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#6 down 94 to go
airaibunny · 9 months
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GENERAL SMUT PROMPTS
1. “i need you, right here/now”
2. “louder/quieter”
3. “i dont care who’s outside”
4. “do you want them to hear?”
5. “what if i dont?”
6. “make me”
7. “you don’t get to tell me what to do”
8. “that’s strike 1/2/3”
9. “if you stop, i’ll stop”
10. “no more, please, i can’t”
11. “where are your manners?”
12. “what did you say?”
13. “try again”
14. “but the cameras” - “they can’t see us from this angle, if you can stay still”
15. “you don’t get to touch”
16. “i’m begging you, touch me, please”
17. “beg for it”
18. “i said no”
19. “stop pushing, it wont end well”
20. “you look so fucking hot right now”
21. “you don’t need anything, you want it”
22. “say it”
23. “use your words”
24. “i can’t understand you”
25. “i can’t read your mind”
26. “could he/she do it better?”
27. “do you wish it was *name* touching you right now?”
28. “play with me”
29. “you’re such a needy girl”
30. “i don’t think your stage outfits cover that”
31. “let me focus”
32. “sluts don’t get to make requests”
33. “what happened? you wanted this so bad five minutes ago”
34. “stop talking”
35. “did i give you permission to talk?”
36. “you don’t understand how angry i am right now”
37. “you’re fucking soaked”
38. “you make me so wet”
39. “why are you already squirming”
40. “can i ask you for something?”
41. “please don’t stop”
42. “please don’t think i’m weird for this”
43. “i’ve been waiting all day”
44. “does that turn you on?”
45. “i need your fingers”
46. “i want you to fuck me”
47. “do it like you mean it”
48. “scream my name while you cum”
49. “call me mommy”
50. “touch yourself, i want to watch”
51. “come here, now.”
52. “on your knees”
53. “turn around”
54. “bend over”
55. “spread your legs/spread your legs further”
56. “you can barely speak, so cute”
57. “you’re so flushed, pretty girl”
58. “sit on my thigh/face/etc”
59. “lift up your leg”
60. “i’m bored, let’s play”
61. “i can see you staring at my tits/thigh/ass”
62. “if you make me/if i have to stop this car, im going to make sure you can’t walk out of it without my help”
63. “harder”
64. “let me do it”
65. “i didnt mean to, im sorry”
66. “dont cum until i tell you to”
67. “what if i just leave you here, wet and needy”
68. “what’s the safe word? you’re going to need it”
69. “what about you?”
70. “it’s my turn now”
71. “i didn’t mean to call you that, i’m sorry”
72. “you look so pretty on your knees”
73. “what are you going to do? punish me?”
74. “i think i deserve a reward”
75. “your *body part* are/is so pretty”
76. “i really don’t care that we’re in public”
77. “keep it up, you won’t like the situation you end up in”
78. “who do you think you are?”
79. “spank me”
80. “choke me”
81. “bite me”
82. “no, don’t go”
83. “you can practice on me”
84. “this is a one time thing”
85. “i thought you said it was a one time thing?”
86. “we can’t do this”
87. “i ordered us something”
88. “that looks too big”
89. “are you comfortable?”
90. “grab the handcuffs and come back here”
91. “you bought a vibrator?”
92. “how do i look?”
93. “you taste so sweet”
94. “i’m/it’s all over your chin”
95. “do you want to try?”
96. “you’re so cute”
97. “do you think about me when you touch yourself?”
98. “why are you being so shy? it’s not like i haven’t already seen all of you”
99. “can we use a toy?”
100. “can i use a toy on you?”
101. “good girl, keep going/just like that”
102. “you’re doing such a good job”
103. “i’m so proud of you”
104. “nobody can know about this, okay?”
105. “how are you so close already?”
106. “i can see how wet you are through your shorts”
107. “can you be quick?”
108. “please, i’ll finish fast”
109. “use your mouth”
110. “why do you get so shy when i use that word?”
111. “i love your tits/ass/etc”
112. “where do you want me to touch you?” - “down there…” - “say the word”
113. “stop teasing me”
114. “i like it when you’re mad”
115. “punish me”
116. “are you going to stop me?”
117. “on the counter/table/etc?”
118. “you’re the only one that gets to touch”
119. “have you seen the things the the fans write about you and *other member*?”
120. “i don’t care what the fans think”
121. “i really need to finish this”
122. “this is exactly how i imagined it”
123. “is that my shirt/underwear/etc?”
124. “everyone else is gone”
125. “fuck, i wish this room was soundproof”
126. “shut up”
127. “relax, angel”
128. “keep doing that, please”
129. “you feel so good”
130. “your skin is so soft”
131. “kiss/touch me, everywhere”
132. “no, you started this, now you’re going to finish it”
133. “pull my hair”
134. “open your mouth”
135. “clean my fingers, this is your mess”
136. “you’re such a messy girl”
137. “why are you so hot”
138. “fuck, i love you so much”
139. “take off your underwear” - “but, there’s other people here” - “they won’t see you, there’s an entire table here”
140. “you’re so gorgeous”
141. “open your eyes”
142. “look at me while you cum”
143. “do you want me to use my fingers/mouth?”
144. “i want you to keep going, forever”
145. “do you want to join me”
146. “you’re not allowed to touch”
147. “bad girls/sluts don’t get to cum”
148. “can you tell me what you did wrong?”
149. “explain what you did, if you don’t finish before you cum, you don’t get to finish again for the rest of the night”
150. “you’re all mine” - “hm…” - “say it” - “i’m all yours”
151. “you’re such a fucking slut/whore/cunt”
152. “how bad do you want it?”
153. “make me cry”
154. “ruin me”
155. “i want to do so many things to you”
156. “you look amazing, really, but i think i prefer the dress on the floor”
157. “i need you”
158. “if you ever pull a stunt like that again, i won’t wait until we get to our bedroom”
159. “say that again, i dare you”
160. “it’s too late for this” - “you don’t have to do anything, just stay laying down”
161. “what does this make us?”
162. “i love making you so flustered, it’s so cute”
163. “do you like it when i touch right here?”
164. “can you stay quiet if i take this call?”
165. “we could get kicked out for this”
166. “don’t make me say it, you know what i want”
167. “let me eat you out while you do that”
168. “can you teach me?”
169. “can i call you mommy?”
170. “what would the others think of this? their innocent little maknae being such a whore”
171. “shower with me”
172. “put your leg over my shoulder”
173. “there’s no one else here, be louder”
174. “look what you did”
175. “i want to taste you”
176. “i’m going to fuck you against the windows, i want everyone to see how good you are”
177. “stop being gentle”
178. “i don’t care what you do, just touch me”
179. “i want to fuck you so bad”
180. “i want to feel you, inside”
181. “i promise i’ll be good, just please…”
182. “you can’t leave marks”
183. “you’re not going to fall, i’ve got you”
184. “we are not doing this standing, there’s a bed right there”
185. “do you like it when i spank you right there?”
186. “stop moving on your own, you’ll take what i give you”
187. “use my thigh”
188. “if you hate me so much, why are you letting me do this?”
189. “you’re really telling me to stop while both of your hands are in my shirt?”
190. “i still hate you”
191. “this is just sex, no strings”
192. “fuck you” - “well, that’s what we’re doing isn’t it?”
193. “you looked so hot out there”
194. “you can take it like a good girl, right?”
195. “swallow”
196. “i’ll untie you if you’re good”
197. “you heard me”
198. “that was a nice way to wake up”
199. “i want to make a mess of you”
200. “breathe, please”
201. “take it like a good girl”
202. “why don’t you make it up to me?”
203. “you think your begging is going to change my mind?”
204. “i don’t care that you’re sorry”
888 notes · View notes
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This moving arc is going crazy ngl. This season is really peak, JJK could never
I know you didn't even mean for this to be an ask but:
(Genshin Impact/GFL) How helpful Lisa, Eula, Noelle, Navia, Furina, Lumine, AK-12, AN-94, AK-15, and RPK-16 would be during your move
After fighting boxes and moving trucks for the last 6 straight days, this has been on my mind.
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(Lisa) "Oof, these boxes are going to kill my back tomorrow...!"
Lisa has experience carrying heavy books from her days studying in Sumeru and being a Librarian in Mondstadt.
But do you really think this beautiful woman is going to help you carry the seventeen boxes of glass kitchenware that you have no recollection of even owning?
Absolutely not.
That is too heavy, even for her.
But at the very least when the moving and unpacking is over, she will give and demand the very best cuddles to recover from the process.
Expect her to say that she was sore with helping you last night in an intentionally weird way to get a rise out of you and anyone in the vicinity.
Help Rating: 2/5, Call Lisa in for the love, not for physical labor.
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(Eula) "Good grief, how much dust is in here?!" ACHOO! "Ugh...! If this was some elaborate scheme just to hear me sneeze the entire time, I will enact terrible vengeance upon you!"
Quips of revenge aside, she is actually very helpful!
Eula can carry the boxes no problem, and makes sure to have the proper posture when doing so.
If she can swing her claymore around like they're nothing, then surely your belongings will be jut as trivial?
She is also extremely gentle putting down boxes that she knows is full of your stuff.
The only real negative thing you have to deal with is just her constant muttering if a box is giving her too much trouble.
Help Rating: 3/5, You now swear vengeance upon the boxes thanks to Eula saying it over and over
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(Noelle) "Please, allow me! I can have these put away in no time!"
The boxes will be hearing boss music upon Noelle's arrival.
For when there is a mess, Noelle is inevitable.
She somehow packs everything into the boxes into such an impossibly efficient manner, that you didn't know you could fit that much stuff into a small cardboard box.
Noelle also does it under a few hours without breaking a sweat.
The scary part is that she can go faster while keeping the same immaculate level of care if you give her a kiss on the cheek or praise her.
And it'll mean even more to her by the fact you're still helping her. It's the thought that counts!
Help Rating: You don't even need to be there/5
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(Navia) "Here, just tell me where these boxes are going in your new home. Packing? Hm, no need!"
You know what she does instead of packing herself?
She hires someone else to do it.
When it comes to more personal items, she'll gladly help you wrap it carefully and with love.
But all your furniture?
Yeah, no. That's what the hired help is for.
You and Navia will be directing people left and right where to place the furniture and boxes of your belongings without really needing to lift a finger yourself.
Help Rating: 5/5, the best help is the kind where someone else does the entire job for you.
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(Furina) "Oh, it is about time you come to me for aid, dearest! Allow me to help!"
In the wise words of Sergeant Johnson:
"Hmph, MY ASS!"
This woman didn't even unload her boxes when she moved into her apartment, what makes you think that she'd help you unload your stuff properly?
She may be an Archon but her arm strength and experience with moving is next to nothing.
Furina will act all cool and try to lift a box only for it to nearly collapse on her, or throw her out her back.
Her little familiars can't help with your boxes since you know, they're made of water.
But at least the pouting face she'll make will be cute. Kinda like Aqua, huh?
Help Rating: Just get Clorinde or Neuvillette, don't ask the blue gremlin/5
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(Lumine) "We really need to get you a teapot! Anyways, let's get to work!"
Lumine doesn't mind to help, and her arm strength despite her appearance is insane.
She'll be carrying 3-4 boxes like it's nothing, though she struggles to actually see anything in front of her.
Paimon helps as much as she can, so you get a 2 for 1 deal asking Lumine!
She's a little unused to moving furniture herself since Tubby and the Teapot took care of that for her own home, but she makes moving very fun!
Help Rating: 5+1/5, but Lumine will question your taste in decor.
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(AK-12) "Ah, moving dorms? Well, at least it's within the base and not too far.~"
Even though 12 is a combat android, she can only lift so much.
She might complain about the servos in her arms going haywire and that you'll need to fix them, but in reality she's just teasing just to get a rise out of you.
And despite her eyes being closed, she has better sense of her surroundings than you do, not once bumping into anything or hitting the doorframes.
Once its finished, 12 will just say that you 'owe her one' for helping with the move.
Help Rating: 3/5, it'd be higher but she's too damn smug about lifting more than you.
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(AN-94) "Moving assignment understood. Providing assistance."
94 is a little stiff about the moving process at first.
But as it progresses, she uncharacteristically gets distracted by the items you choose to keep and throw away.
She'll ask with a curious expression about why you're throwing away old but usable items, and 94 ends up learning a lot about you.
While the move itself is very normal, it ends up being a nice bonding experience for the two of you!
Help Rating: 4/5, very sweet
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(AK-15) "This weight is trivial. Please, stand aside for a moment."
15 is an absolute monster when it comes to the physical labor.
She will stack the heaviest boxes into one pile and carry it without even moving her hair.
15 helpfully moves any of the things you'd struggle with, all the while her expression doesn't really change.
She'd question why you'd thank her for simply doing her job, but it's something she'll appreciate with the slightest blush.
Help Rating: 5/5, she can probably lift you, me, and the boxes in one hand.
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(RPK-16) "Hm...I wonder if humanity were to go extinct right now, what would the new race think of finding your belongings?...Hah, your face! Don't mind me, just thinking aloud.~"
16 is not really that strong, but since she's an android, boxes aren't too bad of a gig for her.
After all, she lugs around an LMG.
Regardless, she helps you pack but be prepared to answer a LOT of questions on why you own the items you do.
Both out of genuine curiosity, and to annoy the shit out of you.
But hey, you'll at least get through the moving somewhat quickly thanks to her.
Help Rating: 3/5, Thanks to her, there's now a lot of weird cryptic questions floating through your mind. Such as if the bug that finds its way into the box knows that it had walked into its tomb?
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081314 · 3 months
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Book 7: The Ruler of the Abyss – Chapter 6 (Part 2)
Following is part 2 of my translation of Chapter 6 of Book 7: The Ruler of the Abyss. This part contains Episode 7-89 to 7-94.
Main storyline spoilers after the cut.
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Episode 7-89
Lilia: We finally…. made it… There’s Black Scale Castle!
Yuu: So this is where Tsunotarou grew up!
Imperial Guard C: Garururu! Gaaaaa!
Imperial Guard A: Kukeeee!!
Lilia: Forget about me! The egg… We need to get the egg to the castle! Please, go tell Queen Maleficia to prepare cradle tower… and hurry!
Imperial Guard C / A: Gyaoou!!
