#monolingualism makes me sad

[bluef00t]

Finally collecting these in a post—Atomic Robo robotswap ideas. This was more of a character design challenge than a real AU, but the concept kind of got away from me.

Rambling design notes + a couple panel redraws + some ideas I had for Helsingard and ALAN 1.0 under the cut:

This idea spiraled out of an old sketch by Wegner of real-boy Robo as a genetics experiment. I'm interpreting that as basically Wolverine minus the animal motifs (and generally much more well-adjusted).

I tried to mimic more elements of his bot design; for example the hair silhouette and the thick blue-tinted glasses, swapped for goggles as his lifestyle got more active. I guess sensitive eyes are a side effect of his mutations. (The classic superhero forehead curl on babyrobo has no design justification, I just couldn't resist.) His appearance would make the public of the '20s a little uncomfortable with seeing him as Tesla's son. Which feels very thematically appropriate.

I'm still calling him "Robo" because it feels weird not to, though it would be a nickname. Appropriate for a guy who never sleeps; plausibly derived from Robert/Ratko. (The American name would be how he's introduced to the public; the Serbian one used casually by Tesla.*) Honestly, it seems in-character for him to put down Robo as his actual legal name when he finally got that chance.

*Things I found out after picking these names for their superficial resemblance to "Robo": Robert means "famous, shining" and Ratomir means "defender of peace"; literally "war for peace". Definitely an affectionately ironic moniker for a son so determined to be an action hero. Though dear monolingual Robo probably wouldn't catch on until decades after Tesla's death... Well, now I've gone and made myself sad.

The action scientists are mostly an excuse to still draw robots. Let's say they're Robo's big midlife crisis project after realizing he was going to outlive his entire first team and not think about it too hard.

Vik (inspired by Robby the Robot) is the oldest of the models. He's optimized for processing power, which is how you get a robot that will try to suggest purely hypothetical (but mathematically sound!) solutions to urgent real-world problems. And enjoys TTRPGs of Turing-complete levels of complexity.

Lang (inspired by Robo) came shortly after, more optimized for the "action" part of action science. Being made of metal does wonders for your recoil management. (I know she hasn't had the hair buns in 10+ years, but that's what I was trying to do with the "antennae".)

Foley (inspired by Alan) is the newest model, optimized for human-robot interaction. Getting wifi installed in her head early on had the unexpected side effect of making her really good at understanding networks of all kinds.

BRN-3 wasn't built to be sentient. He's just a lab geological survey bot that began showing signs of sapience one day and attributes his own "enlightenment" to the "crystals" he'd been studying. This is obviously bullshit but nobody can give a better explanation, so...

Jenkins is literally just the Terminator, except his evil future is vampires instead of AI. He was sent back to kill Robo, which clearly didn't work, so they talked it out and now he just hangs around Tesladyne on high alert for anything that might kick off the apocalypse.

(I have no idea where Ada, Ben, and Koa fit in here, but I might come back to them later. Using their Agents of CHANGE power suits as android designs felt like cheating.)

Not included in these drawings are Helsingard and ALAN, but I'm considering switching around parts of their premises, too.

Helsingard was a Nazi supercomputer meant to calculate the perfect world-conquering strategy. Instead, it realized that Germany's loss was imminent and hid copies of itself around the planet. Every once in a while, someone accidentally boots up a copy and it tries to take over. In the modern age it's a total dice roll as to whether this will be horrifying (what major infrastructure isn't computerized these days?) or just kind of pathetic (it's too old to understand the internet and can easily get itself trapped in an office printer spitting toner and stacks of paper that read BEHOLD HELSINGARD).

ALAN (potential rename pending; the Turing connection is rather lost in the version I'm going with for now) is the world's second successful "unkillable" genetic experiment, a govt project during the Cold War to ensure that the last man alive in a nuclear winter scenario would be British. But it turns out telling a guy he's the next stage in human evolution and sealing him in a bunker for decades to await a chance to inherit the earth which doesn't come isn't great for his sense of compassion or morality. Eventually, ALAN decides to hurry things along before we inferior humans end the world in a less convenient way, and Robo has to... well, you know this part.

It turns out there was a secret phase 2 to this plan, which would have been to populate the solar system with perfect immortal mind-networked clones of himself. The single under-baked clone that it does manage to spit out before being shut down is our Alan :] He needs someone to look after him while his crazy healing powers fill in the missing chunks of his body and brain, and he didn't get a full memory upload from ALAN, so it's free son boy!

No changes were made to Dr. Dinosaur. He's already perfect.

#atomic robo #robotswap #bluef00t art #the part under the cut is pretty long I've been turning this over in my head for a while #there's definitely bits of continuity that don't quite work (even Wolverine would have trouble with the head-in-a-box-for-130-years thing) #but this isn't really about rewriting something coherent. this is about how fun it is to do panel redraws as warm-ups #000

[dedalvs]

Treasure of the Castilian or Spanish Language

My good friend gave me this very small book that was a translation of some of the many thousands of entries from a Spanish dictionary written at the turn of the 17th century. The original was by Sebastián de Covarrubias Horozco, and the dictionary was described, at the time, as "a large work of…slovenly erudition". The translator included only a few entries (the book is 62 pages long), but, let me tell you... You're in for a treat.

Here are some entries from a monolingual Spanish dictionary from 1617:

AJO (GARLIC)

Garlic is so well-known that one need not describe it. Garlic is not a food for courtly people. The leopard abhors the smell of it; if the leopard's lair is scoured with garlic, the leopard forsakes it. Garlic rubbed against the trunk of a tree keeps caterpillars away.

ANDRÓGENO (HERMAPHRODICTIC)

Some say that women have three wombs on the right side and three on the left and one in the middle; some wombs create males, the others females, and the one in the middle hermaphrodites. And others attribute even more wombs to women, and many allow for none of this.

APIO (CELERY)

The symbol of sadness and weeping.

BERENJENA (EGGPLANT)

Eggplants are not beautiful. They taste insipid; they sadden the spirit; they cause headaches; their bad quality comes out in the face of he who eats too many, giving it their livid or dark green color.

C

It is a silent letter. It was called the sad letter.

COCODRILO (CROCODILE)

The crocodile follows the man who flees it, and it flees the man who follows it. It flees from saffron. The crocodile that follows the one who flees it and flees the one who follows it is a symbol of glory and honor. A crocodile surrounded by wasps need not be feared.

DIAMANTE (DIAMOND)

The diamond can be worked with no instrument except another diamond and the hot blood of a goat.

DRAGÓN (DRAGON)

For a serpent to become a dragon, it first had to eat many other serpents.

FADAS (FAIRIES)

Enchanted nymphs or women who pretend they cannot die.

