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gumnut-logic · 4 months ago

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John Tracy hated taking public transport.

He hated the cramped seats, the invasion of his personal space, the fact the bus stopped every few minutes to pick up more passengers and the noise.

It was stressful, annoying and far too full of people.

But the astrolabs were too far from the dorm to hike it or bike it, so bus it was.

He mapped out the most direct route, left early to avoid the crowds and handled it the best he could. Earphones helped and he never travelled without his tablet and a network connection.

He made do.

He made do for over a year. Every morning and every night.

The work was fascinating and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He considered getting a car, but it wasn’t practical and parking was non-existent, so he stuck with the bus.

Despite the fact he hated it.

Every trip he buried himself in his own world whether it be his work, research, a good book or even a movie. He shut the world out and more importantly anyone who sat next to him.

Sometimes this was not possible.

Because sometimes they spoke to him.

John had been brought up polite. His grandmother would have slapped his wrist if she found out he was ignoring people. So, he always replied. Often concisely, but always watching his manners.

That often opened the floodgates. Because if there was anything common between big cities it was the people who were lost in them, desperately alone in a sea of faces.

John liked being alone to a certain extent, but he was blessed with a close and large family.

Some people had no one.

So, ever so reluctantly, he found himself answering their call for help.

The first was Mrs Bucklin. She was a tiny woman, well dressed, but slightly scented with mothballs as if her clothes hadn’t been out of the closet in a long time.

She sat right beside him and immediately enquired as to what he was doing.

At the time he was coding a new game and her sharp voice startled him enough for his fingers to slip and enter a chain of commands he had not intended. He would have sworn if he was alone, but the program righted itself and the new commands, instead of corrupting and crashing the function, actually appeared to improve it. He frowned and hastily input some bridging structures so the code wouldn’t fragment, idly wondering if the error would improve the game, ruin it, have him need to rewrite the whole section or be the spark that would initiate sentience.

Great, his tablet would rise up and eat him while he was distracted by a random bus passenger.

She did apologise and he did reassure her that it was all okay in the hope she would let him be.

She didn’t.

He learnt she had three cats, a niece in another country (he didn’t gather which because the woman’s pronunciation defied translation), that she had lost her son in the Global Conflict, she liked his hair (that was a first) and that he looked like an intelligent young man.

He acknowledged her quietly and politely as he eyed his code and the results of an initial compile test. How did it do that?

Her cats were named Scottie, Gordy and Allie.

He did blink at that, but didn’t comment.

Eventually, she said goodbye and got off the bus at her stop.

He would have forgotten about her, except she sat next to him the next day and the day after that.

Apparently, this was her route to work, and he was such a polite young man.

Three weeks later she admitted he made her feel safe just by being there. She had been mugged three times in her life and public transport was as much a bane for her as it was for him.

He actively kept an eye out for her after that.

Gus was a different matter.

Gus didn’t have a home and he often rode the bus just for the air conditioning and comfort.

He sat on the other side of the walkway to John. He didn’t say much and would likely have never said anything if it hadn’t been for the gang of boys who decided to throw verbal potshots at him one day.

John had had an all-nighter with exams coming up, so he was cranky. His latest project had stalled – the same game he had been tackling when Mrs Bucklin had startled him. The core of the program had become a little unpredictable and he couldn’t work out why.

So, when a group of teenagers crawled to the back of the bus and started needling a fellow passenger, it was not only a situation where the innocent man appeared to need a bit of a rescue, but it also pissed John off.

There were four of them. Teenagers flocked in groups apparently. He’d never been one for that formation himself, but he knew of them, had encountered them and Virgil had kicked a few of their asses for him.

John was in college now.

He could kick his own fair share of ass quite happily.

“Leave the man alone, or I will call the police.” He raised his voice, but not his head, transmitting all the body language of how beneath his notice they were and how he might respond if they didn’t comply.

“Mind your own business, kook!”

There was always a brave one amongst the group, usually the ringleader, the head dickhead.

At least they were only teenagers.

This time he did look up and put all that communication theory into the coldest stare possible. “Excuse me?”

All four of them froze. Hell, they couldn’t be older than fifteen, somewhere between Gordy and Alan. If either of his brothers acted like this, there were three older brothers who would quite firmly re-educate them on proper conduct.

Not that he thought either of his younger brothers would do such a thing.

In any case, all four of them stared at him wide-eyed. The eldest swore and climbed out of his seat just as the bus pulled up at the next stop. He snarled at John as he stalked past, spitting profanities. His cohorts followed and they climbed off the bus.

It was lovely and quiet after that and John went back to tackling his misbehaving program.

“Thank you, sir.”

John blinked up at the unkempt man who had been the centre of the teenagers’ torment.

A small smile. “You’re welcome.”

Was this variable being changed by the program itself? How the hell could it do that?

He didn’t fail to notice after that incident that Gus, as he introduced himself the next time they met, always sat near John on his rides, morning or evening.

John met other people. Mrs Magarey and her three young children always needed a hand with her pram. John sometimes took advantage of this and stuck the pram in the footwell of the seat next to him so no-one could sit there.

That made Mrs Bucklin sit behind him and whisper her stories in his ear.

He wasn’t sure if he was comfortable with that either.

Two other students from his faculty took the same bus as well. Ridley was in the year behind him and always had a friend on the phone. She chattered a lot and he learnt to tune her out.

Well, until the day he boarded the bus and found her crying into her tablet.

She had lost her entire thesis in a computer crash. He was polite. He enquired and she answered, staring up at him as if she had never seen him before. Which was entirely possible. John didn’t like to draw attention to himself.

He accompanied her off the bus that day and delved into her damaged computer. He dug up her thesis and she gushed all over him, even crying into his sweater.

He hugged her awkwardly and wished her all the best.

After that, she always said hello and had a smile for him.

John smiled back, but his program was still not behaving. It acted as if it had a mind of its own and it was very distracting.

Mrs Bucklin said it sounded like cat number two, Gordy. Never behaving, but always loveable.

John stared at her when she said that, and wondered if she knew more than she was letting on.

The day Virgil landed in the seat beside him on the way to the labs startled him enough to drop his tablet.

“Hey, Johnny.”

He fumbled between the seats for the device. “Don’t call me Johnny.”

“Sorry.” But he could tell Virgil was anything but.

His fingers touched the cool metal of his tablet and he scrabbled for it. “What are you doing here?”

“Can’t a brother drop in on his brother to see how he is doing?”

John eyed him. If it was Scott sitting next to him or Gordon, he might have been suspicious of any double meaning his brother might be communicating. But this was Virgil and although the engineer had a sense of humour that could cut when necessary, this wasn’t his style.

“I guess he can. But why the bus?”

Virgil shrugged. “Didn’t catch you early enough. Barely caught the bus behind you. I thought your classes didn’t start until later.”

“They don’t.”

“Then why are you up so early?”

It was John’s turn to shrug. “Just avoiding the crowds, I guess.”

Virgil eyed him with a slightly worried frown.

“And who is this lovely young man who has taken my seat?”

Oh god.

Virgil stared up at Mrs Bucklin as she bustled in to sit behind them.

An internal sigh. “Mrs Bucklin, this is my brother Virgil.”

“Your brother?” She eyed Virgil as if inspecting him for sale. “Doesn’t look like you at all. Where’s the red hair?”

Virgil arched a dark eyebrow.

“Nevertheless, Mrs Bucklin, Virgil is my older brother.”

“Then how come we haven’t met before? You’ve been travelling this route for a year now and we haven’t seen hide or hair of him.” She continued to glare at Virgil as if he was a threat.

Virgil was shifting in his seat, his expression decidedly wary.

“Virgil has been assisting my father on a project. He’s an engineer. I’m unsure what he is doing here right now.”

“Hmph, well, in my opinion, he should have been here earlier.” She addressed Virgil directly. “Did you know your sweet little brother has been a bastion of this bus route, defending and assisting all?”

What?

John’s head shot up. “Mrs Bucklin-“

“Don’t you go all humble pie on me, young man. I saw what you did to those teenagers and how you help young Mollie every week. That girl is going to work herself into an early grave. And poor Gus, you’ve given him a new reason to try. Did you know he has enrolled himself in a course? Got himself a grant from the government and everything. Got help from that employment assistance group. Not to mention that doe-eyed young student who stares at you with love hearts floating about her head. I don’t know what you did for her, but I have no doubt she would do anything for you if you asked.” She turned back to Virgil, accusation in her eyes. “Why haven’t you been looking after your brother?”

Virgil’s wide eyes darted between John and the older woman.

John had no idea what to say.

“Well?” Mrs Bucklin’s glare was determined.

“Ah-“

“Is this man harassing you?”

John looked up to see Gus looming over Virgil.

You know, the Virgil who lifted weights that weighed more than his brothers on a daily basis.

John frowned. Gus had a new coat on and was looking much healthier than the last time he paid attention. “No, Gus. This is my older brother Virgil.”

And Virgil was subjected to another staring glare. “Doesn’t look like your brother.”

What?!

“I can assure you that he is indeed my caring older brother and he is not neglecting me in any way.”

Gus grunted, still glaring at Virgil. He nodded in John’s direction. “Make sure he eats more. He’s too skinny.”

That started Mrs Bucklin off again. “My goodness, yes. John you do not eat enough. Have you tried any of those recipes I recommended?”

Gus was still eyeing Virgil.

Virgil appeared to be regretting several recent life choices.

“I’m fine, Mrs Bucklin.” He raised his hands. “And both of you, Virgil is not responsible for my wellbeing.”

His tablet beeped. A glance and he found a text message from Ridley. You okay over there?

He looked up and found her at the other end of the bus staring back at him worriedly.

A sigh.

A flick of his fingers. I’m fine.

He turned back to Virgil who was literally cornered, only for his tablet to chime again.

You free tonight?

Oh, for the love of-

“Guys, Virgil is my big brother. He looks after me. He cares. I’m fine. He’s here for a visit. I don’t know why yet. Stop glaring at him.”

Gus grunted again and wandered off to his seat. He didn’t stop eyeing John’s brother for a second.

Mrs Bucklin let off a slightly miffed sound before leaning back in her seat. “He better. Or I have a mind to bring Scottie with me next time. Or maybe Gordy. To teach him a lesson.”

What the hell?

“No need, Mrs Bucklin. I assure you.”

Virgil was staring at John as if he wasn’t sure what planet he was on.

John sighed.

Yeah, he hated public transport.

It was stressful, annoying and far too full of people.

His tablet pinged again. This time it was the program he was working on. It was claiming it was dawn despite the fact the sun had risen an hour ago. He let out an exasperated hiss.

Virgil was still staring at him.

Damn public transport.

-o-o-o-

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #john tracy #nuttyfic reblog #because I quite like this one #and because it is Johnny's birthday today #I should write a sequel #I vaguely remember thinking about one in the past #goes looking through writing book #Happy birthday Johnny

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ihavedonenothingright · 5 months ago

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Captive Prince: Historical References and Naming Conventions

Hi all! I've had this idea in my head for a while now, and I finally had some time (and an Ancient Greek dictionary), so I figured I'd give it a shot. I've always been fascinated by Pacat's worldbuilding, particularly the naming conventions, and as a classicist myself, I wanted to dissect them. So that's what this is. My focus is mainly going to be on Akielos since I don't have as in-depth a knowledge of French, but I'll go through some Veretian names too (je n'ai pas étudié le français depuis deux années, mais Arles… je voudrais parler d'Arles…)

I'm not approaching this with any kind of formal, academic structure, so if something wonky gets through, please let me know! And lastly, I have no idea how many of these are intentional on Pacat's part. This analysis is less about authorial intent and more about how the associations inherent in these names can lend to our interpretation of the work. I'll also be doing this analysis over a few different posts since there is a lot I want to cover. For post #1:

Country Names

This post will solely feature Vere and Akielos since that's already a lot, but I will tackle Patras et. al. later on. There's some very interesting stuff there that I would be remiss not to look at. Of our subjects for today, Vere is the simpler, and the one I am absolutely certain Pacat intended, so I'll start with it.

Vere

Disclaimer: I am in love with this choice. The word itself is actually a Classical Latin adverb derived from the adjective "vērus," meaning "true," and in Latin it's spelled "vērē" (though you will not see those macrons in extant texts, those are a modern pronunciation and differentiation aid). Vērē can be translated a handful of ways; often it's used for emphasis, and in that case it's usually translated as "indeed," but "truly," "rightly," "exactly," and "truthfully" all work in different contexts. Extrapolate vērus and its derivatives for around a thousand years and you get the Old French word "verai" (ouah c'est vrai !) which means, well, "true."

It's also close in spelling and pronunciation to the modern French "verre," which means "glass," which isn't entirely relevant, but is cool. It makes me think of shiny, fragile displays of opulence like the Galerie des Glaces in Versailles.