(The guards depart)
Lilia: Ugh…!
(Lilia collapses)
Baul: General! Someone, fetch a doctor!! He needs medical attention now!!
Lilia: I don’t need a damn doctor. I fulfilled the princess’s imperial decree… And I’m going back to the Verdant Moors…!
Baul: You idiot! It’s beyond reckless for you to return to the battlefield in your condition!
(Lightning flashes)
Everyone: !?
Sebek: What was that!? The sky to the east, it’s glowing all of a sudden…
Lilia: That light… No, it can’t be…!!
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Land of Briar – Land near Castle
Meleanor (Dragon form): ROOOOOAAAAR!!
Iron One A: Aauuugh!!
Iron One B: That blasted witch! I can’t believe she still has the strength left to fight, we’ve hit her with everything we’ve got! And now she’s covered the sky with her black magic, and blocked off all our escape routes with those awful thorns… She truly is the definition of evil…!
Iron One C: There’s no telling how many of our comrades she’s taken out already. We can’t let her reign of terror continue one second longer. WE’LL FELL THAT FOUL BEAST HERE AND NOW!
Iron Ones: Uooooooooh!!!
Meleanor (Dragon form): ROOOOARRR!!
Knight of Dawn: …Haaah… hahhh…. Just where did we go wrong. If we’d only tried to understand each other better, to work together more… Then perhaps we all could have lived in peace. But I-… But we choose to go down this path, instead. We’ve hurt each other so much, lost so many of our dear friends… There’s no turning back now. I know I cannot ask for your forgiveness, but please… Please just let me have my dream. Let me dream of a world where all species, not just human and face… can smile together. And may my dream… become reality someday. ….Fairy guardians… LEND ME YOUR STRENGTH!
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Land of Briar – Maleficia’s Castle
Sebek: The storm has ended, and those black clouds have vanished…
Silver: …It’s the dawn.
Lilia: Ah…. Aaaah…Ahhhhh…!!!
(Lilia falls to his knees)
Silver: General Vanrouge!?
Baul: No, that’s absurd!! It- It can’t be…!!!
Sebek: Sir Baul, just what is going on!?
Baul: Lady Meleanor’s magic, it’s…. it’s gone.
Sebek / Silver: ….!!
Lilia: Meleanor…. MELEANOOOR! If I were only stronger, I would’ve made you come with us….! Why…! Just why…! Levan… I couldn’t… I couldn’t keep our promise…! GOD DAMMMIIIIIIIIT!!
Episode 7-90
Lilia: Levan… I couldn’t… I couldn’t keep our promise…! GOD DAMMMIIIIIIIIT!!
Mysterious Voice: What is the meaning of this… Princess Meleanor has returned to the stars….
Mysterious Voice: She never backed down before the humans, not once. Oh, how noble she was! The very pride of the followers of the night!
Mysterious Voice: Rest in peace, dear child of the night.
Mysterious Voices: The night’s blessing upon ye.
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Grim: The heck’s goin’ on? I hear voices whisperin’ in my ears, but there’s nobody here.
Baul (whispering): …It’s the senate.
Sebek (whispering): The senate!? I’ve heard though their bodies have returned to the stars, they linger in this world as naught but consciousnesses.
Lilia: ….Meleanor was noble? She was our pride? Bullshit! That’s all a fucking load of bullshit!! The hell does any of that even fucking matter now, she’s gone…!
Senate Member A: Shut your vile little mouth, you lowly bat. Have you no shame! You left the princess behind on the battlefield and slunk back here all by yourself…! You couldn’t protect the princess, yet you dare call yourself an Imperial Guard! Shame on you for running away!
Senate Member C: Ahh, dear princess…. The poor thing, to be stuck with a subordinate too daff to comprehend the fae’s pride…
Senate Member D: I warned her time and time again: a dirty little bat has no business at a dragon’s side.
Senate Member E: You returned the Draconia family’s kindness with ingratitude…. You good-for-nothing!
Baul: Please, wait! The General was protecting the heir under an imperial decree from Princess Meleanor…!
Lilia: …Stop, Baul. The high elders are right. From hereon I….. I resign from the Imperial Guard. I relinquish my title as General of the Right. My subordinates were just following my orders. I humbly ask if you could be… lenient in your judgement.
Senate Member F: You aren’t just going to lose your title - you’re never stepping foot within the capital again!
Senate Member G: Hurry up and get your filthy hands off the heir’s egg! You repulse me!
Yuu: But he was just trying to protect Tsunotarou!
Grim: What the- The egg slipped outta Lilia’s arms an’ now it’s floatin’ in the air!
Baul (whispering): Damnit… Damn that blasted senate!
Baul: Please, wait! Princess Meleanor instructed the general to hatch the egg if she failed to return! And even our distinguished senate cannot defy an imperial decree, you all know that!
(Mallyegg floats away and vanishes in a burst of light)
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Lilia: ……Farewell, Malleus.
Baul: Ah! G-General! Where are you going!? Are you turning your back on Princess Meleanor’s decree!?
Lilia: …I’m not an Imperial Guard anymore, Baul. Her decree has nothing to do with me now.
Baul: But…!
Lilia: I don’t belong here anymore. And there’s nothing left for me to protect….
Silver: General Vanrouge… Please wait!
(Lilia slaps away Silver’s hand)
Lilia: Just leave me alone…
(The Darkness appears)
Baul: W-What is this… this foul energy!?
Sebek: Is it… Is it the Darkness!?
Silver: It’s being drawn in by father’s despair! Shit, it’s already got him surrounded!
Lilia: …Meleanor, Levan…. Are you down there?
Silver: No, you can’t go down there!! The Darkness is trying to trap you, General Vanrouge!
Lilia: You guys take me… with you…
Silver: FATHEEEEER!!
Sebek: Silver! We must go after Sir Lilia! Grim, Yuu, ready yourselves!
Silver: …Yeah. Let’s go!
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Grim: Man, how come we had to wind up here again. It’s so dark an’ cold…
Sebek: Argh, cease with your mewling! If we’re able to locate Sir Lilia, and have him understood this is but a dream, we should return to where we were prior.
Silver: Yeah… That’s right. I never knew… I never knew father stepped down as general because of something that serious.
Sebek: ….In truth, there’s something I’ve been suspicious of ever since I first apprenticed under Sir Lilia. Don’t most of our retired leaders reside in vast mansions just outside the capital? And yet… And yet someone whom my grandfather respects as our nation’s hero, and someone whom the Young Lord adores as part of his family… Lives deep within the forest, far, far away from the capital - as though he were in hiding. I’ve long wondered why that was.
Silver: My father would always tell me the air up in the capital city disagreed with his skin. And he never took me with him there, either… So I just always thought he preferred a quiet life, surrounded by nature… But my father's known Lord Malleus since he was little, and I remember he’d often get summoned to the castle by Her Majesty and Lord Malleus.
Sebek: I wonder, just what transpired in the 200 years between Sir Lilia abdicating his position, and Lord Malleus being born?
Grim: Ain’t gonna do us any good just sittin’ around blabberin’. Come on, let’s go look for Lilia. Then we can get outta here!
Silver: Right. …Wait for us, father!
Episode 7-91
Sebek: Hmph. You are but small fry. You’ve no chance against us, Darkness!
Silver: !! Shh!
(Silver puts his hand over Sebek’s mouth)
Sebek: Fmph?!?
Silver: I hear someone talking, on your 2 o’clock. Let’s check it out.
Sebek: Hmphh!!
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Silver: Is this… Dragon Capital City?
Grim: This is just like when we were lookin’ for Silver in the Darkness. We’re all see-through, like ghosts.
Sebek: Ghmph!! Fmmhp… *Sebek rips off Silver’s hand* …Ahh! You!!! Just how long do you intend to keep your hand upon my mouth!
Silver: !! Shh!
(Silver puts his hand back over Sebek’s mouth)
Sebek: Bfmph!?
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Baul: Sir Vanrouge. I apologize for the abrupt summons…. But I’m glad you made it.
Lilia: It’s been ten years since we last met, eh?
Silver/Sebek/Grim: !!
Baul: I was concerned since I didn’t get any response to the New Year’s card I sent you… But I’m glad to see you’re doing well.
Lilia: Uh-huh, sure. You know that letter you sent me… I noticed it had the Draconia family’s coat of arms on it. It was Her Majesty who ordered I come here, right? …The heck’s going on? I can’t imagine the Senate or the aristocrats would be happy to see me here. I know Queen Maleficia's subject to their opinions, as well...
Baul: Indeed. That’s why we had that message delivered to you in secret. But you know… Your expertise in concealment hasn’t dulled a bit since you retired. I wouldn’t expect anything less from you. …This way, please.
Lilia: …?
Silver: …Looks like this dream takes place about a decade after the battle ended.
Grim: Let’s trail ‘em.
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Lilia: Is this… cradle tower?
Baul: Correct. The heir’s egg… Lord Malleus’s egg is sleeping up there. This tower is to serve as a temporary cradle for the royal family’s eggs, in case something happens that prevents one from hatching.
Lilia: So it’s basically a dragon incubator, since their eggs won’t grow if you don’t pour love and magic into them. I’m guessing Queen Maleficia’s the one providing the magic right now? I heard if dragon eggs don’t directly receive their parents’ love and affection, it takes a lot longer for them to hatch, but I never thought ten years would pass by without hearing news of the heir’s birth.
Baul: The truth is… you were summoned here due to a grave issue we’re having with the egg.
Lilia: …An issue?
Baul: Yes. For the first five years, Queen Maleficia poured her magic into the egg via the tower… And though its growth was slow, the egg did steadily develop in that time. However… Shortly thereafter, the egg began rejecting her magic.
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Lilia: What?
Baul: The doctors we consulted said the egg would be more receptive to her magic and affection if she cradled it, instead of sending her magic to the tower. So in between her official duties, Her Majesty comes to the tower to hold the egg… But even that hasn’t had any effect.
Lilia: He’s rejecting her magic… Don’t tell me it’s because she’s not his parent? That’s ridiculous – his eyes aren’t even open yet, there’s no way he’d be able to tell whose magic he’s receiving!
Baul: We’ve summoned doctors from across the country to come look at things, but the cause for all this remains a mystery. The only thing we’re certain of is this: if we fail to find a way to fix this, Lord Malleus will go join the starts without ever hatching.
Episode 7-92
Baul: The only thing we’re certain of is this: if we fail to find a way to fix this, Lord Malleus will go join the starts without ever hatching.
Lilia: No…!
Baul: As the egg is accepting only a limited amount of magic at this point, Queen Maleficia has been pouring in several times the amount of magic needed to hatch him. But as she’s at an advanced age, it will be dangerous for her to keep this up for much longer. The Land of Briar-… Apologies, Briar Valley is in chaos right now, and we’re in a precipitous situation with the neighboring countries. The fate of our country rests on Her Majesty’s shoulders, and she can’t afford to tend to the egg 24/7.
Lilia: …Okay, and?
Baul: Sir Vanrouge, you were once renown as the Dragon’s Right Hand Man. And so I ask of you - please help us.
Lilia: Help you? The hell do you expect me to do? I was never anybody’s right hand man, I couldn’t even fulfill my duty. I’m just a good-for-nothing…. Just a “dirty little bat”.
Baul: I don’t care what anyone says, Her Majesty and I have faith in you. We’d like you to travel the world, and search for information on how to hatch dragon eggs.
Lilia: Travel the world… Does Briar Valley even have anything like passports we can use?
Baul: We do not. …Not official ones, at least.
Lilia: ….Ha, hahaha! Ahahahahaha! That’s rich, never thought I’d get to see the Queen act so reckless. Alright, so what’s in it for me?
Baul: Nothing… except… Do you recall our final audience with Lady Meleanor?
Lilia: Our final audience…
(Flashback)
Lilia: This egg won’t hatch without you!
Meleanor: Then you must hatch it for me.
Meleanor: And you loved Levan, too. You two, the General of the Right and the General of the Left, spent more time together than I did with my own husband. Of course you will love our child, just as you loved us.
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(End flashback)
Lilia: “Then you must hatch it for me”….. *sigh* Why does everybody always gotto dump their problems onto me.
Baul: Does that mean you’ll….!
Lilia: I was just thinking about taking a little trip, actually. I’ll ask around about the egg while I’m gone. But that’s it, got it? Don’t expect I’ll be much help.
Baul: Of course. While you’re gone, we’ll keep trying to find a solution on our end. Safe travels… The night’s blessing upon ye.
(Baul departs)
Lilia: First things first, I need to find out where dragons live outside of Briar Valley. Then I can start my search there… *sigh* If we can’t hatch you before you join the stars, I already know your parents are gonna give me an earful when I get up there myself… So you better not kick the bucket while I’m gone… Malleus.
Episode 7-93
Silver: …So that’s the reason why father went traveling around the world. He was looking for a way to hatch Lord Malleus…
Sebek:  Four hundred years ago, eh…‘Twas a time when prejudice against other species ran rampant. Doubtless ‘twas no pleasant journey.
Silver: …I wonder what happened while he was traveling?
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Lilia: I heard there was a see-through dragon that pops up sometimes in the Shaftlands… But I doubt a dragon would live here, so close to humans.
Townsperson A: Hey, traveler! Come join on the fun! This festival only comes ‘round once a year.
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Lilia: Sorry, I’m in a bit of a hurry. Ah, actually, have you heard about a dragon that lives around here?
Townsperson A: Dragon? No way, those things are just fairytales. Anyways, you don’t look so good. You feeling okay? You’re white as a ghost- Ah! T-Those pointy ears… Are you a fae…!?
Townsperson B: What!? They say the fae rule over the lands up north with an iron fist!
Townsperson C: M-Monsteeer!! Get away from us!
(The townspeople start throwing rocks at Lilia)
Lilia: A monster? You’re one to talk, human!
(Lilia starts charging up his magic, then stops)
Lilia: We’re just gonna look even worse if I cause any trouble… Dammit!
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Maleficia’s Castle – Cradle Tower
Baul: How did your trip go, Sir Vanrouge?
Lilia: …I didn’t get any leads.
Baul: I see…
Lilia: How’s the egg doing?
Baul: Not much better, unfortunately. However… After you departed for your travels, he started accepting just a little bit more magic. Perhaps your parting words encouraged His Majesty.
