#ymmv on that accent

[teecupangel]

Alright, I am still not over Nolan North (Desmond) voicing Abbas (and also Adam) and now you know (or have been reminded of this) too.

Video Clip below:

Ref:

[tevanbuckley]

pulling out the british dyke card to give some context to the bummy slur drama.

so personally I’ve never seen the phrase “bummer” used as a slur in the same way you’d call someone a fairy etc. (though I’m sure usage does exist, & the uk is an incredibly accent/dialect dense country so ymmv)

however a fairly common, if outdated, term I have heard in the wild is “bumming” which is basically a slang equivalent to sodomy or buggery and has the same connotations. i.e a derogatory way to refer to gay sex. and fwiw it is genuinely where my mind went when I saw bummy pitched as a name.

idrc if bvddie shippers wanna come up with a mean nickname, but if ppl start to point out the one you land on is uncomfortably similar to a slur maybe just stop using it. especially if others start doubling down and actually using it as a slur to taunt mlm fans specifically.

‘but we didn’t know!’ or ‘but it’s not a slur here!’ Hot take but if we can learn there’s a time and a place the word f*g (a historically completely innocuous word in the uk) is not appropriate maybe you guys can do us a solid on this one?

[lurkingteapot]

Free Thai language learning resources

I’ve been learning Thai for the past 20 months. This list is by no means complete or comprehensive, what works for me doesn’t have to work for you, etc etc. That said: I’ve used most of these and found them useful, I thought you might, too. Have fun!

Youtube channels with free video lessons:

There are tons of wonderful teachers on youtube; this is by no means an exhaustive list. The three channels listed here are comprehensive, long-running, and updated regularly; if you have other favourites, please reblog and append!

Comprehensible Thai is a channel that teaches Thai in Thai, from zero, via the comprehensible input method. They have videos from total beginner through upper intermediate/lower advanced levels available.

Learn Thai with Mod – Mod runs a language school that offers good, structured group classes; she and her co-teachers often upload short videos about specific aspects of Thai. The channel has been around for a long time and they cover a lot of topics, including grammar points.

Thai Lessons by New (Learn Thai one Word one Sentence) – lots of good vocabulary and situational phrases

Other channels I like:

Advanced Thai with Kruu Momm -- one of my favourites, Momm’s a star. Not included in the upper list only because this is definitely more of an intermediate-advanced resource.

Thai with Grace -- I knew of Grace via her polyglot channel and travel vlogs before I realised she also teaches Thai. Fun stuff.

Kat talks Thai -- I believe Kat is more active on instagram (@kattalksthai), but these are still really neat.

Perth Nakhun’s Basic Thai playlist

Honourable mentions because they’re interesting and can be nice supplements (yes, the video titles on these channels tend to be clickbaity, the content is useful, though):

Stu Jay Raj: Stu is a polyglot based in Thailand. His channel is a bit of a mixed bag, but he has a very interesting approach to languages and sometimes does foreign accent reduction / accent analysis sessions on his channel (with consent and participation of those whose speech he dissects).

Thai Talk with Paddy: Paddy is an Australian who learned Thai when he was a volunteer in Thailand, he’s kept it up. Fun things about language learning and culture

Listening comprehension

I’m assuming many folks on here who are interested in Thai already watch some Thai shows (yes I’m stereotyping but also this is tumblr), which means you’re spending time listening to Thai.

If you’re not:

Netflix, Youtube, WeTV, and Viki all have several Thai shows with English subtitles available. The Youtube channel of Thai broadcasting giant GMMTV has English subtitles on nearly all of their uploaded series, some series are also subtitled in languages other than English. one31 is another huge channel; they have English subtitles on some series and some series also have subtitles in Thai. There’s tons more – find a rec list and a Thai show that sounds like you’d enjoy it, chances are you’ll be able to watch it for free, legally, on youtube. You can use the youtube controls (or the ones on netflix) to turn the speed down to 75% —this can make it a lot easier to catch what’s being said. 50% gets so draggy that I personally find it almost harder to understand, but ymmv—give it a shot!

https://lingopolo.org/thai/ has real-life recordings for listening practice; sign-up is required but it’s literally just an e-mail-address, user name and password. Using the site is free.

https://www.activethai.com/ has a section dedicated to learning the tones (under “Overview of Thai Tones”) including a self-test for listening that I found very useful.

Learning to read

I will always, always, ALWAYS recommend learning to read the Thai script. All available romanisations for Thai have drawbacks, and besides, you learned to read English with its “though through thorough tough thought”, you can damn well learn to read Thai. I promise it will help you improve your pronunciation (yes, really) and overall understanding of how the language works.

Learn-to-Read-Thai resources that seem comprehensive and like they should do everything in one:

Anki decks “Read Thai PHASE 1 - The Consonants“, “Read Thai PHASE 2 - Thai Vowels“, “Read Thai PHASE 3 - Consonant Classes” and “Read Thai PHASE 4 - Tone Rules” by Khruu Gaan (ครูกานต์). Anki is probably the most powerful spaced repetition software I have ever used. It’s free on all desktops and android. These decks have sound.

Memrise course “Read Thai: A Complete Guide to Reading Thai“

Other resources I used (In hindsight, I feel like I should’ve picked one resource to learn to read from and stuck with it; I think I was rushing and made things more complicated than need be for myself with my hodgepodge mix-and-match approach. But hey, I can read now.)

https://www.activethai.com/ – the site I started with. Teaches the consonants separated by class and with sound. The only reason this is no longer my top recommendation is that I ended up using this alongside a resource that helped me memorise what the words used to represent the letters actually mean because the site itself didn’t tell me, and I wanted that easy way to have 44 vocabulary words ready as soon as you’re done learning your consonants, and it gives you access to neat mnemonics such as ไก่จิกเด็กตาย(เฎ็กฏาย)บนปากโอ่ง.

The chart on Wikipedia’s English article on the Thai Script

the reference section of Thai-Language.com

In order to better learn to read Thai written in different fonts (modern and handwriting fonts can be tough at first), the Thai Script typographical styles overview on Thai-language.com was a huge help, as was throwing simple phrases things into gdocs and messing around to see how different fonts made them look. This chart from sanukmaak.com also helped.

Speaking and pronunciation

The hardest one for any new language for most folks. For me personally, finding someone who speaks the language and is willing to correct me was an absolute necessity, but I know that’s not always an option. If you’re going it on your own, make sure you check out the resources above for learning to hear the tones and those sounds and sound clusters not present in your own language correctly first.

Things to try on your own:

shadowing: Whenever someone on a show utters a sentence you think might be useful, or provide a useful pattern, or something just sounds cool, rewind and try to speak along as they say it, trying to make it sound as close to their pronunciation as you can.

try to record yourself and listen back -- yes, it’s cringe af but it will HELP.

memorising short sentences and phrases: tying back to the section above, there's a ton of youtube videos that is "phrases to use in [situation]" that are great for targeted learning if you're up for it

self talk (cautiously! don't want to cement bad pronunciation habits)

if you’re linguistically inclined: looking up descriptions on how to make a sound correctly sometimes helps, as does watching videos of folks who’ve successfully learned the language.

once you’ve learned to read: find sentences to read somewhere (twitter, a textbook, whatever) and read them into your phone’s dictation engine. See if the software understands you correctly. Adjust as needed until it does.

