#I'm learning french so maybe I'm projecting

[southparkdoodlesandstuff]

HOW DOES AN ANIMATIC OF THIS NOT EXIST

european tweek is so real and it reminded me of the song lol

@clydethetacox

@spinthetags

[eyivibyemi]

✧ I won’t really write descriptions for these, but see original post tags for explanation/commentary on the song snippet ✧

[magicalmanhattanproject]

man im just like. thinking about egg signs and how they've evolved over the course of the qsmp and how the qsmp has evolved over the course of the qsmp and just feeling so much love and affection for every part of the project. i dont have any grand overarching point with this just. like. here's a history of egg comms bc of the kind of person that i am

so wayyyy back ten months ago now at the start of the short and sweet egg event that was planned to last maybe a month at most, the eggs had their own custom, decorated signs!

[ID: Leo with a pink sign with an egg on the bottom corner that reads "hello" in all caps. Her nametag reads Leonardo. End ID]

They were extremely simple, single word signs. There was hello, hola, story, feed, sleep, and maybe one or two more and each was its own separate sign. The eggs could only communicate the most basic needs in words and everything else was through minecraft body language or just hoping their parents guessed right.

But obviously, there was a lot more that parents wanted to hear from their children. I'm not sure who was actually first, but the earliest departure from this system I know about is BadBoyHalo giving Dapper a simple oak sign so he could name his pet slime. (Screenshot from @/lxrd-ren)

[ID: Dapper wearing a diver's helmet standing next to a tiny slime in a boat with an oak sign reading "Bouncy (slmecicle but better)" End ID]

Parents quickly realized how much more convenient this was and pretty soon every single egg had stacks of signs to communicate with.

The next innovation came from Vegetta, who was the resident mod knower at the time. He knew about colored canvas signs and gave Leo signs in her favorite color purple because he loved her and gave her everything she wanted.

[ID: Leo's bed in her room under some Fooligetta fanart with a purple sign reading "<3" End ID]

Colored signs obviously had a lot of advantages. Being able to tell at a glance which egg placed which sign was a huge step forward in eggs being able to have long, complicated conversations as well as leaving obvious marks of their personality everywhere they went. It took a little while for them to be standard for every egg though. Bobby never stopped using oak signs even after Richas and Pomme both showed up with colored signs.

[ID: Two signs reading from right to left a red Pomme sign reading "we already started working on a guillotine factory" and a dark grey Dapper sign reading "thats the most french u have said so far pomme" End ID]

And this was the system for a while! And it worked pretty well for most people! The biggest struggle most people had was egg signs not being translated, but streamers adjusted to that by reading signs out loud so the translators would pick up on them. This also lead to adorable and fascinating dynamics like Richas swearing in signs he wrote for Bad and then warning Bad not to read them out. There was also the genuinely phenomenal development of Leolingo where Leo writes only in Spanish to Foolish because it's easier for her to write and he takes his time to puzzle his way through it and learn in a way that's super cool to watch someone else do onscreen.

Then Tubbo joined the server. And Tubbo himself had no problems at all with the system, but he is dyslexic and he casually mentioned offhand that it was getting kind of annoying to read signs after a ten hour long stream and the admin team Fucking Cooked.

Within 24 hours, they had TTS working on the signs. Within 48 hours, it was working on books too. I can't remember how long it took to get translation working, but it was definitely under a week.

And this opened up a whole new world of possibilities for the entire QSMP. The admin team has been on top of capitalizing on it for story purposes, but also just allowing the egg admins to speak in their native languages to everyone whenever they want has been so enriching for everyone involved. Leolingo is awesome but Foolish has been learning Spanish insanely fast and his process is a lot slower and more frustrating than most people can do in front of an audience of thousands of people without feeling discouraged. That's also one language. We've had everything from Foolish being able to check his work a bit more faster to Phil insisting on his eggs taking a day to speak to him in their native languages to Ramón writing a book for Fit in Cantonese, a language we haven't even seen on the server in any other context!

And all of it is fully understood and fully communicated! Sometimes the translators mess up but no one expects them to be perfect and people ask for clarification if the translator says something that doesn't sound right. It's not only a massive step forward in communication technology, but it's a great demonstration of how to use it and when you can and can't rely on it.

And finally, the most recent innovation! One of BBH's viewers sent him a dono saying they had trouble reading certain signs because they were too low-contrast. Bad, Richas, and Pomme just. Took it upon themselves to fix the problem right there and then. Based on One (1) bringing up their own personal struggle, those three came up with new signs that innovate tremendously on the originals.

[ID: Two separate images of the before and after. The first is the egg signs in their original colors with the corresponding egg's name written on them to demonstrate the font color and the second is in the new, higher contrast colors with the same text. The new signs also have custom decorations for each egg. The second picture also has two signs from Pomme in all caps that read "Send all the love to Richas he spent a whole night making this he's the best <3" End ID]

There are three main innovations visible in the above pictures

1: Obviously, the colors are higher contrast. The signs with white text have darker colors and the signs with black text have lighter colors.

2: The colors themselves are lower saturation. Richas said this made it easier for him personally to read them so he corrected that way, but that's open to change if it causes difficulties for more people than it helps

3: The decorations are for accessibility reasons! People with various different forms of colorblindness will find different sets of colors easier or harder to distinguish, but any of them can look at the decorations and use them to identify whose sign is whose instead.

But! Those innovations are not why I made this post! It's these ones!

[ID: The backs of the new signs when placed on the ground. Most visible are Chayanne's with vines and a hardcore heart, Sunny's with shining sunglasses, and Pomme's with an apple and the Eiffel Tower. End ID]

Richas added distinguishing marks to the backs of the signs too! This is something that Bad brought up specifically as something he wanted because it was hard for him to tell who was talking when he was using TTS from behind signs and couldn't see the colors at all.

We went from custom egg signs (a hotbar or so of words and nothing else to communicate with) through a long journey of expanding communication and expanding who we're bringing along on the communication and how easily they can join in and we've circled all the way back around to custom egg signs (they can say anything they want in any language they want and anyone will know it's them saying it from any angle)

and i guess i have enough feelings abotu that to write All This about it

[olomaya]

More Activities Activity Table

Eat, Play, Learn! Family Fun for Everyone!

2-Sep Update: Thank you @jeebeehey for the French translation. Please redownload if you'd like them.

Updated for redownload (27 July):

Fixed an issue where the interaction cancels out if a toddler doesn't like the food. Thanks to @zemyna for catching!

Added the non-English stbls. Sorry, I swear I'm not one of those Anglophones that thinks English is the only language (I actually speak 3!), it's just a small step in the upload process that's easy to forget.

This is the final part of my little Kids and Toddlers mod series. It's meant to complement the Coloring Book and the Toddler foods mods so you will need those for this.

When I started this, I didn't think through how many new animations or custom details it would entail and I as continued, I kept having to add more and more. There are like 60 animations and 40 image assets 😭 hence why the two main files are so large for a mod.

What I've done is added more activities to the Activity Table after years of being annoyed that the Activity Table we have in TS3, despite being the EXACT SAME table from TS2, does not in fact allow your Sims to draw on it. EA, so lazy!

Anyway, what this does is add 4 new interactions to the Activity Table: Coloring, Arts & Crafts, Puzzles and the ability to serve toddlers food so they can eat there.

The activities are for toddlers and kids only but Teens+ can join in the puzzles if it's already been started by a toddler or child.

Note this will work with any of the Activity Tables in the game or Store but the puzzle will look weird as it's placed in the same spot as where the blocks are. You can use it with custom/cc activity tables provided only the mesh has been edited (for example, if slots are changed or removed, it may not work).

Credits/Thanks: The glue bottle, crayon, CAS paint items and one of the arts and crafts image assets are from @aroundthesims. Thanks as always to Sandy for her generosity and creativity in making Sims content! I originally only wanted to add the option to color/draw but this set of hers inspired me to add in more features. (hmm, maybe I shouldn't be thanking you then considering what a pain that was 🤔😅) All other objects and images are from TS4. Custom animations are by me using TS4 and TS3 as bases.

All buyable objects (table, crayons, puzzles) can be found in Kids Room/Toys.