Lilia: Don’t be ridiculous, it’s impossible to tell what babies are thinking. Long as he’s still alive, that’s what matters.
Baul: I’ve ordered everyone out of the tower. Would you like to go speak with him?
Lilia: I don’t see any reason why. Not like there’s anything I can do for him.
Baul: That’s not true. I’ve no doubt he’d be delighted just to hear your voice.
Lilia: …Fine, but only for a second…. Hey there, Malleus. Haven’t seen you in two years, just about. I was worried you’d go join the stars while I was gone… But I see you’re hanging in there just fine, yeah? I bet you must get bored just sleeping all the time. Here I’ll… I’ll tell you about my travels. I was just in the Shaftlands the other day. It ended up being a wild goose chase, so I… Ah, let me tell you a happier story. So this town I went to had this huge festival going on… There were restaurants and food stalls as far as the eye could see… I even got to try some goat’s milk cheese, and it was delicious. ….Is there any point telling you these stupid stories… I’ll be going down south next. Hopefully I can actually get some useful information this time. …See you, Malleus. Don’t kick the bucket while I’m gone. 
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Merchant: Dear traveler! Would you be interested in this magic lamp?
Lilia: Magic lamp?
Merchant: Indeed. If you rub this beautiful lamp here, a magic genie will appear and grant you three wishes. Amazing, isn’t it?
Lilia: He’ll grant my wish… So could he hatch a dragon egg, for example?
Merchant: A dragon… You mean those creatures from those old fairy tales? Why of course! I’m certain a genie could do that for you. Ah, well, this lamp is just a replica, so even if you rub it a genie won’t come out. So, you going to buy it or not?
Lilia: …No, I got enough luggage already.
Merchant: Well I think souvenirs are the real highlight of traveling, but okay. If you’re not going to buy anything, then scram. You’re getting in the way of my other customers.
Lilia: Fairy tales, huh. There’s still dragons alive today… So maybe the genie of the lamp is still out there somewhere. I’ll see if I can’t collect some more info while I’m here. Ugh, but the sunlight’s so strong in this country… *sigh*
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Episode 7-94
Lilia: Hey there, Malleus. How’re you doing? Baul told me somedays you’ll accept magic, and somedays you won’t. But they can’t figure out any rhyme or reason to it. You’re too young to be this picky, you know. Your mother was an awful picky eater, I remember she gave the kitchen staff a lot of grief. Couldn’t you have picked a different quality of hers to take after? I’m sure Queen Maleficia’s just about fed up by now, too. …And I bet Meleanor’s up there laughing at us right now, seeing us run around all frazzled. Oh, and Levan. He always went around acting all prim and proper, but anytime he had to eat some vegetables he didn’t like, he’d hide them underneath the table cloth. I’m totally the opposite, though – I’ll eat just about anything, long as it fills my stomach. The three of you are the most bothersome family I’ll ever meet, I swear. …This time, I went to Scalding Sands. Humans are something else. In only ten years they built up their small villages into these huge cities, and it’s unbelievable how quickly their countries keep developing. For a pure blood fae like you, the world might just get harder and harder to live in as time goes on. …I’ll be leaving again soon. I’m sure I’ll find a way to hatch you this time. So until I get back, you better not…
Lilia (singing): Now sleep, sleep, my beloved child
I pray you’ll walk towards that light
That light that will guide you in your dreams…
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Lilia: Haaa, haaah…. Legends say dragons lived in this valley… But this place is a ghost town. Maybe they relocated somewhere, or maybe they’re already… Dammit! It took me years to get here, but it was just another stupid goose chase. Isn’t there anything here that can give me any clues? I’ll ask the furniture and the carpeting if I have to. Just tell me, please! Tell me how to hatch a dragon egg! He’s been getting weaker and weaker all this time! I don’t care who or what… Just someone tell me! Please!!!
(magic starts building up)
Lilia: What’s going on? My magic’s flowing out of my fingertips by itself…! …. “Life is but a fleeting day, distance but an illusion.” Far Cry Cradle.
Lilia: Those visions just now… Was I seeing this castle’s past? ….Did my magic do that? I’ll try again… There! I can see it… It’s only just a little bit, but I can see the memories that were left behind here! Haha! Yes! With this spell, there’ll be so many new avenues I can take with my search. If I can peer into memories of the past… I’m sure I’ll find some clues on how to hatch dragon eggs…! I’ll find it, I know I will! I’ll find a way to hatch him!
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Part 1
Part 3
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annabelle--cane · 2 months
Note
do we have any information on the approximate dates or year that TMA takes place in? I’m obsessed with timelines and I’m so curious about if those dates are Known or not or can only be guessed about
yes we do! some parts of the timeline are a little vague, but every live and "in situ" statement (with a few exceptions) has a date attached to it. I won't go through every known date, and I'm also not scrupulously checking to make sure I've copied all these numbers down correctly so there's probably an error or two in here, but some significant ones include:
s1
mag 13 - alone: the first live statement and the first hard date for the show, 13 january 2016
mag 22 - colony: martin's statement after being trapped by jane prentiss, 12 march 2016
mag 26 - a distortion: sasha's statement about meeting michael, 2 april 2016 (<- that was my fourteenth birthday :3)
mag 38 / mag 39 / mag 40: jane prentiss's attack on the institute, sasha's death, and all the debrief statements afterwards, 29 july 2016
s2
mag 41 - too deep: jon's statement about exploring the tunnels and his first supplemental tape about gertrude's murder, 2 september 2016
mag 43 - section 31: basira's statement about diego molina + the start of her giving gertrude's old tapes to jon, 19 september 2016
mag 47 - the new door: helen's statement about the hallways, we meet michael in person for the first time, 2 october 2016
mag 61 - hard shoulder: daisy's statement about seeing the coffin for the first time, 1 december 2016
mag 73 - police lights: basira's statement about rescuing callum brodie from maxwell rayner, 11 february 2017
mag 76 - the smell of blood: melanie's statement about her investigations into war ghosts, at the end she and jon have a bit of a fight about how That Is Not Sasha, 13 february 2017
mag 78 / mag 79 / mag 80: jon releases not-sasha from the table, martin and tim get trapped in the corridors, jon meets leiter, elias smashes leitner with a metal pipe, all on 16 february 2017
s3
mag 81 / mag 82: jon makes a statement at georgie's place about a guest for mr spider at the same time as daisy interviews the remaining archives staff to try and ascertain his whereabouts, 18 february 2017
mag 89 - twice as bright: statement of jude perry, ft. jon hand crispification, 24 april 2017
mag 91 / mag 92 (/ maybe mag 93?): statement of mike crew, death of mike crew, jon daisy and basira's encounter in the woods, the big elias conversation at the institute, 28 april 2017. mag 93 might also be recorded on this day, I'm not quite sure, because georgie's statement (mag 94) is 29 april, but I don't know if that's fully the next day or if jon got back really late on the 28th, recorded mag 93, and then georgie gave her statement in the wee hours of the 29th. up to interpretation and how little sleep you envision jon as having.
mag 100 - I guess you had to be there: lynne hammond's is 2 may 2017, robin lennox's is 20 may 2017, brian finlinson's is 26 may 2017, and "john smith's" statement doesn't have a date.
mag 111 - family business: gerry's posthumous statement about smirke's 14, 30 june 2017. again, trevor and julia's statement about how they met in mag 109 is dated 29 june, and I don't know if it's an either-side-of-midnight thing or a full day elapsed between them.
mag 118 - the masquerade: martin and melanie pull a fast one on elias while the rest of the gang sets up explosives in the unknowing, 6 august 2017.
mag 120 - eye contact: elias's statement about jon's coma dreams + elias's arrest, 9 august 2017.
s4
mag 121 / mag 122: oliver banks gives his statement about point nemo and jon wakes up, 15 february 2018
mag 128 - heavy goods: breekon deliver's the coffin and jon slurps a statement right out of his head, 3 march 2018
mag 132 - entombed: jon buries himself alive to rescue daisy, 24-26 march 2018
mag 141 - doomed voyage: on the boat to norway jon slurps a statement about mikaele salesa out of a shiphand's head, 11 june 2018
mag 142 - scrutiny: jess tyrell comes in to complain about jon slurping a statement out of her head and haunting her nightmares, 12 june 2018
mag 146 / mag 147: jon gets intervened on about all the brain slurping, they go to hilltop road and find annabelle's statement, 20 july 2018
mag 157 / mag 158 / mag 159: peter releases not-sasha and brings martin to the panopticon for a showdown with "elias," julia and trevor attack the institute, daisy goes monster mode, and jon follows martin into the lonely and saves him with the power of gay love and also slurping peter lukas's brain so hard he explodes badly, 25 september 2018
mag 160 - the eye opens: jon reads a normal statement and nothing bad happens, 18 october 2018.
s5
fuck if I know
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What's the average language like?
This will be a giant of a post, because this is a subject that I really like. So much of what we think about language just isn't true when you look at the majority of them and I'm not even going into how the languages themselves are constructed, only the people speaking them, if that makes sense. It will make sense in a moment, I promise
First, let's discuss assumptions. When you think of the abstract idea of a language, what do you imagine?
How many speakers?
Where is it spoken geographically?
Do speakers of the language only speak that language or do they speak at least one other language? How many more languages?
Is the language tied to a state/country?
Is the language thriving or endangered?
In what domains is the language used? (home, school, higher education, administration and politics, in the workplace, in popular media...)
Is the language well documented and supported? Are there resources like dictionaries to look up words in, does google translate work for it, does Word/google docs work etc?
Is the language spoken or signed?
Is the language written down? Is it written down in a standardised way?
Do you see where I'm going with this? My perspective on what a language is has completely shifted after studying some linguistics, and this only covers language usage and spread, not how words and grammar work in different languages. Anyways, let's talk facts. (if no other sources are given the source is my uni lectures)
How many speakers does the average language have?
The median language has 7 600 native speakers.
7 600 people is the median number of speakers. Half the world's languages have more, half have less.
Most languages in this tournament have millions of speakers. But maybe that's relatively common? After all, half of the world's languages have more than 7 600 speakers. No.
94% of all languages have less than a million speakers.
Just so you know, big languages are far from the norm. There are 6700-6800 living languages in the world (according to ethnologue and glottolog, the two big language databases. I've taken the numbers for languages having a non-zero number of speakers and not being classed as extinct respectively. Both list more languages).
6% of 6700-6800 languages would be around 400 languages with more than a million speakers. Still a lot, but only a (loud) minority. It's enough to skew the average number of speakers per language upwards though. Counting 8 billion people and 6800 languages, that's almost 1.2 million people per language on average. The minority is Very loud.
Where are most languages spoken?
First of all, I'll present you with these graphs (data stolen from my professor's powerpoint) which I first showed in this post:
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49% of all languages are spoken in Africa and Oceania, a disproportionately large amount compared to their population. On the other hand, Europe and Asia have disproportionally few languages, though Asia still has the largest amount of languages. Curious, considering Europe is often thought of as a place with many languages.
Sub-Saharan Africa is a very linguistically interesting place, but we need to talk about New Guinea. One island with 6.4 million people. Somehow over 800 languages. If you count the surrounding islands that's 7.1 million people and 1050 languages. Keep in mind that there are 6700-6800 languages in the world, so those 1050 make up more than a seventh of all languages. The average New Guinean language has less than 3000 speakers. Some are larger, but still less than 250 000 speakers. Remember, this is a seventh of all languages. It's a lot more common than the millions of speakers situation!
So yeah, many languages both in and outside New Guinea are spoken by few people in one or a few villages. Which is to say a small territory. But 7600 speakers spread over a big territory will have a hard time keeping their contact and language alive, so it's not surprising.
Moving on, lets talk about...
Bilingualism! Or multilingualism!
Is it common to speak two or more languages? Yes, it is. This is the situation in most of the world and has been the case historically. Fun fact: monolingual areas are uncommon historically and states which have become monolingual became so relatively recently.
One common thing is to learn a lingua franca in addition to your native language, a language that most people in the area know at least some of so you can use it to communicate with people speaking other languages than you.
As an example, I'm writing this in English which isn't my native language and some of you reading this won't have English as your native language either. Other examples are Swahili in large parts of eastern Africa and Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea (the autonomous state, not the entire island).
Speakers of minority languages often have to learn the majority language in the country too. It's difficult to live somewhere where most daily life takes place in one language without speaking at least some of it. This is the case for native people in colonised countries, immigrants and smaller ethnic groups just to mention a few situations. All countries don't have majority languages, but some are larger, more influential and used for things like administration, business and higher education. It's common for schooling to transition from local languages to a larger language or lingua franca in countries with many languages.
Another approach than the lingua franca is learning the language of villages or towns surrounding you, which is very common in New Guinea and certainly other parts of the world too. It's not unusual to know multiple languages, in some places in sub-saharan Africa people speak five or six languages on a village level. Monolingualism is a weird outlier.
Speaking of monolingualism, let's move on to...
Languages and countries
This is a big talking point, mostly because it affected my view of language before I started thinking about it. First of all, I'm going to talk about the nation state and how it impacts languages within it and the way people view language (mostly because it's a source of misconceptions which fall apart as soon as you start to think about them, but if you don't the misconceptions will stay). Then I'll move on to countries with lots of languages and what happens there instead.
So, the nation state
The idea is that the people of a nation state share a common culture, history, values and other such things, the most important here being language. We can all agree that this type of nationalism has done lots of harm to various minorities and migrants all over the world, but it's still an idea that has had and still has a big impact on especially the western world. The section on nation states will focus on the West, because that's the area I know enough about to feel comfortable writing about in this regard.
How do you see this in common conceptions of language? It's in statements and thoughts like this: In France people speak French (but what about Breton? Basque? Corsican? Various Arabics? Some of the other 15 indigenous and 18 non-indigenous languages established in France? What about people speaking French outside of France?), in the US people speak English (but what about the 197 living indigenous languages? Or the 34 established non-indigenous languages? And the many extinct indigenous languages forcibly killed by the promotion of English?).
In X country people speak X, except for the people who don't, but let's ignore them and pretend everyone speaks X. Which most might actually do if it's the single national language that's used everywhere, it's common to learn a second language after all.
