#I keep thinking about how often I see one particular statement that makes no sense

[deceitfuldevout]

Hidden Treasure (Part 8)

Arranged Marriage AU: Dark!Tommy Shelby x Wife!Reader

Warning(s): Angst, Fluff, Mentions of past domestic violence.

Author's note(s): Innocent heartfelt chapter (cue the fluff).

Your husband would have Finn either send messages to you, or simply keep an eye on your wellbeing. Although Finn hadn’t a clue of what was going on, he knew you of all people didn’t deserve this sort of treatment. He made sure to visit as often as he could for company.

You were grateful the moment Tommy finally let you out that dreadful basement. You hadn’t forgotten the promise made a few weeks ago to Finn. To bake him a signature custard from your bakery. He’d been dying to try. Soon, it became common for the youngest Shelby brother to stop by. He would either have a letter or message from Tommy. Most of them were if your husband would be late or earlier from work.

You’d pack Finn some lunch before bidding him a farewell. Most of the time it was just you and Charlie in one big, empty house. To say that he was a sweet child was an understatement. He had the power to make anyone’s cold heart melt. How could such a charming child come from a man like Tommy? You hadn’t a clue.

Of course, you could never replace Grace. You weren’t the one who’d given birth to him. But Charlie was your son in every single way that mattered. There were even a few special moments you’d spend with the other Shelby family members. You especially enjoyed bonding with the women of the family. Teatime with Polly was a particular favorite. She would give you as much advice as a wise woman could. In a way, Polly became your second mother.

As you were setting up the table Polly had been bouncing Charlie on her lap. Finn decided to stop by since today’s work was slower than usual, he choose to stay a little longer. Polly examines her finished tea. Her expression was confused at first, then startled. She shows Finn the cup, and it was as if he'd read something from it.

Polly let’s out a small sigh, “Tell me my dear…” she places her cup on the table, “…has my nephew been treating you well?”

You’re at a loss for words. How could you answer to her? Should you tell her the truth? How would she react? You made up your mind to keep it short and subtle, “Tommy provides me with everything a wife may need. What more could a woman want?” you try your best to force a smile, hoping that it was a good enough answer.

But Polly was suspicious that something wrong within your marriage. She could sense it, “You didn’t answer my question dear, has he been treating you well?” her voice is sterner this time. You tense. Your heart races, “I-I’m not sure what you mean...” you play off. Polly could tell that over the period of time since you've been married, the flicker of light in your eyes had disappeared. Blown out by the cold blues that followed into your nightmares.

At that point, Finn has had it. As soon as Polly leaves, he tells you of his plan, “Tommy’s going to some event next week, and he won’t be back until the morning,”

“Finn…” you warn. It wouldn’t be a good idea breaking your husband's trust. A man like Tommy never forgets. Finn grumbles, “I’m sick and tired of seeing him treat you like--like the dirt on his shoes! The bloke!” his hands ball into fists. You don’t think twice about his statement, in fact you understood completely why your new brother had the right to react like this. You sigh, reaching for his hands to hold, “Could you do me a favor?”

You were kept busy for the next few days, planning on yet another escape. Hopefully the last. Finn would send letters to your sister who lived in the next town. It had been quite a while since the two of you would communicate. Her and her husband had been busy since delivering their new baby.

So, it would take time to pack up their belongings before moving in with your parents. Finn would stop by the postal, on the way to wherever he was heading in order to avoid suspicion. For once it felt like everything was going your way.

As each day went by, you grew more excited to leave this place, once and for all. You let out your hair, made yourself more presentable, you even started smiling again. Tommy took note of how the corners of your lips would curl upwards on their own as you hummed a tune while making supper.

He’d been silently observing you adjusting to your new life. After putting away the dishes, you hoist Charlie on a hip before leaving the kitchen. Tommy listens carefully to your footsteps leading up the stairs before following them. He stops in front of his bedroom door, reaching for the knob.

But before he’s had a chance to twist it open a faint sound of laughter erupts. He opens the door to spot you and Charlie on the bed. Your hands reaching to tickle the boy’s sides. Seemingly unknowing that your husband is witnessing the display of affection.

You hoist the toddler into the air. Tommy notices your expression. For the first time in months, you're actually smiling. It was like some sort of trance. He leans against the door frame. Seeing you with his boy felt, in a strange way, right. As if you both were meant to be. His son loves you. You drop Charlie onto your bosom to catch your breath.

Soft giggles manage to slip out of every exhale. Charlie’s hair tickles your chin so you tilt it to the side. That’s when you notice Tommy standing at the doorway. His posture is more relaxed than usual. For how long had he been standing there?

You look away from his gaze. It always did make you nervous. His fingers twitch, curling into his palms, “I uh...” he slides them into his pockets, “I want you to be my guest for an event,” Tommy looks up, waiting for an answer. You raise a brow and sit up, still holding the boy in your arms, “Who’ll watch over Charlie?”

“Finn offered to keep an eye on him.” of course.

“Alright,” you agreed, already knowing how it would play out. Tommy nods, “I’ll be back, ‘bout three hours from now.” he checks his pocket watch. Double taking the time. You hadn’t planned for him to take you anywhere. It’ll only delay your plans. But you couldn’t risk him questioning his decision, “Sure thing.” you return. Tommy looks as though he had one last thing to say, “And uh...wear something nice,” He turns away, leaving as soon as he came. Now that was odd.

#dark!tommy #dark!tommy shelby x reader #dark!tommy shelby #dark!thomas shelby #hidden treasure fanfiction #my work #my works #dark!fic #dark!fanfic #dark!fanfiction #dark!smut #dark fic #dark fanfic #dark fanfiction #dark smut #dark!thomas shelby x reader #reader #reader insert #fem!reader #fab!reader #afab!reader #peaky blinders

[twig-tea]

A moment of reflection on [Only Friends] discourse

I've been writing a lot on other people's only friends posts so I thought I should step back and write my own; and then of course I wrote meta about meta rather than about the show itself lol The thing I have been thinking about most today is disentangling:

What makes sense for a character because of their characterization & plot (the right choice for characterization)

What we want a character to do because it would be better for them and we want good things for them (the right choice for the character's best interests)

What the morally best choice would be for that character to make within the confines of the story (the right choice from a moral standpoint)

What we want a character to do because it would move the plot in the direction we want it to go (the right choice for our personal agenda)

What we think a character should do in order to support the presumed themes or moral of the story (the right choice for the narrative)

What we think someone in real life should do from a moral standpoint (the right choice for reality)

What we think someone would do in real life from a realistic standpoint (the right choice for realism)

And maybe others I haven't thought of. I think some of the conversations I've had over the past couple of days with folks about the OF plot seems like we're disagreeing but we're often on the same page on all of the salient points, just talking about different aspects of the above and coming to different conclusions because of it; and I only realize it when they've pointed it out to me (shoutout to @lurkingshan as one example).

To be totally clear: all of the above conversations are valid and interesting and allow us routes to reflect on and think about ourselves and our world (which is one of the major things media consumption is all about). It's just important to keep in mind which of the above we're talking about at any one time. It's when they get conflated--someone thinking that me wanting a character to do x means I think it's the morally right thing for that character to do in reality, when actually it's the opposite and I'm interested in the mess for plot purposes, for example--where stuff can get dicey. e.g.: Sand and Nick should totally make out for sad boy hours, but not to benefit their characters or for moral reasons or the narrative, that one's all for me and my enjoyment of the drama.

A less crack-y example from a recent exchange: Sand should stop letting Ray walk all over him. I want this for him for his character, and I think it would be the right thing for him to do both in the show and if this were reality. As characterization goes, I suspect we'll need to see growth or rock bottom or a catalyst for change before I would expect that to happen; narratively, I also would expect something to have to change to show that character arc. Also, if he were a real person, I would not expect him to be able to just stop this behaviour. All of these statements are true, at least to me and my assessment of Sand's situation.

Anyway I've just been reflecting on how these nuances make a big difference to how we read what one another are trying to say, and it can also be helpful having in mind which you mean when writing or responding to meta, particularly about a show that is both grounded in reality and very much a drama. I'm going to try to be a bit more purposeful about stating which I mean when I'm talking about this show in particular.

#only friends the series #only friends #only friends meta #ofts meta #ofts #bl meta #meta on meta

[socratetris]

Since it is taking quite some time, and because I pivoted from the easier thumbnail I made before WARFRAME: Lua’s Prey released, I figured I would share a little bit about what goes into my process for taking an in-game art asset and turning it into something that will pop and stand out in a youtube thumbnail.

This is not a statement that my edits are better in any way. In fact, I think my edits drastically lose a lot of what makes the artwork as present in-game work as a part of the game’s world building and artistry. Never the less, I am working in a different medium.

I consider the creation of youtube thumbnails a transformative version of collage. While some are much better than others, and by no means am I claiming mine are great, I do not discount digital collage and just copy-pasting other images. (Though people often do just that in this industry.)

First is taking a screen-cap of the image.

Second, painstakingly erasing everything around the subject in Gimp, being mindful of where the lines are meant to be, their thickness, and preserving as much as possible. This was a particular challenge on Voruna’s wolf friends, because their line work is done in the same yellow as the murals they are placed on. The line work makes aggressive use of lines that suggest space and shape, yet ever connect. Leaving a lot of the original wolves without exterior linework. My process will change this gestalt quality. Which is a pity.

Third, copying the layer. Bringing the figure to 0 contrast so that the shape becomes a single color. Selecting the shape. Growing the area of the shape by a tiny amount, “2.” then merging the layers with the wolf on top, thus creating a black outline. I actually do this step between the brightness/contrast and the sharpness parts of step 4, because introducing such a large amount of the color black I feel throws off maintaining the colors of the image. So i would rather keep it for all the parts of those filters that introduce more black outlines and shading to the image.

Fourth, over the years, I have made a streamline method of how much to change the saturation, the brightness/contrast, the sharpness, and for exaggerating linework with GIMP’s “Cartoon” filters. This time, I had to deviate, because too much brightness ended up hiding the yellow line work. Most especially on the green wolf Ulfrun. To Keep those lines on the chest visible, I had to add a step. Desaturating just the colors inside the linework > erasing them to create a transparency > cutting all brightness and maxing out contrast to turn those exterior lines black > then dropping the transparency down to 15% on that layer and off-setting the lines. The result being the lines are now visible without fully covering up the image, but we still lose some of that gold. Had I not been working on just these wolves for 4 days, I would have instead erased all but the lines on that chest fur and made them into a darker, goldenrod color, with similar decreased transparency and offset. But I didn’t want to spend all my time on this. I need to keep going to eventually see if my concept for the thumbnail will work as all. Dymar’s color, by far, is the least preserved by this process. What was a fairly muted blue-indigo vibe transformed entirely into a bright cyan

This was all just the first step. I currently have no idea how I am going to space the wolves, nor where I am going to place text into the thumbnail. The center piece of the image is going to be the Grineer Worm Queen’s hand holding an edited Prex (warframe word for playing card/poster). I will follow up with a post of the last wolf and the prex after this one.

But at least I hope this exposure of my standard process helps to present making thumbnails as something that can be more involved in an artistic sense. A lot of effort, trial, and error goes into trying to make the images into something both new and familiar, while preserving the artistry of the components and meeting the end of catching the eye of a person scrolling through a webpage.

#Warframe #digital extremes #digital extreme #youtube #thumbnail #fanart #warframe fanart

[wordsandrobots]

22 and 32 for the writer asks?

22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

The easiest way to illustrate this is to show you my writing folder:

I have specific folders for anything I anticipate will involve multiple documents (or that grows more as I progress); everything else goes in Various. This represents everything I have written since about . . . 2006? Give or take? Both original and fanfic, as you can see (if the name means nothing to you, it's probably my own stuff).

Within those folders, I will either just have a jumble of documents or, where there is a set order of some kind, I'll apply a numbering scheme. Here's the Iron-Blooded Orphans docs:

(The top documents are copies of an English translation of an promotional website thing from back when IBO released; I wanted to keep hold of it for reference.)

For long-term projects, I'll usually have some kind of planning document separate from the individual stories/main document. This will be a place to store details I'll need to refer to over and over, character notes, ideas I don't have a set place for yet, draft top-level plans, and anything else I think I need to jot down somewhere.

It will also occasionally play host to me doing back of the envelope calculations for timelines. For example, here's a table covering the timings for the events running from the end of IBO11 through to IBO17, since I needed definite dates that would make sense accounting for journey times.

Then, in the specific story documents, I'll keep some overall stuff at the top - title, tags etc if it's for Ao3, and chapter names/details, with the latter sometimes working as a way to measure my progress on writing or posting (this is not the real chapter list, to be clear, it's the comedy one).

Each chapter will then start on a new page and, well, I'll write them until I'm done!

That's about it. All local; I don't do cloud storage; I back-up on memory sticks instead. I do have journals for use while travelling (when I don't just use my phone), but mostly I write using OpenOffice.

32. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

I'm a little unsure if I can answer this in the way it's intended. I don't really return to stuff often (and the pandemic damaged my ability to read books which is a whole other thing). However, there's a line from the start of 'The Man Who Was Thursday' that's always stuck with me:

"This particular evening, if it is remembered for nothing else, will be remembered in that place for its strange sunset. It looked like the end of the world."

The passage expands to a fuller description but I love that start. The simplicity of the statement and how much it captures. 'It looked like the end of the world' is such a wonderful thing to say about a sunset, and I can picture that kind of sky so vividly.

Weird Writer Questions

#words in answer #more rambling #writing

[wayhavenots]

Hi!! If you're taking requests from the Seven forms of love ask, can I ask for Avery: 3 from Eros & Storge, 1 from Ludus & 5 from Pragma👀<33

Thank you for sending these!! 🥰

How do they feel about public displays of romantic affection? Does it make them uncomfortable? How do they feel if a romantic partner kisses them in public?

Avery doesn't mind seeing PDA...anymore lol. I think when she was younger, there was a lot of they're-in-love-where-am-I about it; but now she's like good-for-them about it. As far as being part of the affection, I think Avery likes to keep displays of affection in private for the most part. If something's bothering Nate, or he needs reassurance, or he's being especially adorable, she'll reach out and hold his hand no matter where they are. And if Nate kisses her in public she's way more happy about the kiss than bothered by anyone seeing. And she's not bothered by people seeing, it's just like...not for them, you know? But sometimes the emotions can't be contained and she's okay with that.

How far does parental approval (imagined or expressed) impact upon their current sense of self-worth? What might they sacrifice or attempt to achieve in order to ensure the approval of their parents?