Check out my other mods in the Kids and Toddlers series: Coloring Book for Kids, Toddler Bed, Toddler Foods and Snacks.

If you run into any issues (and YOU'VE READ THROUGH THE INSTRUCTIONS) please let me know!

Please read below the cut for all the details on features and how to play.

Download here | Alternate Link: SFS

Coloring: Toddlers and Kids can color if there is a crayon box on the lot. Just like using a coloring book, coloring a picture will take up one crayon. Coloring increases painting skill for both. When completed, the final project will be in their inventory.

Arts & Crafts: Toddlers and Kids can do an arts and craft project. Not additional object is needed. They go pretty crazy with the glitter and glue so it can be dirty stuff if they don't have the neat trait. This activity decreases their hygiene and they will get covered in glitter paint when done. Similar to coloring, when completed, the final project will go in their inventory and they get painting skill while playing.

Puzzles: You need to buy a puzzle box and have it on your lot to do puzzles. There are two puzzle boxes but they do the same thing. And they stack! (I love stackable things) There are 3 puzzle types: Easy, medium and Hard. Toddlers can only do Easy puzzles. Children can do either easy, medium or Hard puzzles depending on their Logic skill (for Hard, logic needs to be 3 or higher). The puzzle difficulty will also determine how long it takes to complete the puzzle. Teens+ can help with puzzles but they can't start a puzzle on their own. Toddlers can kids can start a puzzle on their own or help another Sim with a puzzle. Puzzles increase Logic skill for all those playing it but will increase faster for whoever starts the puzzle. If a puzzle is completed, everyone who helped put it together will get bonus skill points. If there is already a puzzle on the table, there is no option to start another, you can only help with the current puzzle. There are different puzzle images (15 in total) but there's no difference between them. The only thing that matters is puzzle difficulty. If the Sim who started the puzzle stops for whatever reason (you or the game cancels the interaction), everyone else helping will stop as well.

Eating: Children+ can serve toddlers meals or snacks. It works the same as my Toddler Foods and Snacks mod. They will place the tray/bowl on the activity table and then call the toddler to eat. If the toddler is hungry, they will go over and start eating. Otherwise, they can always eat it later.

Known Issues:

Animations aren't perfect (but what in life is?) so there's some clipping, especially on the toddlers when they kneel.

The comically large puzzle piece accessory jumps around a little and sits kind of weird in the toddler's hand. I suspect this is because the game is using the adult version of the object animation. I've noted it for fixing whenever I do a second pass on the mod.

The food tray is upside down. Setting object rotation in-game messes up the routing for the table so I'm leaving it as is as it doesn't really bother me.

If there is a food tray or bowl on the table, you shouldn't be able to do anything else there because that slot/part is being used but I had this happen once where my tester child started coloring there. It didn't happen again but if it does happen in your game, simply cancel out the interaction and route them to another part of the table.

The puzzle leaves a shadow even when it's pile form because the shadow mesh is there but you only see it until the geostate changes.

This is not an issue but the alternate material states for objects are only available in high so if you play with graphic settings for objects on medium or low, you're going to see the default image for the puzzles or pictures.

Tagging for reblogs: @kpccfinds @katsujiiccfinds @pis3update

[callahanisms]

pretentious(?) cinephile patrick zweig.

call it a college au i guess

technically, he's a business student. he's just minoring in cinema studies, which was your major. you always hated the business school kids that came into your literature class (because film is literature) and thought it would be easy. and then they'd be surprised that they were failing because they didn't do the readings and when they participated, it was with shallow commentary. you don't even want to recount how many racist, misogynistic, queerphobic things were said in the class (in general too).

which is why patrick zweig pisses you off.

patrick zweig actually loves film. and unlike the other business boys, he understands that wolf of wall street is a cautionary tale.

"i wouldn't want to end up like him." he said. "doesn't mean i can't enjoy the movie."

patrick zweig actually has good taste in film. okay, maybe not "good" taste because "good" is always subjective. he's a bit of a film snob. you can't believe that he likes Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. you really hated the movie, mostly because it felt like an eternity. that might have also been because you were high watching it. sometimes weed has that effect.

at first glance, he seems like the kind of guy to dismiss foreign films because of subtitles. except you learned that he regularly consumes—and seeks out—foreign cinema. he grew up on foreign cinema.

"my dad's big into french films. that's how i started watching them." he explained to your french cinema professor.

you swear he's in every cinema studies class possible. and he recognizes you too.

"excited for this semester (y/n)? i'm looking forward to the syllabus."

now, patrick being patrick, he mostly skims the readings. rarely does he closely read. he finds himself getting distracted easily. and it's not really helpful with the multiple times you've worked with him whether it's as discussion leader or doing a group project.

there's the rare occasion you've seen patrick zweig in business class. and to say the least, he looks miserable. sometimes, he's so bored that he's doing the readings for your class.

"why don't you switch majors?" "because business school is just to appease my parents."

you don't 100% believe his answer. or maybe he's right in thinking that it will appease his parents. you're not all too knowing about his home life. you guys just have class together. until...

"wanna smoke?"

a joint before your screening. you guys were watching Spike Lee's School Daze for the race and american film class. he's never seen it. you have. maybe the colors will pop even more if you took a hit.

"sure."

so you guys find the smoke corner and light the joint. you inhale and make small talk. patrick zweig isn't the asshole he seems to be. he carries himself with such douchebaggery that it seems to be a defense mechanism. and you learn during that smoking session that he isn't really pretentious. he's just really passionate.

"i hate Prometheus." he says. "what? how can you hate Prometheus? Prometheus is so good! it's like right up your alley!" you cough as you inhale. "listen, i may be a film snob. and sometimes i can be an asshole about it. but ridley scott is a bigger asshole than me." patrick takes the joint to inhale. when he blows, the smoke sort of billows around him. it frames his frankly gorgeous face. "lean into the haunted house of the Alien franchise. don't try to turn it into something deeper when it already had such interesting themes."

School Daze was a watch. patrick had a lot of thoughts, but he seemed to barely express them in class. he saved it for his letterboxd review.

"you have letterboxd?" "duh." he glances at you as you guys are walking to the bus stop. "what's your username?" "ppzweig." "you can't be serious. that's so immature of you!" but also so on brand for patrick zweig. "i made the account a long time ago okay! i'll follow you back if you follow me."

so you do follow him.

you learn quickly that patrick reviews for nearly every movie he watches. the exception are rewatches (if there isn't anything left to say) and films that just didn't really interest him or were terrible. oh and you see through his reviews that he really hates tarantino. actually very surprising! patrick always had something to say though. you loved terrorizing him when he walked into class.

"hey so why did you rate Alien: Resurrection four stars?" "what happened to hello? how are you?"

side note: i did make a top 10 list of films that i think patrick would have. idk how character accurate this is but he strikes me as such:

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

Trainspotting (1996)

Night of the Hunter (1955)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Amélie (2001)

A Clockwork Orange (1972)

Boogie Nights (1997)

Taxi Driver (1976)

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Lady Snowblood (1973)

[valrayne-faeu]

Hi ! Kind of a silly question but considering how old they are, the fae boys must know many languages (especially Dream and Nightmare) right ?

Do they have a favorite one (or maybe more than one) ? If so, is it because they find it more agreeable to speak/hear/read ? Or maybe because they see it as easier to trick mortals with ?

I originally thought they liked to use the language of their original creator (Killer with Arabic, Ink with French ect) but I may be wrong.

Kinda related note, I like to think some of them would enjoy humans who speak and/or study several languages. Also that once they catch strong feelings for someone, they would use terms of endearments in a language the objet of their affections definitely doesn’t understand when addressing them. I know it's sappy but I think it would be so cute, especially once that person finds out what those words actually mean.

Also, I really like the idea of Nightmare wanting to teach old and forgotten languages to someone he really likes during his free time. Maybe as an excuse to spend time with said person but to feel closer to them as well. It could even be intimate in a way (definitely not projecting here).

So sorry for rambling, I just really like this AU...

No need to apologize! Rambles are fun. I'm also a fan of them knowing the language of their original creator, so for personal headcanons of what languages they know/like to speak I tend to use those plus a few others.

