lady-inkyrius

[lady-inkyrius]

[lady-inkyrius]

so strange to me that some people aren't bisexual

[lady-inkyrius]

The swapping of units and tens happens in a few Germanic languages as well – 423 in German would be vierhundert drei und zwanzig – though I don't know how common it is in other languages.

Are there any natural languages that read and write the least significant digit of a number first? It's essentially a completely arbitrary choice independent from either choice of base or choice of writing direction, but most significant first (big-endian?) seems to be pretty universal.

Actually for that matter are there any conlangs that do this? I think it's more likely to appear there and I'm curious how ones that do this handle non-terminating numbers.

[lady-inkyrius]

If I remember correctly, when I initially wrote this post I had looked into how Arabic wrote numbers and found a lot of conflicting information. Obviously they're written with the most significant digit on the left, but I've seen both claims that it's just normal RtL with little endian numbers and also claims that the numbers are read (and written?) as LtR big endian embedded within the otherwise RtL script.

While the second claim sounds less likely, it does seem to be more common online from what I can see. I'm unsure if this is also different between Western Arabic numerals and Eastern Arabic numerals, or between handwriting and typing, both of which could feasibly make a difference.

Are there any natural languages that read and write the least significant digit of a number first? It's essentially a completely arbitrary choice independent from either choice of base or choice of writing direction, but most significant first (big-endian?) seems to be pretty universal.

Actually for that matter are there any conlangs that do this? I think it's more likely to appear there and I'm curious how ones that do this handle non-terminating numbers.

[lady-inkyrius]

牧师的早年经历early days of The Reverend

[lady-inkyrius]

Turns out there's at least one person who's used little endian with decimal positional notation:

Are there any natural languages that read and write the least significant digit of a number first? It's essentially a completely arbitrary choice independent from either choice of base or choice of writing direction, but most significant first (big-endian?) seems to be pretty universal.

Actually for that matter are there any conlangs that do this? I think it's more likely to appear there and I'm curious how ones that do this handle non-terminating numbers.

[lady-inkyrius]

constantly making airy offhand comments to my preferred younger son about how he’s next in line for the throne after his brother but he still hasn’t killed my detested firstborn for me. kids these days have no fucking initiative.

[lady-inkyrius]

good, gooder, goodest, bet, better, bettest, bes, besser, best

[lady-inkyrius]

[lady-inkyrius]

Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes)

Observed by irkuem, CC BY-NC

[lady-inkyrius]

[lady-inkyrius]

[lady-inkyrius]

[lady-inkyrius]

you said you were stuck in a time loop, which was fine. i feel like late-stage capitalism has us all in a time loop, ammiright? you came barging in at 5:33. in the morning. i hadn't even processed the idea of coffee.

but you had this look of utter panic in your eyes. terror like the ocean. you grabbed my cheeks. im in a time loop.

i don't know why in movies the first reaction is to deny it. when someone is panicking like that, it's not appropriate to ask them to calm down. it didn't matter if i believed it, what mattered was that you believed it so much that it was consuming you.

so here we are. i pour you some of the dark roast. "you look like utter and entire hell," i say.

you push your fingers into your eyes. "you always say that."

i try to think of something funny to say that i wouldn't have said on previous time loops, but jokes don't land without the proper timing (lol). "remind me to think -"

"-yeah, of a joke that only works in the future. and before you say anything, i know you're pissed i just stole your punchline." you bolt the coffee, which is wild. it's very hot. you don't seem to notice.

i blow on mine to cool it down. i both am very pissed at you and also i can't see you in this amount of panic without wanting to help. but i'm also not really sure what we are, not since i saw you kiss her like that, no offense. it just was like, kind of rude when you knew i liked you.

and besides. i'm just like, barely a person. i write omegaverse fanfiction. i love the concept of a time loop, but what the fuck am i gonna do? send an alpha in there? i open my mouth.

you point at me. "you're about to ask why me. and then say some disparaging shit about yourself. i'm just a nerd who plays dnd or something. that self-own is slightly different each time." you sigh. "i know you think you can't really help me. i don't know who can help me. i only came to you because you fucking believe me." you check your watch, sigh, and throw your head back. you cover your eyes with one hand. "i've come here on 26 separate revolutions," you say. "you have believed me every time. and yeah, i have no idea how you fit into this but i just -" you sigh again. "i just like fucking talking to someone about it."

"do you need more cof-" i start, but you're already holding the empty cup out. i frown at it. "you're not getting any more until you promise not to bolt this one like an animal."

you laugh a little and sit up, pushing your hair out of your face. "okay, that's new dialogue. but to be fair to you, i'm not usually this rude. i'm still pretty new at all of this." you check your watch again. another sigh. i guess you're cruising for a personal best in the Sigh Olympics.

i almost tell you im not an NPC but i've played enough video games to know i'm very much an NPC. i pour you another cup. "so what happens in the loop?"

"really bad explosion." you mutter into the mug. you put your elbows on the table (rude) and bury your face in your arms like an angsty teenager. one hand floats up while you talk, because evidently you literally can't talk without your hands. "i have to save the day and there's this bomb and i have no bomb training and it keeps moving, you know."

"do i die?"

you peek up from your arms. "yeah. bigtime. you keep trying to run or stay or do anything and you always super die."

"oh."

