#(but as a native french speaker this language is stupid as hell

[nervouswrecktm]

the dynamic names in critical role are so good and funny

for beau and caleb you have the empire siblings because they are both children of the empire who seek to right the wrongs of the place they were born and the systems they were placed into and who have become found siblings after struggling to understand each other for so long

for beau and fjord it is brjeaus because they are bros™️ and their names are spelt stupidly

[thatdeadaquarius]

OKAY BUT I HAVE MORE IDEA FOR BLUNT READER CUZ I LOVE THAT AU SO MUCHANDMDJFKSLDKF

So you know how french people's insult are always outta pocket (from a person who's first language is french I can tell you that no other language compares in insult -apart for African languages)

Like,, some "bad" insult here would be : bitch, fuck off, whore,..

Which we can all agree is boring...

BUT THEN IN FRENCH!!!

We be getting creative with it

Eg.

"mange tes mort" wich translates to "eat your dead (relatives)"

"vas te fair enculer" means "go get yourself pegged in the ass"

(yes, we have a specific word for being fucked in the ass 💀)

AND THOSE WOULD BE THE COMMON ONES AS WELL

English could never compare ✨

BUT ANYWAYS

how would the characters react if reader was from france/ belgium/ canada(or any other french speaking country) and started cursing people out like they eould do in their home countrie !?!?

The eay their face would drop

We would make a couple of people cry

AND GOD(us haha) FORBID A KID OVER-HEAR US AND STARTS REPEATING US

Trying to un-teach them would be hell *cries*

Your thoughts?

Love yaaaa~

ABSOLUTE TOP TIER ORAH MY BELOVED!!

Nobody has any idea how much I HATE ENGLISH both for its rules/pronounciation BS/etc. But also, most importantly, THERES LIKE NO GOOD CUSS WORDS- OR LIKE CUSS PHRASES??

I HAD TO PUT THIS GIF BC THAT WAS LITERALLY ME WHEN I HAD THE REALIZATION TO LOOK UP OTHER LANGUAGE CUSS WORDS AND I WAS JUST BLOWN AWAY BY HOW GOOD THEY WERE- HOW CREATIVE- 😫😭🥲 ENGLISH WHY R U SO SHITY IN EVERY POSSIBLE LANGUAGE SITUATION-

like idk we got "eat shit and die / fuck off / go fuck yourself" ???? Like- thats pathetic 😟.

I love hearing someone just cuss smbody out their native language/non-english, it’s so badass and cool to see

Anyway u already know i love non-native english speakers from the bottom of my heart✨️

GOD I FUCKING LOVE BLUNT LANGUAGE AU ITS LIKE ONE OF TOP FAV AS U CAN PROBABLY GUESS I COULD WRITE A LITERAL FANFIC ENTIRELY OFF THIS SIMPLE PREMISE 💖💓💗💞❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

omg so i HAVE SPECIFICALLY HEARD ABT FRENCH BEING RLLY CREATIVEEE

and i researched french cusswords/phrases,,,

😭 BRO IM CRYING

“bête comme ses pieds!” IM ROLLING ON THE FLOOR-

(trans: you’re as stupid AS YOUR FEEEEEETT)

idk what’s funnier, you translating urself in real time and saying all these phrases to ppl,

OR just scaring the ever-loving shit out of every teyvat citizen within a mile radius bc oh wow- you look pissed, so yeah somebody’s about to lose all their self-esteem for the rest of their life bc ur insults are known to be extra cutting bc ur so blunt-

OH CREATOR ABOVE (…oh creator, present??)- you changed to your holy language FOR THIS???

everybody just giving the npc the most bombastic side-eye for pushing you to do this,

or even just you stubbing ur toe/ate food when it was too hot

or my favorite, getting onto ppl like Wanderer when they do smth silly lmao

STOP I HAD A FOUL THOUGHT OF GETTING ONTO Ei AND WANDERER (like ei for not keeping him/at least giving him to someone else to raise, then all the shit he did as Scaramouche lol)

AND THIS CUSSWORD COMES OUT UNDER UR BREATH OR SMTH- DOES THIS FIT BC THIS KILLS ME:

“Putain de salope…” (whore of whore, I LIED IT MEANS FUCKING BITCH LMAO😭)

JUST GETTING THE MOM AND THE SON IN ONE FULL BREATH CRYINGGGG

STOPPP wanderer using it against other ppl ever since u used it lol

oh no stop dont bring the kids into thisss 😭😭

Klee would deffo be the first one to pick up ur words and use them, omg she just uses them as catchphrases like when throwing her bombs 💀

“Mange tes mort!” JUST WITH A SMILE ON HER FACE AS SHE THROWS HER HUGE SKILL BOMB INTO A FISH POND

Venti would definitely make sure the winds “pass along phrases of the sacred All-God language!”

which just means anyone who UNDERSTANDS YOU JUST GETS GENTLY CREATIVELY CUSSED OUT BY THE WIND IM SOBBINGGG

☆

i hope u guys are having a great summer! its basically too hot to go outside where I am, not unless ur going straight into the water or smth

which hey, ill be doing that this weekend, floating down the river about an hour away from my house with friends! :]

which,,, if anyone sees this, U GOTTA HELP ME THINK OF A 1000 FOLLOWERS MILESTONE THING TO DO IDK WHAT TO DO BUT I WANNA CELEBRATE IT BC I NEVER THOUGHT THATD HAPPEN!! lmk what u think in the comments if u read this!

☆

Safe Travels 0rah,

💀♒

♡the beloveds♡

@karmawonders / @0rah-s / @randomnatics / @glxssynarvi / @nexylaza / @genshin-impacts-me / @wholesomey-artist / @thedevioussmirk / @the-dumber-scaramouche / @chocogi

[barbwritesstuff]

So this was really fun. 👀 A couple of highlights for and thoughts from me:

Oh my god, these stupid vampires in my domain have no idea how good they have it with me just asking for money when I could simply hunt them for sport instead and get rid of the problem. Call me a capitalist bunny all you want (yes, my symbol is a rabbit), you dumbasses are LUCKY! I hope there will be some sort of way to lay down the law because again, these idiots are attracting too much attention and I can't believe Erin or whoever didn't come to talk to me just yet (beyond that moment at the club with Erin trying to influence MC but MC shrugged it off like a boss). Their talks of revolution and influence and peace so far read like lip service. Fucking faux-anarchists

I play as a teenage parent with a child, and I can just imagine Minjo looking at this baby-faced young parent and going "Poor thing". I didn't even realize she was an RO until the swimming class and while I am set on Illya, I am so excited to befriend her. Also hoping she will be able to put a good word in with the werewolves because...

I play on brewing Blackwell's crap for Gaius. For which I need werewolf blood but hey, no one said I have to take it by force! Praying like hell I will be able to reach an accord with the pack to get their blood to keep Gaius happy and under control

Speaking of Gaius, I chose to learn Latin and I was able to understand them. But considering Latin is the base language for many Romance languages like Italian (which is said to be the closest to Latin), French (the furthest) and Spanish (the middle), could it be possible for MC who speaks any of those languages to be able to decipher SOME of what's said between Gaius and his henchman whose name I just forgot (Lucian? Lucius?)?

Now, speaking of languages, could MC be a native speaker to a non-English language themselves? Could be interesting and leave up room to learn another language

I am gonna kill that fucking hunter the second I get my hands on him, simply because he knows about MC's child and I refuse to allow him to have a bargaining chip over me

I love this. 💙

Just quickly: I'm sorry but I'm not planning on programming any more language options into the game. I'm sorry about that.

I am really glad you're enjoying the story. You will have other opportunities to talk to the fledglings, attack the hunter, and befriend Minjo. 💙

[sunny-reis]

this is really trivial but i honestly can’t be bothered i’m fucking FUMING

duolingo is cool for a free language learning app and all, especially since it’s one of the only apps i’ve used thus far that actually lets you proofread through a course without paying for a subscription but holy fucking shit it’s so bad in terms of flexibility and actual language learning/retention??

like i knew not to expect much with the korean course bc it’s not as popular as the main languages — spanish and french — and is bound to be worse in quality, but that’s a whole other rant bc rn i just tried to test up to level b1 in SPANISH and the test is so stupid ?? it doesn’t even accept synonyms — i used añadir instead of agregar and i failed the stupid fucking test like ?? i expect SO much better for the main fucking language the app is used for like . this is what duolingo is KNOWN for and the stupid level up test isn’t even that good . fucking hell

obviously i can’t rule out the fact that maybe most of these mistakes are just me overestimating my spanish ability — makes sense, obviously i’m not a native speaker but like unless the dictionary’s lying to me i don’t think añadir and agregar are that different?

whatever man at the end of the day it’s so stupid and truly just a first-world problem but like :/ it’s so discouraging to use when it marks the stupidest things as wrong when it makes literally no difference irl. obviously the devs can only do so much, but where the hell is their budget going to? and the shitty part is that 99% of language learning apps are paid or have annoying ads, so duolingo’s one of the only apps available for me rn. it’s also a little bit of a sting bc i’ve been using this app consistently for like…almost five years :/ i almost have a 1600~ day streak and i really don’t wanna lose it, but atp it’s no help whatsoever

[danteinthedevildom]

So, talkin abt multilingual Mams, 

I was gonna make this post anyway but then I saw @cheerypining​​ put this in the tags of my post re: Mams’ English in his character song:

I would like to hollar out a hell yes! 

The thing with Mams is that he isn’t stupid. He’s smart as fuck, he’s just motivated by self interest and fixation. It’s easier for him to learn things that are of interest to him, or that expand his interests. He’s got that sweet, sweet ADD brain.

So, if language helps him spread out his influence, make money, expand his contacts? It’s gonna be that lil bit easier for him to figure out. It might even be a fixation of his. Learn a language; open opportunities in the place that language hails from. Gain an interest in how language works. Learn other languages bc it’s fun. 

Consider, then, if you will, for some of that tastey lore-building, 

Mams starting out learning the languages of the most influencial/opulent human powers. It’s beneficial for him to figure out how to speak their language if he really wants to get at their pockets, and you can’t really smooth talk someone if you barely understand the way their haggling works. How is anyone going to trust you if their idioms go over your head, or if you miss some slang that marks you very starkly as an outsider? It’s a lot easier if they think you’re like them; if you know the little things that’ll get them lowering their guard around you. 

