. It was just waiting for the right moment to show you that the love you had for each other was the soulmates, forever and ever kind of love. Perhaps you would get married and Sarah would be your maid of honor, of course. You’d buy back your Nonna’s house to raise your troubling-making kids in. Perhaps, you would find your way back and wake up each day and choose each other again and again.

Or perhaps, he'd always be your right-person-wrong-time. And, in the end, the passing days will steal away your memories of the blue-eyed boy from the Outer Banks.

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