For this AU, Nightmare, Dream, Ink and Error all know how to speak an ancient fae language, which is similar to Welsh. But as for human languages, these are the ones they tend to use the most.

Nightmare - Russian, Italian, German Killer - Arabic, French Horror - Various sign languages, German Dust - Korean, German Cross - Spanish, Tagalog Error - Spanish, Korean Dream - Italian, French, Arabic Blue - Spanish, German Ink - French, Japanese

Most of them would certainly enjoy discovering a human who can speak another language that they can also speak or who are interested in learning. Teaching wise, Nightmare, Horror, Blue and Ink, would all happily try and teach you a new language, with various levels of success. Dream would also show interest, but may struggle to find enough time to properly teach you.

As for terms of endearment, Nightmare, Killer, Dream and Ink are the most likely to openly call you something romantic in a language you don't understand before you've started fully dating/courting each other.

[slavic-roots-western-mind]

How to actually sit down and study📚💻🖨☕️📖📓

You've got the textbook and notebook open, the highlighter uncapped, the coffee steaming and laptop switched on.

Now what? Do I just highlight random keywords and write out key concepts whilst repeating important sounding phrases out loud?

While this may have worked in middle school or maybe even highschool, most college and university courses are an entirely different breed. Weekly pop quizzes and an in depth recap each class?

Highly unlikely, at least in my experience.

Uni very much leaves students to fend for themselves, with studying and learning the material taught in class as your own responsibility.

So what's a student to do? As someone who had to get her act together when starting the IB program, and then tackling university, here's my advice on how to actually study productively.

Create a study plan by breaking down the workload

Break down the workload:

Say you have a French vocab set to learn, an English paper due and an econ group project.

Study and write out your vocab, and then meet with your study group for practice.

Plan your paper research: what is the thesis, find relevant literary sources and highlight pontential useful concepts, do an outline of the points you want to cover, and then plan the dates and time that you'll actually sit down and write it out.

Go over the main econ project points, do your bit and then schedule a meeting with your coursemates to do the whole thing.

3. Create and maintain your study space.

If your space is messy and full of distractions, then your study sessions are probably not going to be as productive as they could be. Eliminate any distractions or at least try to minimize them

4. Join or create study groups!

They can be really useful when you actually study instead of hanging out (i'm guilty as charged unfortunately).

Divide concepts and have each member create a cheat-sheet or a short but detailed guide to share, so that you can cover more ground.

5. Use practise and past papers

You need to know how to actually approach the exam questions so that you can make the best use of your exam time, so familiarize yourself with the paper structure and the type of questions e.g. essay-based, scenario questions, numerical.

6. Take breaks!

Studying is important, but so is your well-being.

Schedule 10-15 min breaks for a quick snack and a stroll, but also 1hr-1.5 hr breaks for a proper meal, to catch up wth friends or to watch a show.

Overall, a study plan and a study group can go a long way in helping you get the most out of your study sessions, so do what's best for you!

[rabbitcyclops]

Headcanons Of the Curses!

Note: (I do believe curses have no concept of human gender constructs, I'm just going with what feels right)

Hanami 🌸 She/They

🌸 Favorite food: Hanami is a diverse taste in food, they'll try anything as long as it was sourced respectfully from the environment. Also, nothing with added chemicals or preservatives. I think they're a huge fan of dandelion tea! 🌸 Favorite music: Any LoFi with nature sounds or just straight up nature ambiance. She has a "Nature is the best playlist" mentality. 🌸 Hobbies: Of course, gardening is their main hobby, but I like to imagine they also like to learn about plants and meditate. Maybe they make zen gardens out of sand, too.

Mahito 🐇 He/ They/ It

🐇 Favorite food: I'd expect something bitter and savory. Definitely some strange foods like black ice cream! If you let Mahito into the kitchen it'll make something cursed like a cake with frosting and crab legs (T-T) 🐇 Favorite music: I look at Mahito and he gives me HUGE breakcore fan vibes, something about the distortions of sounds and almost chaotic beats is really perfect. 🐇 Hobbies: Reading ofc, I think he'd like drawing too. Mahi is also a huge people watcher.

Dagon 🐙 He/ She/ They

🐙 Favorite food: Big appreciator of all things seafood, as one would expect, but I have a feeling he also really likes stuff like Gelato and Sorbet! Also, a huge fan of dried crispy seaweed! 🐙 Favorite music: I know this is very specific, but I think Dagon would listen to chill french music, like songs with very soft vocals and dream-like instrumentals. I wish I could link an example of what I mean, but I can't seem to find a good song. 🐙 Hobbies: Dagon is the type to collect seashells! They and Hanami also hang out a lot, so he also learns quite a bit of gardening. She just chills out a lot, it's nice.

Jogo 🌋 He/ They

🌋 Favorite food: Jogo's the type to love some spicy food! But I think he secretly enjoys sweet foods a lot too, like lava cake and ice cream. He steals a bit of Hanami's tea once in a while, too. 🌋 Favorite music: This is me projecting, but I think he'd like Japanese Rockabilly, if he wasn't too stubborn to refuse to listen to human music. I feel like it fits with his whole "delinquent with a golden heart" thing he has going on. 🌋 Hobbies: Jogo doesn't have a lot of hobbies, he likes collecting cursed objects and weapons and likes to organize them neatly!

Thank you for reading~

[s1lv3rp4w3dc4t]

french taco is always in my brain forever. (french taco's tirade day 4 soon btw³)

she's my favoritest girl AND she speaks the language I'm learning?? how could I NOT love that??????

(SO much more yapping under the cut)

I'll say this again in a different post most likely, but what they don't tell you about learning a language is that it will consume you. you'll so badly want to speak it and know more and more that it will drown you and you'll suffocate under the weight of suddenly having to pull yourself yourself away. sorry lol that sounded really heavy. I just really love french.

and I have so many thoughts about taco speaking it???????? but I can't even express them??????

here's a sentence in french I've wanted to use on taco ii for so long but haven't found a place to.¹

"vous habitez dans la forêt"

literally (roughly) translating to

"you (formal) live in the forest"

I. YOU.

HAND GESTURES AT SENTENCE

JUST. JUST LOOK AT IT.

in every waking moment I am thinking about french taco. I know the french word for suitcase! IT'S VALISE!!!!² AND IT'S A FEMININE NOUN!!!!! (tacocase shippers where are you. I have good news please come here.)

I also think her and mepad speak in french to each other. (see ¹) I think they have conversations and argue and I think mepad is translating all then and there lol.

I think pickle knows a few french words because of taco, but refuses to say them anymore because they remind him of her. do you think she called him "tu"? do you think she introduced him as "mon ami"? do you think she looked him in the eye(s) and did that? I do, and I think now the story is different. I think now she calls him "vous" so he doesn't pick up on it and argue that they aren't friends anymore.

but I don't think she had enough time to unlearn it for mic. I think she still calls her "tu", even- (sorry to interrupt, but it was this exact moment that I had a violently strong desire and urge to listen to 'little soldiers' by the Crane Wives for no apparent reason other than that I started writing and mic and taco. I'm listening now as I write this post.) -after their falling out. and I think, in time, mic starts learning french words with her. I think they start having conversations and mic learns french. maybe it's me projecting here, but I think she'd want to learn french. or maybe she's learning it because she still can't trust taco not to plan behind her back.

an early message (see ²) leads me to a question. do object's object names count as names and shouldn't be translated, or because they're objects, should they be translated? in simple words, if suitcase's name is Suitcase, and a piece of dialogue was written in french involving her name (ex: "salut, [suitcase]!"), would it be the french word for suitcase (valise), OR, because it's also her name, would it stay suitcase? "salut, Valise!" vs "salut, Suitcase!" this is also a question for multilingual (or others that know) osc fans.

okay back to taco. isn't it interesting how she's mexican food with a british accent that's fluent in french, and lives among what I can only assume to be american adjacent objects? that's so strange! that's so unique! I love her sm!!!!!!!