Websites and apps to find language partners or (paid) tutors

Like any other app where you ‘meet people’, please exercise caution on these.

italki (mainly for finding tutors and teachers, but you can find language partners on the forums)

Preply (web/app) (for finding tutors/teachers)

hellotalk (app only, iOS/android) for finding language partners -- free to use basic features like messaging, voice rooms, etc; has annoying ads

tandem (app only, iOS/android) for finding language partners -- free to use basic features, has ads

any other app or website that’ll let you meet people, like local facebook groups (yes really), instagram, etc

(note: Neither hellotalk nor tandem allow users to sign up without selecting a binary gender. it sucks. I’ve seen people who managed to circumvent this on Hellotalk by signing up via apple ID (? I think), but it’s hearsay and I have not managed to do so myself.)

Books (a book) that are (is) worth spending money on imo

Higbie & Thinsan: Thai Reference Grammar. The Structure of Spoken Thai. Orchid Press: Bangkok, 2002. Yes, it’s ancient in textbook terms. It’s not perfect, but it’s still the best reference grammar for Thai I’ve come across so far, and I use it frequently.

Random bits and bobs

Stu Jay Raj has two videos in particular that I, as a phonetics-and-phonology-loving person, loved and found extremely useful and wished I’d watched before I started to try and learn the script: Thai Vowels for Dummies in 5 Min v2 - A System Impossible to Forget and Thai Bites Extended Edition - Transliterating Thai using IPA. I realise these may be overwhelming and less helpful for people with no prior phonetics or phonology training, but they helped me so much it’d feel amiss not to include them.

Resources I recommend AGAINST using when starting out

drops/hello words -- seems like their Thai courses have been created using machine translation that wasn’t sufficiently proofread. They will assign you nouns in places of the corresponding verb or false cognates, and that’s within the first 10 or so lessons. Might be useful once the level where a learner can tell “ah, yeah, that’s … not right” has been reached? idk.

transcription as generated by google translate: BURN IT WITH FIRE. it’s a transliteration, i.e. 1-to-1 representation of 1 Thai letter = 1 Latin letter (extended), it’s not phonemic, it’s not going to help ANYONE (and those who can make sense of it presumably already read Thai and would be better off with just Thai script). Just. Stop.

Google translate as a dictionary: still shitty but not AS bad as the transcription function. Still, for the love of all that you hold dear, please, save yourself the pain and confusion and just use thai2english or thai-language.com instead.

---

And that’s that from me, friends. Yeeting this into the void before I second-guess myself more. Please append additional resources!

Edited to fix a couple of typos and errors on 2023-06-15

[witheredgardenparty]

Aimonomia

Read on AO3 (AO3 Account)

(This might look familiar. Author moved blogs.)

Jude Jazza x g/n Reader

Originally a request for the Holiday 2023 Tarot Request Game.

You must hate him, you think, for the trench he has built between you. (or, the one where you make a New Year's resolution.)

Warnings: the game is canonically dark romance, slightly more descriptive than canon-typical violence, Reader gets injured (Reader will be fine), liberties taken with Jude's accent, liberties taken in general since the game isn't actually localized yet, Reader is in MC's position but we're ignoring the presets, Jude calls Reader "princess" which is meant as an insult/commentary (YMMV with gender comfort), other characters are mentioned/present, spoilers to various things, not that angsty - Reader is just annoyed the whole time, Jude's love language is increasing debt

Work Count: 4.2k

You were not supposed to go on this mission. There was not even supposed to have been a mission. Generally speaking, it is not often that missions are actually given out on holidays. Not due to any true respect for the significance of the day itself, but out of a strange sense of propriety on Victor's part. 

Busy body eccentric that he is, Victor considers it the poorest of taste to not seize any excuse for celebration. Something domestic inside drives him to decorate garishly and cook lavishly. Maybe it is for this reason, he cannot help but treat the Crown like his unruly children.

And like unruly children, he plans to herd them into the dining hall to enjoy the evening. The tables will be piled high with roasted turkey and scones and braised vegetables and scones. They will feast and count down the minutes until midnight and it will be a memorable experience for all. Or, well, that had been the plan.

Unfortunately, William had happened upon some last minute intel. It was the sort of signal they had been waiting for. Their targets were perfectly in position, the plans already in motion. Victor had sulked for all of a sour half-second before cheerfully designating a team.

It goes like this: New Year's Eve is a tumultuous day. Although the Crown demands a certain priority on its members' obligations, it does its best not to inconvenience unnecessarily. This is the sort of job for a man who hates to waste his time.

...please read the rest on AO3. (Requires an Account)

"I saw the Ikevil tag and I know what that is... can I please request Jude with New Year's kiss?" - Anon

The Draw:

The Turtle and Coriander (Satisfaction) - In Reverse

Dahlia (Refinement)

The Hanged Man

[ms-ship]

Can we agree that in The Real Ghostbusters, season 1-2 Janine Melnitz was and still is the superior Janine? Laura Summer really brought the character to life with the Brooklyn accent and feisty attitude that really made Janine...well...Janine. After the first two seasons, I still cannot believe the showrunners wanted to replace Laura with Kath Soucie, let alone change her whole look. Biggest. Mistake. Ever. I mean, WHAT were they thinking?!

Don't get me wrong, Kath Soucie is a really great voice actor, but as Janine Melnitz, this one's a big misfire for her vocal talent. Laura breathed life into the character and gave her the fiery, brassy personality we all loved.

As for the look change, my god. I'll have to admit I almost didn't mind (and kinda liked) the season 3-4 hairstyle they gave her, but the round glasses were s unnecessary.

Personality change for Janine really takes the cake though. As the series progressed, they made Janine more of, and what the showrunners liked to call, 'a motherly figure to the Busters', when in actuality, she was wimpy and watered down. Before, when she had a personality, she was more of a sister to the Busters (more than that to Egon, as we all know) and still ran things with a no-crap-from-anyone 'tude we all came to love.

On Extreme Ghostbusters, with VA Pat Musick, taking Janine's voice, it may not be Laura Summer or Kath soucie (thabk God for the latter), but she does a pretty decent job. And heck, at least in the show they gave her he rold fiery but pasisonate personality back. According to Tvtropes.org on the YMMV section, Janine has a 'Character Rerailment'. Her physical appearance is actually gorgeous to me, especially since I believe that her long hair is sort of a callback to her season 3-4 hairstyle in The Real Ghostbusters.