This is of course a simplified (and eurocentric) picture, as many countries either have multiple national languages or recognise at least some minority languages and give them legal protection and rights to access certain services in their languages (like government agency information). Bi-/multilingual signage is common and getting more common, either on a regional or a national level. Maybe because we're finally getting ready to move on from one language, one people, one state and give indigenous languages the minimum of availability they need to survive.
I wrote a long section about how nation states affect language, but I realised that veered way off topic and should be its own post. The short version is that a language might become more standardised simply by being tied to a country and more mobility among the population leading to less prominent dialects. There's also been (and still is) lots of opression and attempts to wipe out minority (often indigenous) languages in the name of national unity. Lots of atrocities have been comitted. Sometimes the same processes of language loss happen without force, just by economic pressure and misconceptions about bilingualism.
What does this have to do with the average language?
I simply want to challenge two assumptions:
That all languages are these big national languages tied to a country
That it's common that only one language is spoken within a country. If you look closer there will be smaller languages, often indigenous and often endangered. There are also countries in the West where multiple languages hold equal or similar status (just look at Switzerland and its four official languages)
Starting with the second point, let's take a look at how Europe is weird about language again
Majority languges aren't universal
I'm going to present you with a list of the 10 countries with the most living languages, not counting immigrant languages (list taken from wikipedia, which has Ethnologue as the source):
Papua New Guinea, 840 languages
Indonesia, 707 languages
Nigeria, 517 languages
India, 447 languages
China, 302 languages
Mexico, 287 languages
Cameroon, 274 languages
Australia, 226 languages
United states, 219 languages
Brazil, 217 languages
DR Congo, 212 languages
Philippines, 183 languages
Malaysia, 133 languages
Chad, 130 languages
Tanzania, 125 languages
This further challenges the idea of one country one language. Usually there's a lingua franca, but it's not always a native language and it's not always the case that most are monolingual in it (like the US or Australia, both of which have non-indigenous languages as widespread lingua francas). Europe is the outlier here. People might use multiple languages in their day to day lives, which are spoken by a varying number of people.
In some cases the indigenous or smaller local languages are extremely disadvantaged compared to one official language (think the US, Australia and China), while in other places like Nigeria, several larger languages are widely used in their respective areas alongside local languages, with English as the official language even though it's spoken by few people.
It's actually pretty common in decolonised countries to use the colonial language as an official language to avoid favoring one ethnic group and their language over others. Others simply don't have an official language, while South Africa's strategy is having 12 official languages (there are 20 living indigenous languages and 11 non-indigenous languages in total, and one of the official ones is English, so not all languages are official with this strategy either). Indonesia handled decolonisation by picking a smaller language (a dialect of Malay spoken by around 10% at the time, avoiding favouring the Javanese aka the dominating ethnic group by picking their language), modifying it, and started using it as the new national language Indonesian. It's doing very well, but at the cost of many smaller languages.
Going back to the list, it's also interesting to compare the mean speaker number (if every language in a country was spoken by the same amount of people) and the median speaker number (half have more speakers, half have less). The median is always lower than the mean, often by a lot. This means that the languages in a country don't have similar speaker numbers, so one or a few languages with lots of speakers drive the average upwards while the majority of languages are small. Just like for the entire world.
The US and Australia stand out with 12 and 10 median speakers, respectively. About 110 languages in the US have 12 or fewer native speakers. The corresponding number for Australia is 113 languages with 10 or fewer speakers. There are some stable languages with few speakers documented, but they have/had between 40 and 60 speakers, so those numbers point towards a lot of indigenous languages dying very soon unless revitalisation efforts succeed quickly. This brings us to the topic of...
Endangered languages
This is an interesting tool called glottoscope made by Glottolog which you can play around with and view data on endangered languages and description status (which is the next heading).
I'll pull out some numbers for you:
Remember those 6700 languages in Glottolog? That's living languages. How many extinct languages are listed?
936 extinct languages. That's ~12,5% of the languages we know of. (Glottolog doesn't include reconstructed languages like Proto-Indo-European, only languages where we either have enough remaining texts to conclude it was a separate language or reliable account(s) that conclude the same. We can only assume that there are thousands of undocumented languages hiding in history that we'll never know of)
How many more are on the way to become extinct?
Well, only 36% (2800 languages) aren't threatened, which means that the other 64% are either extinct or facing different levels of threat
What makes a language threatened? The short answer is people not speaking the language, especially when it's not passed down to younger generations. The long answer of why that happens comes later.
306 languages are listed as nearly extinct and 412 more as moribound. That means that only the grandparent generation and older speak it and the chain of transmission to younger generations has broken. These two categories include 9,26% of all known languages.
The rest of all languages either fall into the threatened or shifting category. The threatened category means that the language is used by all generations but is losing speakers. The shifting category refers to languages where the parental generation speaks the language but their children don't. In both of these cases it's easier to revive the language, since parents can speak to the children at home instead of having to rely on external structures (for example classes in the heritage language taught like foreign language classes in schools).
Where are languages threatened?
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This map is also from glottoscope and can be found here. I recommend playing around with it, you can zoom in and hover over every dot to see which language it represents. The colours signify threat level: green for not threatened, light green for threatened, orange for shifting, red for moribound and nearly extinct, and black for extinct. I'll come back to the shapes later.
As you can see, language death is more common in certain areas, like Australia, Siberia, North America and the Amazon, but it's still spread over the entire world.
Why are languages going extinct?
There are two important dimensions to the vigorousness of a language: The first is the number of speakers who claim the language as their own and speak it with each other. No speakers means no language. If all speakers move to different places or assimilate by shifting to a dominant language in the area (sometimes for work opportunities or for their childrens' future work opportunities. Sometimes because of which language(s) schools are taught in or disinterest from the children in the language and culture. Sometimes migration of an ethnic group for various reasons leads to language shifts. There are many complex reasons to why the link of transmission can break)
The other dimension, which ties into the first one, is the number of situations in which a language is used. There are many domains a language can be used in, like at home, in school, in the workplace, in politics and administration, in higher education, for international communication, in religious activities, in popular media like movies and music etc. When a language is no longer or never used in a particular domain, it might lose the associated vocabulary. When it becomes confined to a singular domain like the home, the usage goes down. The home is usually the last place an endangered language is spoken.
Usage in a domain is a reason to speak or hear the language. It's a reason to keep it alive. People also forget or get worse at languages they don't use. That's why a common revitalisation tactic is producing movies, radio programmes, news reporting, books and other media in a dying language. It gives people both reason and opportunity to use their language skills. Which language is used in schools is also important, as it keeps basic vocabulary for sciences and explaining the world alive. Another revitalisation tactic is making up new words to talk about modern concepts, some examples are the Kaqchikel word rub'eyna'oj from this tournament or creating advanced math vocabulary in Māori.
What does endangered languages have to do with the average language?
Trying to get this post back on track, these are some key points:
64% of all documented languages are either extinct or facing some level of threat. That's the majority of all language
Even excluding the extinct languages, the majority of languages are threatened or worse
This means that the average language is facing a loss of speakers, some more disastrous than others. Being a minority language in an increasingly globalized world is dangerous
Describing a language
Are you able to look up words from your native language in a thesaurus or a dictionary? What about figuring out how a certain piece of grammar works if you're unsure? Maybe you don't need that for your native language, but what about a second language you're learning?
If your native language is English, there are lots of resources, like online and book dictionaries/thesauruses or an extensive grammar (a book about how English grammar works). There's also a plethora of websites and courses to learn English, and large collections of written text or transcribed speech. If a linguist wants to know something about the English language there's an abundance of material. If someone wants to learn English it's easy and courses are offered in most parts of the world.
For other languages, the only published thing might be a list of 20 words and their translation into English or another lingua franca.
Let's take a look at the same map as earlier, but toggled to show documentation status in colour and endangerment status with shapes:
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Here, the green signifies a long grammar and the light green a grammar. Both are extensive descriptions of the grammar in a language, but they differ in length. A long grammar has to contain over 300 pages and a grammar over 150. Orange is another type of grammar, namely a grammar sketch. Those are brief overviews of the main grammatical features or features that may be of interest for linguists, typically between 20 and 50 pages. The purpose isn't to be a complete grammar, only a starting point.
The red dots can signify a lot of things, but what they have in common is that there's no extensive description of the grammar. In those cases, the best description of the language might be a list of which sounds it contains, a paper about a specific feature, a collection of texts or recordings, a dictionary, a wordlist (much shorter than dictionaries) or just a mention that it exists.
Why are grammars and descriptions even important?
The better described a language is, the easier it is to learn it and study it. For a community facing language loss, it might be helpful to have a pedagogical grammar or a dictionary to help teach the language to new generation. If the language becomes extinct people might still be able to learn and revive it from the documentation (like current efforts with Manx). It also makes sure unique words or grammatical features as well as knowledge encoded in the language isn't lost even if the language is. It's a way of preserving language, both for research and later learning.
What's an average amount of descripion then?
36,2% of all documented languages have either a grammar or a long grammar. That's pretty good actually
38,2% of all documented languages would be marked by a red dot on this map, meaning that more languages than that don't have any kind of grammar at all, maybe only as little as a short list of words
The remaining 25,6% have a grammar sketch
So as you see, the well documented languages are in minority. On the brighter side, linguists are working hard at describing languages and if they keep going at the same rate as they have since the 1950s, they'll reach the maximum level of description by 2084. Progress!
Tying into both description of languages and domains where language is used...
What about technology and language?
There are many digital tools for language. Translation services, spelling and grammar checks in word processors, unicode characters for different scripts and more. I'm going to focus on the first two:
Did you know that there are only 133 languages on google translate? 103 more are in the process of being added, but that's still a tiny percentage of all languages. As in 2% right now and 3,5% once these other languages are added going with the 6700 language estimation.
Of course, this is for the most part a limination with translation technology. You need translated texts containing millions of words to train the algorithms on and the majority of languages don't have that much written text, let alone translated into English. The low number still surprised me.
There are 106 official language packs for Windows 10 and I counted 260 writing standards you can use for spelling checks in Word. Most were separate languages, but lots were different ways to write the same language, like US or British English. That's a vanishingly small amount. But then again:
Do all languages have a written standard?
No. That much is clear. But how many do? I'll just quote Ethnologue on this:
"The exact number of unwritten languages is hard to determine. Ethnologue (25th edition) has data to indicate that of the currently listed 7,168 living languages, 4,178 have a developed writing system. We don't always know, however, if the existing writing systems are widely used. That is, while an alphabet may exist there may not be very many people who are literate and actually using the alphabet. The remaining 2,990 are likely unwritten."
(note that Ethnologue classes 334 languages without speakers as living, since their definition of living language is having a function for a contemporary language community. I think that's a bad definition and that means it differs from figures earlier in the post)
Spoken vs signed
My last point about average languages is about signed languages, because they're just as much of a language as spoken ones. One common misconception is that signed languages reflect or mimic the spoken language in the area, but they don't. Grammar works differently and some similarities in metaphor might be the only thing the signed language has in common with spoken language in the area.
Another common misconception is that there's only one sign language and that all signers understand each other. That's false, signed languages are just as different from each other as spoken languages, except for some tendencies regarding similarity between certain signs which often mimic an action (signs for eating are similar in many unrelated sign languages for example).
Glottolog lists 141 Deaf sign languages and 76 Rural sign languages, which are the two types of signed language that become entire languages. The difference is in reach.
Rural signs originate in villages with a critical amount of deaf people (around 6) that make up a fully fledged language with complete grammar to communicate. Often large parts of the village learn tha language as well. There are probably more than 76, that's just the ones the linguist community knows of.
What's called Deaf sign languages became a thing in the 1750s when a French guy named Charles-Michel de l'Épóe systematised and built onto a rural sign from Paris to create a national sign language which was then taught in deaf schools for all deaf children in France. Other countries took after the deaf school model and now there's 141 deaf sign languages, each connected to a different country. Much easier to count than spoken languages.
Many were made from scratch (probably building on some rural sign), but some countries recruited teachers from other countries that already had a natinonal sign language and learnt that instead. Of course they changed over time and with influence from children's local signs or home signs (rudimentary signs to communicate with hearing family, not complete languages), so now there's sign language families! The largest one unsurprisingly comes from LSF (Langue des Signes Française, the French one) and has 63 members, among them ASL.
What does this have to do with average languages? Well, languages don't have to be spoken, they can be signed instead. Even if they make up a small share of languages, we shouldn't forget them.
Now for some final words
Thank you for reading this far! I hope you found this interesting and have learned something new! Languages are exciting and this doesn't even go inte the nitty gritty of how different languages can be in their grammar, sounds and vocabulary. Lots of this seem self evident if you think about it, but I remember how someone pointing out facts like this truly shifted my perspective on what the language situation in the world truly looks like. The average language is a lot smaller and diffrerent from the common idea of a language I had before.
Please reblog this post if you liked it. I spent lots of time writing it because I'm passionate about this subject, but I'd love if it spread past my followers
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brooooswriting · 5 months
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Prompt list
My first prompt list and I’m honestly not quite sure how this works. But send me a prompt and a character (you can find the characters I write for in my guidelines) :) I’m happy about request and recommendations
1. “I’m not stupid, who is s/he?
2. “I’m not flirting with anyone”
3. A: “We have a problem”
B: “no, you got a problem. I got you”
4. “If I could, I would kiss all your scars away”
5. “You’re so cute when you’re half asleep like this”
6. “I don’t want to think about what life would be like without you”
7. “Do you want to stay tonight?”
8. “I killed him and I’d gladly kill him again”
9. “Don’t panic, but I think there’s someone in our house”
10. “How bad is it?”
11. “Cmon, I’ll carry you”
12. “I can’t get up”
13. “I threw up”
14. “You’re burning love”
15. “I can protect myself”
16. “Don’t touch me! GET OFF”
17. “You look beautiful”
18. “You left me. I stayed, I waited”
19. “You have the most amazing eyes”
20. “How’d you this scar?”
21. “We have time”
22. “You can still use your legs, so don’t say that I was jealous again”
23. “If even one of them touches you again, I’ll make sure they aren’t able to ever again”
24. “I’m overreacting?”
25. “Don’t cover my bite marks, or I might just have to add more”
26. “Wow, you really thought you could trust me?”
