#these are all different variations of basically the same sound and I fucking like it

[arthur-r]

genuinely how does someone succeed in college when you’re so terrified of being incorrect or looking stupid that you can’t even say anything to begin with???? i was trying to go into this year brave and everything but i’ve already been laughed at multiple times by a class full of people older and scarier than me and i already feel like i’m being judged and underestimated for so many reasons that i don’t want to give anyone another reason to look at me that way. but it’s gotten to the point (in the less than one week that classes have been in session; maybe it’s always been at the point) where i’m failing to submit assignments because i know that my teacher is going to see it and think i’m stupid, and never listen to me again, and i’m going to lose all the credibility that i’m trying so desperately to hold onto. and i know from a logical standpoint that it’s the teacher’s job to meet people where they’re at and lift them up from there, but honestly is that much even true anymore?? isn’t college about figuring out who has what it takes and who is going to get left behind???? why did i enroll in fucking honors classes of course i can’t do this???? i’m really not feeling well and i stayed in tonight and missed dinner and i miss home and i miss being able to talk to my friends and not be actively ruining my future. i feel like i’m always good until i’m not, and i don’t realize i need help until i’m too far in and by the time i get it, i won’t need it anymore but i’ll have ruined everything back when things were worse. i’m isolating from my roommate (who hates me because he thinks i hate him) and losing every friend i’ve started to make at the same time as i’m losing all the real friendships that i already have. and my roommate is across the room right now as i’m quietly fucking crying. and i want to go home and i want to be safe. and why is everything so unfamiliar and simple and wretchedly complicated.

#im really not feeling well. i want to go home and im not used to that at all #i miss my little sister. i miss my teachers and i miss my friends. im not used to this #what prompted all of this: i was trying to do my linguistics homework and i made it about an hour in coming up with faulty hypotheses #and i realized that far of the way through. that the only dialects i’m fucking familiar with are all fucking variations of north central #‘whoa somebody talks similar in anchorage as they do in taylor’s falls?? it must signify a deep linguistic thread traceable over generations #they’re just both right next to fucking canada???? of course they fucking sound similar???? the fact that i don’t know anyone from the east #or the south and even the people i know in the west are still the same fucking thing we all talk the fucking same #i know village english that’s a little fucking interesting but it’s not like i have any INSIGHT i don’t KNOW anything!!!! #told my french teacher i’m learning latin he asked me if it’s fucking ecclesiastical because once you’re in college it’s just normal i guess #i just feel like. yes i’m here because some part of me stood out from my peers. but in this group of special people?? i’m nothing!!!! #so i’m really struggling. and i want a hug and i wish things were different. i want to be here but i don’t feel like i deserve it #and i’m not going to get anything done if i keep feeling like this #i dont know. i hope everyone is doing well. sorry for the extra stress it’s just really difficult and strange #i hope everyone has a good night - i’m heading to bed soon #me. my post. mine. #friends only #vent cw #delete later #and everyone here speaks fcuking MANDARIN or something and all of a sudden my five years of french feels fucking basic. #kids who have been in advanced programs since birth. the imposter syndrome is fucking PALPABLE!!!! i want to go home and i want to forget #okay i’m done. im done!!!! everything is fine. hope everyone is well

[lady-of-disdain]

So I just wanted to give an update that chapter 21 is coming along slowly but surely. I'm struggling with a bit of writer's block, and also the pacing for the next chapter. It's either going to be one REALLY long chapter or two shorter chapters. We shall find out, but either way, you'll get it all pretty shortly.

For now, spite about something happening in the fandom has inspired me to write a 'Killer is trans' drabble (along with Moony's fantastic 'Skeletons are trans' post.)

So enjoy a silly drabble under the cut and fuck transphobes.

Most of the deep conversations you and Killer had were over meme origins, conversations about show plots, and videogame strategy. Not that you didn't enjoy these kinds of conversations, but at this point in your relationship you wondered if you were both supposed to be having those deeper, meaning-of-life types of conversations.

Cuddling on the couch one day you finally get to have one of those conversations. As Killer lays in your lap and you brush your nails gently over his cranial sutures you somehow end up down a very interesting, and enlightening train of thought.

"all skeletons are trans actually."

"I mean, aren't all skeletons basically the same guy?" you ask.

"well, yeah, i mean all the skeletons you've met are different variations of one guy, though there is also his brother and different variations of him as well, but beyond that skeletons, as a subspecies of monster, are all born genderless and transition to whichever gender they feel like as they grow."

You are beyond fascinated, and for once getting information about Killer and his various alternate forms across the multiverse so you nod along exhuberantly and motion for him to go on.

"i mean i guess you could say that about all monsters, though with skeletons it's a little more obvious because baby bones are just that - bones."

"So you woke up one day and decided 'boy'?" you ask.

"eh, kinda. i mean i always felt like a boy in some way, though i did go through a 'girl phase', but that felt more like trying it on before i settled. and gender is funny sometimes, even though i'm mostly happy where i am, sometimes i feel different."

"That sounds very similar to a lot of human experiences," you muse.

"i must admit i do look good in a dress," Killer adds smugly.

You still for a moment, suddenly picturing Killer in a red, sparkly dress. Definitely something Jessica Rabbit would wear. Maybe even with a pair of ecto-breasts to fill it out.

"spacing out over there bunny?" he interrupts your fantasizing with a knowing smirk, turning around in your lap to straddle your hips. "something on your mind?"

You feel a very nice pair of somethings pressing into your chest where Killer leans against you, and your face lights up. How is he always so good at reading your face?

#undertale #undertale fanfiction #undertale multiverse #utmv #killer sans #killer x reader #poor little meow meow #plmm

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

Ppl are (understandably) upset abt fae shit taking over YA/NA romance but I think getting mad at the very concept of fae and why it's popular won't really do much. Mainly because the "fae" we see in popular books are just the same flavor of guy, with minor variations based on author appeal. The "fae" are no different from the vampires back in the Twilight ripoff era (in fact they can be traced all the way back to Twilight itself), they're just using a different word for that specific flavor of Straight Romance Guy and his associated tropes, which is what you're really mad at.

Usually the main fae guy is a bigstrong man, there's some sort of mating system, potentially some gender essentialism, and everyone's a model. It's a generic but "appealing" (to mostly straight women) enough concept that it can be pretty much anything you want it to be, all while tapping into that high fantasy/"political intrigue"/enemies-to-lovers buzzword soup. I think the only reason this trope is specifically called fae and not elves is because you want to be darker and edgier, and elves have a cultural association with being more ethereal and sexless. So we have these guys, who are really just the same guy, who are really just elves who fuck, and we call it fae because it sounds more mysterious and, well, fey than elves.

(It could also be argued that fae and elves are the same guy also, but most girlies are not ready for that conversation.)

I think it's understandable that it became this way, as the concept of "fair folk" exists across different cultures and has fewer set rules compared to Tolkien/D&D elves. It has a bigger and more varied pool of inspiration for writers to take ideas from. However, instead of actually taking ideas from any folklore, a lot of the current fae shit is just repackaged vampire/werewolf stuff: these are guys who are better than you, they have superpowers, they fight and fuck like animals, and they claim your weak human body with their bites, and the ultimate upgrade is becoming one of them. It's the same old shit under a different name.

The reason it feels like an epidemic is because smaller authors are just cribbing shit from the bigger ones and using the same names for the same guys, the same tropes, the same plots. Like "oh this made me horny, so I'll just repeat it!" and this echo chamber has begun spawning its very own lore and mythology, and newer authors are assuming that this is based on real folklore and not some woman's personal wank bank, and don't bother to check because this is good and made them horny, so why change what works? Like, I've legit seen authors claim that SJM didn't invent fae mating because "it's part of the original mythology." Which, to be very clear and admirably restrained, is not the case. SJM didn't invent mating, but it's not becuse it's "original folklore." It's just the same old stuff but with a different name, and unfortunately, the fair folk and associated folklore is a lot more vague than, say, werewolves or vampires, and that's why these tropes are now becoming "canon" lore.

We've basically taken a vaguely defined existing concept, slapped its name on the old paranormal romance tropes of yore, and because there's no cultural understanding of fae the same way there was vampires, there's no "vampires don't sparkle" pushback, and we've begun adopting a few women's fetishes as the Universal Truth, and that's the part you hate. The part where it's the Same Guy again, but he's wearing a different hat.

And while I get why you'd be tired of this shit specifically (I am also tired), I think to dismiss fae in general is like dismissing vampires back when Twilight was popular. It's a type (or types, rather) of supernatural creature that has a rich history across cultures and it's a well of inspiration for writers that has been used before and will be used after. I think to blanket-dismiss the concept of fae in a book is counterproductive. You want to encourage writers to tap deeper into that well if you want that generic samey-ness to go away. What you want to dismiss are the tired tropes that are forced on otherwise interesting folklore/mythology that's open to endless different interpretations.

At the same time, I do fully understand why wouldn't want to do that, because as much as writers like to complain that readers just don't get their flavor of unique, sometimes there's just not a lot to get. It's the same fucking guy, girlies. You wrote the same guy again! To find one unique and interesting take on the fae, you have to sift through a thousand of That One Guy, and it's just not worth it.

