#Probably the tonal languages

[cyborgcourt]

Kaider being silly and having fun living the married aka sleepover-every-night life in their mega palace dream house

Kaider OTP Headcanons 2

So ya’ll know Kaider is my fave and when someone asked me to do all the otp asks for them… I just have to do it. I looked back at the first set I did too to make sure I’m keeping things somewhat consistent. 

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[idontwantrobyntodie]

ugh i need to make a mermaid conlang

[absolutebl]

Hey ABL, l have a linguistics related question. Feel free to not answer. So I'm finally watching "he's coming to me" and they are obviously using the word 'phi' a lot both to mean 'ghost' or 'older...' So do the words sound exactly the same (like homophones to English speakers) or is there something I should be looking out for in the differences between them?

They are actually different words and pronunciation.

ผี = ghost

พี่ = older sibling

I don't know about you but no matter how hard I try I can't hear the difference between two or three of the 5 (YES 5) Thai tones.

5 tones = 

low

mid

high

falling

rising

I'm a visual person, so this may help you like it did me. Maybe you can see how high, mid, and falling can all sound alike since they have similar vocal trajectories?

[and-fishing-equipment]

i've started reading tvl and no amount of posts telling me there's a "huge tonal shift" could have prepared me for this HUGE TONAL SHIFT this is the funniest fucking thing i've ever read it genuinely goes like:

louis, narrator of iwtv: as i wandered the streets of paris, i wished most of all for death. i had called to god, to satan, anyone, to find meaning in it all. but for an evil creature such as myself there is no place in this world. there can be no love where this evil lies. it was as though a veil separated me from all that could be good and righteous. i did not deserve to love and be loved in return, not by claudia, lestat, armand. to attempt it would be a sisyphean task, a fools tale. and yet...... the need for hole from armand was so great. greater was only the need for........ living human blood.

lestat, narrator of tvl: hey guys, my name is lestat, you may know me because i'm really hot and sexy. english isn't my first language so sorry if i make any mistakes!! okay here's my story: after rotting beneath the earth for decades, my hot and sexy body has finally risen from the ground. i used to be depressed, but now i'm slutting it up again in the 20th century! first thing i did was get some (hot and sexy) new clothes and then wore them while riding my (hot and sexy) motorcycle and listening to bach on my sony walkman. while i was watching this super niche indie film (you've probably not heard of it) "apocalypse now" i realized that i'm so evil that i shouldn't exist. but then i realized what could make me deserve to live on this planet: rock n roll music.

[keferon]

Sorry in advance for the word vomit but. I love the whole Jazz-and-Prowl figuring out the language barrier but also consider:

They don't.

Prowl's been captured by Quintessons and is currently thinking of ways to completely scrape his processor so they can't get any useful data, only to get rescued by a random mech. They fight their way out (the mech is extremely proficient in combat). At first he thinks it's a drone- it looks at him when he asks questions but doesn't answer (responds to noise, not language), it is sparkless (not alive) and it makes random but entirely incoherent noises and doesn't even ping (not able to communicate). Prowl has no idea what's going on but he's too injured to make it back to base alone and it's helping him? So. He chalks it up to some waylaid stealth military asset and tries to think of ways to both get it back to base whilst also making sure it's not some sort of Quintesson Trojan-horse [10%].

Meanwhile, Jazz was sent to blow up a Quintesson command camp by his organisation but instead he got thrown through a weird portal, and found a pilot all tied down and probably being tortured so naturally he busted him out but uh. He has no idea what the other is saying. He's talking in total tonal gibberish. Not that he's judging, he's heard some stuff about how far other piloting programs are willing to go to advance neural technology. And his face! He has one! A handsome one. Must be some advanced shit because he's got micro expressions and he's using them to frown as him. Anyways, Jazz's got bigger fish to fry. The sky's a different colour, there are two suns and atmo is reading terribly low levels of O2. Maybe he and this pilot got thrown into an alien planet? Cool- well, actually pretty bad but hey they're in this together.

Prowl knows by models that they're bound to run into another Quintesson patrol eventually, and based on the drones alertness to its surroundings, his previous observations to its capacity to fight, and how it doesn't stray to far from him, if patrol numbers are favourable [1-8 range] they can survive [70, .5]% the route back to base. But the drone is reckless and abandons him to the melee (how can a drone be reckless?) and Prowl gets injured worse. Energon drips from wounds, and the angle makes it challenging for him to patch it. But the drone creeps closer, folds to its (knees? Its joints are in an odd but effective configuration) and gently (gently?) begins to mimic (clumsily) Prowl's motions of patching his wounds. Here is where Prowl falters, because drones are not so careful. Drones do not do not look up multiple times at his faceplates, and become more delicate when they see you in pain. Drones don't hold out a servo and help you to your pedes when your done. Which begs the question, if he's not a drone, so what has been done to this mech?

Jazz on the other hand is freaking the fuck out. Naturally. Because uh, he started slicing Quints, expecting Frowny to do the same because his mech was still clearly operational, only for the idiot to completely disregarded normal combat standards which can be summarised as 'fight hard or die' and instead get chewed on by some big ass teeth.

Only to see the glowing purple dripping from his torn sides, only to see that he's bleeding.

Machines don't bleed.

So Jazz figures out Frowny is an alien first. He starts pointing at himself and saying his name, insistently, until Frowny repeats it. He points at Frowny, and records and replays whatever sound bite Frowny makes until Frowny's also nodding in confirmation. He still calls him Frowny, because even though he has his name? Probably? He has no idea what it means and can't actually pronounce it (no idea how to get a mouth to move that way) but hey! Progress! He does this again and again with small things (rock, hand, cyber?animals, music (Frowny's confused at that one it's pretty adorable) ect.