The first reason I really like this name is that it calls back to Artes, the Roman-inspired kingdom that we're told once encompassed all of Vere and Akielos, while still fitting current Veretian (aka half-old-half-modern French) grammar and pronunciation. The second is, naturally, that it fits so well into the series' themes of truth, deception, and verisimilitude. The second we're introduced to Vere, and by extension Laurent, there's a subtle hint there that both he and his country are, at their core, more real, genuine, and truthful than Damen and Akielos. We're already building towards Damen's Kings Rising line, "I have never known a truer man." Even if you don't recognize the Latin, your brain will make the connection between Vere and verisimilitude later. It's perfect, 10/10 Pacat, could not have done it better.

And just for fun: a Latin example!

Commentarii de Bello Civili, 2:27. Latin and English available here.

Hi, sive vere quam habuerant opinionem ad eum perferunt, sive etiam auribus Vari serviunt…

Loeb Translation: "Whether they convey to him the opinion that they really held, or whether they only flatter his ears…" (165)

Slightly more literal translation (by me): "Whether these ones truly convey to him the opinion as they held it, or rather are subservient to Varius' ears…"

Akielos

The name "Akielos" is a lot more… nebulous. I don't know if there is a Greek print of Captive Prince, but my guess is it would be spelled Άκιελος (modern Greek speakers please weigh in, I'm only a year or so into Ancient Greek so I haven't really touched accent marks). That doesn't map neatly to any modern or ancient greek word—at least that I know of. What is does remind me of is Ἀχιλῆος (Achileos) from Ἀχιλλεύς (Achilleus), aka, Achilles. They're so close that I actually realized lately I had unconsciously been pronouncing Akielos as "Akileos" for a while; and in fact, this makes the Veretian spelling "Achelos" make a bit more sense. English and French both use a hard "ch" to represent χ in Greek words; so I imagine, in universe, that the word might actually be spelled Άχιελος. It wouldn't even surprise me if this was the way Pacat originally wanted to spell it, but had to change it for ease of comprehension.

I did have some other interpretations of the name, but I think this is the strongest. Because in addition to the obvious association, the name Ἀχιλλεύς is thought to be derived from the words ἄχος, "distress/grief" and λαός, "people," making it either "the grief" or "grief of/to the people" depending on who you ask (you rely on cases for that sort of distinction in Greek and they're not exactly present here. iykyk).

I really like the idea of Akielos being associated with grief; we're first introduced to it as a country in mourning, and then later on, as the cause of grief in Delfeur. And then you have the association with Achilles, himself a prolific brother killer, who Pacat references later in 'The Fall of Inachtos,' our in-universe Iliad. Insane levels of grief on grief on grief. Plus, because it looks closer to the genitive form, I automatically associate it with the opening line of the Iliad:

μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος

menin aeide thea Peleiadeo Achileos

Sing, goddess, the anger of Achilles, Peleus' son

So we can throw a little rage into the equation. As a treat.

Also important to note that the -os there is a masculine ending. It doesn't have the most bearing, but it does mean that if we want to be strictly accurate to Ancient (and modern!) Greek grammar, I have to throw a quick article in front of it, making our final "how do the Akielons spell Akielos?" answer: ὁ Άχιελος ("ho Achielos"). The ὁ here is equivalent to le in French, with the major distinction being that in French, you don't typically need an article in front of a proper noun, whereas you do in Greek.

That's it for today's analysis! See you guys next time around for Patras, Artes, and (maybe) Arles, Ios, and Delfeur/Delpha.

Part 2 >>

#captive prince #capri #language stuff #latin #greek #dex rambles #to spoil the patras discussion a bit... i'm gonna be talking about the latin word patronus and its place in ancient systems of slavery #but i'll also touch on some other possible inspirations because i don't think that's the only valid interpretation

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jeannereames · 9 months ago

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If you could choose a soundtrack to be Alexander's theme, what would you pick? Both the historical Alexander and Dancing With the Lion's Alexandros

Ha, already did!

Alexander's Playlist

For those unaware, the books have a website Alexander's Macedonia. There are links in the back of the books, but not sure how many readers actually notice those things? There's a fair bit of backmatter the publisher didn't want to put in the novel. I insisted on the map, and the author's note at the back of book 2 Rise. (Also reproduced on the website for those who want to read it after readinb book 1.)

But some things I wish they'd included aren't there (as some readers complained at NOT having them). The glossary and list of characters, gods, months, etc. What's under "Guides for Readers."

The website also has pronunciation of names, what they looked like (statues), vlogs of Macedonia, etc. These do actually work better on a website as they include both audio and visual files.

The playlist, however, was just for fun. It fits the historical man as much as the fictional. In fact, the playlist was constructed to reflect his entire career, not just the novels. Yes, it's heavy metal because, you know, Alexander.

Finally, there are some cut scenes that didn't appear in the novels, together with some "extra" scene I wrote later, that would fit in the year between the books.

So if you read the novels, or even just the first book, and weren't aware of all this "stuff," there you go!

And now, because I AM actually curious if/where people find out about the website, a poll!

#asks #Alexander the Great #Dancing with the Lion #DwtL #historical fiction #ancient Macedonia #ancient Greece #Classics #Alexander the Great and music #Alexander and Heavy Metal

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headingalaxys-spicy · 2 years ago

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Love your writing! Can we have a yandere Spain, Italy and Romano (separately) with a tourist love interest that loves their country (it's been their dream to visit one day and they finally do) and is visiting with a tour group for a week?

Me finally getting out of the pit of my mind to write yay! And I apologize that this ask is late as hell. I hope you like it anon. Have an epic Saturday!

Italy

He’d just awoken from his mid-afternoon siesta. While slightly groggy from his slumber, he’d been eager for food. As he trailed along the medieval streets, he passed by a small group of adventurous tourists that spanned beyond the standard touristy sites like Rome and wanted to dive deeper into the hidden gems that were commonly missed when people came to visit Italy. One particular person stood out to Feliciano from the group of only 7 people. The twinkle that shinned in your eyes as you were engrossed in the tour guide's speech about the History of the Colleoni Chapel. He had to stand in amusement as you did have a notebook taking down some notes so you could admire the memory much more fondly later. Feliciano thought that that was charming, and it sent a few cupid arrows to his heart, all of which made a direct hit. He trailed behind your group for a while with stealth as he snagged a Trapizzano from one of the street vendors; he was enthralled by your excitement to learn more about his country.

As your small group was allowed to disperse for a few hours before they headed to another small town in North Italy decided that it was the right time for him to approach you. “Ciao, carino(a)~ Would you like to join me so that I can show you some of the best cities of this city? Even better than that of your tour guides? I can promise I’ll get you back before your group leaves.”

He’s going to be shocked that you could speak some Italian with some fluency. You struggled with the grammar and pronunciation but he adored you even more for even trying to learn the language even before your visit. He was enamored with you even more.

He’s going to take you on an extravagant adventure that was Disneyequse and entirely magical.

The two of you all giggly and high on the moment of excitement and on the buds of young love that engulfed your senses. The two of you were fully present in the moment. He took you to the Bergamo city gate, that was overgrown with the wildflowers of Northern Italy. The pastel and muted hues of yellows, pinks, and blues. It felt like you were alive in a Renaissance painting. The two of you at this point were now holding hands as he guided you through it’s rich history. He knew about intimate details that made him sound like a distinguished professor who’s been alive for hundreds of years. Even though he looked to only be in his mid-20s, you admired this charming Italian’s dedication to share in the culture of his nation. You allowed yourself to let your eyes roam the ancient pebbles of the ground that paved your way. It was nothing like you experienced from (nation).

“Come Carino(a) I have another fantastic sight to show!” His warm smile tingled your heart like Tinkerbells fairy dust and made it flutter.

‘So this is what falling in love feels like?’ You silently question yourself as you want to take a snapshot of the moment and keep it hidden in your diary so that you can come back to the moment whenever you felt sadness.

“Alright.”

Feliciano picked up his pace, and you were on a stone-carved staircase covered in beautiful florals.

He brought you down through some of the secret passages within the Venetian walls. The ancient stone reminded you of what you’d seen in countless history books, maps, encyclopedias, etc. But none could capture the mystique of the buildings and all of the intricate details of actually being there. As you reached an opening to a rooftop, it overlooked all of the city; the view was majestic. You could see the terra cotta and white colors that defined the city’s landscape.

“Wow, it’s lovely up here, Feliciano. I’m glad I met you today; you made this adventure much more fun.” You couldn’t hold back the smile that had made its way to your face.

“I’m glad Y/N.” He pulls out a lily and places it gently in your hair. As the sun set, you felt him kiss you on the forehead. “Addio mio(a) amore.”

And with that the next thing you knew, you were back in the van with the other tourists that were happily chatting about what they were able to do in Bergamo. Your mind was still at a loss to figure out if what you experienced was real but when you reach into your hair the lily was still there pure white and glowing.

Romano

You were enjoying your tour of the Amalfi coastline you weren’t aware of the dangerous group of inidivudals that were eyeing you to harass and steal some of your belongings. They had recognized that you spoke in broken Italain. Plus since you were somewhat shy and not overly confident showon in your body language it was easy for them to see that you were a forginer attached to a small group of far more adventurous tourists that had a deeper interest in Italian culture than the common tourist sites. You were the perfect target for their attack. You were in the middle of trying to figure out which of the seashell necklaces your best friend would like back at home as a souvenir. You were interrupted when this group had descended upon you and the other adventurer from your tour group. You tensed up and tried to understand the rapid Italian that they were whispering to one another discreetly. You were able to understand the words ‘idiota’ and ‘sciocco’ and immediately knew their attention was not on the vendor that you were currently at. You looked over your shoulder to see if the other person from your group was with you but see that they had already wandered away. With tension in the air and your nerves on high alert you decided that picking whatever necklace and paying for it would be your best bet of escape. As you tried to deiscretly grab only the amount of money that you needed from your pocket, someone had made a deliberate dive for your backpack yaking it off you. You were jerked backwards and everything was like a massive blur. For a few moments you’d wondered if you’d gone blind. You heard some other shouting and curses in Italian. It took you a few moments to recognize that you hadn’t hit the ground but someone had managed to catch you and break your fall.

It was a dark brown-haired Italian man that looked to be in his mi-20’s with a curious curl sticking out of the side of his head.

“Mi dispiace donna/ uomo. Some of my people do misbehave. And your backpack has unfortunately been ripped in half but don’t worry there are always more bags. He gives you a charming smile that you can’t help but giggle at. He was cute you had to admit.

“My name is Romano, what is yours?”

“Y/N” You reply promptly with a blush on your face. “Thanks for helping me out. I’m here on an extended toru of sorts and my Italian isn’t all that great.”

“Well, I can always help you practice and I can show you the hidden gems, after all I’m pure Italian.” He jokes. His accent sounded like harmony in your ears.

The two of you will send the afternoon on the white sandy beaches. The two of you wander around barefoot and free letting the sand sink you further into the wondrous day dream you found yourself in. He tells you about his legendary Grandpa that he affectionately calls Rome. You thought of it as adorable. He’s a gentleman to you for the entire day. He takes you to the Museo della Carta, where the history of paper-making began in one of the earlier centuries. He talks about how he loved to come here and collect paper so that he could keep journals about his life living with his “mentor”. His family history sounded complicated and you wanted to ask but felt like it may have been a bit to personal on the first day of knowing the mysterious but charming man.

As the two of you made your way to the pier that streched over the clear curulean waters that were pristine. It looked as if you were inside one of your fairytale books.

“So Bello(a) there is one more place that I’d like you to see before you’re off to the next city. I promise you’re going to love this place.” He hooks his arm around yours and the two of you head off for the mountains that are somewhat steep, but they have flora and fauna of the Italian coastline. You see a few cuckoos, swifts, and European doves fly by the two of you. The first bird of which was to tell of your future fate with the Italian once you returned back someday for good.

He brought you to Villa Rufolo the masses of pink and white flowers shone the brightest amidst all of the other plants.

“Wow, this place is beautiful!” You took a few moments to take in the enchanting sight. Romano seizes the chance to take your hand in once more and bring you to one of his favorite plants that he’d grown quite fond of the Viburnum tinus flower.

“It was one of my grandfathers' favorites and I’ve grown quite fond of it just like you.”

Spain

You’d been roaming around all day in Calella de Palafrugell a small fishing town that was in the Northern part of Spain situated by the waters. You and a few of your friends decided to camp in one of the picturesque sites called Camping La Siesta. You booked a cabin that had bare beds and a basic bathroom. It was simple accommodations. Not like you needed much since you wouldn’t be inside for much of the time anyways.

“Time to hit the pool guys! Time is a wasting!” You were eager to show off your new swimsuit and do some cannon balls to annoy your best friends. They lagged behind you since jetlag had essentially sapped the majority of the energy they had for the day.

In your rush to get to the pool, you bumped into a Spainaird and a Portuguese man.

“Oh uh, Lo Siento.” Thanking god that some of your Spanish were still useful after being out of school for a little while.

