#but its an extremely different style to basically anyone

[deathfavor]

I don't think this is a detail many people focus on. Obviously Xue Yang is extremely skilled when it comes to impersonating Xiao Xingchen. He had a couple years to study his mannerism, his speech patterns, everything of the sort. But there's so many details tucked into his mimicking of Xiao Xingchen's fighting style.

I've done a big break down of Xue Yang's fighting style in the past. But in essence, Xue Yang wasn't every really TRAINED to fight like the clans were. He's a street fighter, he fights like an animal, he fights dirty, he fights to survive. He learned to fight using what strengths he has and using everything at his fingertips. He's a resourceful fighter rather than a trained fighter. He has PLENTY of experience fighting, don't get me wrong, and he's naturally gifted in it. But he never learned a lot of the details of grips and foot placement. Not to mention what he did learn was trial and error for HIS fighting styles and HIS weapon and so on and so forth.

So for Xue Yang to be able to learn that from observation alone is a STUNNING feat. Maybe Xiao Xingchen taught him a thing or two, but Xue Yang was playing a role those years in Yi City. Xiao Xingchen's fighting style was YEARS beyond anything basic, and not to mention that Xue Yang seemingly stopped with manipulating him into hunting humans after some amount of time. Being able to mimic that is HARD, even simple martial arts without weapons is extremely hard to mimic accurately, and weapons makes it even more complicated. Yet he pulled it off, and pulled it off well enough to fool everyone for a fair amount of time.

I just think its extremely fascinating that this feral street dog clearly HAS the capabilities to be able to master techniques that takes others years to master in a far shorter time. He COULD be a fancy, elegant fighter like most of the other characters. But he's not. He drops the fancy style as soon as he's exposed and lets HIS fighting style show the moment he no longer needs to, because that's his techniques and what's worked for him the best over the years.

[smarterthantheaverageloser]

Shoutout research librarian at my local library who broke out 3 different 10 pound style manuals to help me figure out how to cite a fucking 4chan post

[sunderwight]

Been thinking about the potential of a Luo Binghe transmigration fic where he has a similar experience to Shen Yuan's -- meaning, he transmigrates into a story that didn't originally have a "Luo Binghe", but rather a different character with a similar name, and Bingmei himself still has his canonical personality and broad strokes modern version of his backstory (i.e. abandoned, adopted, orphaned, struggling with the foster system, etc), whereas the character he transmigrates into has a different background and personality.

So, concept: Luo Binghe transmigrates into Su Binghe, the spoiled prince of the demon realms, son of Tianlang Jun and Su Xiyan and scum villain of the novel he read.

In said novel, Su Binghe was driven by a perpetual lack of satisfaction with things. He had almost everything handed to him on a silver platter, but none of it seemed to actually matter to him. His parents were powerful and loving, but also extremely busy and somewhat distant. His sibling relationships were soured by the fact that they were all basically raised separately by different groups of servants and expected to compete with one another for the supreme throne of the demon realms one day. The servants who raised him also had only limited authority over him, thanks to his rank, so he was encouraged to be self-centered and tyrannical from an early age because behaving that way helped him get whatever he wanted. Yet he felt ultimately purposeless and lonely, lacking any actual friends or companions.

Shen Yuan, the main character, was the third son of a wealthy noble house and was stolen by demons during a raid on his family's properties. He was rescued by Tianlang Jun's people, who officially disapprove of attacks on humans (special cases like Huan Hua Palace being an exception), but not before the rest of his family was killed or else sold off into less friendly territories. Shen Yuan himself was subsequently taken on as a ward of the emperor, as a sort of apology for the whole deal, and inserted into the somewhat younger Su Binghe's household as a companion and tutor to try and curb the prince's loneliness. The empress also took Shen Yuan on as a personal disciple, as the only person able to teach him human-style cultivation.

This worked about as well as anyone expected, which was to say that the spoiled prince treated his weakling human tutor like his own personal chew toy, blowing hot and cold, manipulating and mistreating, jealously resenting Shen Yuan's attention from his mother while also taking every opportunity to insert himself into the additional lessons as well.

Eventually the situation came to a head, with Shen Yuan lashing back after being pushed to the limits, and Su Binghe using the "attack" as an excuse to exile him in the midst of hostile demon territory. Thus began the protagonist's power-up montage segment, where he was forced to fight and survive, leveling up his skills until he came across Xiu Ya.

Xiu Ya was a legendary sword that had been wielded by an equally legendary human cultivator, an actual secret ancestor of Shen Yuan's, long ago. It was sealed away by a past Heavenly Demon emperor, after its wielder managed to use it to successfully kill one of their kind (a difficult feat). By sealing the blade deep within the demonic realms, the past emperors had assured themselves that no human cultivator would successfully venture so deep into their territories nor uncover its hiding place, and so they mostly warded it against other demons (who might want to return it to the humans in order to sabotage the Heavenly Demons). Thus, Shen Yuan successfully liberated the blade, and after winning a harrowing battle against an ancient evil (boss fight!) with it, he ascended to godhood.

But, even the heavens weren't merciful in this story, and Shen Yuan was tasked with using Xiu Ya to end the threat of the Heavenly Demon race once and for all before he could claim his rightful place among them. If he failed, his soul would be forfeit and Xiu Ya would shatter, eternally condemning the mortal plane to the tyranny of demonic rule.

Luo Binghe absolutely loved the character of Shen Yuan, even though his story was kind of trash, and he did not want to transmigrate into Su Binghe, especially not with a mandate hanging over his head that he had to one day cast his favorite protagonist out into the wilds, and then let him kill Binghe in order to fulfill a mandate from the heavens!

Featuring:

-Modern day culinary student Bingmei, absolutely revolutionizing food prep in the demon realms and desperately wishing he could change the genre to one of those slice-of-life cozy escapist novels instead.

-Bingmei being actually a thousand times sneakier and more self-aware than his predecessor, taking Su Binghe's absolutely pathetic attempts at politics and making it work for him instead (between the foster care system and the food service industry, Bingmei takes no prisoners).

-Su Binghe originally had a sprawling harem by the time Shen Yuan reunited with him. Luo Binghe wants nothing to do with it, so he has to just keep on dodging his parents attempts to set him up in political matches.

-Some of Shen Yuan's original household and family actually did survive, so Luo Binghe dedicates himself to rescuing the rest of them to try and farm points with the protagonist. This results in him retrieving Shen Yuan's brother, Shen Jiu (asshole rat bastard feral cat of a guy, Luo Binghe almost wishes he'd failed), Shen Yuan's personal companions the Liu siblings (terrible decision, Shen Yuan's always waxing poetically about how beautiful they are), Shen Yuan's younger sister Yingying (annoying but nice), Shen Jiu's situationship Yue Qi (there is something deeply wrong with that guy), and the son of the family's head servant, Shang Qinghua (weird rodent man, somehow has evil advisor vibes despite also looking sort of like the designated non-threatening one in an idol group).