Rebecca's approval meant so much to Avery when she was younger. And she didn't feel like she had it and it completely destroyed her sense of self-worth. Now she's learned, kind of the hard way, that there is nothing she could do to guarantee that Rebecca would stick around and love her. So she doesn't try and doesn't care (or thinks she doesn't) anymore. 🙃 I think she would have done anything for her mother's approval when she was a kid (or even disapproval, as long as it came with attention), and now she can't open herself to that kind of hope. (That being said...I still think she would do anything for her mother's approval.)

...But it's kind of different in the Rook Lives AU. I think she still really cares about her parents' approval, but she's basically had it all this time; she's not starved for it. But she would never want to lose it, either. So there's a reason she still lives in Wayhaven, despite wanting to travel; and a reason she works at the Agency; and it's maybe even the reason she keeps her dating life so private (it's nobody's business! and she barely has one! and also maybe she's a little worried about how her parents would react if she mentioned the occasional entanglement with a woman... sometimes of the supernatural variety). Anyway. I think she would twist herself into knots to keep her parents happy (but of course they love her just as she is!).

Does your OC have any particular favourite chat up lines? If not for themselves then perhaps ones they have suggested to a friend? How effective do these tend to be?

Avery does not flirt very often. But she'll drop a cheesy line on Nate if she thinks of it. Her favorites (my favorites of the ones I just looked up lol): "Are you a black hole? Because I can't seem to resist your pull." "Wanna help me recreate the Big Bang?" "If I were an enzyme, I'd be a DNA helicase so I can unzip your genes." Hard to tell if they're effective because "Please" probably works just as well lol, but Nate thinks they're cute/funny anyway.

What importance or value does your OC attach to marriage? Do they believe that it is important to make a public statement of commitment to another person (or persons)? Or are they more concerned about inheritance rights and security for their family? Or do they not see marriage as a necessary signifier of commitment and loyalty?

Avery only cares about marriage as far as legal matters are concerned. She dreamed about getting married when she was a kid (like on the moon), but she doesn't see it as necessary outside of practical/legal/financial matters.

She does "propose" to Nate when she decides she's going to become a vampire. Which is literally her saying "Do you wanna get married? Before I Turn?" It's specifically in case something goes horribly wrong, not that she says as much. It catches Nate totally off-guard and he's also like "Ah, what a romantic proposal." Totally teasing of course...but later she gives him a whole romantic down-on-one-knee proposal (and a whole wedding not on the moon).

#i went to dinner with a friend and his wife recently #and they were talking about their wedding and how my friend was like 'spend the extra $900 i'm worth it' #anyway that's how i think the navery wedding would be. so much more elegant and expensive than avery would plan but nate's worth it!! #avery lin #nate x avery

[bewires]

speaking of "spite" content, I'm also seeing more and more fans shipping joe and/or nicky with women TOG characters and it reeks of anti-gay spite wrapped in "hehe i'm being quirky and against the grain of what's popular in fandom!" bullshit. what the hell is wrong w people and these weird agendas???

I can't say I have seen that, I haven't been in the TOG tags here or on ao3 in a while, but I see where you're coming from. I think there are some really iffy backlash type trends in fandom (generally, not TOG in particular as I don't know what's going on there) that come into play with a "break up the gay couple to make room for a woman trope":

1. One big fandom complaint is that women are often sidelined. Soooo making a woman a main character at the expense of a canon gay couple is progress, riiiiiight?

2. Literally people just not understanding the word "subversion" like "ooooh i am subverting fandom trends by breaking up the canon gay couple and writing something super heteronormative instead"

And what it reveals underneath is basically just homophobia

At the same time though, I am very hesitant to discount all fics that feature Joe and Nicky in pairings with women.

For me, there is some nuance there that I can see: some people headcanon Joe and/or Nicky as bi (mostly Joe, and we could have a whole convo about the implications of that because IMO it tends to come from an implicit place of "bi men are more masc than gay men and Joe is masc while Nicky is fem-coded in fic therefore if either of them is bi then Joe", which, yikes), in which case I can see ppl shipping them with someone else in a threesome sense or in a "relationships had prior to meeting each other sense" and I have in fact read a lot of great character pieces about the latter

I can also envision things like a super fucked up emotionally dark fic where Joe and Nicky fight over whether to keep searching for Quynh, separate over it for a while, and one of them has a misguided bad idea of a something with Andy, both believing they will never see their lover again. And in this case I actually do think it is a great chance to make good, heartbreaking Andy content, of which this fandom does not have enough

There is of course the argument that I believe Greg Rucka once described them both as gay rather than bi; fandom opinions tend to vary a lot as to whether word of god is canon or not. Personally I go by schroedinger's author and ignore everything I don't like. Based on that I am pretty lenient with how people choose to interpret that kind of statement.

What I am saying in the end i guess is that ppl can write Joe and Nicky with female characters in all sorts of constellations for all sorts of reasons, but it is a tricky thing to do justice and really rarely something I would enjoy as porn for porn's sake BC it would have to walk such a delicate line to be enjoyable and not problematic to me

#anon ask #tog #the old guard #yusuf al-kaysani #nicolo di genova #fandom racism #fandom

[elevatorelevenhatesyou]

Unification Is All Goddamn Over The Place

I need to yell at another popular thing. This time it's a fan made mod for this old strategy game called Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War, specifically the Soulstorm expansion.

The last few months have been a fucking nightmare. I've sunk deeply into an old project to keep myself busy.

I made a personal mod for this game called Dawn of War. It started as a simple idea. We always wished that Imperial Guardsmen would stand closer together in their formations so that more of them could be stacked in a tight defensive line.

One day I decided, well I've heard of mods for this game, maybe I could figure out how that shit worked. So I did, and it was a long and often painfully tedious and frustrating process that involved dealing with a lot of stupid problems that didn't make any sense, as is always the case with modding things, or with programming in general. But it paid off, and I made guardsmen stand closer together.

From there it just kept snowballing. We would be playing against the computer and would say things like "I feel like X should be stronger", or "Why can you only have one Y?" or "It'd be neat if you could do Z," and then I would go AH HA! I SHALL MAKE IT SO, WITH MY MOD POWERS!

And after several years of this, the result is something that's quite an expansion on the original Dawn of War: Soulstorm. I've added some new units, tons of new abilities, and changed hundreds of other little things, and I polished it all a great deal with custom icons and tooltips and that, because it didn't feel complete otherwise.

But there was always this looming shadow just out of my sight range. For the longest time I'd heard mention of other major mods for Dawn of War. Mods that added whole new races, with custom models and some even with their own voice acting, with expansive new AI tactics. Names like Titanium Wars, Ultimate Apocalypse, Firestorm Over Kronus, Dawn of War Redux, or the much more succinctly titled Tyranids Mod.

It adds the Tyranids, you see.

I never tried any of that though, because I wasn't interested in opening that can of worms. I have no ability to make models or rig animations, and coding is horrifying witchcraft to me. A while ago, though, I decided I'd give a few of those big mods a look, starting with the mod of mods, Dawn of War: Unification. Maybe I could find stuff to steal.

Unification is a little less of its own alteration project and more of a big tool that combines a whole bunch of New Race mods into one big single thing, and I'd seen some article headlines lying around gaming websites saying things like 'Unification mod breathes new life into this fifteen year old game' or some such, and it always would feature prominently on various "top x best Dawn of War mods you should totally try out" lists.

Turns out Unification sucks and I hate it.

Like holy shit. What an ungodly mess it is.

Firstly I should say, I haven't looked into the credits at all, and each of, or at least some of, these new races was a separate mod before being compiled into Unification, so when I shit talk Unification in general, I'm not specifically blaming anybody in particular because I don't know who was responsible for what. I won't name any names, because I don't know any. When I use "they" or "the authors" or "the creators" or what have you, I'm only referring to whoever was making the given part I'm currently talking about, and I'll try not to make sweeping statements as though a single group of people did everything.

Secondly, I'm aware I'm talking about a free mod for a really old video game. You might say well it's just groups of fans, these are made by like at best indie developers, it's all passion projects, don't you think you're being really harsh here?

To which I say I USED THE SAME FUCKIN SOAP YOU DID As mentioned I have a mod project of my own, it started years ago, recently picked it back up, been working on it basically nonstop for the past three or four months because it's really comfortable busywork for my hands to occupy all the parts of my mind that otherwise won't shut the fuck up about how worthless I am as a person.

I'm not sure if it's frustrating or gratifying that other modders have had bunch of the same ideas I had, like adding conscript squads to the Imperial Guard or Retributors to the Sisters of Battle. I hadn't planned on ever making like a public release of the thing I've made, it's just something to play by myself or with my brother and a buddy or two, but maybe I SHOULD try turning it into a big public downloadable thing, since I've now seen some of the competition and it was so jarringly terrible that it somehow made me hate myself less, which I didn't even know could happen. Maybe I can supplant Unification and become lord of Dawn of War mods and then my fanfiction ideas will get so popular they get written into the Warhammer 40,000 canon, and then all the money will be mine and I won't need to get a fucking job, Mom!

anyway

PART 1

WHAT'S THIS GUY? HE IS UGLY!

Despite what I just said about not making sweeping statements, I do have to say there are a few problems that seem to be omnipresent throughout, or at least throughout most everything but the Witch Hunters. The Witch Hunters one is pretty solid.

I think I can say as a general summary: It's mostly highly technically proficient with no taste whatsoever. Great effort was put into things that should not have been done, and not enough effort was put into polish or actual game design.

Spelling errors? For real?

"He" is the only leader they'll accept, even though that looks and sounds like a woman.

Overindulgence is a recurring theme. I'll start with the User Interface because that seems like the least important thing to complain about.

The UI is ugly. It's hideous. I mean obviously ugly comes down to personal taste, but this goes past that because this is seriously so busy that it interferes with one's ability to actually read the buttons.

So many details, so much contrast, everything is a mess of high saturation colors.

I did not edit any of these images, this is how it looks in the actual mod. This insane loud blaring shitty nightmare.

Here's what the game looks like normally, by the way, without fanwank all over it.

Why are the icons changed? I mean first of all, why did you even bother to do this? Secondly, why did you make them worse? They're just ugly and obtrusive now like everything else that was changed for no reason! So obtrusive that it actually damages my ability to concentrate on the game, in two ways. A, it's the first impression a new player gets, and boy is it negative when it looks this messy and stupid, and it is stupid because B, it actually obscures other parts of the UI, which is such an unbelievably boneheaded and amateurish thing to do that I can't quite believe it's still like this. Did I miss a patch or something? The files on ModDatabase seemed pretty recent.

This does not inspire confidence in the rest of the mod. AH HA, turns out the interface WASN'T the least important after all! But people might THINK it was the least important because they think it has no tangible effect on gameplay! Except it DOES! Because it affects the feel of the whole experience when you're playing a game that might take hours and a lot of it is about careful management but part of your visual cortex is screaming the whole time about WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS BIG ORANGE BLOB DOWN HERE, IT POPS OUT SO MUCH AGAINST THE REST OF THE BACKDROP, DO I HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION TO THAT!? and it's sucking up some of your concentration without you even knowing it! This shit is exactly why nobody can remember anything that happens in Michael Bay movies! Where was that bit of Lindsay Ellis explaining this shit..

Continuing with the theme of ugliness and lack of taste, on to the custom 3D models for new units and buildings.

Gotta say first, some of these custom models are amazing. I really like the look of some of these buildings, especially Thousand Sons.

Not all of them though.

Yikes.

Are these imported from Tera Online? I mean Tera IS a monument to Slaanesh, but still, you don't think this is really out of place?

The naked lady mannequin mounted on this guy’s pauldron is a nice touch, but her head is literally always clipping through his back spiky thing.

is that desmond miles

Animations especially are almost uniformly bad. And I mean, I'm sure this shit's hard, but like.. I don't think it's unreasonable to say wow this looks gross. This is a janky mess, and sometimes some animations are even missing entirely. 

Lots of models scrape along the ground when they move because their walk cycles don't sync up properly with their speed.

I don't know much about 3D modelling so I can't really articulate in detail why some look good and most look bad, but some of them are really good, and not just the ones that are taken from Dawn of War 2.

Even though I'm about to go on a huge tangent about how many goddamn Space Marines there are, there's actually been some real work put into making some of these chapters look distinct. Black Templars, Blood Angels, and Space Wolves Thirteenth Company could use a bit more maybe, but a bunch of Dark Angels have hoods or cloaks, and most of the Imperial Fists have big clunky heavier looking helmets and armor. The Thousand Sons are all angular and weird. And of course, the World Eaters and Emperor's Children are covered in garbage because they're all fuckin crazy.

Good stuff.

Anyone want to take a second pass at some of these Daemons of Chaos models though? Please? They are awful. I think they may have been awful for a very long time. Does anyone care? No? You're all too busy making even more fucking space marines? Ahkay.

PART 2

THE "I'M SICK OF SPACE MARINES" TANGENT

This is more of a thing I have against the state of Warhammer 40,000 in general than against these mods specifically, though I can still level it at them too. Literally more than half of the playable races in this thing are some form of space marine. Higher if we broaden it to also include the Sisters. And we should, because they're basically also space marines.

DON'T give me one single shit about how the Sisters of Battle and the Space Marines are totally different factions as far apart as Space Marines and Orks or Space Marines and Necrons. If you think that, you are wrong, and I don't want to hear that stupid pretentious gatekeeping bullshit. They're humans in heavy armor, they serve the Imperium, they worship the Emperor of Mankind, they have a really strong religious theme, and they always go on about crushing the heretic. They are both from the same Priest/Cleric/Paladin "Holy Warrior" Archetype. They even have a ton of the same weapons and use a lot of the same tanks.

If it were up to me there wouldn't even be a Sisters of Battle organization, some Space Marines would just be girls.

And don't give a single shit about THAT either! It'd be EASY, here let me show you. The lore says something something the genetic modification process to turn a normal human into a space marine only works on men because it comes from the genetic templates of the Primarchs who were all men because they were clones of the Emperor, oh my would you look at that, we just uncovered some Dark Age of Technology stuff deep inside Mars or something that improves the process a whole bunch, fewer candidates are dying from the process than ever before, what good news, and oh wow look at that it even works on women now, they get huge and muscular and most of them go bald and we put them in exactly the same heavy armor as every other space marine, bam, done, girl space marines, no fucking problem. Yknow all that stuff I just said about why it doesn't work on girls? You know that stuff is fantasy bullshit that was made up right? Like it's not true, it was written by writers, they can just WRITE MORE THINGS. And it'd even be easier now since they just did that whole thing where like a bunch of Primarchs came back. Fuck all that deteriorating geneseed shit, we have access to actual Primarchs now! Hey Robert, roll up your sleeve for a second!