When the man that you’d bumped into turned around the first thing that mesmerized you about him was his verdant green eyes that sparkled brightly in the sunlight. You had to think twice if you were looking at gems or eyes.

“Esta bien. Ningún daño hecho” (No problem. No harm done.) His wide grin made your stomach fill with a flurry of butterflies. Antonio reached out to help you up.

“Are you okay chica(o)?”

“Yeah I’m fine just excited to finally take a swim! It’s been a long flight and it’s been forever since I’ve actually had time for a long vacation!” Excited at the prospect of not having to work for the next couple of weeks.

“Oh well, I guess I’ll be seeing you there! I and my friend are headed there was well!”

“Want to just go together?” (You got that rizz reader.)

“Ah of course!” Glad that you asked because he found you to be quite alluring yourself.

The two of you will spend the entire day together getting to know each other. It will be fun. It feels like that forgotten summer vacation where you’d found your childhood best friend / future lover but never got to see them again because fate can sometimes be cruel that way.

The two of you will be bored of the pool pretty bored so Anotnio will suggest that the two of you spice things up by finding all of the better views and seeing all the secret beautiful sites of his country that most normal tourists will miss. (Yes, the two of you ditch Portugal. Not that it matters because the dude is like on his mid-morning siesta.)

Your heart fills with endless excitement of the prospect of getting to take epic pictures and being led by a handsome stranger.

“Alright Y/N you better text us and take this taser with you if he gets creepy!” One of your friends states concerned for you but feels at ease about you being able to have a once-in-a-lifetime whirlwind adventure with a possible handsome lover. Antiono’s looks did have a disarming effect to them. The three of you were chatting where’d you’d wanted to meet for dinner that night.

“Don’t worry ya’ll I can protect myself.” You send them off with a wink, dressed in your finest summer attire. Once you made your way outside you saw Antino decked out in tan shorts, hiking boots, and a slightly unbuttoned button-up short sleeve, you believed that man could look good in anything.

“Come let's head to the beach!” He grabbed your hand eagerly and you two took the forest trail that was about a mile long to get to the beach. You allowed your mind to be related by his smooth Spanish accent that flowed like fresh red wine. Listening to him talk about the history of his land was intoxicating. Why couldn’t all history lessons be taught by attractive men with culturally accurate accents? You thought to yourself.

Antonio picked up his pace when he began to see the outline of the water at the beach.

“Whoa!” You were almost tripped up by some of the larger rocks that were on the defined dirty pathway.

“Oh lo siento, Y/N! I get excited when I’m able to show off my nation to a beautiful person. Hahaha.” His smile beamed brightly but so did the blush and pink flowers that appeared out of thin air.

Pleasantly shocked you decide to take the lead.

“Well you can kiss me on the lips if you can beat me to the beach!” You quickly peck him on the cheek and make a mad dash off to the la playa where he will tackle you to the sand and win.

#hetalia #hetalia fandom #hetalia imagines #hetalia x reader #hetalia fluff #hws italy #hws romano #hws itabros #hws #axis powers ヘタリア #ヘタリア #hws spain

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lune-de-miel-au-paradis · 1 year ago

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Meet my OC from Star-crossed :

*drumroll*

Nina Cerasus

Pic from artbreeder

Pronunciation of her name : Nee-nuh

Family stuff:

22 standard years old born in Naboo (in Heavenbound fic she is 32)

she has a rare heart disease HCM

when her mom got sick her dad left them

her mom died when she was 7 years old

she was raised by her grandmother

she goes to law school

her best friend is Polina who is a vampire

and Anfisa a who is a fae

Appearance:

female

pale skin (comes from her disease)

160 cm, 5'2 feet

skinny but fit and flexible (side effect of her meds and pilates classes)

her cheeks looks blushed (side effect from her meds)

she has freckles

she has diastema (visible gap between her two front upper teeth)

she wears glasses at home and contact lenses when she goes out

she has brunette straight hair, mid length and with curtain bangs, she wears it in different up dos and braids like Nabooan women and likes to clip pearls and star clips in the locks

her hands are always cold (comes from the meds from her disease)

she smells like cherries, almond and mint tea (inspired by tom ford's lost cherry perfume)

she has tattoos: one is on her spine shows different phases of the moon, also it glows in the dark, several ones on her fingers she has tiny dainty stars and constellations, and on the inner side of her hip is a loth wolf in a tribal style art, and a quote on her bacl ankles "Ad astra, per aspera."

her style includes gem colored light fabric dresses, mostly pant suits with cut outs

she has a bracelet a red string with a star shaped lucky charm (gift from her gran for protection)

she has a pair of jade droplet earrings, and an enchanted red amber pendant (both gifts from Maul)

she likes sparkly make up and nailpolish

she has a raspy seductive voice (inspired by sofia bush's voice)

Personality:

she is rather introvert and close to herself

likes to argue, good at keeping information to herself (she is to be a lawyer duh)

she has trust issues, and abandonment issues

says that she doesn't believe in love or relationships but secretly hopeless romantic

only dates but never in a relationship till she meets Maul and later Wolffe in my Heavenboun fic

doesn't like jedi or any Force user, she thinks they are snobs and dogmatics, but later she'll like Master Plo and his wolf pack

she isvery inteligent speaks in several languages

she enjoys art, music, dancing and reading

she is a bit of a nerd when it comes to astronomy (not the horoscope one)

she is currious and patient (especially with Maul)

she looks down on men, she thinks they all liars, and cheaters, and only good to manipulate/to be an acessory/ to please her in bed till she founds love

she will do everything to her friends and loved ones

she has a soft spot for Anfisa (my other OC)

hard to open up but actually super sweet

maybe a bit impulsive, but at same time she has a 5 year plan already

they call her the "ice queen" because her specialty is freezing out people and always looks calm and collected but under the hard shell she panic a lot

Other:

she is a party girl but only because she loves dancing

her hobby is star gazing and her dream job is to be a star cartographer

she never left Naboo before, but dreams to travel the galaxy and make star maps in Star-Crossed fic, in Heavenbound she leaves in Couruscant

she is allergic to tooka cat fur

she can't drive a ship

pretty good in self defense and shooting (both comes from Polina's idea to join self defense classes)

she collects celestial themed jewelry

she is terrible at cooking

to quit smoking she learnt how to tie a knot with her tounge from a cherry stem, so she always carry some cherries with her

AN: So that's all I could collect in this moment. Sorry for any mistype or bad English this is not my first language. Other character deep dive list and mood boards are in plans so I hope you'll like her as much as I do.

I plan to make one about what characters and persons inspired her personality, looks and name (no it not comes from mine even though it's similar to my nickname)

💖

Nika

Taglist: @hellhound5925 @cloneloverrrrr @stardustbee @the-chains-are-the-easy-part @firstofficerwiggles

#meet my oc #nina nerasus #oc nina cerasus #nika's writing #star-crossed the fic #maul and nina #if you have questions i am so happy to answear them #character deep dive #OC info dump #OC info

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stepswowdsen · 6 months ago

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【KHR AU】 XanLena & Selena Rambles ❤️💜🍷🪷

Sen's KHR OCs

Nguyễn Selena (Nguyễn Nguyệt Vân Liên)

Lê Thiên Linh

Selena Doodles (Quick redraws) 💜✨

I resketched Selena's hair 💜

Oh and I also used the eyes from the Selena wearing Vietnamese traditional clothes, Việt Phục (áo tấc) drawing.

Both look nice but I think it fits my art style more

I resketched these quickly so it's not as refined but I'm still experimenting/trying to decide how I want Selena's hair to be drawn, whether I want to keep the curls in the back or not

I also wanna give Selena a TYL (Ten Years Later) design like the rest of the KHR cast has.

I feel like Selena's ponytail is pretty iconic to her design?

So I'd just add a bun on top of the ponytail in her TYL design (whenever I get the chance to design it in the future)

Also put the rest of my WIPs and rambles under the cut

Btw I've drawn Linh before but I need to redraw the sketch sometime

I love gradient maps! They've really been spicing up my arts. I looove choosing colours. It's so fun to play around with them

(Excuse the old art of Selena I still need to redraw it)

Examples with my beloved Selena and my beloved KuroEne 😘💗🫶

Selena and her NB swag 💜

XanLena ❤️💜

XanLena chibis and a quick Selena chibi I sketched recently

Trying to experiment… I think I should redraw the Xanxus and Selena chibis at some point

I'll keep the core features like the eyes and colours! I'll just fix up some stuff

Drawing chibis is actually harder than drawing normally for me 😭

I also drew another quick Selena chibi

Selena 💜🪷

1: OG colours 2: Hue Shift + Gradient Map 3: Gradient Map

I prefer the 2nd one best because I love the purple + pink gradient, but the muted pink one (last one) is also cute.

These drawings are old btw

KuroEne 🖤💙

Selena's Name 💜🪷

"Japan has a custom called 'ateji' which is to give foreign words kanji characters based on their sounds, and this tradition is used to create kanji names for people with non-Japanese names."

So for example, just based on what I know, when Viet names are translated to Japanese, they're either written in katakana, or, if they're Sino-Viet (use Chinese characters), then you can either make a JP reading of the name (if possible with the characters), or write the pronunciation of the name in furigana on top of the kanji.

I learned new things recently on how to translate Vietnamese names to Japanese too.

C: Oooh I see :D That's cool!

...

For example, the unorthodox/non-standard reading that I chose of Selena's Viet name, Nguyễn Nguyệt Vân Liên (阮月雲蓮), is Gen Suzuha. It uses the same characters.

Because I wanted to give Selena a JP alias as well since she travels a lot. The multiple names are for ease when she travels

阮 - Ruǎn (CN), Nguyễn (VN), Gen (JP)

The most common Viet last name Nguyễn is translated as either Gen (阮) or Guen (グエン) in JP

In VN, Nguyễn is not pronounced with a hard English -g like that btw. It's hard to describe unless I make a video but in EN it's pronounced more like "Nwehen" or "Nghwin," said as 1 syllable

Sino Viet = Part of the Vietnamese vocabularly of Chinese origin

Furigana = Furigana are the characters on top of kanji that gives the pronunciation in Japanese.

…

At first I was conflicted whether to write Selena's name as セレナ (Serena) or せりな (Serina) in Japanese

Cuz I pronounce Selena's name as Seh-lee-nah. Though Seh-leh-nah (JP pronunciation) is fine too

Though these EN names are often romanized/transliterated like this in JP:

Selena: セレナ (Serena) Selina/Serina: せりな (Serina)

I went with the 1st one at first, but I ended up choosing the 2nd one cuz it matches closer to the pronunciation of Selena's name

Selena's Name (Continued) 🌙🪷

Selena's names:

English name: Nguyễn Selena (グエン・セリナ)

Vietnamese name: Nguyễn Nguyệt Vân Liên (阮月雲蓮)

Japanese alias name: Gen Suzuha (阮月雲蓮)

The most common Vietnamese last name that about ~40% of Viet folks have, Nguyễn, is written as either グエン (Guen) or 阮 (Gen) in JP. It doesn't match the Viet pronunciation, but it's the closest we can get in JP.

I write my KHR OC, Selena's name as セレナ (Serena) in Japanese, to match the spelling of her name in English, but the pronunciation of the name Selena in English is like "Seh-lee-nah." That's how I pronounce it.

I pronounce XanLena's ship name as "Zan-lee-nah" personally.

Cuz I just checked the Wikipedia pages of famous people to see how Selena is written

I don't mind if others pronounce it as "Suh-lee-nah" or "Seh-leh-nah." That's why I was wondering if I wanted to write her name in katakana to match the spelling or the pronunciation...

Ideas for Selena's name spellings:

セレナ (Serena) → Selena

せりな (Serina) → Selina, Celina

セレーナ (Sereena) → Selena, Serena

セリーナ (Seriina) → Serina, Selina

So any of these spellings could work. English words have stressed syllables, but Japanese doesn't really have that and has pitch accent instead.

Cuz Selena's Viet name, Liên (��) means "lotus." In Japanese names, the character 蓮 for lotus is read as "Ren."

So one hand, this spelling ends up being closer to her Viet name. But the other spelling is closer to the way her name should be pronounced.

I've seen せりな (Serina) be used for "Selena" before, because the 2nd is usually used for the spellings, "Selina, Celina," so I went with the 1st one at first. But then eventually chose the 2nd one.

I'm still deciding on it though... Also you can go against the conventional spellings.

Misc Rambles

Me: Was checking the automated Google Translate of my fave ships for fun

FGO:

リンぐだ (RinGuda) → LimGuda

(Google Translate: RinGuda)

WATGBS AU:

イダ竜 (IdaTatsu) → IdaTatsu

(Google Translate: IdaRyu)

KHR AU:

ザンレナ (ZanRena) → XanLena

(Google Translate: ZanRena)

MAGI:

ジュダアリ (JudaAri) → JudaAli

(Google Translate: JudaAli)

KAGEPRO:

黒コノエネ (KuroKonoEne) → KuroKonoEne

(Google Translate: KuroKonoe)

...