Prowl has no idea what to make of this strange mech. Is he a failed experiment? A runaway from Cybertron following the Functionalists rise or power? Thennn Prowl finds out one fateful night that the mech is actually an alien organic (in a fit of misunderstandings, and squeezes him pretty hard for it ouch and feels SO guilty about it later) and suddenly the language/culture barrier makes way more sense.

Prowl's injuries degrade (a line splits). He has no way to communicate this except for the energon dripping out of his chassis. The organic is clearly worried (how did he think he was ever sparkless), and Prowl can't reach the injury himself. So he guides the mech's servos past armour and wiring, down to protoform (near his sparkchamber) to the split line. Gestures and hopes the mech can figure out what to do from his miming[#^%]. That'll he'll be careful, and won't hurt him [5%, 87%, #*%, *########%].

Frowny is later picking shrapnel stuck in his forearm that's too small for him to remove, so Jazz gets out of his mech to help with his small human hands. Jazz has no way to communicate to Frowny that if he moves, he'll sheer Jazz's limbs clean off, but he goes in anyway, because Frowny's hurt, and speckled in blood. Because he's clearly struggling and hurt and tired. Because Jazz has to trust that he won't.

Frowny's injures eventually make him collapse, and Jazz carries him the rest of the way. Jazz has no idea how they'll be received (especially considering how Frowny reacted when he found out Jazz was organic). Jazz knows he might be dissected. Knows he might be pulled apart (again) but.

He remembers all the little moments they had on their journey (Frowny shielding him from falling rubble when Jazz was out of his mech once, them getting to gesticulating arguments, Frowny's reaction to his music, how he fell asleep on Jazz once and it was fricken adorable).

It doesn't matter that Jazz can't say (barely understands) his actual name. That Frowny probably doesn't understand his. It doesn't matter that they talk in halting miming, in broken sound clips and touches and half-glares.

He's already gone out on all his limbs, might as well put his head on the chopping block. And if it causes him to lose the damn thing, well.

He's a pilot. Dying horribly is practically his job description.

OOOUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHH DYING HORRIBLY IS PRACTICALLY HIS JOB DESCRIPTION,,,,,,,,,,,

[yuespropagandablog]

Hello esteemed mutual. If you are reading this, then that means my propaganda is working. But you might still have questions, so I am here to answer them.

What is Falsettos?

A damn good musical.

But time to get serious. It's a sung-through musical written by William Finn and James Lapine, with Lapine also writing the music and lyrics. Falsettos is a two-act musical, like many, but it's important here because Falsettos is actually two musicals in one. The first act is March of the Falsettos, and the second act is Falsettoland. These are the last two installments of the Marvin Trilogy. The first part, In Trousers, flopped on off-Broadway and is also not part of Falsettos. Are you following?

The first acts centers on a Jewish man named Marvin (the main character of the Marvin Trilogy, who would've thought) and his homosexual relation with Whizzer, and how that impacts the family. He's left his wife Trina and son Jason to be with Whizzer, but Marvin is also Marvin, and loves to have a tight-knit family that includes all of them, but fails to see how his wish impacts the others. The second act takes place two years after the first and it's all about Jason's bar mitzvah, but oh, oh no, it's a homosexual story set in the 80s. Yeah folks, I am going to be upfront: this musical does not have a happy ending. Spoiler. I know. But I just want people to know what they're getting themselves into.

The show has a lot to say about gay life in the 70s and 80s, gender roles and masculinity, traditional family, illness, and Judaism. Yes, you cannot separate the Judaism from this show, no matter how hard a Spanish production tries.

Where can I watch it?

The original Falsettos debuted in 1992 on Broadway. I know it from its 2016 Broadway revival. There are, uh, slime tutorials for both (and also for In Trousers if you're interested), and the 2016 version also got a proshot that was aired on PBS, so they did have to censor some language. RIP "You save lives and I save chicken fat, I can't fucking deal with that", you will forever be missed. This link totally definitely does not lead to a YouTube upload of that proshot, what do you mean?

There are also a bunch of other productions, sometimes with footage, sometimes not. I actually saw the Dutch version in 2021 in Amsterdam (probably while I had COVID, but in my defense, I tested negative before I boarded my train!)

Is there a trailer or something?

Yes, here's a trailer for the proshot.

Here is their Tony performance, which is also my favourite song of the show:

(They did take out the "Lighbulb up the ass" and "I can't fucking deal with that", because America is America. But at least we got Andrew Rannell's boner in return?)

And for funsies, here's the Tony Awards performance of the OBC:

(They did censor the words "homosexuals" and "lesbians", unless that was the original lyrics. I dunno. I am not very familiar with the original one.)

You implied AIDS. Are there other content warnings?

Yes. AIDS will be the main theme of the second act. You can ignore it by just turning off the show after the song What More Can I Say, but that is obviously not the full show. There's also some period-typical homophobia, as in in act one, Jason is afraid that his father's homosexuality is a fatal hereditary disease. There are also a lot of dysfunctional relationship dynamics in act one, including one instance of physical abuse. Act two has the AIDS of it all and because of that, the major character death warning.

But is there also fun to be had?

Yes, definitely! One thing that makes Falsettos a good show is the tonal whipslash. Both act one and act two start out as the funniest shit you've ever seen and then BAM, drama. It is kind of impressive how the show does that. It has stellar comedic songs like Four Jews in a Room Bitching, My Father's A Homo/Everyone Tells Jason to See a Psychiatrist, I'm Breaking Down, Jason's Therapy, Year of the Child, Miracle of Judaism, The Baseball Game, A Day in Falsettoland, Everybody Hates His Parents and whatever the fuck March of the Falsettos (the song) is.

The first half of both acts you can't stop laughing and the second half of both acts you can't stop crying. That's Falsettos, baby!

Does the music slap?

