#do you think SWEDISH KIDS understand english?!

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

It baffles me that the only ones who got the Creepschool intro where they sing in english was in Sweden

In all other countries they instead got this instrumental version

Like this show existed in english (it was co-produced between Sweden, France and Canada), and yet the english speaking audience DIDN'T get the version where they literally SING in english?

[yourlocalbadgerscales]

Time to teach you Potterheads something you didn’t know about Harry Potter!

Welcome to my Harry Potter class, assholes. To begin with, I kinda have two native languages because my dad spoke English when talking to me and my mom communicates to me in Swedish. Where I live everyone talks Swedish, so yeah.

I have the whole Harry Potter book series in Swedish (the Swedish version of the first Harry Potter film is so bad I tell you), and here I am now, sitting with my copy of “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” in my lap (”Harry Potter och Hemligheternas kammare” in Swedish btw ☺️). I’m currently reading the scene where Tom Riddle is transfiguring those magic letters in the air that spell out his name, and then he switches them and it says “I am Lord Voldemort”. You know what scene I mean I hope.

When I tell you that this scene is so fucking funny in the Swedish version. Swedish for “I am Lord Voldemort” is “Jag är Lord Voldemort”. Therefore, the person who translated this copy had to make that match with his first name, Tom Riddle, somehow. This is where it gets funny. Apparently, they didn’t manage to figure out a way. So this is how they solved it.

His name isn’t Tom Marvolo Riddle in Swedish. It’s fucking Tom GUS Mervolo Dolder.

GUS 😭🤚

“Dold” is one Swedish word for “hidden”, so loosely translated his last name that should be Riddle means “Hidden-er” 💀 At least it’s better than “Gåta”, the Swedish word for Riddle. But wait, there’s more!

That’s only the first set of letters. Then he switches the places of the letters to prove Harry his point. And Harry’s eyes widen in horror… and utter confusion.

EGO SUM LORD VOLDEMORT.

This isn’t Swedish for your information. It’s fucking Latin. Voldemort is there thinking that this 12 year old boy knows Latin.

Because this mf goes: “Do you understand? “Ego sum” in Latin means “I am”, as you very well know.”.

As you very well know. This bitch has the AUDACITY to open a fucking Latin class in the Chamber of Secrets and start educating Harry Potter just before attempting to kill him.

It’s not news that he cares about the kids’ education though, considering that he always attacks Hogwarts at the end of the year. But this takes the cake dude.

Props to Lena Fries-Gedin for the Swedish translation.

[realredbanana]

Totally random thought. I’d love to read/write a Sara-centric fic/character study focused around identity and lack there of, especially in regard to autism. (Mild warning, I may be accidentally projecting a bit here as she is a character I personally deeply relate to).

Like, I’d love to explore/see someone explore her feelings around herself and who she is, because for a lot of (if not the entirety of) the series, she’s masking. Constantly. (Oo, would also love to explore the consequences of that) and constantly masking to that extent, on top of being absolutely exhausting, can realistically lead to a lack of any real identity. For example, personally, I have no real idea of where the mask ends and I begin, is the mask part of me? If it isn’t, why can’t I just switch it off? If it is why doesn’t it feel like me? So, I’d love to actually think deeper about that in regard to Sara.

Additionally, she’s mixed race. And since Micke’s out of the picture, it’s not unreasonable to assume that her, Simon and Linda see (or at least speak to) Linda’s side of the family more than Micke’s, which could potentially make Sara feel at least a little bit awkward given that she’s white-passing and has much less desire to speak Spanish (potentially because of bullying? Or general fear of being further ostracised?). That could easily lead to a feeling of not being Swedish enough to easily fit in with the white Swedish kids, yet not Venezuelan enough to easily fit in with the rest of her family. (This is the bit where I’m most concerned about slightly projecting because, while I am white, I was born in England (with mostly English family) yet I’ve spent most of my life in Wales, leading to a general feeling of being ‘not Welsh enough to be Welsh in Wales, but not English enough to be English in England’).

Plus, she was considered an outsider amongst the girls (and boys, really) who were experiencing crushes for the first time at, what, 12? 13?? 14??? Whereas she first experienced romantic/sexual attraction at 17, almost 18, much later than everyone else. And, as much as this sucks, I know that a fairly large part of the Teen Experience™️ is crushes. Talking about crushes. Teasing your friends about their crushes. Trying to talk to your crushes. Etc. So, to be quite late to experience your first crush (if you ever do) is quite isolating. You very quickly realise “ah. I see. I’m not normal.” — and to have any part of your identity built on top of this feeling of “I’m not normal” is kind of really horrific. Also, when she does experience that attraction, it happens to be towards someone who is, one, her first ever friend’s ex and, two, the guy who leaked CP of her brother, which really complicates everything. So, she’s suddenly forced to juggle her crush (something that may, on some level, make her feel “more normal”) alongside the fact that being with August means betraying Felice and Simon (and, when it came to Felice, well, Felice already expressed that she wasn’t ever really in love with August, and with Simon she felt like he’d betrayed her first (by speaking to Micke)).

On top of all of these things, Sara also seemed to be losing interest in horses, to some extent, in s3. And losing/feeling on the brink of losing a special interest is something I’d never wish on anybody. Especially because a special interest can be/is a very core part of most autistic people’s identities (like, my interest in Young Royals is a core part of me, in fact, I find it easiest to understand the world around me through Young Royals) and losing that can be deeply painful, like, you’re actually grieving the loss of a major part of yourself. Imagine feeling your most intense interest, the thing that you feel makes you you, the thing that helped you whenever you felt really tired or sad or stressed, slipping away through your fingers. Nothing you can do to prevent it from fading, and the more you try to cling to it the quicker it fades. It’s a deeply distressing experience.