(There are also and will always be really cool books about fae that aren't romance as well, but I'm specifically talking abt romance because it's infested with fae shit right now and I get it. I really do get it, I get both sides of the issue. I'm part of the problem, I wanna see cool fae shit with romance so I keep reading them, but it's the same guy again, so I'm writing my own, but it might be the same guy again because I'm also braindead!)

Anyway, I look forward to years from now when fae get their renaissance and we get wacky and interesting takes on them. First we had Twilight, now we get What We Do in the Shadows. First we got ACOTAR, and eventually we'll get ... ??? We'll see! We can only go up from here!

#fae books #anti sjm #anti tog #anti acotar #fae #fair folk

[fvrxdrm]

emails i can’t send

pairing: musician!leon kennedy x musician!f!reader

tag(s): friends to lovers, angst to fluff, based on sabrina carpenter’s album of the same name

warning(s): angst in the beginning, mentions of break up (not with leon tho i promise), very self-indulgent :]]], like, i’m deadass serious, the middle part’s solely dedicated to valorant (i’m sorry) to the point where i feel like most people reading this wouldn’t understand a single thing on that part. i’m addicted to that game at this point

songs used in this fic: lonesome, feather, bad for business

word count: 2322

*****

If I fall in love with all my problems, will they leave me too?

You leaned back onto the bed frame as you scribbled words on the page. The room was dimmed and bestrewed with crumpled and torn-up papers. On them was a collection of lyrics and doodles, all scrapped and erased with different variations of squiggles and lines across them. You looked out the window. The storm was still swirling outside, you could see how the rain was being pushed towards the direction the wind was taking them along with the trees holding strong against the puddled ground. Droplets of water were looking pretty gliding across glass like a bunch of tiny branched-out rivers heading down towards the pool on the windowsill. The mood was just right for you, perfect for an angsty and lonesome song to be written under the flashing lights of the occasional lightning.

Or maybe I believed in all your lies 'cause I believed in you

Downstairs you could hear Leon experimenting with different chords on his guitar, falling flat with the strings from time to time. You even found yourself giggling at the amount of times you heard him growling in frustration when he couldn’t get the tone and the transitioning of the sounds right, or when he forgot which chord to play next.

“Fucking dumbass fingers!” 

Your smile slowly faded as your gaze fell back on your notebook. You thought about which words to write down, spinning the pen through your fingers while doing so.

Why were you somewhere else when you were next to me?

I know you know it keeps me up

Did you think about her face with your hands around my waist?

Did you even give a fuck?

You convinced yourself you were over it, over him, over that mess of a love affair that was basically just narcissism and manipulation born as one human. You’d recognized the red flags, even had you and your best friend, Leon, tag him with the nickname ‘code red’ whenever you passed by him. Still, you couldn’t keep the conflict within you that made you so gullible to your insecurities from fighting against your self-worth. You were still in the process of rebuilding that trust towards yourself, still in the process of pushing away any remnants of love that made you feel so violated. But, how were you going to forget him when you kept overthinking all that had happened? How were you going to forget loving him when you kept grasping onto the ‘what if’s? 

As Leon had said, “You don’t miss him, you miss what he could’ve been.”

This was hopeless, this was ridiculous. You felt so close to finding yourself, but sometimes you’d fall back into old habits like an addict falling back into vices and argue with yourself over the dumbest things. You were falling back into painting vivid pictures of what he saw in you and washing away the good that he didn’t see in you.

As you were drowning in your thoughts, three knocks against the wooden door brought you back to reality. It was Leon with his guitar in hand, looking like a happy golden retriever that just found the ball he’d lost in the garden a few days ago.

“I think I got the perfect sound for your next song,” he said after plopping down on your mattress with his guitar positioned on his lap. “Really? Go on then. I can probably draft the next verse once I hear it.”

“Okay so, I got inspired after playing RDR2 yesterday, and I was thinking we could use some yeehaw feel for the track,” Leon shifted to a more comfortable position on the bed, scrunching the comforter below him even more. He strummed his guitar once to get a feel of the strings before pressing his fingers on them to play the chords.

The sound was beautiful, balancing between being ever so light like the pitter-pattering of the rain, and being heavy like the storm and the darkness smothering the sky.

You can't spell "lonesome" without "me"

And there's no hope in misery

I can't escapе your history, oh

You can't spell "lonesome" without "mе"

You just can't

*****

I slam the door, I hit ignore

The world felt balanced for a moment, cloudy skies filtering the sunlight and making it soft as the wind dashed every few minutes. It was like mother nature felt mushy and shy, yet loud and confident all the same. Perhaps like the fluttering of your heart, so full of joy, and the devilish assertiveness overheating your body as you continued to shit on these fucking kids trying to ego-peek you and your trusty sniper. 

Breathe in, breathe out… You’re getting your ace, little angel.

Calm, cool, collected Y/N… So relaxed yet sturdy like a cloudburst circling around with the leaves.

Your hand was steady while clicking head after head, a bunch of pixels running and trying to gun you down for hours. “Too warmed up,” they said. “Heat up!” Leon screamed through the comms. You’re cracked… L Diablo… SEN ElevenZ… An amalgamation of hype and torn vocal cords ringing from your headphones and into your ears. “I’m shaving my head if you ace clutch this,” another rando commed as the in-game announcer’s voice was heard.

“Last player standing.”

You spammed your A and D keys while peeking every tight corner you turned to, jump peeked at every possible sniper angle the enemy Jett could be holding, slicing your pie as the pros would call your careful peeks. Nobody said a word, but if you had to guess, Leon must have been clenching his ass cheeks just waiting for you to either lose the final round or tie the game 12-12 and bring it to overtime. Your cheeks were beginning to heat up with nerves, also could feel your hands sweat even more. Why do ranked games have to feel like this?

I got you blocked

After this, an afterthought

I finally cut you off

You voiced your anxiousness to Leon, “I’m fucking nervous, dude. We might actually lose our RR,” you bit your lip while still jiggling behind screens. “You got this, little angel. I believe,” Leon whispered back into the mic as he sipped on his boba tea. You took a step one click at a time and took a shot with your rifle just to be certain with clearing your corners. You were sure the enemies knew where you were by now because of that shot, so you had to make a move, and fast. You smoked yourself with your Cloudburst behind screens to isolate the Sage peeking by default, promptly head- shotting her before Updrafting onto rafters to reposition yourself to a high ground, but not before losing 40 HP from a responding body shot.

1v4

You saw the Reyna jiggle peeking maze while shooting one bullet at a time. By the third peek, you got yourself a quick headshot to punish her. This, in turn, gave you your Tailwind back.

1v3

You activated your Tailwind as well as your Blade Storm ultimate so you wouldn’t have to deal with the inaccuracy of your Vandal while moving about. You checked your flank when you noted that nobody was on site to trade the Reyna, and sure enough, the enemy Jett was shift-walking with an Op like a fucking idiot. Like, why separate from your teammates and give your one enemy a 1v1? In a 1v5? Hello? This is a high elo lobby??? Anyway, despite your nerves, you shot a knife to the Opper’s head before she could do a quick scope and dashed back onto site to look for your fourth kill. 

1v2

“You’re actually gonna fucking win this?” 

“Oh my fucking god, I’m actually gonna shave my head.”

Then, Leon whispered into your party comms again, “I believe in you, heal yourself.” You lost your focus for a moment, pursing your lips as you tried your hardest not to laugh, “I fucking hate you so much.”. 

You found your fourth just as you Updrafted onto top site, and now, it was down to…

1v1

“Holy fuck! I’m actually losing my fucking hair!”

You played a cat-and-mouse game with the final enemy once you dropped below top site, aware of the time running out. You activated your dash one last time and dodged bullets while you ring-around-a-rosied on site. Then finally, as the ticking of the bomb began to quicken, you took advantage of a momentary opening and landed a final headshot to the enemy, dashing hurriedly towards the spike to defuse it. 

“Nah”

“Wait, you’re actually cracked???”

“I’m losing my hair!”

You let out a breath of relief once you saw the defused spike’s animation. “Bro, I’m never doing that again. I hated every single second of that.”.

I feel so much lighter, like a feather, with you off my mind

Floating through the memories like, whatever, you're a waste of time

Leon replied, “I told you, you could do it. Actually VCT-ready. Witewwy.”.

“Witewwy?”

“Witewwy.”

After that, the tension was turned up even more between your teams, trading round after round until…it was Leon’s time to clutch the round and win the game.

“If I win this, you have to go on a date with me,” Leon commed once again in your party voice chat, now feeling like your nerves were resettling in him. It was supposed to be a light-hearted joke, something not foreign to your dynamic, but then, “Sure, I’m down,” you shrugged with your arms crossed. You sounded too nonchalant for his liking, you just had to be unserious…right? He just had to make sure, “You serious?”. You responded, “Yeah, I’m dead-ass serious. If you clutch this, I’ll go out with you on a date, kiss you good night, then end up fu-”

“Alright, I’m clutching this.”

Your signals are mixed, you act like a bitch

You fit every stereotype, send a pic

With newfound confidence and determination, he activated his Empress, gaining higher fire rate, quicker ability activation, and more healing from his Devour, all while having his powers strengthened. He blinded one of the enemies with his Leer to create a distraction, catch them off guard with his Vandal, and quickly finish them off. He then repositioned using his Dismiss to evade incoming fire and avoid detection by the remaining enemies, all while his ult automatically replenished his health before preparing for his next engagement. 