He’s great with dialects, too. With differences between the upper and lower classes. It only takes one slip-up using court language around the common folk, or using the dialet of the north in the south, for him to recognise how important those divisions are. He works with trust, and the eventual corruption of that trust, and it becomes pretty clear to him pretty quick that trust can only be attained the more like his target he sounds. 

Dead languages still live on in Mammon’s brain. He’s fluent in them, and even though he hasn’t really had to use them in some time, for some reason they’ve just never faded away. You can pretty much use him as a way to track how languages changed over time, how regional variants were influenced by other languages or cultures, when various languages died out and what replaced them. 

It’s not something that he really thinks about. It was beneficial for him, so he learnt it. Beyond that, it was fun, and he enjoyed it. He doesn’t really give himself credit for just how much linguistic history he has stored inside his head, and he really doesn’t put much credit into how goddamn useful it is - or would be - for modern historians. That’s not what he’s interested in. He’s content to leave Satan to the books, to the past; he’s got more of a propensity for the practicality, anyway. 

Listening to him talk is actually pretty astounding. The ease with which he slips into each language, the depth of his understanding for even the slight nuances between regions, makes him seem like a native speaker. The speed, too, is absolutely stunning; you’ve never seen a more baffling sight than Mammon, speaking mild-mannered in Russian to a witch, switching mid-sentence into heavily-flirtatious French to order from the waitress that came to their table. It’s like he doesn’t even stumble between the two, both as natural to him as breathing. 

He has his preferences, of course. When he’s not using the language for his own goals - doesn’t need to, for instance, be careful about his word choice to ensure a bond of trust is made - he quickly slips into a dialect that is most comfortable for him. He might use ‘watashi’ or ‘ore’ when he’s on the job, might tack on the ‘gozaimasu’ to his greetings to make them polite, but when he’s just generally speaking Japanese? That’s when he starts using ‘ore-sama’, when he drops all the humble or stilted phrases; uses ‘ja ne’ instead of ‘sayounara'. That’s when, in English, he stops making sure to enunciate fully; starts shortening ‘you’ to ‘ya’, cuts off the ‘g’ from ‘ing’ words, starts peppering in ‘crap’ instead of ‘stuff’, lets his words slur together to make ‘whaddaya’ out of ‘what are you’. 

He’s naturally an informal guy! It’s just the way he prefers to talk. He hates the pompous lingo, even if it’s usually the most beneficial to learn for what he does. If the language he’s speaking has a way to show belligerent informality, he will absolutely use it whenever he can. It’s a choice, make no mistake; he can arguably speak better in most languages than the stupid high academics. He just doesn’t enjoy that crap when it’s not immediately useful to him. 

(Yes, that does mean he can comprehend even the most pompously written academic papers. No, that doesn’t mean he wants to read them. He would much sooner stab a fork into his giblets than sit down for any period of time and read that wordy bullshit. Same goes for a lot of Satan’s literature; it’s just not enjoyable for him to read, even if he can perfectly understand it.)

Sometimes a word works better in one language than another. It can get extremely frustrating for him, if he has a very specific point to get across; unless someone knows both languages, they’re never going to fully understand. And why use five words in the inefficient language when one in the efficient language would have been even better for his intent? ‘Fernweh’ works much better than ‘imagine being homesick for a place you’ve never been’, after all.  

Mams has a tendency to drop in words he likes from other languages, which makes some of his speech sound a little confusing. He doesn’t think it makes him sound smarter, and he’s not doing it to show off; just, sometimes, he thinks ‘hey’ sounds better than ‘ohayou’, or that ‘ciao’ is cooler and more aloof than ‘au revoir’. Plus, it’s kinda funny when you’re talking to someone Lucifer and you insult them in a language they don’t understand. 

(I mean, in English, we literally say stuff like “it has a little je ne sais quoi,” [it has a little something that I can’t adequately express] so we merge languages into our own in order to better express ourselves. Mams does the same. He just does it with words and phrases that aren’t always naturally used together within that language.)

Do you understand the amount of skill that comes with being able to do this without even stopping to think? He somehow manages to do it in a way that makes each sentence still perfectly fluent and understandable in translation. It’s a little incredible, actually, considering he doesn’t put any stock into this ability. It’s just natural for him. Why’s he gotta think on it more than that? 

(This does mean, the few times someone points it out, that he gets incredibly flustered. Especially if they say it in awe, or in praise. It really is just second nature to him, not even something he’s putting on for show or something that he’s trying to be good at, so being given so much positive attention for it is... well. It’s surprising, and a little nice, actually. But also genuinely embarrasing. It’s perhaps the only time he’ll struggle to find words in any language.)

In conclusion:

Hell yeah I love reinforcin the idea that Mams ain’t stupid and that there’s a lot of goddamn skill that comes with learnin languages and learnin them to such a degree you can accurately pepper their words into your speech without stoppin to think. 

[politicotalk]

Cultural Identity in Canadian Politics

When I talk to foreign people about Canadian politics, they always come to me and ask me what the hell the issues in Canada can be. That place looks like paradise land. Is the biggest issue how to avoid having your car buried in a pile of snow, or how to teach mooses how to play hockey. All countries have their internal issues, including countries such as Canada, Norway or Sweden which seem to be perfect on the outside. I’m going to try to explain what the major issues Canadian Federal politics face, issues specific to Canada.

Indigenous people Indigenous people of Canada, also refered to as the aboriginal people, have been in the shadows, cast aside, for a very long time in Canadian everyday politics. Actually, since the arrival of European colonisers in the 16th century, they have been sort of cast aside. The first Europeans to come and stay were the French, and they had a lot of issues when they came. First off, they had scurvy; the indigenous helped them with that. Secondly, they didn’t know how to survive harsh Canadian winters, the indigenous people helped them with that. French and First Nations traded with each other and created alliances and systems of relations where both parties benefited from each other’s presence. French population grew in the mean time. The British came and settled, and the tables really started to turn after the American Revolution; a lot of people living in the 13 colonies were faithful to the British Crown and fled North to modern day Canada. This brought a complete shift in demography; all of a sudden, the indigenous (and French) populations were outnumbered by the British. First Nations were pushed out of towns slowly but surely. Come the 19th century, bad boy United States was a major threat. They had something called “manifest destiny”, where they saw the West as a baren wasteland in need of colonisation by white people. The Canadian government freaked out, because this meant they could encapsulate Canada and absorb it into the United States. Well, the Canadian government also looked at the west and thought “well fuck, bud, we gotta claim this land”, so they started building a railroad from modern-day Ontario to British Columbia, all the way on the Pacific Coast. There was a big problem though, you see, this area wasn’t a wasteland; there were a lot of First Nations living there, including aboriginal and Métis people. What did the government do? Adopt the Indian Act in 1876. Yeah, no joke, it’s literally called the “Indian Act”. This land these people lived on was full of natural resources, but these people would not cede to the federal government because fuck you. So the government came up with this stupid law. Indigenous people were forbidden from creating their own governments, hold religious ceremonies, hire lawyers or go against the government over land claims. From the 20th century, when education became an important thing for children, with the help of local religious groups, the government started opening what is called “residential schools” and this is brought on a clusterfuck of problems we are faced with today.

The government gave itself the right to take Indigenous children from their families and force them to go to these schools, where they resided. The parents had no say in whether these children were allowed to go or not. These kids had their heads shaved, were forced to keep short hair, banned from wearing any traditional clothing, speak in their native languages – instead they had to speak English or French –, practice their religion – instead, they were brought into the Catholic Church or any Protestant Churches – and they were banned from contacting their families. I mention hair, some people might thing “so what?”; well, long hair is really important in Native Americans’ cultures. It’s as if you were to tell someone from Bavaria that they were no longer allowed to wear lederhosen. The point of this was to strip these kids of their identities, make them white, and so they would cede their lands more easily to the government, so it could profit off of it.

I can’t tell you how badly that backfired. From the 90’s, these poor kids who were, for the majority, adults started to take the government to court for wrongful abuse made towards them, in claims of abuse done towards them. You probably know that the Catholic Church does not have the best record, especially when it comes to violence done towards children, and Ireland was on the forefront of the international stage years ago for allegations of sexual abuse done by members of the clergy towards children. Well, this wasn’t an exception for Canada. To further prove this, the bodies of thousands of dead children were found buried all around these ex-residential schools in 2020. This was orchestrated by the Canadian government AND the Churches.

Thankfully, the Indian Act, though it still technically exists, is kinda stripped. Aboriginal people have the right to assembly, have the right to practice their religion, speak their languages, practice their cultures, etc. All good right? Right?

Well, not quite, this comes to a second point that was brought up again in the recent elections. What would the candidates do in regards to clean drinking water for the aboriginal? To examine this question, we need to rewind, again (sorry). The aboriginal live, for the majority, on what is called “reserves”. They are lands that are under their local governments’ control, where they all live. If you went to Montreal, Toronto, or even Moose Jaw, you could turn on the tap in the kitchen and drink the water there, no problem. Well, the residences on these reserves, not only are in deplorable states, but they also do not have clean, running water. Canada is not the Sahara. We are not lacking water. Canada has actually the world’s highest amount of natural drinking water. Fly over the country and it’s rivers and lakes everywhere. Yet, these people don’t have running water? So this topic has come back several times in the elections over the last 20 years and no one has done anything.

This is barely scratching the surface of issues surrounding aboriginal people in Canada. These two issues were the ones that came up in the last federal leaders’ debate.

French people Canada is a multicultural country. As mentioned before, the French-speaking population has been in Canada for over four centuries now. They have also been marginalised in some ways, and several attempts to assimilate have been made, but to no avail. Today, the French-speaking population is spread over all of Canada’s provinces, but the majority resides in the province of Quebec, where the official language is only French. Several French speakers live in Acadia (in the East of Canada) in Ontario and in Manitoba. Only New Brunswick is officially bilingual. French people – especially the people of Quebec – have seen themselves as different from the English speakers. They see themselves as an entirely different nation (I should point out that I use the term “nation” in the sense of the term synonymous with “population”). Issues flared up in the late 60’s and lead to a lot of tension in the 70’s, where the culture really started to solidify, and lead to a referendum in 1981 and 1995 in regards to whether Quebec wanted to become an independent country. In short, both times, the answer was no. In 1995, the answer was very slim, with the results being 49% to 51%. The situation in Quebec is very similar as the one in Catalonia and Scotland. 1995 might seem like yesterday to some, but I will remind you that this was 26 years ago. Things change in 26 years. New people are made, old people die. The thought of independence is a far away memory in most people’s imagination, and the young people are pretty cool with not wanting an independent country. This doesn’t mean that all of a sudden, Quebeckers are cool with the federal government and kissing the flag; they still see themselves as different, but have come to accept their place in the country, as the government has accommodated more and more for the French language, and given Quebec flexibility over their governance. But you see, Quebec’s aggressive stance over its language gives the other French speakers the ability to continue existing; media, culture and academic content come largely from Quebec. Without Quebec, these other French speaking cultures fear ceasing to exist.