These are actually pretty close but IdaTatsu turning into IdaRyu and KuroKonoEne turning into KuroKonoe 😭

S: Idate I didn’t know you were dating Tatsumiya’s genderbent version Ryuki

Me: Cuz I was just reminded of how Cinna said Google Translate would turn GokuTsuna into Tuna's prison 😭

S: TSUNA'S PRISON

Me: TUNA... 🐟

S: 🐟

Me: IdaTatsu yuri and yaoi would be based!

Kanji for 竜 (Dragon) in Tatsumiya's name can be read as Ryu or Tatsu depending on the reading

S: Oh my

Me: Oh and Google Translate turning my MMBN/EXE ships, BluesRock into BullRock, or EnNetsu (Enzan/Netto) into Flame Heat

S: I guess in this reading they took Ryu Ahahaha IdaTatsu Yuri 🤭😳

S: Just like how that refrigerator caught on fire

Me: LMAO

I'm curious to see more funny Google Translate versions of ship names

S: LOL

Kinda miss when ship names were like Flame heat or Ice heart but also maybe I’m kinda glad it’s just their names fused now

Me: WSDSHSS they have a cute charm to them but thank god the ship names that are just portmanteaus (two charas' names together) are not impossible to remember. From Cinna before:

C: I think it's insanely funny when Google TL translates GokuTsuna as "Tuna's prison" like yeah Tuna prison that's my ship!

S: HELLO HELP

Me: Reminds me of KuroKonoEne/KuroEne getting translated as Black Kono Energy sometimes

S: Man I love my ship, oh their name? Yeah it’s TUNA’S PRISON, hope that helps!

C: I have Tuna's prison for GokuTsuna and Homo bull for EnBlues 👍👍👍👍👍

S: Maybe we don’t need creative ship names we just need whatever Google translates

Me: It's so funny cuz KHR's EA/JP fandom mainly used numbers for ship names cuz the syllables in charas' names sound like numbers in JP or CN, depending on the reading

(Btw I'm just putting the context for any mutuals who aren't familiar with KHR)

Like they're easy to remember if you're learning the language

So the fandom puts these numbers or letters together for ship names

Ex.

2 = Tsu

5 = Go

7 = Na

9 = Kyu

Ex.

18 = Hibari

59 = Gokudera

27 = Tsuna

...

S: RIP to me cause I don’t know Japanese but Wowie

Me: Cinna was like "The numbers are impossible for me to remember I swear if I tried remembering them I'd one day be logging into my bank account with them" 😭😂

S: LOL

Google passwords? Nah just give me a password with the ship name in numbers in Japanese and I’ll be set for life

Me: For charas who don't have number representations (non JP names), they use letters

X = Xanxus (ザンザス, Zanzasu)

3 = San (Sounds the closest to "Zan" that we can get)

S: Ooooo

Oh I’ve just been pronouncing Xanxus as Zansus LMAO 💀

Me: HELP WSSHDSH

S: LOL

Me: I remember Cinna's reaction from back then 😭😂

S: First Idate, now Xanxus, so who else will fall victim to my American pronunciation

LIKE I HAD BEEN PRONOUNCING HIS NAME AS EYE-DATE (I DATE) INSTEAD OF THE JP PRONUNCIATION 😭

Me: 😭😭😭

S: LMAO

Me: Tbf Xanxus is probably a cool made up name made up by Amano

S: Oooo probably

Tho I didn’t assume so cause Ik there’s a lot of foreign names that sound made up but they aren’t

Me: All of the other Varia members are named after the 7 Deadly Sins, except Xanxus cuz his name is special 🤭💖🫶

S: Xanxus is a special little boy 🫶

Me: But yeah with the 7 Deadly Sins theme-ing of the Varia, that includes Belphegor (Bel)

S: Would Selena notice that his name is not a deadly sin and call him special for that

S: Ooooooo

Me: That'd be cute! I think she'd notice that his name is special and especially fitting for him 🤭

Xanxus was named for his flame as a kid, since he was born on 10/10, so he has two of the Roman numeral X's in his name, and so believed from birth that he'd become Vongola 10th boss

Xanxus manifested a really rare and special flame, the Flame of Wrath

S: He was born on 10/10 to be a 10/10

Me: Saur true!!! 💖

Me: Let me see if I can find the Varia being 7 Deadly Sins themed

Here

Source: (X)

S: “To join Varia you must speak a minimum of seven languages“ what are they doing with seven languages, Mr. Worldwides???

Me: YEAH THAT'S CRAZY WSSDSHDSSH

I imagine Selena knows 4 languages:

Vietnamese, English, Japanese, Italian

But then gets taught the rest cuz they seem ""lax"" on this rule

I MEAN I CAN SEE SQUALO BEING STRICT ABOUT IT AND PESTERING HER AS A TIRED CHAOTIC "OLDER BROTHER" FIGURE

But I don't see it as the ultimate requirement or whatever.

So then Selena gets given a tutor to learn the rest

S: OHHH omg if they were strict on it fuckkk

Me: Vietnamese, English, Japanese, Italian

I just assume it's obviously not the most important requirement to become a Varia member tho cuz they wanted to hire a ~10 y/o kid Fran for his illusionist skills, because Fran is one of the best illusionists. And I doubt this kid knows 7???

So yeah they care more about the member being able to work well with them as an assassin.

AKA their skills, being proficient in killing people, ability to adapt with them in fights... Basically what really matters.

S: Selena my girl you gotta get the last of the 7 Dragon Balls of languages or something I actually don’t know how many are there

I would be sweating bullets if I were her and I didn’t know seven languages only to be met with a “Oh yeah dw about it you can learn the rest“

Me: So yeah Squalo probably gets her a tutor and tells her to learn the rest ASFFGFHJKLL

S: Who put the 7 language there as a rule anyways ‼️‼️ I’m kidding but omg 😭

S: She can always learn Spanish, if she already knows Italian it’s gonna be a breeze

Me: I just remember that this trivia has always existed since I was 12 but I could never find a source for it? Might come from some old JP magazine of KHR

I'm not very sure.

S: Oooooo

Me: OHHH so true!

S: Saur true!!! Amano goes into a magazine interview, “Oh yeah Varia members need to learn 7 languages to join“ doesn’t elaborate, never does

Me: Also in one of the KHR omake side stories, Lussuria tries asking Xanxus "if the rumours of Xanxus knowing 12 languages are true"

(.) 🧍

S: HELP

Me: And grumpy assassin leader Xanxus just doesn't answer. So typical! /pos /endearing

7 IS ALREADY CRAZY, BUT 12, BRO???

The Varia members, Xanxus especially, are definitely linguistically gifted.

S: By the time he’s old he’s gonna learn every language in the world

S: So true‼️‼️

S: It’s okay on the positive note he can always tell Selena he loves her in different languages

Or he’s more of a acts of service kinda guy

S: IKR 12 IS CRAAZZYYY

I could barely grasp 2

Me: He's definitely more of a Gifts and Acts of Service guy so he'll gift her gifts like flowers she loves ❤️

Like Xanxus probably has the servants wrap flowers for her and gift her her favourite ones. Lotus flowers, Wisteria, Peonies, etc.

S: Awwww so romantic 💖

Me: Oh the fact that Xanxus would learn Viet for Selena is very cute

Like he just learns it without telling her, and just surprises her when he suddenly starts speaking fluent Viet to her

S: OOOOOOO

Choosing the Spelling for Selena's Name

S: Oooooo I like Serina

Me: Yeahhh I like it too cuz it matches the pronunciation of her name. I've also seen some people use せりな (Serina) for Selena as well, it's just not as common as Selina and Celina

Though you can also go against conventional spellings in JP!

Like I read peoples’ rambles and one person brought up an example of a “Sarah” who hated the standard サラ (Sara) and instead uses セラ (Sera) so it’s not an issue

Me: Also ty Snow for your input and for chatting with me this morning, bestie!

S: Of course!! <3

Oomfie Osmosis

S: I'm just following your blorbo rambles through the oomfie osmosis but where does KHR take place? Is it in Japan?

C: It's mainly in Japan, but Italy is very plot relevant

Me: The main cast lives in Japan. So, the protag, Tsuna, and his Guardians (Vongola 10th Generation members).

But secondary characters like the Varia, live in Italy, and come to Japan when necessary/for work/for plot reasons. They also like to go to Japan on vacation

Me: LMFAO

Also even for series that my friends are into where I don’t know the series, my friends' faves become my faves too by association, through the osmosis, and my comfort characters and skrunklies in law

Comfort character/skrunkly in law through the osmosis, to skrunkly of mine!

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summaryi · 6 months ago

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When the Moon Hatched - Sarah A. Parker

reluctant 2/5

ok i havent finished yet but

the world is interesting so far

not enough known about characters

-------

but the one thing that might push this into DNF territory for me DESPITE THE INTERESTING WORLD

is the fucking fantasy spelling of known and existing concepts

like fucking dae and day

if you make up a creature person place concept whatever

yeah have it your way

use the beautiful spellings of faerie instead of fairy

but fucking

having to read dae which means day when the word day already exists and dae just means day

not my cup of tea

but i press on

wanna know about these moons

and the POV switches are in such tiny font compared to the rest of the text i was flipping back and forth to find it

and something just happened but im like?? i didnt have the time to get invested

so this doesnt mean anything to me

---

ive kept reading and im really torn???? some parts are breathtakingly sweet and soft, like a nostalgic memory

and some parts are

disjointed

huh??

i feel like a third of it is lovingly crafted

and tbe other two thirds are just slapped together to fill pages

its a weird fucking experience

-----

im fucking incensed what the hell

one of the chapters ripped my heart out and tore it into shreds

and three chapters later there are so many fucking unnecessary made up fantasy words just crammed together holy hell

was this written by two different people

and if youre going to use your own made up words

give us some fucking explanation or show and tell

if i dont know whats going on because none of the words make sense how can i fucking read jesus christ

what the hell is going on in this book

im actually pissed because the quality of the writing is so inconsistent

----

ok i finished it

am i fucking stupid? is it the kindle editions? or do all these books keep fucking putting pronunciation guides and glossaries at the back with zero indication they're there, not even a * or page at the front

maybe its a me problem but holy fuck

put the map at the back and the definitions and pronunciation at tne FRONT

AND THE FUCKING TRIGGER WARNINGS TOO WHY ARE THEY the last possible item

is it me??? am i the problem???

but like, ok, have the separate pronunciation guide and the glossary or definitions at the end

i still want some kind of BRIEF in-story explanation

people DO this to GREAT effect

it's fucking practical

and it does NOT break the stupid "show, dont tell" rule to have a character just do a quick "oh, MC is new/amnesiac/willfully ignorant, here's a 2 sentence primer"

anyways

overall, hate this book

it is NOT for me

i can sort of see why its paced and split the way it is? but also i cant

it feels very.......... it just feels like only a tiny sliver of the entire book is well polished

and the rest of it is slag, just tossed in

like????

the parts that i enjoy were enough to get me to finish the book but holy shit im pissed off

it could be so good!!!! but it's not!!!! overall the idea and the plot and all the strings are very good!!! but its so badly woven!!!!!!! except for a few shining hero moments

but what the fuck!!! it should all be equally good!!!!!!!!!!!

am i just a hater??? idk everyones fucking sucking this books dick and like

its like

a delicious meal that got dropped in a puddle full of shit

like there are pieces i liked! they were good! i see the potential! but fucking christ it was not a michelin experience and those tasty bites were not worth the rest of this meal??????? aaaaakrslhbgliugraiaubefigawrlharfk

#When the Moon Hatched #Sarah A. Parker

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styrmwb · 1 year ago

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Favorite Final Fantasy Music (FFXIV - Stormblood)

I don't think the copypasta has reached Stormblood yet BUT ANYWAYS 2ND EXPANSION LET'S DO ITTTTTT! This is when I started playing XIV! Lots of fond memories of TP (0 fond memories of TP). Something Stormbloood does, very similar to XIII, is the main motif. That shit is EVERYWHERE. And luckily, it's Amazing, so I literally am not complaining about hearing it all the time (spot #1 on this list goes to the stormblood quest accepted tune).

Something I will preface with is a lot of the music I love here is in the Omegascape raids but it's all (mostly) remixes! I love all of those songs but it would be doing this soundtrack a disservice to put any of them in this list (That Dancing Mad version is fucking dope though)

5. Crimson Sunrise Easily my second favorite main city theme. I feel like I can't say much about the melody, cause it is The Stormblood Motif and I'm probably gonna say some more about it later down the list, but I will say I love the instruments used here. The flute and plucking (I think it's a shamisen) is really calming, and the slow tempo of the drums (taiko?) add to this, while also giving that grand nature befitting of a huge city.

