#also i'm aware the asker in the original post knew this distinction too

[vinelark]

as a kansan i really appreciate you bringing up the possibility of kon having a midwestern accent. i’m not really sure where this idea i see in superfam fics sometimes of kansans talking like southerners comes from, but no one i know in real life talks like that, even in the most rural parts of the state. i do know people with conditional country accents, but they’re generally from rural missouri (which despite being at the same latitude is actually a lot more culturally southern than kansas!) and only talk that way when they’re IN rural missouri, surrounded by other rural missourians. us kansans consider ourselves midwesterners! i say “ope” on a daily basis and i think kon should too!

Let Kon Say Ope 2k24! [re: this previous post]

this was really interesting to read, thank you! re: talking like southerners, i was kicking this around in my mind and i wonder if sometimes there’s a rural/southern conflation happening. i grew up in a rural area of the US that was not southern (nor midwestern) but there were definitely a lot of...southern aesthetics going on? like even in our non-southern region, sometimes "southern" was almost a shorthand for "rural"--specifically a white, working-class idea of southern living that shows up like a motif on the country radio station, in movies, etc. as a contrast to Big City Living. (the “sweet home alabama” vibe, if you will.) as in, it felt like most of the cultural touchstones for rural living were markedly southern. no idea if this shorthand is replicated in other regions (though i’ve def noticed the association in some friends who grew up coastal/in cities) and i can’t speak intelligently about this beyond my own half-baked observation, but i might guess that some people see “farm” / “small rural town” and auto-populate sweet home alabama.

or i’m overthinking it and it’s just a case of failed geography lessons 😅