So what about today? Well, firstly, the health sector is governed by the provinces. This means that Quebec was mostly in control of handling Covid, and they want to deal with all issues surrounding this.

Another thing to mention, is that, most likely because of its catholic culture, Quebec is very left leaning. Most votes for the NDP and a portion for the Liberals come from Quebec, and barely any go to the Conservative. They are in favour of public health services, public education with low fees for higher education, help to families and issues talking the environment. Canada currently heavily relies on industries in the primary sector, especially the West. So if Quebec is so in favour of not allowing pipelines to be built, or not excavating for oil, this wouldn’t affect them so much.

In conclusion, this is what Canada has to deal with, long tensions amongst its three main cultural groups. Let me know what your thoughts are and what your country is tackling in terms of internal conflicts.

[haikyuu-loves-thiccies]

hey hey heyyy can I request Oikawa, Bokuto, Tsukishima and Sugawara being jealous over their crush (who is also their best friend and manager),, thank you! PS. I love EVERYTHING you do \ (•◡•) / ((uhmm, well, i'm not english, so i'm sorry if something is wrong with these sentences ;-;)

Your english is great!!! better than mine and I’m a native speaker XD. This is probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever written- all have similar ending styles, but hey... It made me laugh so :3

Oikawa

  Oikawa is a wildly jealous guy- its pretty damn well known. So it's no shock that whenever anyone else on the team tries talking to you, he'll butt into the conversation and slowly “scare” off the other guy, so that all of your attention is on him. You were one of his best friends, so you knew just how shitty he could get over stuff as small as a glance your way, but you didn't think anything more of it. It's just how he is, right? A flamboyantly jealous highschool boy who needs everything to be about him. Yeah?

  Well, either way, you liked conversing with the other guys, even Kentarou, and Kentarou seemed to like talking to you too! Even though he's very brash and will one hundred percent tell you you're an idiot or a dumbass or whatever insult is on his mind, the two of you do actually get along. Not just on some volleyball-player-to-manager level, but as friends, in and out of school.   So it's safe to say it was pretty shocking to feel his hand on your plush thigh. When you looked at your friend, he was staring at you, almost as if he had just realized where his hand was. Kentarou's face burned red, but he was frozen in place. You could hear the stomping of an angry brunette coming towards the both of you. Oh fuck.

  “Y/N! KENTAROU!” Oikawa shouted, his face fuming. Kentarou- without moving his hand- snapped to Oikawa and made a sour face. “What ARE you two doing?! And in the gym of all places!” He gasped dramatically, tilting backwards with his hands on his chest. “How dare you pull off such PDA on school grounds!”

  “O-Oikawa it's not like that-” you tried to explain but found yourself flustered and stumbling. God, he was a hypocrite, talking about PDA as if he hasn't been all over girls ALL OVER SCHOOL. But being called out like this- for something you weren't even sure was intentional on Kentarou's part, was making you burn with shame.

  “Don't yell at her you fuckstick!” Kentarou snapped. His hand finally let go of your thigh, leaving your skin cold from the sudden exposure. The two boys stood nose to nose, Oikawa burning with a rage  anyone could see if they knew what he was truly like- and Kentarou anyone could see no matter who they are.

  “Oh what, standing up for your girlfriend Kentarou? Is she your girlfriend now? Is that what's happening?” Toru teased, his tone not close to being as it usually is when he tries to get under someone's skin, instead coming off as pure burning hatred.

  “No you dumb fuck! We aren't anythin'! My hand missed the fuckin' bench!” Well, that did seem true. But you were still caught between the two boys arguing, so all you could really do was fade into the background towards the rest of the group while the two argued it out.

  “Save me.” You whispered to Hajime, who merely sighed at his friend's display.

  “Y'know Y/N,” he looked to you. “One day Toru will get the stick out of his ass and actually confess to you properly.”

  “HUH!?”

Bokuto

  Outside of the friendship Bokuto had with Kuroo Tetsuro- and outside of the almost boyfriendship he has with his vice captain, Akaashi, you were one of Bokuto's closest friends. You two trusted each other a great deal, telling each other things you wouldn't tell just about anybody else.

  It took approximately one minute and five seconds of a semi-flirty conversation with Nekoma's captain for Bokuto to be all over you, whining and grabbing places he most definitely should not be grabbing. Sure Bokuto could be jealous, but it was always more of a “I'm going to stand here and grumble/pout” kind of jealousy, not the “I'm going to purposely get in the way and cry until you pay attention to me” way.

  “H-Hey Bokuto could you um-” You tried to swat the boy's hands off you, but they had been firmly placed onto your stomach, squeezing your tummy all-to-intentionally for you to think it anything else

.   “Y/N why are you giving him your attention?” Bokuto pouted. “He doesn't deserve it! He doesn't even go to our school!” Kuroo feigned being offended by his friend's words, but was most obviously amused by the situation.

  “W-We're just having a conversation, Bokuto!” You tried explaining while unsuccessfully prying the boy's hands off you.

  “Doesn't matter! The coolest guy here is right here!!”

  “Well I can't see him if he doesn't let me go!” With this, Bokuto finally released you, pouting like a wounded puppy.

  “C'mon Y/N, it's not fair when the only pretty girl who talks to me talks to my best bro instead!”

  “Bokuto he just asked me if- oH.” Your face burned and, with an involuntary reaction, you smacked Bokuto's shoulder. “D-don't say that stuff!”

  “Whaaaaat? It's true!!”

  “Shut up! My face is going to melt off!”

  Kuroo snorted from somewhere behind both of you. “Wow, you two really are meant for each other.”  “WHAT?”

Tsukishima

  A jealous Tsukishima is a funny sight.

  You never expected to witness it, really, but you weren't complaining. You were friends with him for a while now- though some may see it as a one sided friendship, considering how the French fry can be. But you know better. You two are friends, plain and simple.

  Or at least that's what you thought.

  Now, here, talking to Yamaguchi about love and all that gushy stuff, you're starting to think Tsukishima might have feelings for either one of you- it's hard to tell who, but he doesn't seem very happy that the both of you are discussing dating and what your “types” are.

  “So your type is the excitable... Sweet kind?” You asked Tadashi, unable to stop an amused chuckle from seeing Tsukishima's sour expression behind your shared friend.

  “Erm- well, yeah, I guess! But I don't think having a type really means much. Like, I guess if anyone asked me out- or anyone nice, I'd give it a shot?”

  “Yeah, I can see that.” You agreed, leaning back in your seat. “Though, I know my type. One-hundred-percent bad boy lover right here~”

  “You... do seem like that kind of type.” Tadashi hesitated, smiling almost cheekily.

  “Haha, but I'm serious. A like a guy who could make me feel all rough and tough- and protected! It's hot.” Your words made the boy flush, so he merely nodded along. Behind him, however, Tsukishima was shifting in his seat uncomfortably. You couldn't hold back anymore.

  “What about you, Tsukki?”

  “What about me?” He responded, a small edge in his voice.  “Weeeelllll... What's your type!?”

  “Don't got one.”

  “Bullshit!”

  The blonde tch'd at you impatiently, which made you only more curious to get a real answer from him.

  “C'moooon Tsukki.... If you like Yamaguchi, you can just say so!” At his name, the smaller boy freaked out, waving his hands and babbling over himself, trying to get a coherent sentence but failing. Tsukishima merely growled, sending you a dark stare.  “Wrong friend, dumbass.”

  “Huh? Then what about Kuroo-san?”

  “Never in a million fucking years.”  “Language, Tsukki!”

  “Whatever, babe.”  “B-BABE? WHAT’S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!?”

   Tsukishima shook his head, looking the other way to try and hide an all-too obvious smirk. “Nothing, if you can’t figure it out, dumbass.”

Sugawara

  Sugawara isn't a jealous type, riiiiight? No, no. The boy is actually very jealous. Very very jealous. It just depends on who it is. You wanna flirt around with Daichi? Be his guest! Hell, he'll probably join in! But you wanna flirt with- mmm, say, Terushima? Now that, he has a problem with.

  You knew Sugawara was a protective friend, so it wasn't a big deal when he pulled you aside after you were chatting with the overly-excited and flirty Terushima. And you knew what he'd say, so you just went along with it.

  “I just think you should be careful around him, Y/N!” Suga looked at you worriedly.

  “I know, Suga. But he's not as bad as everyone says. Yeah, that one thing with Kiyoko was kinda messy, but like, he really is a good guy, just kinda.. stupid?” You chuckled at yourself, but Suga didn't seem impressed.

  “I'm serious Y/N.”

  “I know you are, Suga, and I appreciate you looking out for me. But please, tell me, why do you think he's such a bad guy to be around? One interaction with Kiyoko isn't enough to go off of, really...”

  Suga pouted, casting his eyes downward and mumbling.

  “Cuz' he doesn't respect women.”

  You deadpanned. You actually deadpanned. Looking at Suga, you took more than a couple seconds to get your words working again.

  “I'm sorry... That was the most white knight think you've ever said- g-give me a minute-” Laughter escaped you before you could finish yourself. Suga watched you laugh, seeming to lighten up at your giggles. “Okay, okay. You think he doesn't respect women, yeah? Okay... I hear you. But like, really, what is there to go off of? I'm not gonna ostracize him over one bad interaction. Maybe giving him a chance is just what the guy needs?”

  “Well.. Yes... I see where you're coming from- and normally I'd agree with you! But...”

  “But...?” He was twiddling his fingers together, and after a small moment, he mumbled.

  “I don't want him asking you out before I can...”

  “...OOOHHHHHHHHHH.”

Thanks for the ask!!!

[mystery-deer]

Hi I hope you are fine! I've read most of your b99 fics and I love them so much!!!

I have to say I really like how you write Kevin and Holt it's just so interesting and well written I'm speechless!

I hope you'll post new fics with them!

Have a nice day!

(I hope my English isn't too bad, tbh I'm a French native speaker and always feel nervous when I have to write in English haha)

I’m fine, I’m just in school and all my classes are writing based due to my major which leaves little time for recreational writing at the moment~!! Please don’t worry!!  What a lovely ask, it makes me so happy whenever people compliment my writing! Sometimes I think ‘You’re making this way too deep Arthur’ but then I think....hey....I love to swim. I definitely have a few wips and to show you I’m good for it here’s an excerpt from one!;

“Would you like for me to make a run to the store?” Kevin asked.

“No thank you, Deborah’s already…” She trailed off, distracted. Everything was distracted. She wondered who had more of a right to be upset, her or Kevin? Kevin she guessed. “...It’s being taken care of.”

“Of course, would you like to sit down? I can make coffee for all of us.”

“Including me?” Marcus asked, poking his head out from the hall with a grin.

“Excluding you.” 

“I don’t wanna be ex-cluded.” Marcus said, pronouncing it slowly as he went to the front door and rummaged through his bag. “Uncle Ray said he’d help me with my homework but only history because I’m great at everything else!”

“Yes, I heard you got straight A’s this semester.” Marcus took out a glossy notebook and hesitated, looking at the ground and flipping through the pages idly.

“I got a C in history though. No one else did.” He said, suddenly moping. He had the tone of someone bringing up an old grievance and Laverne could picture Debbie trying to cheer him up in the car on the drive home from school as he frowned at the single C. 

“I’m sure that’s an exaggeration. When I was younger I often struggled in math.” Kevin offered.

Marcus perked up. “Really? But math is easy!”

“Perhaps to you because you’re quite gifted in that sphere. However, I had trouble keeping the numbers straight and one day I got a D.” Marcus gasped softly and shook his head. Laverne smiled and looked out the window. Debbie’s car was coming down the street so she rose to greet her.

“Indeed,” Kevin remarked at Marcus’ shock. “I told all my friends that I had gotten a B and threw the report card out the window of the boy’s bathroom.”

“Did your mom get mad?”

“Oh yes.” Kevin said, tone aggressively neutral.

“My mom didn’t get mad at me, she said- she said that’s okay and I can try again!” Marcus exclaimed, proud.

Kevin’s eyes drifted to Laverne’s, then to the door. “She’s a very kind woman. And she’s right.”

The door opened at that moment and Laverne was glad she’d unlocked it in preparation as her daughter was nearly invisible underneath all the bags she was carrying. 

“Little help?” She called and Kevin rushed over to take a few of the heavier ones. Marcus tugged a bag out of her hands and dragged it to the kitchen, refusing anyone else’s help. Laverne reached for a bag but Debbie angled herself away, stumbling to the kitchen and telling her to rest. 

“I don’t need to rest.” Laverne said, slightly annoyed at being treated as so fragile. She remembered when Debbie had fit on her hip, bah. 

“I don’t mean it like that ma, I just...we’re all kinda weird right now.” Kevin and Laverne both flinched at the acknowledgment as to why they were all here. Marcus rooted through the plastic bags in search of snacks. The coffee machine beeped and Kevin poured the liquid into four mugs.

“Mom, can I have coffee?” Marcus asked again, popping up from the floor to grab her leg. Debbie scratched lightly as his hair. 

“You wouldn’t like it, here, I got you some apple juice instead.” She handed the small container of juice to the boy and he grinned, running off down the hall where he’d come from. “Ah ah ah, Marcus!”

There was a pause and then a reversal as he ran back, out of breath. “Yeah?”

“What do we say?” His mother prompted.

“...Thank you!” He ran to give her a hug before bouncing back down the hall. Debbie rolled her eyes good-naturedly as Kevin let out a soft exhale of laughter.

“He’s a handful that one.” Debbie said.

Laverne hummed. “I believe all children are handfuls, be thankful you only have one.” 

“Every day!” Debbie exclaimed, preparing to cook something. “Every day, I am!”

“I’m going to go check on them.” Kevin said, walking down the hall. Laverne and Debbie exchanged a look.

“Do you think he’s going to be ok?” 

“Why wouldn’t he be? I hardly think anything will happen to him between here and Raymond’s room” Debbie shook her head, ignoring her mother’s joke.

“I mean will Ray be ok.”

She didn’t know. She wished she knew. She wished she knew how to deal with this. “I’m certain he’ll be fine.” She said, standing to help her daughter prepare the sandwiches.

Raymond had always been a bit shy around his father. Laverne didn’t know why but whenever he was around he froze up. Raymond would talk endlessly about what he was doing for school, his friends, his campaign for class president and how he was debating whether or not to ask for help with the speech.

“Why not ask your dad? He’s a very skilled orator.” She’d suggested and Raymond had hesitated before nodding the same way he did when he was offered anything he really wanted. He always paused before accepting, as if he expected the other person to snatch it away. 

That night Raymond was quiet at the dinner table. Debbie was happily babbling in her own toddler language about imaginary adventures she’d been on that day and Clifton was humoring her beautifully, giving Laverne a chance to relax. Though she wasn’t relaxing, she was looking at her son who was playing with his dinner nervously. The hour dragged on until finally as she was clearing the plates she said mildly; “Clifton, Raymond would like to ask you something.” Raymond startled as if a spotlight had suddenly been shined on him and avoided eye contact with his father, who turned to him as he wiped Debbie’s face with a napkin.

“Hm? What is it?”

“I- um…it’s nothing. I can do it myself.”

“Are you sure? I’d be glad to help if you-”

“No thank you, I can do it myself.” 

Raymond had rushed to leave the table after that, running to his room and shutting the door. She and Clifton had exchanged a look and her husband had shrugged good-naturedly. 

“He’ll come when he’s ready.” He’d said but Laverne had the strong sense he wouldn’t, that he wanted to be chased and cajoled and coddled.

“Did Kevin tell you how much?” Debbie asked, slicing cucumbers into perfect, thin slices. She was always skilled at chopping and dicing and Laverne would always let her cut the onions and garlic because she liked the smell and she liked carrying on about how it hurt her eyes.

“Not yet.”

“Twenty thousand dollars.” The number shook her. So many zeroes. So much wasted. Debbie seemed to feel the same way, repeating it under her breath. Laverne pictured her son throwing twenty thousand dollars up into the air, watching it scatter on the wind. Throwing it into a fireplace, shredding it in front of her. 

No, don’t blame him.

She wanted to.

Her gut reaction was to shake him when she’d first gotten the call. To drive to his apartment and shake him and scream and ask him why the hell he would do this, how could he so stupid?

She composed herself. That would get her nowhere. 

[spookyboywhump]

11, 25, 44 and 70 for Wren, Zander and Cain! (I'll catch up with your other stories eventually I swear)

Thank you so much for these, I’ve been so excited to answer them all day!

 (This got kind of long because of 25 because I actually LOVE thinking about these boys before all This)

11.  Do they believe in luck?

Cain: Not really, he’s one to believe that everything that happens is directly caused by his own or someone else’s actions (and always ready to take his anger out on somebody if he thinks their actions have brought him misfortune)

Zander and Wren: Both of them believe in luck, and both of them believe that luck is a direct cause of their current situation. For Zander, who had basically a perfect life before this, he assumes that he finally ran out of that luck, while Wren believes he’s chronically unlucky as he rarely ever gets a break from misfortune

25.  What type a high schooler are/were they?

Cain: He was an absolutely terrible high schooler. His father sent him off to a fancy boarding school for most of the year for middle school through high school (which is conveniently where he met Vanessa) and very few of his memories involve classes or teachers because he rarely showed up for classes. He spent most of his time skipping class and sometimes escaping the heavily secured school all together, though he was usually caught and brought back within the day. He got away with all the shit he pulled because the staff was too scared of his father to try and discipline him, thinking he would have their jobs if they said anything about Cain, though in reality their silence saved him from much, much worse punishments because his father certainly wouldn’t have let it slide. He graduated with decent grades for work he never did because he just did not care, and he knew it would just be given to him.

Zander: He was a great student, his teachers loved him and he was well liked by other students. He had a general A-B average in grades and he did his best on all his work. He prefered classes like Algebra and Physics, he excelled in anything having to do with math. He wasn’t really one to ever skip school or classes, he rarely ever got in trouble or caused problems. He had a thriving social life, he was definitely one of those “pretty boys” that people would get crushes on, and though he often attended parties with his friends he wasn’t really one to drink and usually the one to stop his friends from getting stupid. Overall he was the ideal high schooler, good grades, great personality, well behaved. Kind of sucks he’s just��� this now.

Wren: Instead of shooting for being a good student, and honor student, or even just an overachiever, Wren set straight into overworking himself half to death. He would’ve never been able to afford to get into a good college so he worked his ass off in high school hoping for scholarships, he was in all advanced classes and did any kind of extra credit he could get. He had amazing grades, he passed all his exams, and his work was almost never late, all while dealing with not the best home life. Because of this though, he didn’t have many friends at all, and he was often stressed, depressed, and sick. He was an incredibly quiet kid and definitely not one to bother people with his problems, his teachers probably only remembered him because of his good grades. He doesn’t really remember high school fondly, however his overworking and overachieving is what got him recruited for his current job.

44. Do they know more than one language?

Cain: He’s fluent only in English, however for business reasons he has forced himself to sit down and take classes for Spanish and Mandarin. 

Zander: Also fluent in only English, and he’s lost the slight grasp on French he had from classes in school

Wren: Completely fluent in English, but he has a good understanding of Spanish, enough to hold a conversation with a native speaker, and his friend Lila has been giving him sparse lessons in Mandarin. 

70. What do you, the creator of this OC, like most about them?

Cain: He’s just terrible. He’s a shitty person who does most of this for fun and just because he can. I wouldn’t say even his Angsty Backstory is reason enough to ever redeem him, he’s just a terrible asshole and he’s so much fun to write.

Zander: I’m a big fan of his need to Protect people. He’s been through hell (and still not back yet) and he refuses to let anyone else suffer the same level he has. Even if it was somebody like Cain he wouldn’t want them to be treated the way he is and I love that about him.

Wren: I like his level of determination. I think that in a way I admire him because of certain similarities, except he’s better lmao. Small, very tired, and anxious is relatable, but Wren is very determined with everything he does, especially if he believes it’s the right thing, and no amount of exhaustion and anxiety is going to stop him from at least trying.

(These are for this post!)

[nathan-meiger-blog]

• We spotted Nathan Meiger around Toledo today, just another gear in the machine of the apocalypse. I heard he is a hunter for The Saints. I guess it fits, seeing as he’s known to be perceptive & resolute, as well as unstable & eccentric. They often have Twenty Years by Placebo in their head while they work. I wonder if they’re prepared for what’s coming?

┆ Info ┆ History ┆ Family ┆ Headcanons ┆ Wanted Connections ┆

Name: Nathan Meiger Age: Twenty-four Gender: Male Orientation: Homosexual  Former profession: Freelance photographer Hometown: San Marino, California Camp: The Saints Role: Hunter +intelligent, +observant, +insightful, +creative, +open-minded -distracted, -sarcastic, -unpredictable, -guarded, -grey morality

Survival Skills:

Stubbornly refuses to die in some stupid way.

Willing to point out to others that they are doing something that will mean everyone dying in, again, some stupid way.

Very keen perception to details so finding/locating/foraging/scavenging is something he’ll do well.

Creative problem solving.

Is a native speaker/reader/writer of English and German, and has a working grasp of speaking/reading in French so he can translate for communication or read things in said languages. 

Disadvantages:

Clumsy as hell at times.

Has a fairly strong fear of deep water/lakes/oceans that stems from an incident in childhood so he doesn't function well in situations that involve that.

Confrontational towards people he thinks are wrong even if they’re in charge.

Not always the best grasp of reality when he gets emotional/dissociates.

Can’t do several seemingly normal things; barely knows how to change a tire on a car much less how to fix one, the same lack of knowledge goes for most machines but he does learn quickly when taught, doesn’t know the first thing about planting things/growing anything.

Fairly addictive personality so he's still struggling for want of cigarettes, still very much misses his cell phone and a generally far easier life with vices he used to indulge.

[History] 

┥when the world was still alive ┝

The ugliness of life is that it very rarely hands out good to people on simple faith alone, or that was at least how Nathan always saw it. Under the shadow of stark family expectations he grew up listening to harsh arguments between his mother and father, two people who could hardly seem to be in the same room for more than five minutes at a time so he never figured out how it was they managed to have four children together. The trouble of course was that his father had a rather strong determined streak that ran nearly to the level of cold-blooded and his mother found the man exhausting. While he was busy building an empire around the law firm he owned she was penning novels that climbed best seller lists and, somehow, two highly ambitious people could not have been worse for each other. Maybe they had been in love once, before children were underfoot and work hours ran late into the evenings, predating family trips dissolved into reasons to travel to opposite ends of the globe to find some space. 

The divorce was no surprise to anyone. Even Nathan, only eight at the time, understood the tension well enough to know that rupture had been a long time coming. His mother left, taking along his younger sister and promising visits that fell to excuses and then phone calls, and finally nothing at all and shared holidays that never happened. His brothers may have fared better, better adjusted, or whatever the case might have been that made them less sensitive to the amount of animosity that settled into every corner of their large home like a layer of grime. 

It didn’t ease much as time passed and growing up under his father’s scrutiny with only his older brother to serve as a damper from it and his younger, Corey, always underfoot left Nathan retreating from what felt like constant pressure. He wrapped sarcasm around himself like a wall and started to disconnect more and more from the world. Nothing much mattered because nothing was real; his friends were the sort who were fond of him because of his wallet, his interests in constant shift from a restless mind, his ambitions never measured up so he stopped trying to win the favor of a man he only saw long enough to be yelled at over whatever he had fallen short over during the day.  

He struggled with the idea of leaving the moment he turned eighteen but that meant abandoning Corey alone in that house and while his brother never earned the sort of relentless verbal abuse their father was so fond of showering on him it wasn't a chance he wanted to take so he found a compromise of sorts in attending community college and living at home. It didn't go over well though, even when he graduated and started working as a freelance photographer around the area, not nearly good enough for his father but really that came as no surprise. 

┥after the end ┝

Both he and Corey were spending a few weeks with their older brother at his Manhattan home when the world started to fall apart. During the point when communication was still active they tried to contact their father but once the virus had become more dangerous, once more began to break down, it was clear that nothing was going to remain stable for much longer. The argument over going returning to California or not became a tense one and Nathan refused, in some ways not wanting the truth and some guilty part of him knew it would have almost been a relief if the man were dead; either way he did not want to make the trip back when it was clear they would likely be stranded there once transportation finally stopped. 

He was overruled though by his brothers, their determination to reunite the family overriding any of what Nathan thought was common sense, and so off they went. It was slightly easier than for some people, those were the days when money still had value and between the three of them they had it in excess thanks to the family fortune, but everything was falling apart around them and even that advantage was short-lived.

They made it over halfway before being separated, people were panicked and there was no real structure to anything left, so it came as no surprise when the airport they had been forced to stop in outside of Texas was in a state of disaster. It was in that chaos that Nathan had his first up close and personal encounter with the sort of vile creature the virus spawned when someone apparently infected died in flight. Once the creature escaped the cargo bay where it was being held there was no real stopping the death that followed. It was during the maelstrom right out of a horror movie that he lost track of his brothers, it wasn't until after escaping the airport that he came back across Corey in the company of a few stray survivors. 

The decision shoved on him was not one Nathan wanted to make, knowing that continuing to search for his other brother meant risking being attacked but taking the option to leave with people they didn't know might mean never finding him again He did what he had to, Corey was only a kid, he had to protect him and there was safety in numbers. 

The few months after were a blur, Nathan quickly discovered how ill-suited his life of excess had made him for survival. Thankfully he did have enough to offer in the form of being sharply attentive and excellent in spotting things often overlooked to keep both of them at least on the outskirts of the group. The peace was dissolving though, he saw it more and more each day, leadership became a point of tension that wouldn't resolve and it finally came down to arguments. Rather than stick around to watch the decay he left, Corey begrudgingly following, and set out to find stability elsewhere. 

Time and again they moved from group to group, sometimes getting separated, other times being pushed out by either the group itself falling apart or Nathan's habit of questioning the actions of those in charge when their decisions seemed reckless. More often than not they spent weeks between on their own, aside from a mutt that Corey adopted along the way, never fully able to settle anywhere because Nathan was always uneasy. 

It was not long into their third year after everything had crashed down around them that Nathan made the mistake of being talked into joining a group that had made their home in the abandoned warehouse district in New Orleans. Everything almost felt too ideal, too comfortable, but Corey made friends and it felt like maybe they had a home. With that feeling Nathan began to debate returning to the search for their other brother, lured into the idea that Corey was safe within the heavily guarded community that had been built. He didn't end up having to make a choice though, as most things do even that collapsed on itself. 

The raid from another group was so unexpected that it caught everyone off guard, he had always known that it happened but still wasn't fully prepared for the idea of people killing each other rather than corpses. 

During the bloodshed Nathan himself was injured and Corey was killed, shot by one of the intruders, and it wasn't until after they had left the destruction behind that Nathan found him. He was alone then, so entirely that he refused to remain behind with the other survivors and rebuild; the thought of living with the ghosts of those memories was more than he could stomach. 

It took the better part of year of being on his own, at times barely surviving, for Nathan to come to terms with the fact that it was nearly impossible to continue to live that way. When he found The Saints he was, and still is, wary of the supposed safety promised there after seeing for himself how that can change in an instant. But, afraid he wouldn't last out much longer on his own, he volunteered as a Hunter, knowing that he had nothing useful to offer in farming or most of the other tasks around the camp, and has remained there for the better part of five months. He's still waiting for something to break, doesn't trust it to last, but for the time being it's really all he has.

[Family] 

Mother Leah Meiger

Nathan has no real memory of his mother other than before the divorced was finalized. She didn’t attempt to stay in the area and the last he heard from her she was living somewhere in the Maine area but he really has no idea. What he does remember is confusing, a mix of her affection for her children and the chaos of her constant fighting with his father. Most of the family claim that Nathan’s emotional highs and lows being so intense are inherited from her. He really was too young to have more than fuzzy recollections of her. As it stands he has no idea if either she or his sister are still alive.

Father Jason Meiger (Deceased)

It isn’t that Nathan hated him, exactly, he just found him an overbearing misery to be around. The man had built his business from the ground up and as such always had high exceptions for his children and Nathan’s tendency to disconnect always put them at odds. Being the middle child out of the boys he was usually the one his father singled out and suffered a large share of his anger and sharp comments, his seeming lack of direction was another tense point between them that never settled well. Even Nathan’s sexuality was something that would have caused friction, if he had ever bothered to tell the man that he’s gay. He hasn’t come to terms fully with the idea of him likely being dead but it’s more from the guilt of feeling a sense of relief than not wanting to accept the possibility.

Siblings Corey Meiger (Deceased)

The youngest of the family, Corey was barely in his teens when the virus spread and life went all to hell. A fairly quiet kid, he was quick to stick close to his brothers, specifically Nathan because the two of them shared a tendency to be introverted. More of an optimist by nature, he was a bright spot to most people and Nathan's entire reason to stay focused and concentrate on keeping the both of them alive. It wasn't the virus of the monsters that snatched Corey, he had only turned eighteen a few months before being killed during a raid on the camp that he and Nathan had been living in for the better part of six months. It's something that Nathan still blames himself for, even now, more than a year after his death. 

(Open connections)

Nathan has one older brothers and one younger sister still missing. His sister left his life when she was very small and likely she doesn’t remember any of them unless their mother made a point to tell her about the family. His brother he’s been on fairly good terms with even though they have different personalities. His brother specifically is the one he’s run to for support on occasion but the two tend to argue and have a difficult time seeing eye to eye on most things. As it stands he has no idea where he might be, having lost all contact with him shortly after the spread of virus when they were traveling back to meet their father and never made it that far. He assumes him to be dead but never had a chance to try to find out for himself.

┆ Info ┆ History ┆ Family ┆ Headcanons ┆ Wanted Connections ┆

[iustusetpeccator]

Viktor Krum meta: language use & accent

Before I even start in earnest, I just wanna say this is particular to my interpretation of Viktor and comes with all my hangups as a Bulgarian person living in Brexit Britain; also it got pretty long. But if you like some light sociocultural analysis along with your meta, by all means read on.

So we all know how Rowling chose to represent Viktor—quiet, grumpy, slightly bumbling, and when he does speak, not particularly articulate. He does have a decent vocabulary range, but his accent is harsh and noticeable. He is also shown to speak in present continuous tense, as seen here:

‘Vell, ve have a castle also, not as big as this, nor as comfortable, I am thinking,’ he was telling Hermione. ‘Ve have just four floors, and the fires are lit only for magical purposes. But ve have grounds larger even than these – though in vinter, ve have very little daylight, so ve are not enjoying them. But in summer ve are flying every day, over the lakes and the mountains –’

Here’s an example from DH, where you can see he still has the accent, but also the (not bad) range of vocabulary he’s given, as well as his correct use of prepositions:

‘He retired several years ago. I vos one of the last to purchase a Gregorovitch vand. They are the best – although I know, of course, that you Britons set much store by Ollivander.’

I'm here to explain why I do it (a little) differently.

First of all, let me lay some groundwork. He was born in the mid-seventies in Bulgaria, which at the time was part of the Eastern Bloc. I'm going to refrain from talking about the ramifications of that on our culture, but keep in mind we were very much in bed with the Soviet Union during his formative years. Furthermore, he went to Durmstrang—a school known for accepting pupils from a very wide geographical range, seeing as it's located somewhere ‘in the far north of Europe’ and yet accepted Viktor, from way down in southeastern Europe. Either he was exceptional, or it's a pretty multicultural school.

So what does that tell us? Well, to begin with, the boy is more than likely to have been fluent in at least, AT LEAST, three languages: Bulgarian, which was his native language, of course; Russian, which was a mandatory subject from an early age in school (even if he didn’t go to muggle school, he would’ve had to speak it to avoid rousing suspicion), and which is relatively easy for a fellow Slavic language speaker to learn and retain; and either German or one of the Scandinavian languages, which he would've been taught in while at Durmstrang. At minimum.

At the same time, the Triwizard Tournament would've presented Viktor's first serious brush with the English-speaking world. English was not taught in school at the time (see also: Cold War); if you picked up a second foreign language (on top of Russian, which basically didn't count), it would be either German or French, due to long-standing sociocultural ties (i.e. our intelligentsia were largely educated in France, and we sided with Germany in both world wars; don't ask). So unless his family went out of their way to teach him English, which they would've had no reason to as it wasn't seen as useful, he wouldn't have learned it formally at any stage.

How do I know all this? Well, I’m Bulgarian for one, and also my parents are only 5-10 years older than Viktor would be. They speak, or at some point have spoken, 4-5 languages between them, of which English isn’t one. In order to study it back in the 70s and 80s, you’d have had to go to a special school that was difficult to get into, and not hugely popular either.

So yes, his spoken English was clumsy in GoF when he was 18, and he probably never lost the accent, but 1) his written English was likely much better (see also: exchanging letters with Hermione for years), and 2) his mastery of the language will have improved pretty rapidly once he made friends who spoke it. The level you see in GoF, animated discussions with Hermione and all, is his default level without having studied English in any capacity, so to think it would stay that way into his adult years is not doing the man justice.

Also him using present continuous at any stage instead of simple present tense makes no sense, considering it’s 1) more complex, and 2) does not exist in Bulgarian, his native language. So I’m not even engaging with that.

Anyway, how has all this informed the way I write him? For one, I mostly focus on the post-SWW period, when he’s: 

travelled quite widely in connection with his international career, making a lot of friends from different countries;

been pen-pals with Hermione and kept in touch with Fleur for a number of years;

chosen to settle in the UK in the aftermath of the war.

What all this means is that he’s had a lot more practice reading, writing, and speaking in English, and his words are likely to flow a lot more smoothly, as well as picking up some colloquialisms from his teammates. As for his accent, not doing the whole ‘vos’ thing is a very conscious choice. I don’t shy from a phonetic accent (see also: Alastor), but on the one hand, that’s not what my accent sounds like so I find it hard to reproduce, and two, I think it’s borderline comical, tbh. Also it makes him sound like Otto von Chriek, but that’s neither here nor there.

What I do instead is, I try and limit his vocabulary and the length of his sentences. I’m aware my command of English is above and beyond what he’s likely to attain, so I don’t make him sound like me. I mess up the odd tense and preposition, throw in the odd expression that doesn’t exist in English, make him pause and think a lot about what he says, etc. And that’s it, folks. That’s how actual Bulgarian people speak English. Compared to the other languages he’s fluent in, it’s really not a difficult one to pick up.

What I’m trying to put across here is that the whole stereotype of Eastern Europeans being stupid and bad at English in itself is really harmful. For my American friends who may not be aware of European power dynamics, we are some of the latest additions to the EU and have received tons of backlash from western Europe. Polish, Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants have been racialised by the media, particularly in the UK, and written off as cheap labour/benefit fraudsters. Hell, a lot of people who campaigned and voted for Brexit directly blame us for a lot of the UK’s issues, like the state of the National Health Service (actually due to Conservative party cuts under the guise of austerity) and a poor job market (driven by a shitty fucking economy, and not at all helped by the nearly inevitable Brexit-related recession that’s on its way).

If you want to know more about why that's a massive issue, just hmu, I can go on for days, but in terms of Viktor, I refuse to perpetuate JKR’s subconscious biases against Eastern Europeans by making him sound like some sort of illiterate idiot in my own writing. He was Durmstrang's champion, and as such we have to assume he was reasonably intelligent. Quiet, reserved, lacking confidence in his language skills, nervous around Hermione—definitely. Stupid and bumbling, not so much.

[sturlsons]

french in 1.5 years anon

Kinda random but I just found out that I’ll be required to be intermediate/advanced in French by the next 1.5 years; ALL I KNOW IS THAT MEIRDE IS A BAD BAD WORD! Idk if you’re a native speaker but I was wondering if you could provide me of any good French language resources (or language in general since I’ll be needing to learn Arabic soon as well), and like tips for language learning and how to go about it? Sorry to bother you haha this is MY stress but I appreciate any help! Have a great day!

HEY. so i really fucking dropped the ball on this one, i’m sorry. 2019 has been one health fiasco after another (or more like the same fiasco again and again) and i kept telling myself i want to sit down and make a proper post for this, until i realised that that’s just never going to happen given the way things are rn. and i’d rather give you a quickly-written post which is actually helpful than never write that perfect bullet-pointed one. 

first of all, i’ve been in your EXACT position (so no, i’m not a native speaker) except i had about...six months to go from je m’appelle teesta to voyez-vous, le problème qui se cache derrière tout ça n’est pas le manque de respect mais la personne dont il s’agit or whatever. i was like, i can so do this. (spoiler: i didn’t, because i was 18 and overconfident and stupid and didn’t actually know how to learn a language.) GOOD NEWS: having learned 3 more foreign languages since then, i am now REALLY GOOD at learning languages REALLY FAST. 1.5 years is a good amount of time, so don’t stress.

i’m going to go generic on this, with some extra tips about french since i speak it, unlike arabic. 

first thing, that typical thing everyone hates to hear but knows is coming from the mouth of an accomplished person (pat on my back) in any field whatsoever: you’re going to have to work really hard and practice like fuck. 

there’s just nothing else that can replace it. i’ve filled up notebooks and notebooks with japanese verb conjugations, once i did like 1800 of them in one sitting. but you better believe that a bitch will never forget those now. resign yourself to putting in at least three hours of your day to this until you get to the level you need. (and three hours is...kind. at my peak i was literally reading through french dictionaries at the library, 10 AM - 8 PM. i treated it like a workday.)

now, what you need to establish is: are you a hands-on learner or a digital one. 

i don’t really care for all the auditory learner and visual learner stuff, i don’t know about anyone else but i personally used those as excuses to avoid certain exercises. unless you have actual disabilities preventing you from accessing certain methods of learning, you can train yourself into anything. it’s a matter of practice. i could barely understand a new song without reading its lyrics first, now i eat up podcasts. 

SO. the question here is different. a hands-on learner, like i used to be more or less throughout my bachelor’s, is someone who absolutely cannot retain information unless they’ve written it down BY HAND at least once. pen and paper. (i’m still like this but i’ve learned to combine it with digital methods to go faster.) if this isn’t a hurdle for you, congratulations. your process is going to go that much faster, at least for french. (you’ll have to spend hours practicing your written arabic however, if you’re not familiar with the script.) 

now, if you’re a hands-on learner, you need to add an extra hour to your daily time. no matter how fast you write, you will take that time. and you cannot shorthand your way into languages. you need to understand how french is spelt, what accents it uses, that they put a space before exclamation points, question marks, and semicolons. (side tip: learn the IPA. it will be useful to you forever in language learning, at least for the romance languages.) i’m not gonna teach you how to make notes since i’ve never benefitted from copying someone else’s style, so if you don’t have a set method start establishing that. you need regularity and rhythm when you learn a language. my grammar notes look the same regardless of the language. i don’t have my french ones since it’s been years and i didn’t take good ones then anyway, but here’s my japanese and russian stuff. 

JAPANESE NOTES // RUSSIAN NOTES

now, it bears mentioning that these notes are NOT the notes i take when i don’t know shit. these are final level notes. they’re brief, idiosyncratic, and only reminders. something to refer to when i’m revising and suddenly forget a rule. the first notes i make are much more elaborate, whether they’re pretty or not. i’ve gradually lost the fucks i had about really going ham on academics so my russian notes are very messy, but my japanese ones from back in the day are magnificent. here’s a look. during lesson one i realised that japanese and my mother tongue, gujarati, are syntaxically similar as shit, and i started taking notes with references in gujarati. it sped up my learning process 2x while my french classmates were still going “BUT WHY IS IT LIKE THAT”. 

PRACTICAL GRAMMAR // THEORETICAL GRAMMAR

if you plan to learn more languages in the future, this will be so valuable. sometimes a phrase i learn in russian doesn’t make sense in its french explanation, but a phrase in english might use the same logic. bam, put down the translation in english then. you get what i’m saying? the more languages you learn, the easier it gets to learn languages. 

now if you’re a digital learner, i’ve got great news for you. duolingo and anki are your best friends. duolingo’s memed to hell and has a system that might not work for everyone, but they’ll do the brunt work of compiling grammar notes for you in the beginnings/ends of their lessons. note those down and transform them into anki flashcards, and you can learn grammar concepts without doing 20 exercises. (do those exercises if you can, though, nothing beats mindless practice.) now anki is an intimidating-looking but actually super intuitive app that basically builds digital flashcards for you and shows them to you in a rhythm based on your own learning speed. it’ll show you the front of a card, let’s say merde. you say the english translation out loud, shit, and hit enter. correct! was that easy? anki’ll show it to you in 10 minutes. hard? it’ll show you in 1 minute. super easy? merde won’t come up again until tomorrow. eventually you get so good at it that you can bury a card for 2 months. anki will also show you the same cards reversed, which is harder but trains you better. you’ll see shit and have to remember what it’s called in french, which is more difficult than you’d think it is. 

you can use anki for more than just vocab, like i mentioned. it’s a little tricky learning to convert grammar concepts into front/back flashcards, but you can do it. for example, here’s a sample of one of my russian grammar cards: 

front ^^

back once i hit enter^^

see? not that difficult. now don’t be an idiot like me who manually entered every single flashcard into anki. you can find pre-made packages online (but you can’t guarantee they’ll be correct) or you can make your own without killing your fingers. what you wanna do is open up a spreadsheet and make two columns, A for front of the card and B for back. it’ll look like this:

then you’re gonna save that spreadsheet as a .CVS (comma separated values) and import that into anki. bam, your flashcards are made for you with half the effort. there’s also a script floating around somewhere to make excel translate words automatically for you, but i don’t recommend that unless they’re really easy words. google translate can fuck up. reverso is your friend. 

you need to review your anki cards every day. it’ll take less and less time as you go along. i can review 300 russian cards in 15 minutes now. but you need to keep the rhythm going. download ankiapp and sync your cards, review them on commutes or in the hallway or whatever. trust me, it’s magic. 

apart from this, if a traditional textbook helps, go for that. i’ve always used textbooks and workbooks, more as supports than as principal methods, but it does help. it’s structured and organised and these people know how to train you. bescherelle is a good go-to for french. 

media is always a great way of immersion too, until you get to the country itself. it’ll show you how french people speak french. when i first came to france i didn’t have that experience and even though i spoke an arguably decent amount of french when i got here, it was like, if this is french then what the fuck was i learning in high school. if you like watching movies this is your chance. watch the classics first so that you can get an idea of french pop culture. amélie (though the pop culture aspect here is about shitting on it) and les intouchables, for starters. watch your favourite films, first subbed, then subbed and dubbed, then just dubbed. i watched all ten seasons of friends with french subs, it was wild. with music you want to start off with some indie-ish singers since they will universally sing softer and slower, making things easier to understand than idk, la tribu de dana. (if you’re into bts there’s a hilarious video of their baepsae choreo set to la tribu de dana.) anyway - angèle, cœur de pirate, céline dion, fréro delavega, uhhh that fucking french sufjan stevens. what’s his name. VIANNEY. don’t fucking listen to biglo and oli or like, fatal bazooka right away. you will not understand shit. i barely understand it. white people are wild. ooh listen to stromae. orelsan too, he’s a rapper but he has a relatively clean diction imo. he also sang the french opening for OPM. they call him orelsan-san in japan.

last but not the least: if you have the opportunity to interact in french with people, DO IT. native speakers will do their best to help you and be kind about it. people who learned french might sometimes be assholes from experience. it’s a whole superiority complex thing, and very hypocritical. anyway - online or IRL, wherever you can practice your french, do it. it’ll be immensely helpful. there’s nothing like the frustration of not being able to express simple things to get you motivated to get better. do your best to immerse yourself - changing the language on your devices can make a difference too. 

i think that’s all i have and again, i’m sorry for taking this long to finally deliver, thanks for your patience! if you have any specific questions don’t hesitate to hit me up, on anon or not. 

good luck - it’s not going to be the easiest but nothing is as gratifying as beginning to understand the workings of a language. you’re gonna love it!

[thetruthhurtsbaby]

neo pronouns are the stupidest thing ever - get over yourself

1. Pronouns are supposed to be easy thing. It allows us to not say the name of the person we are talking to (or talking about) all the time. She/her, he/him and they/them make sense. All the stupid things like zir or fae or something like that are ridiculous and I refuse to use them

2. Not everyone main language is English. My native tongues are French and Portuguese (and Arabic as well), and me, but also plenty of non-native English speakers don't understand what the hell are neo pronouns and how to use them and we have don't have to learn how - pronouns are supposed to be easy, not making the task even harder for non English speakers

3. Even if a small community of special snowflakes ❄️ on this hell site want to use those pronouns, realistically, no one is gonna use that. You don't change a language as old as English just because some losers with an inferiority complex want people to use them.

In conclusion get over yourself

[tehdoctah]

Copypasta rant incoming:

First of all, we have no consistency when it comes to pronunciation. Take the word “slough”, which is the name of a body of water in a field too large to be considered a pond, but not big enough to be a lake. I’ve heard it pronounced “sluff” to rhyme with tough, “sloo” to rhyme with through, and “slao” to rhyme with Mao. It’s stupid.

There’s also my most detested quartet of words in this linguistic nightmare, red, read, read, and reed. The first two are pronounced the same, and the second two are pronounced the same, but the middle two... the middle two are perhaps the best illustration of what a fucking whack job pigdin this pathetic excuse for a language is: they’re the exact same fucking word, right? WRONG. They’re pronounced differently, and the first one is the past tense of the other. There is no way to determine how to pronounce these four letters without context. And the worst part? This is not the only fucking example of this sort of shit. Wound and wound, wind and wind, lead, lead, lead, and lead! Your brain probably just broke trying to read that, especially that last quartet. Two nouns, a verb, and the past tense of that verb, all the same four letters, impossible to distinguish without context. How do we manage to speak this gibberish?

Because even native speakers don’t even know how the hell it’s supposed to work. Seriously. There’s a rule in English about adjective order. I can’t even remember what the fucking order is, because it never gets taught, only learned. Learnt? More fucking bullshit there. Anyway, it’s as solidly engraved in our language as noun gender in French or German, and if you got it wrong, the average English speaker would call you out on it, but if you asked why it was wrong... error 404, information not found. They’d have to Google it. Oh, and when they do try and teach us the rules, guess what? The bastards get it wrong. Ever of “i before e except after c”? That list of exceptions is as long as a fucking glacier. “If you’re having trouble pronouncing it, sound it out!” Good luck getting the right vowel sound, little Timmy!

Oh, and did I mention, we steal shit from other languages. All the damn time, for a long ass time. We adopt other languages’ words for things as synonyms; kawaii is just the Japanese word for cute, we preserve the words for culturally significant items; a waka is not the same thing as a canoe, despite what Google Translate may tell you, and we often just steal whole words, like entrepreneur, or bouquet, or manga.

English. A thief, a charlatan, a compulsive liar with an identity crisis. And it’s the only way I can fluently express the utter nonsense that is itself. Metalinguistics is a bitch.

European accents (and in general white people accents) are commonly perceived as attractive and endearing, while accents from basically any other part of the world are considered to be signs of laziness and disrespect and get routinely made fun of.

[scienceoftheidiot]

Questions Tag

I have been tagged by both @adel-iie and @mieliikki, so I’ll answer all your questions. But it’s a loooooong post so I’ve put it under the cut (also some of you probably don’t want to read that much about me all at once haha). 

If I have tagged you can go directly to the questions at the bottom, I mean, that’s really a lot of TMI here XD I get carried away... 

@adel-iie‘s questions first :

- Do you love someone and are you with them ?

This dweeb. We’re civil partners (on est PACSés, quoi). Meaning he fills most of my taxes. Dream life. (I happen not to have a more recent pic than this... i need to annoy him for selfies more). I am with him when we can... usually two week ends a month. But all this week, and soon another week :P 

- What was your very first fandom ?

I think probably Harry Potter, started at 8 ! Still in it, one way or another. I’ll be all my life. Ravenclaws FTW ! 

- When did you cry last time ?

Mh probably last Sunday because we fought about stupid stuff because we’re both stressed as fuck (and shit at understanding one another). I cry all the time anyway, haha. 

- What was the most shameful thing you did ?

You mean really shameful or anything that just felt shameful because I’m anxious? Can’t tell the difference. 

- What is your religion ?

I think some people might not like my answer so proceed with caution

I am a second generation atheist. I basically hate on all religions, because for me they are the easiest and most used pretext for war, genocides and overall discrimination and hatred (and I say pretext because of course people don’t need religion to be terrible, really, being an atheist doesn’t make you better at all) and obscurantism. I just don’t understand them at all. Too religious people actually frighten me or make me feel uncomfortable. Don’t mistake me, I’m not a monster who’s going to harrass you or such, we can live together, I’ve actually been to a Catholic school with a bunch of Muslims so I know a thing or two about cultural exchange and sharing in peace. I just think religion is private, so if you don’t try to change my views, I’ll keep my ideas about religions for me, and everyone will be happy. 

- What’s the name of the last film you watched ?

Pfiuuuu I never watch films, unless I’m at the cinema. Could it be John Wick? Or maybe Guardians of the Galaxy 2. I know which film I’m going to watch next, however :P (EAT LOCAL ARRRHH)

- Who was your very first crush (fictional or real) ?

Oh, hell. Let’s stay fictional shall we.   

Anyone wants to analyse me, now? Smart arse x sad puppy combo. It’s frightening. Damn the early 2000′s. 

- Disney or Dreamworks ?

Dreamworks gave us Shreck. 

- Imagine you’ll die in the last 10 minutes, what’s the last thing you’ll do ?

Like, right now? Sadly the person that would make those last 10min worth it will only be back in a few hours. When in doubt, raid the fridge. 

- What is your favorite smell ?

I have many but eh. Freshly cut grass, and that smell you only get in the morning or evening next to a river or a pond, of wild mint and overall humid dirt. 

- What’s your plans for the future ?

I’d have laughed about it some years ago, but. A job that is not too badly paid and leaves me enough free time, a nice house in the countryside with Benj, and a dog. A few chicken, a vegetable garden. Children one day, maybe. What do you mean it’s lame?

Now @mieliikki‘s ! 

1. Favourite historical era?  

None, really. I’m interested in all. These days of course more about Victorian Era (strange!) and WW2 (more strange!!)

2. Favourite landmark?

None better than home (it’s the Puy-de-Dôme). 

3. How many languages do you speak?

1 to 3 depending on how good I’m supposed to master them. I’m native French so that doesn’t count, I’d say I have a fluent English, I can probably still express myself and sustain some kind of conversation in Spanish, and I can make myself be understood for basic needs in Finnish. 

Also now I understand some Italian x) but I cannot speak. 

4. Which scene from your favourite show stands out to you the most?

So many good scenes in Ripper Street, how am I supposed to chose ? 

5. Favourite mythological creature?

Cerberus. Big pup. Or Ammut. PEGASUS AAAAH 

6. If you could master one skill what would it be?

Archery ! so badass. I actually do it, I’ve taken courses and I own a bow, but my eyesight is meh, so... 