Just. In general, I feel like identity for Sara must almost be this complicated seeming mess of feeling like you don’t really belong anywhere. Which just feels horrifically tragic to me.

[operafantomet]

Hi Anea! Out of curiosity, how many languages you know? Are most Scandinavians multilingual?

"Know" is a bit... fluent. I tend to separate between how many languages I could read a book in VS how many languages I could order food in... Hah.

I think most Scandinavians learn the neighbor languages during their childhood or teenage years. I learned Danish as a very young child. My dialect is close to Danish and we frequently visited Denmark - it was a three-hour ferry trip away. And Swedish because of all the Swedish children's programs, Emil, Pippi, whatnot.

The three languages Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are quite similar, with some differences in words and pronunciation but not so much you would not get understood when talking your own language. I master all three as such, but prefer to speak my own language when talking to adults. For children I might change completely, depending on their level. But when I have visited Denmark with Swedish friend Josefine, we have all spoken our respective languages without much issues.

There's also hybrids for easing the communication - the most made-fun-of version is "svorsk" (svensk/norsk, AKA Swedish/Norwegian). It's sometimes done on TV and it's rather amusing. I think the best illustration is this candy, as that middle letter is a hybrid between Norwegian/Danish Ø and Swedish Ö. It doesn't make sense in any language, yet A+ for trying.

So yeah, I speak and read Norwegian, Danish and Swedish, albeit I only actually speak the two latter when forced as I feel I'm a character in a TV series when speaking it. I guess the best comparison in English would be to fake a Scottish accent. It's do-able, but doesn't feel natural.

Then there is of course English. Most Scandinavian kids learn it both in school and from the internet. Most are also encouraged to do a second foreign language later on. For me it was French, but I'm somewhere between "can ask simple questions and hope for a simple answer" and ordering food. This is also my approach to German. There is so much similarities to Norwegian I understand a lot of what I read and hear, but I can't form my own sentences.

With a base in English, Germannic languages and a Latin language I can fake my way through many European countries and at least order food, understand basic newspaper headlines and manage my way through non-English websites (for example looking for tickets or info).

As an adult I also tried to learn Greek. The grammar absolutely killed me, but I can read it fine enough (in the pace of a child). I just don't understand a lot of what I read. Hah! I can also - again - order food, say my name, ask how people are doing, understand ticket systems etc.

So yeah... I would say I master four languages - Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and English. I can fake my way through French, German and Greek to some extent, and that also translate into related languages (for example Italian, Dutch). But I could never read a book in those languages, or hold a meaningfull conversation past "Hello, my name is (...), how are you doing?".

[tweehearts]

annika norlins english project, hello saferide, is more well known outside of sweden than her main band säkert! which is a true bummer because everything that hello saferide does, säkert! does better. even if you don't understand what she is saying, the music by itself and her golden vocal melodies make it worth checking out. i would recommend google translating her lyrics though, norlin is one of the best songwriters in swedish pop (or music in general) and a true indie cult classic.

this is THE hit! everytime this song plays on the indie clubs, the floor is filled immediately. one of swedens only twee pop hits!

"we will die at the same time"

i could write more about the AMAZING swedish indie pop scene and its subculture, the pop kids (poppare) but that can wait for another day (im thinking of doing a zine about it actually, more about that later!)

[lovelyladylavie]

Background character sketches for "My Brother’s Child", a fic I've been writing for about a year. It is E-rated for s*x and graphic vio lence, but it's also full of Rise-style fluff, family moments, and humor. But I'm adding a T-rated version soon, and when I do, I'll drop the link.

The fic is generally about the different stages of love and loss the adult turtles go through during the apocalyptic future in the Rise Movie, and how things change over the course of the years until Time Travel Day. The fic is canon compliant, so all the losses suffered in the movie are, in fact, in the fic, or will be soon.

So i needed some background characters that can create situations for the turtles to navigate. Expendables, if you will.

This is the Mad Dogs Hockey Team (and a few others). They're Raph and Cass' scavenger squad full of ultra-strong weirdos. All their weapons and armor were made by Donnie during a fit of unbridled inspiration.

But anyway, in case you can't read my chicken scratch (from left to right) under the cut:

Denzlo:

-Stinky Boy

-Doesn't shower much to conserve water

-Fiercely Loyal to Raph and Cass

-Incredibly kind, but has a short fuse

Evans:

-Out of the Box Thinker

-Tall and Buff (gotta stay fit in the apocalypse)

-Smartass

-loves his wife, Spice

(Not on here, but recent lore drop in the fic, Evans was training to be a radiologist, so he's the group's de facto medic. He also loves stealing dried herbs/spices during scavenges to spice up he and his wife's rations)

Spice:

-Soft spoken and stealthy

-uses Donnie-Tech camo cloak

-high kraang kill-count

-loves her husband (they dance together at bad times)

-was a law student

Pietro:

-Angry at everything, was scared of mutants (still kinda is.)

-has two kids (Trish and Tai)

-unpleasant person in general

Quinn:

-Short Queen, sweetheart

-Used to be a mortician

-Goth, from Jersey

-Took care of Raphael’s body

Maya:

-A bit self-centered, brutal, sadistic

-likes cute things

-likes Mikey

-uh oh

The honorable Rabbi Venkman (Not a member of the Hockey Team, but one of Mikey’s 'Light-Steppers', the mystic warrior squad he teaches):

-handles all religious crises in the rebellion base

-Thinks the world of Mikey, learned mystic arts from him

-very tall and soft spoken

-very moral and fair, if a lil sassy

Delia Vardanyan (civilian):

-In charge of the war's orphans, takes care of all children on base when their parents are busy, in charge of their general education.

-HATES Donnie (likes his brothers, though?)

- Armenian immigrant. survivor of the original kraang attack. Very loud/outspoken. They found her eating MREs in a turned over battleship in the harbor.