-Bingmei identifies Mobei Jun as a fellow transmigrator pretty early on, when he absently whistles the notification sound for a smart phone and Mobei reaches for his pocket. Mobei Jun's approach to transmigrating is basically to say and do as little as possible. Bingmei subsequently doesn't find out that he is in fact the author of the original book until some time after the main plot has passed.

-Despite not wanting to, Bingmei is fully prepared to die in order to secure Shen Yuan's eventual destiny as a god. He only hopes he might go out cleanly and with more sympathy than the original goods got. Imagine his horror when Shen Yuan decides he's going to fight the gods instead of wiping out the Heavenly Demons.

[bogleech]

Ok but I have seen you talk about this so many times, even referencing it in your old cartoons, so I gotta ask - when and how did you fall in love with neopets, like that?

Wait, is it that obscure now? I didn't know a single person from its inception to roughly 2010 who didn't have a neopets account. It was the single biggest gaming-esque name on the internet for years. Celebrities casually mentioned playing it, it got mainstream marketing tie-ins, it had plush toys people waited in line to buy up and a TCG made by the same company as Magic the Gathering. It's not that I especially "fell in love with neopets" like it's a niche thing but that there was a time it was almost outselling Pokemon, so it's just another huge cultural phenomenon that was a big part of everyone's lives during my teens to twenties, and hits my special interest in creature design since it has THOUSANDS (beyond the pets alone) ranging in quality from extremely creative to just plain heinous. I personally only got invested in it when they introduced the mutant pets, though, because it started out having almost like a "rule" against making any pets that were "ugly." They'd joke about it as a prank for instance, and originally only featured the mutants as part of a storyline they never intended players to actually adopt. They even had a fake alternate version of the site with fake "adoptions coming soon" and somehow didn't anticipate the userbase genuinely wanting the slime creatures.

The Chia and Aisha were my favorites but mainly the chia because that kind of "scuzzy" creature was already my own design aesthetic, polar opposite of the site's established style and reminded me of if Jeff Goldblum got fused with a tardigrade instead of a fly:

Is that just me? I feel like the tardigrade similarity jumps right out but I think it was an accident and they were possibly actually thinking of the rotting giant from Nausicaa:

The fact that they intended its design to be unlovably ugly and were surprised anyone wanted it only made it more sympathetic. Eventually they made mutants available and I got fully invested into playing, at the time having to spend hours a day on their little flash games until I could afford a mutant after months of labor. But then a couple of years later they just abruptly decided they really didn't feel like having its design around anymore and "updated" it, which back then was automatic for all pets owned by all players with no going back:

It had unfortunately been fairly common that they'd just completely, totally redo a pet like this with no warning and no user poll to make sure it's what anyone wanted. You just had to pray they never did it to your favorites.

All the other mutants in that earlier image would also get completely changed or never released at all. They still kept some of the other "gross" mutants and would make even grosser, so that wasn't even part of the reasoning. Just the random whims of mad gods I guess. I think what killed the game for a lot of people was actually when they did this to basically everyone at once, standardizing almost all the pet artwork so they could wear clothes in their new dressup system. It wasn't as drastic as replacing a sludge guy with some kind of hairy leaf guy but it did eliminate hundreds of technically unique designs from the site, and I found someone else's examples they put together so I thankfully don't have to do it myself:

If anyone's not familiar enough with neopets or didn't figure that out from the last paragraph, the ones on the right are just recolors of the same exact art as all members of their species with added accessories (now wearable items) Players used to work hard to get pets they wanted based on their unique poses and personality, but you could only keep the original art for a small number of these. The customization feature kind of attracted a different new fandom, from what people say, but it never approached a fraction the site's peak, which is probably how the brand wound up getting sold to some NFT bros who aren't even involved in the site itself and supposedly never even spoken to its remaining staff outside some business emails? This is unrelated to the brief period it was bought by scientologists and the siterunners had to fight back against their propaganda leaking into it. I really didn't expect to turn this response into a mini article, I should really just make a thing on bogleech.com about it sometime. Some of my tumblr mutuals to this day are people I met through the neopets fandom and probably have equally lengthy memories/complaints.

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Hraetnug

We've got a good variety of results here, so I'm just going to run through the usual stuff and get to them.

If anyone isn't sure what this "bestiaryposting" thing is about, you can find an explanation and previous entries at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

All of the art below is based on this entry:

If you want to participate, next week's bestiaryposting will be based on this entry:

And the art is below the cut:

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) decided something with wings that doesn't fly might well be a flightless bird, and has drawn a very good penguin/auk/thing. I really like how it's posed against the starry sky; it's evocative. For additional details, check the linked post.

@ectocs (link to post here) thought of sea turtles instead -- which I can totally see. I've had the good fortune to witness a few sea turtle hatchings, and the description of the eggs in the sand absolutely tracks. However, there's the issue that the idea of wing-shaped fins is not compatible with "its feet are like those of a camel" -- hence the very cool shell design. I like it; it's quite clever. The linked post contains some additional discussion of the thoughts and inspirations behind this design, go look at it. (Also, thank you for providing alt text.)

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has taught me a new word with this post -- xerocolous. Also, we have a medieval-style dragon here, complete with that ubiquitous wavy-eared head -- it does fully fit the description, too. Always appreciate a little medieval styling; those damned ears made me smile. There's additional explanation in the linked post -- also, thank you for providing alt text.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) has laid out a brief but excellent explanation of their design process. It seems to have gone like this:

"What animals do this with their eggs?" "Snakes do that." "But snakes don't have wings or camel-like feet." "This one does."

Brilliant. Love it. No notes. (Also thank you for providing alt text.)

@pomrania (link to post here) also went with "flightless bird" and admits the inadvertent resemblance of their design to Big Bird -- it does have a certain Muppet-like quality, I must say. For additional information, please see the linked post. I particularly like the note that giving it a "no thoughts head empty" facial expression was fully intentional.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) also thought of sea turtles and then questioned how this could be compatible with the camel feet. Their solution, which I think came out extremely well here, was to simply draw a camel/turtle hybrid. I kind of love this design -- and, of course, the stylized art.

@strixcattus (link to post here) has drawn a very charming flightless bird. I really like the sort of shaggy design, which I assume is indicative of kiwi-style feathers. As is normally the case, Strixcattus has also included a modern naturalist-style interpretation of the animal, which I, as usual, recommend reading via the linked post.

To the Aberdeen Bestiary...

Once again, this is basically the same bird we see in a bunch of these, with the exception of its (surprisingly accurate) camel-like feet. However, this is in fact the ostrich. (I have no idea why one of them appears to be eating the eggs.)

I honestly don't have a lot to add here. Bit surprising to see a different set of myths about the ostrich rather than the "head in the sand" thing.