Erm. what was I saying

right too big a focus on Space Marines. More than half of all the races are minor variations on space marines. Let's have a look at the math. Here's a complete list of the races included in the current version of Unification:

Dark Angels, Imperial Fists, Daemon Hunters, Legion of the Damned, Salamanders, Sisters of Battle, Space Marines, Blood Angels, Black Templars, Thirteenth Company, and Witch Hunters are all Space Marines or Basically Space Marines, and Chaos Marines, Emperor's Children, World Eaters, and Thousand Sons are all Evil Space Marines. And then Imperial Guard, Adeptus Mechanicus, and Steel Legion are all still humans, just not actual Space Marines.

1. Dark Eldar 2. Chaos Daemons 3. Eldar 4. Harlequins 5. Necrons 6. Orks 7. Tau Empire 8. Tyranids Out of twenty six factions, EIGHT of them are aliens, and five of those eight are aliens that were included in the base game and didn't come from any mods. THREE out of SEVENTEEN custom races included in the Unification mod are actual aliens, and ALL of the rest are different flavors of human. Less than a fifth. It's like fucking Mass Effect 2 and 3 in here.

I hear they're working on adding the Death Guard next. They too are Space Marines.

Remember when this galaxy had aliens in it?

Yes I'm counting the Chaos Daemons as aliens at the moment, because they're at least non-human. And that's really generous, because they're still Chaos, which is the same faction as all the Evil Space Marines, which means like three quarters of this list are the Imperium Vs Chaos conflict.

But like I said this is more a stupid annoying thing that Games Workshop is doing with Warhammer 40k. Space Marine miniatures are popular, so they write more lore for Space Marines, which makes them more popular, etc, etc, now basically everything is Space Marines vs Chaos Space Marines. GW recently announced the Squats are coming back. While I'm happy about that because they're space dwarves, they're still aligned with the Imperium, and it's looking kinda like they're basically more humans in power armor AKA more Space Marines.

Anybody remember Genestealers?

I think they actually got a new tabletop rulebook recently, plus they were the bad guys in that Space Hulk Deathwing game, and seems the Dawn of War community cared so little about them that nobody's even working on a mod that adds them as a race to Unification.

PART 3

DO YE ALWAYS YAP SO MUCH, HUMIE?

Gonna complain about the sound now, so nothing to take pictures of.

A lot of new custom units have new custom voices. Some of them are thankfully just made of clips from other Dawn of War games and that's all grand, though the Dawn of War 2 orks do have a slightly different feel, but it's not a big issue. Unfortunately the majority of the custom voice work is pretty awful, obviously. It's to be expected from people who aren't like an actual professional studio or whatever; high variance in acting talent, microphone quality, that sort of thing. I'm prepared to forgive bad acting if it's not extremely annoying, but, much of it is extremely annoying.

I'm gonna single out the Imperial Fists to pick on here because not only is the acting bad but they are also extremely loud. Continuing the theme of lack of polish, it seems like nobody's done any proper volume balancing.

Also, this is a minor thing, but, a lot of the Emperor's Children chaos guys pronounce it, like, "SLANish" or something? Almost like "Spanish" but with an L. I mean it's a made up word that appeared in print for like years before anybody said it out loud or whatever, I don't know if there's like an official pronunciation or anything, but they do pronounce it "Slah-NESH" in every other licensed Warhammer game I've ever seen. Up to and including the very one that this mod is for..

So that's kinda weird.

Continuing the other running theme of problems: extreme self indulgence and poor design choices. The acting would be a lot easier to forgive if there wasn't so FUCKING MUCH OF IT.

These lines are VERY long. They're stuck up their own ass with bad jokes and bits of lore, not to mention the usual Warhammer verbosity taking the place of personality. I click on this Sororitas Landraider and she babbles out like three entire sentences. Every time I click on it. Jokes are bad. I don't mean the jokes they make are bad (I think they're bad, of course, but you can decide for yourselves), I mean making jokes in unit response lines is a bad idea. Lines should be concise and simple, but some dimwit decided that short lines are beneath them. Yeah calling you out specifically this time, whoever that was who wrote that script guidelines bit on the revora forum about "one word responses are okay here and there but you shouldn't have very many." Yeah you, ya idiot, short responses are fucking wonderful. Maximum of FORTY WORDS? Fuck that shit, your maximum ought to be like a third that length.

Lines get repeated in a game like this A LOT. You click on units, and they say a line. You tell them to do a thing, and they say a line. Clicking on units and telling them to do things is LITERALLY ALL YOU DO IN ORDER TO PLAY THIS GAME. You will be hearing the same lines over and over again, forever. Lines become memes basically automatically. Short responses that are simple and concise don't take up room in your head. They can be repeated any number of times, and it doesn't ever become tiresome.

Jokes, on the other hand, even if they are actually funny, are never funny the second time. This can only work if they are not self indulgent and out of place, and still fit the character, and above all, again, are VERY SHORT.

Dawn of War 2 loved putting little jokes and memes and references in dialogue. The Imperial Guard Inquisitor sometimes says "My chief weapons are surprise and fear!" Oh hey a Monty Python reference, lol, funny. The first time it's funny, but after that it just becomes a thing the Inquisitor says sometimes, so it has to fit that role too. And it does, because it still fits her character, it isn't obtrusive if you don't know the reference because it still works in context, and it is VERY SHORT.

Incidentally over in Ultimate Apocalypse they gave this line to this lieutenant lady because ha ha monty python funny joke except the joke is that this line is said by the INQUISITOR in Dawn of War 2 so why the FUCK did you idiots give it to this lady, it isn't even a joke about her being an inquisitor quoting monty python spanish inquisition anymore

Yeah Ultimate Apocalypse also sucks, but it has a much more specific focus, ie bringing in all the superduper giant units, so if that's your bag, go nuts I guess. I think they're rubbish too, obviously. That's a different rant.

The only real exception to the length issue that I can think of is if it fits the character to talk for a really long time, and more importantly if it doesn't become obtrusive. IE, Thule in Dawn of War 2 talks a lot, but he's a dreadnought, so 1, he's like a messed up brain damaged half asleep sorta guy so it fits for him to ramble a bunch about weird shit all the time, 2, he speaks in a very deep low mumble that easily gets drowned out by more important things, and 3, his voice is really cool.

If your voice isn't as awesome as the Dawn of War 2 dreadnought, fuckin keep it short.

Lore can similarly be worked in only if it's really short. In the Dark Crusade expansion these special marines got added called Grey Knights, and if you click on them sometimes they say "The Ordo Malleus has sent us to aid you." Ah ha, these guys who look different come from something called the Ordo Malleus, and they're special somehow. Lore understood! But most importantly, again, for the cheap seats in the back, this line is one sentence of nine words and takes less than two seconds to say.

Oh, and of course it's not just the voices. Tooltips are also written with lore and jokes and in-character blather. Tooltips! Like, the little descriptions that appear when you mouse-over an icon! This too is very up its own ass.

It's pretentious, it's super proud of itself, it sounds just like the goofy walls of text from the Warhammer rulebooks that talk for multiple pages about how goddamn amazing these units and their weapons are, they know no fear and their mighty blades rend flesh and armor alike, etc, etc, etc, on and on and on and on, and by know no fear I actually mean they have a morale check leadership score only one better than the regular-ass-human Imperial Guardsmen.

And that stuff is fine if it's confined to those preliminary pages about dispensing background information. I mean I hate that style of writing but again, that's up to personal taste so whatever. But the most important thing to take away from those parts of the rulebooks is that they are SEPARATE from the ACTUAL RULES.

Oh look! USEFUL INFORMATION! Thanks, Warhammer rulebook!

If you stuff this shit and this style into the actual descriptions then it's just a useless waste of time that gets in the way when I'm trying to learn what the fuck this button does!

You know who got this right? Dawn of War Redux got this right.

Ahh it's beautiful.

Ahg no fuck take it away

PART 4

IF ANY DICE MATCH, THEY EXPLODE

SO SPEAKING OF THAT GAME DESIGN STUFF. Much of it is overcomplicated pointless shit.

Lore is a crutch. For my mod I always first and foremost tried to make it, yknow, fun. Like, to play. Stuff like, I tried to give each race a unique theme and playstyle that fits their personality. Lore accuracy was never a priority. I looked at the rulebooks for inspiration, not as a bible. These mods were made by people who care more about adhering to lore than making a polished well designed game. I know, because they've all made scout marines a melee unit that must be upgraded to have a decent ranged attack, even though scout marines are fucking garbage in melee and they should never try to fight things in close combat or they'll die instantly. Why the hell would they make them a melee unit first? Because that's how it is in the space marines rulebook.

Why the hell does the rulebook do this? I do not know. Nobody knows. It's a dumb idea.

The tabletop rules have a LOT of customization options. Because, like, it's a tabletop game played with miniature figures. Games Workshop heavily promotes customizing your army however you want, like with lots of units to choose from and lots of weapons and equipment for each unit, but also with lots of color schemes for different groups within each faction, and of course with lots of different factions too. They do this partly because that's a big element of the appeal of tabletop games and the Warhammer 40k franchise in general, and also because, yknow, they want you to buy more miniatures.

But an unfortunate consequence of having lots of options and promoting the Space Marines so much over the years is that now there are a billion and a half possible permutations of a Space Marine army, and for some reason the kind of people who love the Space Marines so fucking much that they want to add specifically the Thirteenth Company of specifically the Space Wolves chapter of the Space Marines faction specifically during the time in their history where they were trapped in the Eye of Terror so their primary headquarters building is a hijacked chaos warp portal

have decided that they want to include ALL OF THEM.

Jesus Christ, Dark Angels. Calm the fuck down.

Since it’s hard to tell from just a screenshot, there are twenty two different types of squads here. Some of them are made up of more than one type of unit, ie a bunch of marines and one marine sergeant. Additionally, there’s a force commander there, but there are four other kinds of commander that I could choose from, I’m just limited to only one commander at a time. ALSO additionally, this is just one of three branches that I could have taken this faction, which would have replaced some of these unit options with other ones.

Most races have some kind of branching mutually exclusive options thing. Like you'll have to pick one of three different researches and each one opens up some units but closes off others, like the Dark Angels here who can choose between putting all their guys on bikes, or getting the heavy armor guys, or all of the flying units. Or something. I didn't read all of the text, my mind started to glaze over.

So, altogether the Dark Angels faction has like sixty or seventy different units available. In the above screenshot I opened up the files in the mod editor program and the list of Dark Angels units literally doesn’t fit on the screen. Look at all those units in one race. This is ridiculous.

For comparison, here's the normal Space Marine faction from the base game. And many of those aren’t units available for regular multiplayer games, like all those _sp ones or the _prisoner ones, those are only for the single player campaign.

I suspect that many of these inclusions are largely because they wanted to add every unit idea they could think of, but then they realized that doing so would result in a roster of like forty types of unit available to one faction, and the mutual exclusivity was the go to method for reducing the number of units a player has access to in a given match. They did not appear to consider the possibility that a new player would then have to learn all of this shit and get overwhelmed and annoyed.

Since I praised Witch Hunters before I'll balance it out by picking on it here. What's really the point between choosing between making the Inquisition Path get Arco-flagellants and the Sororitas Path get Sisters Repentia when both of them are high damage high health slow melee focused heavy infantry? They both get slightly different versions of the Exorcist artillery tank too. In the base game there's only one instance of mutually exclusive build choices (well two I guess, the Necron Lord's artifacts, but they only change what abilities he has, not what units the player has access to so it matters less) and that's the Tau Empire having to choose between the Montka Command Post or the Kauyon Command Post, one of which lets you have Kroot Hounds, the Krootox, and better regular infantry, and the other lets you have Crisis Battlesuits and Hammerhead Gunships, but those two pairs of units are REALLY different. Crisis Suits and Hammerheads are huge ranged damage powerhouses while Hounds and Krootoxes are both pretty much melee only. Crisis Suits can jump, which opens up more tactical options, while Krootoxes have an assload of health, much more than (nearly) every other Tau unit, which gives you a solid front line that can draw enemy fire.

Personally I don't even like the exclusivity thing when it's done well because I'm an anxious wreck who can't handle important decisions, so in my mod I just let the Tau build both command posts. It's fine, really, I mean they're still limited by the same vehicle cap and shit.

What is the point of these changes? The Imperial Fists have some kind of different way to upgrade their resource acquisition, but I never really noticed it mattering. The Chaos Daemons have this thing where the power resource is replaced with "daemonic power" which is used to cast abilities mostly instead of building big vehicles, and they have a different method of spending the other resource to get it instead of building power generators, but this too doesn't really change the way they play. You still build the trade building just like you build power generators, and you get enough of it that you're hardly ever in danger of actually running out once a big battle gets going. It's a new system, but the player interacts with it in exactly the same way as before, so what's the point?

Oh but the World Eaters have a thing I unironically think is awesome. Their resources go up when they hit people, that's excellent, and actually does change gameplay. I do think all the extra Blood resource stuff and the fifty different types of units is still in the same bad habits category as the rest though. I know they're the World Eaters Legion but we really don't need like six different flavors of Berserker.

Pictured, from left to right, guys who hit stuff, guys who hit stuff, guys who hit stuff, guys who hit stuff, and guys who hit stuff.

Again, I get the feeling that these are ideas that sounded cool, so somebody made them, but then they didn't really think about how they would actually play. Like I said, this stuff is fun to make and it's cool to show that you made it. And like, I get that, I did a bunch of that too. I just also get neurotic about creating a thing that's polished enough to pass for professional work because of all my self worth issues, and very little of this looks like it'd pass for Not Obviously A Fan Mod.

As for how each of these races is balanced against each other, I have no idea, I haven't played much of it, and certainly never against other people. On one hand my instinct says the balance is probably awful since balance is difficult and time consuming and everything else seems flimsy and unpolished, but on the other hand I know some species of PvP Asshole care more about balance than about lore, so maybe that's the thing they've actually put effort into. I wouldn't know, I don't touch PvP in anything.

I'm running out of concrete things to complain about in the gameplay since I haven't played much of it, what with the first impressions being so terrible, and this is getting too long already. Unification is such a mess that I don't even know if I'm going to bother scavenging bits of it for my own mod. It makes me angry because this modding community seems to know how to do all the things I wish I could do, but this mod sucks at all the polish stuff that I'm neurotic about. Perhaps we could make something truly amazing if we worked together, but I'm a really unpleasant person to be around even if I weren't riddled with crippling anxiety and depression, so, yknow. And I can’t learn any of the other stuff like models and animation and sound because these people also can’t write tutorials worth a damn.

Oh yeah and sometimes the game just fuckin crashes. Brilliant.