I really wish we got her french speaking brought up more, but I understand that would be difficult and kind of pointless to do for the plot of the show lol. we interrupt this plotline to bring you a message from taco, "PÉRIR, SERPENTS" thank you. this has been the inanimate insanity movie actually 1/one. I think I would have screamed forever if she got just ONE french line. ever. in season 2/two. I would have lost my mind. I would be so happy I got violent.

(I'm still listening to little soldiers, fyi. listen to it.)

I don't read or write fanfic but I'm starting to think I may have to so I can write french taco lines.

ALSO I SHOULD READ/WATCH MORE THINGS I FRENCH. (maybe I'll check if ii has an option like that so I can make french taco a reality lol)

ALSO!!!! french taco's tirade (see ³) has damaged my keyboard suggestions forever. watch this. habite dans la slate de la forêt. what was that wait what. "live in the slate of the forest"????? that's. that's french keyboard suggestion taco's advice today for you.

I feel like I'm saying nothing anymore. you want to see my attempts at a taco's tirade translation? of course you do, you're reading this.

day 1/one

[green-ray-blog1]

Dagger being a weird white mage

Back when I played FF9 for the first and second time, I was annoyed at how Dagger's a pretty clearly inferior white mage compared to Eiko. Eiko gets full life, esuna, dispel and holy, all awesome spells that Dagger just can't learn. I guess the idea is that Dagger has the more offensive summons but even then it's not like Eiko's summons are bad, and her final one is pretty op.

But replaying the game again, some of that is making sense to me. Dagger's pretty cool, really, and she's kind of a mess.

Like okay, the trope of the white mage who actually kicks grown men's asses appears in other Final Fantasy games. Aerith roughs up some dudes in Don Corneo's house, and I'm pretty sure I remember Yuna knocking out some goons offscreen in FFX. Dagger doesn't seem to hit the same notes, though.

I don't think she ever physically overwhelms another character during the game, which doesn't stop her from jumping from towers or ditching half of the party when they don't want to take her along. She also doesn't have the same kind of enthusiasm about her that the other two try to project. When I used to play FF9, I didn't pay enough attention to her name. She was just Garnet with a fake name, but it's more than that. Aerith and Yuna want/try to be world saviors, but Garnet, for half the game mostly wants to save her mother, and it doesn't go well. I think she feels overwhelmed by Brahne's dedication to go commit worse and worse crimes. So she needs to become something more than the princess bound by her social role. She needs to become something dangerous, like a dagger. Someone who will poison the fuck out of her buddies and run ahead if they don't take her to the frontline. Obviously, Zidane's into that edgy shit, I mean look at Blank (lots of potential slash I previously had no clue about with this one btw).

Dagger's also kind of entitled, for a while ? Which, duh, she's royalty. There's the whole poisoning incident, of course. But during said incident, she doesn't poison Steiner because she knows he'll do what she says, even if he might protest at first. Worse case she can just put her foot down and shut him up. She really does take Steiner for granted. And again, what I find really cool is that it ends up being pretty subtly written (maybe in part because it's often played for laughs but not just that). Steiner doesn't mind being taken for granted. It gives him purpose, even when it's tedious as fuck. It's interesting that they're never really that close and their relationship is mostly a power dynamic.

The first trip to Treno might have lots of layers. Both Dagger and Steiner are having some personal crises. Dagger gets really into the whole plot to rob someone to save Blank (she gets to be dangerous and edgy and rub elbows with bandits, and she doesn't even need Zidane anymore hah), which is a sidetrack from saving her mother, but it does feel right too (and at least that one is successful). Steiner keeps trying to convince himself that Queen Brahne must be right and he shouldn't think too hard about her motives, but gets stung by Baku calling him out for having no thoughts of his own. In French, he asks himself "Am I a puppet?", which feels more direct than the english version. And yeah, dude, maybe you are ? You're also being roped into all sorts of business you wouldn't do because you're at Dagger's beck and call. So when they're back in Alexandria, when he finally opposes Brahne, shortly after, he also decides to stop following her to stay and fight with Freya and Beatrix. In retrospect, maybe that was a well earned vacation for the guy.

But yeah, all in all, maybe I shouldn't be surprised Dagger isn't an S tier white mage, and is more into the big damage summons, including the horrific robot from another planet with a completely excessive animation that does darkness damage.

[walrus150915]

The most random out-of-order Nimona headcanons I've scrambled out of my mind and put in my notes as coherent as I could bc there's a LOTTTT

• I don't think Nimona uses specific names to label her sexuality/gender. Was she in love with Gloreth? Maybe she was. Maybe she was not. Does she like boys? Who knows, she sure doesn't. What's her gender? Nimona. That's it

• I think Ballister did try to be the cis ally™ and figure out the label Nimona would use but she'd just shrug her shoulders and say "I don't know, boss, it seems like you care about it more than I do"

• And even though she's NOT a girl, she uses she/her pronouns because 💥YOUR PRONOUNS DON'T DEFINE YOUR GENDER💥 you may use she/her and not be a girl, he/him and not be a boy, I even saw cis people use they/them simply bc they're comfortable. And that's okay!

• Although she's comfortable with people calling her he/they/neopronouns you name it. Just. Not it/its. You know the reasons😬

• Nimona is left-handed and it's CANON actually I am SO HAPPY as a left-handed person she's just like me fr💥💥

• Nimona isn't a big fan of domestic bliss Ambrosius and Ballister spend most of their time in (plus they're very sappy and very much disgustingly in love, Nimona's stoic organism can't handle their mushiness for the dear life), she's like an independent cat I think: comes to hang out, eats, spends time with her father-not-really figures and goes away for weeks only to come back again. She travels the world my dudes✨

• I think she has a bunch of photos from the places she'd been to and talks about her adventures a lot!

• Nimona also is the best cook of the fam I'm afraid. Ballister cooks, like, the bare minimum to serve himself as a functioning adult (rice, salad, pasta, some meat like you know the deal) but nothing too complicated. Ambrosius is a nepo baby who's probably lived in palaces and mansions with dozens of servants do you really think he's good at cooking😭 as he distanced himself from the Institute and moved in with Bal I think he learnt to cook, still not great at it.

• Nimona though? SHE CAN DO *ANYTHING* like she's madly good at cooking. It might look like she's burning the kitchen down only to reveal that she was putting Gordon Ramsay to shame!

Speaking of BallBros

• Ballister's experience is close to a second gen immigrant. Ambrosius's experience is close to a third gen immigrant. They can't be immigrants bc of the context of the story?? I DON'T CARE☺

• Ambrosius doesn't speak his mother tongue except for like a few words or phrases he's heard at home. His older relatives probably make fun of him for it on family gatherings. His parents didn't teach him because they didn't want him to stick out (totally not self projecting here - yeah I'm a third gen immigrant hiii)

• Ballister tho? I think Urdu was his first language but he learned English along the way

• And it kinda mixes in his head so he forgets the words from both languages sometimes and replaces them with the word from the other one (HA my experience again)

• When he's experiencing hard emotions, be it anger, happiness, sadness, or is overwhelmed, he drops English entirely and just starts bantering in Urdu

• Ambrosius didn't know Ballister was bilingual but when he learnt it? He was amazed and I think... Kinda jealous because he didn't get to learn Korean himself (self projection yeahhhhhh)

• "You know your mother tongue? Damn! I wish I did too!"