4. Dangertek Completely different vibe from the last song. This was originally introduced in PvP, but I more commonly experience it in treasure maps. It's an absolutely banger techno remix of Hard to Kill, the FATE Boss theme, and it's my favorite version of the two. The melody is sick, the guitar playing it rocks, and that heavy beat is a bop. I also really love the interlude section that I can only describe with the BADADUNBADADUNBADADUN noise going back into the Hard to Kill riff again but from a distance, it's so coollllllll I love this song

3. Triumph Part 2 of The Stormblood Motif; but I think this version is the most stand out example. This also includes the Ala Mhigo anthem for an epic combination of both sides of the expansion, a lot of eastern instruments included. I love the start of this song with the japanese flute and the more middle eastern sounding guitar (I have learned that this is called an Oud!) again, showing that combination of two ends. The Ala Mhigo anthem played by the brass builds up the intensity of the song, and then The Stormblood Motif rockets it into pure hype. It's so hard not to sing along to it every time it plays! The finale of this song sounds like a spiral wind down while still keeping the energy. It's impossible to hate any dungeons in this expansion when you know you're gonna hear this at the end. (STORM OF BLOOD, BORN FROM BLOOD, OF OUR FALLEN BROTHERRRRRSSSS! BORN UPON OUR HANDS, CRADLED IN OUR ARMS, SWELLING IN OUR HEAAAAAARTS! RAISE YOUR WEARY HEAD, HEED THE CALL TO ARMS, RINGING IN YOUR HEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!!!!)

2. Amatsu Kaze Bringing in that classic Primals rock to this list in my favorite way, Amatsu Kaze is a song I literally liked so much I learned to sing to it despite not knowing Japanese (I'm sure my pronunciation is horrible don't worry I keep it private). That fucking bass at the start is legendary, not to mention the electric strumming and the strange vibraphone like pongs creating a super unique sound. It's not a very high speed intense rush song, but that slower deliberate nature is perfect for Byakko being this massive brutal creature. To the main meat of the song, I love how it's the first lyrical song in XIV to be in Japanese! I mean, like, I don't see why they wouldn't cause it literally takes place in the Far East, but I still love it. The verse sounds like he's holding in his anger, the refrain getting more angry, and then finally screaming in the chorus (I looked up music words for this I hope I'm using them right). The very end of the song before the loop sounds like an absolutely mindless rage, looping and spiraling before calming down once more. What else is really cool about the lyrics is it's actually telling Byakko and Tenzen's story (also shoutouts to the XI reference let's goooo), which the next of the Four Lords' song also does. This song is addictive to listen to, only getting more hype as it continues. In the Primals version, it even has Yoshi-P singing it which is fucking outstanding. (KAZE TODOROKE KAZE TODOROKE KAZE TODOROKEEEEEEEEEE)

1. The Worm's Tail COME DON THE MASK OF BLIND BETRAYAL E'ER DOES THE HEAD DEVOUR ITS TAIL AS IRON BENDS TO STEEL O'ER MY RIVALS I PREVAIL! This song has a beginning so fucking epic, they use it twice in the game (granted the second time was a medley BUT UHH SHUT UP). The Worm's Tail is my favorite final boss theme out of all of the XIV expansions. As you can probably tell, I fucking love that intro. The massive choir setting the stage as you fly into the heavens on a giant fucking dragon that you're literally trying to kill, the drums slamming to raise the song further, I hate using this word so much, but it's fuckin epic! The final note brings tears to my eyes. When the song actually starts, it goes into this really really cool melody that's very bouncy and I THINK it's waltz like? please feel free to correct me on this I need to expand my words but I hope you get what I mean. It's a very unique rhythm. I love the middle part between it looping, continuing to raise the song even higher, almost like that audio illusion that keeps going up despite not actually going up? It gives that illusion of height as it should. The entire way through, the orchestra continues to sound heavy and grand even during the "calmer" parts, which for the size of this fight and Shinryu himself, I think is perfect. Finally, we reach The Stormblood Motif Part 3. The finale of this expansion HAS to fucking have it. The melody itself already sounds uplifting, it already stokes the fires in your heart. Combine it with the sound of this song and the context of the fight, and it brings it to the highest level it could possibly go. Last thoughts, cause I couldn't put them anywhere else, but while the base version is mainly gibberish vocals, the official orchestral version actually adds lyrics (same with Ultima and Heroes), and this song is essentially sung By Zenos. It talks of rising above, it talks about being the beginning and the end, and it's even partly sung in latin, befitting the Garlean Empire. The entire song is Zenos's victory chant against you, but you almost combat him equally with Storm of Blood overtaking the entire song. It's fuckin poetic, man.

Honorable mentions are: Prelude - Long March Home, Heroes of Stormblood, Gates of the Moon, Beauty's Wicked Wiles, Answer on High, Wayward Daughter, eScape, Sunset, Sunrise, and From the Dragon's Wake. (and again like every song in Omegascape and Return to Ivalice (those songs are just straight ports but tactics music fucks))

#final fantasy #final fantasy xiv #textpost #jared's final fantasy music opinions

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supersabbatical2024 · 10 months ago

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4/25/24: Come ON…word from the home front is that we are now missing one chicken, “Poppy,” the grey one. The Maplewood Fox was seen chasing “Agent 99” (another chicken) inside the coop area, but my BRAVE sister chased the fox 🦊 out of the henhouse 🐓 What is going on with our animals in Maplewood? Take good care of your creatures, people. 🐴 🐕 🐱 🐒 🐠 🦛

A few days ago it was time for the Spa portion of our vacation. We had a recommendation for spa treatments from our VRBO host ( whose house we are staying in). So rather than go to one of the 10,000 salons nearby, we took the challenge and drove out of town to seek out our host Carole Boulet’s personal salon…quite the adventure! I was impressed with our tenacity and Claude’s ability to do numerous K-turns in THE tiniest parking lots EVER. The spa ladies wore little uniforms and everything, and they were very nice about my French. The facial was lovely. Then, for Part Two of the pampering, Claude sent me out on my own for my manicure…I guess he had had it with hauling me around to my various beauty appointments. SO for the first time, I ventured out on my OWN, with specific instructions from Claude AND Google maps, and ended up at a little shop on Rue Gambetta, called Sunny Nails! They spoke no English, but I met a French gal who was also getting a mani, and she helped me tell them what I wanted. Mon amie Sophie The French Gal, my new BFF, has an uncle who is “very rich,” and lives in Massachusetts. We chatted, Sophie taught me some French, and I taught her how to pronounce the word “pittoresque” in English—picturesque—which is a tough one, when you think about it: PIK-CHER-ESK. I feel like there are not a lot of CH’s in french, am I right? C’est vrai? Feel free to tell me I’m wrong in the comments (I don’t know how to comment on a tumblr blog but I think you can). My brave sister I’m sure will not hesitate to let me know if my grammar/pronunciation/tense is wrong…That reminds me of when my sister and I were traveling together a couple years ago, and we were chatting with a gal and we asked if she had a sister. The gal said “no…” so my sis, Pammy, said, “if you don’t have a sister, how do you know what’s wrong with you??”

That was sort of a random story, and I guess you kind of have to have a sister to understand. Or a really close friend who’s not afraid to tell you what’s what, or that you have your shirt on inside out. But there ya go 👩‍❤️‍👩. I’m thinking about ya sis! She’s probably not reading this blog, as she is actually back at my house in NJ, taking care of our mom, Normie, for two weeks. David took the first shift, and now Pammy has taken over. Don’t forget to keep the fox out of the henhouse Pammy, and THANKS 🙏

Yesterday, we did basically nothing except shop and eat 🥐🥐 🥐 🥐🥐 🥐 🥐🥐 🥐 🥐🥐 🥐 🥐🥐 🥐 and I’m having trouble even remembering right now, so I will set that aside and post some photos of two days ago, when we had a travel day and drove to Cassis…more later. We have received more bad news from NJ about Oreo…he is really struggling. He’s a good dog, and he has had a really amazing run. I’m grateful to my friends who are helping him and us to figure out the right thing to do, and get through this…

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mapsontheweb · 9 months ago

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Pronunciation of Old Norse "hv-" in its descendants. In words like "hvítr/white" and "hvalr/whale".

by jkvatterholm

Sources are tens of old books and various maps.

Like this for Västgötaland, and this for Iceland, and many more.

It's a remake of an old map, but I hope this is more accurate and easy to look at.

This is an old sound. In Indo-European you find it as *ḱw, which turned into things like Latin "qu". The Proto-Germanic *xʷ turned into other Germanic languages, like Old High German /w/, later /v/, and Old English /ʍ/, which in recent years have started to turn into /w/ and /f/, though some still pronounce it the old way.

Here's some of it spoken:

Hw- in Northern Jutland: link

Kv- area in Finland: Link.

V- area in sout-east Norway: Link.

Kv- area of Iceland: link.

W- area of middle Sweden: link.

An interesting thing is that the question words like "what" and "which" did not always get affected the same way. In eastern Norway, Western Sweden and in Estonia the V got dropped instead, leading to words like hvat>hat>åt, or hvorsu>hosse>ossen etc

#maps #jkvatterholm #rdsourced #pronunciation #scandinavia

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gumnut-logic · 2 years ago

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John Tracy hated taking public transport.

He hated the cramped seats, the invasion of his personal space, the fact the bus stopped every few minutes to pick up more passengers and the noise.

It was stressful, annoying and far too full of people.

But the astrolabs were too far from the dorm to hike it or bike it, so bus it was.

He mapped out the most direct route, left early to avoid the crowds and handled it the best he could. Earphones helped and he never travelled without his tablet and a network connection.

He made do.

He made do for over a year. Every morning and every night.

The work was fascinating and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He considered getting a car, but it wasn’t practical and parking was non-existent, so he stuck with the bus.

Despite the fact he hated it.

Every trip he buried himself in his own world whether it be his work, research, a good book or even a movie. He shut the world out and more importantly anyone who sat next to him.

Sometimes this was not possible.

Because sometimes they spoke to him.

John had been brought up polite. His grandmother would have slapped his wrist if she found out he was ignoring people. So, he always replied. Often concisely, but always watching his manners.

That often opened the floodgates. Because if there was anything common between big cities it was the people who were lost in them, desperately alone in a sea of faces.

John liked being alone to a certain extent, but he was blessed with a close and large family.

Some people had no one.

So, ever so reluctantly, he found himself answering their call for help.

The first was Mrs Bucklin. She was a tiny woman, well dressed, but slightly scented with mothballs as if her clothes hadn’t been out of the closet in a long time.

She sat right beside him and immediately enquired as to what he was doing.

Great, his tablet would rise up and eat him while he was distracted by a random bus passenger.

She did apologise and he did reassure her that it was all okay in the hope she would let him be.

She didn’t.

He acknowledged her quietly and politely as he eyed his code and the results of an initial compile test. How did it do that?

Her cats were named Scottie, Gordy and Allie.

He did blink at that, but didn’t comment.

Eventually, she said goodbye and got off the bus at her stop.

He would have forgotten about her, except she sat next to him the next day and the day after that.

Apparently, this was her route to work, and he was such a polite young man.

Three weeks later she admitted he made her feel safe just by being there. She had been mugged three times in her life and public transport was as much a bane for her as it was for him.

He actively kept an eye out for her after that.

Gus was a different matter.

Gus didn’t have a home and he often rode the bus just for the air conditioning and comfort.

John was in college now.

He could kick his own fair share of ass quite happily.

“Mind your own business, kook!”

There was always a brave one amongst the group, usually the ringleader, the head dickhead.

At least they were only teenagers.

This time he did look up and put all that communication theory into the coldest stare possible. “Excuse me?”

Not that he thought either of his younger brothers would do such a thing.

It was lovely and quiet after that and John went back to tackling his misbehaving program.

“Thank you, sir.”

John blinked up at the unkempt man who had been the centre of the teenagers’ torment.

A small smile. “You’re welcome.”

Was this variable being changed by the program itself? How the hell could it do that?

He didn’t fail to notice after that incident that Gus, as he introduced himself the next time they met, always sat near John on his rides, morning or evening.

That made Mrs Bucklin sit behind him and whisper her stories in his ear.

He wasn’t sure if he was comfortable with that either.

Two other students from his faculty took the same bus as well. Ridley was in the year behind him and always had a friend on the phone. She chattered a lot and he learnt to tune her out.

Well, until the day he boarded the bus and found her crying into her tablet.

He accompanied her off the bus that day and delved into her damaged computer. He dug up her thesis and she gushed all over him, even crying into his sweater.

He hugged her awkwardly and wished her all the best.

After that, she always said hello and had a smile for him.

John smiled back, but his program was still not behaving. It acted as if it had a mind of its own and it was very distracting.

Mrs Bucklin said it sounded like cat number two, Gordy. Never behaving, but always loveable.

John stared at her when she said that, and wondered if she knew more than she was letting on.

The day Virgil landed in the seat beside him on the way to the labs startled him enough to drop his tablet.

“Hey, Johnny.”

He fumbled between the seats for the device. “Don’t call me Johnny.”

“Sorry.” But he could tell Virgil was anything but.