All in all, I still believe that, outside of the talented Annie Potts, the true Janine Melnitz in RGB was in season 1-2

@ferretempress @bixiebeet @spengnitzed @kawaiisakura143 @remerg @ariel-seagull-wings @janeb984 @trixie21 @janegon-forever

[difeisheng]

hi ash, i think i may have asked this before, but from one asian diaspora to another, i was wondering how, if you're able to, you keep up with your chinese practice in a country that's dominated by english (and/or french canadian since ik you live in canada). bc i know a lot of suggestions are like turning your tech to the language you want to learn, put sticky notes on objects with the name in the language you want to learn, etc. but like. i feel like it doesn't matter how much i try and practice bc i'm not in a class, so i don't get it consistently enough, and the rest of my day is filled with english bc, well, that's my first language, and what is needed for my job and every day living. do you have any recs, strategies, or tips? i'm getting desperate; i used to be so much better than i am now. thanks!

hi! honestly, most of my chinese upkeep since i stopped taking mandarin classes (which tbh was relatively recent; this april, and then i'll be taking a cantonese class next term so i can learn to read it) has been a lot less I Need To Practice My Chinese through exercises or dedicated study time, and more just making sure i have frequent exposure to the language that i'm also engaged in. which is a long way to say that basically c-media is how i'm maintaining my proficiency.

i listen to music, i watch dramas and variety shows, look up other vids on bilibili that catch my interest, sometimes read articles, and (very slowly) read fanfic, with pleco open to note new words. just generally scrolling through chinese social media has helped too. having that environment i can immerse myself in helps me learn new vocabulary and practice using what i already know + listening skills, but it also doesn't feel like work or study, just dealing with things i like and am interested in. (this is important for me because i'm so exhausted when i get home every day lmao, if language upkeep outside of class felt like additional Student Time i might have tapped out on attempting it. this way turning on a c-drama at the end of the day just seems like relaxation first and then chinese exposure on top of it).

just by poking through c-drama or fandom things, i know my vocabulary has definitely expanded since i finished my last class, instead of shrunk. even though i watch c-dramas with english subtitles (or chinese and english depending on the platform), i've still picked up stuff from them, and when it comes to things like variety shows i don't rely on subtitles anymore/make myself not. you absorb a lot more of a language than you think just through exposure, imo. although as a caveat for reading specifically, picking up new characters, recognizing them, and reading has been one of the easier parts of learning chinese for me, when it's probably the inverse for a lot of people. i don't know how well just casually reading things will work as a method for others, ymmv.

the thing that i struggle with is getting opportunities to practice speaking, because it's english in my classes and usually with my friends, and either english or cantonese with my family (and i'm not living with them right now). however, i do have a lot of diaspora friends given that i'm in vancouver, and we occasionally dip into speaking mandarin or cantonese. this isn't perfect, but hopefully in future i'll be able to get more speaking experience somehow. what's also helped me with keeping up pronunciation despite these limits is learning to sing chinese songs. singing is one of my hobbies anyway, so i'll use pinyin or jyutping as a guide (getting better at sightreading characters for singing though!) and it's helped me work on certain sounds i had trouble with, and improved my accent. (watching c-dramas even if i don't speak as often has also aided on that front tbh; i listened to recordings of myself from last year and i sound less canto when i speak mandarin now compared to back then, or even earlier this year).

if you want a place to start that i personally think has helped me maintain chinese proficiency, i would choose a variety show you're interested in and try watching it without english subtitles, when you've got free time and want to do something fun. most will have chinese ones you can use to practice reading along with listening, and people usually speak at a conversational enough level that it shouldn't be too difficult to follow along (for ref, after a year and a half of heritage learner mandarin classes at uni i could watch 《我们的歌》/Our Song without english subtitles and understand most of it). variety shows are also really accessible lmao, so many have full seasons on youtube.

tl;dr it's been media exposure for me all the way down since i left classes, wherever i can get it.

not sure how actually helpful all this rambling might be, but this is what i do to keep up my chinese proficiency and keep learning in daily life nowadays! hopefully maybe you or someone else will be able to get something out of it :)

[siroofington]

how I transcribe videos

To anyone who writes video descriptions, I've found a really useful tool for transcribing videos! The website Veed.io has an automatic, online tool where you can upload a video (up to 10 minutes long I believe) and it will generate subtitles, which I've found to be pretty accurate with the videos I've given it so far. (I haven't tried anything with a lot of music or with heavy accents, so ymmv on those, but it was still decently accurate on one that had a lot of sound effects)

Once you upload a video, choose "auto transcribe" and then whatever language is being spoken. It'll take a minute or so to generate the subtitles.

Then to download the subtitles as text, it tells you sign up for their paid subscription. HOWEVER, you can just copy and paste the subtitles shown in the video editor instead. You'll need to manually add spaces between each line when doing this, but it's still usually easier and faster than transcribing the full audio yourself, especially on long videos.

I will note that uploading videos to the site when using Firefox hasn't worked for me lately. I'm not sure if that's a problem with the browser in general or something about the settings I use, but I just switch to a different browser to generate the transcript and it works fine.

If anyone wants me to explain the process more, let me know! I'd be happy to make a more detailed post with screenshots and stuff.

[leannlyre]

imagine this. you're at a concert and when the time is up, everything is dark. a flicker of red light as ais begins his verse and a portion of fans cheer for his presence, while the other singers mimic his dance but centre him. his movements are sudden and jerky but wide swinging and he doesn't hesitate to risk touching some raised hands and wander around the stage. the others follow his movements.

after his verse finishes, the stage fades to black, but lights up in red as vere starts to sing. the choreography switch to centring him, all fluid and prancing and sashaying. he's less open than ais but luring nonetheless; he inches his face closer to fans who wander close, smiles at them and shows his teeth. he has such an ironclad command on his body, that you feel inclined to watch wherever it moves.

then kuras is in the centre, standing tall and upright. his choreography is less wilder than the last two but complicated nonetheless, more regal and graceful. his sleeves billow in the air, the tail ends of his coat float along with an invisible wind, and the golden ends and accents of them glint in the light. (ymmv) he turns his head to where the fans shout for him, but doesn't wander around the stage.

the lights fade to black. in the darkness he sings, " 'cause everything we touch-" they explode to red and flash and show the five gathered in a line, ais at the front, and the rest behind him - while dancing - writhing and leaning to left and right with their hands and upper bodies.

when the instrumental finishes everything goes dark once again but when it lights up, the light is lighter and on mhin, the others cloaked in shadows. (ymmv) they are the most contained and smoothest in their dance and the most forlorn in their verse. that is, until toward the last verse and the beat ascends, at which point their voice begins to grow powerful and their free arm begins to raise as the others line up behind them and raise their arms in the shape of wings.

cut to black again.

they are forlorn as before, as they sing the chorus, now with the rest spread evenly behind them. they take the background position as leander's part comes up. he amps up the interaction, showing off himself, arms spread wide whenever he can or stretched out to the audience as if he yearns for them. as the music ascends he makes eye contact with all of the fans, here and there. as his verse ends, his arm raises and its fingers snap just as he stops singing, surging out a flicker of green magic. that is the last thing you see before the stadium's lights switch off.

(dear whomever who asked me to post it on tumblr: here it is! i tried to reply with any info to get to it but they keep getting deleted. hope you find this.)

[theserpentsadvocate]

On Names

So I try to post (work of some kind) on my days off + stats, and it's BC Day, but I didn't quite manage to crank out a chapter of Satisfaction in time (I did write 5K today, though - I cannot wait until I can quit my second job and write fanfic on the weekend), so here is a rant/meta I did about my pet peeves on names in fic, and how this applies to Veronica Mars specifically. (I started with a wide net, but the main focus ended up there because of course it did.)