#warhammer 40000 #warhammer 40k #wh40k #dawn of war #soulstorm #dawn of war: soulstorm #mod #fan mod #unification #unification mod #space marines #adeptus astartes #chaos #chaos space marines #heretic astartes #more space marines #so many space marines #too many fucking space marines #and none of them are girls #no seriously why aren't there girl space marines #rant #analysis #critique

[themerchliing]

Random character questions.

001. What is your character’s favorite game? - The classic hide-and-seek when he was a child. He played it often with his mother and would always find the best hiding places. There were a few instances where he was too good at hiding and Marya got worried and had to call out to him to end the game. In adulthood, he enjoys certain card games (especially when all the Crows play and it turns chaotic — he finds the petty arguments and justifications amusing.)

002. Is your character ticklish? - A bit — there’s a particular spot on his sides, just above his hips that’s really ticklish and he will squirm away if it’s touched. It’s a sensation that makes him cringe! If it’s messed with too much, he’ll push the other person away and make a fuss. If they don’t stop after that, he won’t be responsible for any kicking that happens.

003. How do they express anger? - He isn’t really one to flip out and make a big scene. Instead, his expression will say it all. His tone will turn chilly and his responses short and to the point. When something makes him mad, he isn’t afraid of saying so, but he’s also known to give people the cold shoulder. This means avoiding eye contact or even remaining in the same vicinity as them if he can help it. The reason for this is that he’s used to holding back his anger after being around his father for so long, but his expression always gave away his true feelings. It’s easier for him to remove himself from the situation if he knows he’s close to blowing up (no pun intended.) His anger can also be quick and biting; an aggressive statement said in the heat of the moment: “How about I push you in the canal and we see if you know how to swim?”

004. How often do they cry? Over what? - Wylan used to cry more when he was a little boy. Due to always wanting to be around his mother, he would get teary-eyed whenever she had to go somewhere without him. At this point, his father wasn’t cruel to him, but when his mother was no longer around and Jan began to get frustrated with him, he also got irritated by his tears. Wylan came to learn that crying wouldn’t solve any of his problems and would always try to hold back or wipe the tears away before anyone saw. On a couple of occasions, he has cried during his time as part of the Dregs. At one point, he cries in front of Jesper after finding out what really happened with his mother:

“They gusted through his chest in ragged, ugly sobs. He hated that Jesper was seeing him cry, but there was nothing he could do, not about the tears, not about any of it. He buried his face in his arms, covering his head as if, were he to only will it strongly enough, he could vanish.”

And then at another point not long after, there is another instance:

“Then they were all hugging, and Wylan was horrified to find his eyes filling with tears. He blinked them back. The last thing he needed was for Jesper to see him cry again.”

There’s a sense of shame that Wylan feels when he cries now and he particularly doesn’t want Jesper to witness it because he likes Jesper and wants to appear strong in front of him.

005. How emotionally stable is your character? - Compared to others, Wylan has a good hold on his emotions, but that doesn’t mean he could be considered all that stable. He’s been through too much emotional trauma and abuse without having anyone around to support and guide him. Before meeting the Crows, he didn’t even have anyone to call a friend. This led to him suffering from loneliness and a longing to fit in somewhere. When his thoughts get too much and he thinks back to certain times in his life (losing his mother, his father’s abuse, and the failed assassination attempt that led him to swim in the cold, black waters to Ketterdam’s shore) he throws himself into his demolition work. It keeps him busy and lets his mind focus on important tasks, giving him the chance to push those thoughts to the back of his mind for a bit.

006. How easy is it for them to read the emotions of others? - Wylan is very observant when it comes to certain emotions. He can pick up on when someone’s acting off. After spending enough time with Jesper, he could figure out the way he acts and what he uses as coping mechanisms: 

“Why do you have to say things like that? Why can’t you just let things be easy?” “Because they’re not easy,” Wylan said in his simple, earnest way. No one in the Barrel talked like that. “You keep pretending everything is okay. You move on to the next fight or the next party. What are you afraid is going to happen if you stop?” Jesper shrugged again. He adjusted the buttons on his shirt, touched his thumbs to his revolvers. When he felt like this, mad and scattered, it was as if his hands had a life of their own. His whole body itched. He needed to get out of this room. Wylan laid his hand on Jesper’s shoulder. “Stop.”

However, he struggles with reading Kaz, but, you know, that’s because it’s Kaz. There are also times where he has to wonder whether he’s really being flirted with (even if it might seem obvious) or if it’s just teasing to get an amusing reaction out of him.

007. How easy is it for others to read your character’s emotions? - Wylan’s emotions are quite easy to read when he’s around people he trusts. But he has also proven that he can be a great actor when he pretended to give in and tell his father everything as part of Kaz’s overall plan. Like a lot of people, he will also try to hide certain emotions when he isn’t prepared to face them — a normal human response.

008. Is your character religious? - Ghezen is the god of commerce and trade, worshipped by the people of Kerch. Wylan sometimes mentions the god in speech, saying things like “Oh, Ghezen” and “Ghezen and his works, someone stop them!” as well as saying to his father that maybe he can pray to Ghezen for understanding. He has prayed at the the Church of Barter in the past when his father forced him to, but he isn’t a devout follower. He has a complicated relationship with religion due to the fact that his father is very religious and uses that dedication to Ghezen as an excuse to be a vile, greedy man obsessed with money.

009. What are your character’s sleeping preferences? - Despite acclimating to Barrel life, he finds himself glad to return to his large bed back at the mansion after the events of the duology.  Wylan likes to sleep curled up beneath silk sheets or ones made of high quality cotton. He can do without them, of course, but they are his preference. He tends to sleep on his right side, but will often wake up on his stomach with his face buried in the pillow.

010. What is the first thing they say and/or do when they wake up? - “Do I have to get up?” Grumble, grumble. He tends to work into the night (whether on his demolition or on mercher duties), so being an early crow isn’t something he aspires to be. He doesn’t sleep in that late, though, and doesn’t need much convincing to wake up. Once awake, he heads to the bathroom to get himself ready while going over what he has planned for the upcoming day.

#&; ( HEADCANON )

[organix-2151]

14 Effective Ways Of Communication With Children

Talking with your child is a daily event. But, let’s face it, as parents we are busy and it is easier to keep the conversation with our children light so we can move on to the next thing on our “to-do” list. There’s a place in International Schools in Bangalore for light conversation in daily life but there are also those times when your child needs for you to tune in and listen more deeply. Your child won’t tell you this but he or she needs for you to probe into their inner life on occasion to find out what they are thinking and feeling. Not only will this help them and you make more sense of their emotions but it will also strengthen your relationship with them. They will intuitively sense that you understand them better because you took the time and energy to really care.

Here are some ways of effectively communicating with our little ones:

Make Eye Contact

In International Schools in Bangalore when Every time you talk to your child or when your child is talking to you, maintain eye contact. Maintaining eye contact indicates that you are active and attentive in the conversation.

If you cannot hold eye contact, get on your knees or sit down, so your eyes are on the same level as his. This will encourage open and transparent communication.

Acknowledge Your Child’s Feelings When you acknowledge someone’s feelings and emotions, they feel accepted and secured. This is precisely what happens when you empathize with your children. When you build empathy for your children, they themselves learn to be more sensitive and accepting towards other peoples’ feelings and emotions. Moreover, In International Schools in Bangalore when just by acknowledging their feelings, you as parents, are teaching them that their feelings are real and valid.

Rationalise The Correction Having grown up in a joint family, I had many corrector and advisors around. Every time I would make a mistake, I was loaded with comments like ‘ stop behaving like this ‘ or ‘this is not how it is done’. Just asking to stop behaving in a particular manner is not enough to instill a new behaviour. What is essential is that a calm explanation should also be provided for it. Giving a composed explanation will help your child understand the implications of their behaviour for others (e.g. if your child teases another child for wearing glasses, explain to your child that wearing glasses helps the other child to see well. Also, International Schools in Bangalore remind your child kindly that teasing can hurt others feelings).

Teach Them How To Say ‘No’ Firmly While parents say a ’no’ firmly to a child’s unrealistic request or unacceptable behaviour, it is of paramount importance to educate your children about doing the same in situations that make them uncomfortable. You should let them know that every ‘no’ is not a negative answer. Instead, International Schools in Bangalore it is more like a choice made to ensure their own safety and security.

Use More “Dos” Than “Don’ts” International Schools in Bangalore will use more “Dos” than “don’ts” like “Don’t hit your sister”, “Don’t sit like that” don’t you say this too often to our little ones? You, as a parent know what you don’t want to happen, so you lead in with a “don’t” statement. Even though this statement would convey the message rightly of not doing a particular thing, but the downside of “don’t” statements is that you fail to promote the positive behaviour you want to see. Therefore you are more likely to reinforce the behaviour you don’t want. Instead, you should use more respectful “do” statements. Swapping your “don’ts” for “dos” can look like this: “Play gently with your sister”, “Please keep your back straight while sitting”

Use Kind Words Kind words create a respectful relationship and better communication with your child. It is true that children who are spoken to with appreciation and respect also have better self-worth, which allows them to thrive. On the contrary, unkind words that shame or ridicule them leave them feeling disliked. International Schools in Bangalore they tell you with Some examples of kind words are: “Thank you for helping me with the dishes.” “You did a good job of getting your room clean.” “That really makes me feel good.” “I love you.”

Be An Emotional Coach International Schools in Bangalore they say that the ability to listen is as important as the ability to speak. In doing so, you can develop an emotional bond essential for establishing and maintaining mutual respect. Effective emotional coaching helps children understand the emotional fluctuations of life. Children who grow up in families that spend time talking about emotions are more academically successful, have better friendships, fewer infectious diseases and can handle difficult social situations more effectively than children whose families do not talk about feelings. Good communication is the heart of more harmonious homes and is the key to a healthy relationship with your child. It provides a place your child can thrive and grow from. Good communication with your child forms the basis of good communication with other people as your child grows into an adult.

Listen with your whole body When you sense that your child needs to talk, give them your full attention. International Schools in Bangalore should Face them, make eye contact, kneel down to get on your child’s level if necessary – even tilt your head – to show that you are really listening.

Pick up on the emotion. When your child has noticeable emotion in their words or in their body language, attend to that feeling. It’s often useful to make an observation or restate what you hear them say. This sends the message that you are taking them and their feelings seriously. For example, you might say, “You’re upset because I’m not letting you go outside to play after it's dark?” These reflective statements then allow your child to respond by affirming or clarifying what they are feeling and it will usually prompt more conversation.

Acknowledge your child’s feelings. Empathy is one of the most powerful and comforting responses we can give to another person, especially a child. When you acknowledge those feelings, you validate them. This includes those feelings we often think of as “negative,” such as anger, frustration and disappointment. Often, acknowledgement of their feelings is all the child needs to begin dealing with the problem at hand. When you validate a child’s emotion you sensitise them to that emotion and give them permission to feel it and also acknowledge it in other people.

Delay correction and gather more information. When your child is countering you, resist the urge to correct them immediately, even if you think they’re wrong. Hear them out before responding. Better yet, go an extra step by asking your child follow-up questions to learn more about why they see things as they do. This approach acknowledges your child’s feelings and gets them talking. You are likely to get more cooperation when you are willing to hear their concerns versus simply correcting them.

Try to see the situation through your child’s eyes. Try to step into your child’s frame of reference before reacting. We often expect our children to understand adult-like ways of thinking and we don’t give consideration to how they might be thinking or viewing the situation. What developmental needs might they have in that moment that they can’t directly identify or ask for? For example, as you and your spouse are leaving the house for a much-needed night out, your child has an emotional meltdown in front of the babysitter because they don’t want you to leave. You could get upset, ignore your child’s behaviour, or you could ask yourself: What is my child trying to say right now; what need might they have that I should be attentive to? For example, is they're upset behaviour a plea for comfort, security, reassurance, or something else that you don’t understand? When you can see that certain behaviours are connected to their developmental needs, it is easier to be rational and patient with an appropriate intervention.

Avoid shaming your child; rather focus on behaviour. Shaming a child diminishes their worth. For example, a 10-year-old boy knocks over his milk at dinner for the third time this week and his father explodes in anger saying, “You idiot, can’t you be more careful?” Over time, these instances of shame make the child feel defective. A better approach is to focus on the behaviour. Given the same situation, the father could say, “It’s okay. Let’s get a towel to clean it up; it’s just a mistake. Please ask for others to pass items to you at the table instead of reaching, okay?” A child doesn’t know how to correct being defective but in International Schools in Bangalore he can learn to correct his behaviour if given instruction in a supportive and encouraging way.

Encourage your child to think proactively about solutions. When faced with a decision that you and your child disagree on, ask your child what he wants to happen or would like to change. In this International Schools in Bangalore helps them see that there are options to every problem. If they can come up with a reasonable approach to a problem, let them try it. When we encourage our children to become part of the solution, they often have greater motivation for resolving it. Conclusion In Harvest International School we make parents to understand the effective ways of communication With Children and When you take the time to talk with your kids about nature, they will be more likely to understand and care for it in International Schools in Bangalore. For example, when we help our son identify different animals in a book on trees or birds outside of his window he is much happier spending time outdoors. And as an added bonus, talking about how important this connection is between us and the natural world; helps him feel less guilty about all those times he’s ridden his bike through mud puddles! We hope these tips have been helpful- please let us know if there are any other topics that might interest you. Stay tuned next week for another blog post from our parenting experts. 

[audio-luddite]

Horn speakers (again).

Ok this is just about horn speakers in general. It is a good example of compromising some things to get something else.

As I said earlier horn type speakers can be very efficient. They can also get really weird.

These are Avant garde Trios. Rather single minded I think. Low wife acceptance factor. Oh and if you have to ask how much.....

Slightly more conventional are the big Klipsch beasts.

This is a Klipsch Jubilee (image from their website). This is their statement halo product. Man Cave required.

You should also recall the Altec Horns I mentioned a while ago. Horn speakers excel at efficiently converting electrical energy into sound waves. But they do compromise some things to get that. If you go down the Single Ended Triode rabbit hole you will need horns to get reasonable sound pressure levels. So what are the compromises?

Horns change the sound. It is from several effects. Some are resonances in the throat of the horn. Others are reflections that occur as the signal exits the horn. In most general terms it makes the sound kinda honky. That is great for brass instruments as that is their natural sound. Some horn speakers are better and others are worse for this.

You can easily see that those funky Trio things would be great for trumpets. Hell they are trumpets.

If you have such you can get used to the sound and adapt in your mind that this is natural and right for say the human voice. You may even prefer it over something another person would think is better.

There is another thing. That big Klipsch for example is a problem. Several products over the years have been built to maintain phase alignment between different drivers. The signal going into a speaker is all aligned. The Dahlquist DQ10 was conceived around several drivers each optimized for a particular frequency and they were mounted so a music signal was properly aligned as it emerged. They did that by moving the driver mounts to the front or back to compensate for phase in the really complex cross over network.