"to be fair, like, everyone dies in it though.... so you're in good company."

i hate that you make me laugh. i hate that being around you always feels tingly and strange, this electric tension between us. something that is evidently (given how you stuck your tongue down a stranger's throat literally 3 days ago) (well. 3 for me) super one-sided. i take a sip of my coffee and close my eyes.

i die today, i guess. a little spark of panic starts at the top of my hands and starts whipping up my wrists.

"shit," you say. you look at your watch and jump to your feet. "i have to go. if i can come back, i will. i am still trying to figure out when is best to do everything, you know? the order of stuff. maybe morning isn't good for us."

i look up at you and think about how you keep kissing me in the back of my car and in alleyways and in the dark. and i can never fucking get a read on you. and i also think about how incredibly panicked you look. how broken. how long have you been doing this? "i don't want to die," i say.

you glance downwards. "well, you're not really dead, you'll come back in the loop."

"but i will have died." my hands are shaking. i am trying really hard to stay calm.

you push your hands through your hair again. "i really have to go. i will have this discussion with the next version of you, though. it is like, something i am thinking about."

"but i don't get a next version," i say. i don't really have the language for this, because i haven't had 26 tries with you. i only have my memories: you, a week ago. drunk and telling me you loved me in my ear. you, kissing her anyway. you, months ago, throwing up on my birthday, whispering to me i ruin everything i touch, always, over and over. please don't ask. i can't ever fucking have that be you.

i run my finger along the rim of the mug. "i don't want to die in this one."

you seem baffled by this. "i get that but - time will reset, you'll be fine, you won't even remember we talked about this."

"but i know now." i stand up too. "i have to live the rest of this day knowing i could die. knowing i probably am going to."

"you could always die, to be fair."

i feel my hands get out of control. "earlier, you said i always say a different insult about myself. what if you're just going through different parallel universes and those are all just different - but real - versions of myself? what if you're not in a time loop, you're in a fucking universe loop?"

"if it helps, i've wondered this too. also, you're hot in all of them. if that helps."

i point at you. "no flirting. i'm trying to figure out if i die today."

"who's flirting?" you catch my wild hands and give me that long, perfect smile. like we're in this together. "i won't let ya die." you check your watch and sigh again. "well. maybe not this time."

i grit my teeth. you are so not making quips at me while i try to explain the existential dread i'm having. "does the time loop reset if i fucking kill you?"

"honestly i don't know how long it continues after i die, because i just wake up. it could be that the loop goes until the explosion for everyone, and we're all in the loop, or it could be that when i die, the loop restarts. when i die i wake up, is all."

i pull away from you and stalk into the kitchen and start doing all 3 of my dishes. "okay, first, you know i was joking. and secondly, this is exactly my point. you don't know if this is just a parallel universe. maybe in the ones where you died, the explosion happened and nobody reset and it's just you travelling." i have to stop and push my heel into my eyeball. "... how often have you died?"

i look at you. you look at me. you give me this very sad, halfway smile and a little what can ya do shrug. something in that action seems so old and weary that i want to burst into tears.

"i have to go," you say. "really. for real. there's this family of five i save from getting into a car crash. and i know it's like oh but we're all gonna die in the explosion anyway, what's the point. and..." you shrug again. "it matters to me, is all. at least i saved them for now. at least i saved anything."

you pad over to me and wrap me in a tight hug. you always seem so tall against me. i feel your cheek rest against the top of my head for a moment. for a second, it's just us, and the space is warm, and my heart is a little broken hare.

you leave me there, and i stand in my stupid badly lit kitchen with my stupid mugs. i think about you. i start texting my mom that she needs to get out of the city, but it feels pointless.

i don't know what to do. tomorrow is the same day for you. but i have to prepare to die in my today.

[lady-inkyrius]

going back in time and posing as a prophet just so i can do it right

“Er, what are these numbers at the end of every chapter, O Holy One?”

“A checksum, so you can tell if it’s been tampered with.”

“And this extra bit at the bottom?”

“Explanatory notes regarding the ambient cultural and political conditions. I’ve tried to use as concrete language as possible, but some things really are just better communicated as abstractions or metaphors. Don’t want future readers to struggle with ambiguities.”

“And… is this an appendix?”

“Yes. I made some testable predictions that can be used to verify my prophetic accuracy. They’re spaced every hundred years or so, so nobody has to take their ancestors’ word for it too much. And I put some useful scientific insights in there. Astronomy, atoms, germ theory, basic electromagnetics, that sort of thing.”

“Electrowhatnow?”

“Don’t worry about it. You’ll figure it out eventually. Well, not you, but maybe your descendants.”

“And… all this is meant to be part of the Holy and Irrevocable Teachings Direct from the Mouth of God?”

“What? No. Oh, shit, no, that’s exactly the opposite of what I’ve been trying to say! This book is very important, but it is not flawless. Er… consider it an incomplete revelation.”

“From on high?”

“…sure.”

“So this is more like advice than rules?”

“Pretty much. Very good advice.”

“What about this bit? ‘No killing. Do not kill. I cannot say this clearly enough. Killing is totally off-limits. Not even if you think you have a really good reason. Not even if–’“

“Except that bit. That’s the only rule.”

“Not to be rude, O Holy One… but this book is like a thousand pages long?”

“Brevity is the soul of being easily misinterpreted. Keep copying!”

[lady-inkyrius]

Surely you're not a Kaiaspy?

Kaiasly

keep it on the DL!!