• That said, Ballister has no idea how to shorten Ambrosius's name (WHAT THE HECK IS THIS NAME BRO WHAT ARE YOU, GOD'S FOOD???), so he sticks to Urdu endearments, "luv" (in the most British accent possible) and "darling"

People who say French/Spanish are the romantic languages are wrong LISTEN TO URDU OR INDIAN LANGUAGES OR ARABIC. THAT'S WHERE LOVE IS DUDE

• Ambrosius has learnt like a few words in Urdu and tries to rizz up Ballister by saying some basic words like "jaan", "mohabbat" and just😭😭😭 fails😭😭😭 because he's a cringefail man😭😭😭

I remember trying to ask out my (NOW EX😔) gf who's Italian by writing "will you be my girlfriend?" in Italian and I used GOOGLE TRANSLATION🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️ SHE UNDERSTOOD THAT I USED GOOGLE AND POINTED IT OUT AS A JOKE BUT I CRINGED AT MYSELF SO HARD..... Ambrosius would totally do that too and Ballister would chuckle and pull him in a kiss bc he loves this cringefail man so much

• Ambrosius also serenades like I KNOW DAMN WELL HE DOES. He goes "this one's for you, Bal" with a wink and sings like the sappiest most disgusting love ballad ever and Ballister tries his best not to laugh because that's his beloved boyfriend but also like.... So cringe. So embarrassing😭😭 Nimona has more balls than her boss so she would outright say that it's cringe

• Also. I don't agree with people saying Ambrosius's a jock because have you seen this man?? He's a theatre kid. The worst kind of theatre kid. Even after not being a kid anymore he's still a theatre kid. BRO IS A HAMILTON FAN UNIRONICALLY, OF COURSE HE IS. He makes weirdass references to musicals and giggles like an idiot

• Can we agree that Ambrosius was an awakening for many teenagers because OOOOH BOY he sure would be mine. Some pop news youtube channel probably has a video of him reading the kingdom's equivalent of "thirst tweets", like yknow this type of vids😭😭

While we're on the topic of thirst tweets

• Diego the squire runs a fan page account with edits of Ballister like he's some pop celebrity

• He also may or may not write self-indulgent "Ballister x reader" fanfiction in his off duty time

• Also hc that when Ballister was on the run he saw some "WANTED" poster of him and hang up on the wall like yeah boy's crush is EMBARRASSING (can we blame him? I'm the same with Riz Ahmed)

• Todd would be on the "straight" side of their equivalent to TikTok. You know the ones with shirtless men with the same haircuts who think they're hot when in reality they're not?? That's what Todd and his friends are up to in their free time *throws up*

To wrap it all up NOT with Todd, some super random ones:

• Ballister and Ambrosius force Nimona to take her shoes off ("DO NOT bring your European nonsense in this ethnic household") in their house even though she doesn't even have boots on😭😭 it's just her skin😭😭😭 so she morphs her form to simply be shoeless😭😭😭😭

• Ambrosius knows how to tap dance. Idk don't question it I just think he does

• Nimona plays piano YEAH SHE DOES she's lived for 1000+ years man she can do anything

• Ballister's hair routine is "genetics, coconut oil n some prayers"

Yeah that's it I'll probably make a part 2 because it's not all... These characters have occupied my mind and won't let it go🧍‍♂️

[eclipsethemagic]

Ch.6- Kiss me

Summary: Jimin and you work on a project together but something so simple makes Jimin spiral.

Paring: Jimin xf!female reader ( African American)

Genre: Smut, fluff, angst

warning: none

[m.list] prev

"Jimin?"

Jimin looks up from his notes. you stand there, a pink cotton sweater that looks big on you. black skinny jeans that hug your curves wonderfully, but Jimin isn't looking at that, no he's looking at how you pull your bottom lip between your teeth. "Yes?" he says and puts his pencil down. you let out a little smile before speaking. "I just wanted to know if you were still down to come to my house for the project?" Oh. Jimin forgot about that stupid project, but he couldn't tell her no. "Yeah just text me the address then I'll be over after school." She gives him a nod and walks back to her seat.

Jimin sits in the car for a while. Not knowing if he should go to his crush's house. He was surprised that Yoongi let him drive his car, knowing that this was Yoongi's baby. But then again Jungkook was Yoongi's baby when he wanted him to be. Turning off the car Jimin grabs his bookbag from the front seat and gets out of the car. Yoongi's car keys are in his front hoodie pocket he walks up to your driveway and up to your door. For being the golden child your parents had it all. The house was big, bigger than his. A reddish brown front door with a beautiful flowerbed was in the front of the house, and three long outside couches in the front made Jimin feel a little bit better. He finally knocks on the door and puts his hands in his jacket waiting for you to open the door.

Your neighborhood wasn't bad, it was the neighborhood where if not all but most Korean kids lived. It was a rich neighborhood that had nice streets and rolls of houses and houses. You unlock the door smiling up at Jimin, his breath caught in his throat when he looks at you. This was different than what you had on before, or what he has never seen you wear. Black shorts and a big white sweatshirt that had some English letters across your chest. Your hair was different too, curly wet, and down showing off the black hair that he loved so much. "Oh! I'm sorry Jimin, come in please." he could never let go of how cute your voice was, no matter how hard it was he always told himself that he wouldn't let the cuteness from your voice knock him into a horny kick.

"Thank You." He mumbles and goes in stepping inside. He takes his shoes off and walks down the hall. The house had a french vanilla smell that remind him of a lot of home, the floors were shiny with dark wood and had a fresh lemon smell that he could smell right away. She leads him to the living room which looked more expensive than his life, the couch was brown, large and soft, a coffee table in the middle of the floor, and a flat screen tv that was in the corner of the room. "We can start in here, do you want something to drink?"

"Yeah, just water." You nod and leave the living room, Jimin sets his bookbag down and looks around. There were family photos everywhere, more of you than your parents. He sits down on the couch waiting for you. You do come back after a while with an ice-cold water bottle and a bowl of popcorn you found. Jimin and you get started on work, not really talking much. which he kind of liked, flipping a page Jimin writes stuff down and looks up letting out a sigh. "Y/N? do you like Korea?" It was random, yes but he had to ask something, anything to stop the silence. "Hmm it's something different, yes but I'm learning to get used to it." You respond to him and he nods. "I can see why, I mean I been living here my whole life but I would like to..be able to move, maybe like China?" Jimin starts to ramble after that and to his surprise, you don't stop him. Maybe it was his anxiety talking, so he felt like he had to just say anything, but it was better than doing nothing.

"Has anyone ever told you that you have nice handwriting?" You ask him, as you look over at his paper. Jimin looks at you, his head tilts. Has anyone ever told him? He isn't sure, I mean he didn't think his handwriting was good, if anything it looked normal. His handwriting was fine, it was a mixed between Jungkook's and his mother's so he really didn't think anything of it. But if you like it, then he can deal with it. "No," he clears his throat. "No one has ever told me my handwriting was nice, I mean if anything your handwriting is wonderful." You smile at that, and move your hair to the side. Jimin eyes catch on the little flower tattoo that's behind your ear, he never seen it before mostly because your hair was always covering your neck but it was pretty.

After a while it was time for Jimin to go, finishing up the bit of notes he did have with you he starts to pack up his stuff. He can feel your eyes on him as you watch him pack up, he's bad at conversations, as you can tell, but from talking to you and learning you more from just watching he can tell you aren't too good either. But being with you he never felt awkward. "I enjoyed my time today, even though we didn't talk much. It still was fun." She smiles a pretty bright like smile that makes Jimin heart warm. He smiles back, zipping up his book bag and putting it on his back. You follow him to the door unlocking it, and open the door. Jimin doesn't say a word, actually he's afraid to speak. The sweet vanilla perfume is intoxicating. It makes his head spin, clouding his brain but you keep staring at him. Your dark brown eyes staring back at his and he can't tell your thoughts.

"Jimin?" He hears you say. He opens his mouth, but no words come out, his hands feel clammy, sweaty. You repeat it again, this time putting your hand on the strap of his book bag. Now he looks at you, before he can even say a word you put your lips on his.

You're lips are soft, slightly chapped but soft. His heart starts to beat, fast and he doesn't even know what's real anymore. But it's not long, one simple peck and you pull away. And like that, Jimin leaves, you shut the door and that's it. He wants to say that, he should be happy. The girl of his dreams just kissed him on his lips, he should be happy. But he's not.

Actually all the nerves he did have meeting you, being by him, being alone with you. Went out the window when your lips fell on his. As Jimin walks to Yoongi's car he has no thoughts. He puts his bookbag in the passenger seat, he turns it on, and starts driving. Once he hits the highway, it hits him.

The sadness.

The sadness fills his heart and his eyes start to water. And he doesn't know why. That was Jimin daily challenge. He can be happy, if the sun is out and the bees are buzzing Jimin is happy. But maybe this time, it's not cloudy, it's sunny, but he's afraid. He's afraid that you'll see him different. It wasn't like he kissed you, you kissed him. You put your lips on his, you smiled and  told him you'll see him at school. But to Jimin? His heart is telling him that you aren't happy. That you'll hate him. Who would have thought, you kissing him would sent him into a spiral.