You may note that diffraction around sharp edges was not part of the design brief.

It worked well and reviewers really liked it. It was also stupidly inefficient so you needed big amps to make it happy. Oh and it had a nice modesty screen so it was not as ugly as this naked example. The whole point of it was it was based on the idea of signal coherence with broad frequency response. Let the other chips fall where they may.

Full range electrostatics are naturally aligned too. The Quad Electrostatics even use phase alignment to simulate a point source. Rather tricky that. Oh I should mention that there are single driver full range speakers out there.

This characteristic of alignment is heard as a coherence of the signal and helps maintain a sharp image. To the degree some people are sensitive to phase and time alignment that is their issue with big horns.

Big horns are not naturally aligned. The front faces may line up, but the driver offset distances at the small end is what matters. Those Altec VOTTs are rather bad in this respect. The different distances the signals must travel from the driver to the face of the horn can be off by several feet. Some people suggest driving each speaker driver through it's own amplifier and a DSP processor to realign the phases would work a charm. That is getting complicated, and not really in keeping with Triode simplicity and naturalness.

As is so many things a product has some basic idea behind it. If that idea drives everything then compromises will be made somewhere. This is true with all Audio stuff. Tubes are better or worse than solid state. FETs are better than Bipolar transistors sometimes. Film caps are better than electrolytic. Class A or Class AB or Class D or Class H which one to pick? You can buy examples of each of those. They all vie for the State of the Art.

Very often it is a choice of business sense. What can we make and sell? Klipsch has those big horns, but the bread and butter of the business is rather more conventional types. Halo products can be loss leaders or just so expensive very few are sold. You gotta sell to survive.

The only type of speaker I have never built is a horn loaded one. Too complex and until recently my carpentry skills could not do it justice. But I like what I have now. Simple two way Bass Reflex and Phase aligned. Not efficient at 87ish dB per Watt at 1meter. (Klipschorn is 105 dB at one Watt) But I have a big amplifier.

To each their own droogs. That really is the key.

#horn loudspeaker #triodes #audiophile #audioblr #Altec #Klipsch

[perpetual-stories]

22 Essential Literary Devices and How to Use Them In Your Writing

hello, happy Monday. Hope you’re all having a wonderful day!

I will skip the pre-info and dive right into it.

What Is a Literary Device?

is a tool used by writers to hint at larger themes, ideas, and meaning in a story or piece of writing

The List of Literary Devices:

Allegory. Allegory is a literary device used to express large, complex ideas in an approachable manner. Allegory allows writers to create some distance between themselves and the issues they are discussing, especially when those issues are strong critiques of political or societal realities.

Allusion. An allusion is a popular literary device used to develop characters, frame storylines, and help create associations to well-known works. Allusions can reference anything from Victorian fairy tales and popular culture to the Bible and the Bard. Take the popular expression “Bah humbug”—an allusion that references Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol. The phrase, which is often used to express dissatisfaction, is associated with the tale’s curmudgeonly character, Ebenezer Scrooge.

Anachronism. Imagine reading a story about a caveman who microwaves his dinner, or watching a film adaptation of a Jane Austen novel in which the characters text each other instead of writing letters. These circumstances are examples of anachronisms, or an error in chronology—the kind that makes audiences raise their eyebrows or do a double-take. Sometimes anachronisms are true blunders; other times, they’re used intentionally to add humor or to comment on a specific time period in history.

Cliffhanger. It’s a familiar feeling: You’re on minute 59 of an hour-long television episode, and the protagonist is about to face the villain—and then episode cuts to black. Known as a cliffhanger, this plot device marks the end of a section of a narrative with the express purpose of keeping audiences engaged in the story.

Dramatic Irony. Remember the first time you read or watched Romeo and Juliet? The tragic ending of this iconic story exemplifies dramatic irony: The audience knows that the lovers are each alive, but neither of the lovers knows that the other is still alive. Each drinks their poison without knowing what the audience knows. Dramatic irony is used to great effect in literature, film, and television.

Extended Metaphor. Extended metaphors build evocative images into a piece of writing and make prose more emotionally resonant. Examples of extended metaphor can be found across all forms of poetry and prose. Learning to use extended metaphors in your own work will help you engage your readers and improve your writing.

Foreshadowing. At its core, storytelling has one ambition: to capture and sustain your reader’s attention and keep them reading your story. Foreshadowing, or slyly indicating a future event, is one technique a writer can use to create and build suspense.

Humor. Humor brings people together and has the power to transform how we think about the world. Of course, not everyone is adept at being funny—particularly in their writing. Making people laugh takes some skill and finesse, and, because so much relies on instinct, is harder to teach than other techniques. However, all writers can benefit from learning more about how humor functions in writing.

Imagery. If you’ve practiced or studied creative writing, chances are you’ve encountered the expression “paint a picture with words.” In poetry and literature, this is known as imagery: the use of figurative language to evoke a sensory experience in the reader. When a poet uses descriptive language well, they play to the reader’s senses, providing them with sights, tastes, smells, sounds, internal and external feelings, and even deep emotion. The sensory details in imagery bring works to life.

Irony. Irony is an oft-misunderstood literary device that hinges on opposites: what things are on the surface, and what they end up actually being. Many learn about dramatic irony through works of theater like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet or Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex. When deployed with skill, irony is a powerful tool that adds depth and substance to a piece of writing.

Metaphor, Simile, and Analogy. Metaphors, similes, and analogies are three techniques used in speech and writing to make comparisons. Each is used in a different way, and differentiating between the three can get a little tricky: For example, a simile is actually a subcategory of metaphor, which means all similes are metaphors, but not all metaphors are similes. Knowing the similarities and differences between metaphor, simile, and analogy can help you identify which is best to use in any scenario and help make your writing stronger.

Motif. A motif is a repeated element that has symbolic significance to a story. Sometimes a motif is a recurring image. Sometimes it’s a repeated word or phrase or topic. A motif can be a recurrent situation or action. It can be a sound or a smell or a temperature or a color. The defining aspect is that a motif repeats, and through this repetition, a motif helps to illuminate the central ideas, themes, and deeper meaning of the story in which it appears.

Motif vs. Symbol. Both motifs and symbols are used across artistic mediums: Painters, sculptors, playwrights, and musicians all use motifs and symbols in their respective art forms. And while they are similar literary terms, “motif” and “symbol” are not synonyms.

Oxymoron. An oxymoron is a figure of speech: a creative approach to language that plays with meaning and the use of words in a non-literal sense. This literary device combines words with contradictory definitions to coin a new word or phrase (think of the idiom “act naturally”—how can you be your natural self if you’re acting?). The incongruity of the resulting statement allows writers to play with language and meaning.

Paradox. “This sentence is a lie.” This self-referential statement is an example of a paradox—a contradiction that questions logic. In literature, paradoxes can elicit humor, illustrate themes, and provoke readers to think critically.

Personification. In writing, figurative language—using words to convey a different meaning outside the literal one—helps writers express themselves in more creative ways. One popular type of figurative language is personification: assigning human attributes to a non-human entity or inanimate object in an effort to express a point or idea in a more colorful, imaginative way.

Satire. Satire is so prevalent in pop culture that most of us are already very familiar with it, even if we don’t always realize it. Satire is an often-humorous way of poking fun at the powers that be. Sometimes, it is created with the goal to drive social change. Satire can be part of any work of culture, art, or entertainment—it has a long history, and it is as relevant today as it was in ancient Rome.

Situational Irony. Irony: it’s clear as mud. Theorists quibble about the margins of what constitutes irony, but situational irony is all around us—from humorous news headlines to the shock twists in a book or TV show. This type of irony is all about the gap between our expectations and reality, and it can make a memorable and powerful impression when we encounter it.

Suspense. No matter what type of story you’re telling, suspense is a valuable tool for keeping a reader’s attention and interest. Building suspense involves withholding information and raising key questions that pique readers’ curiosity. Character development plays a big role in generating suspense; for example, if a character’s desire is not fulfilled by the end of the book, the story will not feel complete for the reader.

Symbolism. An object, concept, or word does not have to be limited to a single meaning. When you see red roses growing in a garden, what comes to mind? Perhaps you think literally about the rose—about its petals, stem, and thorns, or even about its stamen and pistil as a botanist might. But perhaps your mind goes elsewhere and starts thinking about topics like romance, courtship, and Valentine’s Day. Why would you do this? The reason, of course, is that over the course of many generations, a rose’s symbolic meaning has evolved to include amorous concepts.

Verisimilitude. Verisimilitude (pronounced ve-ri-si-mi-li-tude) is a theoretical concept that determines the semblance of truth in an assertion or hypothesis. It is also an essential tenet of fiction writing. Verisimilitude helps to encourage a reader’s willing suspension of disbelief. When using verisimilitude in writing, the goal is to be credible and convincing.

Vignette. A writer’s job is to engage readers through words. Vignettes—poetic slices-of-life—are a literary device that brings us deeper into a story. Vignettes step away from the action momentarily to zoom in for a closer examination of a particular character, concept, or place. Writers use vignettes to shed light on something that wouldn’t be visible in the story’s main plot.

I’ll make a post going into each of them individually in more detail later on!

Like, reblog and comment if you find this useful! If you share on Instagram tag me perpetualstories

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#writing #writing advice #writing tips #original writing #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writersconnection #writersofig #writersofinstagram #writings

[mimicofmodes]

I keep seeing corset discourse cross my dash, and I make a real effort to just ignore it, but for some reason lately it is really intense and I just can't anymore.

I know that there's a long-standing tradition of people popping up on social media, particularly Tumblr, with an exciting revisionist take on history that turns out to be bullshit - a misunderstanding of the history at best, deliberate misinformation at worst. That is not what's happening here.

It's a well-established fact in fashion history that corsets weren't that bad. No, really. Valerie Steele's The Corset: A Cultural History, the landmark book that complicates the popular view of (mainly) Victorian corsetry, was published by Yale UP in 2001. And then the other side I'm seeing argued here is based on ... logic? just knowing?

The problem with "just knowing" that corsets were terrible and hated by their wearers is that ... look, I don't want to say "you are not immune to propaganda" for a couple of reasons (the definition of propaganda, for one), but at this point we have:

- centuries of overwrought opinions from male moralists and physicians decrying the corset/stays, usually in order to impute irrational vanity to women or to effectively blame them for their own medical conditions

(medical conditions that in most cases are still more present in women despite the lack of corsetry today)

- a tiny, tiny minority of primary sources by women that are explicitly negative about the corset, frequently accompanied by statements that make no sense, like saying that even wearing a skirt with a tight waistband without a corset can cause hideous health problems

- nearly a century of popular culture created by people who never wore corsets that show the stereotypical scenes of a) women being comedically uncomfortably laced in by a maid or sister or mother or b) women fainting or complaining of being short of breath explicitly because of their corsets

- also nearly a century of academic and popular historians writing books that don't have anything to do with corsets but mention how bad they are in passing because It Is Known and doesn't need to be cited

And I'm sorry, but if you have been passively taking in all of these things - which you have, because they saturate pop culture relating to the Victorian era and earlier - and not actively working to get a better sense of the reality, then your opinion that the costumers who talk about how they like wearing corsets or the people who want to see fewer films/books that go on about the badness of corsets are wrong or dumb and don't even realize how anti-feminist they're being is just uninformed and anti-intellectual.

Yes, the pop take is often reductive. People frequently ignore the social pressure inherent in anything that's a norm in a society as well as the tendency of late 19thc descriptions of corsets as solving problems of the body (ie too plump, too thin), because these are complex topics, and they focus on their personal experiences and tastes. However, that doesn't make the overall point wrong. It just means that they aren't expressing it as well as they could be.

There is plenty of room to disagree with specifics, or to say that a particular discussion is misinterpreting this or that source, etc., but I'm getting tired of seeing people I otherwise respect just being jerks about anyone who doesn't adhere to their very specific Whiggish view that is more informed by pop culture than anything else. People who want to talk about the corset as a neutral-to-useful piece of clothing need to do better at contextualizing; people who want to do the opposite need to do a lot better at contextualizing as well. Friends, you NEED to learn about the explicit and implicit misogyny in a lot of the anti-corset literature; you need to deal with the fact that there are nowhere near as many accounts by women of hating their corsets as you think, and that perhaps dress reform was unappealing to women because the claims did not match their lived experiences. You need to stop exaggerating the stances of the not-anti-corset crowd into absurd stereotypes and insisting that they represent the bulk of the discourse on the topic.

Quite frankly, as a Legit Fashion Historian, I would much rather deal with people who are perhaps a bit overexcited and rosy-eyed about Corsets Being Good, Actually, than people who are pretty much stating that they know more about why Corsets Were Terrible than me because it's Manifestly Obvious.

#haha sorry for the long discourse post #corsets #corsetry #undergarments #victorian

[husbandohunter]

Dear Father [Genshin Impact/Diluc x Reader]

Synopsis: Wherever you are wherever you may be, even if you are beyond my reach, I only wish to see you again. -from a letter lost in the wind.

(A story where you and Diluc somehow managed to meet Crepus)

Genre: all fluff

"I know how late I am to father's day but here's my father's day take on Genshin Impact! Just let Diluc be happy for once T_T Mihoyo pls."

============================

Discovering Master Crepus' old belongings was like wandering in a domain surrounded by ancient artifacts. Each piece holding the memory of someone you've never met.

The paintings. Master Crepus loved to paint. Typically birds were the main muse of this portraits since they deeply embodied Mondstadt's values for freedom which shows you how much he cherished this city just like his son did. In almost every hallway you walked through there was a collection of his paintings, some belonged to another artist but the majority was an original work. Diluc didn't have the heart to sell them.

Elzer. He was one of the oldest workers who served under the Ragnvindr name, ever since Master Crepus had appointed him during his earlier days. You were told that he treated everyone, both staff and noble, with equal respect. Almost all the denizens of Mondstadt knew this man for he was not only noble in riches but also in the soul.

"I'm sure he would have loved to meet you in person. Now that I think about it, you and Master Crepus are quite similar. Haha, it seems that Master Diluc was selective in terms of who he wanted for his future bride."

Elzer adds with a light chuckle but the statement only made you more curious. A man who affected the lives of so many others, he must have been a wonderful person.

Diluc. The bloodline Master Crepus left behind after his death, a piece of himself and the heir to the whole wine industry, his son Diluc. Although you could see the resemblance in appearance, both of them were men of prinicples and values, putting Mondstadt first before anything else and you suddenly realized if that was the reason why Diluc was so protective of this city. As if, it were everything he had? You could tell he loved Master Crepus very much, not because he said so, rather the painful expression buried deep within his crimson glare whenever someone brought up the topic. Diluc was skilled in hiding himself, it's something he practiced over the years of working alone, though he lowered his guard as long as you were the only one present.