Oh yeah. It is a fully sung-through musical. If that's not your jam, then you're better off skipping it. It also has a more "traditional" musical theatre sound, whatever that might mean. As you saw in the previous section, it has a lot of great comedic songs, with stellar lyrics like "Look, look, look, look, look, it's a lesbian from next door!/Followed by her lover who's a lesbian from next door too!", "Hepa-hepa-hepatitis-hepatitis?", "We're watching Jewish boys who cannot play baseball play baseball", "You have paintings of dicks!/Don't talk to me about taste!", "Lightbulbs in the ass!", the entire "You are going to kill your mother" section, "Homosexuals!!!!!" and of course the opening line of the entire show "Four Jews in a room bitching". And many more. But don't be fooled, because this song also has some emotional bangers (mostly in the second part of the acts due to the aforementioned tonal shift).

Are there German characters in this musical?

Mendel's last name Weisenbachfeld sounds German. Is that close enough?

[serpentface]

First Goose of Spring: What was it like living in Cynozepal?

"...I haven't actually seen much of it, but the kingslek had the most stunning view of the mountains. They rise higher than anything you've ever seen, I'm sure, all the way up to the clouds. And our serfs actually live up there! It must be awful, braving the heights and fending off those little qilik barbarians. But we are a very strong people, so they manage just fine.

But the kingslek was the very best place in Cynozepal. It had everything you could possibly want. There was a garden with a little herd of horses living in it, and a spring to bathe in, and musicians and singers, and plenty of good food and wine, and the finest cushions to sleep on, and a HUGE library that had every book in the civilized world, probably? And there were always tons of servants around to care for us. My handmaid, Gray Gull Comes Home Wealthy With Fish - may her next birth be prosperous - lived in the kingslek too. Because she used to be a concubine, I guess? And she was the best of all. I never learned to read like my older sisters did - may their next births be prosperous -, but she would read to me whenever I wanted so it was okay.

So obviously I never wanted to leave. But my sisters and I had to leave the kingslek sometimes. Like when our mothers and father had very, very important guests, or when there was an execution, or for the solstice songs. And this was always a dreadful bore. But Gray Gull Comes Home Wealthy With Fish would always bring my favorite books along, so it wasn't TOO bad. And she would always, ALWAYS carry me there on her back. Until I got too big, but we have litters for that.

And now, I am expected to walk everywhere. EVERYWHERE! Or fly like a serf, sun be swallowed. I hate it here."

---

Notes:

-Goose is the absolute worst source to to ask about life in Cynozepal. First and foremost, she's a young child and hasn't been on this earth all that long (she's cognitively equivalent to a human preteen, and is 5 years old). As the third youngest princess among 39 daughters, Goose spent the vast majority of her life both cloistered in the kingslek (which is a privilege) while experiencing little to no pressure to excel and being minimally educated (as she was exceptionally unlikely to be married into an important political role). She would leave this space only infrequently, and never once stepped foot outside of the palace grounds prior to her dynasty's fall.

...And she LOVED it. Now she’s out seeing the world firsthand, breathing the fresh air and feeling the ground beneath her feet, and it fucking suuuuuckkkkkssssss, man.

-The kingslek refers both to the collective women in a royal family (wives, concubines, daughters, all of whom will typically outnumber the men at LEAST 20:1) and the domestic space in which they live. This is a massive section of the palace (as it houses most of the members) complete with its own amenities, gardens, etc. It is functionally the center of power and politics within the palace (the culture itself is not outright matriarchal, but the institution of the kingslek effectively has more political power than the king, and tremendous sway on his actions).

-Honeythief is translating for her. He frequently manipulates his translations to make her sound a little more down to earth (but still regal and far, far more important than you) and less like an exceptionally ignorant, spoiled child, but his translation here is accurate.

-Crown Cynozepali language is (and a majority of caelin and delkhin languages are) predominantly tonal in nature, supplemented with rapid clicks and deep booming 'drum' beats (it is these aspects that are physically impossible for humans to accurately reproduce). To a human ear, these languages often sound like vaguely musical but discordant barrage of sounds. I'm attempting to represent this visually with dots and squiggles.

-'Little qilik barbarians' is not referring to qilik of the region as a whole. She is referring disparagingly to the Cu-Chukka, which are a people that traditionally inhabit the higher reaches of the Azure Mountains, and do not frequently interact with the Crown Cynozepali sphere outside of land conflicts with serfs (who build their homes at high altitudes and often encroach on Cu-Chukka territory). 'Barbarian' in this context is a racist and xenophobic insult that groups together all qilik, caelin, and delkhin peoples that do not speak Crown.

Honeythief is Chit-Sut-Susit (a nationality native to parts of eastern Cynozepal and the Ch'Chen plateau, most of whom exist within the Crown cultural sphere), and is not receiving a microaggression in this particular context.

-Crown Cynozepali personal names are descriptive phrases. Song and poetry is of central cultural import, and naming conventions are rooted in these poetic traditions, designed to be beautiful and evocative turns of phrase. This is often lost in translation, and the names take substantially longer to speak when translated into most human languages.

-There are taboos surrounding speech that evokes the recently dead (defined as within a solar year), that require additions of placating phrases that will dissuade the dead from attaching to the speaker and direct them towards a good rebirth. "May her next birth be prosperous" is one example. Goose's handmaid and most if not all of her sisters (among other relations) were killed in the coup.

-The 'solstice songs' refer to traditional 'boomsinging' performed at the summer and winter equinox to call down the Solar Dragon. (boomsinging is an artform utilizing the deep, thunderous vocalizations caelin and delkhin can produce- sounds like a combination of throat singing, drum beats, and a noise kind of like a sage grouse display but deeper. The sound can travel for miles)

-'Sun be swallowed' is a translation of a phrase used to (often hyperbolically) emphasize the horror and depravity of a situation. Kind of saying 'what's next? the end of the world?'.

-Kingslek members and royalty as a whole are transported from place to place in litters and carriages, but they aren't carried literally Everywhere (they do like, walk). Goose recalling constantly riding on the back of her handmaid is describing a time where she was a tiny 5 lb child (a phase in life where most caelin and delkhin children will ride on their mother's backs).