27. “You belong to me”
28. “I dare you”
29. “You can’t restart life once you make a mistake”
30. “You should be with someone who values you”
31. “I do not like (x), I like you you idiot”
32. “(X) doesn’t understand what they’re missing”
33. “If I was your girlfriend, I’d …”
34. “Can you picture me and you together?”
35. “My grandma thinks we are dating”
36. “Can’t sleep again”
37. “It’s past midnight, why are you still up?”
38. “Let’s get you some sleeping pills”
39. “She’s not your property”
40. “There is us, there never was”
41. “Keep lying and I’m out”
42. “Is this all I was to you?”
43. “You thought this was real?”
44. “All they ever did was take advantage of you. Why can’t you see that?”
45. “Tell me a story”
46. “It’s time to move on”
47. “I’m gonna take a shower, you should join me. You know, save water”
48. “Calm down! You’re scaring me”
49. “I’m done trying to fix you”
50. “I see your face everywhere… don’t you understand that?”
51. “I wasn’t enough for you, you made that clear”
52. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake to. Go back to sleep my love”
53. “Can I borrow your hoodie?”
54. “It kills me to imagine you with somebody else”
55. “You don’t own me”
56. “Can you come and get me?”
57. “You’re freezing, let’s go inside. I don’t want you to catch a cold”
58. “I don’t want you to be disappointed”
59. “It’s cute, this thing you’re doing”
60. “You should eat something”
61. “Who did this to you?!”
62. “You look like you need a hug”
63. “I love you, but you need to shut up”
64. “They’re coming. Kiss me”
65. “I’m flirting with you”
66. “I’m just so tired all the time”
67. “Would you like to take a nap with me?”
68. “Can I braid your hair?”
69. “You’re not your past”
70. “That’s not what I meant and you know it”
71. “You can cry, there’s no shame in it”
72. “You don’t do that with me”
73. “You’re not making sense dear”
74. “You feel like home”
75. “Is s/he really just a friend?”
76. “I promise I am trying”
77. “I can fix it, I will fix it”
78. “I can’t breathe around you”
79. “Don’t give me space. That’s the last thing I want”
80. “If you were any less threatening, you’d be a dandelion”
81. “I just adore you”
82. “Did I do good?”
83. “Let’s run away then”
84. “You shouldn’t trust me”
85. “What if you get hurt?”
86. “I like to do it for the plot”
87. “You are ticklish, that’s so cute”
88. “Can you warm me? I’m freezing”
89. “If you steel the blanket I’m gonna put my cold feed on you”
90. “This is low, even for you”
91. “I promise it didn’t mean anything”
92. “How much cold medicine did you take?”
93. “Get behind me”
94. “Touch her one more time and I’m gonna kill you”
95. “I want a family… with you”
96. “You’re more than a one night stand”
97. “Say that one more time and I’ll whoop your ass”
98. “My family likes you more than they like me”
99. “Every day feels like a burden”
100. “I may be a hero but I’d end the world for you”
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eco-lite · 1 month
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Finally got to read Volume 6! I didn’t think anything could top Volume 4, but this one is a very close contender for my favorite. Here are my unedited thoughts:
“Sinhalite Beckons, Part 1”
* An extra case first??? Okay then.
* Who is this female version of Seigi? This is hilarious, they’re way too similar!
* Very curious where in the timeline this story takes place…
“The Wandering Conch Pearl”
* WAIT WTF?? That was Seigi’s dream? Did he dream of himself as a woman interacting with Richard in Sri Lanka??????
* Not the milkman omgggg.
* Oooh Richard’s assistant in Hong Kong. That’s probably the sleezy guy he was talking about in the last story. Can Seigi see into other peoples’ pasts now? Didn’t know there was going to be a supernatural element lol.
* “I couldn’t decide if I should serve tea or not, so my brain cells had a meeting and came to the unanimous conclusion not to” (34). I love Seigi so much. 😂
* “I couldn’t stop smiling. Richard thanked me. He said he thought I was dependable. His smile was beautiful enough to start, but boy, a direct hit from his charm sure packed a punch. I was glad he’s withdrawn to the back room, because I was pretty sure my face wasn’t going to go back to normal for a while” (42). Oh, honey… 😌
* Wow, I did not think I would be learning so much about post-WWII politics between Japan and the Dominican Republic from this series, but here we are.
* This conversation between Richard and Seigi from page 62-67 is all over the place. Richard shutting Seigi down when he invites Richard over, but obviously still wanting to let Seigi in. And he ends up asking Seigi to dinner even though he just made the argument that Seigi should go home and go to bed early. And then he gets frustrated that Seigi is being so amenable to going out to dinner with him?? Bro, get your emotions together! You of all people should know that Seigi is not a mind reader. Let him know how you feel, for fuck’s sake!
* “To me, Richard’s beauty was like Mount Fuji at sunrise or the windswept sand dunes in a desert. Anyone else’s beauty was…very human. When I looked at Richard, I felt a mysterious calm, like if I were looking at a lake or the sky or the sea. Normal human features weren’t even in the same category. But if I said any of that out loud, I was pretty sure I’d offend literally everyone” (67). Yes, would would offend literally everyone. You’re learning, Seigi!
* “To have someone look upon the grain of truth hidden within the most tender part of yourself, and tell you their unvarnished opinion of it—I thought that would, without question, be cause for joy” (69). Okay well then you better tell Richard how you feel about having to leave Étranger in the next story, Seigi! Expose that grain of truth!!
“Resplendent Spinel”
* Seigi is really too nice. Filling in for someone in a club where you don’t know any of the other members? Could never be me.
* Ayame describing the “insincere drivel” her boyfriend spouts at her and Seigi’s reaction is “I felt like I was about to go into cardiac arrest” (93). 😅 Is he finally gaining some self-awareness about how ostentatious his compliments of Richard are?
* Ayame: “‘And if you think that a compliment can’t cut as deeply as an insult, you’re terribly naive’” (93). Seigi: “I felt like I’d been sent flying by a body blow” (94). Seigi is really going through it…
* “‘But you are different. Your words are different. When your words brush my face, it’s like a playful wind. With your absurd vocabulary, you are expressly telling me that my appearance brings you joy. It does feel a bit peculiar at times, but perhaps I find that peculiarity oddly endearing, Seigi.’ And then he smiled. I was struck dumb for a while” (96). Holy shit… 😳
* “‘I have a hard time understanding the nature of your love for me. It’s be a great help if you could give me a rundown, as if you were briefing me for a job’” (101). I wish Richard would ask Seigi to do this. But I think Seigi needs to complete his “self assessment” first. He doesn’t even understand the nature of his own love for Richard.
* Wow, Itagaki is actually pretty mature. Good for him.
* “‘Well, I just want you to know there has been a lot of diversity in body type in the industry lately, and I would love you even if you put on a hundred kilos, so don’t overdo it’” (110). It’s really nice to see a male character so adamant that his girlfriend shouldn’t have to worry about losing weight, especially since she’s in the entertainment industry. I hope we see even more diverse body types in Japanese entertainment in the future.
* I hope we get to see this “long talk” they’re going to have in the next story.
“Paraíba Tourmaline Romance”
* Omg Tanimoto is back! And she’s finally meeting Richard!! The two of them ganging up on Seigi is so funny.
* “Once again, it was Seigi Nakata versus the allied forces of Richard and Tanimoto. Honestly, I was probably the happiest if ever been in my life, but I was also just as embarrassed” (135). This is so cute.
* “‘I agree that romance might just be a stone I don’t know yet, but it feels so removed from me—like that planet made from diamonds orbiting a distant star. Maybe I just don’t have the courage for interstellar travel’” (153). This is so ace. I’m so so glad Tanimoto decided to be true to herself and not force herself into a romantic relationship she didn’t actually want. Sometimes you don’t need to experiment. You just know yourself. I’m so proud of her!
* Wow, I really teared up seeing Richard talk about queerness and fluctuations in identity so directly. I’m so happy Tsujimura had the courage to include frank conversations about queer issues. Richard’s perspective here truly is “like a spring breeze rushing through a window that no one remembered opening” (153).
* “‘What really matters is that you never forget that while you possess the potential to change, your present self continues to become your future self… I know it’s hard to decide what choice will be best for you, if I were in your position, I would not think forcing myself into a romantic relationship would be that choice… While dying on your feet is all well and good, one wrong step might make it nothing g more than foolhardy and reckless. And perhaps in the same way, a strategic retreat isn’t running away so much as it is a change of course’” (157). Ace ally Richard is so important to me. This is why he’s my comfort character.
* “‘When Seigi told me about this place, I thought it was a shop run by a foreign man who would show his customers wonderful gemstones. I see it’s actually a shop that provides kindness and comfort to those who see themselves as Étranger’” (158). fUCK.
* I’m so glad Seigi apologized for what he said to Tanimoto at the museum. I know it’s hard for him to let go of the fact that Tanimoto doesn’t feel romantic love since he has a crush on her, but I think he’s more understanding of her feelings now, thanks to the conversation with Richard.
* Omg Seigi and Tanimoto having a mature conversation about why they wouldn’t work out romantically. So nice to see. I think Tanimoto still kind of misunderstood why Seigi wanted to ask her out before, but that’s very on brand for her lol.
* “‘I feel like having you around has made me a better person than I was before’” (173). Richard!!! 💘💘💘
* Tanimoto defending Seigi and telling Richard to never hurt him again! I love her so much!
* I love this story so much! It was great to learn more about Tanimoto’s past and see her finally interact with Richard, who was just so thoughtful here. I can’t believe he felt bad for telling her not to worry about romantic love because he thought it might hurt Seigi. That’s sweet, but I’m glad he was true to himself and what Tanimoto needed to hear in that moment. And Seigi got just a bit more mature, too. I have such intense affection for everyone in this situation. But not Seigi’s father coming to ruin the vibes at the end. 🤬🤬🤬
“The Tanzanite of Rebirth”
* Seigi’s father is such a disgusting manipulator. I always say I want to learn more about Seigi, but learning how awful this man was to him and Hiromi, and how dark Seigi’s thoughts were at that time… How dark they are now… It’s really distressing.
* The fucking tonal shift from this melancholy last dinner together to Jeffrey showing up in the hotel room is so funny. For real though, what did Seigi think would happen when he followed Richard to his room?? 👀 But it’s really concerning that Seigi felt he had no choice but to follow Richard to his room. Obviously that’s Seigi’s extremely negative headspace talking, but please have some self-respect!
* “‘Maybe you’ve forgotten, but I spent a long time stalking you within the realm of what’s legal, of course. Obviously, I’ve repented of my actions—please, God, forgive me for my trespasses. And since I’ve repented, I hope you’ll forgive me for reoffending. It’s plain for anyone to see that something’s been eating at you’” (228). JEFFREY. It’s kind of sweet that Jeffrey has been keeping an eye on Seigi, but did he have to get this intense about it? This kidnapping situation is so chaotic lol. That is his style, though.
* “‘Why do you treat me like some rock on the side of the road? What do you think I am? A doll that’s not good for anything but being on display? I’ve been on this Earth longer than you have. I possess more knowledge than you, and I have enough free time to be able to afford to spend some on you. And yet you had the audacity to try to abandon me and walk off into the darkness. It’s beyond asinine and irrational’” (230). YOU TELL HIM, RICHARD! (Not to even mention Richard told Seigi he loves him just before this rant.) But I feel like Seigi could have said this exact speech when Richard ran away to England before. They both feel that the other should rely on them more, but wouldn’t want to be a burden. After the England debacle, Richard learned that it’s okay to rely on people who love you. Now Seigi has to learn that lesson too.
* “There was a large dam inside my heart, and what it was holding back wasn’t water but sludge. And I didn’t want any of that getting on Richard. It’s the sort of thing that you let out into a drainage ditch in secret” (232-233). Oh, honey, no. First of all, Richard is a human being who loves you and can withstand hearing bad things. You’re not tainting him. He’s asking you to trust him with this. Second of all, please go to therapy…
* It’s really concerning to see how Seigi thinks of himself as having the potential for violence against people he loves. It’s really common for witnesses of domestic abuse to think that way, but it’s so clear in Seigi’s actions that he could never do that. He has such a good heart. But he’s really clouded by dark thoughts from interacting with his father. It’s not like he was thinking this when he wanted to date Tanimoto. These thoughts resurfaced very recently. Thankfully Richard has done enough self-reflection to throw his own situation in Seigi’s face to show him how ridiculous he’s being.
* “‘You don’t think of me as normal or expected. You don’t think of me as tangible, something that is always by your side. That is why I remain someone distant and unreachable to you… You never attempt to close the distance between us. And you never allow me to pay your price, the affection, you are worth’” (243-244). Wow. This reflective Richard is extremely powerful…
* “The moment I realized that he had been watching over me and accepting me for who I was on a much deeper level than I could even have imagined, I felt like I’d been tossed into the middle of the ocean—it was salty, and I struggled to breathe. I was such a loser, such a thoughtless person, a timid child crying in the dark with his knees held tightly to his chest, and yet it felt like he took it all in and said that it was fine. But it wasn’t just a feeling, he believed in me, more than I could ever believe” (247-248). Yes, Seigi, that’s what you do when you love someone. You did the same for him.
* Omg punk Jeffrey?! I wish I could see all those photos Richard keeps as blackmail. 😂
* I’m glad Richard brought up “what floor?” Seriously, Seigi not feeling able to reject him was scary. For both of them, I think.
* Seigi’s stepdad is an absolute legend! King of positive masculinity! “‘I don’t think being strong or not has anything to do with whether you’re okay’” (272). Fuck yes. Hiromi did so well marrying this man.
* “‘I don’t want an apology, I want you to reflect on your behavior. I imagine you understand this by now, but your number-one assignment at the moment is learning to value yourself more’” (274). The fact Richard is able to say this to Seigi is a reflection of his own growth as well. I’m so glad they’re in each other’s lives. They make each other better. 🥹
* Seigi trying to tell Richard he wants to keep being around him even if he doesn’t work at Étranger anymore but it keeps coming out likes he’s proposing or asking him on a date. I think his first statement was the truest to how he feels: ‘“I want to be by your side from now on, if you’ll let me’” (280). I think Richard was ready to accept that as a proposal until Seigi made a bunch of qualifying statements lol.