His fingers touched the cool metal of his tablet and he scrabbled for it. “What are you doing here?”

“Can’t a brother drop in on his brother to see how he is doing?”

“I guess he can. But why the bus?”

Virgil shrugged. “Didn’t catch you early enough. Barely caught the bus behind you. I thought your classes didn’t start until later.”

“They don’t.”

“Then why are you up so early?”

It was John’s turn to shrug. “Just avoiding the crowds, I guess.”

Virgil eyed him with a slightly worried frown.

“And who is this lovely young man who has taken my seat?”

Oh god.

Virgil stared up at Mrs Bucklin as she bustled in to sit behind them.

An internal sigh. “Mrs Bucklin, this is my brother Virgil.”

“Your brother?” She eyed Virgil as if inspecting him for sale. “Doesn’t look like you at all. Where’s the red hair?”

Virgil arched a dark eyebrow.

“Nevertheless, Mrs Bucklin, Virgil is my older brother.”

“Then how come we haven’t met before? You’ve been travelling this route for a year now and we haven’t seen hide or hair of him.” She continued to glare at Virgil as if he was a threat.

Virgil was shifting in his seat, his expression decidedly wary.

“Virgil has been assisting my father on a project. He’s an engineer. I’m unsure what he is doing here right now.”

What?

John’s head shot up. “Mrs Bucklin-“

Virgil’s wide eyes darted between John and the older woman.

John had no idea what to say.

“Well?” Mrs Bucklin’s glare was determined.

“Ah-“

“Is this man harassing you?”

John looked up to see Gus looming over Virgil.

You know, the Virgil who lifted weights that weighed more than his brothers on a daily basis.

John frowned. Gus had a new coat on and was looking much healthier than the last time he paid attention. “No, Gus. This is my older brother Virgil.”

And Virgil was subjected to another staring glare. “Doesn’t look like your brother.”

What?!

“I can assure you that he is indeed my caring older brother and he is not neglecting me in any way.”

Gus grunted, still glaring at Virgil. He nodded in John’s direction. “Make sure he eats more. He’s too skinny.”

That started Mrs Bucklin off again. “My goodness, yes. John you do not eat enough. Have you tried any of those recipes I recommended?”

Gus was still eyeing Virgil.

Virgil appeared to be regretting several recent life choices.

“I’m fine, Mrs Bucklin.” He raised his hands. “And both of you, Virgil is not responsible for my wellbeing.”

His tablet beeped. A glance and he found a text message from Ridley. You okay over there?

He looked up and found her at the other end of the bus staring back at him worriedly.

A sigh.

A flick of his fingers. I’m fine.

He turned back to Virgil who was literally cornered, only for his tablet to chime again.

You free tonight?

Oh, for the love of-

“Guys, Virgil is my big brother. He looks after me. He cares. I’m fine. He’s here for a visit. I don’t know why yet. Stop glaring at him.”

Gus grunted again and wandered off to his seat. He didn’t stop eyeing John’s brother for a second.

Mrs Bucklin let off a slightly miffed sound before leaning back in her seat. “He better. Or I have a mind to bring Scottie with me next time. Or maybe Gordy. To teach him a lesson.”

What the hell?

“No need, Mrs Bucklin. I assure you.”

Virgil was staring at John as if he wasn’t sure what planet he was on.

John sighed.

Yeah, he hated public transport.

It was stressful, annoying and far too full of people.

His tablet pinged again. This time it was the program he was working on. It was claiming it was dawn despite the fact the sun had risen an hour ago. He let out an exasperated hiss.

Virgil was still staring at him.

Damn public transport.

-o-o-o-

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #John Tracy #Virgil Tracy #nuttyfic reblog #I hope to do some actual writing tomorrow #who knows #might actually happen

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sacred-stanning · 9 months ago

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Chapter 17 Part 3: The Map

Here's the next map. I've always found this one to be pretty interesting. It's got some interesting terrain, items to pick up from enemies, a character to recruit, and civilians to save.

It's also a map that ends when you kill the boss, so you can choose to blow through it fast if you want, or you can drag it out and fight the reinforcements and get lots of experience. And there are a decent number of promoted enemies, so the experience getting is good.

You start on this little piece of land, with a bridge to the upper right that goes to the island where the civilians and Syrene are. And there is also a tree directly up that you can break to make a second bridge.

Moving up, we see this clump of enemies with two forts (where the Valkyries are) and some hills and forests around. Enemies will spawn out of the forts later, and wyverns also appear up from here as reinforcements, so the forests, hills and forts end up being pretty useful if you decide to fight the enemies and not end the map early by beating the boss.

All the way up, we can see some wyverns and a Berserker. The wyvern reinforcements will appear about where the uppermost of the current set of wyverns are now.

To the right, we see our eventual goal where the castle is. Aside from the Druids there now, more Druids will appear later.

Slightly down, we see a small island with a Sage and two Mages. There's a dead tree on their island that can be made into a bridge, but the hills right beyond that on the island with the civilians slow down movement.

It's usually a good idea to rush towards the middle island and recruit Syrene and get between the civilians and enemy units asap, because there are only a couple turns until they get attacked from what I remember.

And at the bottom right we have some Heroes and forts. The forts will spit out enemies once you get near the castle above.

Here's Syrene! She can be recruited with Vanessa (her sister) Tana (her liege) or Innes (her other liege).

The Sage on the small island has "Fimble" (or "Fimbul" maybe), an ice spell, which is called "Fimbulvetr" in English. Where did the "vetr" come from?

Lyon also drops a spell, though which one will depend on which one he doesn't have equipped when you defeat him. We've seen "Rizaiah", which is "Nosferatu" in English. It's the spell that heals the caster by however much damage they deal.

Confusingly, the A rank spell he has is "Nosferatu" in Japanese. It's called "Fenrir" in English.

There are some oddities around the dark magic tome names. "Flux", the basic D-rank one, is called something like "Mill", or "Myuhl" or whatever in Japanese.

I'm not sure what pronunciation they're aiming for, or if it is based on some real word / name or not. The kana used is ミィル. After the initial "mi" is a small "i", which is usually only seen in loan words where the sound "i" is desired after a consonant that wouldn't normally have it. An example is the word, "party", which is written パーティー. Normally, the letter in front of the "i" would be read "te", and there is no letter that combines a T consonant sound with an "i" vowel sound. So they've gotten around this in Japanese with this way of writing.

But in the case of "Myill" or whatever, we have the letter for "mi" followed by a small "i", which implies that we are changing the sound to "i", but it's already "i"? Or maybe the idea is that there's a bit of a "Y" sound stuck in between the M and the "i"? Or something??

I did a VERY brief search online and couldn't find the origin of this tome name, so I'd love to hear it if anyone knows.

The Berserker at the top of the map has a Draco Shield, though he doesn't drop it. You need to steal it.

I don't know if I want to bring Rennac just for one item...

One of the starting Heroes has a Hero's Axe, or Brave Axe as it's called in the English version.

And this Mage has a Guiding Ring! Cool! I'd forgotten about this. I'll give it to Knoll.

There are two maps after this one that have really big deployment limits, so I'll be able to bring along anyone I want, so even if I don't use Knoll for the end game, at the very least I can have fun with summoning shenanigans for a couple of maps.

Next time: Move out!

#fire emblem #sacred stones #fire emblem the sacred stones #fe8 #ファイアエンブレム #聖魔の光石 #japanese language #ミィルってなに？？？

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pugs-cats-bb-8 · 1 year ago

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Vanilla-Okumura

Oh, yeah this arc. I like Morgana. I just get PTSD from Okumura's battle. I hated doing the song in Dancing.

"Stress is the enemy of beauty". 🤣🤣 I can see Sae pulling this out later on.

Unvoiced conversation.

Help Futaba get rid of her unease. I want to say its worded differently in Royal, but I don't remember.

Ohya's boss sucks.

Unvoiced conversation. Pretty big one too. You would think it would be voiced.

I like to throw Yusuke under the bus.

Unvoiced conversation.

Ann and Ryuji, the blond extrovert twins.

"Don't worry about it". As he asks for the guy's personal info. Honestly, how fucking charming/trustworthy is Ren? I'd be kinda suspicious if a dude asked me for the full name of my problem and told me not to worry. I'd think I was about to be caught up in a murder charge.

Unvoiced conversation. Again, another big one.

Unvoiced conversation. Big one.

I love Futaba scaring that fuck head.

Does anybody actually use Fate Reading?

Unvoiced conversation.

I love how they just bought her a swimsuit without knowing her taste or size.

Batting cages aren't open at night.

I never knew what that building was I thought it was an office building, not a movie theatre.

I worked at the Beef Bowl twice and never went back. I got my precision elsewhere.

Unvoiced conversation. Eternal Lockpick became Perma Pick.

Kawakami doesn't ask questions, she just makes a lock pick and other things for you. 🤣🤣

No wonder I forgot Akechi has a first name. He barely says his first name.

Trauma dump and rank up.

I love how there's two pronunciations of Medjed, depending on the person.

It's more flirty when it's not an auto rank-up.

Futaba's trying to drag poor Sojiro outside.🤣🤣

Me and my brother used to light the Smoke Bombs and run through the smoke. Probably not the best idea.

They're going to light the basket on fire. And kill Morgana.

You don't need a stat requirement to work at Crossroads? Kind-3, Precision-3

Lala's not voiced.

I would love it if he cross dressed. Morgana speaking the truth.

I swear in Royal there's four customers you can choose from. There is they added an Office Worker who gives you knowledge.

You only get 5,400 Yen (38.67 Dollars) for a Sunday😨😨. In Royal, it's 12,000 Yen (84.59)🤑🤑.

No mention of Sundays being the day to work.

Christ sakes, Ren 😋😋🥵🥵

I like how Makoto's top has kitty paws on the straps.

I love how Ann pulls one over on Ryuji.

I'd die if Ren look at me like that. Like I'd be a puddle.😍😍

I don't think Ren has any trouble stealing hearts.

Unvoiced conversation.

Yusuke and his lobsters🤣🤣

I like how in the anime, Ren asks if he has enough money for the train home.

Unvoiced conversation.

like how they know they're in high school, but they still hit on them. 😠😠

Unvoiced conversation.

I can only imagine what Futaba hears.

Ryuji needs to stop putting his foot in his mouth.

Does Ren not like to type?

Unvoiced conversation.

No, not human Morgana 🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️.

Don't you get Harisen Recover at R.6?

I never knew he grunted/thinking noises if you stayed on the map too long. Honestly, I thought it was some sort of intestinal distress. I also didn't know they moved it outside, to the city in Strikers. I heard it one night when I was alone. Scared the shit out of me. Took me three times of hearing it to figure out what it was. Look, I'm happy they're giving Xander lines, but can they give him more than simple sentences and sound bites? I ain't saying he has to read the phone book, unless that's a key story beat.😋😋😍😍 But I wouldn't mind more lines. Let's hope Tactica gives some new lines, or at least said in a new way.

The fountain pen was sold in Shinjuku?

think they changed the descriptions for the 2nd tier Personas new moves.

Unvoiced conversation.

120,000 Yen=849.55 Dollars.

Unvoiced conversation.

I love how Sojiro doesn't care that you take Morgana to school.

Unvoiced conversation.

So Kin-Ki lost his Psychic weakness.

I think they made Ren faster.

I love driving down every floor of Mementos.

Sneezing while frozen is an accomplishment.

High Counter used to be called Counterstrike.

Hole Gold🤨🤨

I confuse Neko Shogun and Nekomata for some reason.

I think when most of your team is statused. The AI should prioritize whoever can hit a weakness, or Ren. Because a dead leader is game over.

I didn't know in my first playthrough, that Harisen Recover worked on all teammates. I thought it was only you. Imagine my surprise the first time it activated for someone else.

He's going to backhand somebody one day.

I know it's the game keeping you from doing things. But damn, Morgana rules with an iron fist.

Slight different question. Macadamia nuts are expansive.

As much as I don't like Kawakami. I do hate that her romance response is delayed. When I romanced her to get the award. I thought I messed up and didn't hit a romance flag. (Like Takemi or Chihaya). I get why but, it still made me think I messed up.

Mishima used to text you after every completed Mementos Mission?🙃🙃

Softer "yes" after you help Kawakami. Royal's is a bit louder.

Dude, you pay so much more money for the Big Bang 🍔 challenge in the morning. I mean I'd heard that you pay more but not 700 and then 1,000 Yen more.

Ren's going to drop dead of a heart attack.

Unvoiced conversation.

I love how if you lose at the crane game enough. Morgana won't let you play it anymore that day.

I hated going to the Maid Cafe. 🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️

Was there always a conversation on the night of 9/6?

I thought when you're on probation that you can't leave the country. Or is that house arrest?

Unvoiced conversation.

They moved the picture to after they get to Hawaii.

Sexy pics are a no go.

When they question how long you're staying and why. It sounds like they don't want you there. Reminds me of when sales people bug me too much in a store. I'll walk right out. Although, you can't get back on the plane.