[obstinaterixatrix]

Bibi is a bubbly girl who’s deeply obsessed with Peter, the cutest boy at her high school. So when she sees a random girl talking to him, Bibi invites her to a sleepover with malicious intent… only to have a surprisingly nice time! That’s how she makes friends with Amy, a shy and sweet girl who agrees to help Bibi get with Peter. But as they cook up all sorts of love schemes to win Peter over, Amy’s place in Bibi’s heart grows bigger and bigger by the day…

now that I Love Amy has been licensed, I wanted to make a rec post for it…! here’s an f/f webtoon about high schoolers in the 🇺🇸USA🇺🇸. the author has stated that she loves yanderes and her goal for this series was to write a happy ending for a yandere, so it’s a zany and dysfunctional series with a lot of love for its own characters.

being a love letter to yanderes, I’d say the series keeps fairly lighthearted (no actual present murder) while having darker gags/plot elements (references to past pet death, past abuse, past attempted murder, past actual (?) murder, ableist language, etc.). the tonal dissonance is done pretty well in my opinion, plus the art and writing is super charming. check out the introduction to amy

bibi doesn’t even see her as an actual person at first, so the relationship development is really fun with how she gradually swaps targets from ✨the most popular boy at school✨ to some random gloomy gal lmao

great balance between vaguely threatening and genuinely heartfelt

super charming and unique, if you like any of these panels you’ll probably enjoy the series so support the official release~

[annbeez]

Hi there! So, I finished Complicated Girls and now am totally mourning it. I was hoping you could recommend your favorite Heathers fanfics to try and help fill the giant Chansaw-shaped hole in my heart.

I feel like I should have some super deep cut hipster recs here, but I kinda don't. That said, I will absolutely take the opportunity to gush about some of my favourite Chansaw fics, even though you've probably already read all of them.

Dead Girl Walking and the Demon Queen is the most kudosed fic in the fandom for a reason, and that reason is that it fucking rules. The characterization is so on point, the pacing is aces, it's fluffy, it's hot, I love these girls to death. You already know this, there's zero chance you haven't already read it. I call it out here mainly because Complicated Girls wouldn't exist without it. When I started to get back into Heathers again (mainly because of the Wicked film reigniting my love for insisting musical girls are gay), I thought to myself, "I bet you some people have written some great fanfic about Heather and Veronica" and DGWatDQ said, "Yes, they have, and you are going to be obsessed now," and put me in a fucking chokehold. I read it through probably 5 times before I started publishing Complicated Girls and I have read it through another 5 times since. It's that good.

Yours, Veronica is the fic I would do the most crimes to get an update of. If you haven't read PoshBiscuit's earlier work, The Prom Bet is also very good (I bounced off reading it a couple of times because the first few chapters contain a lot of Britishisms and I am particular like that, but am very glad I pushed through because it's very worth it). but Yours, Veronica really is Posh flexing how far they've come as a writer. What blows me away about Posh's writing is that they are already excellent, and they get noticeably better with every single chapter they publish. If they continue to improve at this rate, and if Yours, Veronica goes the full, planned 62 chapters, by chapter 40 it will have won a Nobel prize for literature, and by the last chapter it will be written in the divine language and you'll go blind from reading it like an Elder Scroll. And I'd still read it anyway. But even if Posh plateaus in skill at some point, I'll still be here for every chapter. Like there's something PG-13 that happens in Chapter 4 that is hotter than the majority of smut I've read. God, it's so peak.

It's Always You made me fucking miserable, and I mean that as absolute praise. I have had multi-year relationships end that hurt me less than this. A lot of Heathers fic walks a really difficult tonal tightrope, given the source material, and there are a lot of really great fics that I don't love for me because they don't hit the sweet spot tonally. It's Always You manages to produce so much angst while still always letting me like and root for the characters, and it feels raw and heavy without ever veering into misery porn. Even aside from the part of it that made me want to die, it's also fantastic at capturing the giddy infatuation of, like, that first teenage gay relationship when it's so new and you're obsessed and never knew that it was possible to feel this way, to feel so much. The highs are so high, the lows are so low, I stared at the wall long enough that my wife asked me what was wrong, 5 stars.

All of these are unfinished because as Chansaw fans it is our lot in life to suffer, but oh well. They're very worth reading anyway.

There's obviously other fics I love but right now those were the first three that jumped to mind and that I have the energy to gush about (sorry for not doing more I'm just very tired lol). If other people have recs, please reblog with them and gush about your faves!

(Also all of these authors have tumblrs and I don't know if it's considered good etiquette to tag them or not? I erred on the side of not because I am shy and Canadian and hate to bother people, maybe that's wrong.)

[drowned-cypress]

I love your interpretations of AL-AN! What are your thoughts on how AL-AN speaks / communicates?

I imagine AL-AN as very very intelligent... to a point where he has to cut down everything he thinks. Not quite because he thinks lower of others intelligence, but moreso that Precursor thoughts are beyond anything that can be captured in language or communication. So everything he says isn't what he means, but rather whatever is close enough.

It does go the same way for him however, he can't quite fully understand whats going on as much as he learns about it, giving him a bit of obliviousness. Sort of like trying to imagine the viewpoint of a second-dimensional creature - We can make comparisons and simulations and come very close, but we'll never truly know, and likewise he will never truly know what humans experience even if he observes it.

Okay, okay, thoughts on Al-An speaking and communicating. So English isn't Al-An's first language. In fact, I'm not sure he has a first language. Architects are telepathic. They probably don't need to use words to communicate, they just transmit their thoughts directly using whole concepts. Using language adds an extra step he doesn't normally need.