Fanfiction peeve of the day –

Please, I am begging you, pay attention to names in canon! It’s so glaring when people get it wrong, but it’s so common and I don’t understand!

If two characters have any kind of important relationship in canon and we see them interact more than once or twice, we know what they call each other. Do not deviate from that to be cute, or to emphasize a character’s accent. (Cordelia’s nickname is Cordy. Doyle calls her Cordy. He also calls her Cordelia. He should not be calling her ‘Delia’ just because he’s Irish.) Do not randomly switch a character’s nickname to a different nickname for no reason, or so that their love interest is calling them something special! (Shortened nicknames are not a thing in Middle-earth unless you are a hobbit. Unless you feel qualified enough with Sindarin (usually) name construction to have someone give their friend or spouse an epessë like ‘Tinúviel’, that person should be using their full name. Yes, even if it’s three syllables. Spare me from this ‘Fara’ nonsense – Eowyn would call him ‘Faramir’. Yes, always.) Do not assign a character who doesn’t use nicknames a nickname they never use in canon just because you can’t imagine intimacy coexisting with a long name, or a standard one! (Hermione goes by Hermione. She takes pains to get Viktor Krum to say her full name, even if she tolerates a bit of mispronunciation. She is not ever called Mione.) If someone threw out a one-off joke nickname for someone, for the love of Dante, do not start using it as a regular form of address!

And for the love of god, pay attention to the context in which people use nicknames! I am running across this willy-nilly in the Veronica Mars fandom right now, so, for my sanity:

Veronica:

I am reading an otherwise mostly-good fanfic right now where Logan keeps calling Veronica ‘Ronica’ and it’s driving me up the wall. No one has ever called her ‘Ronica’ in the history of ever, and it’s not even a standard nickname for Veronica, so it’s even worse. (This is extra annoying to me because I happen to think ‘Ronica’ is an exceptionally stupid nickname (although it would actually be fine as a name in its own right), but YMMV.)

Veronica typically doesn’t use nicknames, she doesn’t introduce herself with nicknames, she’s comfortable with her full name. Her dad (nor her mom for that matter) never calls her anything but ‘Veronica’ (or ‘honey’). Her two long-term boyfriends only ever call her Veronica (with one exception that I will Get Into below). Cliff, Wallace, and especially Weevil have been known to call her ‘V’* on occasion, which is a sign that they have relatively close relationships to her that also have a strong element of casualness or flippancy (notably, during Season Four, when they are not close, Weevil only ever calls her ‘Veronica’). Lilly, who was exceptionally close to her, lengthens her name as a nickname/form of endearment, calling her ‘Veronica Mars’ pretty often.

Logan does call her ‘Ronnie’ in early Season One. This is extremely obviously him being an asshole; he’s addressing her by a diminutive she doesn’t use to emphasize that they’re no longer friends and because doing so is inherently demeaning (imagine if you have a Michael who goes by Michael (or even Mike) and you suddenly start calling him ‘Mikey’ – it’s rude and dismissive). No one ever calls her that except him and Dick, and once Logan and Veronica are back on good terms, no one calls her that except Dick, who is doing it to be irreverent and disrespectful. It is objectively incorrect for her friends and/or boyfriend to be calling her ‘Ronnie’ and utterly bizarre for the narration to be referring to her that way.

*I feel strongly that it should be ‘V’ and not ‘Vee’ because it’s not short for a name that starts with a ‘vee’ sound (e.g., if her name was Vianne or Vita I might feel differently), it’s the actual letter V that her name starts with, but I acknowledge that that’s subjective.

Also, Felix referred to her as ‘blondie’ one time, dismissively, to Weevil – ‘Blondie’ is not his nickname for her! Wallace, insomuch as he has a nickname for her, calls her ‘V’, although he sticks with ‘Veronica’ most of the time; ‘SupaFly’ was a one-off joke and he should not be calling her that on the regular any more than she should be calling him ‘Sodapop’* just because she made an Outsiders reference in the pilot.

*And on that note, it’s ‘Sodapop’ because that’s the name of a character from The Outsiders, not ‘soda pop’ like the drink.

Logan:

I am begging you, Weevil called Logan ‘Opie’ one time. It was a generic insult, not a nickname. Even in an AU where they’re somehow bros, it is not something he would be calling him on a regular basis! (Conversely, Logan should not be calling him ‘Paco’ for the same reason, and also because it’s racist so that’s even worse!)

Weevil:

Authority figures (Keith, various teachers, Cliff when representing him in court, etc.) typically call Weevil ‘Eli’; his friends, particularly the PCHers, call him ‘Weevil’ pretty much exclusively (except for Veronica), and his family seems to waver between the two with a preference for his actual name – his grandmother calls him both ‘Eli’ and ‘Weevil’ when she’s talking about him, but sadly we don’t get enough scenes with her to know what’s more common (the only time we hear her actually address him she calls him ‘m’ijo’), Chardo usually calls him ‘Weevil’ but switches to ‘Eli’ when he’s making an emotional appeal, Claudia appears to exclusively call him ‘Eli’. (Context makes it pretty clear that Jade calls him ‘Eli’ as well, which is unsurprising.) We never hear Ophelia call him anything, but he refers to himself as ‘Uncle Eli’ when talking to her.

Veronica only ever calls him Weevil when she’s talking to him, notably, although she does use his real name on occasion when she’s talking about him – to her criminology class, when representing herself as his PI in ‘Weevils Wobble But They Don’t Fall Down’, and to Jade (even correcting herself from ‘Weevil’) in Mr. Kiss And Tell. (Interestingly, she’s more likely to use his full name than just his legal first name – she calls him ‘Eli Navarro’ several times, but almost never uses just ‘Eli’. She’s also probably the only person to call him ‘Weevil Navarro’*, presumably because in that instance she’s talking to him.)

*although Cliff does call him ‘Eli ‘Weevil’ Navarro’ on one occasion, complete with audible quotation marks

The point is, Weevil does get called both, and there’s some leeway for things to change a bit as relationships change – it’s not necessarily out of character, for instance, for Veronica to start addressing him as ‘Eli’ if they’ve started dating, or if it’s a fic (particularly an AU) set around the time of the novels – but it shouldn’t come from nowhere, and it shouldn’t be arbitrary. Keith wouldn’t be addressing him as ‘Weevil’, and Felix and Hector wouldn’t be calling him ‘Eli’ (unless maybe he’s secretly dating one of them it’s Felix and they’re in private). [Writing that sentence made me low-key start shipping him with Hector – why do I do this to myself?]

What he should not be getting called is ‘Weevs’, which is right in the midpoint between ‘Ronnie’ and ‘Opie’. Yes, Logan called him that once or twice (keywords once or twice) – in the exact same context that he called Veronica ‘Ronnie’, which is to say, as a mocking diminutive. It should not be serving as a general nickname even when Weevil and Logan are antagonistic, and it should definitely never be something that Hector or Veronica calls him! (And yes, I have seen both.)