"How was the project thing go today?" Mrs Kim ask during dinner. The boys were quiet, which would make sense considering it was only Jungkook, Taehyung, and Jimin. But today, they didn't say a word. Taehyung ate his chicken as he played a game on his phone, Jungkook played with his peas and Jimin? Well, he just shrugged. He hasn't touched his food really. He wasn't hungry. That's what he kept telling his mother when she called him down for dinner. He couldn't bear eating after crying his lungs out in the car, and he felt sick to his stomach and she wanted him to answer how the stupid project went?  Oh Jimin was going to cry right then and there.

"Mama?" Jimin starts, he set his fork down and looks at her. "Why am I sad? She kissed me and I'm sad..why?" Jungkook dropped his fork looking at his brother. His doe brown eyes are widen and he looks at his other brother who looks the same. "What you mean she kissed you? YALL KISSED?" Taehyung voice gets louder and his mother tells him to hush. "Son? I think that's great she kissed you, and it's okay to feel sad, do you know why you feel sad?" Jimin shakes his head, he doesn't know. He was trying to figure it out all day and he couldn't put his finger on it. "You don't know?" "No." She hums, looking at him and gives him a small smile. "It's okay. Your emotions all over the place and that's completely normal for someone you liked very very much." It didn't feel normal to Jimin. He felt like the word was crashing on him and his mother was telling him that it was normal? That's when the anger started to rise, his nails dig into his palms. "So I'm just fucking obsessed? I'm stupid? I'm not emotionally stable, why would she want to date a person like me?"

"Jimin."

"No! Fuck this." He gets up from the table and runs upstairs to his room. His door slams and his mother just sighs. She leans back into the wooden chair running her fingers through her hair. "Mom? Is that normal?" Taehyung ask looking at her. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know how to answer either. She knows it's not, but she wanted Jimin to know it was normal for him. Crying was normal, the confusion was normal, but the obsession? She didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't. Yoongi did, and she shut it down. She actually told him to shut the fuck up, because it wasn't him that was picking up the pieces, it was her. Bless is little heart though, he tried to make up for it by buying Jimin his favorite ice cream. She chuckles at the memory, and she looks at her middle child. "For normal people like us? No. For Jimin? Yes. See your brother has his depression mood swings, he can be anxious, and he can be happy. I think today Jimin was just confused and that confusion cause him to feel like something wasn't right. And that okay. I hope that one day Jimin understands that he's different, but him being different isn't bad." It was a simple answer. A answer she gave him that was way easier for him to understand.

Jungkook understood it though. If his other brother didn't, he did. Because he knows how it feels to feel alone, to feel like you're a burden. Because besides Yoongi, Jimin and him had many talks about his emotions, his thoughts, and his obsession with you. He gets it though. You're beautiful, you're outgoing, but you're also quiet. And that's what attracted Jimin to you. It might have been confusing at first but Jimin came around. So Jungkook hopes that this time around, Jimin doesn't beat himself up about it. Because a kiss might be a kiss, but to Jungkook? The kiss was a sign that maybe Jimin does have his fairytale ending he deserves.

[helenvader]

You mentioned on a post about Sauron inventing Black Speech that you're a linguist - are you comfortable elaborating?

I'd love to know more, as an informal but dedicated linguist myself. Always curious about how people get into languages.

@oroniel So, here we go. It's going to be long!

I love languages. I'm fascinated by all their aspects - the development over time, the way they influence each other, how they often reflect the speakers as a group at a certain point in time, and the system of a language as such.

At the university I studied English and German, but not pure linguistics, I majored in translation and interpreting (loved the first, hated the other, because those two require differently wired brains, and my brain is definitely a translator's brain).

While at university, I also learned French, Latin, Swedish, Old English and ivrit (these days I am in awe, I barely manage ONE language course now), and sometimes just read grammar of others just out of curiousity - Gothic and Breton, maybe others, can't remember now! These days I sometimes read on Old Norse and and look up words in Proto-Germanic, not really learning, just having fun.

I also started translating Sir Gawain and the Green Knight into Slovak, a project that I abandoned once I started working, but at that time I was very good at that particular dialect of Middle English and it was a great exercise in translating poetry (and translating in general).

Of course I have forgotten most of the above as it happens when you don't practice. When I came to Luxembourg I had to start learning French again, and took Italian later on, but my Mum had Alzheimer's, and it took its toll on my brain, so I ended up not being able to do that at one point. This year I'm not working (unpaid leave), so I FINALLY started learning Luxembourgish. I was a bit afraid, but my brain cooperates, I'm just rather tired after each class.

I also have to mention that when I was watching my favourite Chinese drama (The Story of Yanxi Palace), I started recognising words and even deduced some very basic grammar rules (confirmed by a colleague who studied Chinese), which made me immensely proud. I love deciphering a system, that's for sure.

I do not expect to learn anything beyond Luxembourgish at a level of being able to hold a basic conversation, and maybe come back to Italian one day. I'm not getting younger, and my brain is chronically tired.

I have always admired Tolkien, the natural linguist, not only for the sheer amount of languages he knew, but for the amazing job he did on his conlangs. That's just. WOW.

Oh, and I love Black Speech, I know it's supposed to be ugly, but it doesn't sound ugly to me. My HC is that Mairon based it partially on Valarin (his first language, and one that sounded unpleasant to the Elvish ears, and thus Quenya was born), just making it simpler. Imagine my JOY when I found out that the word for ring in Valarin is... naškad. Not dissimilar to nazg, is it? :)

And of course Black Speech is a language that has no exceptions, because our darling Maia is such a perfectionist. It's a pity we only have but a few words and sentences. And I NEED to know what Halbrand said to that warg! Hopefully we will learn in time.

[angelmalocaris]

Emeryfession

Hello NEN Tumblr! Tumblr NEN fans! NENblr! Whatever you are!

There are like 5 of you at most, even when rounded up, but I have a confession to post.

This shrine, you see this “shrine” right here? From the NEN website? (CONT. under cut)

That is MY shrine. I made that. Those objects are in my possession.

This image is sort of old. I haven’t cleaned my bedroom in awhile so I will hold off on taking new ones for the time being, but here are my Emery related trinkets I have and projects I have worked on. This is not a complete list by any means, mostly just my biggest or most well known ones.

Lets get the big stuffy fluff-filled elephant out of the room, the pillow. Yes that is an Emery body pillow! (Or dakimakura I suppose.)

YES it is hand made! YES I do sleep with it every night! and YES my mom did help me make it! While it has become SIGNIFICANTLY more faded over time, it is well loved. That is my wifey! Of course I take care of her!

It's almost completely homemade, my mom prints t-shirt so we just printed on some fabric. There is a heart-shaped button and a few feathers in the stuffing, think like a BaB plushie.

Enough of that, time for a walk. Here’s the Emery engraved collar!

Real metal! After saving a bit of money and walking and hour or so, I purchased this at a store to be made by an engraving machine. Why? Because I can! And have you seen Emery? That’s definitely a critter.

I'm hungry... so hungry I could eat... an Emery!!!

Here are three separate Emery cakes I made! Left to right in order. They're all box mix but I baked them and frosted them on my own.

My grandma made this one. Goo Goo Gah Gah...

By now, all the cakes are long gone.

First Cake Death

Second Cake Death (My favorite!)*

Third Cake Death

*(also a remake of the first.)

Quick time event!!! Here's some Emeries I made in video games.

Note, while I did not make the Emery Mii (Hal did) I am including it here because I think it's notable that I got to marry Emery in the game.

I have lost my membership in this time so the full outfit is not possible for me anymore, but feel free to recreate it. Its simple and the items shouldn't be too hard to acquire.

It's just 1, the Square Glasses (members only) from Jam Mart Clothing in green for 350 gems 2, the tie from Jam Mart Clothing in red for 100 gems, and the Rare Crimson Topcoat (members only). While the topcoat is marked "Rare" its quite common for a rare item and IIRC I may(?) even have more than one.