GALLO (ROOSTER)

The rooster has a hidden virtue: when placed in the presence of the lion, it makes the lion run. The rooster always faces its beak to the wind—this keeps its tail feathers composed. Roosters grow livelier with garlic paste.

GIRASOL O TORNASOL (SUNFLOWER)

Salute this plant.

H

Its figure is formed of the light and the strong.

HIEDRA (IVY)

The copyist making a clean copy of my papers left this word between the lines, and many other words remained with it, forgotten, as I was so sick I couldn't write with my own hand or look over what was written in another.

HORMIGA (ANT)

Some ants grow wings to lose themselves.

JIRA (PICNIC)

To a certain friend it seemed that the word "picnic" may have come from the Greek word for "pig," because the day the pig is killed is a day of joy, and because of the many good morsels that the pig provides, and furthermore the whole house rejoices, even the children, who play ball with its bladder. The pig is the rich man who has poor debtors and grunts like a pig his whole life until he dies.

LAMER (LICK)

Sheep lick salt, dogs lick blood they find on the ground. To lick plates is proper to boys who delight in belly cheer.

LECHO (BED)

Delight in leisure grew, and men invented sleeping on the delicate feathers of the breasts of swans and other birds and on mattresses of cotton and wool, and even with all this the delicate can sleep no more than if they threw themselves on brambles and thistles because of the cares and passions pricking their souls.

LEÓN (LION)

The lion isn't as brave as they say. For the Egyptians it symbolized the heart, the sun, the earth, or he who subjugates others' hearts. It suffers from mosquitoes that bite its eyes; it flees from the sight of the rooster and the rooster's voice, particularly if the rooster is white. Why this is so is unknown. Nature provided that this most ferocious of animal be less prolific than the rest, in contrast with the fecundity of the fearful little rabbit. The lion cub ravages its mother's womb with its claws. The lion forgives.

MIEL (HONEY)

Common honey is nothing but dew that falls over the leaves of grass and trees that bees deflower and lick with great appetite, swelling in size until they are forced to vomit.

OSO (BEAR)

It is unwise for brave men who hunt these wild beats to wait and fight them face-to-face, since bears tend to be dangerous.

PULGA (FLEA)

This insect is made from dust and a little dampness.

Q

"Q" is mute, because it sounds like "c" and in a certain lazy way, like "k."

SANGRE (BLOOD)

Blood of the dragon: the true blood of the dragon is the blood that runs from the dragon that has fought with the elephant, which, atop the dragon, crushes it. The dragon tries to cling to the elephant's belly as there the elephant's hide is thin, and the blood that the dragon sucks out mixes with its own and becomes the true blood of the dragon.

SIETE (SEVEN)

There are books written only on this topic.

TÚ (YOU)

A primitive pronoun of the second person.

UFANO (SMUG)

Soaked in joy like the breadcrumb in liquid that loosens and puffs.

VIDRIO (GLASS)

That which pleases us most about glass is its transparence. If glass did not break, silver or gold couldn't compare with it. The Romans used glass clocks. The ancients drank from glass cups with great delight, as do those now for the joy the sight of glass gives us: if you fill it with water, it seems like a diamond, while red wine makes it like a ruby, and white wine, a balas burning with color, a quality that cups of myrrh, being like mirrored black stones, do not possess.

VIGÜELA (VIHUELA)

Very few have learned to play the vihuela since the invention of guitars. This has been a great loss, as the guitar is no more than a cowbell, an instrument so easily played, especially if strummed, that every stable boy plays it.

X

The drunk becomes an "x" because his weak legs cross. A very erudite man censors this letter.

YESO (GYPSUM)

A stone that glints like crystal. A poison. I do not understand how some young women peel the crust off the walls and eat it like icing.

ZUCIO (DIRTY)

Sweat keeps man from being lustrous.

***

This is but a selection. I've omitted the shortened definition of elephant, which was originally twelve pages long (this guy evidently revered elephants—and roosters. And goats. I omitted that one, too, as it was long). The translator is Janet Hendrickson, and you can find this book at ndbooks.com. It's an absolute treasure.

#language #spanish #español #dictionary #dragon blood #bears do tend to be dangerous

[taptrial2]

sometimes i wonder about the state of animation fans across the world. there are only a few places that really regularly pump out a lot of animation, which makes me sad. but it also makes me imagine what the scene is like in different countries. im watching a phineas and ferb theme song multilanguage right now which is making me wonder how many or how few people actually saw these dubs around the world! i wanna know what shows are popular where EVERYWHERE. i think that would be cool :( yet another monolingual biscuit fail

#exoticbutterstxt

[clotpolesonly]

dear @teenwolfholidayfest all i want this year is...

- a fic from the POV of the cashier at the hardware store where Stiles gets all his werewolf-containing chains, wondering what the FUCK this guy is getting up to in his spare time

- a Laura & Derek/Sterek based off of this edit right here - Frozen AU with Laura as Elsa, Derek as Anna, and Stiles as Kristoff

- a Laura & Jackson fic based off of this aesthetic - Peter gets the alpha power some other way (so Laura isn’t dead) and bites Jackson very early on, Jackson becomes the kanima, and Laura’s drive to avenge her family makes her his new master

- a Stackson fic based off of this edit - secret agent Stiles tasked with eliminating dangerous supernatural creatures who gets ordered to take kanima!Jackson out but ends up falling in love with his unsuspecting mark

- any fic/gifset/whatever with polyglot!Derek showing off his multiple languages, i am a SLUT for polyglot!Derek but can’t do it myself cuz i am but a sad monolingual american pls help

- a fic/gifset/anything dealing with Jackson in the post-kanima fallout, struggling in the aftermath of what was done to him and what he was made to do - nightmares and flashbacks and dissociative issues, THE WORKS

- Derek in therapy, please someone write me Derek going to therapy

- a Stackson fic with temporary amnesia - Jackson losing his memory completely for whatever reason and Stiles realizing that Jackson without all the baggage and pretense is actually kind of......sweet?? like, removing the memories reveals the Jackson that could be buried underneath all the performative assholeishness, and fuck Stiles actually likes that version of Jackson

- art of nonbinary Stalia meeting in the middle of the gender presentation spectrum - Stiles with nail polish and earrings, Malia with a buzzcut and unshaven legs, both in matching plaid, of course

- any endgame Steather fic, i don’t even care what it’s about or what universe it’s set, i just need some Steather in my life T^T

- a Sciles fic where Stiles is super easily flustered by sincerity (he’s big on jokes and sarcasm, okay, there’s a reason for that!! indirect confessions of love only in this house!!!) which is unfortunate because Scott is a very earnest person, and every time Scott says something sweet or sappy, Stiles just spontaneously combusts on the spot like NOOO STOOOOPPPP and turns into a blushy squirmy mess. Scott loves to see it XD