And since I’m already aggravated – while I’m on the subject ‘Eli’ is a name unto itself. There’s a subset of fandom that seems strangely convinced it’s short for ‘Elias’ or ‘Elijah’ and… no. It’s not.

[stitchlingbelle]

Watching Halo, Episode 2

Episode 2

Ok kids, I binge-watched this entire show and took THIRTEEN PAGES of handwritten notes so I didn’t forget to talk about anything that caught me! So let’s be about it.

First off, may I say how much I appreciate that John is not a good-looking guy? He’s just a dude (the other Spartans likewise) and that sells the whole thing to me more than if they were all pretty. (Granted, I also thought Hiddleston and the cucumber guy were not pretty, so YMMV.)

Speaking of the other Spartans, how many are there? “Silver Team” implies the existence of a “Gold Team”, at the very least. And we open with a flashback to at least one getting away, or trying to—is he the only one to try, or to make it out? John apparently was supposed to go with him, or so Soren thought. He doesn’t (obviously), but he does give Soren a small headstart. (I can only assume that John/Soren is one of the top tags on AO3, this is Serious Emotional Bond stuff.) Why is Soren able to want out? Glad John didn’t shoot him.

In the present, Halsey is plotting something, because of course she is. The Spartans are trying to track John down, seemingly under some protest over whether he actually needs to be tracked down. I pegged Kai as the smartest Spartan last episode, and I’m getting confirmed in that opinion now. She questions and she thinks. Whether this is going to serve John’s arc or the UNSC, I don’t know yet.

Here we are with Kwan and Master Chief, with Kwan asking the real questions, which is a talent of hers. May I take a quick aside to point out that asteroids do not, in fact, float around that close to each other? It’s a very fun SF trope, though. Oh, so THIS is why the place is called “Rubble”. Clever. That is a seriously cool asteroid city design. YAY for someone speaking Hungarian! This show excels at showing that more than people from Iowa made it off the planet. (I appreciate all the accents to this end, as well.)

Uh, the armor’s a bit conspicuous, Chief, shoulda left that on the ship. Wow, they found Soren fast. (Has Kwan ever been off-planet before? She’s looking a little overwhelmed. Which is fair, shit is A Lot right now.) I laughed at the “mind the gap” reference. The tram thing is pure Universal Studios Ride bait.

I have a lot of feelings about Kessler and Laera, in order:

Cute kid and happy family? Oh shit they are doomed.

Otoh, Laera’s pretty glammed up, maybe she’s the sell-them-out type

Pale hair, intense eyes, Covenant destroyed her planet? Is she related to Makee?

Cute little stamp, this kid is DEFINITELY doomed

…unless they get to tragically lose Soren, instead? I TRUST NOTHING HERE

“Soren speaks of you often.” “Not that often,” Soren says flatly to the man he left behind. You talk about him constantly because you two were deeply in love, I’m calling it.

Makee is planning a mission to get the magical alien tech, full of references I would absolutely get if I were a gamer and which I instead absolutely don’t. As a fan of several long-running scifi series in an era when a lot of them are retreading ground (some brilliantly, some not), it’s novel, annoying, and deeply refreshing all at once to have to discover things as the characters do. I am still super obsessed with Makee’s costume design, and the aliens’ appearance is very well-done. They clearly put a lot of effort into making them stand up.

The UNSC brass are politicking and plotting, as the brass in any universe does, and I’m sorry, AI and cloning are never, ever good ideas in settings like this. I feel for Miranda getting constantly shut out, etc. I do wonder what the other Spartans want. Like, what are their goals? What do they think of the different people ordering them around?

Back on Rubble, Soren’s getting churros and saying “I know a guy,” which of course he does. Reth was… a choice. Ngl, this whole bit was deeply uncomfortable for me. We did get some good intel on the object and the Covenant. I absolutely appreciate Soren calling out explicitly the Mommy Dearest-ness of Halsey, she has predator vibes you can see from space. I do wish we knew more about the (apparently very few?) prisoners the Covenant takes and why and how they pick them. YIKES YIKES YIKES what did that thing just do? And who else can activate it?

And there goes John, leaving Kwan behind (so she can tragically die alongside the tragedy-bait kid??) and returning to Halsey and her creepiness. Meanwhile, Makee gets a gratuitous nude scene, which on one hand had me rolling my eyes and on the other had me glued to every detail of the construction design of that costume. So thanks, I guess, director dude.

Credits roll… wait, what do you mean, executive produced by Steven Spielberg???

[springlocking-springtrapping]

you said you had different versions of william in your head, are they all the same personality or are they different (it is okay to ask?)

Oh, thank you for this headcanon ask haha. I love talking about him in general so, uh, here you go! It's gonna be long! So here's a read more!

Youngish adult William (around the opening of the diner/his collaboration with Henry)---

Charismatic, bit of a showman, fresh faced and seemingly always full of energy. I'd even dare say that his optimism at the time (prior to Charlie's murder and the first bite) is genuine. He is extremely possessive over Henry, but good at hiding it at this time, having the general self awareness to do so.

He's a great performer and does excellently in the Spring Bonnie suit when he wears it, is actually a real hit with the kids, unironically. Cannot state enough how skilled he is in the entertainment department, could have probably made a name for himself eventually if he hadn't turned to his evil ways. Switches to a light southern American accent when performing as Spring Bonnie.

Generally a very up and at 'em guy, though he's mostly just putting on a good show, he's still very reserved in his personal life and his eyes don't quite match his enthusiasm.

Adult William (post Charlie and the bite, up to the MCI)--

Far more withdrawn, the franchise has lost its novelty and he finds himself married and having children. William in my mind distinctly did not want a conventional family, but due to his severe insecurities around appearing 'normal', he forced himself to start one. Especially after Henry had Charlie.

Sometimes I see him as obsessed with Henry in a possessive, dominating way and sometimes I see him as obsessed with Henry in a competitive, entitled way. YMMV.

He does care about his kids in a sense, but not the same way someone with a fuller sense of compassion would. He is particularly locked on Michael (not in a gross way just fyi) because Michael resembles him so much. William suffers from episodes of hating or loving Michael, because he essentially sees himself in his eldest son, and because he hates himself so damn much, he's prone to losing it on Michael.

Elizabeth is special to him because she looks almost nothing like him, but appears to share his general demeanor. William feels protective of her, and does spoil her a bit.

CC/Evan is the child he pays the least attention to. In truth, he can't stand the boy's sensitivity, and finds himself feeling disgusted and put off at how fearful and weepy CC is. Out of all of his kids, CC is the one he disdains the most and tends to neglect. (obvs CC is dead at this point though)

William at this stage is very unstable. He survives his first springlock failure at some point and becomes morbidly fascinated with it. He begins to experiment with self injury for gratification, and even begins to deprive himself of sleep and food in favor of working feverishly. Subconsciously, he is punishing himself without realizing it.

This is when he starts to feel an itch for more violence, generally speaking, to the point of obsession once more. He loses Elizabeth somewhere in this time period as well, and obviously it serves to further demolish whatever soul he had to begin with.