With one enemy remaining and time running out, Leon faced the last enemy guarding the spike. He utilized his one Leer to disorient the player before dispatching him with a meticulous shot, and Dismissed off to defuse the spike before it exploded. And just in the nick of time, he won the round for his team and secured the game victory, as well as the additional RR.

“Welp, we’re off for the weekend.”

I feel so much lighter, like a feather, with you out my life

With you out my life

*****

The moon hung high in the sky, casting a silvery glow that washed over everything in its path. The stars twinkled like scattered diamonds, their brilliance illuminating the darkness with a celestial radiance.

The city was enveloped in a serene stillness, broken only by the gentle rustle of leaves in the breeze. The shadows danced and swayed, as if performing a silent ballet, adding an air of mystery and intrigue to the scene. The darkness was deep and impenetrable, creating an otherworldly atmosphere that seemed to hold secrets waiting to be discovered.

We look good in photographs

I like the way you like to laugh at dirty jokes

I know they'll always land

Used to get work on time

But now you're taking up my nights

Never been so glad to be so tired

Leon went downstairs to grab a glass of water, when he heard a faint sound coming from the living room. Following the sound, he found you slumped over your writing table, your notebook open in front of you, fast asleep. He couldn't help but smile at your peaceful expression and the sight of your creative process in action.

As Leon approached you, he noticed that the song you had been writing was about him. His heart skipped a beat as he read the lyrics that spoke of his charisma, his means to take up your nights, and the way he had inspired you. He felt a surge of warmth and happiness knowing that he had made such an impact on you.

Ooh, I'm mad for you

It's sad but true and I know it

Ahh, you're on my mind

You stole my life and it's showin'

Carefully, Leon picked you up, cradling you in his arms, and carried you to your bed. He tucked you in, admiring your beauty even in your sleep. He couldn't help but feel a deep affection for you, not just as a collaborator and a friend, but as someone who had captured his heart.

He thought back to the open notebook, a smile tugging at his lips. He made a mental note to talk to you about the song in the morning, eager to hear more of what you had written. Leon realized that this unexpected moment had given him a glimpse into your heart, and he couldn't wait to see where your music and your connection would take you both.

With a contented sigh, Leon left the room, grateful for the serendipitous encounter that had brought him closer to you some years ago, the talented musician who had captured his heart. Little did he know that this would be the beginning of something truly special, a journey of music, love, and endless possibilities.

He's good for my heart but he's bad for business 

Tears me apart when he grants my wishes

All of my friends think I've gone crazy

But they don't know me like my baby

#leon kennedy x reader #leon kennedy #resident evil x reader

[spotsupstuff]

Did the other continents also have bootleg iterators like what happened with Abet Zephyrus? Or did they eventually get the design from the original ittie designer guys? Did any of them see the idea with Itties and make something different but with the same concept?

HMMMM -pulls up the map- let's say yes to the first question so Zephyr isn't all that special about it- sounds like it would've happened at least a few times, right

let's say that This group has done it (still the same continent but yanno), the ones with Butterflies in it. this group turned the faulty Iterator off n eventually rebuilt it

then one of these just cuz i find it funny that one of the Australian groups would've done dumb shit like that

what if they did it fucking Twice and ONCE they actually somehow managed to make that thing work well TOO. the most bizarre fucking thing ever cuz why not. it's australia

but yes, eventually the proper designs were sold to all continents. they then erected the Root Signals which then hold Two names- one name for the Iterator cahoot (like The Children of Eo) and a name for the Ancients/The Colonies (Aeolus Council of Iterator Colonies)

hmmm.... probably nobody went in the way "i was inspired by the idea of Iterators and made my own different thing" but there have definitely been variations and such that could've spawned in an almost adjacent way! they got their hands on the original plans and started changing things up until the product would be something different to the eyes but at the core it's still An Iterator

this dead group to the East of Butterflies' colony might've been the special kind since even durin the Ancient times it would've been largely made of water

the biggest group (or at least with the biggest reach), the one of The Creeping Ocean, was bound to be full of oddities as well!

but mostly people would stick to the official plans of the Generations, especially when it comes to the structures. those things are stupid giant and take a lot of minds to come together to create them in a basically foolproof manner

#Spot says stuff #rw #oc tag #i have NEVER written or seen Zeph's name as ''Abet Zephyrus'' god DAMN #we have the Sparrows believers who call Euros Caper cuz of her #and then we have You the first Boreas believer GKDLSJGLKSDLKC #'thats not a fucking ''Zephyr'' thats a whole goddamn ''Zephyrus'' you idiots' - Boreas n u now apparently im so proud #anyway yeah because of the unimaginable size of the iterator structures messing and changing the plans would be seen as unwise #u make one wrong calculation with One goober n it can all either blow up or we have Zephyr the second

[inbarfink]

An Extremely Eleborate Analysis of the Hebrew Translations of Aziraphale Saying Fuck

Okay, one challenge in translating things into Hebrew that many people, including some Hebrew speakers don’t consider, is swear words. Because, like, it’s not as if Modern Hebrew is unfamiliar with the concept of swearing… it’s just that most of our swear words are loan words. Primarily from languages such as Yiddish, Arabic, Russian and English.

And that’s kind of a problem for what’s supposed to be a translation. The typical expectations from a Hebrew Translation is that it’ll minimize the use of loan words and Gratuitous English that often slips into actual Modern Hebrew speech. This usually limits the amount and variety of swear words the translator can use.

To bring it back to Good Omens, specifically the famous Aziraphale Says Fuck scene:

------------

In the 2006 translation, both instances are translated as ‘Zayin’.

As a noun it means ‘penis’ and you can also turn it into a verb meaning ‘sexual intercourse’. This is basically the crassest swear word in Modern Hebrew (including loan words, which are generally considered slightly tamer than Hebrew Words. For example, ‘shit’ is also a swear in Hebrew but it’s use is more equivalent to ‘crap’ in English. While ‘Khara” is considered the Hebrew equivalent to the use of ‘shit’ in English) - So ‘Zayin’ is really the most direct translation you can have for ‘Fuck’ in Modern Hebrew.

(For those how know a bit of Hebrew, yes, this word is also the seventh letter of our alphabet. I don’t have time to go into the etymology right now but the short version is that Modern Hebrew is like some sort of Bizarro Timeline where people used the term ‘F-Word’ so much that it because the actually crass swear and ‘Fuck’ became it’s tamer euphemism)

Anyway, yeah, “Zayin” should be the perfect translation to “Fuck”, but the problem is:

It’s used both times, and in the exact same way, removing the element of escalation from the sequence.

The manner in which “Zayin” is used is… kinda clunky.

Cause while “Zayin” is really crass, and while “Zayin” can be used to mean ‘intercourse’… it’s not really used as an exclamation in the way Aziraphale uses it

“Zayin” and it’s variations are generally used as part of a longer sentence or phrase. I have never seen or heard anyone exclaim “oh, Zayin!” outside of, well, overly-literal translations of English-language media. So as a translation choice, it takes the reader out of the story and make the dialogue feel very unnatural.

Meanwhile the 2020 translation tried to address it in a very creative way. Which I... applaud on a conceptual level, but I’m not quite sure it worked.

So the notable thing about 2020 Hebrew Aziraphale is that he uses a lot of strange, old-timey exclamations. And outside of just characterizing Aziraphale farther (since not all of the peculiarities of his speech can be preserved in a direct translation) - it seems to be trying to emphasize the point of Aziraphale not swearing by making his exclamations so stuffy. And it also tries to build to the Aziraphale Says Fuck scene in a different way, because the way it was translated is, well…

Okay, so this:

Was translated as “eiyzeh Khara!” - a n exclamation that means something like “what shit!” or, more naturalistically, “oh, shit!”. So this line now sounds more like an actual Hebrew speaker actually swearing - but the swear was also downgraded quite a bit. Like, you know, a big part of the impact of Aziraphale Says Fuck is that is ‘Fuck’.

But the real problem comes a few lines before that.

Which was translated as ‘lekol hashedim!’. Literally it means something like “to all the demons!” - or more accurately probably something along the lines of “damn it”.

But it is a very very tame exclamation. Like, not really swearing or profanity in any way. I knowthat in Hebrew the line between tame swears and simple exclamations is a little blurry. And I understand that part of the point of Aziraphale’s strange old-timey exclamation is to try to paint him as someone who’s definition of a swear is on the strict end of that spectrum. It’s almost an added joke for the translation, the idea of Aziraphale thinking of ‘lekol hashedim!’ as a swear.

But, yeah, even under that lens, it’s a bit too tame for that joke to work. I mean, I’m pretty sure you can say “lekol hashedim” on Sesame Street with no problem. Why would Aziraphale even consider the word for ‘demon’ to be profane when he talks with a demon about demons for pretty much this entire book? (It’s not like Original English Aziraphale avoids words like ‘damn’ or ‘hell’ or anything). If a phrase was used on a goddam official Loud House comic book translation I’m pretty sure it can’t count as a fucking swear!