[icycoldninja]

Heyo! Thought I'd send In a silly one for the dmc men

Basically just having a reader who loves doing vocaloid dances (maybe k pop dances too but I feel like vocaloid is a different type of intensity)

And snice this is dmc it'd be fun if they're a hunter who mixes the dance moves into their fighting style

Gn reader is cool but it'd be neat if it was a masc reader snice you tend to get a lot of fem requests, you know, variety (and maybe plays on the dances being seen as primarily girly)

Love your stuff! Have fun!

Thanks! Hope you enioy!

Sparda boys + V x Vocaloid-loving!Reader headcannons

¤ Dante ¤

-So, you like changing your voice with software and/or listening to bouncy, upbeat songs made with said software? Great, so does he.

-It's a little known secret that Dante likes upbeat music with unnatural singing in addition to metal.

-He'll give you recommendations and will gladly accept any suggestions should you have some.

-He managed to get his hands on some vocaloid software with his boomer brain and spent a whole day making auto tuned noise with you.

-Thinks the dances you do are pretty cool, even if they're more "girl coded" than anything else.

-Guess what? He's started doing them too, and believe it or not, he might actually be doing them better than you.

■ Vergil ■

-Being the extremely motivated person that he is, Vergil scoffed at vocaloid and its somewhat annoying, perky beats.

-He first thought of the music as screechy, fake, and irritating, undeserving of his attention.

-Or so he said, for you see, after about a week of you forcing the bubbly, upbeat stuff into his ears, he started to enjoy it.

-Though he'd sooner die than let anyone else know this, he's added a great deal of vocaloid songs to his playlist, alongside Bury The Light, of course.

-He doesn't like watching you do your goofy dances because they're cringe, and they activate his innate desire to destroy all cringiness, which he must now suppress because he doesn't want to hurt you.

-Tried doing one of your dances in private and didn't like how it felt, or how it looked, so he stopped and vowed never to do it again.

□ Nero □

-Nero thought vocaloid was alright. It wasn't his favorite style of music, but it wasn't his least favorite either.

-Nero prefers edgier, borderline emo songs as opposed to this high-pitched squealing, so you'll have to understand.

-Another reason why he might not be so fond of the stuff is because he can't understand most of what the singers are saying, thanks to the language barrier, which, for some reason, bothers him.

-Won't stop you from enjoying it, though; to each their own.

-Thinks the dances you do are so ridiculous and exaggerated, so he teases you (lightheartedly, of course) about them nearly every chance he gets.

-Won't let anyone else do that, though. Nero and Nero alone is allowed to make fun of your dancing, not a single other soul.

● V ●

-V has little to no musical knowledge aside from Classical, so he was very interested in this all-new concept that he was discovering.

-Like a teenager falling into their first nightcore phase, (believe me, I've been there) V became obsessed with vocaloid.

-He listens to every song and playlist of songs he can find, getting really excited whenever you recommend something to him.

-You two gush about your favorite songs, singers, etc. nearly all the time.

-Thinks the dances you do are pretty cute (V is the definition of a simp) and wants to learn how to do them too.

-If you decide to teach him, you'll discover V would make a far better kpop idol than an old-timey poetry nerd.

[greed-the-dorkalicious]

All the discussion around AI lately got me thinking about an incident recently in which a guy got his ass sorely beat by the vocal synth community

For those of you not familiar, “vocal synths” in the electronic music sense typically refers to programs like Vocaloid, SynthV, UTAU, Alter/Ego, DeepVocal, etc., digital instruments that allow composers to create, as the name implies, synthesized vocal tracks. The way they work is that they draw from libraries (referred to as “voicebanks” or VB for short) of special studio recorded* vocal samples from singers singing different syllables at a consistent pitch. The program then splices these together and adjusts the pitch to match whatever notes you put in- You want to do All Star, it’s gonna string together “[suh][m] [buh][di] [wuh][n][s] [tO][ld] [mi]” or something like that. Basically it’s an extremely complicated sampler.

(*unless you’re using UTAU or another build-your-own-vocal program in which the “studio” is only metaphorical, and is sometimes somebody’s basement with a Rockband mic plugged into a laptop.)

Now, there is no threat of vocal synths putting actual singers out of a job. Even the best vocal synths always have a bit of a robotic sound to them, and the voicebanks take hundreds of hours of recording time from you know, actual singers. Any piece made with vocal synths has to be worked by a human hand in a process called “tuning” in order to sound any good, whether you’re trying to make it sound human or leaning into the robotic sound. This isn’t something that’s being done on a corporate scale to cut costs- This is something pretty much exclusively being done by small scale indie music hobbyists because we fucking love Hatsune Miku and her weird buddies. Most folks are less interested in doing something that sounds 1:1 like a human voice and more in going beyond what humans can do to make shit like this

One of the leading vocal synths right now is Synthesizer V (SynthV), created by a company called Dreamtonics. SynthV offers fancier versions of some of its voicebanks, which are called “AI” voicebanks. These use machine learning trained on, again, professionally recorded and legally licensed vocal samples to help make songs sound a little bit more smooth, a little bit more in line with whatever singing style you’re aiming for. Everything else previously mentioned still applies: They’re still painstakingly recorded and programmed, you still need to tweak it yourself to get it to sound just right, and it’s still never going to sound 100% like a human. And that’s fine!

For this next bit y’all are gonna have to trust me because the tweets all got deleted, though if anyone wants I’m happy to pull up screencaps of talking shit about it with other vocal synth folks when it happened lmfao

So basically. Since ChatGPT type grifters have convinced people that “AI” means “magic plagiarism button”, back in April some dipshit NFT guy on Twitter started complaining on an official SynthV update post that SynthV (which he apparently believed to be called “Dreamtonics”, the name of the company that makes it) should allow people to make voicebanks from “their own voice”, insisting that it would be easy and PROFITABLE!™ to do so. He also clearly did not actually mean “their own voice” but rather “the voices of celebrity singers shamelessly lifted without their consent”, which was made extra obvious from a tweet on his own page that was like “Teehee people in monitored Twitter spaces don’t realize their voices are being recorded and fed into AI!” which he then deleted after I linked it on the thread about SynthV. lol.

Dude proceeded to get whupped by actual vocal synth people basically saying shit along the lines of “Yeah we can all tell you just want to commit cheap plagiarism, jackass” and “Dude why are you here when you clearly don’t understand the very very basics of what this software even is” and “Go make an UTAU voicebank if it’s so easy then”. (UTAU being a Japanese freeware program that hasn’t been updated since 2013. Creating an UTAU voicebank is complicated and takes a lot of time and technical knowledge.) He still refused to learn the basics of how vocal synths work, and proceeded to ask if “UTAU or Diff is most compatible with Dreamtonics”, a question absolutely no one could make any sense of? Lol.