Architects do have a written language, but I figure that's either a product from before they built a species-wide network to store all their information, or it's a programming language, for communicating with machines. Probably both. Either way, I don't think it involves using words as representations of sound. I think it's more like hieroglyphics, where each symbol or group of symbols represents a concept. It wouldn't be possible to read the Architect language aloud.

So Al-An using verbal language to communicate feels to him like he's writing something rather than doing his version of speaking.

He does have a couple of interesting verbal patterns though. He always uses a lot of overly complicated words instead of simple words (they are more precise, he protests!) like he downloaded a dictionary and then started using all the words in it regardless of how commonly they get used in actual everyday speech. This is fine with Robin because she has a PhD, and you don't get that far into college without having a good vocabulary, but it does make it difficult for fic writers sometimes (don't look at my thesaurus history!) He also never, not once, uses a contraction in the game (I checked.) It's always 'do not' instead of 'don't,' or 'I am' instead of 'I'm.' This may in fact be because he downloaded the dictionary and only knew how to use vocabulary contained in it. This is great because it provides an interesting tonal contrast every time he talks to Robin.

Also, when and how did he learn English exactly? I figure he couldn't have been completely cut off from the outside world in that cube. Sensory deprivation for a thousand years while still conscious the whole time would be hard on any species, no matter how advanced. It might be moreso for Architects because they're used to being connected to the network at all times, which is probably a lot of sensory stimulation. Anyway, the storage cube has to have sensory input from the outside world because if it didn't, he wouldn't be able to hear Robin when she talks aloud in the storage sanctuary. But I figure his cube also had access to transmissions, possibly even interstellar transmissions. How else would he begin to suspect that Alterra's motivations didn't align with his own?

Furthermore, we know that humans have been in space--even in the local area of space--for a long time (relatively speaking.) According to the wiki, the wreck of the Mercury II is anywhere between 30 and 100 years old. (Also, fun fact, there's a data download that indicates the crew of the Mercury II intercepted Al-An's distress signal. He's been asking for help for at least 30 years, minimum.) Al-An could have been intercepting signals and trying to figure out what they mean for just as long.

Oh, speaking of Al-An's distress signal, it's actually Morse code. The specific pattern he uses is SOS, an internationally agreed upon pattern to indicate distress, usually used by ships. How the hell did he know how to use that? I figure he has to have learned it from somewhere. Maybe human spacecraft continued using SOS as a basic distress signal even in space. Think about how many ships must have been shot down over the years by the quarantine enforcement platform that was only necessary because of Al-An's mistake, and how many survivors tried to send an SOS signal out because they had no other communication methods left to them. Think about Al-An intercepting those signals and wondering what they meant even as the signals all faded as their senders slowly succumbed to the deadly bacterium that he was responsible for accidentally releasing into the environment. Think about what he must have felt when he realized what the signals meant. Think about how he must have felt when he realized he needed to use it himself if he wanted to survive. Yeah.

But on the topic of interstellar transmissions and how Al-An learned English, it's entirely possible he intercepted all those transmissions with no context and had to reverse engineer the entire concept of a verbal language. It's also possible he received transmissions in multiple languages and had to separate them out. He might be able to speak multiple human languages as a result. He's probably been sitting in that storage cube puzzling over these weird transmissions for decades! He's been doing amazing anthropology science on them! And then Robin comes along and he's able to actually use what he learned! He's doing such a good job at communicating! He's going to get a good grade in Human!

And then because he's pragmatic he went and downloaded all of Robin's PDA data, including the dictionary that would inevitably need to be built into the AI program.

But yeah, I think he finds language as a concept very limiting. It's limiting for us too though, we just don't really think about it all that often. Language is always, always an approximation. We cannot transmit thoughts directly, we can only use symbols, metaphor, simile. Words themselves are symbolic of the concepts they represent. So it's not so much that Precursor thoughts are beyond anything that can be captured in language or communication as it is that verbal and symbolic language and communication are simply inadequate for capturing thoughts, no matter the species. But we're used to it and Al-An isn't, so he struggles with it more.

The same thing also applies to Al-An's ability to take the perspective of humans. If you really stop to think about it, nobody can ever truly understand another person fully, not even other humans, simply because it's impossible for us to experience other people's experiences. Even if we did experience other people's experiences, it's still possible we wouldn't know what to make of what we found. People have different sensory perceptions. Some people have four retinal cones in their eyes instead of the usual three. Some people have synesthesia and can taste colors. If anything, Al-An has an advantage; not only is his species telepathic, but he's also experiencing Robin's sensory perceptions directly. He might not know what to make of those sensory perceptions, especially since he's used to different sensory organs, but he still probably understands Robin better than just about anyone. His problem, and the reason why he's so oblivious sometimes, is that he lacks context for a lot of the stuff Robin says and does.

Like, think about it. His culture has incredibly different social conventions. He spent his entire life in a pseudo-hivemind where all information, including thoughts, emotions, perceptions, and factual data, were shared freely across his entire species. He's going to have a hard time with empathy and perspective taking because he's never had to do it before; he's always just been handed the information directly. He doesn't have that kind of link with Robin. He can't actually read her mind, or else he would have no need to ask her questions. The best link he has with Robin is her sensory perceptions, which give him clues about her thoughts and emotions, but still require him to guess.

But guessing is hard if you don't have any practice. He's also missing a lot of information about human culture. He's never seen a movie. He doesn't know what a meme is. He doesn't even understand the concept of sarcasm because telling falsehoods, even obvious ones for rhetorical effect, is simply not something Architects do. A lot of humor is going to be beyond him simply because he's never heard of any of the things it's referencing. He's missing sooo much context! An entire species' worth of context! That's why he comes across as oblivious or tone-deaf sometimes. The good news is, that means he has the ability to learn. It'll just be difficult for him. He will struggle. That struggle is honestly part of his appeal as a character.