So while the 2020 translation is better at preserving the escalation and is a lot more naturalistic, a lot of the edge of the gag is lost when one swear is considerably tamer than the original English and the other one isn’t even a swear in any sense of the word.

Now, I don’t have the magic solution as to how to perfectly translate that sequence. “Zayin” is the best match for “Fuck” - but using it on its own as an exclamation is pretty clunky and, like, if you use a longer expression that uses ‘Zayin’ it will really mess with the pacing and even the contents of the scene (like you can have Aziraphale shout the equivalent of “fuck you!” at Shadwell but I don’t think that’s what the scene is going for).

The best I can come up with is maybe using “khara” for the first instant and just using “fuck” (as in the English loanword ‘fuck’) for that second time. Which is more-or-less what the show's Hebrew Dub did. I mean it’s not ideal because outside of the general discussion about gratuitous English in translation (there’s precedence. Crowley uses ‘shit’ a couple of times in the 2020 translation) ‘fuck’ is slightly less crass in Hebrew compared to English (like I said, original Hebrew words are usually considered harsher than their loanword counterparts. I use 'fuck' all the fucking time but I honestly feel a bit uncomfy with how many times I typed out 'zayin' in this essay lol). But it would still be, like, the second biggest swear word and that’s still something??

#good omens #good omens book #translation #aziraphale good omens #aziraphale #good omens aziraphale

[borisbubbles]

Eurovision 2023 PRESHOW - part 3: the Borewhores

Time for my favourite part of any ranking - the songs that make me feel absolutely nothing. Hooray! These songs aren’t bad, but I don’t care for them. There a place for their entries at ESC, and that place is NOW!!! Bask in the glory of the grotesquely average! Or as I affectionally call them: the boring cunts. 

29. ITALY Marco Mengoni - “Due vite” Autoqualifier 

Whoever reads “Borewhore slaughter” in a BorisBubbles write-up thinks there will be an Italy write-up in the mix. Your thinking is once again correct! 😁

I don’t fucking know what to say about Italy anymore. I honestly feels like they’ve achored themselves down to send male-fronted mid-range emotional ballads, each new one just as dull and insipid as the previous one. L’essenziale, Fai rumore, Brividi, what’s the fucking difference, honestly? I’d say it’s the same old, but look at their entries in the last decade, and look at ALL of their San Remo winners since 2020. There was more variation amongst any four-year Italian stretch in the 60s, 70s and 80s, the time period where Italy were consisently one of the worst countries. 

Even as i’m sitting down to review this, my first instinct was “At least Marco’s handsome?” as a punchline and that says it all really? Italy fandom honestly IS barely about their songs and more about whoever (man) performs it, and what he looks like. The fucking halo effect that white mankind projects onto Italians is omnipotent and often earned, but so worth calling out in contexts like these. At least Marco IS handsome, I guess, the first *actually* handsome and charismatic Italian lead since Il Volo. No more “Protecc The Smoll Bean” nonsense. 

So um, the song. God, I don’t care how many silly Spaniards rank it absurdly high on their lists, “Due vite” is boring. I appreciate that it’s inoffensively competent but good grief, it and I do not align. WHY DOES IT HAVE SO MANY WORDS. I know that Italians are a loqacious lot and yap about anything, but this stereotype personified in ballad form frankly exhausts me. 

At least he’s handsome the fandom isn’t annoying about Italy this time around, I guess. 

Odds at Eurovision - ITALY

Aside from the Spaniards nobody seems to care about Marco. One may think this sets up an illusive Italian male flop but I’m not quite as easily fooled. Marco WILL come top 10. Look at this field, and tell me where the jury votes are gonna go towards. Italy will receive a decent mark here. That the fans are less vocal about Italy than they normally is merely an indicator that they’ll place somewhere in the lower half of the top 10. Maybe the Mengoni special of 7th place :-) 

Projected placement: 6th-10th (specifically: 7th) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

28. CYPRUS Andrew Lambrou - “Break a broken heart” Semi 2, slot #06

You know, sometimes the broadcasters easen job. Cyprus released a teaser for Andrew’s song before release, and although it lasted for THIRTY SECONDS it told us everything we ever needed to know about “Break a broken heart”, including what the remaining two and a half minutes would sound like. Great songwriting, y’all. 😃

Upon announcement though, I harboured a faint hope Andrew would just give us another “Electrify”, fulfilling his predestined role as this year’s hapless himbot with a basic club banger. Instead Cyprus imagined some dragons and sure, if you’re going to be basic there are worse directions to go. Doesn’t take away this is some lower-end ID song here to cash out another easy low-effort qualification into the usual 21st place. 

B L E R G H. 

Odds at Eurovision - CYPRUS

Andrew is Australian and less awful than little Victor Varicose Vein. So I think it’s safe to state Cyprus do better than Greece? They’re guaranteed one twelve from Greece and another one from Australia. That by itself puts them mathematically ahead of several countries in that semi. 

Like I honestly REALLY wish “Break a broken heart” were.. you know, good, because that would ensure Greece’s NQ while making Cyprus (which is a lock on PAPER) an even more secure qualifier. Sadlty, that’s not the case. In a fully just world though, everyone recognizes the “Break a broken heart” is just boringdull baggage nobody wants to take home with them, and both Cyprus and Greece get to hold hands as they sink into a sea of flop. Sadly that’s unlikely to happen in semi 2, unless ALL the other fringe qualifiers deliver something extraordinary.  Once in the final, Cyprus will beach themselves in a 21st-ish place (with votes from Greece and Australia ONLY), and nobody will talk about them ever again. 🙂

Qualifier Tier: B+ Projected placement: 7th-10th (semi), 19th-23rd (Grand final). 

---------------------------------------------------------------

27. UKRAINE TVORCHI - “Heart of steel” Autoqualifier

What a big pile of misery. Yes, YES, I am aware what country this is. Any of us would be highly delusional to believe Ukraine would go for something cheery at this present moment in time, but Krut and Finka were right there, on offer for the Ukrainians to take? We don’t have to like  Ukraine this year, surely? Yeah it’s TAKING A STAND!! AGAINST THE EVIL INVADER!!! but if it’s about resilience and overcoming odds, then why does it sound like a fucking funeral march hmm? 

For all its doom and gloom, I don’t dislike “Heart of steel” though. It is well-made and unique, which I can appreciate. But I also don’t give two fucks about it. It’s a far cry away from the usual high octane stuff Ukraine send. 

More than anything, “Heart of steel” feels like the end of success story for what is ultimately one of Eurovision’s best and most consistent participating countries. While it won’t happen this year, I’ve a feeling Ukraine will continue to send entries like these, with diminishing returns until they finally ruin their perfect qualification record.

At least they’re not winning this time around, but more on that in the next rublic:

Odds at Eurovision - UKRAINE

The expectations for Ukraine differ depending on who you’d ask, ranging from “winning back-to-back” to “they’ll flop and come bottom five”. I think the expectations are wrong.🙂  Ukraine will come top 10, but nowhere near a win. Eurovision is not a charity, but there there’s clearly going to be some sort of sympathy vote.. But I also feel like this will be limited to countries with a vested interest towards supporting Ukraine (the Baltics, Poland, Czechia). Most of the other casuals I believe will have moved on, more stingy with their money in a world where general prices have skyrocketed. 

In most countries the oro-Ukraine vote will be limited to the expats and refugees for the most part because, again, most of Europe has moved on and also because  “Heart of Steel” is kinda unvoteable oops. I can’t make a projection of how many points that’ll be, but I’d be surprised it Ukraine got more than a bunch of fives and sixes? That should still be enough for a good result overall, but not enough to come even NEAR the actual winning entries. 

Based on musical merit i would estimate a decent jury score as well, to further underline a good but not outstanding result in Liverpool. 

Projected placement: 4th-10th (prediction: 6th place) 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

26. ESTONIA Alika - “Bridges” Semi 2, slot #4

What a wild rollercoaster ride for an entry I fundamentally care very little about.  I went from not caring about Alika to lowkey stanning her to concluding that wait actually "Bridges” kinda sucks, so Estonia should be ranked lowish. Oops!

Idk, I think that *within the context of Eesti Laul* where it became immediately obvious (from the feedback I heard from actual Estonians) that Alika would win, I just... forced myself to like her?  I also had taken it upon myself that Ollie NEEDED to lose for his overrated ~emo boy with emotions~ nonsense (no, it doesn’t work better if disguised as a Linkin’ Park song.) by all means necessary. Bedwetters would be the ideal men for the job, but again since nobody in Estonia seemed to care about them (why? Were Ollie and Alika truly that more exciting? What a crazy country.), Alika was a decent alternative, or so I thought.

Once she actually beat Ollie, I gave Alika little thought until it was time for the bulk relisten. During that I concluded that “Bridges” kinda annoys me? For something supposed to be introverted, it’s loud and pungent.

The presentation at EL does NOT help it either, as it involves Alika angrily screaming about how SHE’S BUILDING UP A WORLD OF BREECHES (what does that metaphor even MEAN, btw?) with the panache of a crazy woman who was just dragged from a river. It’s like Iceland where I feel like there’s a “solid idea” but the execution is a sloppy mess. Unlike Estonia though, iceland have a very good song AND fun performer this year, so i’m willing to forgive their flaws. 🙂

So much for the ONLY female-fronted classical ballad in this year, huh?