And, of course, he conducts the MCI. William finally gives in completely, his family has fallen apart but he doesn't feel particularly heartbroken about that so much as he does about his failure to be a normal human being. He feels helpless, powerless.....And so he breaks.

He lures the kids, he kills them, he feels in control again and powerful and, hell, even superior to everyone. In William's mind, he's like a god for just a moment, the taker of life, the blade of death. He gets to decide who lives and dies. And he stays like this, arrogant, even deranged, suffering from actual delusions and sadistic urges.

All the way up until he gets crushed in an agonize springlock failure!

Springtrap----

As Springtrap, William is angry, in near constant pain and pining for release in the form of shameless violence. He is still very clever, although his extremely traumatic death and subsequent 30 years of lapsing in and out of consciousness have eroded his sense of humanity almost entirely.

Depending on the AU he's in, this can go one of two ways.

The first version I imagine is an almost animalistic, violent, remorseless Springtrap that can and does play games with people, their feelings and their lives freely. He, like in the games, pretends to be a simple animatronic, limps or freezes in his victim's view, but is actually perfectly capable of very fast and fluid movement.

In other words, he pretends to be a slow, shambling zombie suit (think back to his skills in performance) in order to toy with whoever's unlucky enough to be there. Springtrap rarely engages in conversation with his victims either, so it's hard to tell what he is or if he's even aware at first.

This Springtrap is 100% sadistic, remorseless and brutal in every way possible. I consider him to be William basically fracturing into something bloodthirsty and lethal, William Afton hardly exists anymore.

The other version of him is a bit different.

After suffering the traumatic springlock failure and having the last 30 years to reflect while locked in the saferoom, he comes to his senses in a way, though he's still very jaded and angry. Springtrap is not as prone to immediate violence, although he generally has no qualms killing anyone that is making a fuss about his appearance/existence (think someone screaming and freaking out, his first instinct definitely isn't to comfort them.)

HOWEVER.....

Should anyone come along that talks to him like a human being, and treats him with a measure of respect, Springtrap will find himself slowly warming up to their presence. He starts to understand what actual, non-toxic connection feels like, though he still greatly struggles with jealousy and withdraws easily.

More or less he calms down, is still more than capable of killing but doesn't go out of his way to do so like he does in the other version. Patches his suit up a bit with the help of his new friend/partner, tinkers on himself and enjoys doing so, teaching his friend/partner a little bit about robotics as he goes.

Obviously, as his former crimes were horrific, whether or not he is ultimately forgiven by Charlie and the other kids is up to the person interpreting him. In this version of Springtrap, I, personally, do see an atonement of sorts happening. But it's bittersweet. The kids finally get to rest, and of course none of them forgive his actions (and he doesn't want them to either) but they do let go, leaving him to his shell of a life on Earth as a corpse in a springlock suit while they get to finally rest.

This Springtrap believes that he should remain stuck as he is, frozen in time where he suffered the first real consequence for his actions. He doesn't express it often, but he is in very much in constant pain and sees this as a suitable way to remind himself of his sins.

Dave Miller---

So in this universe, as Dave, William is a lot more unhinged, just like his counterpart in the novels. Dave is very obviously a bit underweight, sleep deprived and generally unwell health-wise. He has very little regard for his wellbeing, yet also has a severe god-complex where he believes he deserves to be served, if not outright worshipped.

Dave believes himself to be above everyone else, AND he's a huge coward. Like my baseline William, he's a very good performer and actor, but not because he ever wanted to be. It's because he has a crippling, visceral fear of how others perceive him. Even though he basks in the idea of being some powerful person lording over others, he has an almost compulsive need to be viewed positively.

No matter what he tells himself, he's very rejection sensitive. And he always needs to be in control. When Dave is alone and nothing is going on, he's very much drinking himself into a stupor, chain smoking and just generally being as miserable a lump as he can be. Not that he'd ever show or admit it.

Like in the novels, he uses Spring Bonnie as a sort of....armor. Like he puts on the mask, but it's more like taking off the mask for him, because he can become something more true to his ideal self. When wearing Spring Bonnie (even just the helmet), Dave feels empowered. This is because it also hides him, hides his shameful and frankly pathetic real self and covers it with a persona that can bypass his self consciousness.

Out of all of my personal Williams, Dave is probably the one I'm most affectionate for in the general sense, just because I understand his brand of insecurity very well. Also he's just so ugly he's hot???

Anyways, thank you again for the question! Feel free to ask more about these guys if you want!

[argentumcor]

My Time at Sandrock is like playing a game written fifteteen years ago. It's very clever and it seems...sane. Like a sane person wrote this.

There's a discussion of equal application of the law. There is actually a whole section with genuinely good shooting advice. There's parts with good business advice and economic observations and the whole dynamic of civil projects actually reflects what it's like to do that in real life. There's a whole good boss vs. bad boss thing and ethics in business and what is this?!?!

Listen, video game writing has become just so...very very dumb when it discusses things, so divorced from the experience of actually doing anything in real life, that the shock made me drop my controller when the law thing came up and again when the good shooting advice happened, all in this cutesy video game that's about building relationships with a village with this cute visual style and bonkers things going on (there's a titanic duck...evil shampoo...a lizardman cargo cult...).

The town of Sandrock reminds me intensely of Arizona, of home, of Bisbee and Jerome specifically. And a hot gunslinger oh dear that man. Dunedain ranger turned reluctant outlaw with a Texas accent. The other romances seem out of a Hallmark movie to me but him...! I didn't even get the game because of him!

The game structure is interesting, as I think the meat of it is in the conspiracy section but I like that there's a lot of follow-on. Stories don't just end when the epic part is done.

Did not expect any of this, was just looking for a low-effort time waster while I finished redoing my backyard. I like it so much I may start another playthrough now I figured out the systems properly. The tutorials aren't great, some things are clunky, the inventory and storage system is a nightmare unless I am experiencing user error, farming is not a smooth experience, but the writing to me is worth the bumps.

Oh, and I just kind of ignore level recommendations for combat missions as long as I'm within 15 of it; the pet and companion systems are huge crutches and the ease of mid-fight healing is a big deal and overall the combat system is very, uh, child-friendly you might say, especially once you get firearms and then especially once you get one particular sword. Then again I've been gaming forever, YMMV.

[whump-cravings]

Tortured Prince - Strike Team

Tortured Prince AU Masterlist - TR3 Masterlist

~2k | Original Work: Tortured Prince (AU of TR3), set shortly post-escape

Content | Royal whump, off-screen sex work, a penis gets held hostage. (I don’t think this counts as nsfwhump but ymmv)

"Few are as loyal to Ironda as you four," Rohisa said to the soldiers kneeling before her. "Which makes you part of the small handful of people of whom I could entrust a most difficult, dangerous, and terrible task."

Rahi, Liri, Nilal, and Tikka exchanged glances. The four of them were acquainted with each other to varying degrees, but Rohisa had no doubt they would make an excellent team. She had hand-picked them for this purpose, after all.

Rahi spoke up first. "What would you have of us, your highness?"