-Trusts. NO. One. (Sleeps a lot)

Yuri:

-Was a tourist/exchange student in NYU from Sweden

-Struggles with English and has a very heavy accent

-Maya is his bestie by default bc she speaks fluent Swedish and was the only one who could understand him when the world flipped upside down. His English has gotten better over the years, but he still needs her.

-Speedy in battles. Will share his rations. Bit of an appreciator of the finer things in life, like wine.

-Maya and Yuri have both slept with Mikey. Mikey is quite a Casanova in the resistance due to his mystic mystique. (That... might change once he starts aging more rapidly, however...)

There's another page of characters, but it contains spoilers, so im gonna have to correct that before i show it.

[transparencyboo]

Brave Fencer Musashi (1998) was never released here in Europe, but somehow a pirated copy found its way to me as a kid. My dad had at some point gotten my PS1 modded with some kind of multi-X chip and sometimes brought home curiosities burnt onto discs. We didn't have a lot of them, but I remember some very fondly because of how elusive these copies felt without a box or even official cover art to speak of. Only the distinct allure of titles in black sharpie graced the discs, making them feel strangely mystical in a way. One of these games was Brave Fencer Musashi.

I was the only kid that knew about this game. Of course I didn't know that it was never released here at the time, but it sure felt like a special game that only I was privy to. I suppose this was partly why I went back to it over and over again, despite not knowing much English at all. I did not even understand how to save. I basically replayed the opening several times and just basked in everything that snippet of the game had to give me. It was fantastic, amazing even. It had such an impact on me that to this day I still remember the opening cutscenes and set pieces more vividly than most other games I played at the time. I hum the music of the first level sometimes. Lines of dialogue burned into my mind, even though my Swedish kid brain didn't grasp most of it.

Over 20 years later, I finally finished it.

It's interesting to go back to a game that was made almost mythical in my mind as a kid, one that has stuck with me even though I never really played through it. There was a risk that experiencing it for real would somehow taint that perfect imagination of it, but I think it was worth it in the end. Brave Fencer Musashi might not be as fantastical to me as a grown adult with understanding of English and a vast knowledge of video games, but I still appreciate it for what it ended up being. It's a simple platforming action game with light RPG mechanics, stunning graphics and some silly humour sprinkled in. It's certainly not ground breaking by any means, but I'd say it still sticks out as a solid little gem on the platform despite that. I was most definitely entertained throughout my 16 hours of playing, enough so that I collected all the splangos as well as all the bobbins – and that's more than I can say for most games. I even maxed out my stats, and it didn't even take that long. That's the mark of a pretty good game right there.

I really like the environments, the simple platforming combat, the toys of all the characters that you can collect and the goofs and gags that the rather conventional story presented to me. I liked that all the characters are named after food and drinks, and I think it's brilliant that one of them is inexplicably just called Jon and has a dog named Leno. It has tons of secrets to find and collect and pretty much everything feels rewarding and fun to do. It's good is what I am saying.

I will say though that the shogi puzzle could've used another pass through the localization (if you know you know), and the fact that they put a memorization rhythm game right at the very end almost made me quit playing. The only reason I got through that segment was because Kiki helped me with her extremely powerful short term memory. I am good at 3D platforming and actions shenanigans, but memorizing long strings of patterns that are also sensitive to rhythm just makes my brain shut off. I am glad that that character got danced to death by the end of that segment, because she certainly deserved it – Mickey Mouse looking shit.

Anyway, Brave Fencer Musashi is a pretty good platforming action game that reminds me quite a bit about Monster World IV, which might coincidently be the best game ever made, so that's a big A+ in my book. My childhood memories have finally been redeemed and can now rest in peace.

Next up from the pirated Playstation collection that stuck in the depths of my kid brain - Team Losi RC Racer

[mangoshorthand]

Love your thoughts about him in the apocalypse. Do you think he learnt Italian in the apocalypse as well? I don't know if Reggie would teach them other languages..

Reginald definitely taught them the other languages. I can't remember where but it's stated explicitly in the show somewhere that multiple languages were on their exhaustive syllabus, including ancient Greek, (which is shown when Five quotes Homer from memory in S2). It's interesting in that Five is the one for whom the lessons seem to have stuck the most though. He can read Swedish while Diego and Luther can't. Having said that, even I could work out what öga för öga meant when I first watched that scene and that was only based on speaking English, a few words in German and having a basic understanding of etymology and morphology, so it doesn't necessarily mean he would be proficient in Swedish.

My headcanon is that Five can speak seven languages fluently, but the only ones on that list I'm firm on is English, Italian, Latin, and at least one other Germanic language. (I imagine his Ancient Greek is not fluent: good enough to read it well and quote Homer, but if he found himself in ancient Athens, he'd be fucked.)

I imagine he can pick up the odd word in and translate sentences in lots of languages because being multilingual gives you a bit of an insight into how language works and teaches you to form connections between words.

I always imagine that French is not in his repertoire though. I have this story in my head that it was on the academy syllabus, but he neglected learning it in favour of learning Latin because he was kind of up his own ass as a kid.

[eyes-of-rock]

Passion Play

Jack Blades X OC

Chapter One

Summary: Ren is the bassist of rock Swedish band Savage Seduction. While on tour with Night Ranger, she catches the eye of Jack Blades and her life changes.

Reblog’s, likes and comments are really appreciated!

Summer 85’

Sometimes life feels like a blur. Like it's moving at a pace, I can't keep up with. Like it's rushing by me. Like I can't even process what just happened and something new happens. It's been especially like that recently. I went from a nobody to rocking some of the biggest stages in Europe as the bassist and co-founder of my band Savage Seduction.