Odds at Eurovision - ESTONIA

Estonia are one of several countries in the second semi that are on the cusp. As i’ve written before, 7 countries are very likely through to the final: those 7 are Australia, Lithuania, Austria, Belgium, Slovenia, Armenia and Cyprus (probably in that precise order). San Marino are dead, and Poland/Romania hang on by a sliver. EVERYONE ELSE has a more or less equal shot at the final three positions. Estonia’s advantages here are (1)  Alika’s powerful voice and (2) Bridges being the only classical ballad in the semi. Both of those things can help Estonia stand out and receive televotes, in a semi where their closest ally is Lithuania. 

Estonia is also disadvantaged however. The first and largest of these is that the semi has a very slow start, so someone will have to kickstart it. That will not be “Bridges” which is adding reverse alacrity to the already dull proceedings

Even worse, I believe the big kicker will be Belgium. Estonia are on DIRECTLY BEFORE them, which is a very bad spot to be in.

Also, being on fourth with a ballad is never good. 

ALSO, “Bridges” in its current state is shouty and miserable. 

There are several things Estonia need to rethink in terms of their staging and Alika’s styling, if their ambition is to do well, let alone qualify. Currently I think they’ll come close to the Q, but will narrowly miss it in 11th or 12th place. 

If they do make the final, I could see Bridges becoming one of those entries that Juries love to death and televoters don’t give two fucks about. Their result will be lower-midtable once they’ve passed the big old hurdle of “reaching the grand final with a ballad in a full televote scoreboard”. Qualifier tier: C Projected placement: 8th-14th (Semi), 14th-19th (Grand Final)

---------------------------------------------------------------

And that concludes those I find very very boring :-)  Next up are the decent entries. I’m not fully on board with them, but I understand why they’re liked. They bring something different to the table and I can appreciate that even if I’m not the target audience. 🙂

THE RANKING:

Part 1: The BAD entries (Switzerland / Croatia / Israel / Greece) Part 2: the IRRELEVANT entries  (Ireland / Albania / Netherlands / San Marino)

#ESC 2023 #Eurovision 2023 #Liverpool 2023 #Eurovision Song Contest #ESC #Ranking #BorisBubbles #preshrinked #northern italy #Marco Mengoni #Due Vite #Cyprus #Andrew Lambrou #Break a broken heart #Ukraine #TVORCHI #heart of steel #Estonia #Alika #Bridges

[eventidespirits]

Laci Explains the Planes of Existence [World Building]

Okay so -- what you need to know first of all is that there are like, infinite planes of existence and they're all overlapping and stacked on top of each other. Like some weird combination of a three-dimensional spirograph, a tesseract and a cosmological layer cake. Secondly, what you need to know, is that most of the planes can't really interact with each other, not directly, anyway. Every plane of existence lives on its own personal frequency and unless you can vibe at that specific frequency, you can't see it or interact with it. Uh, not for most people, anyway.

There are some weirdos out there who can see and hear these other existential frequencies -- usually, it sounds like tuning in and out of different radio stations or looking at a double exposure on a photograph fading in and out of sight. There are even weirder weirdos who can create a bridge-frequency that lets them cross over into those other planes of existence or directly interact with them. I am not one of those weirdos though I think you can tell I'm one of the first kind. I think. It's always hard to tell what's actually dimensional bleedover and what's bipolar deciding to fuck with my head. So, you know, take everything I say with a grain of salt. Or a gallon of it. You decide your salt poundage, is what I'm saying.

Okay, with that tangent out of the way...

All of this kinda makes it sound like everywhere on our plane (The Material Plane, baby!) has the same frequency. Which it doesn't.There are minute variations in the vibrations of our plane throughout all of existence -- and that's how you get liminal spaces or like, the places where you can cross over into other planes, even without the ability to open doors. Basically, some places have a variation in the frequency that makes them really similar to another plane of existence and that allows some like, bleed over.

Depending on what kind of place you're in, that'll kind of determine what's bleeding over. Your own personal vibration matters, too. Like, the mood your in, the place your head is at, what kind of day you've had. There's an infinite number of planes and while there's totally an infinite number of existential frequencies, theres's some... overlap. Like when you get your radio set between two stations so that you can hear both? It's like that.

The plane of existence that's closest to the one most of us live in is The Land Beyond the Mists, which like, most people know as Faerie or The Hill or Under The Mountain or... Look, Faerie shit always has roughly fifty-billion names per concept, they're slippery like that. Point being, Faerie exists one station over from us -- probably because we used to be the same station. Faerie and Earth used to be kind of the same place but at some point, the fae looked at what was going on here and said "oh, hell no. Fuck this." And then they packed up their shit and left. But because it would take way more oomph than even the Seasonal Queens had to completely separate from the Material Plane, it stayed connected. There are places where it's still totally the same place, too. Deep in the woods and high up in the mountains there are places that are still totally Faerie.

Another place that exists on a really similar frequency to the Material Plane is the Astral Plane -- yeah, that place that all the hippies and new-agers say is where we go when we dream. Which isn't totally true. Most people don't go to the Astral Plane when they dream. Most people, end up in their own personal demense -- the plane of existence that lives inside of their head that no one else can really get into. As far as I can tell, the Astral Plane is kind of like, the space between all of the planes, like a cosmological crossroads where all the planes can bleed into each other and interact. I guess it's like, the blood type O- but with existential vibrations. Which honestly, should make you pretty fucking glad you don't go there when you dream because like, imagine if your mind crossed over into some kind of existential plane of eternal torment? That would blow.

Oh and that personal demense thing, yeah -- all of us have a plane of existence that's solely ours and solely tuned into our frequency. There's some stuff that can get in there from the outside -- some vampires can do it if they've got the skill with mind-reading type stuff, some Outside beings can do it, hell some humans can do it. But for the most part, your personal demense, your mindscape if you will, is your personal safe-space. This is totally yours and no one else really gets to decide what happens to it... Mostly. It's also only connected to the outside world through you. As far as I know, basically every sapient being, everything that has a soul, has a mindscape. Which is partially why there's like, an infinite number of planes.

The last plane of existence that I know that exists right on the edge of this one is...The Creeping Dark. It's the domain of an aspect of something that came from Outside of the Ordered Cosmos -- something we call the Myriad. It has a bunch of different names but none of the ones I know are its real name... Which I wouldn't write down even if I knew it. Names have power, that's why Fae are the Spiders Georg of naming things. Anyway, this is not a place you want to be. This is not a place you want to Cross Over into -- and unfortunately, it's one of the ones that has a real bad tendency to bleed over into our world. It really likes abandoned buildings, old mineshafts, anywhere dark that humans are scared to tread. It's even bleeding into the tunnels beneath the city of Santa Marta (where I...live. If you can call it living...) which makes this city like, stupidly fucking dangerous for everything and anything. Ugh this is why everything should be served in trays with compartments. You do not want the planes touching like that.

Okay well, I think that's pretty much what you need to know about the planes of existence. Like, I could get into the Celestial Firmament and the Infernal Abyss and the Land of the Dead but like -- the thing is, those are just names humans gave to groupings of planes with similar frequencies. They're not like, one specific place they're just planes that have really fuzzy, indistinct boundaries and have started blending together. And I'm not like, an expert on those planes anyway. Especially since like, I won't be going to any of them when I die anyway...

Anyway, there's my little explanation of the planes of existence! Hopefully it made some kind of sense, lol.

#world building #laci.txt

[rivetgoth]

Bands I saw last night in order—

Death Bells: I missed part of their set since they opened and I got in like 10-15 minutes late but they were really fun. Just like very classic post punky shoegaze, good energy on stage especially considering they were playing to basically an empty audience since most people didn’t show up until later (the show went from 6 to 12:30!). I liked ‘em a lot.

Cold Gawd: Really cool shoegaze project with like, 5 different guitars at once lol. Had an effect of making them sound like a thunder storm or something, really full sounding. I also really enjoyed this one. Both of these bands are ones I’ll be listening to in the future even though I hadn’t heard of them before!

SRSQ: I wanted to like SRSQ more because I know people who like them, they were fine but didn’t grab me quite as much. Kinda like dancey but lowkey modern electronica with a very operatic vocal style. Frontwoman had fun energy and I’ll give them another shot but yeah not my biggest of the night. Fun to see though!

SPICE: Slightly more rock sounding than the others but still pretty squarely in the realm of shoegaze post punk. Reminded me occasionally of The Velvet Underground. I liked them, but they also weren’t the most memorable of the night for me.

Hiro Kone: Classic noise woman moment. She was an ambient noise project with a big sound machine with cords and wires sprawled across it. I liked her, just very psychedelic and atmospheric with enough of a rhythm you could still kinda bob up and down to it lol.

Helm: Also experimental noise but admittedly in a way that interested me less. I’m sure he’s good at what he does, but unfortunately one of the bands I’d primarily gone to see was up next on the main stage so I left early to get a good spot hah.

Choir Boy: One of the bands I primarily paid to see and did not disappoint. They sounded AMAZING, they played a really good set with some of my favorite songs of theirs, frontman had really fun energy, just a super magical moment where everyone was so hype for them and their synth sounded so nice. Really really great highlight for me. If you don’t know them check them out, they’re a really dreamy 80s Kate Bush-esque throwback project mixed with modern indie folk stuff. Really unique.