Rohisa folded her fingers over her cane, mouth setting in a grim line. It must be done. "As you know, Queen Ochvlita of Beor has wed a Nitasi and borne a child of Nitasi blood. She cannot be permitted to keep that kind of power. Therefore, by any means necessary..." Even having steeled herself, Rohisa found it difficult to speak over a lump in her throat. "By any means necessary, Prince Baltar and his child must be removed from Beor."

The soldiers were quiet, wearing expressions similar to her own.

"Failure is far more likely than success," Rohisa continued, regaining composure. "You would go alone into the heart of enemy territory, with no chance for backup, and infiltrate the Beor palace. For that reason, this is a request, not an order. Will you—"

"Yes," said both Rahi and Liri before she could finish the question. The two of them looked at each other in surprise and respect. Rohisa felt a smile ghost on her lips despite everything.

"It is no question," Nilal said.

Tikka nodded. "Of course, your highness."

Though Rohisa had suspected none would refuse, having confirmation was good. She nodded, closing her eyes.

"Then I charge you with this: bring Baltar and my niece home—or kill them."

***

"She's a cutie," Nilal said as he leaned over. "How old?"

The woman looked up, blinking prettily. "Ninety days." From her accent, the color of what little of her skin showed, and the curve of her nose beneath the mourning veil, she was Irondan-born.

"I remember my brother's when she was that young," Nilal reminisced. "They grow up so fast. What's her name?"

"Ah...." Sali said, lashes and head lowering. "I was going to name her after h-her father. He was  a Beorish soldier," Sali said, lashes and head lowered sadly, "s-s-s... assigned to the front many moons ago and has—hasn't—" She fell silent, shoulders drawing up as she solemnly refilled the rag for the babe.

Ah. That explains the mourning attire.

Nilal set a hand over hers. "I understand."

Rahi listened passively as Nilal introduced himself and the woman, Sali, replied in kind. The two of them chatted a bit more while Sali nursed the babe on a rag from a cup of milk. Her own chest wasn't too large, so perhaps this was from a local.

"It's... difficult, being on my own with another mouth to feed," the woman said demurely. "As you can expect, not many are inclined towards charity in these trying times." She lowered her lashes and tilted her head as if shy or embarrassed. "But if you have coin to spare... I could make it worth your while."

Nilal was almost instantly on the hook. You can spot the softness on this one a mile away, Rahi thought, fondly rolling his eyes into his drink. He personally didn't understand the draw of such activities, but Sali was providing a service for those whom struggled to go without.

"What did you have in mind?" Nilal asked.

"I can't risk another child," the woman murmured in a low and husky voice. "But..." She traced the outline of her lips over the veil, "I could still show you a good time."

"Well..." Nilal looked over to Rahi, who gave a bemused nod of permission.

"I would enjoy that," Nilal said with an easy smile. "Have you had anything to eat tonight?"

***

Rahi entered the stables from the side entrance, lantern raised. He stumbled on Nilal and Sali right away, the former leaned against a stall while the other worked below. "Ah—sorry, I needed—" he said while averting his eyes politely.

"Prince Baltar?" Nilal gasped.

Rahi snapped his gaze the light forward, map forgotten.

Sali's demeanor flattened. Metal flashed and Nilal started with a gasp, hands freezing in space.

"Don't move," said King of Beor and Prince of Ironda, Baltar Nitasi with a knife pressed up against Nilal's dick. No longer imitating a woman, his voice had dropped nearly an octave.

Rahi stilled as commanded, hardly believing the situation. To think that, were it not for lust, they might have unknowingly passed their quarry, and that their prince had gotten on his knees for a little coin, and now they were in this strange stand-off with a penis as a hostage. Of course, someone would bleed out from the groin as easily as the neck, but logic made this no less absurd.

"Wait! We mean you no harm," Rahi said cautiously, voice as low as he thought would still be audible. He cast a glance around what of their surroundings he could see without moving, hoping they were alone. "We've come to bring you home."

Baltar's eyes narrowed, his gaze flicking elsewhere. Rahi followed the look, spotting the babe resting on a table nearby. If their prince was traveling in disguise with a baby in arm, then the child could only be the Princess of Beor.

"Prove it," the prince said, tightening his grip enough for Nilal to flinch again.

Rahi took in a slow breath. "I have a missive from your sister," and thank the gods for that. "It's in my shoe." He paused for a sign he could proceed. When none seemed forthcoming, he prompted, "May I?"

After another moment, the prince gave a curt nod, and Rahi gave a reassuring look to Nilal before slowly taking a knee and setting the light down. He drew his heel up and pushed on the hollow wedge. It took a considerable amount of pressure before the wedge finally jogged free, and he was able to remove it and retrieve its contents. Slotting the heel back into place, he held the tiny scroll aloft.

An unwavering gaze flicked from the scroll to Rahi's face. "Read it."

Peeling the vellum open, Rahi read, "Baltar. Entrusted killing or retrieving you with Rahi and company; may they prevail where others failed." Several words were written in a shorthand, and the script was small; much of the space was devoted to Rohisa's seldom-used inked seal. He turned the missive around, holding it next to the light and angling it so Baltar could catch the metallic sheen of Rohisa's ink.

The prince's expression didn't change as he considered it. After a few moments, he released his hold on Nilal and sheathed his knife beneath his sleeve. Nilal hastily stepped to the side, lacing himself back into his trousers in record time. Prince Baltar stood, raised the mourner's veil back into place, and collected his child.

The captain recalled meeting him once, three years ago at a ball. If not for seeing his swordsmanship first-hand, Rahi would have believed him only a witless fool. Now it seemed there was no trace of that lighthearted boy.

Rahi picked up the lantern and cautiously approached, wary of the stiffness in the man's body language. "We've purchased a room for the night," he said. "May we speak more there?"

A curt nod was once again the only response before the prince began walking for the inn. Rahi fell into step behind him, gesturing to Nilal. His rattled companion caught up after they had stepped into the night air.

When they re-entered the inn, the prince was an actor walking onto a stage, transforming back into Sali. His shoulders dropped, along with an aura of hostility, and his gait smoothed, taking on a lithe sway. It was little wonder they had failed to recognize him.

No words were exchanged until Rahi indicated their door and stepped in front to give the patterned knock their companions would expect. Liri's footsteps crossed the room to the door and she opened it from the side. Clear question was on her expression as she saw "Sali" at their side, but stepped aside for Rahi to lead the other two in. Baltar's feminine affect dropped as he stepped to the curtained window.

After the door shut, Rahi looked to the prince and motioned to the veil. Baltar faced Liri and Tikka as he drew back his hood and removed the veil. Both women gasped and took a knee. Nilal looked queasy at the sight of the two that way, quickly averting his attention to the floor.

Baltar turned to the curtains wordlessly, back rigid.

Lips parting in question, Tikka looked to Rahi, who had no answers for her. She and Liri rose, brows furrowed.

"We make for home on the morrow," Rahi murmured, sliding the cap closed on his lantern. "Let's rest. Nilal and Tikka, take the cot closest the door. Liri, you're with me on the floor." That left a comfortable and protected spot for the prince and his babe on the second cot.

Jogged into motion by Rahi's orders, the group bedded down. Baltar watched them out of the corner of his eye, and only once everyone was settled did he ease onto the second cot, shoes and all. He laid with his back to them, curling around the infant.