- a fic/gifset/whatever of SOME kind of Derek & Cora interaction, set in 3A, that actually makes it clear that they have a lifetime of history together. canon completely neglected that they were siblings with a shared childhood and probably had, like, inside jokes and nicknames and embarrassing anecdotes about each other and could make references to people and events they both remembered but nobody else knew, and it would all be super bittersweet and painful in the context of 3A. i am just starved for canon-compliant Derek & Cora content, yo

- a fic where Heather, Harley, and Danny all know each other and they meet up regularly to bitch about all the obnoxious supernatural bullshit going on that they don’t want to get involved in (but also they kind of run interference in the background and cover for the pack when they get into trouble, providing alibis and plausible explanations without the pack ever knowing about all the help they’re getting)

- theater AUs!! any characters, any pairing, i just really love theater AUs and there aren’t nearly enough in this fandom

thanks!!! clotpolesonly 

#teenwolfholidayfest #Teen Wolf

[some-stars]

Fic writer questionnaire! Tagged by @deputychairman, thank you!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

65....just waiting for 69 so i can celebrate

2) What's your total AO3 word count?

288,609

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

okay, so, there's a lot so we're gonna collapse some. So, 16: The Witcher (games and show), Supernatural, Dark Angel, Glee, Stargate (both SG1 and SGA), MCU, Vampire Diaries, Teen Wolf, due South, DC (comics and movies), House of Leaves, Sense8, Harry Potter, Les Miserables (book), Doctor Who, and X-Men movies. Oh, and I wrote a lot of NSYNC RPF back in the day but you will never see it. (Unless you literally read it back then and remember one and want to reread it, I’m not ashamed of them if you were also in the pit with me. If that is the case feel free to ask.)

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?  

all some children do is work: this one surprised me, i did NOT think there was this kind of appetite for almost-gen turned-into-a-kid fic, but i do really like the fic itself so i'm contented with its acclaim

method: i mean, it's fake dating, written back when there wasn't much non-modern-AU fake dating in witcher fandom (possibly there still isn't?) so, not surprised

Emergency Pants: this is the one that the Claw chose back in 2012 bc i had written very pornographic tony/bruce about a month after Avengers came out so there was a big appetite for it. i don't much care for it these days except i do still think the tony voice is good

warm you like the sunshine: deeply unsurprised this one is popular (and it's one of my own fics that i reread a lot), it's extremely tender BDSM with a juggernaut pairing, that gets the readers

As often as from thee I go: honestly kinda surprised about this one, which is just a 2500 word confection i wrote for my own satisfaction, but it does have explicit sex and jaskier crying about his feelings so maybe it makes sense

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I almost always do, but usually just with "Thanks!" unless it's a detailed or lengthy comment.

6) What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

"Long black night, morning frost" (Les Miserables) for absolute certain. One of the very few fics I've written with an outright unhappy and pessimistic ending (although I found it very cathartic to write). For Witcher fics, "Kind" and "go ask alice" are about as sad as I get.

7) What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

Almost all of them, honestly. There's a point in happiness of endings where you really can't distinguish degrees. Probably the most--not saccharine, but distinctly Happy Ending-ish is either "Water like a stone" or "Darling, if you only knew," which to my eternal shame are both Glee fics. In terms of Witcher fics...it's still hard to pick! I think the kidfic trilogy ended very, very happily; I think "If you live through this with me" ended TOO happily.

8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've written?

I do not, and I don't read them, at least not since the days of the late 90s/early 2000s when I once read a really good Highlander/X-Files crossover (oh, and Martha's cosmic horror fic where Stargate and Angel and I think something else all cross over but it feels quite natural and right). I don't like fusions, either, most of the time.

9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Never! In 20 years! I've been extremely lucky.

10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

ahahahahahahahhaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

yes...yes you could say i write smut. on occasion. you know, when the urge comes on me. i write mostly kink or at least kink-adjacent fic, but i've done some vanilla scenes too, and i write m/m and m/f and (occasionally) f/f. fun fact, my only rimming scene to date was in a f/f/f threesome!

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

I think so? I can't remember, honestly, which sounds dreadful but like...I don't READ the translation, because I am sadly monolingual, but I get a burst of delight when someone asks to do it (or to make a podfic).

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have tried--me and a friend once got like 12k deep into a co-written Tiger and Bunny fic--but it doesn't really work out for me. I am a massive control freak when it comes to writing and absolutely miserable to work with. (Although I wasn't so bad back when we wrote the T&B fic, we just sort of never got around to finishing it. Which is sad, because it was GREAT.)

14) What's your all time favorite ship?

Max/Alec from Dark Angel. I shipped it when I only started watching DA for Jensen's episodes, I shipped it when I fell in love with Max, I shipped it when I frantically hand-wrote notes about the fic I wanted to write, I ship it right now as I'm typing, I will ship it in my grave. Also it's not a het ship bc neither of them are heterosexual, thank you very much.

15) What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I only post finished fics, but in terms of things I haven't posted, I still think my "For A Good Time Call" fem!jaskier/yennefer(/geralt) AU would have been truly incredible. If you haven't watched that movie go watch it immediately so you can share this beautiful idea with me.

16) What are your writing strengths?

Ohhh, this and the next one are hard, because I truly don't know. Well, besides "porn." I am genuinely good at porn, which is HILARIOUS considering how many more sex scenes I've written than participated in. But overall, I have so much angst and neurosis and tenuous self-worth tied up in writing, I'm a very bad judge of my own skills. Also, it depends on the fandom! In some fandoms I'm good at dialogue, in others not so much. In some fandoms I'm good at pastiching the tone of the source and in others...Not So Much.

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

If I had to pick a weakness, though, I'd say concrete imagery/detail. Like, the things that characters are physically doing either out of emotional reaction or just, they're doing something in that scene. Dialogue is usually easier (not sure if it comes out better, but it's easier).

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?  

I used to be mildly annoyed at it but! Now! On AO3! You can put a footnote by the French or whatever, so the reader can jump down to read a translation and then jump right back up. I now feel that if you choose to include dialogue (or any words) in another language from the rest of the story, this is the only acceptable method.

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I remember vaguely in 1996 or so writing a couple pages of Kit whump for the Young Wizards books. I wrote some execrable nonsense in X-Files, but in my defense I had just turned 13. I don't THINK I wrote anything for Star Trek, which was my first fandom. Oh, and I attempted to write fic for Homicide, which I watched in 7th and 8th grade and lied about my age to get onto the good mailing lists (they were actually the bad, racist mailing lists, I would later realize, but again I was 13).

20) What's your favorite fic you've written?