[sciderman]

This may be a cold take, but looking back at the living with Aunt May arc, I honestly don't like the idea of Peter hitting Wade being played off as a joke. Even though ppl won't see it that way cus they're both men, it still just rubs off as abusive. I mean, imagine the same scene but what if Wade was a woman? I don't mean to come off as dramatic or rude & I'm truly sorry if I am. I just never understood why couples hitting one another was usually meant to be taken as funny. A nudge or something like that is fine. But full blown hitting or elbow drops kinda sit wrong with me

i think the "what if wade was a woman" line of thought is silly because. sometimes he is a woman. you're throwing a very silly line of thinking at me.

i do think if you're not prepared to see two guys beat the snot out of each other then you probably shouldn't be reading superhero comics. that's kind of what superheroes do. i think "violence is always bad" is a very strange stance for a spider-man and / or deadpool fan to have. i think you're in the wrong place.

most couples aren't spider-man and deadpool. spider-man and deadpool who use violence to communicate because they're bad with words. the text is aware of it.

the text is aware that what Spider-Man and Deadpool have is Not healthy. I’ve never made any allusions to them being healthy. the whole point is that they’re not healthy.

but I kind of only really see a relationship as abusive if there’s a power imbalance. wade is highly trained in like. every martial art known to man. if he didn't want peter to strangle him, peter would be on the floor. he is cool with being strangled. he probably thinks it's funny.

all couples are different. what if they’re a couple of wrestlers and wrassling is something they enjoy and bond over? which is the case for wade and peter. they are superheroes. of course they enjoy to wrassle. I think either of them could easily call it off and say it’s going too far. But they enjoy it and expect it from each other. again. it’s kind of how they communicate. and i think they know each other's limits.

I think they probably have a safeword that they use for any kind of physical thing they have going on, be it sex or wrassling. it might even be “uncle” that seems like it’d be a hilarious way to stop peter in his tracks.

4) what’s depicted in the post you’re being critical of is more tonally akin to like. siblings fighting. it’s a valid way humans interact, like any other. cats play-fight. it’s kind of similar. they’re not actually hurting each other.

(as you can tell by their body language, neither of their tails are wagging, and they’re both smiling, so this is not cruel behaviour. just natural enrichment for spider-men and deadpools to engage in.)

i think a sign of a healthy relationship is knowing each other's boundaries and not crossing them. so maybe there's someone i affectionately put in a headlock. and they think it's funny and they're okay with it. it's part of our language. it's fine if we expect it from each other and we're okay with it. fighting isn't always bad. couples insult each other all the time. if you're not aiming to hurt them, really, it's just fine. not everything is black and white. wade spars with all his partners. they beat each other up. they're boys. let them play.

[tendo-64]

Finally remade my Claus Lives AU sheet (again)! A ton has changed since 2023 so one was long overdue. Now I actually have a basic plot outlined in it rather than vague ideas, even if I don't intend to write about it

I unfortunately didn't get to include nearly as much as I'd wanted to due to limited space, so a ton more info and misc headcanons will be below the cut for extra reading! Some from the old sheet, but some new.

-This AU--and my take on Claus in general--is rooted in the interpretation that his decision at the end of the game was made primarily out of prolonged grief over his mother, guilt over his actions, and a slew of other reasons. I won't elaborate because this topic is rather depressing for obvious reasons and out of place tonally here, but I felt this info was crucial for context.

-Some more context is that, in my MOTHER 3 postgame, the Dark Dragon rose and made the world hospitable again, but it's up to the people of Nowhere to slowly build the world back up (this is possible due to the couple thousand of people the phase distorter brought to Nowhere; some people decide to stay in Nowhere but a majority leave, or will leave. Most of the original Tazmilians though decide to stay, including Lucas and his family)

-this:

-Claus (and Lucas) are both half American (or Eaglelandian I should say) through Flint, and one quarter Japanese and one quarter Hungarian through Hinawa (I don't remember if these have EB equivalents, Mother 2 isn't as much my expertise djfjdfjdf). I like to think they know a small amount of both languages from childhood, but aren't all that fluent (Hinawa was probably able to speak all three fluently)

-Fuel was Claus's childhood friend as mentioned, he was notably not Lucas's, and Lucas only hung out with Fuel when Claus was doing so. But Lucas and Fuel start reconnecting shortly before the final needle, and continue to do so after Claus comes home (and for the first couple months Claus is home, he secludes himself from everyone not his family, meaning a lot of time for Fuel and Lucas to bond was there), which is why Claus felt insecure about how close they'd become.

-Claus and Lucas have swapped sleeping hours, and Lucas is now an early riser and Claus sleeps in. As the commander he rarely got any sleep and had to wake up at 5am every day, and so when he got home he immediately took advantage of being allowed to have normal sleeping hours and now wakes up at 11am or so on average

-Predictably Claus is rather bad at cooking. Or rather, he always either over or undercooks his food due to refusing to use a timer, tries to eyeball everything and screws it up, or forgets about it and it burns. He doesn't have a lot of practice though, and that's because he also just doesn't like to do so and leaves the expert cooking to Lucas (who keeps getting onto Claus for being willing to settle on instant pork noodles for dinner)

-He happily reclaims the title "robot" now as a joke. In the beginning it greatly upset him but now he thinks it's funny. Robot pun shirts would make a great birthday gift.

-His therapist is Tessie, who found out through the egg of light she used to be a children's therapist. She's also Lucas's. The myriad of doctors and scientists brought from the phase distorter are working slowly to restore psychiatry and other branches of medicine, so during Claus's time this is all rather primitive compared to what we have. But he was also put on antidepressants, which significantly helped his judgement to be clearer.

It actually took a lot for Claus to be convinced, as he was so put off by the idea of airing his deepest darkest feelings to someone he barely knew. He gave it a shot as a last resort after finally realizing having come home wasn't enough for him to just be sunshine and rainbows again. Lucas attended his first few sessions with him and it made him a lot more confident about it. It's certainly a stark contrast to the first time Tessie ever tried to help him at Hinawa's grave, in which he ran away.