* Wow, this story means so much to me. Everything that came out of Richard’s mouth was something both Seigi and I (and so many other people, I’m sure) needed to hear. Their relationship got so much deeper. And I can’t wait to see what shenanigans Seigi gets up to in this hotel lol. Especially if Richard is staying there as well. Very excited for the next volume. This one had better come out on time! 😤
“Sinhalite Beckons, Part 2”
* OKAY this is wild! I swear to god the person on the motorcycle in part 1 is Richard, but it seems to be Seigi now???? And he and Richard seem to live together in this nice house in Sri Lanka???????
* Omg she’s the sister of the airport lady from “Flourite By Your Side!” 😲 Glad she’s feeling better!
* Okay so it’s been three years? And there are pictures of the shop in Ginza and their families on the coffee table?? This is so fucking domestic. Is this their future???
* It’s refreshing to see someone call Seigi attractive for once! RIP Keiko’s love life though lol.
* “‘But you know, you really surprised me. You speak textbook-perfect English, but your Japanese sounds like someone from a local convenience store.’ I told him I thought is was a very interesting gap, and he smiled bashfully. ‘He always tells me that—“At this point, the language you might be the least eloquent in might be Japanese.” It is the one language he didn’t teach me, after all’” (301). This is so funny. And it’s making more sense why I thought Seigi was actually Richard in the first part. I can’t believe Seigi speaks English with a British accent! 😂
* Lol once again somebody’s first assumption is that Seigi and Richard are a couple, and it’s still not hard to see why. Love that Keiko immediately asked Seigi out after learning they’re not together, though. You go, girl! But Seigi’s heart belongs to someone else, huh? For real, please tell me he knows it’s Richard at this point!
* I find it so interesting that Tsujimura decided to show us this glimpse of Seigi and Richard’s future. What was the purpose?? It’s a fun and cute story, but not very satisfying if you’re routing for them to get together. And it weirdly feels like an ending even though I know there are at least two more volumes after this…
“Afterward”
* This isn’t a story but I need to record my reaction to the sentence “the first part of the story has now come to a close with Volume 6—though there is still more to tell.” 😲😲😲 Okay, I didn’t realize this story was in parts! Maybe “Sinhalite Beckons” is a way to transition into this new future chapter of Seigi and Richard’s life. 🤔
* Tsujimura actually knows a jeweler who taught them how to make royal milk tea lol. That’s adorable. They do say to write why you know.
* “It would make me very happy if you would keep me company on their journey for a little while.” Tsujimura, I am with you for the long haul. 🫡 Let’s do this!
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dodgebolts · 11 months
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I had a draft of about 5 of these results ready to go pre-face reveal but then everything went to shit so just for some closure here are the results (FROM SEPTEMBER!) ^_^
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This chart shows the percentage of total respondents who indicated that they mained the people above. This isn't a comprehensive list, with other streamers like SBI, Benchtrio, or other DSMP-adjacent streamers rounding the answers out!
of the 598 people who filled out the survey, 98.5% main one of the people in the above chart, and 92.8% main one or more of the Dream Team.
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From this question, it seems like DSMP creators are the main pipeline into dtblr—but a good 40% of us didn't start on the Dream Team side!
We have a good amount of people who came from the Corpse/OTV side of Twitch, and a decent amount of you who have been here a while, since SMPLive :]
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A lot of us have been here a long time—66% of us were here before 2021. The vast majority have been here since 2021, a good 93% of us!
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I thought it'd be super interesting to see how watching the Dream Team may have changed how we interact with their primary game, and it looks like a majority of us were crafters before and still are! They managed to get nearly a fifth of his audience here into playing as well!
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A toast to the loss of most of dtblr's favorite MCC player to watch, something that we definitely mourned when we heard the news. But if you're looking for a new POV to watch, survey respondents put down a wide range of players—just outside these top 8 were Ranboo, Tubbo, Grian, Illumina, Purpled, and Hannah!
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Another loss for 6% of dtblr with how this question aged, RIP Trust Issues :( But for the remaining 94% of us, our favorite Drusic is still on streaming platforms. Change my Clothes is only...500k listens away from 67 million listens on Spotify so 👀
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Wow ok as this goes on I realize just how many chapters have ended over the last few months but a salute to the 26% of loreheads on dtblr! On to the next chapter :]
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Now to a touchy subject...who's in the dteam privs? According to the survey responses, 39% of dtblr is in all three! Interestingly, there are more people who follow Dream's alt than his main. Fair enough, there are enough piss tweets on there to warrant unfollowing it!
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Word of mouth and the YouTube algorithm seems to have been the best way for the dteam to get to us—interestingly enough, a good amount of people found out through either Heat Waves the song or through the fanfiction, ranging from it crashing ao3 to commentary YouTubers talking about it on their channels!
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Now for some psychic damage, I'm seeing a lot more of RTAH posting on my dash nowadays but here's some solidarity for everyone who may have come from similar backgrounds ^_^
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Now for some more history—a vast majority of us came from gaming content backgrounds, and nearly 17% of us were primarily mcyt enjoyers. Personal shoutout to Team Crafted viewers we're holding hands <3
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Nearly half of dtblr doesn't consume much Minecraft content outside of the stuff our boys are in, though there's still a pretty large amount of people who watch other SMP's and keep up with the speedrunning scene!
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This one is an ode to the lurkers who keep the economy strong—even now you guys are an essential part of dtblr! Same to the 30-40% of people who post the stuff for lurkers and other dtblr members to see. Everyone is important to keeping our little island afloat <3
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Now onto Banter, most of dtblr doesn't make time for Banter Wednesdays, but if there's an interesting episode, it seems like the trio will capture our attention :]
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Adding some literal variety to our results, I thought it'd be interesting to see what common variety games are our favorites! 95% of us would be tapped in wholeheartedly for Geoguessr or Jackbox streams. On the other hand, Fall Guys and Fortnite are in the middle of the pack, whereas it seems like FPS games are our mortal enemies—62% of us would tap out during Valorant while 46% wouldn't be paying attention to CS:GO.
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Onto the topic of shipping, DNF steamrolled every other ship listed to have nearly 86% of responders saying they ship it. That lines up with the follow-up question, where nearly 90% of respondents either have experience with shipping RPF in the past, or have been caught up with DNFer supreme Dream's antics. Otherwise, there was a good distribution of love for most popular ships within DTQK+, with Karlnap, DNN, and Karlnapity leading the pack at around 25% each!
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Ever wonder how dtblr is spread out across the globe because of the dash being dead at different times? Well, the vast majority of us are in North America and Europe, with 86% of us being between GMT +4 and GMT -4. Much like our streamers, though, a lot of us have fucked up sleep schedules so time zones aren't as much of an issue LMAO
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Next up is a fairly simple one, I had another question that asked for gender but there was, as expected, a lot of variance and nuance that I couldn't fit into a neat graphic. But this one is a fairly simple one to graph so Well here's the 24/7 pride parade Dream mentioned coming in hot, with about 95% of us identifying as LGBT+ or questioning!
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I wanted to test out my theory that GNF mains are also biased towards CS/Engineering fields, so I asked what people were studying! There's a pretty big bias towards the arts and humanities around here, but we also have just as many STEM people around, good on dtblr for academic diversity! As for my hypothesis, 22% of people who indicated they were George mains studied some form of CS/Engineering. George mains also made up 70% of all people who studied CS/Engineering. So cheers to my stem kid gnfers o/
Finally, I don't really know the best way to make a graphic for the favorite colors question, but just know that 50% of us chose either green or blue, and it was a near-even 25%-25% split. Great job dnfers, Dream would be proud <3
Thanks for reading! I hope that this was fun to look through, and I'll be posting an identical one for new dtblr soon! Super excited to see how things have changed since Well. anyways. Also wanted to say thank you to everyone who filled it out, reading all your answers was a ton of fun and I got a ton of laughs out of some of y'alls bonus section content and the few joke answers I got throughout <333
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havendance · 1 year
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A collection of Helena Bertinelli/Huntress panels that are important to me:
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(Detective Comics #653)
Batman: That's not the way I work. I'm not a killer. Huntress: You sanctimonious... You're looking for fair play in Gotham? I got you all wrong, Batman. I thought we became what we are for the same reasons; because the streets took away everything we loved.
Detective Comics 652-653 were my first introduction to Helena's character and this was the panel that really stuck out to me about her and who she was. This is what I kept coming back and thinking about. The contrast between them. They way that they're almost similar. Just "I thought we were the same". That's the good stuff right there.
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(Huntress (1989) #2)
Huntress: I'm not strong. On TV... those overgrown wrestlers wear show-off flashy costumes... symbols of how strong they are. But it's not strong people who need costumes... It's the weak ones. Weak people who have to hide behind spooky capes and masks... make themselves seem more fearsome... so no one will see them for the harmless creatures they are... harmless as a frightened little girl who's lost her parents.
One of the things that really compelled about Huntress '89 (and to an extent Huntress '94, though that one just wasn't as good) was the dichotomy between the Huntress and the scared little girl that Helena still felt like underneath it. The contrast between the front she puts up, the way she puts on the mask and lives in it, and just how part of her is still caught up in the tragedy that birthed the Huntress in the first place.
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(Showcase '93 #10)
Helena (internal narration): Maybe's not the word for it. Monday morning: David Stone will never have a chance to turn savage, never know a child of his own...but I can't bring myself to think it's better this way. Survival is always better.
Helena throughout the entire two part story that this concludes has been reflecting on the cycle of violence. It's really fascinating to see the way that her cynicism interacts with the fact that she really does want to help this student of hers who's been abused by his father. And the way she reflects on it you can see also thinking about herself and the Huntress as a product of violence and you get this impression of self-loathing as well. It's all just a really interesting story and I definitely recommend checking it out if you get a chance.
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(Nightwing #29)
Huntress: How can you do what you do? Nightwing: Meaning? H: Look at this town. How can you play the white knight? How long can you stick to your “code”? N: As long as it takes. H: And if you fail? And you will fail. N: Then I fail, Helena. N: But I won’t let them win by becoming one of them. H: You have to play by their rules to defeat the. N: It’s not broken. H: What? N: Your ankle.
I've talked about this page before in multiple contexts, but like, I just really like it. It's an interesting look at what separates Helena from the bats. Her cynicism of you have to play the game to beat them. And also the last exchange "it's not broken... you're ankle", I just really like it. It works for me.
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(JLA #32)
Kid: Do you have super strength? Huntress: No K: Are you invulnerable? H: I'm afraid not. K: Then how are you going to save him? What are you gonna do? H: I'm going to do everything I'm capable of doing!
I think this one speaks for it's self. I just boils down what I find compelling about non-powered heroes.
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(Huntress: Cry for Blood #6)
Question: There's still time. Helena: Blood cries for blood, Vic. H: Santo killed his sister. Q: Dammit, where does it end? Q: When is it enough?
I'm going to be totally honest, this one's here because it appeals to me personally. I am obsessed with the motif of "blood cries for blood" (and also the Santo killed his own sister thing, because I'm always this close to catching kindly ones brainrot). Anyway, vengeance. Very compelling.
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bratshaws · 2 years
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goodness gracious 1. brb x oc
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THIS FIC IS 18+ ONLY! MINORS PLS DNI!
a/n: * pulls up megaphone * Rooster was raised right by his mom and doesn't care about body types. The lack of plus size fics made me upset so I literally returned to Tumblr to create this blog and write this. This is the first time I'm writing for this fandom so... I HO PE YOU GUYS LIKE IT??? its been centuries SINCE I WROTE aNYTHING ( also god im not creative with titles, please forgive me )
check out the fic's playlist made by the sweet @wiipes !!
pairing: plus size!oc x rooster
c:
1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17/18/19/20/21/22/23/24/
25/26/27/28/29/30/31/32/33/34/35/36/37/38/39/40/41/42/43/44
45/46/47/48/49/50/51/52/53/54/55/56/57/58/59/60/61/62/63/64
65/66/67/68/69/70/71/72/73/74/75/76/77/78/79/80/81/82/83/84
85/86/87/88/89/90/91/92/93/94/95/96/97/98/99/100/101/102
warnings: mentions of bullying, self doubt, aNGST, mutual pining, Rooster being a sweetheart.
“Hello!” Beatrice calls once she enters Hard Deck by the employee’s entrance, popping out her airpods to slide them inside her bag shoulder, “I’m not late, am I?” she calls to Penny who’s currently fixing the tables ahead of her.
“No, you are just on time!” she calls, her voice a bit muffled since Bea put her bag inside the little closet area for employees. She checked her appearance before going out on the mirror hanging on the wooden wall, pulling her dark brown hair up in a bun and fixing her Led Zeppelin shirt, wiping the dust off her jeans before finally walking out. Once she gets out, Penny is turning the lights on in the back area of the bar that leads to the beach. 
Meanwhile Beatrice grabs one of the bags of ice, carrying it to the ice machine behind the bar, plopping the cold cubes down the container, crumpling the plastic bag once it was empty to toss in the recycler. “I’m here, babes!” a voice calls, then a blonde head of hair shows up, “Hope you two didn’t do everything with me gone!”
“Just waiting for your presence,Michelle!” Penny calls, looking over her shoulder to press a kiss to her niece’s cheek, when she hugs her “Hi, honey, Bea is already here.”
“Bumblebea!” Bea smiles when the blonde comes over to the employees closet as well, removing her denim jacket to expose the low cut red tank top and jeans. “Need help?” Bea nods, pointing to the other bags of ice in the corner, “Friday night, tonight will be a long night huh?”
“Sure will.” Bea noted, the two of them dumping the rest of the ice “How was your date though? With the policeman?” the brunette asked, chuckling when the blonde girl rolled her eyes with a sigh.
“I swear, police officers are the clingiest guys.” Shells said, grabbing the empty bags from Bea’s hand to shove down the recycler, “He didn’t want to leave! I kept saying, ‘hey i gotta go to work,’ and he asked where I worked and I told him he didn’t need to worry about that.”
 The two of them then marched to the storage room area where Shells grabbed a box of handkerchiefs. “Then he said ‘oh it’s not a problem, I can take you’ and–and! Then he said ‘I like you a lot.’ Like!! We’ve only hooked up twice!...” she shakes her head, “I just told him it’d be better if we didn’t contact each other anymore and it was fun while it lasted.”