Sorry to disappoint anyone who follows me for Witcher content, but it's either "The absolute absurdity of end-series items" (House of Leaves) or "A quite unlosable game" (Dark Angel). They are both Big Idea fics, and I feel like in both of them I got the Idea across brilliantly, and I'm truly proud of them and think they're the best things I've ever made. (In terms of Witcher fic, it's the kidfic trilogy for sure.)

I am not going to tag anyone because that always makes me mildly anxious, but if you read this and you want to do it you can say you were tagged by me! :D? :D?

#meme

[catasstrophui]

I saw your post about the translation and the really messy pronunciation guide. do you think maybe it would help if a lot of people emailed seven seas or maybe a petition or something to explain why it's bad and hurtful and something as alternative.

I know it won't fix the hurt that's happened. but a chance for change might at least be something?

I cant have very strong feelings since I'm white and monolingual. but learning the pinyin(?) or the standard romanization of the words isn't very hard. people will pronounce the words however in their head. if they want to learn how to pronounce it isn't hard to look it up online. maybe if they even had like a qr to a video/audio of proper pronunciation would be better.

maybe even a mini guide to pronouncing words written like with the accents (or how you call the lines above some letters?)

idk I feel really disappointed at the translation team and I feel sad for the people hurt by it. If there's something that could be done to help then I want to help. it's too late to un-purchase for me (maybe a return, but I haven't recieved it yet and won't for a long while.) but I can live without buying the new books until they decide to fix the problem.

I know a lot of people were so hype for the English release but it's a bit of a bitter taste now.

sorry that's long and maybe super insensitive sounding. if there is maybe a way to help then I do want to help.

Thanks for reaching out! I do think writing to the publisher might help, if only to make sure that your voice is heard since the issue isn't just that the guide was upsetting for some native speakers and CN+diaspora people, it's also that new fans who are not CN native speakers will most likely have a rough time trying to learn how to pronounce the words using it.

I think your feelings are valid as well - I appreciate your consideration and awareness in this case because you're putting your trust in the books as a source of information about the media you like and then the information is wrong, even upsetting, which doesn't feel good.

The common standard romanization of CN words is called hanyu pinyin (汉语拼音) and the little marks on top (diacritics?) help to denote the four tones used in pronunciation. I have had a few people say that hanyu pinyin is not very intuitive for individuals coming from certain language backgrounds, and the thing is, it's never going to be easy learning a new language, especially one as notoriously difficult and so different from English as Chinese. Pronunciation isn't going to be easily summarized into a few pages, and I strongly recommend that anyone trying to learn how to say the words right use an audio guide or a language coach since there are many sounds in CN that don't have an easy equivalent in EN.

I wouldn't go so far as to pin blame on any specific parties involved in this, mostly because moving forward and fixing it would probably be better than finding someone to take responsibility for it! I've considered either removing the pronunciation guide pages or pasting over it with nice paper/just the names in CN then in hanyu pinyin if/when I do get the physical books, if you're into options for what to do with the books when you get them.

#ask #language and translation #fandom #chinese culture #mxtx #meta #mdzs #svsss #tgcf

[infinitestarsintheskye]

Writer Meme

I was tagged by the ever lovely @besidemethewholedamntime Thanks Rebecca! :)

What’s your all-time favourite ship? 

FitzSimmons, easily. I just love them so much and writing them is just easily one of my favourite things to do. 

How many works do you have on AO3? 

47, which bugs me because I really hate odd numbers. Need to actually write something and even it out lol.

What’s your total AO3 word count? 

369,771, most of which was written in the last 14-ish months. 

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? 

1. When I Kissed the Teacher (Steggy)

2. The Lady and the Chauffeur (FitzSimmons)

3. I’ll Always Be With You (Steggy)

4. Four (FitzSimmons) 

5. Our Love Lasts So Long (FitzSimmons) 

Do you reply to comments, why or why not?

 I always reply to comments! I treasure comments truly so much and I just like to show my appreciation to whoever took the time to write something about my work! I am usually good at replying fairly quickly but also I am terrible at leaving them for ages and responding to about 10 all in one go, partly because I love the ego boost of having a full inbox lol

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? 

Other People easily. But that wasn’t my fault, blame Sally Rooney. Plus I wrote a cute epilogue so it kind of cancels out. I cannot end with angst. I just cannot do it. I go with the Jane Austen motto that “My characters, after a little bit of trouble, will get everything they desire.” 

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? 

My The Lady and The Chauffeur verse by FAR. Absolutely not a flying chance in hell was I going to make that the same as the Downton Abbey canon. It’s been near enough a decade and I still cannot watch THAT episode. I watched it once, it broke me, I will not do it again. In giving FitzSimmons the most incandescent of happy endings, I vicariously gave Sibyl and Branson the ending that they deserved to have to, in my opinion. 

Do you write crossovers? 

Nope! Crossovers have never really been my thing, not even to read! I just cannot get into them for some reason. 

Have you ever received hate on a fic? 

Only once and it shook me to my very core. I responded rather diplomatically, in my opinion, as the commenter was taking issue with an enemies to lovers plot I had going on with FS and honestly responding made me feel more confident in my premise. I am, just because of that one stupid comment, really self conscious about that fic to this day, which is sad because it is based in something I love so much. 

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? 

I do! But I’m never very confident in it, for a myriad of reasons. I kind of chucked myself into the deep end with Other People and tried to push my boundaries out a little bit, which I think is always good as a writer. It was never anything deeply graphic but enough to warrant an E rating haha. I did write a couple of E rated fics after that, but again it was all fairly on the tamer end of an E rating in my opinion, and currently I don’t have any plans to write any more smut in the future. I only every tried to put it in if I felt it added something to the story. 

Have you ever had a fic stolen? 

Not that I’m aware of. I would hope that someone would tell me if they read something that they knew was mine. 

Have you ever had a fic translated? 

Nope! 

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not really, although Rebecca (@besidemethewholedamntime) did help me leaps and bounds with The Same Bewildering Dream, but I have never properly collaborated in the actual proper writing of a fic with someone before! I think it would be really fun though! hmu if you wanna collab lol. 

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? 

Sighs. I have been trying, for about a year now, to write a FS Pride and Prejudice AU and I just cannot seem to make it work. I really want to follow the same structure that P&P does and I just cannot seem to get these characters to fit into that world. It would be easy to just modernise it but I really REALLY want to do it regency style and it just isn’t working and it’s so frustrating because I have so many good ideas for it. 

What are your writing strengths?