-I'd imagine he owns a rock collection. lol. I don't think he's very knowledgeable on rocks, so if you asked him about what kind of rock one of the ones in his collections is, he'd probably say "a blue one" but he still likes them.

-Other than this, I can also see him being a big 2000s alt rock fan. Some of many phase distorter imports were a whole ton of random music albums. He has no idea what America is but he agrees with Green Day that he's no American Idiot (let me have this).

-Claus got a second chance at life through his resurrection into a cyborg, and does not suffer robot mind control in this take on him, but it doesn't mean there wasn't a catch. His health and immune system is overall weakened, and he has to have frequent check-ups with Dr. Andonuts and surgery. Lifeup makes the latter bearable, but it was made clear to him by Andonuts rather quick that Claus's life expectancy was not only low but uncertain, he could "die in 20 years or tomorrow". Claus started out really upset by this, wondering what the point of even bothering was if this was the case, but comes to accept this fact and eventually becomes grateful for any second spent here even if his time is fated to be short.

In reality, he made it to about 40, which is more than what was expected. But he cherished every one of the extra 27 years he got.

[sympathytea]

Chat I have some thoughts about PVPCiv PrinceZam. I know. Typical right? I'll try to make this quick, but you probably know by now if you've seen my posts floating around that I ramble a lot. Spoilers below, for S1 and S2 (specifically S2Ep2.)

So! The prince in yellow has certainly been cooking. And I think safe to say I have...a decent enough vibe for him that I can be confident with this read. Starting from the top:

PrinceZam's cowardice has been obvious since our first introduction to him. Especially since his attempt at killing Evbo (unsuccessfully) and then proceeding to run and lock himself behind his door, where he can't be hurt sets him up for the type of guy that doesn't like to get into fights that he can't win. And runs when they don't go his way.

He displays this cowardice again when in the S1 Finale when he fights Evbo for the armor stand. They fight for a decent amount of time using just wooden swords, but then Zam notices that he's not winning this fight, and throws his trident at Evbo, and flees. Not even going back for his weapon until much later.

We don't see him again until S2Ep2, where he is holding the bird in a cage. His cowardice is still very much there, instead of trying to fight a fight he won't win, he takes someone hostage that Evbo likes to make sure he won't fight back.

Does that sound familiar? Yes!

Winding back a bit, S1Ep4. The big tonal shift episode.

Zam has fabricated a similar situation. Tabi is held hostage, Evbo likes Tabi, and Zam is threatening to kill her if Evbo doesn't comply. And this time he actually has assistance from the PVP Language guy, other iron swords and probably also the shields.

So you might be wondering "Tea is this entire read just to say he's a coward we know this"

Not quite! Theres more, obviously. This onion has some layers.

Zam to me, seems deeply afraid of not just losing a fight, but also death itself. To the point he seems to switch gears to becoming God to prevent the possibility of dying. Despite him not having a whole lot of PvP skills. (He lost to Evbo of all people multiple times. I don't think he has the qualifications to be God let alone take on Tabi and Clown I'm sorry lol.)

His original plan, seemed to just be hiding out on the iron sword layer, preventing both Tabi from getting the eternal sword, but also keeping Evbo there for immortality by durability refreshes. Which we see him using.

But then that plan fails, He dies to Evbo, and just...hides out in Evbo's house for awhile. Planning to take Immortality for himself.

That plan fails, He's scared now, and seems to hide out long enough to retrieve his trident and venture down to the iron sword layer, presumably to gather his henchmen and go down there as a team. Because he couldn't possibly fight Evbo, and the diamond swords by himself.

Slight problem with that.

Evbo and Parrot killed the entire layer while he was gone. Including the people on his side and possibly, some guards that were affiliated with Zam.

He did not know they were going to do this.

And this scares the shit out of him!

Evbo at this point has been not the type to just kill an entire layer out of pure spite and resentment. And so he would reasonably, be pretty shaken up about this.

He confronts Parrot. "I want to know why you're the only one still alive" is about the iron sword layer being empty. He's afraid of what these two can do to him. So he takes a page out of his own book and holds one hostage so the other can't hurt him.

Its also clear to me in his speech that he himself is afraid of death and seems to dislike Evbo's callousness towards it. "You should be thanking me for helping you not take life for granted."

So after he manages to get Evbo and the diamond swords to stand down, his plan becomes "Get the eternal weapons, become God."

This plan, I can assure you is going to completely backfire in his face.

He's overconfident that this will work, He's overconfident in his skills and thinks that he can just put the situation in his favor again, through whatever means necessary.

Tabi and Clown took down an entire civilization by themselves. Which I don't think Zam knows.

And honestly, I don't think there is a universe where Zam could win this fight. Two axes, both of them capable of permanently killing him and are already 3/5ths of the way to becoming gods. He's just too weak for this. He's lost to Evbo, who we've been shown time and time again isn't very good at PVP himself. He is improving, but Zam is lagging behind, and that's not a very good sign for his survival. He's certainly a fun antagonistic foil to Evbo, considering how afraid of dying and losing Zam is, compared to Evbo who seems to not give a shit if he loses as long as he can come back. Who also fights tooth and nail to win, but Evbo does it fairly rather than trying to rely on putting the situation directly in his favor. Evbo is kind to others that he enjoys, Zam seems to keep everyone at arms length, only valuing people who stay in line. Zam has only been shown to die to Evbo, and most likely avoids dying if he was keeping his immortality a secret. Which could be interpreted as him being better at PVP, I don't think he is. He probably just did cheap shots and ambush kills on unsuspecting players when he was on the wooden and stone sword levels. Considering we saw him do an ambush in his first introduction, then hid like a coward when it didn't work? Yeah... I want to see this menace crack like an egg.