Anyway, I don’t have anywhere in particular I’m going with this, I just think AI grifters are morons, and it’s obnoxious how the vague and misleading term “AI” has gotten nigh-mythologized by shady tech companies to the point that people can’t tell the difference between perfectly reasonable assistive technology and magic plagiarism.

Btw, fun fact for anyone who’s wondering, there do in fact exist legally/morally questionable UTAU voicebanks spliced from outside vocals. These are called “jinriki” voicebanks and not only do they take the same amount (if not more) of hard work as any other voicebank, they’re far from the insta-Beyoncé this dude was aiming for, and instead they sound um. like this

[serpentface]

I’m sorry if this is a weird thing to randomly send but I’ve spent the last few days looking through your blog and I’m totally enchanted with your worldbuilding and art. You have such a rich and detailed writing style and the illustrations are so good at making that information feel grounded. I’ve been finding a ton of amusing, small similarities with my own WIP fantasy story and it’s made me really excited to read the White Calf when it’s released! If you happen to have any extra information about the Odonii priests offhand, would you be open to elaborating some on them? I’ve been really curious about the details of their order and customs.

Thank you!

Ok so the Odonii priesthood is a remnant of very ancient ethnic Wardi and Wogan traditions involving the veneration of lions. It used to be a minor and secretive mystery religion, but gained increased prominence with the emergence of the Wardi Empire and increasing connections with the military.

At their core they are a state-sanctioned cult of the Lion Face of God, which is the spirit of sovereignty, military might and warriorhood, and has evolved an association with the health and survival of the imperial entity itself.

Older Wardi religion under the 3rd Burri empire had the Ox Face of God as the most important Face, reflecting the region’s status as an agricultural hub. Transition to prominence of the Lion Face (entirely rooted in native Wardi and Wogan traditions with little Burri influence) was effectively a rejection of ‘foreign’ influences, and the signal of a new native political power as the city-state of Wardin began to conquer and ally with its neighbors in the chaos of the Burri empire’s collapse.

The role of Odonii is open only to people assigned female, and only open to legal citizens of Imperial Wardin (with occasional exceptions being children chosen by the Odomache). It’s a broad priesthood with two different classes, with un-sworn Odonii not being fully initiated, having no expectations of celibacy, and basically existing as a ceremonial role and for the purpose of political marriages. Sworn Odonii are selected at puberty (usually by senior priestess but occasionally by the head of the order) and serve for life.

There are thirteen senior priestesses (not always reflective of age, this is often a political status) and one leader, the Odomache, who is a deified mortal believed to be the physical incarnation of the Lion Face of God. The senior priestesses and Odomache interpret signs and omens and advise military leaders. The Odomache is the de-facto general of the entire military and has ultimate say in its action and movements (this is not officially mandated by law, but is common practice- this person is literally believed to be a manifestation of God, so their say has extreme power). This is to a point that tensions between the imperial family and Odonii order are pretty extreme (as the military will, in practice, answer to the Odomache above anyone else), and only retained by continued allegiance and political maneuvering.

Sworn Odonii are conceptualized as a sort of physical manifestation of the sanctity of the military and the imperial state. Their bodies are heavily politicized as such, and they are expected to be virgins and remain celibate, be physically fit and powerful, and have skill in all basic weapons (and bear them on a routine basis). This serves to, by extension, ensure that the military is similarly blessed and its power is maintained.

The central power of the order is stationed at the temple of Dinaeti, which is located on the edge of the city of Wardin and is appropriated from an ancient fortress. The highest quality captive lion population is kept on its grounds (a large, walled field with a sacred grove and spring). Members of the public will make pilgrimages to the temple to donate tribute to the Odonii and make sacrificial offerings to the Lion Face (usually through bloodletting and offerings of wine, though there are a few Galenii priests kept in service to perform animal sacrifices for the public). Young Odonii in training live there from their induction until they are 21 years old (usually 5-10 years) and the Odomache is stationed there when not performing other functions.

The average day to day role of a sworn Odonii is mostly just a mundane routine of blessing of soldiers and their weapons, consecrating various ritual materials (oils, grain, metal..), physical activity and training, attending festivals. Some Odonii (mostly those that are un-sworn or in training) spend much of their time tending to the captive lion population, and are involved in selecting and blessing them for sacrifice when needed. Sworn Odonii lead soldiers in a weapons dance prior to battle or during training, which boosts morale and intends to secure God’s blessing for the endeavor.

Their social status is one of high esteem. They are the most powerful priesthood and have legal rights typically denied to other women (self representation in trials, free and sole ownership of land and property without being specifically gifted such by a husband/father, etc). Crimes committed against Odonii are subject to severe retribution- stealing from one carries a death sentence, a physical assault results in being killed and denied burial (condemning one to a dismal afterlife as a wandering ghost). Even being accused of inflicting a curse on an Odonii can result in an execution (proof is required, but the standard for proof isn't exactly infallible). Sexual assaults on an Odonii are the most severe crime by far (and very rare), resulting in the aggressor and their entire immediate family and heirs executed, the aggressor mutilated and denied proper burial, and all their assets being appropriated by the victimized Odonii (who is forced to retire due to having been 'defiled').

Their vows of celibacy are also extensions of their body's ceremonial role as an embodiment of military power and sanctity- breaking this vow means that this sanctity is broken. This is partly related to body taboos in the region, where receiving penetrative sex is one of many forms of metaphysical vulnerability (the positive aspect is that this vulnerability allows for conception, but the negative aspect is it opens one to spiritual pollution and curses). This is simply accepted as the reality of life for women, and used as a justification for the patriarchal structure of this culture (ie women are innately frail and unsuited to leadership because they are subject to spiritual pollution). So women in positions of exceptional power are generally expected to remain celibate as a means of reducing some 'innate' or inevitable female frailty.

Odonii are the only women who are directly involved in the military on a normalized and official basis. It’s rare that they actually engage in active combat, but they will have been trained in all relevant weapons and will fight when necessary. Their role on the battlefield is a spiritual blessing and a rallying point for their soldiers (they aren’t just fighting for whatever the hell agricultural land they’re attempting to subjugate, they’re fighting to protect a sacred priestess blessed by God). They aren't commonly killed in combat except as an accident or a VERY intentional show of hostility to the imperial entity, as their enemies are generally aware of their esteemed role and how serious retribution can be. Odonii on defeated sides in battle are often spared and allowed to freely leave (sometimes even given provisions and the release of some captives as a show of honorable conduct, which may grant the winning side mercy and better negotiating positions with the imperial entity down the line).

Odonii are also the ONLY people who are allowed to own and carry firearms outside of combat (civilians can’t even legally carry a dagger within the city limits). Firearms are extremely rare and expensive, and their use is restricted to only elite groups of soldiers. Odonii, as physical embodiments of military might, are allowed to freely carry all classes of weapons and get first pick of firearms. (Their perpetual bearing of arms again translates to a military that is spiritually imbued with constant empowerment). This can and does make them targets for robbery, but the consequences of robbing an Odonii are dire enough that few will make the attempt.

