#(i love conlangs so this is a good excuse)

[thedrotter]

Re:Kinder Fun fact time!! Did you know? 😊

Yuuichi's theme song (the one that often accompanies his entrances with "Vamos Cantar!"), 新しい夏のナナ, is not in any latin language such as Spanish or Portuguese, despite its lyrics sounding as such. It's actually in Hanamogera, which to put it simply is nonsense speech based on japanese syllables. So the song's lyrics are essentially gibberish meant to imitate the sound of latin music! 😊

It is listed as such in the source site for the song, oo39.com, where the song can be found as "YS068" in the hanamogera category.

Additional fun fact! The song can also be found in Spotify as Vien Nana by Oo39.com themselves alongside a few other select songs from the site. So you can properly enjoy the song on the platform without having to import it from your local files.

Those are the fun Re:Kinder related fun facts for today... Use them to entertain your friends at parties ! ☺️

[crimeronan]

Hello, got a TOH question for you! I'm trying to write a scene from only-slightly-canon-divergent!Luz's POV, and to dismay finding I'm struggling with it. Any pro tips for writing her you can pass on to someone who didn't study at Luz University? 😅

aw, this is a sweet ask. i'm flattered to be considered a resident luz expert! and i LOVE an excuse to infodump. this got long i'm sorry i just love thinking about. my girl.

luz is usually pretty whimsical and optimistic (which is why her later self-destruction hits so hard), she believes in people and she believes in The Triumph Of Good Over Evil. she's weird and doesn't understand social norms but she cares So Much, About Everything, Ever. she believes that things will work themselves out like they do in stories, she sometimes steps on people's toes when she's trying to fix a situation, she loves an underdog story and it's constantly getting her into trouble.

i think the biggest three things for me when writing luz POV are these:

-

she is UNRELENTINGLY kind and trusting.

this is her biggest strength - she's constantly befriending her enemies through the sheer power of earnestness. and this is how she makes and keeps friends like willow, gus, and eda.

this is also one of her biggest weaknesses - she gave hunter back his staff in hunting palismen when she Really Should Not Have, she didn't pick up on philip's Bad Vibes, etc.

she truly honest-to-god believes the best in everyone and is surprised and hurt whenever they disappoint her.

-

2. she has NO impulse control and CRIPPLINGLY hyperactive ADHD.

luz is all over the place, constantly. her thoughts and hyperfixations go a mile a minute. she can devour a book in a day and learn a conlang in a week, but she can't sit still and she has the type of ADHD that makes traditional classroom learning borderline-impossible.

outside of school, you see this constantly in the decisions she makes, or rather the decisions she Doesn't make. luz always blurts out exactly what she's thinking, when she's thinking it. she always thinks that her first solution to a problem is the best one & rarely plans beyond that. she's not an analytical strategist. in fact she's frequently fucking up everybody else's plans by..... just. being luz.

the fact that luz always says and does whatever she's thinking is, again, one of her greatest strengths: she is SO earnest and genuine, and it makes it easy for people to believe in her. she loves SO openly and is so lovable in turn.

it's also one of her greatest weaknesses because. oh my god, girl. challenging boscha to a witch's duel on willow's behalf. angrily shouting straight-up heresy about belos in public in hollow mind. all the shit that got her into trouble in the human realm before she ran away. u know

-

3. she is Desperately Afraid of hurting people.

i'd say she's afraid of being a Bad Person (TM), but i do think her fear is more specific. in WAD, her nightmare isn't exactly about having committed atrocities herself -- she doesn't even believe she could have! she knows she didn't create the statue graveyard, she immediately tells amity "i don't know what's going on, but i wouldn't have done this."

all of her fears are related to things her friends & family went through after meeting her.... she's terrified that she's going to hurt the people she loves, no matter how much she tries not to. she's terrified that her presence in the world is harmful by itself.

same with her rant in the classroom in TTT. when she says "it would be better if he [i] never existed," she even says (paraphrasing) "who cares about the broader impacts or the greater good. who cares if he was a hero or wanted to do the right thing. it doesn't matter!!! what matters is that he ruined everything anyway!!!!"