I truly have no idea. If I had to say anything I think I’m good at writing emotions, trying to get across things that maybe aren’t specifically verbal, like anxiety and worry but also love (requited or no) and just internal things like that. That’s at least what I enjoy writing.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Speech and transitioning between scenes, and just like the little bits between dialogue. I will often go just big chunks of dialogue without adding anything inbetween because I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO SAY

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Absolutely go for it if you can! As some who is painfully monolingual I would not even try to attempt that myself unless I had someone who I could ask to translate something for me. I could maybe do phrases here and there but nothing bigger than that.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Oh god I don’t even remember. It was so long ago, on a long abandoned ff.net account that I made when I was like 12 or 13. If I had to say it was either, Harry Potter or Hunger Games. All terrible. All should probably never be read ever again.

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

Oh god. I have favourites but all for different reasons. I loved writing Our Love Lasts So Long because I just had such a clear image of it in my head and just knew where I was going with it the whole way through. I also really love The Lady and the Chauffeur because it was the fic that really just got me back into writing fic properly, it was my first ever long form-ish fic and I just beyond loved writing it and the reaction to it was just so warm and welcoming and it was just everything good and wonderful. Other People is also SO dear to me because it just got me through a really disgusting time in my life. My Grandad was very unwell with covid and sadly died as I was halfway through writing that fic and it was just my place to escape, it allowed me such a great amount of catharsis, I was just able to channel all of my feelings into that fic and I’m so grateful for that. It honestly kept me sane and level during that really god awful time and it just means the world because of that. I also just beyond love the story. Ever since I watched Normal People, I was just kind of waiting for someone to write a FS au of it because it just fit them so perfectly in my mind. Eventually I got bored of waiting and pulled a Thanos and just went “Fine I’ll do it myself.”. The reaction to that fic also just sent me to the beyond and I’m just so beyond grateful for all the love it received.

I willing tag (if they want to of course!): @nazezdha321 @kitthekazoo and @agentofship

#skye rambles

[rwoolley97]

Spanish Language, Dual Language Education, and Latinx Culture; The ties that bind

It's really sad for me that in the United States the Latino community is losing its culture and language, especially among kids born here - a lot of them can't even speak our language.     - Romeo Santos

This sentiment is not uncommon and yet, it is juxtaposed against the urgency that immigrant families feel for their children to learn English. Further, in the 1990s and early 2000s, there was an intense English only sentiment amongst many Americans, embodied in Proposition 227 in California, which literacy outlawed bilingual education in the public schools there for some 18 years, until it was repealed by Proposition 58 in 2016. At that time, people often expressed fears that children who came to the public schools speaking Spanish (or any language other than English) would grow up unable to speak English and unable to fully participate in the American Democracy. And yes, like in the quote, it was a fear not just of the Spanish language, but of the growing Latinx population in the United States (the examples of bilingual education nearly always were Spanish language programs).

By the year 2003, when I began to teach in a Dual Language program here in Sunset Park, the remnants of that anti-bilingual, anti-Spanish movement were still felt. However, Dual Language programs and a growing appreciation for bilingualism were beginning to bloom. I taught in one of a handful of Dual Language (Spanish-English) programs in New York City at that time, P.S, 24 in Sunset Park.

At P.S. 24, I interviewed Australia Fernandez, a long time Dual Language educator in New York. At the time, she was our Dual Language Coordinator and a powerful advocate for Dual Language education. I recently interviewed her to gain perspective on why she believes so strongly in Dual Language Education and how it has changed. You can listen to the full interview here.

Over the years, Australia has expressed to me a belief that Dual Language programs allow newly arriving Latinx kids to feel safe and welcome. Given the profound connection between language and culture, that is no surprise. Yes, being able to communicate is paramount to a child’s sense of belonging. And, that language is also a connection to our history, our families, and our heart.

Born in the Dominican Republic, Australia moved to Sunset Park in 1998. She was part of many waves of Dominicans who came to New York in what she describes as the chaos of the aftermath of the 31 year Trujillo dictatorship.

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart” – Nelson Mandela

“Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.” -Rita Mae Brown

When she arrived in Sunset Park, Australia was reunited with her mother after many years of separation and the experience was jarring. She describes being put into an English only class and how degrading it felt to her to be treated like a small child by her teacher after feeling so academically competent in the Dominican Republic. Fortunately, she was later transferred to a bilingual class and that experience was rich and exciting. Being able to learn and engage in Spanish made her feel safe. Her memories and the way she tells her story really help to walk in her shoes and see how meaningful it was for her to be able to experience school in both Spanish and English. The access to Spanish made English exciting and challenging, instead of alienating. As a teacher, I see this over and over in my students and their families as they participate in my Dual Language program.

Years later, Australia fell into Dual Language education. She taught for many years and she and other long time dual language teachers tell stories of school where Spanish was not welcome. Once Sunset Park principal was said to prohibit Spanish speaking in the school office.  Other educators tell stories of teaching students in Spanish behind the backs of administrators. This is hard to imagine today, when Dual Language programs are all the rage and Dual Language education is growing stronger every day among Latinx and non-Latinx families alike.

After 18 years of teaching in Dual Language programs in New York, I now find it ironic that the public fear was that children would never learn English, when in fact the opposite has been my observed, lived experience. In fact, over 18 years, never once have I seen a child fail to learn English. However, I have seen numerous children lose their Spanish, even as early as 2nd or 3rd grade, finding themselves unable to communicate fully with their immigrant parents. In our urgency to ensure that children learn English, we are sometimes taking away something critical to their well being and success - their connection to their parents and family. Even more ironically, there is endless research that shows that being dual language programs lead to more academic success for students (English or Spanish dominant) than a monolingual education.

More importantly, the tide has been turning and there is more appreciation today for the contributions of Latinx and Spanish speakers in the United States. Being bilingual, bicultural, and culturally proficient is viewed as an asset. Well, at least in our world here in New York City. Despite Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rhetoric and despite the fact that there is still a long way to go, the change in New York City around Dual Language Education has been great. This benefits my students and all New Yorkers.

To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture.        - Franz Fanon

[demerso3]

Regarding Language-learning

English is my native language. I don't say I'm "fluent" in English here because some of you in the comments section are probably joking about any grammatical mistakes in this post. Regardless, English is the language I'm best at, as difficult and sad as that may be to believe. I could not talk until I was five; perhaps this is a testament to how difficult the English language is to learn.

However, just because I was born into speaking the world's dominant language does not mean I haven't tried to learn others. Growing up I tried my hand at Spanish, and most recently, I've been learning Japanese. Now some of you in the comments are calling me a weeaboo, or otaku, or whatever.

Despite years of practice, I am fluent in neither, and am increasingly concerned that I will never be fluent as I grow older. From my understanding, it is much easier to learn a language when one is younger, given the neurology and malleability of the brain. Unfortunately, as time moves ever forward, the ability to learn a language wanes significantly.