Even so, he had many conflicts still wringing him internally and you didn't want to push him until the day he felt ready to personally tell you himself.

But it would be nice if he opened up, just a little bit.

There were times when you would worry since Diluc had the tendency to hide his feelings for the sake of not troubling you. He wanted to keep life simple and bright, bringing the best to the table while making sure that you lived safely out of harm's way. You couldn't seem to get him to understand that as lovers, you would be happy to help him, in anything. Unconditionally. It was natural for you to feel the need to force yourself in every once in a while and there was nothing more you wanted to know than the story of the man who raised him.

You would even jest on the idea of what it fel like to meet Master Crepus in person. Were you able to reach his standards by any chance? Would he have liked you just as everyone claimed? Of course, they were only silly indulgent thoughts so you quickly dismissed them in the end. Bringing back the past was impossible no matter how badly you wanted it. You closed your heart on that possibility.

On a lovely evening, while you and Diluc were taking your time off Angel's Share to make a stroll around Mondstadt's quiet streets, a strange merchant called over to you. She displayed various antiques ranging from different sizes to designs, none of them seemed to haven been carved in the same place but distinct cultures throughout Teyvat. The only thing they had in common was that they were all equally beautiful to the eye.

However a particular item of what looks like to be a heart locket snatches your attention and you instantly became mesmerized, allured by it's mysterious charm.

"Ah, the locked heart caught your fancy, my lady? It's said once you open it, you will be set free."

"It's magnificent..." you muttered, staring unabashed at the shining surface.

Diluc who was observing from behind folded his arms and tilts his head, "How much is that?"

Although you intended to simply inspect the choices, your lover immediately offers to pay. They all already gave the impression of a hefty price and you didn't want him to spend his fortune on things that deemed unecessary. Still, this wasn't the first time it happened. Diluc would always insist whenever you protested against him from buying anything, it was just a way of expressing his affections towards you. Mora was never a problem and you were priceless. That's how he sees things. You had to remind yourself to be careful when stumbling upon a bustling area full of salesmen next time.

"Five hundred thousand mora."

He purchased it without hesitation.

On your way home, Diluc noticed that something was amiss. You couldn't tear your gaze from the locket as if it had hypnotized you by the golden smooth surface. He had to ensure you didn't run into anyone by accident, tugging your arm closer so that it gave him an opportunity to lead you where you yourself could not. Surely it must have been the appearance but instead of being drawn by, you were drawn in. Completely.

I wonder...what will happen if I open it?

"(Y/n)?" Diluc narrows his eyebrows together. Did you like it that much? No, he knew you weren't the type to be so etranced by jewelry, this was certainly different. Even the merchant seemed a little suspicious when she approached you and Diluc couldn't ignore the heavy sense of aminosity that was emitted around her aura. He couldn't think within her presence but now that his mind was much clearer, he was able to use his skillful judgements.

"Wait...! Don't open it yet-"

However, he was too late.

The wind picks up at an alarming speed and you both brought up your arms to block the debris that had flown in the way. They swirled in non-stop motion until your worlds were engulfed with not even the sky in sight. Amidst the turmoil Diluc latchest onto you and holds your body close his chest as he was determined to protect against any force that dared to hurt you. Something heavy knocks his head and he winces, tighting his hold even further. Your voice could hardly be heard with all the noise that rung around and eventually you discovered the the world wasn't disappearing. You both were.

The last thought you had was the image of Master Crepus and you didn't know why.

---

"Diluc? Diluc?"

He faintly heard his name through a series of echoes. Diluc fights to regaind concousness, feeling your grip upon his shoulder while trying to urge him awake.

"Diluc are you alright?"

Your worried face was the first thing he sees other than the fog that looms above. Diluc blinks a few times in an attempt to ease his migraine, using one arm to force his body into a seating position as he allowed himself to be supported by you at the same time.

"Does your head hurt?" You ask, palming gently against his forehead to feel the heat. Even if her was usually very warm, there was no unusual rise in tempurature, something must have hit him instead, "Here, maybe this will help."

Bringing out your hand you concentrated on generating the water through your fingertips. Having a hydro vision meant you were capable of healing magic which Diluc appreciated since he often came home late at night with injuries hidden behind his sleeves. But nothing came out and he became even more suspicious of the situation.

"Eh? What's going on?" You blurted out, patting down your clothes and your pockets, "My Vision, it's gone too!"

"Mine as well," Diluc flexes his fingers to test his own element, "It seems that our powers were sealed once we entered this domain."

"A domain that prevents you from using a Vision? That doesn't sound very comforting," you scratched your head, suddenly remembering the cause of your current problem, "The locket...it's all starting to make sense now. Ugh, I should have listened to you earlier, I'm sorry Diluc."

"No (Y/n), you don't have to apologize," he interjects and you returned a curious glance, "I should have stopped you the minute I discovered there was something strange. I was too careless."

"You felt that too? I thought I was the only one," your tone and face mimics one of surprise. The fog continues to dance around, enclosing the two of you to the small area. You lifted your head and looked above in deep contemplation, "When I saw the locket I couldn't tear my eyes off of it, like something was pulling me in. Like...there was a spell casted on it."

"What do you mean?" he asked in an inquisitive manner.

You nod, "I can't put my finger on it bit Ifel that the locket wanted me to..." balling your fist upon your lap, you stared intensely at the floor as if drilling holes into them while digging into the depths of your mind for any specific clues. Initially you thought the locket was so captivating that you were simply charmed by it's craftmanship. But tere was more than that, you began deciphering, there was also a need for fulfillment. A yearning desire, "to know. The locket was calling me to know."

'Once you open it, you will be set free.'

"To know..." you trailed off. How strange. No matter how much you tried to rationalize, you were always brought back to the same square as if the locket knew exactly what you wanted. What you were lacking. Because the one thing you wanted to know most about was the person you've never met, "Someone very important to you."

The fog dispersed.

Diluc instinctively puts an arm in front of you defensively as he scanned his quick and thorough eyes around the area. It didn't take long for him to know exactly where everything was. In fact, the abrupt change isn't what puts him on high alert, but it was how familiar everything looked to the point he evaluates if there was any reason to be skeptical or if he should be breathtaken.

"What a beautiful house," However you didn't recognize it. Diluc knew because he had yet to meet you during the time he lived in this estate, "I wonder who does it belong to?"

"Father's old mansion...how?" Diluc breatlessly mutters, as if seeing the supremecy of Celestia for the first time. When years passed after his father died, he chose to sell off the majority of his belongings, the mansion being on for example. Currently it was in the possession of a well-known business associate that used to be a friend of Crepus. The mansion would likely have looked much different due to the renovations it gone through but Diluc remembers the picture as if this were yesterday. Everything was in tact. The vine yard, the gazebo where they drank tea, the hill that he and Kaeya used to race on when they were kids-

Revelation burns in his pupils as his eyes expanded.

"Welcome home, my son."

Both you and Diluc fall wordless at the sight that appeared like a miracle's blessing. Crepus stands at a distance, the graceful smile complimenting his warm features. He looked exactly how the court artists portrayed him in the Ragnvindr's family picture. Sharp face with gentle eyes and an aura that was as pleasant as what Elzer described.

"So this is why the locket was calling to us," you whispered, "I guess the mora really was worth it after all."

"...Fa...ther...."

You snuck a glance at Diluc. From behind the resemblance was as clear as dawn, like you were staring at a carbon copy of Master Crepus himself. Almost. He was a less hardened version of Diluc during uncommon situations. It made you think just how much you didn't know before his father passed away. What kind of person was this man during his days as a knight? You never had the chance to know.

"Father is that really you?" Diluc couldn't help his voice from trembling, paralyzed in place when he could hardly make sense of what stands in front of him. The person he longed to hear from, the person who left the world too quick, Diluc was afraid to get his hopes up in case his father suddenly disappeared and everything was just an illusion conjured by his mind. He was already used to being betrayed and dealt with disappointment too often. Which is why he learned to trust only himself. But, right now, can he really trust himself?

Feeling your hand gently on his shoulders, Diluc was brought back to reality. You smiled with warm reassurance that bled into your voice, "It's okay Diluc. Go, I'm here for you."

There was the faintest light shining in his eyes as emotions swell in his chest. Ever since you came Diluc never had to feel alone anymore, truly, you were the light that was brought back into his eyes, to his life when he gave up the thought of seeing it again. If he couldn't trust himself then at the very least, he could trust you.

"Thank you," he embraces you wholly like you were everything, and you were, before letting go and taking off to the otherside.

The air hits him in a rush and knocks the ones out of his lungs, "Father!" Diluc yells with tearful eyes. For the first time in a long while he was finally letting his feelings run free, "Father!" A name that felt foreign upon words that is pushes him forward, wanting to claim the truth that was smiling from afar.

"Father!"

Crepus lifted his arms and openly catches Diluc when he crashed into him. Here. He was here. He certainly was.

"Haha its been a while hasn't it my son?" He begins, encasing Diluc in a hug like he did the day he turned eighteen. Crepus was a tall man and his genes seemed to have went through. Back when they were younger, Diluc managed to only reach the blade of his shoulders, just barely. Now they were practically the same height, "Look how much you've grown over the years. There were so many things I planned to say but I don't know where to start."

Seven years. That was how long Crepus spent alone with his thoughts. He saw what happened through that time span, the truth about the Knights and Kaeya's origins. To say that none of that bothered him would be a lie. Especially when his son was the most impacted throughout all the events.

"Father I...I-" Diluc tries to speak but the words dissolved the moment it reached his tongue. He wasn't the type to be very good at expressing emotions. None of it could simply be communicated by sentences. For him, actions spoke louder yet somehow, they still wouldn't be enough. Nothing can comprehend the weight of seven years.

Crepus seemed to have understood and fills in the gap instead, "I have also missed you and Kaeya. More than I can even say. It must have been so hard for you both to endure it all by yourselves. Life hits us when we least expect it but despite that, you still chose to persevere."

Diluc clenches his hold, face buried in his shoulders and mouth quivering as he barely answers, "Yeah."

"You're both my pride and joy no matter what happens, as a father I cannot be more proud," before knowing, everything that was said came out naturally from his spirit. Crepus may have his own set of things to share but he knew what Diluc needed the most, "So please don't stop relying on one another, don't always think that you have to do everything alone. Stength is a virtue. However, its okay to let go and allow new people to come into your life. I don't need to be avenged, as long as you and Kaeya are happy, its all I ask for."

As if the world had been lifted from his shoulders, Diluc allows himself to break just this once. On the outside, he was known to be an unstoppable force, the Mondstadt tycoon, the uncrowned king and a hero who serves at night. But here you saw only a boy who dearly missed his father as he hugs him tightly. Although you couldn't hear their conversation clearly, just watching them from where you stood was enough to make your eyes glisten from pure happiness.

"You finally chose to open your heart, right Diluc?" You quietly note to yourself, "You don't have to carry everything by yourself anymore, you're free."

'Once you open it, you will be set free.'

He was able to dwell in this one in a lifetime experience, all because you unlocked the heart and dispersed the fog inside.

They spent a good amount of minutes bringing the distance back together after being seperated for so many years. You made sure to make minimal movements in the consideration of their time. It was only temporary until Crepus noticed you standing in the distance and he gave you a quick glance. Your whole body tenses in response, suddenly feeling guilty as if you were a third wheel who didn't belong in the moment between two family members.

He's staring at me. Diluc's father is staring at me! Your thoughts panicked along with your thrumming heart. What should I do?!!

"I see you've brought someone along with you," He comments, the playfulness rising in his tone, "She seems to have been waiting for quite a while already. If you don't mind, may you do the honours of introducing her to me?"

Diluc turns to see you stiffened in place with your hands tightly clasped below your stomach and heat pooling from your ear to your cheeks as you dipped your head down. His father was a kind man and he couldn't understand there the discomfort came from, yet found it endearing nonetheless. Diluc walks over to you and extends his hand, silently urging you to come with him. You complied, albeit hesitantly at first.

"It'll be okay my love," he whispered softly, causing you to be taken aback by the nickname he called you by. Diluc often reserves them for special instances and this was one of them, "Whatever the staff told you about my father, they're the truth. Trust in their judgement. Trust in me."

"Diluc..." you say, voice fading. You knew him to be someone who always kept his word and someone who would never lie to you. Taking in a short breath, you nodded, "Alright, I will," and followed his lead.

There was once a time where you indulged in the idea of facing Master Crepus in person. But never did you prepare yourself for the amount of pressure it came with. Now that you were together with his son, there was a high chance that he would also become part of his family too, sooner or later. You weren't just meeting Master Crepus. You were also meeting your future father-in-law.

"Father, this is (Y/n)," Diluc starts the welcoming exchanges. You felt his hand squeeze yours gently. He turns to you so that you caught glimpse of his face, seeing the reverance in his gaze that was hinted among his handsome features, "She's the woman I fell in love with and I would do anything to make her happy. I cherish her more than anything else."

"D-Diluc!" you flushed, your embarassment as red as his own hair. But he wasn't bothered by it in the slightest.

"I only speak the truth."

Master Crepus lets out a content chuckle, drawing both of your attentions back to him, "He can be surprising poetic sometimes but I'm sure that he got it from me. Even my wife reacted the same way," he reminisced shortly before sighing, "In truth I already knew that you were together. Staying in the after life gave me the chances to watch things from an omniscient standpoint, I was sincerely worried how Diluc would handle things when I suddenly left, I hope you don't mind. If you do, I apologize for making you uncomfortable."

"N-Not at all!"

"Haha, you're very kind. Thank you. I'm glad that my son was able to find a woman like you to be his fated partner. As a parent, it brings me great reassurance," Crepus remarked, "I know he can be stubborn and a little too headstrong when it comes to making decisions. It really must be a handful for you to deal with at times but I promise you that he means well. So please continue to watch over him in my stead, take care of my son while I'm gone."

"You can count on me," you beamed, "I'll give it my all."

"You have my gratitude (Y/n)," Crepus replies and turned to Diluc, "And listen to her every once in a while. I may have been the previous owner of our wine industry but even I always make sure to get me sufficient amount of rest. Son you know its bad to get two to three hours of sleep every day."

You blinked, "Two to three hours?"

Diluc clears his throat, "I understand Father. You don't have to say it."

Oh I think he does.

With a satisfied grin, Crepus took both of your hands together in his and gave you his blessings. The man once considered to be an artifact through the vast mansion was going to be part of the memories in your life. All of your expressions held as much happiness as the future can become now that he gave you the closure you both needed.