Riki: Riki!! I love her. She’s so cute and her music is so fun, I’ve already seen her before a few times and I love her energy to death. Only complaint is that I got a kinda bad spot for her set since she was on the second stage and Choir Boy ran a little late so I didn’t have the chance to get upstairs before she started but omg, her sound was amazing even near the back. She never disappoints. Fun modern dark electronic music with lots of variation (she’s a Cold Waves Festival alum).

ADULT.: Also a band I’ve seen before and also one of the reasons I was there, also absolutely did not disappoint. Also Cold Waves alumi. They brought the energy that no one else had haha super fun electronic industrial dance music, screaming and jumping and flashing lights and the frontwoman right in the audience’s face. So fun and hype. Totally check them out if you haven’t, they are so good at what they do. Last time I saw them they were performing the same day as Severed Heads and started a pit for them LOL!!

Drab Majesty: Cannot believe I’d never seen them before. Kind of a bucket list band for me. What can I say? Drab is amazing at what they do. Their sound was amazing. They looked great. Chugged straight from a bottle of wine between songs, kept the lights off for their encore and instead flashbanged all of us with giant handheld headlights while they played in darkness. Only complaint is that I was so fucking exhausted after running between stages for 9 other acts for hours so I was kinda relieved when they were done LOL. But they were great and I’m so glad I finally got to see them.

So yeah! I’m so happy, it was such a good show, lots of bands I love, bands I’ve wanted to see, bands I’d never heard of, just a super fun night 🥺🖤 Thank you Dais Records 🥺🖤

[qwvak]

with all of this new theories on whether mimic is a burntrap/glichtrap or not, was monty an actual killer and is gregory evil and many many more, i came to thinking how this overall confusion is just an inherent part of fnaf.

like, i agree that security breach has absolute disaster with writing, but it's just how it always was in fnaf?

you can't put two pieces of the story together, because one piece can be connected to several other pieces and you have like 5 different variations of the same story and all of them sounds CRAZY. The feeling when you finish a fnaf game and need to sit few minutes in silence because what the fuck did you just play

honestly, i really enjoy the turns the security breach story takes now after ruin released and books became relevant. The story is so messy but it just... so fnaf.

(the new type of fnaf of course, but i just surprisingly enjoying it. when security breach was only teased i thought it will be completely different, but it just, the same but in very different font. It's basically what i was trying to say in this post lmao)

#Gregory fnaf #fnaf #fnaf sb #fnaf ruin #the mimic #fnaf security breach ruin

[elytrafemme]

i’m a liar hi @puzzlingpapercrown we’re on a diff post for dialogue tips bc i ramble

DIALOGUE TIPS!

1. Everyone has some sort of like ‘buffer’ they do vocally -- typically u see a lot of hm, uh, um, ah, etc. personal preference i try to keep these all two syllables unless it’s something like y’know, huh, yeah, etc. each person will have different sets of ones they use-- if you listen to Fundy talk vs Ranboo talk u see more ‘ah’ from Fundy and ‘uh’ from Ranboo as least from what i’ve observed. so sprinkle in variation occasionally but have smth to fall back on

2. other writing quirks! does the person have a stutter or stammer? For this i HIGHLY recommend reading your dialogue ALOUD i always will rec this for any kind of dialogue but especially if a character stumbles over their words. There are diff kinds of stutters and there are good posts about it online but in general it is unlikely that if someone is nervous stuttering they are going to stutter on the letter ‘T’ three times without a vowel being there. because ‘T’ alone isn’t a sound-- when you pronounce the letter itself we call T ‘tee’ with an ‘ee/i’ vowel-- so when they stutter they are going to need to say that consonant with SOMETHING -- Also recommend if they’re stumbling over words that you repeat phrases, sometimes people just start a phrase and go ah fuck nope that’s not the way I wanna say that or that’s too difficult of a word to say etc. So sometimes they start a phrase stumble once and then they amend it

3. sentence structures vary! Some people speak with shorter phrases, some people say a shorter phrase and then repeat part of it in a longer phrase after (”I was worried. I was so worried about you both”), some people ramble on with no continuous stop, etc. and this varies! when people are angry sometimes they go on for a while before taking a breath, when others are angry they might just give one word answers. This really depends on characters

4. reiterating it here but read things out loud sometimes things just sound weird and you dont know why but go with your gut play around with it 

5. consider accents! also consider slang though sometimes i am hesitant about slang if you’re writing something set back a decade or two, make sure the slang is used to a reasonable degree. that can be a good way to clue in what time period something is set in, but overdoing it makes it kind of overwhelming.but yeah consider accents consider alternative words for the same thing etc! some people put milk in their coffee, some people put cream in their coffee, depends on region! if you wanna get super anal about the details and whatnot that’s a fair place to take that :] 

Okay ive rambled a lot but yeah some basic dialogue tips i have. im no dialogue god most of all in this fandom I just try to listen to the streamers talk a lot and if i dont i read posts from writers who have listened to the streamers talk a lot and tweak with it

#nightmare.fave #nightmare.personal

[temporalreplicsimile]

beep boop the OC-tober prompt is redesign, so I'm going to talk about some changes I made to my oc world from its original iteration

I made the world when I was a teenager, so it was very Cringe™️. Vampires, werewolves, witches, the oldest person was like 30....

When I got older I wanted to make it LESS cringe, and spent a lot of time and energy trying to change things. The funny part is, once I got even older I thought to myself "Why the fuck SHOULDNT there be all this stuff in it?" and basically changed it back.

Vampires can go out into sunlight. Made vampires don't age, but making one takes time and effort and isn't done so easily. There's telepathy involved, and venom. Sexy sexy venom

Werewolves became just Weres, which in still Eh about, but it's whatever. They're a variation of Shifters, which I added because why not, that can only turn into one animal. Shifters can turn into several, or sometimes any animal from the same family

Witches are one of the high magic races, and I expanded the element list to compensate. The four primary elements are still the most common, but there are 4 layers of subelements and a whole category for Special Elements, like the ability to magically manipulate life and death or even the feeling of hope

I made Spirits, which were originally just ghosts but then I decided to make them Weird and more or less intangible. A variation of them is Elementals, who are beings made of the element they control, and subrace of both of them is Summons, which are spirits that control elements and can be used as weapons, basically. Yes, it's that way on purpose and is just as fraught as it sounds.

Dragons are a thing, which I originally made just sexy scaley people and decided that wasn't enough, so now there are a bunch of different kinds. From sexy scaley people to dragonborns to straight up Dragons. They reproduce with eggs because I discovered something about myself at one point

Quasi and Chimera came around because I'm was a mixed race kid sick of being left out of stories, so I made two whole races for that. Basically: all Chimera are Quasi, but not all Quasi are Chimera. It mostly comes down to if the person has traits from their bloodlines. Cat boys are common.

What else.........oh, Shades. I'll get into them later, but they're made of darkness.

And to have an excuse for everyone to speak English, I made the Engl Islands, later changed to the Ingl Isles, where a tribe of powerful healers lived that were coveted by everyone, and the (at first) kidnapping and slavers and (later on) immigration of the tribe spread the language. It's a high society thing right now but I'm sure that'll change with time

Oh my god how could I forget Angels and Demons. They're called that because humans came to this world with their Christianity and saw them as what their art depicted, with wings and horns and all that. They're not holy or evil though, they're basically just bird people and horned people, with Angels being known for their physical prowess and Demons being another high magic race, using their horns as magical anchors and catalysts.

Okay this got long let's slap on a read more and be on our way

#kiore post #oc world #ahaha #I ended up talking more about the different races than the changes I made but whatever!

[unfinishedbusincss]

New Muse: Margot Levi

I’m currently on mobile and ended up word vomiting at Orion pretty badly, which ended up in a new muse I wanna toss out there! There’s a lot of information that goes into her (semi-original) lore that needs to be established in order to make sense of her character traits, but I cannot stress enough how fully those traits translate into variants of her that can be played in AUs without needing knowledge of her lore. I will post her lore and link it here when I am back on my laptop, but do want to drop her backstory and basic information all the same, so we can get the ball rolling on her!

Legal Name: Margot Aeryn Levi Age: 31 SGP: ciswoman, she/her Orientation: lesbian Species: Familiar (lore) **open to any number of variations Alternate Form: Coyote Location: USA **see above note face: sofia black-d'elia

Powers:

Shift like all other familiars, margot is able to shift between two forms: her human shape and her familiar shape--in this case, a coyote.

Keep like all familiars, margot is able to trade abilities between forms. example: the increased capacity for smell and sound of the coyote as a human, higher consciousness as a coyote, etc.

Teleport like most other familiars, margot is able to teleport anywhere within eyesight, which pairs well with other powers of the familiar on bonding (lore).

Bond like all other familiars, margot is able to take (fuck that, it's) make the sacred bond with a witch. once made, the familiar will be soul-bonded to their chosen witch.