I want to update the Petz 4 Emery. I could probably make it better now and I want him to be a dog when I decide to remake it.

I have lost my old save for tomodachi life but someday I will get married to him again... just you wait!!!

You know what games are made of? Code. So are webbed sites... Usually not the same code, but you get the idea.

This is my Emery web shrine! I will not link to it because its very old and not very good by my current standards. You can see its age by Emery being called "Telly" and some of the older artwork ( being by Hal of course.) Someday it will be made better and strong...

and yes. I did help with some (a lot) of the code on the NEN site. I'm blaming any of the messy stuff in there on Hal though because she's the one doing most updates. Sorry Hal! Maybe learn more than some HTML and I won't throw you under the bus. I need to log on and fix up some of that in a bit. I am sure it looks like a tornado hit it from the inside.

I have been at this for months, even years now. Longer than the NEN official site even existed. A lot of this is hand made and if not that, completely out of my own pockets. I plan to continue being crazy even if my pockets are reduced to nothing but lint and moths (they have, more than once.) I love Emery Phone.

Peace and Love (except for the french, that being Emery. I will get you Emery.)

Tschüss! Buh-Bye! Until next time! Au revoir! (Eww... French...)

[vixstarria]

✨Prepare for an unsolicited info dump✨

I was tagged by @herdarkestnightelegance - thanks!

Do you make your bed? Yes, always - I might leave other things lying around, but the bed is the no. 1 thing that always gets done - otherwise the bedroom looks too messy and irks me

Favorite number? I don't have a favourite number.

What’s your job? So... I work in a small law firm as the person who does everything but provide legal advice. Accounts, IT, HR, admin, random paralegal stuff - I'm your guy (gn). No one at work really knows exactly what it is I do, but they generally assume I'm always busy, which provides ample opportunity to shitpost on tumblr during work hours. E.g. right now. I love my job.

If you could go back to school would you? Absolutely not, I still have PTSD and recurring nightmares about school. I mean, I don't mind learning, per se, but I would strongly prefer it to be on my own terms, remote, and outside of a formal academic environment. And definitely not in the country I grew up and went to school in.

Can you parallel park? Strangely enough, yes. I do note that I do not have a license, however.

Do you think aliens are real? There has to be alien life of some kind out there, but it won't be little green men in blinking flying saucers. ...Although then again, hey, within the infinity of the universe, maybe there ARE little green men in saucers as well, somewhere, who knows?

Can you drive a manual car? Strictly within the confines of an empty parking lot - sure

What’s your guilty pleasure? Oh gosh, of what kind? Food - spicy ramen noodles with a bunch of stuff (mushrooms, egg, etc) thrown in. I love it, but I swear I immediately gain a kg any time I have a bowl. Music - early 2000's R&B, pop and nu metal. It's nostalgia, okay? Media - reality fashion shows that involve competitions, e.g. Project Runway, or ANTM. And cooking shows, but I don't feel guilty about those lol.

Tattoos? No, nothing's ever struck me as significant enough for me to want to have it on my skin permanently. If I had a weird scar I would cover it up with a tattoo, though.

Favorite color? Purple, especially lilac and lavender shades.

Favorite types of music? It fluctuates, but I've mostly been on an electronic / industrial binge lately.

Do you like puzzles? Puzzles often make me feel like an idiot, but if there is no timer, pressure or audience - sure. ...Or like, jigsaw puzzles? I fkn LOVE jigsaw puzzles.

Any phobias? Nope.

Favorite childhood sport? Bold of you to assume I participated in ANY sport as a child, much less had a favourite. Uh. Ice skating and rollerblading was fun, I guess. I sometimes contemplate getting rollerblades again, but then I also rather enjoy all my bones being intact. 🤔

Do you talk to yourself? All the time, although mostly in the form of muttered swears and various exclamations.

What movies do you adore? I'm going to pass on this one, or it might turn into a very long rant. To summarise: I like weird movies, horror and comedy horror. Some examples: Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead, Army of Darkness.

Coffee or tea? Both. Start the day with coffee, then drink tea for the remainder. I'm very particular with my coffee though - every morning begins with a little ritual of grinding whole beans and preparing it with a french press.

First thing you wanted to be growing up? One of my earliest memories is me wondering what I wanted to be when I grew up, and my little 4 or 5 year old brain thinking that my only options were teacher, doctor and cashier, for some reason, and being sad because I didn't want to be any of those. I don't think I ever wanted to be anything, as a child - I just wanted to read my books and play with my toys. In fact, I still feel that way. 😠

No pressure tagging (and sorry for any repeats): @spacebarbarianweird @thechaoticdruid @snowfolly @brabblesblog @confused-butter-toast @tragedybunny

[desertdollranch]

Welcome to La Grande Pâtisserie

Grace Thomas is excited to announce that today is the grand opening of La Grande Pâtisserie! Everyone in Grace's hometown of Bentwick, Massachusetts, has been eagerly awaiting the debut of this authentic French pastry shop. There's nothing else like it anywhere in town! Bentwick prides itself on being a quaint little village with a high standard of living for its residents, so this is the perfect place for Grace to see her dream come to life.

In her third book, Grace Makes it Great, it's been a few months since Grace returned from her summer trip to Paris. In that time she has been working hard to make her bicycle-delivery-based baking business successful, but she realizes it may need to start growing much faster! Her grandparents' bakery may have to close down forever if it doesn't stop losing money and business to the local grocery store bakery. So, using what she learned while working at the patisserie in Paris, Grace teams up with her grandparents to turn their bakery into a beautiful, unique French pastry shop.

As for my part in all of this...... like Grace, this opening day is a dream come true. For inspiration, I based this on the bakery playset that was sold as part of her collection when she was the Girl of the Year in 2015. Her bakery was notable at the time for being the most expensive doll item ever released by American Girl, at $500.

(Later surpassed in 2020 by Joss Kendrick's surf bus, at $650).

Now, of course, nine years later, it's still very expensive when bought secondhand, even when it's sold without all the small accessories. I certainly couldn't ever justify spending that much on one single doll item. And why should I, when I can build something like this with my own two hands, for a lot cheaper? I've already built Caroline's parlor, three arcade video games, a skee ball lane, Kanani's shave ice stand, Grace's pastry cart and bistro set, bedrooms for Josefina and Kirsten, a greenhouse, Rebecca's phonograph, a few small pet habitats, and lots more for my dolls. I like having creative control that lets me expand on the things that interest me the most. I like making or collecting small accessories to supplement my projects. And I like that my renditions can be built at a more realistic scale. The bakery in Grace's collection is scaled so small that it looked more like a child's playhouse than a legit bakery, and so I was shooting for something scaled larger.

I've had Grace in my doll family for four years now, but it's only recently that I've felt like I have enough small accessories accumulated to make the whole thing look top-notch and full of detail. I also can't get out of my head the idea of making a little breakfast joint for my dolls and me to share breakfast and coffee with them on weekend mornings. I'm thinking maybe that will be accompanied by occasional videos showing Grace making breakfast for me and another doll. So keep an eye out for that!

If you haven't seen it already, you can browse Grace's hashtag to check out all the other things I've made and collected for her.

And here we are...... it's opening day!

So let's take a closer look at La Grande Pâtisserie. Grace is so eager to show off what's inside, and while she does that I'll explain how I made everything (not to take the magic away, but I always hope to inspire other crafty readers who may want to make their own doll stuff). This you see here is only a small part of the pâtisserie! I'll show you the front of the shop, the kitchen, and then the outdoor seating area.

When you walk in, the first thing you'll notice is the pastry case.

On the top row are the fancy cakes and macarons. The middle shelf has croissants, cupcakes, eclairs, and beignets. The bottom shelf has jelly donuts and petit fours (back row), plus a square of frosted gingerbread, cherry cheesecake, chocolate tart, raspberry tart, and madeleines.

These were all made by me, mostly with clay and puffy paint. A lot of them were based on the little pastries that were part of Grace's collection, some I made for other dolls and other occasions, and a few were based on real bakery treats.