Odonii occupy a somewhat unique gendered space in the cultural framework. Imperial Wardi culture is patriarchal, with women, eunuchs (categorized as a third gender), and akoshos (an identity group of people designated male who take women’s roles in daily life) having a lesser status, but sworn Odonii exist outside of the expected roles for women and have relative socio-political equality to men.

This role definitely would have some attractiveness to some people who we would now consider bisexual/lesbians, or trans men/transmasc, as it allows for divergence from expected gender norms and no expectation to marry (which would be to a man), and ‘celibacy’ in this context means abstinence from penetrative sex (meaning you could Generally get away with anything else (though not with someone who is societally considered a man, as it would simply be Assumed that penetration is involved))

[bimboficationblues]

post-punk 🎶

HEHEHE I'm kicking my feet and squeeing thank you

probably my favorite genre (and definitely one of my Top 5), though it's something of an imprecise term owing to its kind of awkward dual use as a periodization term (the music that followed punk) and a genre term (forms of music adjacent to punk that skewed towards the danceable, the somber, or the experimental) - it covers a lot of goth rock, new wave, noise rock, jangle pop, art punk, dance-punk, various forms of alternative and experimental rock, and also gets applied to a lot of bands that existed before and during punk's initial break (like Wire, Television, and Talking Heads). most of the bands that at one point fell into this genre category eventually end up doing something that is extremely attenuated from "punk" at all. but that is one of the main things I like about it, the way that it proceeded from the kind of "spirit" or tenor of punk while not limiting itself to that basic toolset. I like that basic toolset a lot! but it can get stagnant really fast.

I do feel a little picky about people working in the genre these days. I definitely like bands that are willing to take some larger risks in terms of bringing different energies, instruments, and songwriting structures to the table and not just endlessly do new takes on New Order (you may notice that Interpol are conspicuously absent from my favorites). There's a lot of bands on the current post-punk circuit that do very little for me (Fontaines D.C. is the big one that has a very passionate fanbase but I find totally boring; Dry Cleaning and Wet Leg are a couple of women-led acts that I respect but aren't my cup of tea).

On the flipside: I *highly, highly, highly* recommend anyone who is thinking of checking out contemporary post-punk music to listen to HMLTD's album West of Eden, which has some fantastically catchy and emotionally resonant songs, an interesting thematic thrust (including two of my favorite songs about gender dysphoria, the "Joanna" duology), and also kind of acts sonically as a grab-bag of a bunch of different post-punk styles from over the years while still sounding pretty cohesive. it did not get the love it deserved. Parquet Courts' Wide Awake was great for similar reasons, but got a way better reception popularly and critically.

here are some "classics" of the genre that I am a fan of:

and some contemporaries (from like the past couple decades) I really like or am keeping an eye on for whatever they do in the future:

[autisticslp]

I’ve been grieving since yesterday morning when I woke up and realized that the early 90s US-Canadian sci fi show costarring Amanda Tapping I had discovered was only a dream and didn’t actually exist, and need to share this experience so other people can feel my pain.

It was three seasons (cancelled on a cliffhanger). Both stars had the same shaggy, ear length hair style with sorta bangs (I don’t know hair but I’m sure you can picture it). The opening credits were delightfully 90s sci fi (similar to shows like Sliders, The X-Files, and Mercy Point) with a slower, more guitar-heavy ending theme (evoking The Lonely Man from The Incredible Hulk). Everything was so, so low budget with moments of atrocious writing, but it didn’t take itself too seriously, had plenty of humor, and clearly was made by people who believed in the show and put a lot of love and care into it, and there was a fan-made remaster fixing the terrible CGI.

I’m a little fuzzy on the basic plot, but it featured a college age boy (main character) who stumbled onto this conspiracy that involves putting these goo into people’s blood for different purposes. Different colors of goo did different things (like special attacks) and had different percentages of control between the person, the organization, and the goo itself. The goo was released to do its thing by either intentionally cutting the skin, usually the arms, or accidental injuries, and could be “sealed” back into the person with special waxes. (Yes, I did find that whump was a cornerstone of the very small fandom.) The MC was on the run from the organization initially because he Knew Too Much, but later because he was helping the female main character avoid recapture, and eventually because they were trying to stop the organization’s plots of world domination.

Amanda Tapping’s character was an original test subject for the organization who was initially set up as an antagonist in episode seven but quickly became a hesitant-ally-turned-partner appearing in every episode after her introduction. She had several types of goo, including the pink goo (very bad, gave the organization control over her) and black goo, which she had minimal control over and would eat people (also very bad). She was the only goo combo person seen for the first season, although the second season included some 2 goo combo bad guys and the ultimate big bad from the season 3 cliffhanger had as many goos as Tapping. The several goos made it harder for the organization to control Tapping’s character, hence her escape, but also made it extremely difficult for her to control which goo was activated and when, as she is the only person we see in the show whose goo could burst out of the veins in her arms instead of requiring an external cut. The biggest danger was the black goo, which would turn into two large, feral, goo-dripping vornskr-type creatures and eat anyone in sight. However, by season two Tapping’s character started fo befriend these creatures, naming them Blizzard and Flurry, and they became protective of her and would, at least somewhat, do her bidding.

Unfortunately my dream never supplied a name for the show, but it was popular enough for Hallmark to have made sticker sets for the show (I discovered a page of Blizzard and Flurry stickers in my grandma’s things), but otherwise was largely forgotten. I was absolutely thrilled to discover it, being a huge Stargate fan (and sci fi TV fan), and was baffled that I wasn’t already familiar with something this large that Amanda Tapping had done before SG-1.

[amourninghost]

Hi! I love your art a lot!

I saw a doodle page you did, and I’m curious how you got your brush to be darker with more pressure applied? (or at least that’s how it looked to me—)

aaa thanks so much!

first of all, i use Paint Tool SAI, so lemme grab a few screenshots of my brush settings. i made these for myself and @invadergrabass to use in order to blend our styles for collabs; theyre based on our combined preferences so they will more than likely require customisation if youre interested in using them. regardless, they will help me explain, since not everything is easy to put into words for me lol

to make my brush respond to pressure the way it does, i first start with a default brush tool as opposed to a pencil. i set the minimum density to a non-zero percentage (usually between 10 and 40) depending on what i want to use it for, and lower the pressure sensitivity to 60. (this may differ for you, since i know i have a heavy hand and ive set my tablet sensitivity to a custom value. but the minimum size is key here.)

heres a demonstration:

(the brush kinda thickens up when a texture is added, which is part of why i reduce the pressure sensitivity)

i find the brush tool feels a lot like a gel pen when being used for linework. this tool is called Butter Brush because its extremely smooth to work with for my partner and i.

heres a breakdown of each brush and how i tend to use it:

Butter Basic is an all purpose tool, i use it equally often for sketching lining writing and shading. it has a minimum size of around 20%

Butter Sharp is for writing and more bold linework. it has a low minimum size for detail work. i rarely use this tool for sketching but i do sometimes use it in shading, and i prefer it if i have to do a lot of writing on an image. its pressure sensitivity is at 100 so i see less of the texture when using it. (you can see the difference in the two drawn arrows above, where the left is at 100 and the right is at 60.)