Now, I will be the first to admit that there are things I could have done differently to improve my Spanish and Japanese studies, respectively (such as getting over nerves about public speaking, along with better study techniques). My perception is that I've picked up on Japanese more quickly than Spanish in part due to the fact that I could learn from mistakes I made when I was younger. However, I maintain that, given the knowledge I knew at the time, I was doing my best.

Similarly, if I could tell my younger self one thing, it would be to not care what other people think. Growing up in Texas, there were a lot of Spanish-speakers. Making a mistake in Spanish class was embarrassing (or at least, I perceived it as embarrassing) because my peers either already knew the language, or were picking up on it quickly. Laughs and chuckles would ensue, which was admittedly a blow to my self-confidence.

Speaking of which, it always seemed that I was slower to learn a language than my peers. Verb conjugations were always tricky for me. While it was "easy" (or for the more sophisticated, "intuitive") for my peers to tell the difference between "hablaron" and "hablaban," for me, it was anything but. Cumulatively, over time, I began to resent some of my bilingual friends, who I felt were gatekeeping the Spanish language by using a combination of peer pressure and destructive criticism to send a message that I was incapable of learning a second language. This has happened in my Japanese language-learning as well, though not to the same extent. Given that I am now older, the people who I hang out with are older as well. However, this “gatekeeping” still occurs, and it frustrates me when it does happen.

Perhaps most frustrating is when I see this happen to somebody other than myself. My good friend Caesar (I have changed his name here to protect his identity), fluent in both English and Spanish, was once stationed on the Sinai Peninsula as part of a UN Peacekeeping mission. Caesar quickly made friends with many of the Fijians who were stationed there as well. Caesar, being the intelligent and curious man that he is, was interested to learn more about the Fijian language. Members of the peacekeeping mission who were from Fiji were described as being “laid back,” and “jokesters,” but wanted to help Caesar learn more about the language - at least, ostensibly they did.

Caesar was told that to say “hello” in Fijian, you must say something along the lines of “bula bula tavale.” Now, from a quick Google search, it seems that “bula bula” is used as a common greeting across Fiji. People in the comments section can feel free to correct me or add on to this as needed. However, the “tavale” part is a little sketchy - the word gets into kinship and familial relations in a way that does not necessarily appear to be tied to the word “hello.”

Regardless, Caesar was assured he had learned the proper greeting for “hello” in Fijian. Caesar would eventually leave the military and, about a decade after his time on the Sinai Peninsula had concluded, went to a Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawai’i as part of a vacation with his wife. There they saw an exhibit on Fiji, being presented by, naturally, two Fijians. Caesar was excited to say “hello!” to these gentlemen in the Fijian language, and repeated the “greeting” he had learned years earlier.

The two men started laughing hysterically, and informed Caesar that he did not say “hello,” but in fact, asked permission to marry his sister. Caesar was embarrassed, and when he told me this anecdote, I was vicariously upset.

Here, Caesar had the opportunity to learn a piece of the Fijian language. It was a first-hand learning experience not afforded to many, and while the Fijians on Sinai were under no obligation to teach Caesar any part of the language, feeding him bad information is worse than declining to teach him at all. Instead of teaching him the proper way to say “hello,” the soldiers set Caesar up to fail, get embarrassed, and look like an idiot in the process.

Caesar’s story resonates with me, in that the tomfoolery showcased by the party that knows the language - and taking advantage of somebody who does not know the language - is but one reason why, generally speaking, I don’t look forward to studying languages like Spanish or Japanese.

And then, to top everything off, people have the audacity to get mad at people like me when we make a good faith effort to learn a new language, but simply “aren’t getting it.” Alternatively, critics of the monolingual say that learning a new language is “easy,” and question one’s work ethic in doing so.

To reiterate, I understand that, upon reflection, there are certain things I could have done to make it easier on myself to learn a second language. Furthermore, I plan to continue studying Japanese, and hopefully work up on my Spanish. I maintain that “society,” broadly defined, has made it unnecessarily difficult for me to learn a second language, and that there are other monolinguals - and even multilinguals - who feel the same way.

#language #linguistics

[kingbuckley]

I’ve been going through your Eddie/Spanish in fic posts and I have some thoughts lol. The funniest (and by funny I mean infuriating) thing about how non-latinx perceive us speaking Spanish is they have no conception of how actual, real bi/multi lingual people integrate 2+ languages into their speech. Like nobody throws in Spanish randomly for no reason. I don’t say “I’m caminando to the car” when “walking” will do the job just fine. Also only speaking Spanish when someone is horny/sad (1/2?)

(2/2) makes no sense??? Speaking as a Mexican who grew up in the US literally like Eddies character, speaking English is shown to be his primary way of communication with literally everyone outside his family. It wouldn’t make sense for him to switch ever unless the person he was mad at/horny for only spoke Spanish and even then it would be expected and not random. Literally the ONLY time me or my friends speaks Spanish randomly is if we (2/3 I guess now lol)

(3/2) of we A.) forget the English word and know everyone will understand/will be able to interpret it for us or B.) if we’re saying swear words sksjdk thats literally it, very few other times have we peppered in Spanish and it was never to make us sound “spicier” like some of these fic writers use it. Like maybe to other non-latinx ppl or monolingual ppl it sounds realistic but to the rest of us y’all sound like clowns and ur intent to fetishize the one main latino man on the show is gross

yah i’ve talked abt this soooo much but the shoehorning of spanish to be cute/sexy in fics is nasty and transparent 

#asks #salt tag #Anonymous

[ohmyoverland]

My biggest regrets in life probably have to do with not learning other languages when I was younger. What’s infuriating is that my parents are bilingual! But not culturally. So my only exposure to other languages was every once in a while when they decided to speak to me in Spanish or French, and as a little tiny toddler I got pissed because I thought they were making fun of me. I didn’t understand what they said so I thought it must be to hide something from me (because you know, parents need to hide kids from stuff sometimes). And I would insist they speak in English so I would understand.

And now I sit here, monolingual and sad and I have toddler me to thank for it.

#personal

[anarchotolkienist]

One of my teachers knew a bodach on the isle of Mull who was monolingual in Gaelic in the 1980. In the 1980s! He had been born and raised on a Mull where only Gaelic was spoken outside of the schoolhouse, and lived relatively isolated in his adult years with his (obviously Gaelic-speaking) brother as a shepherd, and hence, the years had passed him by without learning English, as Gaelic quickly vanished from the younger generations, leaving nary a trace. When my teacher talked to him, only the very oldest generation still had any Gaelic on that island, and it died out completely in the 90s. He obviously died more than 15 years before I was born, I don’t know his name nor have I seen a picture of him or anything, but I can’t stop thinking about him. How lonely it must have been, just how much the world managed to pass him by. Just how completely cut off he must have become from the entirety of his (former) world, a world that was defined on entirely different terms than the one he was forced to inhabit. How strange it must have felt, to be unable to communicate with anyone younger than you in your surroundings. Don’t know where I’m going with this it just makes me quite sad.