The other founding member is our guitarist and vocalist Gunnar. Gunnar and I have been friends since we met as kids. We grew up next door to one another and both ended up having dreams of being rock stars. Everyone always called us crazy but that fueled us.

Now here we are on our second tour of the States with another gold album and a hit song and video that's on constant rotation. It feels pretty fucking great to be back.

This time we’re touring with Night Ranger. I've never met any of the guys before but I do really love their music. I own all their albums and the last time we played the States I actually went to see them live and it was a great show. So I'm looking forward to playing with them.

That's the most important thing really knowing the band you’re playing with is good and can hold up your standards. It makes it run a lot smoother and from what I've seen Night Ranger can do that. Even if we are the opening at. We aren't as big here as in Europe, but we are making ground. Especially since it was out the second time out.

Currently, we’re backstage before the show starts getting ready. I've got my bass in my lap and I'm warming up on it. Kelly our lead guitarist is sitting across from me doing the same thing on his guitar. Jan our keyboardist and Gunnar are chatting away as they finish up their hair. Mick our drummer is hitting his sticks on the edge of the table while also drinking a beer.

You think it would be weird to be the only girl in an all-male band but it's really not. They just see me as one of the guys. It probably helps I’m not traditionally feminine either. Sure I have my femininity, but most of my interests aren't “girly”. I'm into fast cars and motorcycles. I fix an engine better than any of them. I'm a champion Archer and I did a lot of motocross. It's actually how I met Kelly and got him in the band. So you could say I fit in well with these guys.

Suddenly someone knocked on the door.

“Come in” Kelly calls over in Swedish forgetting we’re in America not our homeland and most people unless on crew probably don't understand it.

“Come in,” I call after him in English playfully hitting my stupid ass guitarist.

“Oh yeah we’re in America.” he laughs.

Then the door opens and on pours the five members of Night Ranger. Who I recognize from being a fan.

“We just came to meet you wish you good.” Jack Blades my bassist counterpart and the frontman, tell us. I must say he's very cute in person and quite tiny. He's kind of like a little mouse but in a cute way.

“Thank you, I’m Ren.” I say first before anyone else in the band speaks up. We all speak English but I happen to be the best. My father is Swedish and I was born and raised in Sweden and very much view myself as Swedish, my mother was an American. So I grew up speaking both English and Swedish. She died a few ago. Unfortunately without ever coming back to her homeland, a choice she made for a reason I'll never know or understand, but I'm here now.

“I'm Jack,” he replies, then points to my bass. It's a signature I make with Hamer. Much like himself. It's a different body shape than him and mine is a deep dark purple shade. “Nice bass.”

“Thanks, it's my signature,” I informed him to play a little riff from one of our songs to show off I guess. She's a beauty and I know it.

“I figured.” he laughs, “it's nice meeting you.”

“It's nice meeting you too,” I tell him with a smile. “We’ll be seeing more of each other I'm sure.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” he says with a charming smile.

Just as our tour manager comes back to tell us we've got 5 minutes till show time and Night Ranger all clear out to let us do our final preparations.

I hand my bass off to my tech and go and check myself one final time. All is looking good. I'm ready to rock these mother fuckers!

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

**This is related to the post about dcla gatekeeping telenovelas** In my eyes this whole debacle is mostly about popularity and demand/availability. Even before Violetta/Soy Luna there were a shit ton of teen (non disney tho) telenovelas that were extremely popular on their lands but didn't really pick up outside except a few places + europe, which is a shame for so many reasons, especially because i've seen a fair share of stuff that i think you and a lot of other people of this community would enjoy if they liked violetta/soy luna/bia/go vive tu manera etc but it's not available if you don't understand even slightly one of the neo-latin languages or languages that are kind of indirectly affiliated (mostly because those dubs/subs are the ones that are easier to find). I was also tempted to try and start subbing them in English but it would take an insane amount of time (still thinking about it tho..)

And then Violetta was like an insane phenomenon at the time and I understand why they tried HARD to push it on the american audience even tho they never really cared that much (which is insane to me because Violetta was such a core memory from my childhood) and maybe with Soy Luna they saw how popular it was in general and compared it with how uninterested the english speaking countries were at the times of Violetta and just... gave up with the whole translating thing because it wasn't worth it since it was already doing insanely good?? i guess (but that's just a theory/an opinion)

p.s. (The only disney gatekeeping I can fully conferm tho [in my opinion] is Juacas because I swear to god I cannot find it to save my fucking life in either it's original language or dubbed in my native language (it was released and was also really popular apparently, but at the time i was kind of away from telenovelas) so yeah I still think that sometimes they truly do shit without thinking and just generally suck at preserving international stuff. (i'm shit at explaining myself sorry lol)

No you’re good! D+ also randomly gatekeeps their d+ la shows from the international audience (like S2 of Papás por encargo?? Why not release it everywhere???? We wanna watch it too!). Also I wish they released stuff like Patito Feo… I’ve heard of that show’s existence since I first saw Violetta and it was only released in a handful of countries. Also, Violetta was really marketed EVERYWHERE, and then SL came along and in my country, they dubbed the two first seasons and then never the third and I barely remember it airing on tv, while Violetta was marketed so much you could not miss it. They never aired Bia here at all, and it’s not out on D+ in my country (but when watching it with a vpn they had swedish subtitles available so??? why gatekeep it from us). ALSO, so many countries have their own version of ”as the bell rings” and not a SINGLE VERSION is available on D+, not even the italian version which is the original??

I also have some shows from my country (non-disney) that was popular here, but I wish was known everywhere because they are awesome.

The english dub of Violetta was not popular in the UK. It was popular everywhere else, for people who did not speak spanish but still loved the show, and thus when wanting to show clips from the show they used those clips. Now, I personally don’t like the english dub and they randomly don’t translate stuff correctly at times, but for many kids who did not understand spanish but did understand english, it was useful. Now, most countries had their own dubs too, but when posting about clips online for everyone to see, you rarely used your own language’s dub. You used the english dub, so that you could reach out to a larger audience.