I'd rather room with Ryuji than Mishima.

These trips seem like they're PR for the school.

"The good-looking one". Okay Mishima.👌🏻

Unvoiced conversation.

Random Yusuke.

Unvoiced conversation.

I don't think Ren is a big photo guy.

Unvoiced conversation.

I love the lei loading scene.

Wouldn't it be funny if Ryuji's roommate's girlfriend was Ann's roommate?🤣🤣

They never thought of sharing.

I love how all those options apply to Akechi.

I don't think "I don't have a type" is in Royal.

Poor Mishima. The tap water thing is Mexico. Not the US.

Think Hawaii's boring. Try Hawaii without much voice acting.

"You'll get fat". Dude is cruisin' for a bruising.

Are Garlic Shrimp really foreign? They sell them at restaurants over here in the US. I can't imagine it's hard to make.

Unvoiced conversation.

I'm sure Mishima could get a girlfriend if he didn't seem like an incel. That and the fact that I think if a girl hugged him he'd cream his pants.

Unvoiced conversation.

"Secret lover coming after me with an axe".🤣🤣

As funny as that is they don't know that they met Haru, yet.

Also, are the localizers British? They just stuck the gift scene in there. Bye, potato 👋🏻👋🏻

Morgana should talk to him. I know Ren would listen.

"Here's your gift". 🎁 "Your principal's dead".🤨🙄 Nice greeting. Why would they care?

Morgana's at fault because he doesn't talk about his problems. Ryuji's at fault because he repeatedly calls Morgana useless and says Makoto and Futaba are better than him. He gets impatient when they stake out Mementos. Then he says "We don't care if you're useless". 🦶=👄

Unvoiced conversation.

That's because the principal sucked.

Cute Akechi face x4.

Unvoiced conversation.

I love how Ren and Futaba are the only ones worried about Morgana.

Different question.

They added the Morgana lives here things in Royal. Claw marks on the table leg. Paw prints in the dust. I think there's one more, but I don't remember it.

Different sound for the holographic screens.

I love this scene in the anime. Ren's line is 😋😋😍😍 "It means to help the weak and dethrone the mighty".

Women can be evil too, Ryuji.

YouTube comments led me to believe Haru was the black mask.

Different question.

I've lost track of where Ren was in the Mementos scenes. Because he's allergic to colour. I mean sure he looks drop-dead gorgeous, but he also blends in.

Foot meet mouth.

So help me God, Ryuji. We were so close.

Ann so should've smacked him.

I think he jumps out of the way faster in Royal.

Unvoiced conversation.

Did they change Haru's dad's voice?

There's no turning back now. Jesus, does the game expect us to marry and have kids with whoever you date? Hasn't they ever heard of breaking up?

"You'll be awarded an extraordinary gift". Yeah, a trip to the hospital for bypass surgery or a trip to the morgue.

Different question.

No chest to the left when you enter.

Black Ooze in Okumura's? I mean it makes sense but...

Smarf man.

What a creep.

I wish you could choose who it kicks out when you get a new teammate.

There's a sound when you hit the safe room doors? Maybe my fan's just too loud.

Different layout.

How is there like nowhere to hide?

Munching on sweets? Oh! Are they talking about the real-life counterparts?

If Queen's Necklace is weak to Gun. Then what is Koh-I-Noor weak to?

We're burglars🤨🤨

He was alone where did the other two come from?

New cut scene.

Haru has 6 Ammo!? Why does it go down to 1 in Royal?

I like the way they did the eavesdropping sections.

Yusuke learns Counterstrike way later in Royal. Like 2 whole palaces later.

"We're not far".🤬🤬 It takes so long to get there.

Different layout.

The robot's bopping to the music.

Different layout.

Unvoiced conversation.

Lilim is weak to Gun, Wind and Bless?

I've never seen a Treasure Demon that knows healing moves or buffs/debuffs.

Different layout.

Different colours for the hydraulic presses.

Different sounds for them too.

Koh-I-Noor has no weakness?

No lasers. Different layout.

I always thought Ryuji's 2nd tier Persona had an "N" at the end.

The urge to use every Persona, just so I can hear his voice. 😋😋

Different sounds for breaking the arms.

I didn't know you could pause the timer by opening the menu.

Unvoiced conversation.

No lasers.

Unvoiced conversation.

I don't like the airlock puzzle. But at least you get a nice view. 😏😏

Scathath? I don't see her till Maruki in Royal.

Different switch noise.

Different layout.

Really wish they gave the option to leave directly after clearing a path to the treasure. They stopped doing that after Madarame.

Wait, you could get an invitation for the next day even if you went to the palace that day? In Royal, that doesn't work even if you use Kawakami. That's why you do Futaba as soon as it opens. So, you can get the aquarium date.

Mishima definitely creamed his pants.

Even Chihaya knows Mishima isn't your friend. 🤣🤣 I've never gotten that scene because I'm always battling Okumura. They straight up just leave him. 🤣🤣

Takemi used to sell Homunculus?

Unvoiced conversation.

Doesn't tell you how many items you can make.

3 categories instead of 2.

Elemental throwables were grouped together.

Couldn't make multiple at once.

Different question.

I don't like Life Will Change instrumental.

Taking the long way around.

No enemy there.

Oh yeah, we have to go the long way.

No dialogue after you hit the door.

So, a minute in Vanilla versus roughly 20 secs in Royal. Although, you do miss out on a chest. But it's nothing that game-breaking.

There's no way this dude would change. He's better off dead.

"I will crush you all". More like you'll use other people as cannon fodder. 🤬🤬

Why does the timer still run when the dialogue's going? I mean it's like seconds, but still.

I like how he backflips.

You have to do this without Haru's baton pass. 😨😨🤬🤬

Mix of robots makes it a bit harder.

Okay, he does add more if you don't beat all of them.

No targeting specific people.

Same number of waves.

I hate the Executive.

"I need sushi". 🤣🤣

The first time I used Izanagi-No-Okumi-Piacaro. The second I used Magatsu-Izanagi. Third and fourth I shot him.

He has a lot more health in Vanilla.

You could take him on at LV.40-42? In Royal, you should be at least 44-45 or higher.

"He'll be fine". 🤣🤣 If dead means fine, then sure. He'll be fine.

What made him change?

Unvoiced conversation.

Added a question to Iwai's R.1.

Unvoiced conversation.

You could get skill cards out of chests in Mementos?

Added a question to Shinya's R.1.

I like Shinya.

Different question.

When Bullet Hail activates the camera angle changes slightly. Same for Treasure Demons, although there's a bit of pause when that happens. It pauses a bit with Disaster Shadows too.

Depending on how much money you have. Getting 100K Yen could potentially help you.

"Just make sure no one sees you". Sure Morgana, nobody's going to see me building bombs and lock picks in class.

"Please leave". 🤣🤣 Look I know Akechi reads more as a yandere in Vanilla, but holy shit. 🤣🤣

Even though Chihaya's older than you. Her romance is pretty cute.

Slightly different question.

I love all the Sonic references.

Morgana doesn't tell you if there's any targets left in the area. Nor does he tell you about where they are. You just have to keep going down and wait till he says something at the start.

Treasure Demons Null all elements they're not weak to. I've only seen that in Strikers, on Merciless. In Royal, they resist.

Also, Stone Of Scone is weak to curse, not fire.

Orlov is weak to curse and found in Sae's Palace.

Different question.

"You're always free". Damn, Futaba.🤣🤣 Poor man has to solve the whole of Tokyo's problems+save the world and you deliver that sick of a burn.

"It's not like there's any customers here". 🤣🤣

"You just had to get close to me". 🙄🙄 Dude, you're the one who wouldn't leave me alone! I've been trying to stay away from you!

"Please leave"x2

They moved Mishima-Dome Town back from 10-9 to 11-3. I've taken that meeting once. I wanted points on Shinya.

They turned 10-10 into a normal hangout. In Royal, you go to Nakano and meet Iwai.

Slightly different question.

"Oh please, give me a break". 🤣🤣 I love the way he says that.

#persona 5 #tag game #ren amamiya #headcanon #long post #5/7 #Vanilla-Okumura

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wylanzahn · 10 months ago

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Greater Eggers, Little Eggers, and of course…

Eggerton.

I want all the details on that entire corner of the world, I can’t stop imagining a like polite Aaracokra society which is a loyal subject of the crown. I wanna say it’s like an agricultural province but idk.

Also here are some concerns/thoughts I had and it’s more out of curiosity that I ask, not criticize.

1.) as per Blorcester and the pronunciations, I love that there are two different ways that people pronounce the name since that’s very realistic and common in our own world. However, once concern I’d like to raise is that the later half of the name be pronounced as “Chester” as the suffix -Cester comes from the Latin word “castrum,” meaning fort. This is apparent in all the numerous English, and all other Anglophone countries, towns with Chester or Cester in the name; such as Manchester, Chester, Leicester, Bicester, and Worcester. All of them make that distinct “chess” sound, so eliminating it takes away from the intended use (assuming you want to evoke the sense of protection/well-guardedness or that the town literally has a fortress or castle). But! If you decide you want to keep it as is, think of a reason as to why they wouldn’t pronounce it at all.

2.) question about the name of the Empire! I do find it very cool, but out of curiosity I must ask is that a translation of the name into English or does it have an actual name. One of my favorite examples of a setting where the simplistic title of “The Empire,” is the Kehmsarazan Empire/Saraz Imperium in Umora, from Worlds Beyond Numbers (wonderful, highly recommended, and feature the great talent of four Dropout TV giants). So! My note is think of what the official name of the empire is, if not just the Empire of Isles. Some large kingdoms, particularly those of clan societies, took on the name of their dynasty rather than the geographical name.

I’m also curious as to how/if you’re gonna tackle exploration and colonization since this seems like a late 18th to early 19th Century style map, but that doesn’t have to be a convo if you’re not actually tackling it.

Any who, those are my thoughts and questions, but I’d love to know more!

The Empire of The Isles

————————————————————

I made this as a map for a homebrew nautical D&D campaign setting. This was a lot of fun to make, especially all of the little place names.

Leave a comment to let me know your favourite place name!

N.B. Blorcester is pronounced both as “Bluster” or as “Blosster” depending on what dialect you speak.

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cliban · 5 years ago

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Stitches: chapter 1

Title page||Map||Pronunciation guide||Character sheets

‘Subject 17 was easily one of the most dangerous experiments in the lab, they’d been told.’

Subject 17 was easily one of the most dangerous experiments in the lab, they’d been told. G-13’s hands were shaking as he followed his fellow guards down a familiar, brightly-lit hallway. The walls were white and pristine, like the rest of the lab. The air smelled of disinfectant. Their footsteps echoed loudly within the chamber and G-13 prayed to whatever deity was around that the noise wouldn’t spook the monster. G-11 opened the shiny metal door with a quiet click, and it swung open smoothly, to reveal a room with dark gray walls, one covered with machinery. The rest of the room was featureless, save a large metal table tucked into a northern corner. But it was the object in the middle of the room that made G-13’s blood run cold.

A clear tube stood in the middle of the room, filled with a translucent, stained blue, liquid, emitting a white brilliance, the only source of light in the room, apart from the soft glow of machinery. There was pure silence as G-13 stood to attention and trembled. Inside the tank floated the shape of a feminine teenager, head down. Of course, this wasn’t a teenager at all. The skin, which was pale and cloth-like, was just a little bit of the wrong colour. Light blue patches were sewn on, resembling gloves, a shoulderpad, knee-high-socks, and a chest plate. Stitches also connected most of the joints. A bright blue tail wrapped around one leg. Long hair covered most of 017’s face, leaving only the mouth, curved into a gentle smile around the stitches, visible. G-11 walked quietly around to the back of the tube, and 0-17 dropped down as the liquid which held it was sucked away. There was silence once more for a few seconds. Then 0-17 lifted its head.

Seventeen lifted her head and yawned, fluffing out her small layer of fur so she wasn’t as soaking wet as she was before. One of the guards touched a layer of the the glass of her tube and the glass simply retracted away. Seventeen stepped out and straightened her normal hunched position. “Hello!” she greeted the guards brightly. “How are you?” Of course, there was no response. “Haha, yeah. I know you’re the silent type.” Again, no response. Two guards circled behind her and pulled her arms behind her back, fitting handcuffs over her wrists. “Yeah, I’m great, thanks! You know me, always a stay-at-home!” She laughed, and the guards took her by the elbows and forced her forward.

Humming was not acceptable in these cold white walls that Seventeen had called her home since she gained awareness, so she simply admired the rhythm that the footsteps made. The once sharp smell had dulled after her first year. The harsh brightness had always affected her though, and she was mildly relieved when she was shoved into a slightly duller room.