#Sorry for the ramble I just think it's incredibly sad to think about #Poor old sod #gaelposting #'s ann mu dheidhinn Gabhan a tha seo Fhaolan

[iamacoward-icannotchange]

Pouring the heart out.

I always try to be a good person and I constantly fail doing so. I’ve checked a million times if I am a sociopath or a psycopath because I am afraid of being one; I’ve made self introspection a million times to check my terrible behaviors. I’ve searched for an explanation, I’ve hated myself, I’ve confronted my fears; I’ve done so much shit, to yet, not be able to improve myself. Now, with the quarantine, it’s the only thing that has gone through my brain. Having nightmares every night is about to drive me insane; after months of always going to bed so tired that it was impossible to remember my dreams. Being away from where I grew up means I’m deprived from everything I at some point considered familiar (but not loved).

I’ve heard a lot of explanations... I’ve heard that my problems come from masculinity, from not being thankful enough, from being sexist and from an infinity of reasons that don’t seem to adapt to what I feel. In the end, everything sounds like my fault and as much as I try; there’s something inside me that can’t change...

The more and more I try to be better, the more problems I run into. I’m always a toxic friend, a bad student, a terrible boyfriend, a terrible brother and a terrible son to my mother. I tend to joke that I still live to finish graduate school; but it’s not an actual joke, I have fetishized that after having a successful career I’ll be able to separate from all this people I dissapoint. I even, in the end, decided to study something STEM-related to be able to make the amount of money I thought it was necessary to run away.

I write these words being absolutely aware of how aggressive and toxic I am; how my girlfriend and I are a complete shitshow of yelling, how before her I called a girl every time I was drunk expecting her to tell me she loved me, how I get angry at my friends as soon as they treat me like a stupid and especially I am incredibly aware of the things that I say when anxiety and anger overcome me. I know I’m a piece of garbage, avoid reminding it. And yes, I am also incredibly aware of my privilege of growing as a heterosexual white male in an upper middle class family from a third world country.

I just can’t forget one of my recurring nightmares during this time; one of the most sad and unfair scenes of my entire life, something I lived when I was probably around 11 or 12 years old (it’s not relevant). I already warn to the readers that the following lines might trigger some unexplored emotions and feelings.

My sister and I went to private school, a very well known and prestigious bilingual school in our country; this was a project of my dad, he wanted us to be successful people like him. Both of us assisted that school from our first school years to the last ones which in the end gave us a big step ahead in life; at a high monetary cost which my dad always paid gladly. The school was highly strict, since kindergarten and my parents had some trouble with the system since they were divorced and a lot of material from the school was in english and my mom is a monolingual.

I always was a troubled child, always trying to get attention from my classmates and teachers. I didn’t cause much trouble, but I had (and have) a very aggressive personality, which according to my parents is a bit unexplicable. I never had friends during kindergarten, nor during elementary school; I played Pokémon alone and started playing MMORPGs when I was around 11 because of this. During that time I also became addicted to reading, since my mom usually didn’t like me to go out with friends because I was problematic. Since I always got angry at my classmates because of offensive jokes and stuff, my mom constantly received calls from school becuse of my aggressive behavior.

I was also very aggressive to my sister. I always had mood swings and got very aggressive as soon as she pushed certain buttons. I am incredibly ashamed and I feel a huge amount of guilt because of this.

One day, most likely after a lot of problems from my side... My sister received an appointment with the kindergarten teacher. My mom came from work and saw it, after seeing it she started yelling like crazy. She usually sent us to bed at 8 pm and we had to keep our door open and avoid waking her up. The memory is blurry, but I was already in bed, I just remember seeing her and listening to her, going towards my sister’s room. She got in, kept yelling and my sister kept crying; I heard a couple of noises of my mom hitting her, she cried inconsolably.

After that, my mom called my dad and said he had to go to the appointment, because she wasn’t going to go through that shame and she was not going to ask for a day at her job. My dad, since he’s an great Dr. and academic (but even greater dad), had a more flexible schedule and were able to go. Days later I heard about the outcome of that appointment, it was an appointment that was sent to most parents; it was to speak about the development of the kid in the second language the school taught... I’ve never seen something so unfair in my entire life, she suffered just because my parents had to go to an appointment; my sister at that time was the most pure and innocent human being so far and I didn’t do anything. I probably even made it worse because of all the problems I had at school...

There’s not enough words to say sorry, sister. I’m sorry I was not able to do anything... I’m sorry for generating the trouble that made mom think that way. I’m sorry because I was aggressive...

I’m sorry sister... I was supposed to protect and do something you and I fucked up.

#sister #sorry #sad story #trigger #nightmare #true story #mom #en quarantaine #quarantine stories #anxienty #i hate my mom

[nordic-language-love]

People shit on English on langblr bc English is everywhere, it’s such a global language - smaller, lesser known languages are rlly popular on langblr - it also doesn’t help that most English speaking countries (uk, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA) don’t make it obligatory to learn multiple languages like the way continental European and Latin American countries do. But if you think about it English is a really cool language - it’s so quirky, easy, and expressive.

Honestly I understand the bitterness towards English - I know how awful monolingual English-speakers are when it comes to undervaluing other languages and cultures, and it’s got to be frustrating being expected to know a language that has nothing to do with your culture purely because it’s demanded by the world (and then having the effort you put into learning it written off because people expect everyone to know it). But it makes me sad seeing posts where people are like “oh you can’t be expressive in English the way you can in other languages it’s so restrictive” (definitely bullshit imo) or “English is so dumb because it doesn’t have X grammatical feature” or “ugh why do people think English is great it’s literally the worst language” and then you get full threads of people slagging off an entire language and it’s like, excuse me that’s my native language lol.

I’m not sure about smaller, lesser-known languages being really popular on langblr though - I think the majority of people I follow are learning German and at least one other language out of French, Russian, Japanese and Chinese, none of which are small or lesser-known! I know there are some blogs that make an effort to educate people about the smaller languages and languages that don’t get much recognition though, which is awesome.

#this has also reminded me i never got round to doing that linguistic diversity challenge wow i'm the worst #also i think whether it's easy or not is subjective #but it's definitely quirky and expressive!

[jasperlion]

Nonspoiler review for 3H:

Positives:

-> The story does change depending on which House you pick and while the first few chapters will only feature minor differences, a lot of them will play a key role in the future or will clear up events that happen on other routes and shed some light on the events before the game.

-> Further interaction with the characters will help flesh them out in ways that expand old mechanics like the 'Headquarters' mechanic in SoV and conversation mechanic in Tellius games. There's a lot of little things here and there that also help shed some light on the characters, their habits, their likes and dislikes, further expanding on them than other games did before.