Tikka leaned over to the light on the nightstand; with a touch, darkness fell.

***

Rahi could still scarcely believe that the prince was with them. After eighteen months, countless failed searches, the start of war, the heartbreak of the king and princess, the news of his well-being and apparent allegiance with the enemy... their prince was back.

But as he watched the scarred man nurse the infant, he knew they were not bringing back the boy King Hakon and Princess Rohisa so dearly missed. Now, the only softness in this man was how he tended the youngest Nitasi; even that extended only so far—not once since being in the team's company had he smiled, even at the babe.

Dark eyes met Rahi's, the prince fixing the captain with his gaze. Unnerved, Rahi quickly looked away. Fortunately, the child began fussing, latching and unlatching, and the prince turned his attention back to breastfeeding, rotating her to his other side.

Tikka pulled a pot from the fire, pouring out gently warmed milk, gifted by the innkeeper's wife. Rising, Tikka took step towards the prince.

Baltar's knife was halfway out of his sleeve in an instant. Tikka froze, and everyone snapped to high alert. The child, disturbed again, cried as she groped at skin.

Tikka hesitantly held the cup forward. "The milk is warm, your highness."

Slowly, inches of blade disappeared back into its sheath. Prince Baltar held out his hand, and Tikka stepped close enough to pass him a cloth and the cup. With the child still snug against his chest, he dipped the cloth into the warmed milk. Less than pleased with the offering, the little girl pushed it away, but after a reexamination of her father's breast proved unsatisfactory, she grumpily settled for the cloth. Baltar's thumb gently stroked her downy hair.

"My prince... may I ask how it is you're able to nurse?" Tikka asked the question everyone was wondering. Rahi's attention snapped to her as he gave a sharp shake of his head.

Baltar barely glanced up, expression unchanging. "The Beor palace doctor attempted to... 'banish the ghosts' in me." He dipped the cloth again. "The treatment caused this."

"O-oh," Tikka said. "And uh... what about the ghosts?"

"Poison would be much more effective," he said without looking, "for things that still live."

Silence fell. The soldiers shared uncertain glances, and the scars littering his chest stood out more than ever. No one dared voice the other questions in the air.

Rahi cleared his throat. "Let's leave our prince to his work."

taglist: @nabanna @emcscared-whumps​ @nicolepascaline​ @i-can-even-burn-salad​ @melennui​​ @thecyrulik​​

[antikate]

i just read the synopsis of Prophet and i am....very Intrigued. if dev patel plays one of the characters, who would you want playing opposite him?

Anon!! Thank you for feeding my hyperfixation!!! And I hope you do read it and I hope you enjoy it! It’s the most fun I’ve had reading a book in so long… I’m on a one-person quest to get as many other people to read it as possible.

As for my fancast: if Dev Patel plays Rao (my other choice for Rao is Rahul Kohli, just fyi) then my pick for Adam is that hot guy from Bridgerton, Jonathan Bailey.

Now, hear me out: he’s hot, but he’s got cute ears that kind of stick out, which I like (I think the hottest people usually have cute ears or a big nose or crooked teeth, so as in all things ymmv). And I think he can play both boyish and stern, important for Adam.

Also after seeing him in Fellow Travelers, I was won over by his American accent and his ability to play a [redacted for plot reasons].

Behold: a hot guy! (Read the book and let me know what you think!!!)

[sexygaywizard]

I'm an American who has no exposure to french really so I can't judge your accent but I really want to learn French! Is it worth it/a fun language?

Is it worth it.. for me it turned out to be more useful than most because I'm a classical vocalist who sings in French and it opens up possibilities of a career in Europe. For most Americans I would say it is way more useful to know Spanish as a 2nd language. Even for me since I live in the LA area it would be way more useful to me than French. Is it fun? I had a very fun French teacher who made learning French fun but ymmv. I don't have a lot of opportunities to speak it. My French still is only passable though so ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[eyeknowmayhem]

Info sheet - old hob from the idw comics

tagged by: nobody

tagging: @turtlpowa (elizabeth!) @eievuimultimuse (baxter or aliyah) @friendlyittechsupport @crvptd

Character name: old hob

Name meaning: “hob” is an English name for a spirit, and old hob is then in turn another name for the devil; others include Satan, old scratch, Lucifer, iblis, Diabolos, etc

Aliases / nicknames: Hob (usual) fleabag, fleabiter, furball, (all by raph) stray, cyclops, runt

the rest of the post is under the cut

Ethnicity: American, I guess? North eastern usAmerican and an accent to match.

1 picture you like of your character: idk why but this expression is cute :)

3 headcanons you haven’t told anybody:

Hob’s body language is a fair mix of his behavior as a cat and more human like body language. He may not realize his tail puffs up when he’s surprised or frightened, or that his ears are almost always pinned back when he’s angry, but it is there. He’s a bit embarrassed by it, if it was pointed out to him, despite (and because,) it being something he can’t really control.

While hob is dogshit at expressing it, he does love his Mutanimals crew like they were family. Not the cookie cutter nuclear type sitcom stuff- but as broken people who carved their place in the world together. For a guy like him who never had anybody but himself for the longest time… now he does. It means everything to him.

Final headcanon is that his eye genuinely is missing. A newly mutated Splinter scratched out the bulk of it and whatever was left got removed by stockgen / TCRI (in the 07 universe) he doesn’t wear a glass eye, it’s just… a sewn over eye socket and some scar tissue.

3 things your character likes to do in their free time: maintaining his guns and modifying existing firearms, picking locks (for fun), and occasionally .. he does like 2 collect lil bits and bobs, knicknacks, if you will. Half of the gag gift magnets on the fridge are probably from him

8 people your character likes: (in no particular order) slash, manray, sally, pete, herman, Lindsey, seymour, mondo, superfly, cleo, (most of the other stockmans in 07.)

2 things your character regrets:

Everything with slash. From the time he was kidnapped to his eventual death hob still worked- day and night trying to find a way to get him back. The bitch of the matter is there was nothing he could’ve done to change the outcome; as soon as he got taken by the EPF the damage was done. It didn’t stop hob from doing everything he could- even hurting innocent people. There’s something bittersweet in that, slash was his voice of reason and, let’s be real, his conscious. Without slash he nosedived directly back into his old habits, the exact same thing slash was trying to warn him against.

The second was more abstract in the sense of.. the way he ran things with mutant town. Not that he regrets what he did; given the chance he would detonate the mutagen bomb all over like he did before; it just means he would’ve ran mutant town better. Not that all of the reasons it sucked so bad to live there was entirely his fault (ymmv on that one,) but if he had swallowed his pride and worked together with the other mutants, had self determination from the mutants from the get go - it would’ve gotten less people hurt. Bc how can you run any kind of town without any kind of infrastructure whatsoever.

2 phobias your character has: tomophobia (fear of surgery/invasive medical procedures) he can handle most first aid and even violent body trauma depending on the type, but if he has to be put under? Never gonna happen. cleithrophobia (fear of being trapped, this can include confined spaces or more notably in hob’s case- being physically restrained.)