#diluc x reader #genshin impact diluc #genshin impact #genshin diluc #diluc ragnvindr #diluc #genshin #genshin impact x reader #genshin x reader #genshin impact scenarios #crepus ragnvindr #genshin crepus #master crepus #crepus #genshin impact crepus #genshin impact headcanons #genshin impact imagines #genshin headcanons #genshin imagines #genshin scenarios

[voiceless-terror]

#21 and #46 for kiss prompts, maybe? I can't get enough your writing tbf

kiss on a dare- a little jonmartin season one fluff <3 All in all, this is one of Tim’s better Friday nights.

It’s been ages since Jon’s hung out with them, and never with Martin along for the ride. The Archives had been off to a messy start after the Dog Incident and Jon’s subsequent panic over the state of the place. What used to be an ‘every couple of weeks’ tradition turned into an almost-never one as the newly-assembled team got buried under more and more boxes of dusty statements. He’s pretty astounded that Jon agreed to dinner and drinks- although it’s a Friday night, Jon’s been apt to stay weekends more often than not. He figured if he arranged for it at one of theirs instead of a pub, Jon would be more likely to come. He always preferred less crowded settings.

No, the real feat was getting him to come knowing Martin was invited.

Jon’s been getting...better around him, that’s true. He was perfectly fine at his birthday party, going off about emulsifiers for a solid fifteen minutes. Tim’s always been rather fond of Jon’s infodumping, and if he’s comfortable enough to do it around Martin that must be a good sign. Despite an initial freeze-out, he now thanks Martin for his tea and saves his most pointed comments for Martin’s more egregious screw-ups (and even those have less bite than usual). Still, a colleague does not a friend make, and Jon’s never been good at opening up to people he doesn’t know all that well. However, Jon just nodded at the Martin caveat, seemingly not giving it a second thought. And Martin didn’t seem all that worried either.

Whatever, Tim’s not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He’s just happy they’re all here, having a good time. It’s late and Jon’s had enough wine to keep a smile on his face. He missed that. It’s nice how easily they slot together, even with all of the upheaval and a new addition. Martin himself isn’t so shy after a drink or two, more willing to engage in banter and keep the conversation going. This is what it should be like all the time, Tim thinks. Shitty archive job or not. 

It’s when they retire to the living room, drinks in hand, that he finally notices the little grin on Sasha’s face. And Tim, knowing exactly what that means, is both a little afraid and excited. Four-drink-Sasha has always been a host unto herself.

“Why don’t,” she begins, a hiccup interrupting her as she slumps into an armchair. Tim snickers and ignores the glare this earns him. “Why don’t we play one of our old games-”

Tim raises a glass in agreement as Jon, predictably, groans. Martin looks quizzically between them. Ah yes, time for your initiation, Marto! Not that they’ve played this in about a year or so, of course, but it's always fun to revisit the good old days.

“Seriously? We’re not children-”

Tim gives Jon a playful slap on the back that sends him flying forward on the couch, spilling a bit of wine on Sasha’s rug. He hopes she doesn’t notice. “C’mon, it’ll be fun, boss! Nothing like it to break the ice, and there’s definitely some ice that needs breaking.”

Martin blinks, hand tightening on his glass. He looks nervous, like he always does when he doesn’t know exactly what’s going on. Which is a shame, because he’s been so nice and open all night. Even chatting with Jon. “Sorry, what are you talking about?”

Jon rolls his eyes, giving Martin a commiserating look. “Truth or dare.”

Martin lets out a disbelieving laugh, relaxing minutely. “Wait, really?”

“Yes, really.” Jon’s foot reaches out to shove at Tim’s leg. “Tim loves pulling ridiculous stunts-”

“-Hey, you loved the karaoke idea-”

“You sing?”

“No.” Tim would dispute that, but the look on Jon’s face declares it a bad idea. “And Sasha likes to ask probing questions.”

Sasha preens, though the remark was certainly not meant as a compliment. “What can I say, I’m the Queen of Truth-”

Tim snorts. “Hacking and blackmail more like-”

“Anyway-” Sasha sings out as Tim dodges a pillow to the face. “Tim….truth or-”

“Dare, always dare.”

“You’re absolutely no fun,” Sasha pouts, though it doesn’t take long for her eyes to narrow in thought. There’s very little Tim won’t do, but that’s a dangerous look. “I dare you...to text…”

“Text? You can do better than that, Sash.”

“Text...Elias.” That’s more like it. 

Jon immediately scowls. “Tim, no-”

“I don’t have his number-”

“I do-”

“Sasha!”

“Jon, it’ll be fine! He’ll just say ‘oops, wrong number’ afterwards, no harm, no foul-”

Tim takes this time to snatch at Sasha’s phone, sitting precariously on the arm of her chair. She doesn’t notice, too busy gesturing at Jon empathically. He scrolls through her contact list.

“And then it’ll come down on me-”

Sasha rolled her eyes. “How is he going to connect it to you? It’s not like he knows we’re all together-”

“Done!” Tim tosses the phone back onto the couch with a little grin. Sasha blinks, looking down in confusion.

“Wait, that’s mine-”

The screech and smack on the arm at Tim’s hastily fired off ‘u up? ;)’ to Elias Bouchard were definitely deserved. He’s sure he’ll face consequences for that in the near future, but Jon and Martin’s immediate laughter had been well worth it. Shouldn’t dish it if you can’t take it, that’s Tim’s motto.

In the next round, Tim manages to get Martin to confess to his poetry-writing habit, an admission that has him turning an attractive shade of red. Jon just giggles quietly to himself as Martin reads through one of his poorer attempts at rhyme saved to the notes of his mobile. Tim watches the two of them; Martin keeps looking up at Jon throughout it all like he’s the only one in the room and god, his crush is so evident and yet Jon is oblivious, smiling at him like he’s not on the receiving end of some of the most loaded glances of all time. 

Martin gets Sasha to admit to her most recent perusal through confidential institute records, which turned out to be previous archival expenses (solely to find out what Elias would cover with their new jobs, of course). At first glance, there wasn’t much in the way of extravagant meals or supplies, but a bit more digging had her finding Gertrude’s extensive travel budget. For an old woman, she certainly was a globe-trotter.

“All I’m saying, Jon, is that we could definitely do with a trip to China-”

“Yes, I’ll be sure to ask Elias about Gertrude’s trip to China, something I certainly shouldn’t know about, and he’ll have to let us go.”

“Refill?” Martin’s on his feet, taking Jon’s wine glass in his hand and Tim watches as their fingers brush- go Martin!- and yet Jon just nods his thanks, completely oblivious to the seduction taking place before him. Tim’s given it some thought and honestly, he thinks they’d make a cute couple. An odd pair, for sure, but Jon’s so soft once you get to know him, and Martin’s one of the funniest, sweetest guys he knows. They could be good for each other.

“Well, I still think it’s worth a try.” Sasha’s eyes are starting to blink heavily - she’ll be out for the count tonight, for sure. “Anyway, it’s your turn. I dare you-”

“I didn’t even pick!” Jon says, though he doesn’t seem too put out by it. This is the Jon Martin should know, the easy-humored, smiling man sprawled out before him. He’s even taken his little sweater vest and tie off, looking more like the familiar friend from research Tim knows so well. It warms his heart.

“Fine. Truth or dare?”

“Dare, I suppose. Seeing as how you already have one queued up.”

“I dare you to...to...to give a little kiss to someone in this room.” She waves her glass around imperiously. “Anyone you like.”

Silence. Tim gives Sasha a warning look that she ignores. She’s well in her cups, and he supposes any sense of propriety has gone out the window along with her sobriety. He’s actually seen Jon give quite a few kisses on a particularly memorable New Years Eve, but that was a different time. He doesn’t want him to feel pressured, not when he’s just starting to open back up.

 “Jon doesn’t have to if he doesn’t want to-”

Sasha rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, you remember-”

“It doesn’t matter- Jon, you can skip this one if you like, we can think of something else-”

“Tim, it’s alright.” Jon puts a hand on his arm to stop the argument, and there’s a strange look in his eyes that can’t be attributed to liquor. It’s mock-serious, almost playful paired with his little sly smile. He thinks for a moment that Jon’s going to lean in and kiss him but instead he gets up from the sofa in a smooth motion and walks across the room to Martin, who’s just turned around with two glasses in hand. He freezes in place as Jon gets on his very tippy toes, takes his face in both hands, and kisses him. 

Jonathan Sims. Kissing Martin Blackwood. Against a kitchen counter. Martin Blackwood, who, once he’s over his surprise, puts the drinks down behind him and kisses right the hell back, arms winding around Jon’s waist like they belong there.

What. The. Fuck.

_____

“The leg bit was a nice touch.”

“Hmm?” Jon’s in Martin’s lap, sprawled out on his couch back at his own flat, eyes closed in contentment as he leans back against the other man’s chest. Martin’s got one hand in his hair, and the other entwined with Jon’s, twirling the black ring on his finger. It’s heavenly.

“Thought you were trying to climb me.”

“Well, you usually pick me up at that point, make it easier.”

“Sorry, next time.” Kissing Jon’s always fun but kissing him out in the open, in front of their friends? Was that something they could do now? “Should we tell them we’ve been dating for two months?” 

Two whole months since that night in Document Storage when Jon had finally let his guard down. When Martin had held him in his arms. Jon was very particular about keeping up appearances, though that all seemed to have crumbled tonight. Sasha rather fashioned herself a matchmaker, and Jon didn’t do anything to dissuade the fact. It’d been nice, having their relationship to themselves, the secret of it, the obliviousness of their friends who still thought Jon only tolerated him. It’s not that he wanted to keep it that way, of course, but it was nice while they were still figuring it out. 

“If you’d like. Maybe it’s time.” Jon tilts his head back, giving Martin a fond look. “Though I know how much you enjoy playing the lovesick fool-”

“There’s something so poetic about unrequited love, yknow?”

“All the more when it’s requited, I’d say.” Martin couldn’t argue with that. He leans down to give Jon’s forehead a peck. 

“Hmm. Give it a few more weeks. Act out the honeymoon phase for a bit, it’ll be fun.”

And when Jon squeezes his hand and smiles back, Martin thinks he won’t need to do much acting at all.

ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31318724

#tma #the magnus archives #my writing #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #jonmartin #fluff #kiss prompts #i have a little backstory to how they got together in this one that maybe one day i will write #but heres a lil something something #jonmartin secret dating is fun okay #v enjoyable #jaybirdsfall #reblogs appreciated <3

[spanishskulduggery]

Hi can you help me figure out the different between present perfect subjunctive (e.g. haya reconocido) and imperfect subjunctive (e.g. reconociera)? Not those verbs exactly but when to use them? Thank you!

They're very similar, depending on how you use them.

Note: I promise this will come into play later but I just want to make something very clear. In Spanish, there are tenses and there are moods. It may be easier to understand them in Spanish - a tense is tiempo [meaning "time"] while a mood is modo [meaning "mode"]

There are 3 moods, indicative, subjunctive, and imperative [imperative are commands; not useful for this particular discussion]

The moods encompass the different tenses... so think of it like columns; indicative includes present tense, preterite, imperfect, future, conditional etc. And subjunctive includes present subjunctive and imperfect subjunctive.

The layman's explanation is that the mood says how the language works according to the "conditions" of the sentence/thought, and the tense says at what time it happens.

A very simple layman's explanation: the mood is the "conditions" of language. The tenses say whether it was past, present, or future in some capacity.

And there's usually a version of the indicative that corresponds to the subjunctive... present tense indicative happens at the same "time" as present tense subjunctive, for example

And perfect tenses [the ones that use haber] are a bit of a rogue time traveler; they can exist in any tense and can be either indicative or subjunctive, thus he reconocido happens at the same "time" as haya reconocido... just the conditions are different

No hemos reconocido... = We haven't recognized...

Es increídible que no hayamos reconocido... = It's unbelieveable that we haven't recognized...

So while they seem to express the same thought or idea, and though they happen at the same time [tense] the conditions of the second sentence necessitate subjunctive mood.

Keep that in mind going forward and it will make a lot more sense.

-

Present perfect just in general is used for placing something a little bit in the past, but since it's present it's still affecting the present:

Escribí. = I wrote. He escrito. = I have written.

Comí. = I ate. He comido. = I have eaten.

Pagué. = I paid. He pagado. = I have paid.

In the contexts of grammar, the simple past [preterite] in the first examples is just the actions "I wrote" or "I ate" etc. The action is done and completed and over.

Note: There are many people who will use the present perfect in place of the preterite tense because they do equate to largely the same thing in function. Though technically different, it's a colloquial thing.

But in a more grammatical roundabout way, present perfect brings that past action into the present, meaning it still has some bearing on the present in some way. Saying "I have written" is a way of just talking about past actions, but possibly bringing them into the present still.

I realize that doesn't make much sense but consider something like: "I've written a lot of essays, but I don't know how to write a poem"; or "I've read a lot of books but I've never read that author".

In those contexts, your past actions now have some bearing on the present situation. That's the basis of the perfect tenses.

With the haya here, that's the subjunctive form of haber.

In grammatical terms, it's the same idea as the present perfect... just with subjunctive phrasing:

No te has roto el brazo. = You didn't break your arm. Dudo que te hayas roto el brazo. = I doubt you broke your arm.

Lo has terminado. = You finished it. / You've finished it. Dime en cuanto lo hayas terminado. = Tell me as soon as you're done. / Tell me once you've finished it.

No se han equivocado. = They weren't wrong. No creo que se hayan equivocado. = I don't believe/think they were wrong.

Me han llamado idiota. = They've called me an idiot. Aunque me llamen idiota... = Even if they call me an idiot... [present subjunctive] Aunque me hayan llamado... = Even though they have called me an idiot...

In Spanish there are certain subjunctive phrases that activate, and they exist across multiple tenses.

Certain phrases necessitate subjunctive, so it can be the same information sort of, but they'll determine whether it's indicative or subjunctive.

-

Imperfect subjunctive is the equivalent of past tense subjunctive.

So just as an example real quick:

1. Quiero que pongas la mesa. = I want you to set the table.

2. Quería que pusieras la mesa. = I wanted you to set the table.

1. Sugieren que lo hagamos. = They suggest that we do it.

2. Sugieron que lo hiciéramos. = They suggested that we do it.

1. Es importante que tenga tiempo libre. = It's important that I have free time.

2. Era importante que tuviera tiempo libre. = It was important that I had free time.

1. Aunque me hayan llamado cobarde... = Even though they have called a coward...

2. Aunque me hubieran llamado cobarde... = Even though they had called me a coward...

Still subjunctive mood, just 1 is present, 2 is "past" so it's imperfect.