[vechter]

ok. just read batman and robin: year one (2024) #1 and my initial takeaways:

this was thing that surprised me the most. it's only been three weeks since mary and john fell? and dick's out as robin already? he seems to have limited training but that could just be how he's being written as an eager and somewhat impulsive kid.

there's a part of me that is wondering if there is an element to this where dick is putting on an act, because we get a couple of references to the mask versus person debate:

bruce's narration is extremely well written, especially this part, where you can see just how much he understands the grief of being orphaned and how much of that grief and rage still drives you:

sidenote: the art is stellar!!! like just look at how beautiful gotham looks here. chris samnee killed it. it's exactly what i want out of a robin!dick comic.

like this is soooo good, even when it's just shadow and light contrast. truly outstanding art.

love the element of dick flipping around as he talks— it is very true to his character. also love how you can see the beginnings of how sharp and intuitive dick is.

beginnings of bruce and dick banter!! big fan of bruce already being aware and impressed with dick's comfort and ease at heights. a little bit of uncertainty about how much of this is dick's relative crime-fighting inexperience and how much of it is the unfamiliarity of fighting alongside bruce. like it has only been three weeks!!! very accelerated timeline. has he warmed up to bruce that fast?

waid's definitely not shying away from how they're new as a crime-fighting duo and it's going to take them a while to get to that seamless partnership we all know and love. just look at these:

bruce being so effusive with his praise for dick... yeah that's that good shit. plus, we're getting some insight into how much they're still learning each other. also the colour palette here is amazing. the tone complements the events itself soooo well. love how they're being juxtaposed against the light like that.

it'll take a while for them to find their footing! but you can already see how much bruce worries. the panel in caps, with that overt and expressive body language... yeah, i love it. listen, i love a bruce wayne who has only known dick grayson for three weeks and is already beginning to show signs that he's never going to be normal about him:

mixed feelings on two-face as their first rogue but i do trust waid to do it right. there's a bigger evil at play so i'm definitely intrigued. the art for harvey was amazing as well.

bruce smiling here... hmm. some mixed feelings about this too mostly bc of how the accelerated the timeline is. like dick has seen his parents killed, apprehended the killer, probably been updated about gotham and what kind of city it is... so for him to have this much optimism about the stakes. but at the same, he did meet bruce, a good man who took him in and brought him justice. and ultimately, he is a child so maybe that optimism isn't out of place.

possibly, waid is building up to the dark and light element of batman and robin? also, look at dick's sad n droopy lil face aw man

anyway, this seems like a really good expository issue. i'm definitely invested. there is a bit of tonal dissonance (between what is said and what is being depicted) but i'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt here. good, true-to-character writing (although the art is the biggest selling point for me)

[minoritybingowinner]

I've been learning Thai for the past, maybe 6 months, and it's such a fun language. Plus, the resources I've been using are just funny pdfs of photocopies papers,mid 2000s ass www's, and random video thar hit my recommendations. Like I probably need some contact with someone who speaks Thai but I'm enjoying just fuckin around and finding out. Starting to get better, identify words, particles, and grammar. But my tones are most likely atrocious as fuck. Made such a good decision for someone who had a real bad stutter and trouble pronouncing certain words to choose a tonal language. But as a wise person said, "fuck it we ball". And tbh I didn't really have a plan coming to learn Thai per say. I just wanted something to do to pass the time that was productive.

[genericpuff]

You should watch Jack vs. Webtoons video on Lore Olympus before it gets wrongfully taken down.

His video pointed out something I wasn’t able to put into words until now. Lore Olympus has a real bad dialect problem. One second the characters are talking like they’re in a Shakespeare play which makes sense, sense they’re gods or what not. The next second you’ll have characters saying shit like “blue balls” “clout chaser” and “you’ve got a young wife with a fat ass”. It probably wouldn’t bother me if certain people talked a certain way like how Hera doesn’t use any slang and how Hermes uses some but all the characters vocabulary are the exact same.

Honestly I can look past the art and it’s inconsistencies but having dialect jump from regal to tiktok facebook slang makes my brain hurt more than glossy lipped Hades and bug eyed Persephone.

I checked it out, it's pretty great haha and yesss this is something that's been discussed before but I haven't really ever made a post about, the dialogue is CONSTANTLY flip-flopping between royal talk and "hello fellow teens" quipping. Sometimes it feels like it's trying to be like Marvel and then other times it feels like it's trying to be Bridgerton. I can think of no better example than all of the "pedigree" talk, it makes me squirm every time I read it because in the modern context of LO, it SCREAMS eugenics. The whole B-grade goddess thing made sense, until they started talking about Persephone like a poodle:

But then you ALSO get INCREDIBLY stiff dialogue that makes it seem like the comic is either being written by AI or Rachel is actually a real life version of Michael Afton post-scoop:

And yes, there is a tinfoil hat theory that LO is being written by bots at this point because I don't know how a single person could write something so tonally confused. That said, I do think the more reasonable explanation is that Rachel is likely copying dialogue from shows and movies she's watching and just tweaking it slightly before slapping it into LO. She's not observing why the dialogue works in the media she likes, she just knows she likes it and slaps it in there without any regard for context, tone of voice, or personality.

And that leads to, as you said, all the characters sounding the exact same, and that metric by which they all sound the same changes all the time. I think at this point the only reason we haven't seen Hera dropping TikTok language is because she hasn't been onscreen long enough for her to get the chance LMAO That said, we've definitely gotten some weird inconsistent dialogue with Hera as well:

(like she's essentially saying the exact same thing across both of these panels but one is being said by an adult and the other is being said by a teenager lmao)

I think the dialogue is definitely one of the most glaring issues with LO, among all of its other problems. It just never feels like it's being written by a human, there are problems with this even as far back as S1 but it's become especially apparent in S2 onwards.

To finish off this ask, here's one of my favorite dialogue mishaps in the entire series, from S1, in which Apollo literally adopts an askew English accent: