#advs honorifics

[koushirouizumi]

Post The Beginning minor spoiler involving Koushiro...

(from same review about Honorifics {now} used towards Koushiro???): {by the 3rd post-The Beginning drama C.D.}

" 京の泉先輩→光子郎さん "

京 = Kyōto

京の泉先輩 = Kyōto Izumi-senpai {"Kyō no izumi senpai"} (becomes??) -> Koushiro-san ...??

[*Dont take my word on this yet I still need to actually hear it myself!!]

{EDIT: YEAH IT MAY BE MIYAKO's Honorific for Koushiro LMAO But I heard that during The Beginning too so ITS ALL GOOD}

(Miyako is " 井ノ上 京 " so the translation can be off at times Yep)

[xbuster]

I know it's up to personal preference, and maybe it's cause I started out reading fan translations and fansubs. But I honestly prefer less scrubbing of Japanese artifacts in translations because that way I learn something. It takes me back to when I learned how honorifics worked in the first few manga I read

It very much depends on the setting of the story, but I usually agree. If the setting is in Japan, then I’m almost always on the side of keeping honorifics in. They’re too important to how relationships are expressed in Japan to exclude. Same with if a character calls another character by their family name rather than their given name. It really annoys me when that’s changed.

[izzyizumi]

{Preview of a Thing I'm Working On} (If I can get This to Mix Properly...) [For Now Though!]

"Taichi-SAN..." - Koushiro, Adv #48 "TAICHI-sAN...." - Koushiro, Adv: #02

[mofffun]

«Rita of Gokkan» Ch.19

eng translation by me

ch: [tag] [2-3] [4-6] [7-9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]

timeline: ep5 (Toufu ch1)

Rita and Kaguragi test each other on what the other knows.

contains TV SPOILERS past ep5, assumed reader is up-to-date at ep43

*If you are a newcomer and wanted to read the manga along with its corresponding episode, you will only get context for what's hinted in this chapter much later in the show.

t/n:

p4: This bugnarok is pronounced "by-EH-jim" not "bae-jim" ... based on a fly (ha-EH)

Kaguragi addresses everyone as "-dono" but sometimes Rita as "Sovereign Rita". I'm putting Rita-sama and Rita-dono both as "Justice Rita". Normally I'd be inclined to keep the honorifics but since I already used the English form before I should stick to that and subs group conventions. ("-tono/-dono" is an antiqudated suffix that is only used in official documents nowadays. In history, it meant respect for those above you but nowadays it's used by the higher-rank to address those lower politely. Genderless, lower than '-sama'.)

Something about Rita's speech pattern is they tend to use a lot of kanji, as part of their solemn personality and regular legal jargon. I lack the context to evaluate how advanced Rita's kanji are to the average Japanese but the general sense of Rita having a more archaic/complex vocabulary is evident.

holding my urge not to put a ! in every Kagu speech bubble

p14: Kagu's reation to hearing Rita saw Suzume's figure: ……はて？ -> long pause, [lit. 1. well; let me see; now​ (used before sentences expressing a doubt) 2. dear me/good gracious]

ch19:

t/n part 2:

p9: わざわざお出まし恐縮（きょうしゅく）です [lit. my apologies for making you come all this way.] -> What an honour to have your persence!

Here it is! the east/west cultural difference! Keigo is a big challenge for me as a learner already, let alone a translator. There's no direct dictionary substitution and it really depends on your intuition with usage in either langugaes. The keigo here is humble-type, while to make it sound natural in English, instead of reflecting your own incompetence, you are flattering the other party. In the next line, Kaguragi says because Rita came unannounced, they were inadequate in failing to preapre a welcoming committee. I think the scarcasm is there in English too, but I just feel it's more insulting to imply Rita is not exactly welcome while initiatively taking the "weaker" side (Kaguragi's gaslighting, what's new).

p13: learner's note: the royal kitchen is called 厨房(chuubou) while the word for kitchen I knew was 台所(daidokoro). Research shows 厨房 is a professional kitchen like in a restaurant and 台所 is the one at home. Katakana Kitchen is also in the vocabulary to mean a modern, western-style industrical kitchen. Chinese has lost the distinctioin and uses 廚房 (note!: an extra dot above 厨) for both home or workplace.

p16: I interpret Rita's first concern is in maintaining equality between the kingdoms. A duo alliance between ❤🖤 is only detrimental to a five-kingdom one they are working towards: small circle, and increased hostility from 💛💙 if they believe ❤🖤💜 is their small clique. Yet it is interesting Rita raised the question out of personal curiosity. Remember in the beginning there was this, feeling, ❤🖤💜 are seniors and they've known each other for longer? Now we know Kaguragi is actually Rita's junior in terms of order of sucession. Now they could've what he was like prior to taking the throne. Notice how they never describe him as a liar. Maybe Rita does find it odd a man of his capability feels the need to bootlick Racules.

Onomatopoeia words this week:

スッ(Suu) an action done suddenly without sound

ボコボコ(boko boko) 1. sound of hitting a hollow object 2. uneven (surface) 3. to cause damage with full force

バキバキ (baki baki) hard objects shattering/breaking/cracking ポカ(poka) 1. repeated hit with something heavy i.e. fist/bat 2. feeling of warmth

よろよろ (yoro yoro) (adv., not a sound) staggering

もがく (moga ku) (v.) struggle/wiggle impatient -> here means eating frantically (because food is too god)

ずいっ (zui) (adv.) straightforwardly, readily, without hesitation

alternate translations:

p9: No careless msitakes… -> Better keep my guard up… / Better stay alert…

p11: No way any of that is true. -> What a load of crap. (intuition lol)

Script:

p1 (18lp) p2 「バサッ　バサッ」 「ガクン」 すみません～… バエジーム お騒がせしております～ 「ゴゴゴ…」 くそ…　バグナラクめ… どこにでも湧（わ）いて来る… p4 うるさくてすみません～　そして… 「ブ　ブゥン」 死んでいただけると助かります～ 「ス…」 「タッ」 p5 「ガッ」 「ボコ　ボコ　ボコ」 待ち伏（ふ）せていたのか p6 「ドドド」 「ガガガ」く…つ 「バキ　ゴ　ポカ」 p7 ギヤ 「ズンッ」 トウフ国の黒子軍団…！ 今だ！ p8 撃（う）たせていただきます 「パ　パ」 「タ　ドッ　タ　ボッ　ボ」 「タッ」 ギャ 「よろ　よろ」「ブブブ」 てっ…　撤退（てったい）です～！　 p9 いやいや…　素晴らし腕前 さすがリタ国王 わざわざお出まし恐縮（きょうしゅく）です 前もって言っていただければ迎えの用意いたしましたのに カグラギ‧ディボウスキ… こいつはラクレスと通しているようだが… 油断（ゆだん）は禁物（きんもつ）だ… p10 p11 して　ギラという男 強盗団（ごうとうだん）の親玉（おやだま）という噂がありまして 毒虫（どくむし）食にしている化け物なんていう話も もういい そんなわけないだろ もしやそのご様子まさかギラの正体（しょうたい）をご存じで…！ 調査（ちょうさ）中だ たとえ王でも外部の者に話すわけないだろう p12 さすがは絶対中立の王　素晴らしい！ 察しますに最高厳罰（げんばつ）処分（しょぶん）ですね …ただ一つ言えるのは…… おお！？言えるのは！？ —いや 調査の結果は法廷（ほうてい）で明らかにする 危ない…どうもこいつの前でもしゃべりすぎる… ラクレスに感づかれては厄介（やっかい）だ うまい…　「もが」 はっはっは　そうでしょう！ このトウフには世界中のあらゆる食が揃っております p13 ただ… 聞いたことない食事は出ませんが … そういえば　リタ殿 以前（いぜん）コーカサス城の厨房（ちゅうぼう）で 調べごとをされていた…とか 調べもの見つかりましたか？ 個人的な調査だ　結果を話すつもりはない そういえば　あの時… p14 お前とよく似た着物を見たが ！ ……はて？ ラクレス殿にご挨拶にうかがったときでしょうか？ p15 いや…　もっと小柄（こがら）な… それはリタ殿の見間違いでしょう なにか　隠しているな… お前はなぜラクレスに付き従う（つきしたがう） ラクレス殿は素晴らしい志(こころざし)をお持ちの方 であれば協力するのは当然です それにしてはまるで主従(しゅうじゅう)のようだ p16 国同士は対等（たいとう）な関係のはず… それに前王イロキの悪政（あくせい）から解放したのはお前の独力（どくりょく）だ それは… リタ国王！ これは仕方がないのです…！

[knightkneeler]

well folks I have gone on a disturbingly deep dive into what names the characters in NGE call one another for this stupid misato/ritsuko oneshot fic and I need to put this knowledge somewhere so it’s going here.

I’ve never watched this show dubbed and prefer the ADV subs to the netflix ones on the whole, but I only have access to the netflix atm so that’s what I’m using as reference.

unsurprisingly pretty much everyone uses common honorifics for everyone else in the japanese (e.g. misato and ritsuko mostly call shinji “shinji-kun,” he in turn calls misato “misato-san”) but ryoji, notably, both shortens ritsuko’s name and adds the “-chan” honorific to it—“rit-chan.” he does this all the time; I have never noticed him use any other name for ritsuko, no matter who he’s talking to. he calls her “rit-chan” to her face, and also in the message he leaves misato on her answering machine before his death in e21. ritsuko’s mother naoko also calls her “rit-chan” in letters, but uses “ritsuko” in front of other people. considering ritsuko’s relationship with her mother (“I hated her”) I think it’s actually pretty significant that she accepts ryoji using her mother’s nickname for her and that ryoji does it in the first place—just as it’s significant that she plays along with his flirting in e09. it’s the way their friendship is.

misato calls ritsuko by her given name all the time. ritsuko does not reciprocate—she uses misato’s full title, “captain/major katsuragi,” much of the time. at nerv this is unsurprising; it’s a workplace, and she’s ostensibly addressing her superior (though really ritsuko is more inner-circle than misato and in practice wields roughly the same level of authority), but she also does it when it’s just the two of them in e07, presumably because they are on business. in more private moments she uses “misato,” like when she, misato, and ryoji are out for drinks in e15, and she also uses “misato” when showing her and shinji around terminal dogma in e23 (note: misato is holding her at gunpoint and ritsuko is in the middle of an emotional breakdown that will end her career and eventually lead to her death).

less interestingly, misato and ryoji call one another exclusively by surname—“katsuragi” and “kaji,” respectively. nearly everyone calls kaji “kaji,” in fact, including shinji (who calls ritsuko “ritsuko” and misato “misato” (with appropriate honorifics)). ryoji even calls himself just “kaji” on his answering machine “leave a message” message in e15. “ryoji” is only said as part of his full name. the exception is ritsuko, who calls him “ryo” in e15, but otherwise sticks to “kaji,” another sign of their close friendship that is very much unlike ritsuko’s friendship with misato.

bafflingly the netflix dub and subtitles change ritsuko and ryoji’s address to one another: ryoji calls ritsuko “ritsuko” instead of “rit-chan” in the dub, though “rit-chan” remains in the subtitles, and ritsuko calls him “ryoji” exclusively instead of using “kaji” or “ryo.” I kind of get it in the case of “rit-chan” because it would be sort of odd to keep an honorific in an english-language dub, but I do not at all understand changing ritsuko’s “kaji” to “ryoji” when everybody else still calls him “kaji,” on top of cutting the “ryo” nickname. this is especially noticeable in the subtitles when you can literally hear her say “kaji” but the subtitle says “ryoji.”

finally naoko also has “rit-chan” removed in the dub (it remains in the subtitles) and replaced with “ritsuko.” I think this sucks. it’s a pretty big deal to me that naoko, a distant and terrible mother, who literally confesses to ritusko that she’s only ritusko’s mother when it’s convenient for her, still calls ritsuko by an affectionate nickname. there’s so much we can read into that, and it’s totally lost in the dub. awful.

[srbachchan]

DAY 5261

Jalsa, Mumbai                  July 8/9,  2022                 Fri/Sat  12:01 AM

❤️ , July 9th .. birth anniversary .. EF Prabir Bhatt .. no more with us , physically .. but ever remembered in Spirit , in affection , in friendship , in poetry , in lyrical melodies .. ever in our prayers  .. 🙏🏻 .. And .. on the 9th .. it's 10 years .. since shifting from BigAdda to Tumblr .. 🥳

Its ending .. the furlough .. work intense from the morrow .. prep for the association of another season KBC .. 

back in a while .. finishing office paper work .. do it yourself the learning .. doing it .. 

back after an hour or so .. paper work done .. many ask what paper work .. office work ? do you really have an office .. I thought all your work was handled by staff .. hahaha .. I am staff .. I am work .. I am all ..  got a problem ???

and that is the reason for a ‘NO’ to an autobiography .. there is no bio , nor any graphy .. auto ‘s run on the streets carrying weary passengers .. the reason is ‘I’ .. i did this i was that i , i , i , all the time .. and there is nothing for the ‘i’ that needs to be written about .. absolutely nothing .. so do not try to convince me , or get me to understand it in another subtle way .. it shall not happen ..

no .. yes I am 80 .. yes the times form ‘42 to ‘22 cover much .. how does that bring meaning to the desire of the many to relate me, my cinema, my journey ( ugg hate this word ! ) to what the country the world has been through .. go to mr Google गूग्ले  .. he has the ultimate response and answers to all .. 

one other matter .. aesthetics be the symphony of the creative in art and artist .. ugliness in behaviour attitude environ and your impressions of the work , join the aforementioned adv., adj., verb., whatever .. classic grammar weak .. and the reason Arts was never considered for Univ .. but then neither was Science .. that was an after thought ..

many after thoughts develop after .. after the birds have flown , the nests empty the habitat in shambles and in ruin .. and nothing ambles along to provide a soft shoulder to advise, wipe the sweat , calm the cerebrum .. ummff .. cerebrum ,  often used .. will find another .. ok for now the head the brain .. the cerebra .. responsible for the integration of the sensory, initiation of voluntary functions of the body ...

REALLY  ?

rubbish .. 

well not mine any way ..

errr .. patriotism from the greens of Edgbaston .. or was it Southampton to the greens of Wimbledon .. the fervour , the belief that victory is their birthright , dramatically and with some finality buried .. buried deep ..

now that is the problem and issue .. the moment the declaration of defeat and the feat of the COUNTRY 🇮🇳 is honorific  , reverse swing takes over .. the googly  .. the top spin serve .. the ace down the line .. and its fair and square finally bowled .. a jump over the net for the shake of the hand of the defeated  ..

no do not overdo it .. in fact do not do it at all .. at all .. got it ..

great .. we shall survive the 14th victory of certain Hit Man  .. 

I babble .. 

Amitabh Bachchan

[foursideharmony]

The Cat, the Prince, and the Doorway to Imagination (Chapter 6)

Summary: Logan goes for help. It doesn’t go well, but help (?) arrives anyway. Meanwhile, Patton makes a discovery.

Pairings: Platonic/familial LAMP/CALM, Platonic/familial DLAMPR

Content Warnings: There are some pretty hairy descriptions of violence in this chapter--brief, but potentially vivid. Also, Remus is finally involved, so watch out for that.

Word Count: 4,445

Read on AO3: here

People often underestimate how fast bears can run. They're so bulky, and most of the time are content to lumber along in an unhurried fashion. The best way to stop underestimating them is surely to be chased by one—anyone who experiences that will remember bears as the speedy animals that they actually are for however long the rest of their life might be.

The second-best way, though, might just be to ride one at a full gallop over miles of Narnian countryside.

Logan wondered just how fast they were going—he estimated between 35 and 40 kilometers per hour. With visual cues, he could have pinpointed their average speed more precisely, but he was clinging to Stoutpaws's back with his head down to minimize air resistance and his eyes closed to keep the freezing wind out of them. The bear's fur was unpleasantly coarse and smelled of a cloying mixture of dirt, honey, and wild animal, but Logan pushed all that to the back of his mind. This was necessary.

It was hours before they paused, and then only so Stoutpaws could shuffle to the top of a small bluff and confirm their destination. “That wood there,” he said, pointing with one paw. “Lantern Waste. That's where you came from, right, sir?”

“If the word 'Lantern' in the name refers to an antique lamppost stationed in the woods and inexplicably in operation, then yes. I believe the door we came through is just beyond it.”

“You use a lot of big words, don't you, sir?”

“I value precision in communication.”

They continued. Another hour brought them to the edge of Lantern Waste, and Stoutpaws slowed and let Logan dismount so that they could navigate more carefully. “Thus far, I do not recognize any specific landmarks,” the Logical Side noted after a time. “But it occurs to me that the lamppost is a unique feature in this forest, composed primarily of cast iron in contrast to the natural wood and stone that surrounds us. And I am given to understand that bears have an exceptionally keen olfactory sense. Perhaps you could locate it by scent?”

“I can certainly try, sir.” Stoutpaws reared up on his hind paws and turned his head from side to side with great nostril-flaring sniffs.

“As long as we are conversing, I would like to mention that there is no need to address me with an honorific. If you wish, you may call me by my name: Logan.”

“Oh no, sir, I couldn't do that. You're to be King, after all. And a fine one you'll make with your careful way of speaking, if I do say so myself.”

Logan found that he had no response to that. He recalled that the original book ended with the four children being crowned as monarchs of Narnia, but he couldn't say the prospect appealed to him. Neither did it pall, however. Still, he was pretty sure Stoutpaws had just complimented him, so he offered a nod of appreciation when he next met the beast's eye.

“No iron yet,” Stoutpaws was saying, “but I think the wind is against me. And there's something else...” He awkwardly pivoted on his paws, smelling to the northeast. “Hang on, that's the scent of reindeer! And lacquered wood! It's a sleigh! It's him—the White Warlock! He's after us!” He dropped back down to all fours and began pacing in a tight circle. “What shall we do, sir?”

“Let me up,” said Logan. “Head deeper into the wood and keep trying to smell out the lamppost.”

“I can't outpace the Warlock's sleigh!”

“Do your best, then, to buy us some time, and I'll work out a plan in the meantime.”

“Yes, sir!”

Stoutpaws took off at a dead gallop through the wood. They hadn't gone far when his nostrils flared wide and he declared, “I smell iron! ( puff, puff ) At least we're heading ( puff ) the right way!”

But just as they came within sight of the incongruous fixture, they began to hear, from somewhere behind them, the jingle of sleigh harness. “Oh, sir, he's coming ! He'll catch us for sure!”

Logan found himself wincing at the young bear's plaintive tone. “Let me down here.” Stoutpaws skidded to a halt and Logan dismounted once again. The sound of the sleigh was not as close as they had feared; Roman must have had to slow down among the trees. “I'll make it the rest of the way to the wardrobe on my own. You find a place to hide, and if anything should go wrong...please return to the others and let them know.”

“Nothing doing, sir! I-I promised to protect you with my life!”

“The best way for you to protect any of us right now is with information. Remember that, Stoutpaws. Knowledge is far more precious than strength or speed or even magic. Get yourself behind cover. Protect what you know.”

Stoutpaws's eyes were wide under his ears, half-flattened with fear. “Yes, sir,” he said meekly, before loping away toward denser brush. Logan stooped to pick up a pebble as the sound of the sleigh drew nearer and turned to sprint toward the lamppost just as it broke through the closest layer of trees and he heard Roman's bark of triumph.

Logan's turn of speed surprised even him, but he supposed it was only to be expected with the combination of adrenaline and fresh, unpolluted air. He had nothing on a reindeer-drawn sleigh, however, and with the grove of the wardrobe mere yards away, he felt a whiff of animal breath on the back of his head. In the next instant, he hurled the pebble as hard as he could into the grove and flung himself to one side in order to avoid being run down, losing his coat in the process. He landed hard, half-winded, the chill of the snow biting into his suddenly unprotected forearms, and wasn't able to pick himself up as quickly as he liked. He had only managed to raise himself up to his knees before Roman stood over him, looking every bit as menacing as he had that morning.

“I would have thought Virgil would be the one to try and escape. Did you really think I'd let any of you just leave?”

“Roman,” Logan panted, “this is highly uncharacteristic behavior for you. I would adv—”

“Spare me, Pointdexter, you're not my guidance counselor!” He reached out, and Logan found his chin forcibly tipped up by the end of what seemed to be an ornately carved icicle. “What was that you threw just then, Logan?”

Logan met his gaze with rock-steadiness. “A message.”

Roman's eyes widened and he turned to shout at his Dwarf attendant. “Hurry up! Get in there and intercept it!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

Roman watched him scamper off before turning back to Logan. “It must suck to get so close to your goal and then fail at the last minute.”

Now that it was just the two of them, Logan noted, Roman had reverted to a more colloquial mode of speech. He carefully said nothing, balanced precariously between the desire to keep Roman talking and perhaps obtain clues to his precise mental state and how it had come about...and the need to avoid angering him further.

“Well? Don't you have anything to say?”

So much for remaining quiet... “I regret this course of events.”

“Funnily enough, I don't. Strike a pose, nerd.” Roman raised the icicle over his head, and Logan realized, just too late to defend himself, that it was actually a magic wand. He reflexively cringed away, taking whatever small comfort he could from the fact that he had succeeded at every part of his plan that was under his direct control...

  Patton decided to go for a walk. He'd had no luck at all cheering the Narnians up—if anything, their sadness was piling up on him, worsening his own—and he had reached the point where it was either get some fresh air and solitude, or have a breakdown in front of everyone.

Virgil insisted upon making sure it was safe first. They sent out a Talking Dog called Scuffer and a Raven by the name of Sallowpad out to scout the area by land and air, respectively, and make sure none of the enemy were nearby. Then one of the Fauns loaned Patton his pipes, so that he could blow an alert in case of any surprises. Thus equipped, Patton bundled into his fur coat and scrambled out of the shelter just ahead of the tears that were threatening to fall. The cold, clean air helped him gulp them back for the time being, and once he got farther from the camp, farther from all those forlorn faces and despondent voices, the space under the trees, with only his own quietly crunching footsteps and misty breaths for companions, helped to dissipate the horrid feelings.

Everything was going wrong. He couldn't deny that. The story wasn't going the way it should, not at all, and he and Virgil and Logan weren't familiar enough with it to figure out what the problem was and nudge it back on track, and he'd tried talking to the Narnians about the White Witch but their responses were always about the White Warlock as if whatever was going on with Roman had overwritten her, and...and...and...

And if Patton understood the situation with the Dryads correctly, Roman had just ordered someone killed in cold blood. She was just a figment of the Imagination, but it was still a cruel, vicious, tyrannical act! He just couldn't wrap his mind around the idea of Roman, the noble fairy tale prince, doing something like that. But he knew he had to fix it, but how could he, when he couldn't figure out how it had come about?

How could he, when he couldn't even inject a little cheer into a ragtag group of talking animals and fantasy creatures?

He came to a small clearing—well, more of a space between large trunks. The branches of the trees arched overhead, nearly meeting in the middle, so that in the summer, with everything in full leaf, the ground beneath would be too shaded to let anything other than ferns and moss grow. Right now, of course, there was nothing but a thick layer of snow covering a slightly thinner layer of dead leaves...except in one spot, where there was a patch of sun that seemed to have built up just enough warmth to let the snow melt and reveal the musty earth.

And sitting in that patch of sun was a cat.

Despite everything, Patton almost laughed out loud—probably the only outdoor spot in all of Narnia that was even a little warm, and a cat had found it. The stifled laugh came out as more of a snort, and the cat—which had been lying down in a semi-circle with its back to him—twisted its head to see where the noise had come from. “Hiya, kitty,” Patton said shyly. “I didn't mean to bother you.”

The cat stood up, yawned, stretched, and sat. Now facing Patton, it looked up at him with intensely golden eyes. It was a handsome creature, with long, tawny-colored hair that didn't seem to have picked up any mats or burrs.

“I sure wish I could pet you,” Patton went on. “I think I could use some furry snuggles right now, but I'm afraid you'd set off my allergies.”

The cat hopped to its feet and walked up to the Moral Side, turning its body sideways as it approached. It stopped about a foot shy of making contact with his legs and gazed up at him, as if asking permission. “Well...” Patton said, “...I guess a minute or two can't hurt. If anyone asks I can blame my symptoms on the cold air.” He stooped and held out his hand, and the cat rammed itself against his legs before half-rearing up to rub its head against his outstretched knuckles. “Heh, listen to me, planning to tell a fib. I must be hanging out with Janus too much. Wow, you sure are friendly, aren't you? Do you talk at all? No? I guess even here, not everything can talk.”

He slouched until he was sitting with his back against one of the trees and shifted from letting the cat rub his hand to actively running his fingers through the fur of its head. “I just don't want Virgil to think I'm not being careful. I don't think I could stand disappointing anyone else today, you know?” He sniffed a few times and couldn't tell whether it was hay fever or his emotions starting to spill over again. “I don't understand what's happening , kitty. One of my best friends is acting like the bad guy! And he's always been so idealistic! He hates evil! What could possibly make someone do a one-eighty like that?”

He leaned his head back against the tree trunk and closed his eyes. The sun must have been hitting the wood too, because it felt incongruously warm against his scalp. He continued to card his fingers through the cat's thick fur as fat tears finally began to leak from between his eyelids. Not hay fever, then. He didn't bother holding them back anymore. No one was around to be annoyed or to make a fuss over poor, sensitive, fragile Patton. It was just him and this startlingly affectionate feral cat. For a few minutes, he let the tears flow. They didn't freeze on his face—it wasn't quite that cold—so that was all right. They did make his cheeks burn a little from the salt and the chill of evaporation, but that was all part of the cleansing process. There was no better short-term therapy for icky feelings than a good cry.

The faucet gradually shut itself off. He suddenly envisioned Roman, the White Warlock, with his too-pale coloration and his huge ermine train and his icy crown with that monster diamond on it and his retinue of horror creatures. The image was unusually clear in his mind (Patton's imagination had always worked more based on how things made him feel, not how they looked), almost as if it were a painting that he could scrutinize at his leisure. For some reason, his attention kept getting drawn back to that diamond. Patton grew very pensive. If the diamond was drawing his notice, then maybe his gut had picked up on something important about it, and Patton was not in the habit of ignoring his gut. Not when it craved chocolate chip cookies, and not in situations like this.

He had to file the thought away for later, because the cat was suddenly pawing at his leg. “What is it, buddy? Are we done with pets?”

The cat ran a short distance away, stopped, and looked back over its shoulder at him, blinking meaningfully.

“You want me to follow you? Okay, gimme a sec to get up.” He braced against the tree and heaved himself to his feet, then let the cat lead him out of the clearing.

(He completely failed to notice that the snow dwindled away under its paws, only to return as it passed.)

He followed his guide for perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes, to a small grove of evergreens, like a forgotten Christmas tree farm. He hadn't know what to expect, but he was surprised anyway by the sight of none other than Ailim, kneeling near the center of the grove, her posture slumped. Directly in front of her was the stump of a pine tree that had been sawn off about two feet above the ground. The cut looked quite fresh, and—oh. Oh. Oh...heck.

“Ailim?” he said.

“Oh!” she responded, startled. “It's Patton, isn't it? What are you doing here?”

“My new fuzzy friend brought me.”

She just looked perplexed. “What friend?”

Patton looked around, but the cat was suddenly nowhere to be seen. “Well, he was here...I guess he led me here for a reason.”

“I apologize for appearing in this unseemly state.”

“No, please don't! You have every right to be out of sorts! Do you...maybe...want to talk about it?”

She looked downcast again. “There is little enough to talk about. The Hags divined the whereabouts of Muricata's tree and the party dragged us both here. She could barely keep her feet, so they made me hold her up. They used a saw. I felt her agony as her trunk was gouged apart.”

Patton flinched. His gorge rose slightly.

“When the tree fell, I felt the life leave her. Then she vanished from my arms. My sister...she is gone from the world. It is as if she had never sprouted.”

Patton rushed forward, shrugged out of his coat, and draped it over the miserable Dryad. She wasn't crying, but she evidently had been earlier; twin trails of hardened yellow resin ran from her eyes down to her chin. “I'm so sorry,” he murmured. Beyond that, he was at a loss. He wanted to promise her to make it better, but...her sister was gone . Murdered. Cut down in her prime (literally).

They hadn't even been neat about it. The stump was scarred with a shallow cut well below where it had eventually been felled. Patton ran his fingers over it, his heart squeezing in vicarious anguish. It seemed they had tortured Muricata first...but Ailim hadn't mentioned torture in her brief description of the execution.

As if she could tell what he was thinking, she said, “They started there, but the Warlock told them to do it higher up instead. I don't know why.”

Patton's heart was suddenly hammering against his ribs. This felt important . What was he looking for? What was the difference between the lower cut and the upper one, that Roman would make that call? Did he just want a convenient place to sit down in the forest? No, that was silly. Patton wished he were smart like Logan so he could figure out this sort of thing. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again they refocused of their own accord at the farther edge of the cut stump, where there was a sprig of greenery...

Patton walked around and peered closely at a few sprouts of fresh green needles growing directly out of the side of the trunk, as happens on pine trees. “Um...Ailim?,” he said, his voice wobbling with uncertainty, “I don't know if this helps at all, but this tree isn't totally dead. They left a growing part.”

“What?” Ailim said breathlessly, letting the coat fall from her shoulders as she sprang up. She leaned over the stump without touching it, peering at the needles. “You speak the truth. There is life left in the tree; it may yet regrow.” She gathered an armload of snow from the forest floor and spread it over the top of the stump. “In the meantime, this will protect it.”

“Does that mean your sister would come back?”

“I cannot say. The tree might acquire a new spirit, or Muricata might emerge again but without her previous memories. Or it might remain an unawakened tree, alive but with no sentient soul. But it seems that for all his wickedness, the White Warlock chose to leave this door open.”

“Yeah...” Patton said. “He made sure they cut above the growth. And he let you go. Ailim, will you come back to the camp with me? Everyone will be glad to see you're okay, and I think we should all sit down and try to figure out what it means that Roman did this. My head's starting to hurt from trying to solve these puzzles on my own.”

“Nevertheless,” said Ailim, fetching Patton's coat and offering it back to him, “you spotted this sign. You have given me a measure of hope, however slim. Thank you, Patton.”

And as they started back toward the Hill of the Stone Table, Patton began to feel like a few things were going right after all.

Halfway there, it suddenly occurred to him that the cat hadn't set off his allergies in the slightest.

Huh. That was weird.

Anything can happen in the Mindscape. Expect, as they say, the unexpected.

But Janus was of the opinion that there was no excuse for him to be walking along the upstairs hallway simply minding Thomas's business and suddenly get jumped out of nowhere. One instant everything was normal, the next he was flat on his back, struggling to hold a knife away from his face while the wielder of the knife, who had bulbous features and a shocking quantity of beard, was snarling at him. He caught something about a message and a warlock, but his attacker seemed to have worked himself up into a lather long before encountering Janus and was, in the main, unintelligible.

This left Janus with no clue what the fellow wanted, and when you don't know what someone wants you can't give it to them (or convince them that you've given it to them and pocket the difference) and get them to stop trying to stick a knife in your eye. Add to that the fact that he'd been completely unprepared for this, and that his attacker was noticeably stronger than himself, and Janus was well and truly up [Censored for indelicate language] Creek, sans paddle.

If there was one thing he hated, it was not being in quiet control of a situation. If there was one thing he utterly despised, it was having to adapt on the fly.

Well, if anyone in the Mindscape knew how to cope with [Censored] Creek...besides, this was probably his fault anyway.

“REMUSSSSSS!!!” Janus hissed, even though he was trying not to. High stress had that effect on him.

He heard, in the following order: rapidly approaching footsteps, “What's u—WOW!”, a sickening crunch as Remus's morningstar made contact, and the heavy thump of a body hitting the wall. Then Janus was free. He sat up to take stock.

His attacker was definitely dead, given the shape of his head, and he was a lot shorter than Janus would have assumed given his strength—a fantasy dwarf, then. That was all he was able to discern before the being evaporated into sparkling motes of light that dissipated: proof positive that he had been a figment. “Mind explaining what that was all about, Your Disgrace?” he said.

Remus was pouting at his weapon, probably because the victim's blood had also vanished. “Your guess is as good as mine, my favorite phallic symbol. Must have been one of my brother's.”

That gave Janus pause. He'd assumed, once Roman barged in on the morning's assemblage and then the entire cadre vanished for the day, that he had taken them on a jaunt in the Imagination...but to let a mayhem-oriented figment out unsupervised? That suggested...difficulties. And when he considered the dwarf's vague reference to a message...hm.

“Purely in the interest of maintaining order in this psyche,” he said in the most chipper tone he could manage, “I am going to get to the bottom of this.” He stood up, dusted himself off, and headed for Roman's room.

Remus, unsurprisingly, was right behind him. “Sounds like a blast! There's always plenty to maim when Roman gets into adventure mode! I'm coming too!”

“I'd be simply delighted to have your company,” said Janus. Remus, bless him, either missed the sarcasm or didn't care.

Roman's room was a mess, which was nothing out of the ordinary. This mess appeared to be the result of a deliberate ransacking, which was. Presumably the dwarf was the culprit; perhaps he'd been looking for the “message.”

The doorway to the Imagination, which had taken the form of a large wooden double-doored cupboard, stood wide open. One door actually hung askew from a single hinge, befitting the overall atmosphere of the room. Janus summoned his crook as a precaution before stepping inside.

About a minute later, he was already having regrets. Roman had made some sort of winter wonderland, and Janus's semi-reptilian biology was already starting to protest being made to function in the low temperatures. He turned up his collar, pulled down his hat, and tucked his free hand into his capelet, but he was going to have to find more layers somewhere. Maybe he could get Remus to create him a nice wool coat. Or some longjohns. (Although he was hesitant to ask, as he wouldn't put it past the Duke to instead grant him a yak pelt so fresh that it was still bleeding.)

“Hey, look, someone made an ice sculpture of the buzzkill!”

Janus looked up from his ruminations. Remus had indeed discovered a life-sized, transparent statue of Logan, but upon closer inspection, it proved to be not ice but rock crystal (silicon dioxide, as Logan himself would specify). The Logical Side was depicted kneeling, leaning back on one hand and flinging the other one up and out as if in self-defense. His expression was decidedly alarmed, and taken as a whole, the presentation made Janus distinctly uneasy. And the more he inspected the sculpture, the more that feeling grew. The thing was unreasonably detailed. He could make out the knit texture of his polo shirt and individual strands of hair...and because it was transparent, he could see that the carving went layers deep—Logan's necktie ran completely around underneath his shirt collar, and his eyes were engraved behind the lenses of his glasses.

“Welp!” Remus was saying, raising his morningstar. “Smashy smashy!”

The horrible truth dawned on Janus just in time. He lashed out with his crook to snag Remus's ankle and pull him off-balance before he could bring the weapon down.

“Awwwww! What did you do that for, J-Anus?”

Janus found himself trembling, and no longer could he blame it entirely on the cold. “Speaking purely as a hypothetical,” he said with an embarrassing creak in his voice, “what if that weren't, by the strictest definition, a sculpture?”

Remus tilted his head in confusion. “Well, what else would it...” His kohl-rimmed eyes widened in some chaotic hybrid of shock and glee. “Nooo! You mean someone's gone and put the ol' Medusa whammy on Geekboy?”

“Obviously.” Janus looked around the snowy forest, wary of everything. “I think,” he said, choosing his words with the utmost of care, because they were the truth, “that there is a great deal of trouble afoot here.”

[bulletproof-korean]

Agust D - 어땠을까 (Dear my friend) ft. 김종완 [lyrics+vocab]

아직도 여전히 니가 난 그립고 또 그립네 아직도 여전히 함께한 추억이 날 맴도네 어쩌면 그때 널 잡았다면 아니 그때 너를 막았다면 아직도 여전히 우리는 아직도 친구일까 어땠을까

➼ 아직도 - still (adverb 아직 - still/yet + 도) ➼ 여전히 - still (adverb made from the verb 여전하다 - to be the same as ever) ➼ 그립다 - to miss, long for ➼ 함께하다 - to share, do together ➼ 추억 - memories ➼ 맴돌다 - to circle around, linger ➼ 어쩌면 - maybe, if ➼ 잡다 - to grab, hold ➼ 막다 - to stop from, block ➼ 친구 - friend ➼ 어떻다 - to be how

Dear my friend 어떻게 지내니 넌 나는 뭐 잘 지내 알다시피 뭐 응 Dear my friend 나 솔직히 말할게 난 니가 존나게 미워 아직도 여전히 기억해 함께였었던 지난 날 대구로 함께 놀러갔었던 우리 시간과 수많은 날 둘이면 세상도 무섭지 않아 말하던 우린 지금 전혀 딴 길을 걷지 Damn

➼ 어떻게 지내? = How are you? ➼ 잘 지내 - I’m doing well  ➼ 응 - yeah ➼ 솔직히 - honestly ➼ 말하다 - to say ➼ 존나게 - fucking (adv.) ➼ 밉다 - to hate ➼ 기억하다 - to remember ➼ 대구 - Daegu ➼ 놀러가다 - to go hang out, have fun ➼ 수많다 - to be countless ➼ 둘 - two ➼ 세상 - the world ➼ 무섭다 - to be scared ➼ 전혀 - at all ➼ 딴 = 다른 - different ➼ 길 - path, road ➼ 걷다 - to walk

➽ 다시피 - is a grammar used more like a phrase with certain verbs (알다, 듣다,보다) and their honorific forms

⇨ 알다시피 - as you know ⇨ 아시다시피 - as you know (hon.) ⇨ 보시다시피 - as you can see (hon.) ⇨ 들었다시피 - as you have heard

그때 기억나? 아마 신사였나 둘이서 소주를 기울이며 나눴던 우리 대화 세상을 씹어 먹을 거라던 우리 둘의 포부 원대한 꿈을 품었었던 우리는 어렸었지 꼴랑 나이 스물이야 갑작스러웠던 연락두절 한참이 지난 뒤 모르는 번호로 왔었던 너의 부모님의 그 짧은 전화 한 통에 곧바로 달려가 봤지 서울 구치소 안양은 너무 멀었지

➼ 기억나다 - to remember, recall ➼ 신사 - Sinsa-dong in Gangnam ➼ 소주 - soju ➼ 기울이다 - to lean, tilt ➼ 소주를 기울이다 - to drink soju ➼ 대화를 나누다 - to have a conversation ➼ 씹어먹다 - to conquer (slang, lit. to chew) ➼ 포부 - ambition, plan ➼ 원대하다 - to be grand, ambitious ➼ 품다 - to harbor, carry, bear ➼ 어리다 - to be young ➼ 꼴 - look, state ➼ 나이 - age ➼ 스물 - 20 ➼ 갑작스럽다 - to be sudden ➼ 연락 두절 - no contact, cease of contact ➼ 모르는 번호 - unknown number ➼ 부모님 - parents ➼ 짧다 - to be short ➼ 전화 한 통 - one call ➼ 곧바로 - right away ➼ 달려가다 - to run ➼ 구치소 - detention center ➼ 안양 - Anyang

니가 변한 건지 아니면 내가 변한 건지 Uh 흐르는 시간조차 미워 우리가 변한 거지 뭐 ( Spring day reference 봄날) 야 니가 밉다 야 니가 싫다 야 이 말을 하는 이 순간조차 난 니가 그립다 매주 갔었던 서울 구치소 면회 길 왕복 세 시간쯤 됐었던 먼길을 혼자서 나섰지 너의 재판 날과 너의 출소 날 눈이 펑펑 오던 겨울 흰 두부 똑똑히 기억나

➼ 변하다 - to change ➼ 흐르다 - to flow ➼ 시간 - time ➼ 순간 - moment ➼ 매주 - every week ➼ 면회 - visit (in a hospital, prison) ➼ 왕복 - round-trip ➼ 먼길 - long road ➼ 혼자서 - alone ➼ 재판 - trial ➼ 출소 - release, discharge from prison ➼ 눈이 펑펑 오다 - for the snow to fall a lot ➼ 희다 - to be white, fair ➼ 두부 - tofu ➼ 똑똑히 - clearly, vividly

그리고 간만에 본 넌 전혀 딴 사람이 돼버렸고 눈이 풀린 채 넌 말했지 *을 해 볼 생각이 없냐고 난 화가 났고 또 욕을 했네 유일한 친구였던 너를 되돌릴 방법은 없고 너는 괴물이 돼버렸네 내가 알던 넌 없고 널 알던 난 없어 우리가 변한 건 비단 시간 때문이 아닌 걸 난 알아 니가 알았던 난 없고 내가 알았던 넌 없어 우리가 변한 건 비단 시간 때문이 아닌 걸 덧없어 

➼ 간만에 - in a long time (colloquial) ➼ 눈이 풀리다 - for one’s eyes to be drowsy, dim ➼ 화가 나다 - to become angry ➼ 욕을 하다 - to curse, swear ➼ 유일하다 - to be the only one ➼ 되돌리다 - to turn back ➼ 방법 - method ➼ 괴물 - monster ➼ 알다 - to know ➼ 비단 - simply, only ➼ 덧없다 - to be vain, fleeting

➽ V~기 때문에 - because of ➽ N 때문에

⇨ 그 사람의 말을 믿기 때문에 사기를 당했다 = You were swindled because you believed what that person was saying ⇨ 우리가 변한 건 비단 시간 때문이 아닌 걸 난 알아 = I know that it’s not only because of time that we have changed ⇨ 아이가 너 때문에 울잖아 = The child is crying because of you

[senzacaponecoda]

(res conlangii)

Waiting on data to come in for schoolwork so I kind of doodled a plan for the syntactic evolution of Góoreta which is probably as good as it’ll get and the new draft for what will be Tantapty 2.0, which would be like Pa3aty 4.0 or something by now. 5.0, 6.

1.

Góoreta is ancestral, and was modeled as pretty much a prototypical Nubian language; based on Old Nubian directly.

Góoreta is mixed SOVT/SVTO. T and V are generally fused (i.e. auxiliaries are rare) but SOV is slightly more primary and it’s reflected in how the verb is marked.

So the maximal noun phase is something like {en}  {adjunct} {adjective phrase} root.stem-{sg/pl/col}-{nom/dir/gen/cop/abs} {adjective phrase} {adjunct}, {en} being an optional semantically empty determiner (syntactically it helps clue the listener in to a complex NP), {sg/pl/col} being the East Sudanic singulative/plural/collective number markers, the dir case being a combined accusative-dative, cop being the copulatory case, basically the marker for the more topical half of a copula phrase (as opposed to the part traditionally called a predicate, which is confusing when you’re talking about languages that don’t use a verb to express it). Leftward adjuncts and adjective phrases tend to be alienable, rightward tend to be inalienable/attributive. Compounds are thus backwards for an OV lang: manfire, not fireman. Possession is always marked rightwardly.  Supplementation common.

Adpositions are chiefly prepositions, but adpositions that were promoted to conjunctions before Góoreta are postpositive.

The maximal verb is {adv} root.stem-{caus}-{pret}-{inch}-{pass/recip/mid}-{neg}-{admir}-{modal}-{fut}-[PNG]-{subj}

Already pluractionals would be lexicalized. Moods not happening in the morphology would be adverbial or like CP level or something. Verbs are mostly regular, with no supplemental stems coming to mind. Verbs however can be compounded, and a passive-perfective participle phrase WITH (adv) verb-POS tends to deliver stative sentence structures.

So a kind of overview of the whole sentence I got from a book on Egyptian might look like

(C) S-O-A-s-o-d-V.T (C) or (C) S-s-(í) V.T-o-d-O-A (C)

where d is indirect object and A is adjuncts. Small is pronomial arguments and caps is lexically full. Cs are not mutually exclusive.

2.

It seems that it’s necessary to have both a post-Góoreta NS creole and a pre-Tantafty Afroasiatic creole of the creole in order to “marry” it into the family as my goal originally was.

AA was probably already VSO~VOS, and probably ergative-absolutative. This initial hybridization would actually be crown to actual Afroasiatic, maybe being more of a hybridization with a Pre-Afroasiatic.

T would then be broken from V, and the cross-linguistic tendency for creoles to trend SVO (although this is maybe a European bias error since creoles tend to be half IE due to colonialism) is a compromise.

So new syntactic structure is C-S-s-T-V-o-d-O-A It basically follows Góoreta’s SVO style syntax. The new NP is {en} root.stem-{sg/pl/col} {adjective phrase} {adjunct}

Which loses the Nubian case system.

The new VP is

{aux=V-TA-M-Neg} root.stem.{inch/caus} {other mood} POS

Everything outside the domain of the inchoative broke off. The tense system would probably revolve around the now inherently unaccusative perfect i-VERB-POS forms and an un-i’d form derived from that. Maybe from núu (at) such as what forms a progressive in many languages. This has an advantage of preparing the verbal system for a harmony derived Front/Back ablaut.

Unfortunately Tantafty retaining an admirative mood seems unlikely.

3.

This is when the Afroasiatic elements become dominate, and the stage of the language borrowed is roughly sister to the non-Ethiopian type Afroasiatic languages.

New syntax overform is like S-T-V-s-d-o-O-A. V-s tend to form a unit.

Despite Egyptian losing it, verbs inherit the prefixing conjugation as it assists the Ca1a22a3 unmarked form of present tenses (though, maybe, really, it should lose it, the same way Egyptian did.)

New NP is

{en}-cl.ABS root.stem.{sg/pl/col}-cl.ABS {(a) complement} {adjective phrase}-cl.ABS {adjunct}

Agreement is normalized. Number is lexicalized. Class is introduced. All nouns inherit the PAA absolutative case (-a), although case is not a feature of the syntax. Old nominative -u occasionally used, grammaticalized into something of focalized case. New number system starts to arise from dragging {pl} suffix with -cl.ABS irregularly. (a) represents a connective element, like {of}

New VP would be

{aux} {caus}-root.{inch}.stem-{modal}-[PNG]

Auxiliaries handle most issues. The new causative from AA supplants NS’s productively, the inchoative is detectable but fossilized, like English -Cle in words like rattle, dabble, nipple, etc. Some new modals have attached themselves between the verb and the PNG markers, from the possessive markers, at least in the perfect aspect. Old modals provide at least a new subjunctive.

4. ~ 5. (split as legit branch, then future Amizightization/Arabization)

Language eventually shifts into VSO syntax preferably. Old focalizing case used for SVO word order subject.

Word order is T-V.s.d.o-S-O-A

NP is

{D}(-case?)-[N][S]stem[S]

or

[N][S]stem[S](-case?)

where S is state derived from the connector/absolutative case. 

Every draft of Tantafty/Pa3atic thus far has had case but I’m not entirely sure why it would even arise at this stage.

The nisbe could give rise to a kind of genitive-dative. But an earlier stage is likely to have had an et-ha-qadoyshim kind of accusative preposition. By now I want {en} to have become {lá} so it might be something that looks like l-á~an-á or something. The genitive-dative would probably have to go - l>r is what the negative for NPs is going to end up as, and ní would end up declining for something that governs it instead of what it governs. I could be silly and use d~ð, which looks both Imazighen-y and Modern South Arabian-y at the same time. I like the idea of German-style case-on-the-article-ness though.

Nouns would thus be VCCVC in form preferentially I guess. Irregular forms would be the main vestige of Nilo-Saharan - supplemental singulative-collective-plural forms.

For VP I guess that means a form like

{AUX} {caus}.stem.{modal}-[PNG] {adv}

The causative would be partially fossilized into the verb. The auxiliary would handle most of the weight, but probably as preverbs like in Egyptian or Nahuatl or so on as a VSO correlate. Although preverb-auxiliary-verb is likely too. Morphological moods I guess would be heavily reduced, compared to, say, Arabic or something.

The perfective/imperfective system should break into a new stative (like the present perfect), new preterite, new imperfect, and new “cursive” system, where cursive is habitual, gnomic, or the like. That’s taken from an Amazight language but kind of nicely lines up with how English distinguishes present perfect, the past tenses, the progressive, and the simple present. Auxiliaries from “come” and “go” add tense to the paradigm. New moods to be determined, probably areally based on Siwi and Arabic. Voice probably has to be grammaticalized from a verb/preposition instead of an Afroasiatic-y one. Likely a good place for stand? “He stands damaged by battle.”

It would probably be realistic for Tantafty to gain a prefixing conjugation from a suffixing conjugation Coptic style. The Amazight languages do interesting things to their prefixing and suffixing conjugations though and I might want to base whatever I do about the yaCvCCvC present forms on something like that, however. It might be that the whole present form from PAA collapses into just a gender distinction of the subject, which I’m leaning towards. Then PN agreement happens in the suffixes.

Vestiges of NS would then mainly be pluractional vs singulative verbs. I might be able to fit an honorific/emphatic mood in akin to Góoreta’s admirative, which I really wanted, but it can’t really be a direct descendant.

I like the idea of Tantafty having serial verb constructions (which it’s had for years now) and I like the idea of the creoles having compound verbs. Something like an atelic verb head and a stative resultative verb pattern might be doable for a lot of verb nuances, and end up with some weird compounds on the way.  A random bit of what looks like Mandarin syntax I guess. This would be, like, the cut-break compounds.

[periodicreviews]

.hack//Sign

I think at some point, maybe when it was on Toonami, I had tried to watch it. I’m not sure why I stopped. Maybe it was because I was too young to understand why everyone was standing around talking or at that moment, I was looking for something different.

But in this lockdown, I have no excuses for not watching everything.

Suffice to say, I’m really glad I watched it this past week. If you have the patience, the wait through lengthy dialogue scenes is well worth the reward of complex characters and beautiful music.

My only comparison in the genre of “trapped in a MMORPG” is Sword Art Online, so you’ll see me reference that and Evangelion as usual.

In Episode 1 of .hack, it became crystal clear that .hack and SAO are in completely different categories. In SAO, the reveal of being trapped in the game and how if you die in the game, you die in real life, is played very dramatically. The creator of the world makes this announcement to all players, who in turn, begin to panic in mass.

In .hack, it’s first shown, not told. You see Tsukasa attempt to do something and he is prevented from doing so. When they finally get back to it halfway through the episode it’s told in a very understated fashion as Tsukasa asks Mimiru casually, “You can log out right?”

This scene alone, in retrospect, served to set the tone for how different the two series are and what I should come to expect from the show.

 Hijinks are kept at a minimum. In .hack, there is no wacky beach filler episode. There are some episodes that take a break from the “key of the twilight” main quest so to speak. In one such side quest, Mimiru meets up with a new player called A20. They go off into a dungeon despite A20 being woefully unprepared and after feeling like A20 is not taking things seriously, Mimiru leaves. She ultimately returns to see A20 with a sliver of health left and comes to respect her tenacity.

The episode is critical to better understanding Mimiru as a character, who at that point, I thought was just going to be a side character. I had a moment when I asked myself “Hey, wait, isn’t Tsukasa the main character? Why is he not in any of these episodes?”

That episode was the turning point for me when I realized that none of the characters were actually side characters, much as is the case with Evangelion. They were all fully developed characters who had their own motivations and growth, beyond simply propelling the plot forward for Tsukasa. The character of A20 and this episode is definitely a bit more lighthearted than others but it felt like it fit and a break is nice every now and then.

 Speaking of the characters, they all have their flaws and struggle at times to connect with each other. While they don’t struggle as much as the characters in Evangelion aside from Tsukasa, their personalities and motivations clash as they struggle with both the larger conflict and how each of them is deciding to handle themselves. There are probably just as many interpersonal battles as monster battles in the 26 episodes.

In one such interaction, Bear comes off as too preachy to Tsukasa who replies that he’s just as selfish as all the other adults and walks away. The episode spends a good amount of time on just this one bad interaction. Bear goes to Mimiru to ask her to pass an apology to Tsukasa, which she refuses, and ultimately he has to apologize to Tsukasa himself. All of this comes within the context of Bear in the real world struggling to connect with his biological son. You could argue that this is a “side” story episode as well, but I think it’s equally important as any other episode.

 I was somewhat surprised to see the explicit allusions to Waiting for Godot and The Little Mermaid. During another episode where they explore a special dungeon, they have to answer 3 questions, with 1 being about the Book of Revelations and 1 being about a Hollywood movie.  It’s definitely more common to have anime bring up some Japanese folklore. But Evangelion has a bunch of references to Christianity, Kabballah, and the Michael Critchon movie, Outbreak, so it’s not completely unheard of.

What’s the point though? Although it’s implied that the main cast are all living in Japan, it seems like it would make sense for an MMO developer to reference a wide variety of things in the real world.

Branching off of that, I can see the lack of Japanese culture allowing this to be a more accessible anime to those just starting out in a similar vein to Cowboy Bebop. You don’t really need any prerequisite knowledge about honorifics, or bowing, or senpai/kohai, just the basics of an MMORPG. This might’ve been one of the considerations when Toonami chose to air it on TV.

 There’s this constant struggle amongst the characters on how to handle the act of playing the game. For Tsukasa, being trapped in the game has eliminated the idea of not taking things seriously. For characters like Crim or Sora, they are consistently just playing a role that they admit is distinct from who they are in real life. Whereas although Bear begins in the “just a game” camp, the conflict they struggle through culminates with him having a discussion with Crim where they mention “if you’ve forgot you’re playing a game, isn’t that the greatest game of all?”

In Sword Art Online, I remember distinctly a scene where Kirito and Asuna are discussing their relationship and she remarks that actions in the game absolutely matter because her feelings in the game as just as real. She may even say that it’s more real in the game.

.hack further complicates the discussion of “Is it just a game?” by visually presenting “The World” and the real world as two distinct ways. “The World” appears in the normal colors, with the real world appearing monochromatic, with lots of noise/static, and only being able to read subtitles for dialog on screen.

One could argue this pristine view of “The World” is similar to how Tsukasa views the game in relation to harsh chaos of real life. The pain of his real life has disappeared and for a time, even though he is trapped in the game, that’s preferable to what it was before. This being further cemented by the final episode as the color restores to the real world when Tsukasa and Subaru meet in real life as the pain is replaced with joy.

 In the end, I was a little surprised at how little combat there was. In most MMO’s, combat is one of the primary ways to level up and it least when it comes to SAO, action and combat feels like half of the show. The lack of combat could partially be explained as a cost saving measure. There are a number of cost saving measures throughout the show like panning over backgrounds while characters are talking, closeups of faces that exclude the character’s mouth while talking, and scenes beginning right as the battle finished. But a lot of it just feels like that’s the kind of dialogue driven story they wanted to tell, rather than being forced to animate less things to save money.

 There were two Evangelion connections that kept me even when I wasn’t sure if I was interested yet. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto created the character designs for both .hack//Sign and Evangelion. Both Tsukasa and Shinji have similar androgynous facial structure which plays into the development of both of their characters questioning their own identity and their masculinity being called into question.

Amanda Winn Lee voices both Mimiru in .hack//sign and in the original ADV dub, she voices Rei Ayanami. The two characters are quite different from each other in temperament but regardless of the character, hearing her is always a delight.

 I powered through this show in 4 days, which maybe was a little too fast, but it was just too enjoyable. I feel like I could easily watch it again and appreciate it more than the last time.

[koushirouizumi]

#TheBeginningSpoilers #The Beginning Spoilers

The Beginning honorifics

Daisuke -> Hikari: I didn't catch off the top of my {memory} (I'm pretty sure it's still 'Hikari-chan') but Daisuke's DEFINITELY NOT using 'Yagami' for Hikari in any fashion whatsoever, so it's NOT Downgraded.

Hikari -> Takeru: Still 'Takeru-kun'

Ken -> Daisuke: "DAISUKE{!!!}" {UPGRADE}

Ken -> Miyako: "Miyako-san" Miyako -> Ken: "Ichijouji" (was it -kun or -san??) Either way, it's definitely "Ichijouji", and I didn't hear/see a "Ken-kun" from Miyako the whole thing.

(I seem to remember a conversation on how Meiko -> Taichi went from "Taichi-san" to "Yagami-kun" and everyone took that as a negative...) {Just saying...} Personally I still think that was the completely wrong way to take it but What Do I Know 02 Chosen -> Koushiro: "Koushiro-san" - Koushiro's not referred to as "Izumi" or "Izumi-san" or "Izumi-senpai" the whole thing. I'm pretty sure Miyako uses 'Koushiro-san' too.

[izzyizumi]

Digimon 02 [post-02] Timeline Mentions + Tri relations

( me rereading this post-02 drama cd and noting all of the ) ( “ timeline ” mentions ) ( … among other things. like. the Japanese honorifics mentions ) ( 1:10:06 of Ketsui, Mimi: “Ichijouji-kun!?…” ) <— ( 1:21:35, before Leomon’s death, Takeru:      “       Ichijouji       ” ) <———— [?] ( 06:47 of Kokuhaku, Hikari: “…Ichijouji-kun…” ) <——————— [* ^ this one might be more typical of Hikari compared to Takeru but still ]

[ ^ both from Ketsui. The bottom cap is from Crunchyroll’s sub, which did note honorifics (earlier on Hikari uses “Jou-senpai”, for example. ] [ Hikari right after Takeru’s line here: “And Imperialdramon, too...” ... ] ( Takeru in the post-02 / pre-Tri cd drama: “Ichijouji-kun” ) [ * note: the 02 drama cd has the title of “ original story, spring 2003″ ] [ * Tri: takes place in the year 2005, as confirmed by Takeru’s email at the end of the final movie, “Our Future” / “Bokura no Mirai” ] Mimi -> Ichijouji-kun: “ only in the audio drama Michi e no Armor Shinka, which was written in the middle of the series and is questionable canon at best*. ” [ ^ * elaboration from the honorifics chart linked, that is, not my own ] ( ^ AND YET HERE WE HAVE MIMI CLEARLY USING “ICHIJOUJI-KUN” IN NOW TRI + KETSUI SO ) [ also please note the post / reference chart on honorifics I’m referring to is from 2013 - a.k.a. pre-Tri and thus very outdated anyhow ] Takeru in / during 02 uses, for Ken: Ichijouji-san -> Ichijouji -> Ichijouji-kun (^ The [first] two [ “Ichijouji-san” -> “Ichijouji” ] are both used during 02 episode 19 when he expresses his slight disagreement with the Kaiser. “Ichijouji-san” while he’s talking relatively calmly, but after they’ve had their slapfight he calls Ken plain “Ichijouji”. “Ichijouji-kun” is after Ken turns good. ) [ * this elaboration mentioned also from the older honorifics chart linked. ] Takeru in the pre-Tri / post-02 drama cd (highlighting / italics mine for emphasis): “ There are also things that make me feel embarrassed upon re-thinking them. For example, like the time when I separated from my big brother and became alone… I was so swayed by PicoDevimon’s lies that I had a fight with Patamon and threw away my digivice. Or last summer, when I let my blood rush to my head and punched Ichijouji-kun, the former Digimon Kaiser. Really… when I remember those things now, my face turns bright red with embarrassment. I feel like digging myself into a hole. ” Takeru earlier in, near the start of his same drama track: “ I’m sure that the incident that occurred from the Christmas of 2002 to the end of that year is still fresh in everyone’s minds. In fact, even though three months had passed since then, the TV, newspapers, and magazines are still making reports about the Digimon. ” [ * Christmas of 2002 = the end of 02, taking place in 2002 ] Takeru goes on in his drama track to describe various events that occured in that timeframe + “three months” that had passed since the end of 02, such as involving his + Yamato’s mother & father, and Sora’s father, and their involvements on reporting about the Digimon. “ Thanks to [Yamato + Takeru’s father], we were saved from publicity. It’s sort of like… we’d like to keep our identities and the Digimon a secret. I don’t mean forever, when I say that, but the relationship between us and our partner Digimon is unique and other people probably wouldn’t understand that. For example, we can’t have people thinking that Digimon are slightly strange pets. If they do, then they won’t take us seriously either, and of course, the Digimon wouldn’t like that perception themselves. That’s why, until we get the general public to acknowledge Digimon and the Digital World for what they really are, we’d like to lay low. ” “ How far am I up to now [*in Takeru’s book]? I’m writing about the time Leomon was controlled by the black gears and he was about to capture us. ” something else interesting re: Takeru possibly being an unreliable narrator: “ I’ve asked my big brother, Taichi-san, Daisuke-kun, and the others about their versions on the parts that were vague to me, or when I wasn’t there. The details of the general incidents themselves were similar, but when we went over personal affairs, we realized how differently everyone had felt about the situation. ” “ The part where Angemon fought Devimon on File Island and turned into an egg… is still left unwritten. It’s hard for me to re-live, but also… the feelings that overflowed in my heart that time, as though it had been cut to shreds… Knowing how to write about it, or even describe it, is beyond me at the moment. [chuckle] I also have problems with writing itself. I feel as though I should personally settle this mess of feelings within me first. That’s why… for this part alone… until I’ve become more of an adult *… ” [ * I wonder what a major theme of Tri was obviously about ? ] * another timeline mention [not as related, but still] from Miyako’s track: “ By the way, I’m still in the computer club even in middle school. Izumi-senpai is its captain, of course. I’m making some background music for Yamato-senpai’s band, the Teenage Wolves. Or rather, I’m making it for them. ” and Hikari’s entire drama cd track needs to be read by this entire fandom again because whoa timeline details + possible Tri connections or inspirations and also re: Jun Motomiya, Shuu Kido [oldest of the two older Kido brothers that is in University], and Miyako’s older sisters all becoming Chosen Children in / around “ Spring 2003 ″ [ “ BUT WAIT DIDN’T TRI TAKE PLACE IN 2005 ″ <- Y U P ] as well as the ending: “  Afterwards, the world met with even greater trouble. ” “ Even in 02’s final episode, it was stated that “The road each had taken to get there had not been an easy one.” ” “ The video that Hikari had begun to make grew to be surprisingly useful, while the memorandum Takeru had started writing was delayed in publishing until he was able to calmly and objectively describe the situations. ” “  Nevertheless, these children were able to survive, without being trampled by defeat… Never forgetting their adventure and the things they had gained from their Digimon. ” “ But even in 2003, and the years after that, they continue to live. Please remember that sometimes, that is simply enough. ” By the way, Hiroyuki Kakudou (a producer / director of Adventures) is mentioned under “script” for both Daisuke & Hikari in the same drama cd.