“He accepted that?”
“Course not, called me a bitch all the way out, I think I saw tears in his eyes before he left.” Shells shrugs, waiting on Bea to grab the recycled straws from the upper shelf, then turns off the light once her friend walks out “I swear, I’ll give up on Tinder like you did. It’s insane!”
Bea chuckles, opening the bag of straws to put them inside a glass, “I mean, you know my sister found her husband on Tinder.”
“Um, yeah, but he’s a handsome doctor from London with the body of a god and deep bronze skin. He’s like a beautiful statue!”
“I shouldn’t have never shown you their wedding picture.” Bea laughs, shaking her head with amusement. “and to think I just wanted to show you how pretty the location was.” the two of them looked at the clock, seeing they had little time before the bar opened for the public, so they had to finish everything up quickly.
Once they did and the bar opened, it exploded with people, the voices getting louder the more people entered. Music floated on the air, much to Bea’s delight as she hummed to herself with the songs. 
To think, just a few months ago she was looking for a job to help her with the bills and if it wasn’t for Shells and Penny, she’d never get it.
Beatrice is from a tight, traditional Italian family. While they are progressive in certain areas, most of her family doesn’t think women…should do much. If they have a job it should be a useful job, like banking or something like that, not Liberal arts. Which was what she always wanted to do, being a creative person since she was a child, she just wanted to work with what she liked.
But being the youngest of six siblings, the literal baby that had to stay home while her older siblings went out to live their lives out of state or even out of the country she had very little control in certain choices. Maybe it was the empty nest syndrome, with all her siblings gone from the house, her parents only had herself to… take care of in a way. It took years for her to actually go to her choice in college,juggling between work and long study hours, choosing to leave her job once she had enough money saved up to help herself once she got her place.
During college was when she met Michelle, or Shells, who took her to the Hard Deck a few times. It was distant from her job and her parents’ house and Beatrice loved it. She loved the atmosphere, she felt welcome by Penny and even if this was a Naval bar she didn’t feel like she was intruding in some way.
When Shells mentioned they needed one more person at the bar, Bea said yes immediately. Her parents weren’t happy with her choice, but they couldn’t stop her, especially since her own siblings supported it. So now she was here, working, happy, focusing on how she’d continue her career as an artist.
The bell rang, drinks were served, people were dancing. It was a nice night so far. Bea was washing one of the glasses when she heard a cacophony of voices that she heard a few times and her body heats up. She couldn’t help but just stare at him, he stood out of his group like a beautiful floral patterned thumb. With her eyes following him until they all sat down on their usual spot, Bea couldn’t help but bite her lower lip, feeling her cheeks warm up even more when he laughed at something.
“Ohhhhh, cock-a-doodle-doo huh?” Shells’ teasing voice snapped her out of her staring, Bea’s green eyes wide as saucers, seeing her friend’s teasing grin, “How long until you finally make a move?”
“I…I don’t know what you mean.” she continued washing the same glass, the squeaking sound of the sponge rubbing against it giving her some of a distraction.
“Bea, please,” Shells took the glass from her hand, then tilted her head, “You look at that man like he hangs up the moon every time he comes by.” but her friend then turned to the opposite side, focusing on checking the liquor bottles. Shells sighed, coming to her friend’s side and crossing her arms, the brunette trying too hard to keep her eyes on the label.
“This is a 1975, right?”
“Bea.”
“I can’t really see, the label is a bit faded–” the bottle disappears from her hand, Beatrice snapping her gaze to Shells, who holds the liquor under her crossed arms, her eyebrows going up to her hairline. Beatrice sighs defeatedly, “I…I don’t know what you want me to say.” she shrugs “He’s so…” she groans, covering her face with her hands, “He’s so…so hot,Shells. and he sings! and-and he’s funny and…he’s everything I’ve always wanted in a guy.”
“One more reason to go to him.” Shells whispers, “He’s single and handsome. You are single and gorgeous.” the blonde held her fingers up in a V position, before joining the two with a kissing sound, “Perfect match.”
Bea frowned, “It’s not that simple.” she murmured “I…I mean…look at me Shells.” she spread her arms to emphasize. But her friend just frowned, “Oh come on, like…look at me I’m not the type of girl who gets guys like that.”
She was a curvy gal, always had been. Normally, she wouldn’t mind it, but when it comes to guys, more especially when it comes to Rooster she just lost a good amount of confidence. He was literally adonis personified, just the most beautiful man she had ever seen. and she felt less than pretty when she remembered the type of girls that surrounded him or worked with him. 
“You know that’s not true.” Shells said with her voice low, a kind smile on her face, “You have as much chance as any girl out there.” Bea however scoffed, “You gotta believe in yourself Bea. You are gorgeous, any guy would be lucky to have you.”
The brunette’s eyes stung with unshed tears, the same eyes she clenched shut in hopes to hold them in. Memories of past relationships flooding her brain, bringing memories she wished to forget “Can we not talk about this anymore?” Shells is about to say something else but a customer calls for a refill, which Bea thanks every powerful being for, slapping on a smiling mask, “Coming right up!”
Shells only watches her friend go to the opposite side to serve one of the guys there, laughing when he says something to her - clearly drunk -  before walking away. Shells’ stare broke when she heard the bell ring, turning on to face the person. 
She immediately smiled wider, “Hi Bob.”
She likes Bob, she thought he not only was sweet he was also so smart. He knew he had a hard time with the group, especially Jake, but he was getting there. She leaned on her elbows, giving him a sweet smile, “What can I get you?”
The way his cheeks flushed and his eyes tried to look anywhere but the cleavage she put on display was so cute, “Oh, uh, just more beer?”
“Sure! Should I put it in your tab?”
“Yes,please.”
Shells went to the fridge to grab the beers, then paused, sending a look to where Beatrice was currently talking to two female customers. She then looked over her shoulder to Bob, who smiled at her, then past Bob to where his group was…a devilish thought showed up in her brain, “Why don’t you wait with the others? I’ll bring it to you.” 
“Oh, okay! I’ll be there then.”
With the beers on top of a tray, she sent one last look to her friend who was still busy, then sped her step maneuvering through the crowd until she reached them. “There you go, more fuel for the pilots.” she teased, making them laugh while switching the empty bottles with the full ones, throwing some quick looks to her brunette friend, “So,” she rested the empty tray on her hip, “What else can I get you?”
“Your number would be nice, sweetheart.” Jake was quick to say, sending her a wink with the bottle to his lips.
Shells chuckled, “I meant something achievable,Hangman.”
“I think we are all fine.” Phoenix says, “Thanks Shells.”
“Hey, not a problem. Oh, just letting you guys know, I’ll go on a break in a few minutes so if you guys need anything else, you can ask Bea.” She kept an eye on everyone, but especially Rooster. The way his eyes just snapped to her friend made her insides flip in triumph, the little smirk on her face hidden by her biting the inside her cheek, “She’ll gladly serve you.”
Rooster’s eyes finally left the brunette at the bar counter, meeting Shell’s knowing blue gaze only to clear his throat and look away again, “Well” she drawled, walking backwards, sending them a salute, “Enjoy the night!”
The moment Shells approached the bar, she ran to her aunt, whispering something in her ear. Both Penny and Shells looked in Beatrice’s direction, who was leaning down to pick something behind the bar, unaware of the scheming happening behind her back.
Once the time came for Shells to have her break, Penny kept an eye on Beatrice. It took just a few seconds for a known pilot to approach the bar, the bell rang and Beatrice turned around with a wide smile, a smile that faltered for a quick second before returning - albeit a lot milder than before - “Hi!” her voice was higher, so she cleared her throat, “Um,hi.”
“Hey.” Rooster replied, leaning his elbows over the counter, which made Bea suck in a hard breath once she saw the curve of his pecs underneath the white tank top, “Can you believe I came here to get more beer? Just three this time though.”
She couldn’t help but huff out a chuckle, covering her mouth with her hands then “Well, it is a bar.” she adds, “I would be surprised if you came here for groceries.”
When he laughed at her joke she almost felt like fainting, biting her lower lip hard with her head dipped, “I-I’ll go get it.” practically power walking towards the freezer where she stood for a few minutes, letting the cool air hit her cheeks as she tried to calm herself. She shook her head for a quick moment, grabbing the beers between her fingers and turning back around, almost letting out a yelp of surprise to see he was still looking at her “There you go.”
“Thanks.” but he didn’t leave, pointing his index finger at her “Bea, right?” she nods with a small smile, “It’s weird, I’ve seen you for a while and never got your name.”
Maybe because she chickened out every time he seemed to want something, ending up telling Shells to do it, “Oh, well,” she only gave him a weak shrug, then felt like her arms were too exposed, quickly lacing her hands behind her back to hide them the best she could, “I haven’t been here long.”
He hummed, a tiny smile on his face, “I’m Rooster.”
“I know,” she blinks when his eyebrows raise in amusement, “I-I mean, I heard Penny and Shells talking about you and heard your name being called around.” her face was so warm she felt like she was boiling. She hoped the light above her head hid her blush from his view. “I…is there anything else I can get you?”
“I don’t think so, no.” he looks back at his friends, seeing they are still chatting amongst each other. Then his eyes travel to the splotches of ink on her upper arms, the parts that weren’t hidden behind her. However before he could ask her about them, she snaps her head ahead when she sees someone on the table lifting their glass.
‘Sorry I–” she moves her own finger over his shoulder, “I gotta go get this.”
“Oh, oh no no, yeah, go ahead.” he smiled and her knees almost buckled just like that, “I’ll go back then.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
They stood there for a bit longer, until Rooster shook his head, picking the beers with one of his hands “I’l see you around then,Bea.” he smiles then turns on his heel back to the other pilots. Bea just stood there, face flaming and eyes wide, then she cleared her throat walking out from behind the bar to the table.
Penny, who watched the entire ordeal, just smiled, sending Shells a quick text once no one was looking:
“It’s on.”
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skania · 8 months
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Hi, so I have another curious question about Aqua and Akane and I was curious on how many months they were together as a "fake" couple and also how many months when they were dating for real?
Thank you for asking this! I wondered the same thing, so I tried to write down a timeline while reading the manga.
This is what I ended up with:
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Point 0: Aqua and Akane start fake dating.
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Then we have The First Concert Arc. Thanks to the hard work of an anon, we know that 5 weeks go by between the end of LoveNow and B Komachi's concert:
Chapter 31: The night LoveNow ends, Kaburagi and Aqua agree to see each other the following week.
Chapter 33: Kaburagi and Aqua meet, so 1 week has passed since the end of LoveNow.
Chapter 34: That same night, Kaburagi contacts Memcho about the Japan Idol Festival. We're told the Japan Idol Festival will take place in 1 month.
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The Tokyo Blade Arc starts 4 months after the First Concert Arc. So by this point, Aqua and Akane have been fake dating for 5 months and 1 week.
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The rehearsal period in the Tokyo Blade arc takes about 1 month. So by the time the play starts, Aqua & Akane have been fake dating for 6 months and 1 week.
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Then we have the Private Arc. It's hard to tell for how long Tokyo Blade runs, but we see in Aqua's calendar that it lasts for at least 3 weeks. So by this point, Aqua and Akane have been fake dating for 7 months.
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They start dating for real a few days after that.
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At the beginning of the Main Story arc (Chapter 81), we're told 6 months have gone by since the trip to Miyazaki. So, Aqua and Akane have been dating for real for 6 months by this point.
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We then have another 6 month time-skip in Chapter 94.
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Aqua and Akane break up 4 chapters after that time-skip, at which point they have been dating for real for 1 year.
To Summarize:
Fake-Dating: 7 months.
Dating for real: 1 year.
So for all intents and purposes, Aqua and Akane spend nearly two years in a relationship.
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learnyouabiology · 2 years
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Fun Fact Friday: There are Species of Lesbian Lizards!
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This is a New Mexico Whiptail Lizard (Aspidoscelis neomexicanus), and I am 100% sure that this lizard is a female! How can I know? 
Well, because every New Mexico Whiptail Lizard is a female!
There are about 45 species of whiptail lizards (which used to be one genus but then were sorted mostly into the genera Aspidoscelis and Cnemidophorus), at least 15 of which are “unisexual” species, i.e. all-female species. 
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(some species are fun colours!)
These lizards reproduce exclusively via parthenogenesis, which basically means they clone themselves every time they reproduce, laying eggs that contain genetically-identical offspring. Now, normally I would call such a species asexual lizards, to get some of that good ace rep, but here’s the thing:
These all-female lizards still mate with each other.
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(gal pals! 😉)
Every breeding season, these lizards go through same-sex mating behaviours, including lengthy courtship rituals, which culminates in one female lizard mounting the other. 
This process can last more than 10 minutes.
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(I love this paper)
Without same-sex mating, a female might lay one or two eggs in a breeding season. Maybe. With same-sex mating, a female can lay up to 9 eggs in a season! That’s 2-3 clutches with 2-3 eggs in each, and a HUGE increase in reproductive success!
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A BBC clip about these lizards from 2010 claims that the “male-like” behaviour of the females is caused by an increase of “the male hormone testosterone”, but that’s actually not true. At all. 
The BBC lied to me about Lesbian Lizards!!!
In reality, testosterone levels stay uniformly low throughout the breeding season, while the cycling of estrogen and progesterone are what triggers the different mating behaviours. Neither of these hormones are generally referred to as “male” hormones. 
(git gud, BBC. Honestly, this 2 minute clip has a bunch of mistakes, mostly to increase the Drama, but whatever, I guess). 
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(one of my favourite graphs in anything, tbh)
Before the ovulation, the lizard’s levels of estrogen increases, leading to “female-like” mating behaviour. After mating, but before the eggs are laid, estrogen drops off a clip while progesterone peaks, and the female goes off to mate with other females, this time in the “male-like” role.
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(This one is A. exsanguis, which is fun because it’s name means “lacking blood” although I am 99.999999% sure that they do have blood)
Once the eggs are laid, the female has a period of inactivity, probably because laying eggs is a lot of work and she doesn’t have the TIME or ENERGY to deal with the ups and downs of courtship. 
(Seriously, though, it probably is a way to recover after the metabolically-taxing work of reproduction. Let the new mom REST).