The "glass" pastry case is clear plastic that comes from packaging material, including a few 18 inch-sized doll boxes. Whenever I buy something with this sort of strong but flexible clear plastic, I hoard it for future projects.

These three cakes were made from layers of foam board. This is a great material to work with because it's easier to cut than wood, very lightweight, can be shaped with sandpaper, and takes paint very well.

The jelly donut, eclair, and cupcake, all made from clay. The heart sprinkles were not made by me.

The cherry cheesecake. Those are wooden beads on top of the slice. I used a mixture of glue and food coloring to make the cherry sauce.

And the little berry macarons. The berries are made from seat cushion foam that I cut up and soaked in red paint.

The to-go bags (the small one has a croissant poking out) are printables that came from AmericanGirlIdeas.com. I made the croquembouche on the right, originally for Marie-Grace and Cécile. It's pretty big and doesn't fit in the pastry case.

I promise I will show off more contents of the pastry case when the dolls and I start having breakfast together!

Looking past the pastry case, here's the behind-the-counter setup.

The walls here are a large cardboard tri-fold that I spray painted aqua blue. Everything hanging on the walls is held there by Velcro that I superglued onto the tri-fold, so I can take them down and switch them around. You'll see why very soon.

The art on the walls all came from Pinterest, except for the painting of Provence on the upper left. That was made by an AI image generator. The red display shelves are foam board I painted. I made the menu in the middle (if I haven't said so already, I really love making my own printables/labels/packaging etc. It's the thing I look forward to the most when making doll stuff).

The three under-counter refrigerators are product pictures I found through a web search. They're glued onto a panel of foam board, which is glued onto a cardboard box to give it strength to hold the accessories on top. If you look closely, you can see little squares of Velcro in the upper left and right corners. That's there to attach another panel, which you will also see very soon.

The coffee maker was a thrift store find, but it originally came in a set of three toy appliances. This is so fun to play with. It really "brews" coffee; if you fill that little reservoir (covered with a sticker) with liquid and hit the button, it will dispense the liquid into the cup below while making coffee brewing noises. I made the coffee pot using this tutorial. Directly above the coffee maker is a shelf of white mugs, which I bought from Amazon.

On the left is the toaster. It makes real "toasting" noise and pops the toast up when the timer is done. The sticker on it and the coffee maker came from Farm and Feast: Gather Together with Friends and Food, an activity book & kit published by American Girl.

In between the toaster and the coffee maker is the waffle iron. I made that from a makeup compact.

I made the waffle from painted clay. And I only realized now that maybe the waffle should be lined up with the hinge and not at an angle....

Grace is demonstrating here how her machine can brew both pots of coffee AND shots of espresso!

Over here is the blender. The toy appliance set did originally have a a blender in some versions, but I've not found it at any thrift store and so I just made my own. This is made from two clear plastic cups, one for the base and one for the blending part. The lid, which by a beautiful coincidence was the perfect size, came from a fancy container of gelato, and there's a smaller metal lid on top of that. The little blade inside is just a metal wingnut glued to a metal washer. The base is painted pink and it's glued to a mason jar lid ring. I designed the button panel, and the buttons are pony beads painted black.

The little box of chocolates on the red shelf were made by me as well from clay and puffy paint.

Grace can make blended coffee and smoothies in the blender. The milk and orange juice containers are printables I found somewhere on Pinterest and can't remember where. I made the little yogurt from a Keurig coffee pod filled with clay and topped with some white puffy paint. The little plastic containers of blueberries and cherries came from a Make it Mini set. The bowl of fruit contains berries, peaches, and bananas, which I made. I did not make the grapes, but found them at a thrift store attached to a set of plastic napkin rings.

On the top shelf on the wall, Grace has displayed three baguettes and a bag of biscotti, which are twice-baked long cookies that pair nicely with coffee. These are all made by me. I designed the paper bags holding the baguettes, while the biscotti bag was a printable from American Girl Ideas.

I also made Grace's dress, based on the Opening-Night Outfit from her collection. (And if you notice that my Grace looks slightly different from other dolls, it's because I enhanced her freckles a bit).

Above her right shoulder, on the bottom red shelf, you can see the little pineapple cake that I made from a Make it Mini set. The little pineapple rings and cherries came in those tiny plastic containers next to the blender.

Now that you've seen the front of the shop, let's check out the kitchen!

As much as she loves working in all parts of the shop, Grace's favorite place to be is in the kitchen, using her hands, making the magic happen.

It was in the process of creating that Grace found her passion. She considers baking a form of artistic expression. Here she is trying out a new recipe for pain au chocolat, which is like a chocolate-filled croissant. I think this is what she might be serving me the next time I stop in for breakfast.

Some common ingredients she uses are flour, sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla, baking powder, nuts, and jam.

I made pretty much everything here, except the text on the labels, which also came from Farm and Feast. I also didn't make the label for the butter box. The little containers of baking powder and vanilla are my favorites. The vanilla extract bottle came with a Miniverse Make it Mini surprise package. I made the label for it as well. And the baking powder is just a tiny glass jar from Dollar Tree, with a label attached, which I did not design.

Here's a wide shot of the kitchen counter. She's got two ovens, a proofer/holding cabinet, and a few shelves for stainless steel dishes.

The counter here is actually the same one seen in the previous pictures, behind the pastry case. This panel with the ovens and dishes attaches with Velcro to the refrigerator panels. I just printed out the three pictures and glued them to the panel. The left side and middle panels were generated by an AI image maker based on my prompts, since I couldn't find a real picture of exactly what I was envisioning. The right side panel is a product photo of industrial double ovens.

On top of the counter, I've put a few mini kitchen tools: a stock pot, a colander, a box grater, and a stand mixer. Hanging on the wall are mixing spoons, spatulas, and an oven mitt.

All of these dishes and tools were thrift store finds, with the exception of the oven mitt, which came with Farm and Feast.

On the left is a stove top (another printed image) that attaches with Velcro onto the pink marble countertops, and that's her crepe pan in the picture on the left. It's a real cast iron pan that I was gifted this past Christmas, and as I thanked the giver all I could think of was how cute this would look in my doll-sized kitchen.

Grace's adorable cupcake shirt and black apron were not made by me, but are from her original collection.

Let's go look at the outdoor seating area.

This is the other side of the cardboard tri-fold. I spray painted this red and then printed out the windows and door image.

I also made Grace's shirt and skirt. It's based on Grace's Sightseeing Outfit from her collection.

The shop has an outdoor seating area where customers can bring their pastries, breakfast, or coffee and enjoy them in the open air.

This table is a revised version I made a few years ago for Grace, based on the bistro set from her collection. It is seriously such an easy craft, anyone can do it. I used an inexpensive marble-print cardboard cake board from Michael's, glued it onto a cardboard tube taken from a roll of paper towels, and glued that to the base which is made from a black plastic takeout container. I gave the tube some extra stability by gluing it inside of a prescription drug bottle. Then I painted the tube and bottle black; the base is black plastic.

The chair was a lot trickier. I made this a few years ago with flexible plastic-covered wire, and the seat is cardboard with a cushion glued to it. I really had to force that wire into shape, and used floral wire to hold it together. Then I spray painted it red.

Putting the red chair in front of the red storefront kind of makes it disappear, so I'll bring back some pictures of the first version of her bistro set that I made in 2020 (one of my earliest pandemic projects).

These pictures are from Grace's trip to Paris! She got lots of inspiration there for how she wants her own shop to look. Here she is eating at her aunt and uncle's La Pâtisserie.

The turquoise menu board is just foam board that I painted, with a dowel as the pole. At the time I made it, I didn't have a printer, and I usually just did all my printing at the library. But the library closed during lockdown, and so I had to freehand paint and draw everything! The tabletop here is painted as well, but I like the cake board version better.

The croissant, brie cheese, and berries are made from clay. The little Eiffel Tower is a foam board base and some of that rigid clear plastic for the menu holder. The cup came from Dollar Tree, and the green straw is actually a small leftover piece of that flexible wire the bistro chair is made from.

So that's everything! I spent very little money on all the supplies, and used upcycled materials as often as I could. This won't be the last you'll see of the shop. This was definitely a huge time investment, and so I'll be using it often from now on.