“Subject oh-seventeen!” The door was closed behind her and the man standing in the the corner stepped forward. He was tall and slender, wearing a simple outfit of a black tank top and pants, covered by a white coat. “Doctor Jala.” Seventeen nodded politely. “Today is a mental capacity experiment,” Jala began, and Seventeen breathed a sigh of relief. No physicals today. She reflexively brushed the stitches by her hip. “You’ll be doing some picture puzzles, and…” Jala was cut off as he looked at his watch, frowning. After a brief hesitation, he spoke again. “Nothing to worry about. Let’s get started.” His gloved hand dipped into his coat pocket, bringing out a stopwatch. Seventeen was just glad it wasn’t a scalpel.

Seventeen was bored. She didn’t show it, of course, but the brightly coloured puzzle was just… boring to her. But being bored was punishable, so she shut up. Anyway, she had no emotions. As Jala had said, many times, “Your ‘emotions’ are a direct result of something unknown. In other words, they aren’t real. You don’t have a soul, and we aren’t even sure you have a proper consciousness. Until we can prove that you have any sort of humanity, you’re simply a new unexplored object.” The words had made her sad, but that must have been fake.

Jala was jumpy today. Seventeen could tell that much. He kept looking at his watch thingy and glancing out the window. ...Focus, Seventeen. The colours and shapes made no sense to her. Were these supposed to fit? Seventeen pushed gently at a red piece, and then straightened up as she saw the solution. With whirring hands, she put the puzzle together in just a few seconds. Jala nodded approvingly and Seventeen’s heart soared.

Then the alarm wailed for a heartbeat through the corridors, and everything started to run in slow motion. A droning noise started to hum. A part of the wall turned see-through, revealing little but brightness outside. Seventeen looked away; The light hurt her face. It was so awfully bright… Jala cursed and whipped out a syringe. “Back to the tube for a while.” Seventeen froze up. Jala was plunging the syringe towards her, and now she was begging for him to stop, stop!

Then the wall to the outside was ripped off and the room was filled with blinding brightness. Seventeen’s vision went a little fuzzy. Jala faltered, and there was a great crashing noise as the wall was dragged off the edge of the floating island the lab was situated on, revealing a bowl of wooden planks, graceful, elegant. A carved woman spread her arms at one end, and sheets and ropes were tied to some upright planks. At the very top, a flag rippled in the wind. A blue butterfly was emblazoned across it, and a stitch ran through the middle of it. A ship! That’s what it was called. The woman - a figure head. And masts and sails….

Seventeen looked back just in time to see two browned hands tipped with long, sharp green nails close around Jala’s mouth and haul him back. Then someone tapped her tail and she turned to see a flash of red and brown and white and gray. “Come on, kid.” A voice, surprisingly warm and masculine, but edged with good humour, came from the blur, and it took off towards the ship, followed by another blur of aqua and purple and brown. The two blurs leaped onto the ship just as Seventeen’s vision cleared. “Kid! Come on!” The red figure roared, and Seventeen didn’t think about it, she just ran, and the ship was lifting and she wasn’t going to make it, but then a figure in a purple coat was hanging by their legs upside down from the bottom of the ship.

“Over here!” They called in a clear voice. Seventeen hesitated, nearly lost her momentum, and then she jumped. The gap was too far, she’d never make it- She screamed as she began to plunge downwards, but a hand grabbed her, warm and firm and strong around her wrist. “Gotcha. Don’t be scared now.” The pale hand belonged to the figure with the purple coat, and then they grabbed Seventeen’s other hand and swung her upwards, far, far, upwards, and over the ship’s railing. Seventeen hit the deck and rolled, coming to a sprawling stop at the feet of yet another unfamiliar figure.

The wind was knocked out of her. She was dizzy. There was a roaring in her ears. Seventeen hadn’t breathed in a while. She should probably do that, but her lungs wouldn’t respond. Then she took in a gasping breath and several things happened at once.

First, pain flooded her shoulder. That was understandable. She’d smacked the deck with it. Second, the purple figure flipped onto the deck and shouted, exhilarated. “We did it, guys!” They showed off a grin and the aqua figure presented them with a hat. Third, the figure Seventeen had stopped at bent down and lifted her into a sitting position. Fourth, Seventeen took several shuddering breaths and… when had she started crying?

The purple figure knelt by her side. “Hey hey... Are you okay?” The red figure snickered. “That rhymes, captain!” The aqua figure standing beside him elbowed him in the shoulder harshly. “Yes, thank you, Lox, for stating the obvious.” The figure who had helped her sit up sighed. “I’m sorry. This must be very confusing. I’m Mara. My partner,” he gestured at the purple figure, who grinned with all their teeth, “Is Narali, the captain of this ship, the Licentia. Our crew consists of Glinn-” the aqua figure waved, “- and Lox, which you probably figured out.” The red figure gave her a slightly guilty smile.

Now that they were introduced, Seventeen took some time to examine her surroundings. No hurry. Narali was slim and curved, wearing a bright purple coat with lilac lapels and cufflinks unbuttoned but for one, exposing their torso from their chest to their belt. It reached all the way to the ground. Their hat was simple, brown and shaped, with a crimson feather waving from it. They balanced perfectly on high-heeled boots that stopped just past the knee, over assumedly long gray pants. A small lilac satchel was held at the waist by the belt. Their long hair was dark brown with a single gray streak at the front side bang. Their skin was pale and their eyes were green, matched with some eyeliner and purple lipstick.

Mara, on the other hand, was calmer, and dressed as such. Their outfit, while still outlandish, was a light blue-gray, with darker lapels and rolled sleeves. A gap stretched across their chest, and the coat was slightly shorter than Narali’s. Long gray pants, same as his partner’s, cut off at the ankle. Mara also wore high-heels, though shorter, silver, and had an exposed area at the back of the heel. Their hair was black, although covered by a purple beanie, and their skin was dark. One eye was gray, and the other completely covered by a metal plate. In the center of the plate, a small ring of bright turquoise blinked, surrounded by smaller lights.

Glinn was immaculate. Her blue-green hair was done up in a small braid, and her bangs covered one eye. Her red lipstick was neat, and so was her blue eyeshadow, bright against tan skin. That eye was green. Seventeen noted, with growing horror, that her nails were long and sharp, green and shiny. Two panels of purple cloth hooked across her bust, and up to her neck was covered by a fishnet pattern, cut off at the shoulders. A dark gray skirt trailed off to two symmetrical ends, fastened in the middle by a light purple buckle. She wore stockings and gray leather boots.

Lox was very much more casual. He wore a simple cropped red Haiwaiian shirt, and light gray pants that snaked up to curl around his torso. His dark glasses were rimmed with purple, and he had… good lord. That was a lot of earrings. His blue gloves stopped at the elbow with a wavy pattern, and his dark gray boots did the same at the knee. His skin was a shade lighter than Glinn’s, with a white mark running vertically through his lips. His white hair was cropped very short. He was also the only member that noticed the staring, and he snuck her a wink and a reassuring smile.

“H….Hello.” Think, think! What did Jala tell you? “I-It’s nice to meet y-y-you all….” This isn’t what Jala taught you at all! Where’s this coming from?! “M-May I ask w-w-w-what I’m doing here?” Narali clapped a hand to their forehead. “Oh! My bad. Mara, you steer the ship. We’ll take care of….” They looked down at Seventeen. “What’s your name?” Seventeen took a deep breath. “My title is Subject Zero One Seven. I belong to the Jala-Felo association. Please return me there as soon as possible.” Lox and Glinn exchanged uncomfortable glances, but Narali’s sharp eyes never left Seventeen. “Not anymore. You don’t belong to anyone. Nobody belongs to anybody on the Licentia.” They extended a hand and Seventeen hesitated, then placed her hand on top of Narali’s. Narali pulled her up to a standing position. “You don’t know it yet, but you’re free. Welcome aboard.”

Seventeen frowned. “What do you mean, free?” Narali released her wrist and Seventeen rubbed it. “That lab is an awful, awful place. Human experimentation, humanoid experimentation… That Jala is well-known across the solar system for being a huge scientific leader. What he’s not well-known for is his…. Methods.” Narali looked away. “Either way, you’re with us now.” A chill ran down Seventeen’s spine and she felt her jaw open, almost unhinge. “No… no, no!” She stumbled back. “You can’t take me away!” Tears spilled down to her mouth, getting caught in the stitches. “Don’t! Please take me back!” she cried. Narali’s face went stony. “Shh. Shh. It’s okay.” They didn’t make a move to touch her, which Seventeen was almost grateful for. But the tears still spilled down and wet the deck until Jala’s voice invaded her mind. No feelings. And she stopped crying and straightened calmly. “Very well. I will await your decision to return me.”

Narali pursed their lips and nodded. “Get Glinn to look at that shoulder of yours.” Lox snorted and whispered something to Glinn, whose face changed from neutral to seriously annoyed in a fraction of a second. She turned and slammed a fist into Lox’s gut, who doubled over, wheezing and clutching his stomach. “Stop thinking with your crotch, Laynes!” She turned to Seventeen with a friendly smile. “Please ignore my associate, he’s an idiot. You may ignore him.” Seventeen nodded quickly. She really didn’t want to mess with Glinn, so she came quickly over when beckoned. Glinn shot a final glare at Lox and took Seventeen by the hand, leading her below deck.

It was quieter down there, and there was a soothing rocking motion as the ship floated through the air, catching the currents. Several portholes let in plenty of light. At one end, there were a few hammocks, with a gap in between them leading to a door. Around the stairs were various books and activities, including a flute, guitar, and a fishtank. Towards the bow of the ship was a table with a map spread across it. Before that were two benches facing each other. Glinn tugged Seventeen over and sat her down, taking out a box with a red cross on it. Glinn brushed Seventeen’s hair off her shoulder and bit her lip before taking out a vial of something. “How are you not screaming right now? Your pain tolerance is incredible…” Glinn sounded impressed. “The skin’s split right down.”

Seventeen shrugged. “Just stitch it back together. That’s what we always did.” Glinn gave her a curious look, mixed with disgust. “What the hell? No anesthetic? Numbing?” Seventeen shook her head and Glinn shrugged, grabbed another vial of some cloudy liquid. “You’re incredible.” Seventeen smiled faintly. “It’s not the tail that tipped you off?” Glinn snorted. “I’ve seen weirder.” She tipped the contents of the vial onto Seventeen’s shoulder. It was cold, but not unpleasant.

Glinn took out a needle and thread and started to sew Seventeen’s shoulder back together. There was no pain, just a small warmth where the stitches were. “So how long had you been at the lab?” she asked, and Seventeen stiffened. “Ever since I could remember.” Glinn shook her head. “I’m sorry…” She made an elaborate twirl with the needle and started to tie it off. “Why?” Seventeen asked and Glinn frowned. “What do you mean?” Seventeen shrugged with her uninjured shoulder. “Why would you be sorry? I’m a huge contribution to science, and the lab. Where you’re going to return me.” Glinn’s expression turned stony and she snapped off the end of the thread. “It’ll take you a while.” She said through gritted teeth. Seventeen didn’t press it; Questions were bad and besides, it didn’t have to matter to her.

There were some quiet footsteps, and Lox jumped down the stairs. His glasses were rimmed with blue now. “Hi, Calamity.” Glinn said, and started to put the first aid kit away. “Hi, Glinn!” Seventeen made a noise of confusion - Lox’s voice was much higher pitched now, with an unfamiliar accent. Glinn side eyed her and nodded. “Lox is the host of a system. That is to say, he has several alters - Calamity is fronting right now. Scientifically, we call it dissociative identity disorder, or DiD.” Seventeen nodded. Jala had taught her about that. “So I should stay away from them?” Glinn stood up, with an incredulous look on her face. “Why would you have to stay away from Lox? Or Calamity, or Vrin, or Aquis, or Misty Drighton?” Seventeen returned her frown. “I’ve been told humans suffering from neurodivergence are unpredictable and volatile. They’re dangerous.”

Glinn stiffened, and twitched her fingers. Calamity hurried over. “Hey. Glinn, calm down. It’s just how the newbie’s been taught. You’re angry at Jala, not her. Calm down.” Glinn took a deep breath, and just like that, the tension drained from her body and she sagged. “You’ve been lied to. It’s just too many people to one body. Trust me on that.” Calamity’s glasses blinked back to purple. “I’ll front for a little bit, Calamity. You head back to the headspace.”

Lox crouched. “I’m not planning to hurt anyone here. I’ll do most things within reason to prove myself.” Seventeen stood up, looming over even Glinn. “I don’t associate with people like you.” Lox winced. “That kinda hurts, man.” He stood, raising his hands. “I’ll wait in the crow’s till y’ calm down.” He backed up the stairs, darting off above deck. Glinn looked coldly at Seventeen. “You stay there.” She said, her voice icy and terrible, and when she left, Seventeen sat down, pulling her knees to her chest. She had no idea what she had done, but there was something telling her that something was wrong. She didn’t know what. It was all so confusing… Seventeen’s head tilted down and she began to cry.

#I'll upload some illustrations #and some pronunciations and a map later #stitches

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