I remember a few years back, I said that I felt like Soy Luna barely was marketed and people were like ”No it has higher ratings than Violetta!!” - and it turned out I simply missed it because as I said, in my country they barely marketed it in comparison to Violetta and since it did not even get an english dub, kids who did not know spanish could not talk ”internationally” about it in the same way, and mostly had to talk about it locally with the people from their own country.

I definitely agree that Violetta was such a phenomenon that they really tried pushing it on americans. ”Come on!! All of latin america and Europe are obsessed!!!! You need to join in on the fun!!” and they were like ”uh no thanks we don’t like dubs and the kids will be bored if it’s subbed”, and that eventually lead to them not even caring to dub SL. The only thing that is sad about that is that we could have gotten british Ámbar.

[suaine]

6x15 coda | Eddie goes to El Paso and talks to his mom | 1.5k

read on AO3

Even though he thinks of LA as home these days, El Paso is where he grew up, where he met Shannon, where Chris was born. El Paso has his heart in ways that LA could never understand and never replicate. Eddie sits on his parents’ porch late at night and listens to the noise of late spring in Texas. They are far enough outside the city for nature to replace the sounds of humans and it’s a symphony he knows well, white noise that is working away at the noise in his head.

Eddie knows it won’t drown it out altogether, but maybe if he just sits here for a while, he’ll be able to sleep.

It’s entirely dark when he hears the screen door open and close, a distinct sound that reminds him of a childhood running after his sisters as they start a new game and draw him in. Eddie smiles to himself but it feels heavy somehow, like he’s saying goodbye to something.

His mother sits next to him without a word but she hands him a steaming mug of coffee, the way he used to drink it, a little more bitter and less frivolous than he has come to enjoy it. There’s a softness to him now he has never allowed himself to feel when he was younger.

“Thanks,” Eddie says, eyes still on the horizon. The desert stares back at him with a vastness that would be terrifying if he was here alone. But he’s not alone and that’s something he’s slowly letting himself believe.

His mother hums and takes a sip from her own mug. “You looked like you needed it.”

Eddie has never doubted his mother’s love for him, not the way Buck always struggled with his own parents, but she has a way about her that makes it hard to be truly open. They have that in common, walls so high that no one can climb over them, only knock them down.

“Pepa talked to you,” he says, suddenly certain that this is why she’s been pushing for them to come visit.

His mother sighs. “She means well. Ramon and Pepa and your abuela, they all love you so much. They only want the best for you, all in their own way.” She rests her hand on his knee. “But they don’t know you like I do.”

Eddie shakes his head, but not because she is wrong. There is a connection between them, something so primal it’s hard to put into words. They’re too similar to get along, sometimes, too broken in the same ways to really communicate. “I’ve been thinking about Shannon a lot,” he says and his mother tenses.

“Ah.” It’s a sound that stands alone, that encompasses so much hurt and misunderstanding and guilt.

“I know you never liked her,” he says, weary and unwilling to fight over choices he made long ago.

But his mother huffs. “I liked her fine,” she says, “I just didn’t like her for you.”

A brittle, nasty laugh breaks out of Eddie’s chest. “Yeah, that’s just the same thing dressed up for church.”

“Eddie,” she says. She sounds weary, too. “You are my son.” Her voice suddenly sounds foreign, harder, like she’s speaking from a place far north, half a world away. “You are my son and that’s something I’ve tried to shield you from more than you know.”

Eddie thinks about all of the times in his childhood when his mother insisted to cook his abuela’s recipes, to celebrate their holidays the Mexican way, to hide herself in his father’s culture. How he calls her abuela when he speaks to Christopher and never thought to learn Swedish, a language that was never spoken in this house.

“When I met your father, he was warm and full of life, and I knew that I would follow him anywhere. But I was glad it was here.” She looks out at the desert. “It is easy to say I love you in English.”

Growing up, he and his sisters sometimes laughed about his mother’s accent when she spoke Spanish, but it’s only now that he’s letting himself think about the fact she learned two languages for them and never spoke her own.

“Shannon was a good girl, but you and her were two kids clinging to each other because the world was a scary place and you recognized a kindred spirit. I know, because I saw a lot of myself in her. And there is too much of me in you.”

Eddie is silent. There is nothing he can say.

“She died before either of you could find out that you were walking the same path in different directions.”

Eddie swallows hard, a sudden lump constricting his throat. “Before, uh, before she died. Shannon, she wanted a divorce.”

He’s never told his mother this because he was afraid of the vindication she would feel. Knowing that she was always right and showing it, making him feel young and foolish. But she doesn’t do that now, only sighs and leans closer, wrapping her arms around him. “Oh, Eddie, my poor boy.”

And he doesn’t know why this is what sets him off, that lets the tears finally run freely. But he is burning with it, tears running hot and wet down his face, his every breath a sob that shakes him to the core. “She- she said she needed to learn to be a mother first. That she couldn’t be both.”

His mother is running soft hands down his back and through his hair, humming something that could be a lullaby, but one he’s never heard before. Eddie lets himself be held and allows his tears to fall freely.

It takes hours, years, minutes, a moment. But the weight on his chest is lighter and the noise in his head is quieter. It feels like the desert just after a thunderstorm.

His mother lets him go as he pushes away slowly, but her eyes are on his, searching for something. She nods when she finds what she’s looking for and puts her hands on his face, rubbing the tear tracks with her thumbs. There is a light in her that Eddie has never let himself see, always eclipsed by the Texas sun.

“When you find the one you want to be with, you will know, because they will burn brighter than the sun. They will make you feel warm and safe and loved like no one else ever has.”