Butter Soft is my favourite sketch tool, and predictably the one with the highest minimum size. it is also extremely soft, and cant easily be used for writing. i use it extensively for shading, more often than the tools ive made specifically for shading lmao. i sometimes use it for lining also, since it is the most comfortable for me personally to use.

i hope this helps you or anyone else looking for help with their art!

(note: in an earlier version of this reply i accidentally said "minimum density" instead of "pressure sensitivity" in Butter Sharp's description)

[vacantgodling]

#10: Felicity Evergreen

The sea calls to you, it always has. The call of journey has always been an afterthought, but when you grew bored of your home’s waters you took it up all the same. You’ve never wanted for much in life, never gifts nor companionship but experiences that you can cherish until you die. Journey, like a hearty stew, that you can savor. Your job is perfect for you; out and about, always moving and exploring, never ceasing so you can continue to quench your thirst. Some may wonder if you’ll ever settle but the road has always had your name.

“felicity” means happiness. “evergreen” means never fading trees.

34, nb femme (she/they), romance: no, but qpr friendly, sex: kinda a gray area? she doesn’t mind it but she also doesn’t think about it or ‘need’ it, preference: feminine

her hair in the picrew is kinda incorrect because her hair is more teal/seagreen and it comes down in waves to the middle of her back. she wears it in a variety of differing styles though she usually has two pieces in the front as bangs. her eyes are a soft brown color, nearly matching the color of her rich dark brown skin, and she’s quite tall, standing at 5’8”. she is lithe but extremely clumsy so and kind of notion of grace goes out the window when you see her trip over her own two feet. still, she’s extremely graceful in the water—water dancing is one of her favorite things to do.

SCOUT, though she mostly became one because she wanted to stick by cameron in everything that she did. truthfully; she probably would’ve been better off staying as a fishing woman in their hometown of Kost, but she’s always longed for adventure, and to see the other bodies of water that Terrae has to offer; so she saw it as a good excuse to go. Pinella’s Pass being so landlocked did drive her up the wall a bit though. in terms of weaponry, she uses a modified fishing lance, which she built herself and named manumari which translates to something like “the hand of the sea.” because she’s quite proficient in vis (magic of the force of will) she will bring the sea to her in a battle, calling forth waves and wakes or even flooding areas when she needs to to best opponents. she doesn’t like to fight as much as she likes to travel though, so most of the time manumari acts like an oar for her when she goes rafting or boating, because it allows her to control currents and direct her to where she needs to go. this is all her magic though; mari is just her channel for it. she works as the procurement officer in the AGoE, which basically means she gets to travel to different dealers throughout the city and its general surrounding areas (within a certain mile radius) to get the necessary materials that the guild needs to operate. potions, salves, standard weapons, bedding and toiletries, all of those kinds of things and more she oversees. she hopes one day that the AGoE will become as big a guild as one like the KoV (knights of virtue and the oldest and largest guild in all of Terrae) so that she can have an excuse to travel further than just the mainland.

humble, kind hearted, and a bit dreamy, felicity loves the call of adventure more than literally anyone else. she tends to wander off on her own because her curiosity gets the better of her (which gives cameron a heart attack most days) and she always seems to end up in some ridiculous situation or another trying to find her way to where she needs to be; but it also means she’s very good at storytelling. she loves to regale others with any kind of tales, whether it be from the lore and myths of their world, to just what happened to her last week when she ran into someone she didn’t realize she knew. she’s easy to get along with in that way and is generally easy going. her laugh is contagious.

[likeabxrdinflight]

I have read azula in the spirit temple, because of course I did. it's like 7 bucks for the digital version and honestly? wouldn't pay much more than that.

it's...fine. it's fine. it's not offensive, it's not groundbreaking, it's just...fine. I will say I do really like the art style, it's a vast improvement over the yang-led comics. there's some great drawings and all the characters look really good.

otherwise...? I mean it just doesn't do much with its story, and I think that's kind of intentional. I strongly suspect that now that avatar studios is a thing, major story beats in the comics series are over for the time being. this very much feels like a tease of "can azula redeem herself?? we just don't know!!!" and then they very much do not commit one way or the other with it. which tells me that if any major storylines featuring azula are going to be happening in the future, they probably won't be happening in the comics, but in some future movie or animated series.

and honestly? good. I always felt comics were the wrong medium for telling stories in this universe, they have never managed to replicate the gravitas or complexity of storytelling of the animated shows. so if this comic is meant to be like...a palate cleanser, a teaser for things to come in future projects...fine. that's fine. but it does mean this particular story comes across non-committal and honestly...kinda boring.

like, every character azula interacts with outside the first couple pages is a spirit. none of it's real, the stakes are so low, and everything that happens once azula arrives at the temple is a vision from this guardian spirit, who tells azula that if she could accept what the visions were saying then this was her chance of redemption. but honestly that just feels like a cop-out and I don't really buy it, because none of it was real. and azula knows that.

what this story felt like instead was less redemption arc and more character exploration. and as a character piece it's...it's fine? like I said, it's not offensive like the search or smoke and shadow were (though it does loosely play off where smoke and shadow left off, it mostly ignores the search, so props to it for that lol). but there's nothing in here that will come as a surprise to anyone with basic reading comprehension who's watched the original show. the writing's a bit shallow but broadly inoffensive.

honestly the most surprising thing for me was azula acknowledging out loud to a vision of ursa that she's entirely aware that her father used her as a weapon, and felt that ursa failed to protect her from that fate by leaving. which is an interesting dichotomy given that much of azula's character is bound up in that identity as her father's perfect daughter in contrast to zuko being the failed son. (then again, quite a bit of time has now passed in universe since the end of the tv series, so maybe it's not overly shocking that azula has done a little introspecting in that time.)

other than that, there's some fun interactions with spirit!mai and ty lee, and then there's a final vision with spirit!zuko that comes so close to being a halfway decent climax to this little story, but none of it's a major revelation to anyone who's been paying attention to azula's character. the spirit visions all serve the same function that azula's hallucinations did in the series finale- they act as her unconscious mind telling her the truths she already knows about herself deep down.

the ending leaves azula in kind of a middle ground place, very little about her circumstances have changed except she's decided to ditch her girl gang and go run off to do something else- which is kept extremely vague. I can't help feeling that is an intentional move to set her up for a totally new story in a different medium that likely doesn't want to rely on any foundations laid in any of the comics series. and I wouldn't be shocked if that medium is one of the alleged movies that avatar studios is supposed to be producing. so this feels less like a real character arc so much as a character reset.

and from a creative, lore standpoint I don't have a problem with this. that's probably what they needed to do if they want to use azula in their future animated projects. my problem is that the story the comic tells to give us this reset is just kinda boring for someone who's been with this fandom since the original series aired.