her anxiety with papa titan reflects this, too. "doesn't that make us just like belos??" she's figuring out how to navigate the world and complex morality and she's terrified of getting it Wrong. she already feels like she's done everything wrong & it's completely shaken her sense of self. she doesn't trust herself not to hurt people or to work for evil because she doesn't have a clear understanding of what separates her ideology from belos's.

this third point often isn't relevant in fluffy/lighthearted fic because luz's optimism, joy, and simple zest for life are Definitely dominant in her character. but it is VERY relevant when doing character studies or angstier writing exploring her headspace in situations where she feels guilty or afraid.

-

everything else is set dressing. she's quirky and weird, she's bouncy and stimmy, she loves bats and rats and snakes and bugs and creepy crawlies, she loves gross shit, she loves shipping and romance and sweeping high fantasy, she gets Deeply invested in every random plan she ever conceives, and she is Astonishingly easy to love because of how easily she loves.

you don't have to keep every single detail of this in mind when writing her!! this was just a nice excuse to gush about my girl who i love so so so so so fucking much. luz love of my life daughter of my heart FOREVER.

[dykevotions]

throws potion of infodump about ocs on you and runs away

RAUHHHH OKAY!!! USING THIS AS AN EXCUSE TO TALK ABOUT THE MCRP DISEASE!!!! SPOILERS FOR APPLECRAFTERS AND BEASTS AHEAD. I GUESS

okaaayyyy so. first of all. not a spoilered characters. heres angelic and jacket. love them both so dearly.

they are QUEER!!!!!!!!!!! and a bit SILLY!!!!!!! their jobs are hanging out in my single player world and eventually going to hell (blood ocean) thats right baybe . the blood ocean is REAL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! anyways these guys are mainly . not even doomed yuri theyr just hanging out. i love them so muchhhh ^_^ guys who are hopelessly in love and make it everyone elses problem forever n ever

heres sltom. i have so many. i cant explain everything going on with her if i was given years. its literally so important to me. got put in a death game, died, came back to be put in another death game, died, forced to walk an abandoned world. theres so much happening with xem im gonna throw up. i made two webweaves for zem which. r very good. dog with blood around its mouth. she did all that shit but FAE DESERVED TO!!!!!!!! FOR THE RECORD!!!! god. i gotta explain whats wrong w vamp one of these days

heres sleepy!!! go to pvp guy. this is essentially "what if there was a guy who kind of sucked at fighting but did it a lot for fun" . not a lot to xem but xey are SOOOO silly. xey are kind of mean 2 xer friends . xey dont mean it though. well sometimes xey do

FRUITBAT!!! one of two of my animals in separate timeloops. working w their best friend (heyyyyyyy lav :3) to restore a ancient city that seems. oddly frozen. sculk freak (just likes it. a lot.) nerd ass guy. BAT HYBRID ASWELL I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT they love flying and doing stupid shit. divebombs people to say hi. love them so much. oh also in their timeloop theres regenerating skeletons that are growing meat but thats okay and normal!!!

this is dogboyyyy . theres not a lot to him. BUT. guy who lives in the nether. literally just a good person. comma. also gives like everything he earns to other people. for fun. hes silly and also stupid disease. holding him in my hands so gently

BUNNY!! OR SAT. LEAGUE TOM ! guy with a literal lunatic on its shoulder. made a conlang for it yesterday. can only communicate via animal crossing sounds (nonverbal autistic win!) and their conlang on signs.

the conlang as it stands rn. btw. they are so interesting. they have had like 2 mental breakdowns already because they were trying to communicate with people and they couldnt understand them. love this animal. holding it by the scruff. this guy wants to kill people so bad

SHEEPBOY !!!!!! OR FRI. LEAGUE TOM !! this is his second death game she did really well in the first one. they genuinely enjoy being in death games its like a sport to them. this is their american football . id call them nice most of the time however when they go red it gets. a bit insane. but thats normal for being bloodthirsty i think!!

this is f , or ftom, or whatever u wanna call them . they r worldbound BUT they r a hub world player so basically they just get to hang out. mostly in hypixel but sometimes the worldhoppers they know drag them around to other places which is fun fun fun !!!!!

this is yuri . bug in a timeloop !!!! it is. oh my god i love them SOOO MUCH. it is constantly digging this huge tunnel system which they live in and also. refuses to believe they are in a timeloop. it just "has memory problems and its just a STUPID prank. probably" . it is in fact a timeloop for the record.