She smiles and Eddie feels the way she carefully avoids gender like a punch to the chest. How could she know when he hasn’t let himself even think about that part of himself? Has it always been there? And worse than that, when her words fall on him, each one stings with the knowledge that he has found his person long ago, has found exactly this feeling and is maybe too scared to ever do something about it.

“What if- what if they don’t want me back?” It’s the fear that keeps him locked up tight, running everywhere but where he wants to be.

His mother smiles. “Eddito,” she says, her accent so familiar it wraps around him like a blanket, “anyone would be lucky to have you. When he sees you, he will love you.”

He already does, Eddie knows that, just maybe not the way Eddie wants. And oh.

Oh, his mother knows this, too. Eddie doesn’t talk about Buck to his parents, tries to keep what they have, this weird, fragile little family that is always, always on a deadline, to himself as much as possible. But of course, his mother talks to her grandson and Chris has no such problems gushing about the man that’s taking up so much space in their lives.

What Eddie doesn’t say is as loud as the things he does and his mother has been hearing him his whole life. But she is like him, and he is like her, unable to put words to the emotions that are so heavy and vast in his chest. It’s not that they don’t feel, the two of them, it’s that they feel in ways that are hard to translate.

“Mom, I-” He stops, frustrated with himself and his silence.

She puts a finger to her lips and taps twice, shaking her head. “You don’t have to explain. You don’t have to say anything before you’re ready. But I think you will be ready soon and we will be here when you are.”

A new silence falls between them. It feels lighter, more complicit, like they are sharing a secret in the dark. Eddie drinks the last of his coffee, long since cooled to the ambient temperature. It tastes bitter.

“Mom, I have to tell you something. I actually like my coffee with oat milk and sugar these days,” he says, because he can’t say everything else.

She pats his back and nods. “Then we’ll make another pot.”

Eddie smiles at her. “That sounds like a great idea.”

[kafkaoftherubble]

!!! Oh but will it take away the experience of learning them?! Or will it work by granting me some really basic innate grasp like kids do in their critical period, and then I can master those languages well?!

Oh wait. It says “instantly”. Okay... never mind that was never the point...

The languages I wanna be fluent in are...

Sign language! Preferably the dialect (?) the most number of signing people will understand! I don't actually have any grand reason for it... Oh, wait! I do! This way I can talk and listen to even more people!

Sanskrit! This is partly something I wanna learn for the benefit of the other guy. This is for reading Buddhist philosophy, but it's technically most useful only for Indian Mahayana streams like the Madhyamaka school and the Yogacara school. So I should put a... 2.5. the Pali language! Now this is for the earliest stuff! This way I can read the Buddha doing his repetition schtick, where he repeated the same goddamn sentences with only one or two words changed for like 3 or 5 or 7 times... in his own language! Authentic nagging!

Latin! It's even adjacent to Sanskrit! This is because I do so love the English language. I know it's gotta be the most basic thing to say, liking English and all, but I used to read the dictionary when I was a kid and I just couldn't help but wonder about the etymology of each word. Also, maybe if I'm fluent in Latin, I will be at a good place to learn modern Latin languages!

German! It's something younger versions of me had wanted! As their current heir, I can technically fulfill their goals if I want to. Plus I'd be in a good place to understand/learn Dutch and Swedish and Danish and stuff! I'll be able to pick up that Swedish lithe they have! (Okay, I mean, I can also try to pick up that lithe from Irish or Gaelic...)

Thai! Because I want to be able to visit Ayutthaya by myself every now and then and just watch the sunset at Ayutthaya Historical Park and the elephants traveling at a distance. Some of the best days in our life were made in Thailand, especially Ayutthaya. There, we are not a ghost.

However, if I'm being honest... I don't think I'll mind not knowing how to instantly speak one or two of these languages if this power allows me to preserve a dying language or two before it gets properly store permanently, like maybe by an AI language model. I just hope I'll have someone to speak it to with this unique language, though.

Oh man. I should probably put "insect language" as one of the 5! I dislike insects and bugs, so I wanna learn how to say "Fuck off my property" and "Could you very sweetly fuck off from my property?" and "Halt, good sir, the window is that way. Best be on your way!" in their language so we can establish mutual trust.

If you could instantly be granted fluency in 5 languages—not taking away your existing language proficiency in any way, solely a gain—what 5 would you choose?

[narnianwizard]

Halloween Film Frightstival Day 25: Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) (2008)

I keep pushing Train to Busan further down my watchlist because I don’t feel like reading subtitles and yet here I am, watching a movie with subtitles even when there’s a reportedly decent English language remake of it

Swedish is such a strange language when you’re an English speaker because sometimes there are words that look or sound similar to English and it feels like you’re just the dumb one who can’t understand

This is a slow burn drama horror, and very “foreign film” vibes (simply meaning it’s a little artsy and doesn’t feel like mainstream Hollywood style films do)

It’s cute! It’s young love! It’s just that one of them’s a killer!

“If I wasn’t a girl, would you like me still?” Okay queer coded, I see you. Don’t know if that was intentional, but that’s basically an identical line to every trans coming out in fiction ever

The acid burn injury makeup is amazing, brutal and kinda gross yes, but so well done

“Do you want to be my girlfriend?” ���Oskar, I’m not a girl” “Oh. Well do you wanna go steady or not?” I know, I know it’s not supposed to be queer, but we still stan

Why do fictional bullies always come in sets of threes?

Okay do I have a fundamental misunderstanding of what a horror movie is? Because that was just a cute story about two kids who liked each other, one of them just happened to be a vampire. Like yeah they murdered people but a girl’s gotta eat right?

It was inherently queer, not like it was necessarily intended to be, but it was. I did skim wikipedia about the book as well which revealed that the queer lean the story took is a little problematic (there was technically one shot in the movie about it, but it was vague and I didn’t understand it until I read the wikipedia). It’s the kind of thing that either stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of sex/gender or has swung all the way back around to being progressive, and I honestly can’t tell which one it was (I get the impression that it’s the latter and the book might have been the former, but I haven’t read the book and I don’t know the intentions)

It felt really long, which I think was a combo of slowish pacing, having to read subtitles, and ads (fucking ads), so I don’t know how much I could sit through a rewatch, but I did really like it. It was cute and the vibes were good, and the actress who played Eli was really good at playing a vampire. It’s possible my opinion may have been swayed by my affinity for anything queer or queer coded though

[siriouslytired]

Someone asked me why I write in English instead of Swedish and I just had so many thoughts that I had to write it all down. Feel free to ignore this, my brain just would not stop once it had started.

I started learning English when I was 7. I’m old enough that this wasn’t done in the same unconscious way as kids the same age do now; the way my youngest relatives speak a frankly delightfully cute version of Swenglish despite not having turned 4 yet.

I remember forcing myself through awkward pronunciations, sounding everything out in my head to remember which letters do what and how Wednesday can lose some in a way that onsdag never does. How knocking is so much softer than knackande. I remember being so proud when I could finally turn off the subtitles on the movies my mum had bought me when she realized that I was genuinely interested in languages and not just happy to spend time learning a subject where I didn’t have to spend as much energy on the homework as I did with e.g., math. Swedish is something I know; English is something I learnt. It’s something I did for myself, in a way Swedish will never be – even though it’s a language I love the sound of, a language I absolutely adore when someone wants to learn.

Writing in your first language is just so much more intimate than using your second or even third language. With each step away from the first one the emotions become more and more removed from you as a person. At least for me.

Your first language is how you first learn to understand what you’re feeling; how to put a name to your reactions even if you’re someone who never talks about it. Using a language that you’ve actively had to learn is something completely different. The method that is used to assemble all the pieces to find a description that suits what you’re trying to convey is entirely different; there is a thoughtfulness, or rather a thoughtlessness, behind it that, at least for me, is not present in the scarce moments I try to use Swedish for the same purpose only to stress myself out because it’s just not right or entirely too personal; like standing naked in a room full of people in formal dress; lost at sea without land in sight, a wave cresting above your head, limbs weak from keeping your head above the surface.  

You could just leave it at the serviceable level if you want to. I’m stressed because of work; I’m angry because of x; I’m hungry; I’m sad; I’m tired; My stomach hurts; simple, to the point, understandable. The expressions used are amusing because you’ve had to decipher them through single words learnt without all its meanings attached; I spent years trying to wrap my head around all the ways that French uses faire, so many that I eventually just had to shrug when it turned up in a place I never thought it could if only to not get stuck on a single word when I had thousands left to cover.

To actively learn to use a different language to not only describe what you’re thinking and feeling but also to illustrate it in a way that doesn’t use the words themselves is a choice that my first language doesn’t allow me. It’s not that it was forced on me, but more that it crept up on me until I had no choice but to know, to get swept up in minute details I’d rather be blissfully unaware of. Especially when the details are my own.

An example of this, for me especially, is anger; regret; melancholy.

Anger is never going to be as evocative as ilska; être en colère is never going to give me the same reaction as förbannad; as vansinnig; All things that I resent having to feel, like my choice has been taken from me. All things that I never want to use Swedish to describe if only to avoid it being brought back to life just from its description.

Disappointment is not as heavy as besvikelse; regret can never convey the same sinking feeling as ånger; sorrow, chagrin, can never give me what sorg does; förtvivlan, bedrövelse make my stomach turn; désespoir, grief, can never measure up. Not even when the details attached make my eyes sting, shoulders curving inwards, a hurt not quite my own taking root.  

I love you flows from my lips like water, like an afterthought of a breath; je t’aime is something from movies; je t’adore something only found in commercials, removed from the personal altogether. Caricatures of people trying to sell something that I have no need of.

Jag älskar dig catches on my teeth, makes me choke, sends me running from the room out of embarrassment not yet felt; skam burning through my veins, sending me scrambling for a pillow to hide my face in; a skämskudde for everything I can’t bring myself to say. A word that will always be so much more descriptive to me than an entire essay on the subject could ever hope to be. Shame not even close to giving me the same visceral reaction, the same panic and rush of blood to my face.

I write because I like doing it, because words are endlessly fascinating to me in what they can do. I also write to remove my thoughts and feelings from myself, to express them in a way that doesn’t make me want to escape, to press them down until I’ve convinced myself that they’re gone. I’ve had to learn, actively learn, how to express myself; it wasn’t something that I was ever really taught growing up, at least not the important parts. Apologizing, saying please and thank you, speaking clearly; all of that was part of my upbringing. Telling people how I feel, how their actions made me react, how my actions came to be beyond I was wrong; that is not something I’ve ever really been comfortable with.

I use English to express all this because I’d get maybe one sentence of Swedish out of me and then stop. Not for lack of words, but for an abundance of them that I could never make sense of in a way that would make me comfortable enough to share them. The few times I’ve attempted to use French for the same purpose it feels so detached from myself it becomes void of feeling; the only thing remaining my desperate attempts to ascertain which tense is more appropriate to describe what I used to do and what I used to feel that has brought me here.

English is a tool at my disposal; Swedish is something that clings to me with soft hooks only to occasionally take the shape of something I’d be comfortable parting with. And even then it would leave me just a little chipped around the edges from its absence.