Personality:

most people around her would tell you margot is clearly insane. funnily enough, they would say so for two different reasons. for the supernatural beings around her, the role of the familiar is deeply engrained in their conscious, making margot's refusal to participate in the sacred oath seemingly unnatural. for the less fantastical beings around her, the demand to believe in magic without having it constantly proven is an absolute, making it an often bitter pill to swallow. either way, margot seems insane from the outside. truthfully, margot is a force to be reckoned with. against all odds, she has mastered the minor arts of tarot and token-casting--something many would have thought unusual if not outright impossible for a familiar. she has also discovered how to comfortably hold herself mid-shift and often uses this to her advantage. margot is determined to disprove the fallacies underpinning her identity as a familiar and has made it her life's mission not only to do that, but to help rid the world of monsters along the way--human or supernatural.

History:

Margot was born into a world that felt...carefully neutral about her. Like many of her kind, Margot was brought up without a real concept of family or authority or permanency or stability. Some of her peers were lucky, could shift into cute kitten or puppies or pass for normal human toddlers and be adopted legitimately. They were lucky. Margot could only shift into a coyote, and displayed too much magical attraction to be mistaken for anything human. By the time she aged out of the foster system, Margot began tracing her way back to the beginning using--get this--genetic ancestry tracking services. It was kind of wild, but it cut through a lot of the red tape before it quite caught up to her. She adopted a last more fitting of her family--Levi for her paternal grandmother, an immigrant to the country whose story awed Margot in light of all that she truly was. It was around this time that pressures began falling on Margot to bound with a witch--to do it before she "hits the wall," they began to say. Stirred by her grandmother's story, Margot refused the tradition, setting out to prove that the precedence set regarding familiars was not only objectively morally wrong, but also factually incorrect. These days, Margot can be found practicing as an independent witch--the human kind, who read tarot and use crystals, not the other one. She is an active member of her local supernatural community and is somewhat known for her refusal to bond with a witch.

#✗ margot #✗ out of character #✗ archived #✗ lore

[transsexualhamlet]

Hi :)) for the fics ask - 💌📡🍭🎈🎀🍉🦋

OMG THATS SO MANY???? i love you anon

ask game

putting a readmore because um. so many questions

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

SHAKES AND WHIMPERS finally someone asks me about my wips............. oh dear oh dear oh dear. Trembling wet and pathetic awkwardly holds out 25 pages of handwritten Mairon apologism covered in blood sweat tears . This is one of those ones that I'm terrified I'm going to be dogpiled over in the fandom because. Silmarillion fandom. Intimidating. This is the first time I've read the book and these bitches are veritable scholars in Arda history and languages. Like they have damn phds. doctarates. I'm just like hi I think he did nothing wrong ever except for all the atrocities and the atrocities were fine because it's international womens day and hes like a woman to me.

Anyway I should. Actually explain them i just I have two things going on one of them is just. Six pages of independent ramblings written all at once fueled by "I just woke up with the sickest ass line of dialogue ever conceived and I need to bring it to justice Right Fucking Now" and the other is what will probably end up being a chapter fic with six or seven chapters though I haven't. Decided what point I'll end it at. I'm two chapters deep and I have tons of motivation rn so hopefully. Things will continue that way because god have I been known to abandon works of that length. (looks at the bond fic) (looks at osamu dazai is dead) (looks a-)

The first mentioned one is well. I think it's just such a funny quirky girl trait of his to have not only founded a human sacrifice death cult but to have gotten it sugar daddy funded by batting his eyelashes at the king of Numenor it's just. Truly wonderful situation and I feel it is not spoken of nearly enough. The basic concept of that snippet is "pov ur defeated enemy/prisoner/mistress/royal advisor's bedroom talk involves apocalyptic sermons dooming you to eternal suffering if you don't worship his dead ex".

The other one is pretty self explanatory and has probably been done a million times, just my take on the untold hashtag "Seduction of Sauron". Basically several chapters of Melkor convincing Mairon to seize the means of production this one is very well. It's not very favorable to the methods and ideas of Eru it is decidedly anti-Eru

📡why is writing and sharing your writing important for fandom?

I mean that's like, half of what fandom is. It's sharing words (both fanfic and headcanons/shitposts/analysis/incorrect quotes etc) and images (art/memes/edits/screencaps etc). We wouldn't really fandom without it.

🍭why did you start writing?

It's really just how my brain works? I can communicate so much better written than out loud. I've literally been writing since before I can remember. Both my parents are writers and my parents tell me I narrated stories out loud to myself at night before I knew how to write on paper. I just. I really liked saying things and telling stories and once I started I pretty much never stopped though of course the writing I did as a first grader was not the same kind that I do now.

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change?

I mean, as a fanfic writer I always try to make my writing fit the mood of its source material, so there is definitely a lot of variation between say, my lotr fics and my owari no seraph fics. But I know that I do have many qualities of my writing that are recognizable throughout pretty much everything I do. I have a rather pretentious style, and I focus significantly on body language, exaggerated emotion, flowery metaphors, and internal dialogue. But my humorous work does sound pretty different, though I mostly don't do that unless it's for a general audience who I feel insecure being flowery and sincere around.

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

Aww, ok. I mean I think the best thing about my writing is that it fits my personal tastes perfectly. I write 99 percent for myself and the other 1 percent for the six people on the internet who will froth at the mouth over it. I write mostly to articulate and cement my Strong Feelings About Concepts And Ideas and writing them helps me literally understand how I feel about things and what it really is I'm trying to get at. It's an added bonus that other people also like it :)

🍉in what ways has writing helped you process trauma and/or navigate through your own life?

I can't really say I'm a super trauma-ridden individual, though I guess I've had my moments. Mainly writing does for me what I said above. I turn to it to have peace of mind and delve into the concepts that thrill and move me. When I feel overwhelmed and empty and unsatisfied and confused I know it's because I haven't written recently. Maybe thats the autism

🦋what are you most insecure about when you post a fic?

There's always just the general anxiety that it will be seen by the general fandom as uncalled for and cringe. I'm always worried I will be seen as a Fake Intellectual for my pretentious style and often limited knowledge on the source material and I'm worried especially when I enter a new fandom that I'll just be completely off and get 80 billion things wrong. The more I interact with, know about and post for a fandom, the less anxious I get because it's been established people like it and aren't gonna kill me.

#rowan gets yelled at #anon #ask game #yeah i really went off on this one lmao

[its-a-hil]

k time for our regularly scheduled sleepy oversharing time (answering all the questions from this ask game)

(1) Do you have freckles? nope ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(2) Do you drink tea or coffee? How do you take it? sometimes i drink tea if im sick or chai socially but thats basically it. chocolate is the closest thing i have to a regular stimulant

(3) What was the last song you listened to? this lagtrain edit idk i really like just. semi-chaotic noise that sounds out of place and a bit incongruent. probably why i like pokeloid

(4) Do you sleep on your back, stomach or side? diagonalish but mostly on my side. i alternate sides though in fact i used to sleep on my stomach until i read a newspaper article that said a plurality of ppl sleep on their side and then i got scared and completely changed the way i sleep in like 6th grade in case you somehow needed more evidence im autistic

(5) Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? blåhaj!! !!! !!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love her need to clean her though also i stream with my hello kitty velvet and i think that's kinda relevant

(6) Do you prefer drawing or writing? i like both but i am so so so much less bad at writing so that's more fulfilling i need to do both a lot more though ive been procrastinating a lot of tales of luminaria writing and art that i feel a compulsive need to make since the game was shuttered

(7) What’s your ideal number of blankets to sleep with? currently i sleep with blanket/comforter/blanket but i am still so so cold so i either need another blanket or one of them to be heated

(8) What’s your favorite band/artist? i mean there are a bunch that are all kinda at the same tier but i think inabakumori is at the top their vocaloids are just so. emotions

(9) When is your birthday? not gonna answer this but if you wanna check my bio every day for the next year until you see it flip to 23 i guess thats a thing you can do

(10) How tall are you? 178 cm (5'10") aka too tall please someone let me give you my height i dont fucking want it except in rock climbing it's useful for that but other than that the dysphoria is just not worth it hate hate hate

(11) What color are your eyes? brown, a bit darker than my skin but ive been complimented on my eyes by strangers more than like any part of my appearance combined so i am always confused like. theyre just my eyes! theyre pretty but only in the way that ppl eyes generally are idgi

(12) Who are five (or more) people you want to hug right now? i dont really want to hug anyone tbh like id be happy to hug a friend if they needed it but im just not feeling touch atm

(13) Fears? that samsara isnt real enough for me to defer all the experiences i dont want to miss out on to a different life also climate change also being at parties where im not super close with most of the people

(14) What’s your favorite color? the sky! i know everyone is probably tired of me saying it but i dont like the idea of picking one 'color' since that allows for so much variation, so i instead choose something that is constantly varying and always beautiful at every instant ive ever gazed upon it

(15) What’s your favorite season? summer summer summer summer summer summer summer summer summer summer summer summer summer summer summer summer summer summer please it's so cold i want to be able to feel warm when i go outside and not feel like im killing the planet when i consider turning the thermostat up a degree

(16) Want any tattoos? What of? oh i absolutely want tattoos definitely one for outer wilds (the hourglass twins), and id be open to the berseria title card with velvet's hair flowing into the letters i just think that game is neat