still certain parts of this fandom *: “ T-THE DRAMA CDS AREN’T CANON THOUUUUUUUGH ” [ * disclaimer: I am speaking mostly in jest but the point stands ]

[ber39james]

How to Address Your Business Email or Letter to a Woman (Without Offending Her)

Let’s face it, formal letter-writing has gone the way of the pager. Once a necessary communication tool, it’s now a relic of an era before email, only to be used in specific, often similarly antiquated situations.

But what should you do if you have occasion to write a letter? And what if you have to write that letter to someone who isn’t a man?

https://giphy.com/embed/vQqeT3AYg8S5O

via GIPHY

Never fear, fearless writer, you’ve got this.

The Titles, They Are A-Changin’

If titles confuse you, you’re not alone. A Google search for “how to address a letter” easily returns “to a woman,” and when you look at the recommendations for “how to address a letter to a woman,” the confusion only compounds:

Clearly, nobody knows how to address those darn women in their letters. So, as a representative of the female gender, let me clarify a few things.

https://giphy.com/embed/zaezT79s3Ng7C

via GIPHY

The Short Version: Just Use Her Name

When in doubt, it’s best to use the first and last name of any person you’re addressing a formal letter to. It’s both formal and conveniently gender neutral!

Dear Mrs. Jonathan Smith, Try our special new line of pens. Your husband will be thrilled that you are no longer laboring over your grocery list with a regular pen!

Dear Jane Smith,

Use whatever pens you want. You’re a human being.

Want more proof that this is the way of the future? Grammarly surveyed our audience on this topic, and found that the “Dear [First name] [Last name]” option was widely preferred. Want to voice your opinion? Vote in the poll below.

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Here’s a tip: Need a more cohesive guide to addressing a letter to someone you don’t know? Check out this flowchart.

When You Should Use “Ms.”

Of course, this discussion of writing letters to ladies would be incomplete without a discussion of “Ms.” Although this title has a 100+ year history, its use has been varied over the years. Some writers default to “Miss” or “Mrs.” based on their assumptions about a woman’s marital status, or because that’s how they were taught in school. In the twenty-first century, I’d assert that it’s time to put this system of cringe-inducing honorifics behind us and stick with “Ms.” for all female-facing correspondence.

How did “Ms.” come to be? According to The New York Times Magazine the title was first proposed by an unnamed writer in a 1901 Massachusetts newspaper.

https://giphy.com/embed/1ik7vF38Io0Eg

via GIPHY

Yes, you read that date right: 1901.

Although this first usage made a little buzz, it was quickly forgotten, and the title stayed out of the public eye for the next forty-eight years, until it appeared as a note in Mario Pei’s The Story of Language. Throughout the 1950s, “Ms.” was mentioned timidly as an expedient time-saver, without much public acclaim. Then, during the women’s movement of the ’60s and ’70s, “Ms.” took on a new, political life. This era heralded the title. Activists began to use it, Ms. magazine published its first issue, and people began to discuss the honorific as an equalizing force between men and women.

The abbreviation Ms. is simple. It is easy to write, and the person concerned can translate it properly according to circumstances. For oral use it might be rendered as Mizz, which would be a close parallel to the practice long universal in many bucolic regions, where a slurred Mis’ does duty for Miss and Mrs. alike. —Anonymous

With its rich history, it’s safe to say that “Ms.” is preferred by many women of the twenty-first century. However, there are a few times when you should definitely avoid this title.

Don’t Use “Ms.” If She Has a Professional Title

First of all, if a woman has a professional title, use it! Women who are doctors, lawyers, professors, judges, officers, etc., should be addressed just like their male counterparts. Your recipient worked hard for her MD, JD, PhD, judgeship, etc., so don’t overlook the importance of the accolade and the opportunity to make a solid first impression.

Some common professional titles include:

Dr.—In English, this can indicate either a medical doctor (MD) or someone with a doctorate in a subject (PhD). Note: there is some debate about whether lawyers (JD) can use this title.

Prof.—Used for professors at universities.

Esq. (American) or Adv. (British)—A suffix used for lawyers.

Hon. (American)—Used for judges and justices.

Officer—Used for police officers and other types of law enforcement.

Please note that there are many more titles used in both the UK and the US to denote clergy, politicians, military members, and noble persons. You can refer to this guide from Project Gutenberg if you need help navigating the wide world of English honorifics.

Don’t Use “Ms.” If She Asks You Not to

One great thing about lady-humans is we’re all different. We have different wants, hopes, dreams, favorite bacon-enhanced foods, and even (you guessed) preferred titles. If a woman specifically asks you to use another title to address her (or uses it to describe herself), use her preference. “Ms.” may be handy, but each woman is an individual human being with different views on this topic, and since “honorifics” are meant to “honor” a person, you should respect their wishes.

Also, if you mess up someone’s title in a letter or email, don’t worry! The relative obscurity of letter-writing means most people will be more forgiving with formalities than they used to. After all, we live in a world of business emojis and work-appropriate textspeak.

Don’t Forget About “Mx.”

If you’re addressing someone who identifies as neither male nor female, or if you don’t know the gender of your recipient, “Mx.” is a great option! You can read more about how to use gender-neutral language in my blog post on the subject.

What do you think about “Ms.” as a catch-all title? Tell me in the comments below!

The post How to Address Your Business Email or Letter to a Woman (Without Offending Her) appeared first on Grammarly Blog.

from Grammarly Blog https://www.grammarly.com/blog/address-letter-to-woman/

[inefficientconlanger]

150: Posture

Sekari bexal ta, tašgu ye! Reši nu baňun ta.

Stand straight, soldier! Respect your superior.

Words:

sekari adv. straight, straightly

Derive eskar to be crooked, bent, twisted, seker to be an upright person

reši n. lord, boss; used as a honorific

Note: It is completely acceptable to call one’s teacher, coach, or even parent a reši. The point is, that they are in control and you will do as they say.

baňun v. to be respected, to be shown respect

Derive baňan to respect, baňen to show respect

[koushirouizumi]

Translator’s note: Koushirou’s dialogue with Tentomon has him use somewhat more of a casual speech pattern than he had ever used in Adventure or Adventure 02 proper, implying he’s managed to finally stop forcing himself to speak formally to others (cited occasionally through the series and in extra material as a particular wish of his).

FALLS OVER F O R E V E R