OKAY THATS THE MC GUYS I CAN THINK OF FOR NOW ..... WALKS OFF INTO THE VOID

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

My Ziphah (Queen) pointed out that I have enough time on my hands to make a podcast

So, what should it be about? Someone suggested doing a mix of all them, and I'd consider it (I'd just need time to mix them together. If y'all have any good ways to, I'd love to hear them)

[roboromantic]

tf opinions that have people pointing swords at me while I smirk like Eugene:

stuff I’ve said before but will say again so everything’s in one post:

–There’s like zero chemistry between KO and BD.

– Soundwave’s not a dad; the cassettes are grown-ass adults and he’s their boss. the closest thing you’d get is him being a pet owner. this isn’t even an opinion this is like straight-up canon so idk why the fandom is like this

–likewise the RB team aren’t kids. I don’t know why everyone likes to assume short characters are children but it needs to stop.

Others from (probably) least to most controversial:

–TLK is the best Bayverse film. granted this is largely by virtue of not having super racist and/or crass jokes and/or a character that’s like “look it’s totally legal for me to date this minor!”

but anyway I’m going to French kiss French Hot Rod and you can’t stop me

–Bee being mute isn’t some ~horrible tragedy~ that needs to be magically fixed and for the love of christ let him use some kind of sign language. you can do the radio or booping thing when he’s in car mode but Please

RiD15 gets An point for having him mention Cybertronian Sign Language and use it but that point gets deducted bc 1) they use CSL for all of 5 seconds and frankly it looks more like they just did gestures bc they didn’t wanna animate the fingers in any detail and it’s almost certainly not a full-fledged conlang. it might could be based on a real sign language but it didn’t look like ASL to me. 2) y’all have ONE sign language for the entire species??? lol no

–these have the same energy and it’s not a good one

– making characters' visors and mouthplates removable to reveal normal-ass eyes and mouths behind them is a coward's move. If you want to give them weirder eyes/mouths then that’s kinda better but personally I prefer that their visors and mouthplates just be allowed to be their actual face.

I guess in general I don’t get the appeal of messing with characters designs?? like then they’re not really that character anymore; just make an OC like the rest of us

– IDW Drift is a walking conglomeration of Orientalist stereotypes. it’s Bad and also he’s just boring.

(nsfw talk from here to the end)

–like 98% of the valveplug I’ve seen involves either 1) giving everyone both sets of genitals, which feels way too much like the “best of both worlds” fetishization that trans and intersex people are subjected to for me to be comfortable (also y’all only ever use it as an excuse to make everyone have PIV sex and y’all might wanna think real hard about why that is)

or 2) of the two male characters, one will have a spike and the other a valve. the one with the valve is ALWAYS the smaller one and (/or, if they’re about the same size) they’ve been uke-ified to the point that they are no longer recognizable as the original character. which perpetuates SO many gross stereotypes that idk where to even BEGIN

anyway cis people aren’t allowed to draw/write valveplug anymore and all y’all need to learn that there’s more to sex than PIV or maybe oral if you’re feeling adventurous, lmao. 

also if you’re gonna give them dicks then why not give them balls too, cowards

[nerteragranadensis]

hyacinth, sunflower, and rose (hey!)

hi friend! <3

Hyacinth: What’s the most unusual thing you do in your spare time? 

oh uh. hm. well, I knit a lot in my spare time, but I don’t know how unusual that is. I also write! I don’t know how unusual that is either. :/ I don’t know if I have a good answer for this one, especially since I haven’t had very much spare time lately.

oh wait, actually, conlanging. it’s conlanging. 

Sunflower: Is there a mystery from your life that you still haven’t figured out? Do you have any theories?

my sexuality lol

no, I actually have a good answer for this: I have at least two relatives (probably many more) on my dad’s side that I’ve never met. see, when my grandfather was a small child, his father was killed by a drunk driver, and shortly after that my grandfather’s older sister disappeared. just straight up left, and no one in the family ever heard from her again. she was married at the time, I think, but other than that no one knows if she had any kids or what she did after ~1950. this is why I like to joke that if me or any of my siblings ever date another puerto-rican, we’d better get a dna test before it starts getting serious.

Rose: Tell us about a piece of art (in any sense) that you love and why?

oh... there’s so much art I could talk about. I’ll just pick one, though, and try to keep it brief. I recently read A Canticle for Leibowitz, which is one of the seminal works in the post-apocalyptic genre. it was first published in 1957, in the middle of the Cold War, and boy does it show--the book deals with the aftermath of a nuclear war, which wipes out all civilization and most of the life on Earth. it’s pretty bleak, but also surprisingly funny, and so good.

A Canticle for Leibowitz is unusual because it’s split into three sections, which are all separated by about 600 years. Each section shows a different period of “history”, with a different set of characters, and all three center around a monastery somewhere in the southwestern United States. the plot, broadly, deals with the preservation of knowledge and the slow rebuilding of society, through the overarching story of this one monastery and the monks that live there. this book is... very Catholic, but I don’t necessarily mean that in a negative way; the author was Catholic, but he seems pretty self aware about it. and while the book notably centers on a specifically Catholic interpretation of Christianity, it doesn’t treat Catholicism as a stand-in for all religion, which I appreciated. it’s really well-written, really profound, with a lot of things to say about our ideas of “civilization” and “progress”. and it really does have a great sense of humor.

thanks for giving me an excuse to ramble about this book! I don’t know anyone else who’s read it and I just. I have a lot of thoughts.

flower asks

[forgetmenotblues]

52 in 52

So last year I tried to read 52 books in 52 weeks (aka a year, if you're nasty), and because I was a shiftless philosophy student, I managed and then some.

Here are the books I've read, with some thoughts on them, for posterity, or recommendations

1) Sandman Overture, Neil Gaiman

Pretty solid, usually I hate prequels, but sandman was always pretty meandering and non-linear, so it works well. Just annoying it doesn't fit in with my pretty leatherbound absolute editions

2) Radioactive: love and fallout, Lauren Redniss

Very cool artsy biography of Marie Curie, and glows in the dark!

3) XKCD What if?

Extremely fun science, makes some abstract concepts approachable, I mean it's Randall Munroe, it's solid

4) Rise to Rebellion, Jeff Shaara

Historical novel (gonna be a few of these, I'm dead into them) about the build up to the American revolution . Kinda dry for a lot of it, but can ratchet the tension up, taught me lots I didn't know, and there's a bit towards the end where John Adams' wife calls him out on his privilege and it's pretty rad

5) Dune, Frank Herbert

I hate myself for saying this, but I was expecting it to be a bit more... dry. But seriously, everything described it as complex philosophy and politics, ASOIAF in space, and then it was a pretty straightforward adventure. The dynastic politics boiled down to a family of cool beautiful good guys vs an evil family of "hilariously" fat perverts. It was a great read, but more Laurence of Arabia than anything else

6) Squirrel girl, Ryan North 

Fantastic, fun, brilliantly written - it's Ryan North, nuff said.

7) Virgil, Steve Orlando

A cool, dark, "queersploitation" comic. Your basic "beaten and left for dead, wreaks vengeance" type story, brutal, but honestly pretty cathartic

8) the house that groaned, karrie fransman

A comic about a bunch of dysfunctional people. I didn't care for it, it was a lot of kinda shallow Freudian psychology and slightly tim burton esque "quirky" characters. It was kinda like the A Dolls House arc of Sandman, but... not good

9) The Last Continent, Terry Pratchett

Discworld is always fantastic, and I've got a real fondness for the classic travelogue style rincewind ones.

10) Night Thoughts of a Classical Physicist, Russel McCormmach

The story of a German physicist who's dedicated his whole life to ether model physics and is realising his life's work is being disproved by recent advances... so a barrel of laughs. All about mortality, the fear of obsolescence, nationalism, and academia.

11) The Property, Rutu Modan

Indie comic about a girl learning about her family's heritage in Europe, lots of post war stuff and exploring "the old country". Very good

12) The Wake, Paul Kingsnorth

This was one of the real wins of this year, a story about the Norman occupation of Anglo Saxon England after 1066, and resistance thereof. Written in a conlang made to simulate old english, it seems totally unreadable, but you pick it up, and it makes the story infinitely more engrossing. A cool setting plus a whole other language wouldbe enough, but kingsnorth goes one further and makes it a savage deconstruction of nationalism and a beautifully painful exploration of tropes these sorts of books tend to embrace. Can't recommend enough.

13) Adventures of Hergé, Jean-luc Fromental

Biography of hergé written in the style of a tintin comic, a lot of fun

14) Carpé Jugulum, Terry Pratchett

Another Discworld, another classic. A lot of fun stuff with vampire tropes, although also a pretty serious discussion of "all evil comes from utilitarianism", which I felt didn't entirely fit, and I disagreed with. But again, the biggest criticism I've ever had of a Pratchett book is "his intelligent discussion of philosophy felt a little out of place", so not the end of the world

15) Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett

I went on a bit of a discworld binge here, another great one

16) Half a King, Joe Abercrombie

Great deconstructive low fantasy  novel, one of the many ASOIAF-esque books out there, and one of the few I've really enjoyed

17) Batman and Robin Eternal, D.C. Comics

Fun story about the batfamily, one of the rare bat-titles to really say "hey maybe this should be fun, you guys?"

18) Magical Game Time, Zac Gorman

Brilliant comics about video games, capture the real magic and freedom you found in games when you're a kid, the epic narratives you'd weave out of very simple Zelda games on the NES. makes me happy on a fundamental level. A lot of its available as webcomics, look it up, you won't regret it

19) The Truth, Terry Pratchett

Another brilliant Discworld book. Not much to say as there's a lot of these another all just consistently amongst the best books ever.

20) Wonder Woman Earth 1, Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison's always got a gift for finding the heart of a character, and he doesn't disappoint here. A lot of weird analysis of wonder woman as a feminist character, but he handles it pretty well overall.

21) & 22) Half the World, and Half a War, Joe Abercrombie

Parts 2 and 3 of the series, stays brilliant. Abercrombie is apparently best known for more adult stuff and this is more YA, but if anything that refines his writing - stops him being another grimdark game of thrones wannabe, and keeps it slightly more reconstructive and intelligent. Brilliant use of characters, the hero of the first book ends up almost the villain of the last, and all for entirely understandable reasons.

23) Machine of Death, various authors

A short story collection about a high concept: a simple blood test can tell you your cause of Death, but not the time or any specifics. A brilliant idea is explored in a lot of clever, beautiful, and hilarious ways.

24) The Last Hero, Terry Pratchett

Another brilliant Discworld, acting as a bridge between the classic fantasy of the older books, and the renaissance era politics and science of the later books - v poignant

25, 26, & 27) Harlequin, Vagabond, Heretic, Bernard Cornwell

Historical novels about the battle of creçy and the start of the 100 years war. Cornwells always good, although honestly these aren't his best. Pretty cool comparison between the chivalry of grain quests, and the reality of medieval warfare.

28) Long Halloween, Jeph Loeb

A classic batman, the story they based Dark Knight on, with a cool transition from down to earth organised crime of Year One to the zany madness of later batman

29) Little Brother, Cory Doctorow

A novel about post-911 culture, and counter culture rebellions against it. Fantastic novel, available as creative commons, so you can get it for free, so no excuses not to read! Very inspiring in that fuck Bush and fuck this war aesthetic, and Ihve a feeling it's gonna get real relevant in the coming years

30) Enders Game, Orson Scott Card

Pretty fantastic sci fi, analyses the psychological impacts of chosen one children saving the world, and the ethics of a "all the enemy are evil aliens" narrative. Obviously all this ethicality is a bit hypocritical from Orson Scott homophobia, so buy it second hand?

31) Black Guard, AJ Smith

Pretty cool fantasy, another faux ASOIAF type one, fairly straightforward, but plenty enjoyable

32) Deadpool vs Hawkeye

Pretty fun comic, read it on a plane back from Costa Rica, so I dont super remember it? But I enjoyed  

33) The Sleeper and the Spindle, Neil Gaiman

Very cool twisted fairy tale type thing, Neil Gaiman's always good, and beautiful Chris Riddel illustrations on top

34) Dial H for Hero, China Miéville

Great comic series, takes a simple idea (guy finds magic phone, when he dials it, he becomes a randomised superhero) and explores it in every possible way, becoming a full blown epic. Plus a scene where he becomes old timey racist heroes from the 60's and has to balance the good of doing superheroics vs the offensiveness of going out as "super chief" or whoever

35) Ravenspur, Conn Iggulden

Historical novel about the war of the roses. Iggulden is always very good, makes extremely readable stuff, and his war of the roses series is fantastic, a complex story made into an awesome action story. However, this last book isn't his best, it spends about 2/3rds of the book on a 6 month period where not much happens, then blazes through 10 years of action in no time at all, the pacing just felt a bit off. Still very good.

36) Howard the Duck, Chip Zdarsky

Very readable, very fun, very witty

37) Stonehenge, Bernard Cornwell

Historical novel about the building of Stonehenge, this is cornwell at his best, at border of very well researched intelligent history and the slightest hint of fantasy, making a brilliant story that brings history to life.

38) Black Orchid, Neil Gaiman

Slightly deconstructive superhero story, reads very much like a companion piece to Alan Moore's brilliant Swamp Thing

39) The Hartlepool Monkey, Wilfrid Lupano

Historical comic about a northern English town that hanged a shipwrecked monkey as a Napoleonic spy. A brutal read, exploring idiotic nationalism, well recommended

40) Turned Out Nice Again, Richard Mabry

Cute non-fiction musings on the meanings of weather and it's effects on our day to day life

41) The Heroes, Joe Abercrombie

Another deconstructive low fantasy, this time part of his adult series, which actually kind of works against it. Without the lighter edge, it can be a little bit of a downer. Nonetheless, well written, solid characterisation, and an excellent take-down of fantasy's belief in the glorious nature of war.

42) Thief of Time, Terry Pratchett

Another fantastic Discworld, fun, funny, and clever

43, 44, 45, 46, 47) A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, A Dance with Dragons

Reread all of ASOIAF, absolutely fantastic, better on a second read. The first 3 are great as last time, plus all the foreshadowing that now makes sense. And 4&5, which I felt bit more ambivalent about the first time round, I've since read various analyses of (check out @asoiafuniversity), and I'd now consider them some of the best books I've ever read.

48) Gettysburg Address, Jonathon Hennessey

Absolutely brilliant comic, dissecting the Gettysburg address, using each line of it as a jumping off point to explore the history and philosophy of the civil war, incredibly high recommendation

49) Lazarus, Greg Rucka

A fantastic sci fi comic series, brilliant writing and characters, rucka is always great, and this is some of his best

50) Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

Another Discworld, but this one is even better than usual, this is one of the ones that stand out as serious business, much less comedic and much more epic than usual

51) A Brief History of Vice, Robert Evans

Hilarious and informative book from a cracked.com writer about use of drugs and alcohol through history, with recipes and recommendations for legal highs and drink recipes

52) Just City, Jo Walton

Sci fi / fantasy /philosophical novel, where great thinkers from throughout history are brought together to build Plato's perfect city. All about the clash between high ideals and practical reality. Very enjoyable, the sort of book where action scenes are philosophical debates.

53) Goldie Vance, Hope Larson

Fun cool progressive detective comic

54) Temeraire, Naomi Novak

A really fun fantasy novel with a concept that seems so simple, you don't know how no one's done it before. Essentially it's just the classical trope of dragon riders, but updated from pseudo medieval to the Napoleonic era, with all  associated tall ships and iron men and officer and a gentleman tropes