7. Favourite genre of music?

Punk(-rock)

8. Who is your greatest inspiration?

I get inspiration from all my friends and family, so I cannot pinpoint anyone. I am litterally a sponge. 

9. City or countryside?

Countryside. 

10. If you could relive one past memory what would it be?

I have many good memories but memories are past and should stay there. I’m eager to make new ones, is all. 

11. Are you religious?

Already answered. Nope. 

Right. My own questions now : 

What is the last thing you cooked ? 

What would you name your pet if you had a new one ? 

What do you think about cryptids ? 

Artist or just enjoying the art, do you prefer traditional or digital ?

Favourite super-heros ?

Last show you watched ? 

If you could visit any new country, which one ? 

Which type of tea ? 

What is your Hogwarts house ? 

Where are you from ? 

C’est une bonne situation, ça, scribe ?

I tag @rancid-butter, @heirsoflilith, @savageinkspillage, @soot-and-snide, @drift-time-tales, @omg-okimhere, @vulturegeorge, @dreki-k, @lasimo74allmyworld, @frenchmurdock, @humanivers

Sorry for the last question for you non-french speakers.

You are by no means forced to do this, of course :) 

[ladyofthefanart]

Dana and Grievous: A: 1, 2, 7, 14, 15, 20 B: 3, 4, 5, 10, 13 E: 1, 3, 6 I: 3, 5 J: 1, 2, 3, 8 L: All of them :P

Gonna pop this under a read-more to avoid being an asshole to mobile users

A QUESTIONS:

1.What of the Meyers-Briggs personality types they most fit into? INFP, ENFT, et cetera…

Well, Dana is an INFP if I remember the last time I personally took this correctly. I just took one for Grievous and it spat out ISTJ, which I think fits him. He’s very observant (S) and tactical and pragmatic (T) and CERTAINLY an introvert no matter how good he is at public speaking and politics; that’s something he learned, not something that comes naturally to him.

2. What alignment are they? Chaotic neutral, lawful evil, et cetera…

Grievous is probably Neutral Good. I mean I just took a test for him and that’s what it said. He may be the villain of his story, but history is told by the victors, and he wasn’t one of them. And the protagonist of the story will ultimately find out how wrong they are and how right he is.Dana is probably Chaotic Good?

7. Is your OC confident in their reactions to life in general, or do they get embarrassed or easily shamed for it? I.e., if something startles them, do they insist it WAS scary? When they cry, do they feel like they overreacted?

Grievous is usually fairly confident about his reactions. I mean, when he says something is stupid, it’s stupid, end of story. He’s usually right. It’s only when he disassociates that he can start doubting how he feels and reacts, because he’s losing his grip on reality. Dana is more easily embarrassed, but she’s still fairly confident.

14. Is your character empathetic?

Dana is. Grievous has the empathy of a teaspoon.

15. Is your character observant?

Grievous is. Dana…..eh.

20. Are they harsh on themselves?

I mean, Grievous has spent 60+ years with serious survivor’s guilt, which is to be expected when you’re indirectly responsible for the annihilation of your entire species and the ONLY one who survived. He has come to regard emotion as weakness, and gets disproportionately pissed off at the slightest deviation he makes from the norm–like falling in love with Dana, for example. He was beating himself up over that for months. And Dana is likewise hard on herself. It’s always her fault, she could always do better, stuff like that.

B QUESTIONS:

3. Under what situations would they get angry at servers, staff, customer service, et cetera?

I kind of find it hard to imagine him getting mad under any circumstances, unless they were horribly rude to himself or Dana, or he saw them being rude to others. (Like, being racist, or sexist, or classist, or rude to the point of being insulting)

4. Do they tip well? How easily can they be moved to not leave a tip?

They both tip well. Dana has worked in retail and has many friends in retail so she’s always going to tip her best. He tips stupidly generously, because he has the money to do so.

5. Do they hold doors open for people?

Yes.

10. Does your OC find any “bad” or “mean” humor funny? Do they wish they didn’t?

Not sure what this means…Grievous doesn’t find racial jokes funny, and he’ll probably stab you in the eye socket if you make a rape joke or joke about pedophilia. However, Cards Against Humanity is a whole ‘nother animal and anything goes in Cards.

13. Do they have a large or small group of friends? 

The answer is ‘no friends’. Grievous HAD a very small group of friends that consisted of the nobility he grew up with, who became his most trusted generals when he became king. He also had his sister and brother. (He also realized his sister and one of his friends really liked each other and wound up pushing them together) They’re all dead. Right now his friends consist of…Dana, and Garausup, the only one of that original friend group to get resurrected.

E QUESTIONS:

1. Would you say that your OC is intelligent? In what ways? Would your OC agree? 

Grievous is hyper-intelligent, we would consider him a genius by our standards. At least in some cases. The boy can’t draw a picture to save his life, his idea of a car is a box with a smaller box in front and four circles underneath. He’s good at perspective drawing, though, mostly because he’s more of a logical, mathematical person and not an artsy one. And he’s socially inept as hell no matter how good a politician he was. But yes, he’s extremely intelligent. Something of an idiot savant in some ways, but very intelligent and fiercely analytical.Dana is quite smart! But her IQ scores when it comes to math and science are pretty abysmal. In English, she’s in the top 1%. She also knows unecessary amounts of completely random knowledge.

3. How many languages do they speak?

Grievous speaks several. He isn’t a native English speaker, not that you’d ever know aside from his faint accent. He knows his native Vashaen, which is now a dead language, and he knows basic English and ‘Monarchy’, which is a bastardized version of English that actually makes SENSE, as compared to regular English where goose is geese but moose is not meese. He also speaks Septran, which is another language from his world, Latin (because he felt like it) and he knows some French, some Maori, and some Lebanese, since he likes learning languages in his free time and god knows he’s had ample amounts of it over the past 200 years.

6. Do they enjoy learning? Do they actively seek out sources of self-education?

Yes! Both of them do enjoy learning, Dana loves learning obscure new facts and Grievous just likes learning new subjects, which he will sometimes decide to try and master overnight. He has actually considered getting a doctorate, but ultimately decides against it because that would require a human glamor and interacting with other people and…no. I mean he might as well have one in political science, though, he knows more about that than our current President.

I QUESTIONS:

3. Are they vegan/vegetarian (if their overall culture/species generally aren’t)? If so, why? Do they think animal products are wrong in all circumstances?

No. Grievous is an carnivore and has no problem with actually going out into the woods and killing a deer with his bare teeth. His species consists of mostly mesocarnivores with maybe a few obligate carnivores and fewer hypocarnivores depending on location and availability of meat and plants, but all Vashaens have carnassial teeth and thick skulls for holding prey, and at this point Grievous is almost completely an obligate carnivore as his digestive track has been so severely damaged that it can’t process vegetation anymore. And while Dana may not necessarily agree with the way animals are treated in the food industry, she thinks the basic premise of most veganism is stupid. She won’t bitch if you tell her you’re vegan, but she will shove turkey in your face if you try and shove veganism down her throat. Also, if you try and feed your animal a vegan diet she’ll try and kill you.

5. Are they a good cook? 

Grievous is fairly decent, though not out of necessity, out of boredom. He no longer really needs to eat. Most of the reason he learned to cook was various girlfriends who taught him/liked cooking with him. Dana is not.

J QUESTIONS:

1. Where does your OC stand most politically? What would they align with most?

Grievous is vehemently against tyranny and dictators, and his bitterness honestly extends to a lot of forms of government. He was a very, very good king, and his people loved him, but after they all died he kind of veered towards tyranny himself, without realizing it, when he became the Demon King. (technically Emperor.) Dana is mostly liberal but fiscally conservative and fully recognizes that some liberal policies are just stupid.

2. How politically aware are they?

Dana is…not the greatest at this. Grievous is very aware.

3. How politically active are they?

Depends on the world. Dana isn’t very and Grievous doesn’t get involved with American politics much, although he did vote against Trump, for all the good that did. (Yes, he’s a citizen.) In his own world, I mean….he brought down the corrupt government. If that isn’t political activism I don’t know what is. (Okay that’s more a one-man revolution but)

L QUESTIONS:

1. How have your characters changed since you created them?

I mean, Grievous wasn’t even originally an OC, he was an interpretation of General Grievous that flew so far away from canon that all I had to do was change species and name and he was an entirely separate person. Dana has veered further away from a perfect, innocent little Mary Sue to an actual person. She’s kinda naive, but knows and understands more than you’d think, she’s resourceful, she’s got a thing for monsters, she’s nowhere near as selfless as you would expect after seeing her taking care of Grievous, she isn’t afraid to put him or anyone else in his place, and she has weaknesses, she cries, she feels.

2. What do you consider the biggest themes in your character, if any? 

Grievous: Pain and suffering, a need for someone to understand, a broken monster finding love, Beauty and the Beast, no one is beyond redemption, villains are not necessarily evil, etcDana: Humanity, compassion where others wouldn’t give it, a need for someone to understand, romance, true love, Beauty and the Beast, giving and caring.

3. Did you create the character to be like yourself, did they end up being like yourself, or are they very different from you? 

Is this a call-out? I feel like this is a call-out. Yes, Dana was originally constructed as a self-insert and in many a ways she still is, but she has key differences from me that fit her world in ways I’d never be able to fit in.

4. Would you hang out with your OC if you could? 

I’d hang out with both of them.

5. Which OC do you think is the most decent morally or behaviorally? 

Out of the two, Dana. Out of all my OCs, Dana, with Ashley as a close second.

6. Which OC do you think is the worst morally or behaviorally? AKA, which is supposed to be a “good guy”?

What? How do these correlate? This makes no fucking sense.Senra is the worst “good guy” and Amon is just the Worst, period. Amon does not grace Tumblr with her presence because I’d be lambasted into the fucking ground for having a character like her.

7. Which OC do you think is the most attractive? AKA, which is supposed to be a “bad guy”?

Again what the fuck do these two have to do with each other what the fuck does attractiveness have to do with moralityGrievous is the most attractive, DUH. Asmodeus and the Shadow are close seconds.

8. What’s the longest you’ve had an OC for?

Ashley. Since third grade. And Dana has been around since 4th. Actually, technically she’s been present longer than Ashley because she was a character in my second-grade stories about my imaginary friend but I don’t necessarily think that counts.

9. How did you come up with your OC?

I’ve answered this question for Grievous a million times so I’m not doing it again, same for Dana, but for her I’ll say she began as a self insert.