(17) Want any piercings? Where? im happy with my recent earlobe piercings but it would be desi as fuck to get a nose ring so that also sounds pretty cool

(18) Who is the last person you texted? my parents telling them im coming home from work

(19) Do you have a best friend? How long have you been friends? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ closest thing is probably my college roommate for 3 years but he went to grad school in a different state so ive barely seen him since

(20) What/who do you miss? oh well that's a question and a half i miss my ability to just get a crush and imagine cute and unrealistic fantasy stories where i went out with them now a combination of adult™ realism and the couple years i spent beating myself up for ever feeling romantic attraction have made doing both of those things so much harder so i just stick to projecting myself in established plots i mean its better than it was near the end of high school but. not as good as middle school when i actively loved going to bed just so i could imagine whatever i wanted in the hourish before i fell asleep

(21) How was your day today? tired. slept too early last night and thus the day had no sense of urgency and my head felt very bleh the entire time

(22) How much sleep did you get last night? 8 hours which is kinda the problem i function best with having had 9-10 hours two nights ago and 4-6 hours the night of and whenever i try to get a regular person sleep schedule™ it just makes me feel bad

(23) Do you believe in aliens? not like conspiracy theories or anything like that but. the universe is so BIG and we're finding so many planets that it feels impossible for there to not be life elsewhere also $20 europa has whales in it

(24) When was the last time you cried? Why? idk crying is hard and has barely ever happened since i felt bad about crying at a book in 6th grade and hammered it out of my brain. clearly my masking behaviors have never once been self destructive and i am an extraordinarily well adjusted girlie more recently my parents probably said something that made me feel bad and i semi-succeeded at crying in the shower and forgot about it the day after

(25) What’s your favorite decade? is it really possible for me to answer anything but the present? theres only been one decade where ive been a girl for part of it theres only been one decade where i fell in love with the sound of my voice theres only been one decade where i lived for myself and not for who i expected myself to be

(26) What are some seemingly childish things you like? i mean. i watch cartoons and eat sweets and enjoy going outside and getting distracted by everything i see there not sure what it means for something to be 'childish' tbh

(27) What’s your favorite book? Or just one you’ve read a few times? favorite book is the raven tower by ann leckie it's just. such a wonderful story in such a beautiful world that i feel like i was made for book ive read the most is probably son of neptune though, i know i spent a few months just kinda picking it up at a random page and rereading a few chapters every couple of days

(28) How are you, really? not answering this it's cliche and boring

(29) Does it take you a long time to make decisions? yes and no if a decision is right in front of me i'll make it fairly quickly if a decision is far away then i will procrastinate it to the point of absurdity ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(30) What are you looking forward to in the near future? getting on injections! estrogen time :d

(31) What are you looking forward to in the distant future? 2024 eclipse!!!! !!!! !!!!!! !!!!!!!!! i know with how much im hyping it in my head it'll definitely be covered with clouds at the place i go to but i! do! not! care! the 2017 eclipse is the most beautiful thing i have ever seen in the entire world and i need to see it again

(32) If you could go anywhere right now, where would you go? i want to see the aurorae other than things like that im pretty comfortable sitting in my room, but the idea of viewing something so magical is just incredibly appealing

(33) Do you sleep with your door open or closed? closed otherwise my parents would see how messy my room is and the airflow would be wrong and its brighter in the hallway and just. no

(34) What’s your favorite flower? is it too cliche to say cherry blossom? i grew up near washington dc like going to see the cherry blossom festival is a part of my core identity

(35) Do you currently have a squish? not really but also my brain has a taboo against verbalizing any kind of attractive feelings so it's difficult to overcome that enough to process my thoughts without hating myself so i dont try

(36) Do you like your middle name? no it's just my dad's name, which already feels old-fashioned in indian terms let alone the fact that it sounds vaguely like a mildly off-putting (to me) phrase in english

(37) Do you prefer dogs or cats? i love seeing them both outside or in friends' homes and i am unlikely to ever adopt one so that's the extent of it

(38) Do you have any phobias? i dont think so

(39) Do you stay up late? not late enough

(40) Do you like the beach? Do you prefer it sunny or cloudy? a not-sunny beach is definitely cold so. yeah. the last beach ive been to was in gdynia though so i might be unfairly projecting how cold the baltic sea is onto other beaches that are reasonable temperatures

(41) What’s your favorite cartoon? if we're counting anime: bna if we're not: amphibia actually now that i think about it i need to rewatch kipo and the age of wonderbeasts that was good

(42) Tag 5 of your favorite blogs no

(43) Do you have siblings? How many? one older sister

(44) Who was the last person you said “I love you” to? probably my parents

(45) Is there anyone you would die for? oh absolutely. loads. the more interesting question would be 'is there anyone you would kill for' and that is far far more difficult to answer

(46) What do you need when you’re sad? patience

(47) Have you memorized your phone number? ofc i have it has interesting math properties associated with it that i sadly cant say here bc saying all the properties, even in a relatively cryptic form, would narrow it down to like 10 options if someone knew my area code

(48) Who’s someone you can trust with your life? this question is ridiculous when cars exist. i have to trust pretty much every driver near me with my life whether im in a car or walking near a road so i dont view it as a particularly meaningful level of trust nor do i view my life as something particularly worth guarding so like. whatever, yknow? (note: this isnt a mental health thing it's a samsara thing dw) if this body dies it dies and i wouldnt want anyone i care about to feel responsible no matter what

(49) What does your last text say? already said it

(50) Wild Card. Any question, ask away. my favorite font is alegreya sc

#lifeblogging #or at least close enough to it

[builtyouahousefromabrokenhome]

So I actually listened to Liam on Impaulsive and I’m so tired of this flood of people hating and concerning on him. Holy fuck the hosts are obnoxious (it’s their trademark) but when people are piling on like this I have to check the source. And I wish others would do that too before posting ...

I think it just comes down to:

1. People not getting Liam’s self deprecating deadpan humour.  He exaggerates about negative and uncomfortable topics as a joke (like the stuff about his “demons”). I do that too and it makes especially Germans and North Americans upset because they just don’t understand sarcasm.

2. People not actually listening to it but just repeating what others are saying, or only hearing snippets out of context, and it gets distorted in a game of telephone. I mean I really don’t blame anyone for not wanting to expose themselves to that podcast, but then maybe just accept that you don’t know what exactly he said and in what context.

3. People not knowing enough about 1D because Liam didn’t actually say anything new. He’s said variations of the same stuff before, and the rest are known facts. I’m a quarantine Larrie and “even” I know all this stuff. O_o The one thing that I didn’t know as much details about before was about S*mon having dinner with Liam and “having a plan” for him, and pretty much building the band around him. Of course S*mon had a plan for Liam, as he did for everyone on his show. And of course he had a plan for each of the other 1D members. Liam only talks about himself and S*mon’s plan for him, because it’s his own story and this podcast is about him, and maybe he really doesn’t know about the others in that respect, like he says on the podcast.  If you actually watched them on X Factor you’d have seen what Liam said, about having to start all the songs because he had more experience and the others were too nervous. Liam was set up as a “frontman” in the beginning, until they all got more comfortable and found their vibe together.

Liam didn’t put Louis down by saying Louis “found his voice behind the scenes” - he said Louis basically masterminded their sound and direction as a band. And that’s also something that’s already known, they have talked about it before, how Louis was paying a lot of attention to their contracts etc. 

As for the Zayn comments, when he said “that didn’t age well” I took it to refer to that Gigi went from defending Zayn on twitter against JP to reporting him to the police lol for basically swearing on the phone at the Yol///anda incident. Liam wasn’t making any judgement on Zayn, and he actually said he’d always be on Zayn’s side. But he spoke in a kind of bungled up way and said a lot of different things. And a few of the things he said on their own out of context can sound pretty negative. EDIT: Oh, and I didn’t even react much to when Liam compared the support he got from home to Zayn, and said something like that it was different for Zayn. Liam also talked about how his own dad was very much involved and coaching him through it all, and that it was like he was more or less just doing everything for his dad, and for example asking his dad first what he thought about being put in a band, before making the decision. And while Zayn’s mum did get him out of bed to go audition for X Factor, it’s not a big surprise if Zayn didn’t get the level of support/coaching from home as Liam got from his dad. Doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, just different, and that he’s had to figure out stuff on his own and fend for himself more than Liam has. (Both of their situations surely have pros and cons tbh.) So I don’t think it’s time to jump to the conclusion that Liam was shitting on Zayn and his family and stereotyping him in a racist way ... :/ 

Strip That Down really did reach a billion streams very quickly, before anyone else from 1D had reached that many streams. Zayn was huge from the start but didn’t quite have a smash hit like that. In the last couple of years Harry surpassed them both and broke huge records this year, but it wasn’t so back then. 

.

I actually enjoyed listening to Liam and thought he was funny, and I think he made the best out of being on that kind of podcast. Social chameleon in action, basically. And maybe it’s like giving him a cookie for just basic human decency, but I appreciated it that he shut them down when these shitty hosts wanted to talk about JD/AH and other obnoxious topics.

#i had to listen to it and now you have to read my opinions on it :< #liam ♥ #i don't like that he was drinking so much (those were huge glasses of whiskey :/) #and i don't like harry's coke and shroom references or louis' drinking either :/