The fact is that I've read and seen fan works that addressed these exact same issues and character beats with much more finesse and for much higher stakes. this comic gave me the feeling that the dialogue was directly addressing what fans have been saying about azula for years and putting a neon light on it. and that's...again, it's fine? but it's not groundbreaking for those of us who've been saying this shit since 2008. and I guess it's nice to see some of those character beats canonized officially, especially if there's a likelihood that we'll see animated azula again, but as far as I was concerned the fact that azula wanted her family to love her and was used as a weapon of war was already obvious, so spelling it out with another comic felt...redundant.

and I guess that's how I'd describe this. it felt redundant to me, as someone who's spent a lot of time with this character already. maybe it's good that it exists so that larger and newer swaths of the fandom can see azula in this light, but for long time fans of the character? there's truly nothing in here about her that you don't already know.

if this really is a reset button for the old comics canon/jumping off point for an animated project, then...I'm not mad about it, exactly. but as a stand alone story it's just...fine. it's fine, but little more.

[housewarningparty]

what is NWOAHM? (I have been slowly trying to get more into metal but I don't really know how sorry)

Absolutely no reason to apologize. I love talking about metal, I'm excited whenever anyone is interested enough to ask about it. New fans can't be expected to know everything and it's usually more fun getting something explained to you by another fan vs reading a wiki article or something.

NWOAHM stands for New Wave of American Heavy metal. I'll talk more about that in a sec but here's a quick and dirty breakdown of related terms for context.

Starting in the 60s and 70s we have the first wave of British Heavy Metal which includes bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin. After that, we had the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) with bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. The US equivalent of the first wave would be hair bands in the 80s like Motley Crue, Poison, Guns n Roses. You get the idea.

Basically, broad terms to refer to the periods when metal bands were most culturally relevant. If not fully mainstream, then at least popular enough to have significant accessible subcultures. People don't usually refer to "first wave" bands as such, they usually just say '70s metal' or whatever. Out of all these terms NWOBHM is the most widely referenced - it's common as shorthand to describe any band playing music in that style (newer bands playing NWOBHM-style music are also often described as 'trad metal')

NWOAHM refers to a wave of American metal bands mostly from the late 90s to mid 00s that saw a lot of popular success. Stylistically, it largely describes bands influenced by a mix of European melodic death metal as well as American hardcore. A lot of metalcore bands of the era can be considered part of the NWOAHM like Unearth, Killswitch Engage and God Forbid, but bands like Lamb of God, Devildriver and Machine Head also qualify.

The music industry that underpinned this scene was very different from our current industry. Big, nationwide touring festivals (Mayhem for metal, Taste of Chaos for emo/post-hardcore, Warped for pop punk a bit of everything else to boot) drove a lot of sales and engagement. This was also an era where MTV and similar music channels still had major relevance. If you turned on MTV on a Friday night you'd get an entire block of extreme metal music videos in any house in America with cable access. This went a long way to exposing people to new music, especially young metal heads with limited funds. Remember, at this time there was no real streaming model yet and most music was sold via physical format like CDs.

The article I linked (which, despite the inflammatory headline, is actually pretty fair imo) describes some of the differences between the NWOAHM scene and today's scene.

Certainly the NWOAHM scene was rife with problems and I don't want to give in too much to nostalgia, but there's something kind of sad to me about the way that there's almost no mainstream-ish entry point to a robust, extreme metal scene like there used to be. I have nothing against pop inspired metal on its own, but I do wish there was still an environment that allowed new fans to experience a wider variety of styles.

[silent-wolf]

ranking the batfamily on whether i would be friends with them irl 😁: (ps this is all just a jokey joke so pls dont take this seriously 😇)

7. damian

guys im sorry

love the little demon but he would probably kill me for making ur mom jokes

hes got spunk if u consider it being mildly homicidal thoughts at every constant minute

probably the friend i would not consider going for lunch with cuz he’ll give me a dirty look for eating like a pig 

he would be a good tutor tho, my saving grace in calculus

but he would make me cry by the end of that session cuz i cant divide to save my life 💔 6. jason

he’s a fucking theatre kid

AND an english nerd, like pick a struggle man 😭

it might be residual high school eng trauma but i cant be friends with someone who genuinely likes english

honestly tho, i wouldn't mind hanging out with him outside of school

i just dont know what we would have in common to talk abt

gym classes with him has to be fun tho

he would probably kick my ass at every game, but thats besides the point 5. cass

shes scary asf, but shes hot so its okay

i would probably have a hallway crush on her

shes probably in the friend grp, but has other friends shes closer with

rlly fucking good at pe and doesnt hesitate to show off

probably skips a bunch of classes but no one says anything

would probably hang out more as a grp than one on one

the only person i would consider giving my house keys to 4. dick

the sweetest guy in the grp

i would assume he was just a nice guy at first but he is just rlly genuine 

would be the subject of ridicule because of his god awful fashion sense

is a senior but hides in the junior classes cuz girls always chase him around asking for his number

is the mom of the friend grp and always carries around protein bars, tissues, and basic first aid 

always does wellness checks and picks up on the first ring if u need anything. bless him <3

my emergency contact 3. duke

would be one of my closer friends

the perfect balance of obliviously unaware and stupidly concerned

i would ask him for hw answers only for him to text back with a question mark

he was the sacrificial lamb who was made to sit in the first row in class

ends up falling asleep and gets detention 😔 if anyone asks tho, its because he did smthin super scandalous and totally not school appropriate 👍

we became chem lab partners, but fucked up freshman level titrations so many times, that the teacher kicked us out

has the best packed lunches (thank u alfred)

i steal his lunch and he ends up eating shitty cafeteria food 👍 2. steph

MY LITERAL 4LYFER 🤞

her fashion sense>>. but dont be fooled, most days she throws on a ragged hoodie that way too soft to be legal

has a billionare on her side, but still steals MY mcdonalds fries

always carries around extra hair ties 

comes over so often that there is a steph size dent on my bed, where she would flop down

has the prettiest notes which are a life saver for last minute cramming

the friend you would go to experiment different makeup styles on 

my partner in crime for any tom-foolery 

would make me snort during class which sends us to detention 

tim

i would fucking hate him at first glance

but somehow we would bond through our shared trauma of high school calculus 

the type of friendship where u would go on spontaneous road trips a week before finals, only to end up stranded in a random petrol bunk

a responsible adult (read: alfred) would then come to pick us up after we call them in literal tears

a weekly tradition of trying the most grotesque slushy concoctions 

cannot for the life of him memorise shakespeare, but can recite word for word every iconic vine in existence 

would tutor me in chemistry, only to end up in tears at my incompetence 😭

extremely introverted but suddenly becomes the loudest person ever when it comes to embarrassing someone

[maniculum]

Google Docs vs. Geoffrey Chaucer

A while back, just for fun, I pitted Google Docs's fancy new (read: hilariously inept) machine-learning spellchecker against a chapter of my dissertation that contained a lot of quotations from Le Morte Darthur:

At the time I suggested I might go back and do the same with the chapters that included substantial quotation from the Canterbury Tales and (shudder) Piers Plowman... and today I find myself with little better to do, so let's give it a go. Below the cut.