This has been Fun Fact Friday, telling you the story of the Lesbian Lizards because I love lesbian lizards so much you guys you don’t even know.
Also, my city celebrates Pride in August, so Happy Pride to All! (But especially to Lesbian Lizards, my beloved)
Oh, look. More Sources:
Crews, D., & Fitzgerald, K. T. (1980). “Sexual” behavior in parthenogenetic lizards (Cnemidophorus). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 77(1), 499-502. https://www.jstor.org/stable/8233
 Crews, D., & Young, L. J. (1991). Pseudocopulation in nature in a unisexual whiptail lizard. Animal behaviour, 42(3), 512-514. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-3472(05)80056-9
Cole, C. J. (1984). Unisexual lizards. Scientific American, 250(1), 94-101. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24969281
Crews, D., Grassman, M., & Lindzey, J. (1986). Behavioral facilitation of reproduction in sexual and unisexual whiptail lizards. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 83(24), 9547-9550. https://www.jstor.org/stable/28660
Crews, D. (1987). Courtship in unisexual lizards. Scientific American, 257(6), 116-121. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24979584
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dolli-is-me · 3 months
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hi dolli im muslim too n yk the belief that things only happen unless Allah wills for it or allows it, well im tryna enter the void state because it’s an easy method n i’ve been tryin for so long but i can’t help but feel that im not supposed to or Allah doesn’t want me to enter it…? i don’t know but i want to live my dream life so i can live in better circumstances for not only me but mainly for my mother because the way this world is n the way it works is literal asscheeks im ngl but anyhoo this thought is engrained in my head n i always think about it after a failed attempt. i feel like im going against him in a way or he doesn’t want me to enter it i don’t rlly know how to explain it but im just really scared that im doing something that’s wrong n im also scared of the idea of living like this forever…basically just scared
HI LOVE
omg this is what I exactly went through
First off all, please don't think you're going against Allah swt himself 💗
He's not mad at you, certainly, because you have good intentions in your heart, why would he still encourage you to move and attempt and showed you the void if he didn't want you to enter?
I had your same idea and thought, these fears blinded me, I was scared, I did the thing what I was about to do, I did Salah al-istikhara
I sat down, after praying, poured out my whole heart to him, even cried honestly, because I felt like shit and I felt like I was being untrue to my own Deen, I asked him, to show me guidance and to show me if I should continue or not
I kid you not, I asked Allah for a sign that I should continue and not give up
And I swear, everytime I try to give up, I get a sort of a message from him
The last time, which was actually two weeks ago, I was on the verge of quitting everything, I wanted to drop everything, I couldn't stand it, do you know what was the first thing I heard?
"indeed, with hardship there will be ease 94:6"
This made me cry even harder, because the message right after this was a song coming up on shuffle that I never heard before:
(How could you question God's existence
When you question God Himself?
Why would you ask for God's assistance
If you wouldn't take the help?)
Anyways I'm so sorry to stray from the question, but please, I just definitely know you can do it, Allah himself does want you and everyone around you to be happy, talk to him, ask him for guidance, do istikharah Salah if you like for more reassurance from him, ask him and tell him everything, tell him why you want it and tell him everything 💗
Please remember, Allah himself wouldn't have made you want it and follow it if you wouldn't see it, you can do it, every failed attempt itself is a sign
Hope I answered well! 💗
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brutaliakhoa · 2 years
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Diana of Themyscira (Wonder Woman) Reading List
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Foreword: Molded from clay by her mother Queen Hippolyta and blessed by her patron gods of Olympus, Diana grew up on Themyscira, mentored by her Amazonian sisters. When Steve Trevor’s plane crash-landed on the island, ending the era of isolation from the patriarch’s world, the Amazons held a tournament that would produce a champion who would go back with Trevor and spread peace and hope to the outside world. Through the ages, Diana has served as a military secretary, a UN ambassador, a member on the Justice League, and most importantly, as Wonder Woman herself.
As always, the issues or runs that are strongly recommended are bolded and italicized.
Pre-Crisis:
Sensation Comics (1942) #1-3, 7-8
Wonder Woman (1942) #1 (origin story)
The Brave and the Bold (1955) #30
Justice League of America (1960) #1
Wonder Woman (1942) #204 (Diana loses her memory and Nubia’s first appearance), 206
Post-Crisis:
Wonder Woman (1987)
#1-2 (the origin story of the Amazons and Diana. warning: implied sexual assault)
3-6 (Ares’ powers grow and continue to threaten the world. warning: fatphobia in #5)
7-9 (First encounter between Diana and the Cheetah. warning: racist portrayals)
10-14 (Diana returns home. warning: mentioned sexual assault)
18-19 (Diana goes to Greece and discovers strange things that start occurring on a nearby island)
21-22 + Annual 1 (a change in management and new visitors!), 23-27 (a visit from Hermes)
32-35
45 (story about Pandora, not Diana-focused but a good stand-alone issue)
46-50 (Diana and Donna work to solve a mystery on a Greek island; warning: suicide)
Wonder Woman Special #1 + 63 (Barbara Minerva is in danger, Diana tries to save her)
94-98 (Diana is captured by Cheshire, Poison Ivy, and Cheetah but the conspiracy is deeper than it seems)
105-108 (Diana visits Professor Sandsmark)
122-127 (more Cassie appearances! Artemis pursues Jason Blood. Then, a death and an apotheosis.)
154-155 (Diana and Nubia hunt down the god of lies)
Wonder Woman Secret Files and Origins (1998) #1-3 (especially first issue)
JLA: A League of One (2000): Diana faces an impossible choice, betraying her friends or sending them to die. (slight superwonder at the end)
JLA (1997) #47-49, 50
Wonder Woman (1987) #164-167 (Artemis and Diana leave for Gotham City, where gods have taken up residence)
Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia (2002): Diana pledges to defend a girl with her life and is forced to fight Bruce for the girl’s protection
Wonder Woman (1987)
#195-202 (a smear campaign against Diana begins)
203-211 (things continue to unravel as Olympus waged war against itself)
212-214 (a change in management. warning: attempted sexual assault in #214)
215-218
220-225 (decisions are made, and friends part ways) + #226 optional
JLA: Classified (2005) 
#10-15 (not Diana-centric, but a good JL story by Ellis)
16-21 (contagion breaks out, JL steps in. also not Diana-centric, but good. Slight Simone-typical sinophobia vibes but I can’t prove it [mainly the gibberish chinese constantly in the background])
Justice League of America (2006) #0 (DC Trinity)
Wonder Woman (2006) #14-17 (Diana journeys home to defend Themyscira)
Rebirth:
Wonder Woman: Rebirth (2016)
Wonder Woman: Year One + Godhood (2016): Diana’s origin story retold, plus a retelling of Dr. Barbara Minerva’s backstory (Godhood arc is illustrated by Evely, who also inked Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow!!! Also there’s so many sapphic relationships in this arc, trust me)
Found in Wonder Woman (2016) #2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24
Trinity (2016) #7 + Annual 1, 8, 9-11
Wonder Woman: The Lies + Wonder Woman: The Truth (2016): Diana goes to an old friend for help, things run deeper than they seem
Found in Wonder Woman (2016) #1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 23
Wonder Woman (2016)
#25 + Annual 1
58-62, 64-65
69-73 (very lighthearted run, definitely not as memorable but there are certain moments where Diana’s personality shines through)
74-75 (the fight for Themyscira’s soul begins)
780
781-784 (particularly the second story/backup issues by Vita Ayala; the first by Conrad and Cloonan isn’t bad, but nothing memorable)
tldr: If you only have time for one good wonder woman run, then I recommend reading Wonder Woman: Rebirth and then Rucka’s Wonder Woman (2016) run.
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ask-the-becile-boys · 3 months
Text
Story. A Better Plan
Previous | Next
[Nine digitally sketched panels in greyscale. Certain panels are redraws of the previous update, but back on the physical plane where Hare, The Jack, and The Skull are robots]
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[Panel 1: Redraw of Panel 4 from the previous update. Hare, The Jack, and The Skull look down tearfully at Scratch (off panel), eyes glowing in the dark in the back of the van. Hare says, "The shaking's stopped. Is he still breathing?" The Skull says, "Shallowly. We have to be ready to do chest compressions if he stops."]
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[Panel 2: Same image as Panel 5 from the previous update, but with shadows. Riker, glaring forward determinedly while driving the van, says, "Guys (em-dash) someone give me the Walters' address."]
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[Panel 3: Partial redraw of Panel 6 from the previous update. Hare turns sharply to Riker and says afrontedly, "What?! No! We're not going (em-dash)" Riker cuts him off, looking over his shoulder and shouting back, "You got a better plan?! Where else are we gonna find a Matter scientist in time?!"]
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[Panel 4: Hare growls, "Blue Matter ain't the same (em-dash)" The Skull cuts in, saying seriously, "But if anyone's studied how to reverse Green, it's them." Hare says, "I won't (italics) beg (em-dash)]
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[Panel 5: Redraw of Panel 7 from the previous update. The Skull shouts at Hare, "Then you can sit in here and sulk with the bug in your head! Szarka, head southeast outta town. They live off Route 94." Hare grimaces.]
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[Panel 6: Hare looks down at the unresponsive Scratch silently. No text.]
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[Panel 7: Riker in profile, looking worried.]
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[Panel 8: Same shot as 7, but Hare is standing hunched over next to Riker and pointing forward. Hare says, "Take a right at that next light." Riker responds seriously, "Got it." Hare says, "Guess you're gonna meet the neighbors, Dee."]
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[Panel 9: The van swerves around a corner, tail lights trailing, at a yellow traffic light. From inside the van, Hare says, "(ellipses) Dee?" Riker says, "I think she's doing her sleeping thing." Hare says, "Hell of a time to take a nap." End ID]
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promptful · 1 year
Note
Hurt no comfort 👀??
Hurt No Comfort Dialogue
yikers there's a lot of warnings. heed them. do not add. you are responsible for the media you consume.
WARNINGS: Forced imprisonment. Cheating. Amnesia. Implied murder. Death. Possible implied toxic relationship. Injuries. Breaking up. Cigarettes. Self-destructive tendencies. Alcoholism. Wowie. 
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1) “I trusted you.” 
2)“I’m sorry… who are you?” 
3) “Were we friends?” 
4)“Do you even love me?”
5) “What are we now?” 
6) “Damn you.” 
7) “No feelings involved.” 
8) “I never loved you, anyway.” 
9) “You’re nothing but a deceitful bastard!” 
10) “I don’t know you.” 
11) “Erase me from your memory.” 
12) “Understand that I don’t care to know you.” 
13) “Trust you? Hilarious. Tell another joke.” 
14) “Step away from them!” 
15) “I loved you.” 
16) “You broke my heart.” 
17) “Really? You’re cheating on me?” 
18) “You liar.” 
19) “Give one damn reason to not walk out that door!” 
20) “I’m broken. And I don’t intend on being fixed.” 
21) “Naïve little thing, aren’t you?” 
22) “I thought you loved me.” 
23) “If I have to pick me or you, I’m picking you.” 
24) “Take this and run.” 
25) “Forget about me. It’s for the best.” 
26) “They want us to separate. I’m sorry.” 
27) “We’re terrible together.” 
28) “I thought that I could learn to love you.” 
29) “Did our love mean anything?”
30) “I just want what’s best for you.” 
31) “Liar. Don’t even try.” 
32) “I know I won’t make it.” 
33) “Tonight is the last one.” 
34) “Pretend for one minute that we’re in love, and then kiss me. One last time.” 
35) “I’m keeping you safe.” 
36) “You’re hurting me.” 
37) “This is killing me.” 
38) “This is safe?” 
39) “Feelings make things complicated.” 
40) “They’re dead.” 
41) “I can’t find them.” 
42) “What did you do with them?” 
43) “You’re shaking.”
44) “I can’t breathe.” 
45) “This isn’t home anymore.” 
46) “I’m running away.” 
47) “I can’t take this.” 
48) “Don’t… don’t leave me.” 
49) “I can’t lose you too.” 
50) “Everyone is hurting me. Can’t you see?” 
51) “I’d burn the world for you.” 
52) “You never cared about me.” 
53) “Promise me this.” 
54) “I can’t stand how you’re fighting this alone.” 
55) “Why didn’t you tell me?” 
56) “Were you going to keep this a secret the whole time?” 
57) “I thought we didn’t keep secrets.” 
58) “I’m feeling a lot less like your spouse, and more of a convenient thing.” 
59) “Look at me, tell me that you love me.” 
60) “There’s only so much I can take.” 
61) “You’re leaving, again.” 
62) “I’m not who you think I am.” 
63) “You can’t fix me.” 
64) “I can’t pretend that things are okay anymore.” 
65)“Leave.”
66) “Don’t come back here again.” 
67) “I’m changing my locks.” 
68) “Give me my things, and then I’m gone.” 
69) “You’ve changed.” 
70) “I don’t like who you’ve become.” 
71) “Stop believing in them.” 
72) “Do you really think that I don’t know?” 
73) “This marriage is pointless.” 
74) “I want a divorce.” 
75) “I hate you.” 
76) “You’re nothing to me.” 
77) “I’m going to sleep on the couch.” 
78) “We need a break.” 
79) “Don’t come looking for me.” 
80) “You need to get yourself together, or there’s no more us.” 
81) “It takes two to make a marriage work, you know.” 
82) “I don’t want to talk to you.” 
83) “Leave me alone.” 
84) “Papers are on the table.” 
85) “Give me your ring.” 
86) “I just want to go home.” 
87) “You’re scaring me.” 
88) “Don’t go to bed angry.” 
89) “Are you hurt?” 
90) “Is that blood?” 
91) “What happened to you?” 
92) “Who hurt you?” 
93) “You’re limping.” 
94) “Sit down. Now.” 
95) “Why aren’t you sleeping anymore?” 
96) “Where do you go during the night?” 
97) “Do you think I don’t feel you slipping out of bed?” 
98) “Show me.” 
99) “I refuse to just sit back and watch you be hurt!” 
100) “You’re killing yourself little by little.” 
101) “Put down the bottle.” 
102) “Don’t light that cigarette.” 
103) “We’re breaking up.” 
104) “You hurt them. Why?” 
105) “They did nothing to you!” 
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