#dunno but i’ve become aware of this

[vinnyandthephenomena]

i’ve come to conclusion that december & january indeed depress me

[stainedglassthreads]

One thing I think I just realized is, in addition to being dissatisfied with how stories deal with Toriel’s grief compared to Asgore’s and Asriel’s, and how I don’t see many instances of Toriel and Asgore’s quarrel being addressed in a way that satisfied me... I don’t think I see that many AUs that quite get the responsibility Asgore feels... right.

Yes, I’ve seen several that portray his grief, depression, and how badly he doesn’t want to be in this position well, even if it’s disappointing how not everyone seems to be aware of what you learn about him in a Neutral run where you’ve previously killed Flowey. A lot of people can get aspects of his characterization very well, the broken man, the goofy dad, the intimidating monarch. But I think the reason I don’t see people capture the weight of his responsibility quite as well in fanfics and comics is... well. Oddly enough it’s in the way the monsters treat him.

It’s not just the fandom that has issues with idolizing or demonizing characters. It’s also the Kingdom of Monsters themselves--and they all idolize Asgore. Yes, he’s a very grounded and compassionate individual who invites his subjects to share all their problems with him, and who Papyrus insists will just let you pass through the Barrier. But he’s also a bit of the subject of a cult of personality for his subjects. When they say he’ll absorb seven souls and become a GOD, it’s not an expression of his arrogance, but rather their own adoration. While out-of-universe the Angel is generally agreed to be either Asriel or Chara(or us), in-universe I wouldn’t be surprised if Asgore was considered the Angel.

It’s not long now. King Asgore will let us go. King Asgore will give us hope. King Asgore will save us all.

Yes, individual monsters may want to collect a human soul for their own individual wants and desires. But it’s only the capture of a human soul, or using a single soul for their own benefit, that they really aspire to. (With the exception of Toriel, who wants no souls, and Flowey, who is Flowey.) Of those area bosses who earnestly try to take just one soul, Papyrus and Undyne both want to hand you over to Asgore, and Mettaton wants to protect humanity FROM Asgore. Literally everyone in the Underground seems to fully believe that Asgore will be the one taking all the Souls and fulfilling his promises, and all are content. (Again, barring Toriel, MTT, Flowey.) No one seems to ever doubt he’ll do as he says, even his ex-wife, and no one’s greedy to take the power for themselves or take the burden of being a savior for themself, except his kid who has both a God Complex and a Savior Complex.

With Chara, and with Asgore. They take a person and turn them into a representation of something More than any singular person could ever be. And then in the worst route Chara does it again, to themself. Asgore is freedom and salvation and retribution itself, and everyone including the woman who was once married to him agrees and reinforces the role. Chara is the feeling of a number going up, and the fandom agrees and reinforces the role.

And I dunno. There are fics and AUs where Asgore never lost his kids and always remained an affable, friendly guy. There are AUs where Asgore is the main antagonist and an awful villain with few redeeming qualities. There are fics and AUs where Asgore gets to recover in a post-pacifist setting. But I’m not sure any fics or AUs have ever quite captured how everyone else just talks about the guy, for me. Toriel is simply ‘intimidating’. But Asgore is a GOD.

[nnnyxie]

I‘m bAaAaAck

One other thing I’m an absolute sucker for is comfort🫶🏻 So imagine jealous!izu x reader

jealous!Itzu would probably just become quiet and insecure and withdraw himself from reader if it‘s extremely bad…in the begingen he‘d step closer…hold reader just a little bit tighter

Poor boy gets so nervous he just starts spewing random facts about reader to prove he knows reader better, like

„Did you know when you smile you have a dimple on your right but not on your left cheek?? And your nose crinkles right there *he taps readers face* and and your eyes squint and your cheeks go all rosy and-„

poor baby is just a stammering mess :(

reassure and love him :c

#��� izuku anon

JEALOUS IZU!!!!!!!!!!

thank you izuku anon omg

i feel like izuku isn’t the type to get jealous easily, yk??

not unless he feels ‘threatened’

he’s not the type to like,,, ‘puff out his chest’ and ‘mean mug’ the person but— he is the type to hold some part of you. maybe your hip?? or put an arm around your shoulder??

though— there are times where he gets a bit insecure,,, so he just leaves.

he only stops when you say his name and ask where he’s going. he mumbles an ‘i don’t feel good’ and you cut the conversation with the person.