Imperfect subjunctive today also encompasses future subjunctive which can be confusing. This is normally done with contrary to fact states, hypothetical situations, and your basic if/then constructions with the conditional tense.

Si tuviera el dinero... = If I had the money... Si tuviera el dinero, estudiaría en el extranjero. = If I had the money, I would study abroad.

Si pudiera... = If I could... Lo haría si pudiera. = I would do it if I could.

Si me permitiera, señor... = If you allow me, sir... Si me permitiera, señor, podría ayudar. = If you allow me, sir, I can/could help.

Si hubiera otra opción... = If there was/were another option... Si hubiera otra opción, lo elegiríamos. = If there was/were another option, we would choose it.

Como si fuera la última vez... = As if it were the last time...

Me habló como si fuera idiota. = He talked to me like I was an idiot.

No puedo creer que nuestro jefe nos regañe como si fuéramos niños traviesos. = I can't believe our boss would scold us as if we were naughty children. [technically could be niñas traviesas if it the nosotros here were nosotras referring to all women]

You will occasionally see the future subjunctive forms, but really only in literature and contracts. It's not used commonly today; it'll look like imperfect subjunctive just with -e endings; tuviere, hubiere, hablare, llamare, quisiere etc.

For example: si fuere menester is a common thing in contracts and means "in the event of". Literally it's "if it were to be needed"

-

Important historical / regional note!

Once upon a time, the -iera/-ara forms were used as pluperfect, "had done", "had seen" etc.

You see it mostly in literature, particularly literature before a certain time period or things set in the middle ages or that have an old-timey feel (like Lord of the Rings has this)

So if you had come across llamara you might assume it's imperfect subjunctive, but it may read as "had called" which is pluperfect.

In other words for some historical contexts (and only for historical contexts, not for modern day Spanish):

me hablaran = me habían hablado = they had talked to me

les escribieran = les habían escrito = they had written to them

nos dijeras = nos habías dicho = you had told us

viera = había visto = he/she/You had seen

-

I'm not a historical linguist but I believe this is because haber in older contexts was not an auxiliary verb like this. In its original form, haber worked the way Italian did as "to have". You would see el hombre ha dos hijos "the man has two children".

haber didn't get used as an auxiliary verb until later on, and tener which now means "to have", was often used in the context of "to obtain" or "to grasp"

So in these older contexts, pluperfect [now done with haber in imperfect + past participle] was done with one verb.

Imperfect subjunctive would have been done with the -iese/-ase forms. So llamase read as "would call"; si me llamasen "if they should call me" for example

Just be careful when you're reading things like that! It's usually not too bad if you can recognize the verb because at least you get the overall meaning, but if it's not quite translating how you think it might be one of those more "antiquated" usages of a tense

...

Spain still keeps this distinction more so than Latin America. You will see -ara/-iera forms used for imperfect subjunctive [past subjunctive].

But in Spain you're more likely to see those contrary to fact statements or hypotheticals with the -ase/-iese forms:

Si lo hubiese sabido... = If I had known...

Si tuviésemos más tiempo... = If we had more time...

Como si fuésemos niños... = As if we were children...

My own Spanish leans towards Latin American usages, so I tend to use -ara/-iera forms for everything.

Spain makes more of a distinction between them, and that's why in most dictionaries or conjugation charts you'll see two different forms... like "fuera O fuese" for example

-

Importante Note: You will see the -ara/-iera forms used as pluperfect in some contexts, even in Latin America - above all in journalism, biographies, and publications

This is why you may see nació "was born" written as naciera "was born"...

But you will NEVER see it as naciese for "was born"

#Spanish #language #learning Spanish #subjunctive #langblr #languages #la gramatica #long post #pluperfect #perfect

[tommyspeakycap]

again, your new john stones fic blew me away!!! Amazing. Please feel free to write about him all day every day!! <3

thank you again!! here’s another sweet one inspired by my own 1am experience tonight :) i wish I had a john stones

My hero

Your heart is quite literally thundering in your chest. There’s no feeling like it, this kind of fear that sticks you to the ground beneath your feet. You honestly feel like you can’t catch your breath, tears streaking down over your flushed cheeks as you hold your phone in your right hand with trembling fingers, one thumb finally letting go of the little microphone shaped drawing in your iMessages app. Even the whooshing sound of the message you knew was about to send to your best friend catches you off guard, making your shoulders clench and raise in fright.

“Are you seriously alright??”

She texts back, her confusion and teasing is something you know is laced into those letters across the screen creating a glow in the dim room. You roll your eyes at her, trying to keep your vision up while sending another voice note back; “No, seriously. Why does this only ever happen when I’m alone??”

“Probably because you live alone?” She replies back, and you curse yourself for a choice of friends who clearly have no empathy for what you consider to be a very serious situation. You know you won’t hear the end of this teasing once it’s all over. But the fear to you is all too real.

“(Y/n) I got your text! Came right here, are you alright?”

The sudden voice makes you literally clench your entire body, nearly shooting off the floor in fright and making one of those internalised fear noises that sounds like you just been attacked with a taser. You hear keys dropping down by the door and then a pause of his footsteps as you try to catch your breath. Your heart swells a little at the thought of him being here.

“John!” You yelp, your voice coming out something more like a strangled cry. The tall defender hears that sound and finds himself in panic, those long legs carrying him quickly and easily up the stairs of your small home until he spots you standing now in the doorway of your bedroom. He rushes towards you, seemingly checking you over for potential injuries the best he can in the darkness only broken by the lowest setting of flashlight on your phone. The first thing he notices when checking over your face with his hands is the wetness still making its way over your cheeks.

“Are you alright? what happened? Is there someone in there? Are you okay? Did someone hurt-“

You cut off his rambling with a finger over his lips, creating even more confusion for the fluffy haired brunette who had very clearly rolled himself out of bed to hurry over here. He was wearing shoes without socks, dirty shorts from training that he’d thrown off before going to bed only to pull back in to come to your, and an old sweater that usually sat somewhere downstairs in the closet closest to the door. It was obvious he had come in a wild rush the second he got your erratic message.

“It’s a wasp, John!” You whisper, as if the little creature that sitting on your lightbulb unwilling to move from the place you couldn’t reach and wouldn’t dare to even if you could, was able to hear you.

“A wasp?” John repeats incredulously. “Seriously?”

You nod vigorously, and and as much as the exhausted footballer wants to complain or even sigh at you, he doesn’t. Maybe he can’t. Because he’s got his arms around you and he definitely can feel you quivering against him. He had expected something more along the lines of a one night stand gone wrong or even someone breaking it, but as his consciousness began to catch back up with his previously very sleepy self, it made a lot more sense. In the event of a break in, you would probably have been bloody calmer than you are now to be honest. John had seen you after a pretty dangerous car crash completely still and relatively calm as you gave statements to police officers with blood still trickling down your face. But put an insect in your path and you scaled the closest thing to you for protection.

It just so happened that closest thing was often John Stones, and he was happy to be that person really.

It has become a norm between the two of you in the years you had been friends. Winter was the worst for spiders, but he generally didn’t mind the mildly irritating insects. He just got rid of them one way or another while you hid as far as you could get and then he’d come get you when the coast was clean. But you hated summer for this particular reason.

Wasps.

They fly in, fly into things and somehow never make it back on the window on their own despite it being the most easy thing one could ever imagine. Then, they try and sting you as if they aren’t in your house. They just creep you out, even the sight of them with their nasty little bodies. Bees aren’t a problem, they’re fuzzy looking and don’t intrude in your home nearly half as much. Also, they don’t try to sting you all the damn time.

“Where abouts?” He asks, his voice showing no hint of any destain or irritation he may harbour. “On the light,” you tell him shakily, following close to him back as you both enter the room. “Right up there- careful!”

John sniggers a little to himself, much to your dismay. He kicks off his shoes by your bedside table and climbs up onto the bed with ease on those ridiculously long legs. By luck, chance or both, he has some toilet paper in his hoodie pocket that he’d probably used to wipe his nose or something like that earlier, he can’t remember. He holds it out at arms length, only inches away form the unsuspecting black and yellow insect. “Where?” He asks again, “I can’t see anything.”

“There!” You insist, pointing up with a shaking finger. “I don’t see anything (y/n).” He repeats, making you whimper slightly, more tears suddenly appearing as you try to come to terms with the fact it might’ve moved while you were outside the room. The thought of having to sleep in your house while not knowing where it was would send you absolutely mental. “It was there I swear, look-“

“Ahhh, I got it. Stand back.”

He leans forward with relative ease, careful with the force he used so close to a live electric source and grips the buzzing creature in his tissue. “There we go,” he hums, stepping down from the bed. “All go-“

As if on cue, it flies out of the paper and you let loose a literal shriek as you dive backwards, crashing into the wall and then jumping forward in fright at that. “Woah!” John calls, “it’s alright, it’s right there. Calm, calm. Take a deep breath. Look,” he tries to calm you. That deep accent with his fatigue coating each word seeps into you, carefully calming your firing heart as he grabs it tighter from the floor, making sure he squashed it this time and immediately takes it to flush it down the toilet. John doesn’t know if you’re supposed to kill them or not, but at this moment in time he genuinely does not care. Was he fuck going to chase a wasp out of a window at half past one in the morning. Not a chance.

When he returns from the bathroom now empty handed, you still seem upset.

“That was scary.” You announce.

John smiles, pearly whites all on display. “I noticed.” He teases, making you scowl tiredly at him.

That scowl falters when his smile breaks into a light, soft laugh and he moves to stand in front of you. You absolutely don’t mind the fact that he’s babying you a little, using the sleeves of his sweater to wipe your cheeks before pressing a gentle kiss to your forehead and taking you into his strong arms. In fact, it’s very much welcomed. His arms are the safest place in the world to you and even the residual discomforted shivers from the concept of a wasp in your bedroom couldn’t get through that defender. He looks after a lot more than just the Manchester City goal line. No, he’s the sole defender of something much more precious that he doesn’t even realise.

Your heart.

“You okay now?” He asks softly, his tired voice rumbling through you. You nod against him, “Feeling a bit better. Thank you Stonesy.” You mumble, words muffled by the muscled chest that your face his resting against. “Anything for you, lovely.” He responds easily, pulling back from you in a way that aches his heart. The sudden lack of your warmth and presence against him is utterly brutal. He loves holding you, but hates it in the same breath. He would love to hold you if it was something he got to do freely instead of fleetingly.

His eyes are stuck watching you sit down on the edge of your bed to grab your phone and check the time with an element of shock rolling through your eyes when you realise it’s nearly two.

“You got training tomorrow?” You ask sweetly, a yawn following the tail end of your words adorable in a way that makes John’s heart flutter like a teenage boy. He nods, “Not till after dinner though, around 5.”

It’s your turn to nod, seeming to be chewing over something in thought as you lie down in the middle of your bed.

“Wanna stay then?”

John has to pretend to think about it at least a little bit so he doesn’t look like he’s jumping right up at the opportunity, which is exactly what he wants to do. “Why not,” he shrugs, chucking off his hoodie to the foot of your bed, “Scoot over.”

He clambers in, long limbs moving nowhere near as coordinated as they are on the pitch as he lays down by your right. It’s like a familiar dance, one you both know so well as you shuffle around so you can lay against his chest, one leg hooked over him as his arm wraps around you to pull you even closer. A silence falls between you as he feels your eyelashes fluttering shut, tickling his chest. He can’t find that same relaxation, can’t seem to shut his eyes for the thoughts flying through his mind all at once.

“I should teach you how to catch them.” John states, rumbling voice interrupting the peaceful quiet in which you had nearly found sleep. “You know, for the future.” He adds almost flippantly. Almost.

“Why?” You hum groggily, sleep croaking your voice ever so slightly. “I got you.”

John has to pretend your half asleep admission doesn’t send his heart flying into his throat. You do always have him, right there in the palm of your hand. Always.

“I don’t think other guys would appreciate me barging into their house in the middle of the night.” He suggests, making you quirk an eyebrow in question, but you still don’t look up at him and he isn’t even sure if you’ve got your eyes fully open. “No other guys here,” you state, “Single, living all alone.” You add lazily. The words almost make John wonder if he has fallen asleep, each one spoke playing straight into the dream he’s had for years for you to be his.

“Yeah, I know but…but there will be, at some point.” He suggests. You give no response for a moment and he briefly thinks you’ve fallen asleep at some point in this conversation.

“Bet those other guys wouldn’t come get rid of wasps for me in the middle of the night like you do.”

“Maybe,” John shrugs, “but I think there’s plenty of guys like that, especially for you.”

He feels you shake your head against him, your words decisive as you speak;

“There are no guys like you, John Stones.”

His words and his breath are caught on his throat, his heart erupting in his chest as he replays those words in his mind, trying to figure out if he had actually just heard them or if his tired mind was playing tricks on him because it was so late and he hadn’t had enough sleep.

But then you look up at him with tired eyes and a sweet smile. You know what you’ve just done, know the bomb you’ve just dropped and you’re hoping with everything crossed that he feels the same way.

“You’re my hero, Stonesy.” You say softly, your voice now a little sheepish and he can barely just make out the flush of your cheeks in the dim room lighting. “And I love you with everything I have.”

He doesn’t know what to say, his eyes wide as his heart beats as erratically as he had felt yours beating when he first arrived with fear coursing through his veins thinking you were in some kind of mortal peril.

“John?” You ask timidly, voice sheepish as you sit up in fear.

“Sorry,” he rumbles, pushing himself to a seated position, allowing him to lean forward and slide his hand around the back of your head to pull you into him, your lips crashing down onto his.

It’s just about everything he’s ever wanted.

“God I love you.” He says against your lips, a groan leaving his throat from pure satisfaction, pure relief of finally getting those words off of his chest. You giggle, resting back against his chest. “Can we sleep now, please?”

He nods, both of you shuffling so you can resume the position you had been in before a life changing confession that had spun you and the Barnsley brunette into the kiss that had been years in waiting. This was the happiest either of you had probably ever been.

“Guess we have the wasps to thank for this eh?” John lulls just as sleep is about to encompass you. He feels you shiver against him, the hairs on your arms immediately raising to attention at the mention of that which you hate so much.

“Don’t say that! That’s basically an invitation for them to invade my house!” You hiss, giving his chest a gentle swat as he pulls you closer to his side.

“Let them come,” he says almost triumphantly, “You got me now, always.”

You cosy yourself against him, a soft sigh of complete content and comfort tickling his chest as it dances across him. He feels that gentle smile that settles onto your gestures as your heavy eyes allow sleep to truly begin to take you.

“Always,” you mumble, words diluted by sleep “My hero.”

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