[roseposts-stuff]

hello:D i thought i should maybe do a little introduction post thing? so,

basic stuff:

my name is ruska, online i go more with rose or catto though, but you can use any of those

my pronouns are she/her (they/them is also fine, they're just completely neutral to me and that's fine by me), i'm aroace and sapphic

i'm 17, and my birthday is september 22nd, which happens to be bilbo and frodo's birthday and also billie piper's birthday. yes, this is my biggest flex.

i'm from finland, finnish is my first language and as you can see, i also speak english well. i can also speak a little bit of swedish but seriously not a lot

i at least hope to be nice and polite with everyone, so please don't take anything i post in bad faith, they're never meant like that! i don't think anything i post could be taken like that but just as a general. thought.

fandoms:

currently i'm obsessed with doctor who, broadchurch and good omens (i post doctor who stuff the most rn)

other shows/books i like/have liked include:

sherlock (i've seen bbc sherlock and granada's sherlock holmes show and i've read the books many years ago when i was like 12)

lord of the rings

once upon a time

staged

the owl house

warrior cats (yes, i was a warriors kid)

my favourite artist right now is hozier. other artists i like are, for example, taylor swift (i'm not a part of the scary swifties, promise), chappell roan and ethel cain

other things:

i'm also interested in history and filmmaking. i hope to study something film related after i'm done with upper secondary school/high school, whatever it's called i'm in. before this, i planned on studying animation, but after thinking about it, i thought i might get bored of having to stick to one scene for so long. i love all sorts of history documentaries and learning about stuff in general. like basically you can tell me any fact about anything, especially like science stuff and i'll be super interested even if i don't understand.

i like drawing and writing. i do have an ao3 account, but i post very little there. you can ask for the account but i don't want to post it publically :) i post my art on instagram, my account there is rose.drawzz

and lastly, this page is not for people who intentionally are racist, homophobic, transphobic, antisemitic, islamophobic, or anything like that. if i ever say anything that could be interpreted like that, please point it out and tell me why you saw it as a bad thing to say because i don't mean to do any harm. this page is something i use to just post stuff about my fandoms etc., because i want to have one page i can keep positive, i hope everyone gets that :)

[leam1983]

Narcolepsy's always been a problem in the family. Humans get it too, occasionally, from what I understand. In my case, it means you sit down at the bottom of the ocean to have a think and the next thing you know a hundred million years have passed. Not only that, but a weird bit of convergent evolution makes the land-monkeys receptive to your own species' telepathy, and you wake up realizing that you've, oh, driven a few hundred thousand people insane across History. They've seen your back yard, but you've dreamt of their cities, too. Their lives, their civilizations, their bad habits...

The poor cultists; they think I got up from the Atlantic's seabed for them, when what really got me out of my funk was how irrational their economists were. Their scholars accuse me of spreading madness, but what about the factory bosses and landlords that actually break these minds I'd happen to unfortunately innoculate?

Of course, there's a flipside, too. When I'm awake, I can slip all sorts of thoughts in other people's heads. Tacky Pulp Fiction authors would say I'd make a homely woman behave as though she were possessed by the soul of her ancestor, but all I really did was show poor Asenath that she didn't really need to make do with self-absorbed scholars, nevermind so-called propriety! She's a grown woman; she doesn't need some hoity-toity scholars from Miskatonic to sign off on her research!

Excuse me, I, er, got slightly sidetracked, here... My ability also makes everything else easier, too. As I am how others perceive me to be, all I needed was to imagine myself as person-sized, easily clothed and not too squamous, with tentacles that could curve into a smile, three-fingered and clawed hands you'd still want to handshake, and a silly pair of vestigial wings that serve more as emotional markers, now. I climbed up Providence's beachfront with a singlet and a straw hat on, kicked an old rubber ball back at a few kids and spent a few minutes convincing the locals that seeing a dumpy man in a dripping singlet saunter over to the closest haberdashery really was nothing special. Green skin? What green skin? There's nothing there, isn't there? By the time I had clothes on, nobody cared about my wings anymore.

I knew the risks, of course. By day, I'd pick up the local cannery, hire workers and keep them fed and lodged, but as soon as I'd lay down to rest my subconscious would wage war against the sleeping minds that surrounded me. The only way I could muffle out my call was by keeping a consistent sleep schedule, but a fair and flexible factory boss doesn't get the benefit of consistency.

I napped a few times. I fell asleep at my desk a few times. Only one worker died - poor old Johanssen - but he already wasn't quite right, back when I hired him. What was I supposed to do, leave a drunk ship's captain without a ship who couldn't speak more than three words of English before defaulting to Swedish ramblings alone on the docks?! Alone, with no place to stay?!

I may be Eldritch, but I'm no monster!

I try and console myself with the study grants I've financed, the houses I've bought, the marriages I've covered, the baby showers I attended - or the fact that our count of workplace injuries is far, far lower than what you'd find out of an outfit helmed by just any other profit-motivated human, but it's hard not to feel responsible when they call you by your assumed human first name and wonder why you don't have a wife or a family of your own.

I would, believe me; but my call is the one injustice I can't fix. Besides, I can consider my workers' union to be a family of sorts, right? We certainly have enough professional dinner dates together and enough arguments on how the factory needs to be run. All civil, of course - not that it stops outsiders from asking questions.

They say Christopher Thülen is an occultist, a cult leader. They say he comes to people in their dreams. Nope, that's just Chtulhu - what I'm stuck being. Like you never chose to have eyes that couldn't see into the infrared spectrum, for instance. Did you know mantis shrimp actually have jokes about human eyesight? I'd translate a few, but I'm afraid the punches wouldn't land. Get it - mantis shrimps, punches?

Oy. Tough crowd, huh?

No, what I'd like to know, Nodens, is why you, the purported protector of all Reality in the face of my myriad perversions, come to me in the guise of a Federal investigator - after planting scabs in the factory I helped unionize over in Brattleboro...

“When the Old Gods returned, they were surprised how easy it was to amass an army of followers. Turned out all they had to do was offer fair wages and good benefits, with reasonable deadlines and working conditions”