-> You can interact with characters of the Houses you did not pick up to a point, and this makes them all both endearing and plays into what the game attempts to do for it's latter half. It also gives you additional context and lore. They also react to ingame events.

-> There's a lot to do and read about the world in which the game takes place, a lot of flavor text that gives you a bigger idea of what it's like.

-> There's a lot of architectural diversity and attention to the three countries the game focuses on, structures in each will look similar and share roots with real world counterparts, also differing from each other in that sense as well. It makes the world feel rich and varied rather than uniform.

-> There's also canonical artstyles from the world this takes place in in both their flags and other ingame 'sections', like the murals/frescos in Valentia or the flags in Tellius, and it's always neat in my book to see more of a fictional culture, especially its art.

-> A lot of lore!

-> Enough care went into the setup that even if the paths diverge the narrative feels cohesive enough.

-> A lot of old and new mechanics to the series add to the quality of life of the game, especially in combat, and it’s pretty innovative and ambitious with how you can build your group.

-> Supports are a real treat and the voiceacting just adds even more to it. A lot of them tend to delve into a character and their ‘typical’ traits as well as the root of it, which tends to make sense and makes the characters feel more human.

-> Diversity. Has its drawbacks, though. The monkey paw curled hard.

-> To do with the above: Some mlm and wlw content can be found in the game. It’s not perfect and I have my nitpicks, though, so be warned.

-> All three lords on the cover are varied and have their own individual motives, making them all feel fresh and welcome. 

Negatives:

-> The lore is paced in a way that’s hard to follow if you don’t know a lot of the names of the characters and their families, and how it’s chunked out makes it feel like a bunch of nonsense. You might feel very, very lost on the first playthrough, especially lore you find in textdumps.

-> The chapters are all fairly long and a slog to get through. While what you can do helps expand on the world and characters, a lot of this becomes rote and repetitive to do, and even at times overwhelming as more stuff becomes available. Even then, it manages to somehow feel stale.

-> Some of the choices in locale and army movement don’t feel like they make sense and should have been overhauled and changed. Not much can be elaborated upon because of spoilers, but on the latter half it generally feels like the movements of your group are strange. It makes sense if you know.

-> The plot on Lions and Deer feels rushed towards the end, or like the pacing has suddenly changed. It’s even more prominent in Lions due to the sudden and underdeveloped change in atmosphere as you approach the endgame, which makes it feel disjointed and your missions out of place with everything else. THIS IS BOTHERING ME A LOT.

-> Speaking of plot, there’s a blatant giant plothole near this turning point as you approach the Blue Lions endgame, and it’s been bothering me since.

-> Some events are made to draw your eye but don’t have a relevance beyond this chapter. This is particularly notorious in Lions and Deer, as they use the same ‘tiny twist’ that isn’t followed upon at the start of the latter half of the game. For those in the know: mission in satan’s asshole.

-> On some routes it feels as if you don’t pick certain class trees for your motley crew, you’re fucked.

-> A lot of the microaggressions and racism found in the game feel like they’re never properly addressed or dealt with, and at times feel like they’re just there to make the characters its towards and the player feel like ass. As you have no way to protest against it, it feels empty that it should even be present to begin with. I know they’re trying to show there’s a problem, but its presentation and lack of resolution are my issue with it.

-> A character who has trouble speaking the language of the country you’re in doesn’t seem to have a cohesive way to speak/stumble that makes sense, it feels like a bunch of traits from different esl speakers were dumped on there without consideration to linguistics and how different languages with different structures will affect how an esl speaker sometimes stumbles or code-switches while speaking. I know it’s likely not notable among the monolinguals, but as a multilingual... be advised. It is apparently an issue with the english translation, however, as the character only speaks in a paused manner as if thinking through what they’re about to say before speaking in Japanese. This is a more respectful interpretation.

-> I am sad that i got bait and switched on something :( I don’t want to say more than that, though.

-> A White Man Is Angry And Violent And In Power And It Terrified Me For Various Reasons, Fellow POC (And Maybe White Women/NB Folk) Will Understand.

-> The final battle in GD, and a lot of the route battles in general after a certain point, don’t feel like they mesh with the general message of the route, making the finale feel a little less... thematically tied with it, I guess? Eagles and Lions avoids this, though, as both have a lot to do with the themes of their respective routes.

-> Grinding felt like a chore (I was support grinding, the level grind is fairly simple, but some might need to grind for money and supports... and overlevel as a result). It’s less possible to grind on higher difficulties too, but I think it’s fairly valid. I did have to grind a lot on Blue Lions for this reason, but it was my own mistakes I was paying for as well as my completionist nature, so this point is, uuuh... depends on the person and how they play.

-> Tying to the above, the maps felt less novel the more I had to go through em to grind and hhhhhh

-> It’s uncomfortable how the characters in the game keep drawing comparison to the slaughter of a whole people to that of just the royal family and guards as if they have the same gotdamn weight. The people who got slaughtered are all POC.

-> Another group of POC are often made out to be barbaric/etc and it makes me uncomfortable lol. You could argue the same for another group, too.

-> This one character is meant to be uncomfortable and overzealous and I think it’s cool but it makes something in me shudder in horror. I recognize it’s a Me problem.

-> There’s this white savior thing x2 and I want to dead. I’ve lost all means to say this eloquently. It makes a lot of things very uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable.

-> I should stop with the wholeass thing with the racism but it bothers me a lot that a black kid aged 18 looks like they’re 22 in their artwork because it feeds to the all too common stereotype and oh my god I love the character but why would they do that to them...............

Final judgement: 5/10, I’m never going to -censored spoiler-

Thoughts: 

It’s not a terrible game, and while I did harp about a lot of stuff, it’s pretty good in it’s setup ad most of its development. In some parts, it fell short, but it is overall an ambitious project that did what it set out to do and would have definitely felt a lot more enjoyable if I didn’t feel pressured to finish ASAP so people didn’t spoil the experience for me (and, spoilers, they did anyway :) ). I feel I might be a little too harsh on it because of how negative my experience was around this game and how hard it was for me to pick up and replay it to see everything, so please take this with a gigantic spoon of salt.

#[ wulf speaks ] #[ tbd ]

[harryandlouisarehappilystrong]

So my roommate's first language is Spanish and all her friends and family speak only Spanish and I feel so awkward and uncomfortable around them because I can't communicate with them or understand them at all so I mostly just hide in my room whenever they're around because I know I can't ask them to speak English around me, I just feel bad that my dumb monolingual ass can't really interact with them and participate, and I don't want to seem standoffish or rude I just... I can't speak Spanish. This makes me so sad.

#personal #I hope this doesn't offend anyone #i'm sad now