Extremely helpful there, thanks. For the curious, gilofre is a plant; in Modern English it's gillyflower. Clowe is just "clove". "Clowe-galofre" is nowhere on Google or in the OED, but it seems "Galofre" is an attested surname, so Google thinks maybe that's what I meant.

Fascinating choices here. That is of course meant to be nutmeg, and Google Docs has seemingly decided that putting in a space to turn one misspelled word into two words, one of which is spelled correctly, is a positive development. That or this is a continuation of the previously-observed trend that Google turns things into brands and corporation as much as possible -- apparently there is a company called "Emuge-Franken", which is the only result for "emuge" on Google Search.

It hasn't gotten anything right so far, by the way -- all those red underlines I haven't screenshotted anything for, it either suggests a word that is wrong but unremarkably so, or fails to suggest anything.

(Never mind, it got a couple right in between the last one and this one.)

This is interesting in that it shows Google Docs interprets things differently based on capitalization. This instance of bityde is capitalized because it's at the beginning of the line; the other one in the phrase bityde what bityde, which isn't capitalized, Google is able to correctly interpret as "betide". However, it seems to think the first is a proper noun and makes different suggestions. (Blyde is the Afrikaans name of the Motlatse River in South Africa, it would seem.)

I am reluctantly forced to hand it to Google Docs with this one. Like, no, that's not what Chaucer meant of course, but I can respect the shot being taken. Also interesting that it gets the blue underline because you can't really spell a transliteration wrong, but that's not how the system we normally use renders it. Not sure why spere "spear" (Google suggests "sphere") and vestiments "vestments" (Google gets this one right) are also marked as blue (style/grammar) rather than red (spelling), though.

... and now I'm taking what I just handed to Google Docs back away. WTF is this? Why...? you know what, we're moving on.

Bafflingly, Google thinks there is nothing at all unusual about that first line. Yep, that's normal Modern English there.

And here's our first example in this post of Google Docs trying to suggest a spelling that is also in Middle English, because I very much suspect the data it uses has been contaminated. Actually, come to think, if their machine learning system bases its judgments on what other users write rather than the old system with a set dictionary, I bet all the people writing papers about pre-standardized-spelling English literature are really screwing up the data. Which is hilarious -- if true, that would mean that I'm actually part of the problem for writing this whole dissertation full of Middle English quotes in Google Docs.

You might think this is another example of the same, but in fact the change from -ioun to -ion makes that suspect, and the Middle English Dictionary doesn't recognize it without the <u>. And if you Google Refleccion, all the results are in Spanish. However, I can't seem to find it in a Spanish-English dictionary, and those same dictionaries tell me the Spanish for reflection is reflexion -- maybe this is a variant spelling? I only have basic high-school Spanish to draw on here, so if any of my followers are fluent and can explain refleccion to me, I would be interested to learn.

Hm... no, that's not right either. Although a quick Google search tells me that there is a YA book called Physik, so that's probably what's screwing up this one. Probably not ideal for that sort of thing to happen.

And this one, it seems, is French. (Again, according to the Middle English Dictionary, all the attested Middle English spellings have the <u> -- but the French cognate is in fact spelled just like Google suggests, as far as I can tell. I don't speak French at all, though, so grain of salt.) I wonder how that happened -- do non-English words just kind of drift into the machine-learning system's vocabulary? Possibly through the same mechanism I speculated about with the Middle English above -- i.e., people write documents that are mostly in English, but contain some quotations or something in other languages, and if that happens enough, Google starts to think it's an English word?

Wait, is that maybe what's screwing a lot of this up? Either Google's system is going "This document is in English, so all the words in it are English words" and thus stuff just keeps bleeding between languages and screwing up the dictionary, OR Google's system is just kind of language-agnostic and sees no issue with suggesting French words in a document that's mostly in English? Is this why there are so many words that aren't correct Modern English spelling, but which Google Docs doesn't mark wrong? Like, they happen to line up with words in other languages, so Google just thinks you're borrowing really haphazardly throughout?

Also, side note, it tried to correct "hir" to "hirt", which is not an English word, but apparently stands for High Impact Resistance Training. Moving on.

Shenden is a Middle English verb that basically means "to damage or destroy". You don't really see it much in Modern English, though the OED has a couple examples of 20th-century usage. Anyway, I thought this was another case of Google bringing in different Middle English words, but a quick search tells me "Sente" is a skincare brand. That's probably more relevant.

Google Docs again just ignoring whole lines.

Odd choice there, sight being closer than site in terms of spelling. Maybe the algorithm assumes that if you end with an <e> you probably mean the second one.

Interesting, Google Docs. Why do you think that should be "night"? (Oddly, it actually gets all the red-underlined words in this line correct, meaning it pretty much has the context of the word.) Somewhat weird suggestion there.

I'm about a quarter of the way through the document and I think this is long enough for now; I'll probably come back and reblog with additions later. Before I go, however, here are my lists of "things spellcheck should be able to fix but can't" from what I've gone through so far.

First, spellings that differ from Modern English by only one letter, but which completely stump Google Docs (i.e., it marks them wrong but only gives the "why am I not seeing a suggestion?" message):

Goute ("gout")

Herbes ("herbs")

Melodye ("melody")

Smale ("small")

Swete ("sweet")

Syde ("side")

Ther ("there")

Wel ("well")

And second, words that are not correct in Modern English but that Google Docs does not mark wrong:

Anoon ("anon")

Attempree ("a temperate")

Beautee ("beauty")

Bowle ("bowl")

Dar nat ("dare not")

Daunce ("dance")

Dede ("dead")

Doon ("do")

Dronke ("drank")

Dronken ("drunken")

Fyr ("fire")

Gyse ("guise")

Hadde ("had")

Hir ("her")

Hir ("their")

Hond ("hand")

Lak ("lack")

Lakked ("lacked")

Lordes ("lords")

Maad ("made")

Pyne ("pain")

Rasour ("razor")

Sayde ("said")

Shere ("shear")

Som ("some)

Sondry ("sundry")

Spyces ("spices")

Styward ("steward")

Syk ("sick")

Thencens ("the incense")

Usshers ("ushers")

Wente ("went")

Wyf ("wife")

Y-goon ("gone")