“you didn’t have to do that. you can go keep talking to them.” “no, you said you didn’t feel good so we’re going home.”

he sighed, now he felt guilty. he let his jealousy get in the way of your conversation.

when you reach home, he airs it all out. he tells you that he felt jealous, and that he feels guilty for making you leave when you were having fun. he told you how he felt like he was being a bad boyfriend for acting and feeling like that.

you tell him you were glad he told you the truth instead of keeping that lie and that you’re happy he’s able to communicate this all to you!! (we are all abt communication here folks!!)

“jealousy is a natural emotion and it’s something everyone experiences. i’m glad you told me. do you want to assess the situation?” he gives a nod. “okay, could you tell me why you felt jealous?” “i guess i just thought that they were�� you know… more interesting and… i dunno, better? than me… and i got insecure about it…” you gave an understanding nod, “it’s okay that you felt that way izuku, your feelings are valid. but, please, never think that for one second, there’s someone better or more interesting than you.”

you laughed a little, “after all, you had to eat hair to get to where you’re at. i believe that’s the most interesting thing i’ve heard in my life.”

the talk went on for a bit, you discussed the times you had gotten jealous as well, and discussed any insecurities you both felt.

it was a very relieving and reassuring conversation, on both ends.

but yk he’s still gonna feel jealous from time to time.

again, it’s a natural emotion! even animals get jealous!!! especially house pets, they’re very territorial.

with that reassuring talk, he’s doesn’t really withdraw anymore. instead, he makes direct eye contact with the person. not necessarily trying to intimidate them but,,, more so to show he’s very aware of the conversation and what the person is trying to get at.

the only times he’ll ever get like,,, overly(???) jealous is when the person brings up old stuff about you that doesn’t really… align(??) with you anymore. to him, it feels like they’re tryna one up him. ykwim???

so then he’ll go on a cute tangent about how you don’t really like that kind of stuff anymore or you aren’t like that anymore. he’ll go on a rant about your new favorite things/activities and how you are now.

he’ll wave his hands around to emphasize his points, and when he’s trying to remember a thing you told him about a show/book/movie— he’ll begin to mumble into his hand. it’s very sweet but, you’ll have to stop him because, the person just ends up excusing themself— they were kinda off-put by him.

but, it’s okay!! that’s just another reason to love him!!

IZUKU <3

[necromancerkisses]

I have some thoughts headcannons about De Riva Rook (any gender), specifically their background under Viago.

In the character creation menu when choosing your faction, it states that Rook hasn’t been a full-fledged crow for very long. For this thought process’ sake, let’s say a couple years. As far as I’m aware (based upon some google searches and what I know from previous games/ in-game dialogue) the training to become a crow is tedious, and takes at least 5-10 years. In my headcannon for my crow Rook, I think she’s around 26. That means that she’s been training to be a crow since she was between 13 and 18.

It’s mentioned multiple times that Rook and Viago have a very interesting relationship. He seems to have been their mentor, as he somewhat(?) is to Jacobus. I’ve seen some beautiful found family and complicated relationship headcannons from people on tumblr and TikTok respectively, and for my Rook I’d like to think it’s something like that. However, why does Viago seem so particularly critical of Rook? Everyone— Teia, Lucanis, Illario, and I think even some other minor characters make commentary on this. I understand that Rook is the main character, why would we hear about some rando crow that has nothing to do with the storyline? I digress.

I’m choosing to take that and run with it. In my headcannon, not only does Viago see himself in Rook, he truly wants them to be a master assassin and possibly reach as close to Talon status as possible. I’d like to think that this means he was incredibly harsh during their trainings together. No missteps, truly anything less than perfection wasn’t good enough for him.

I’ve also had a thought floating around about what (other than knife-wielding, magic if they’re a mage, poison, concealing themselves, etc.) creative aspects went into Rook’s training. Although this is arguably for a better cause, what if some of their training matched that of the Black Widows from marvel? Not the brainwashing and being literal puppets for a Big Bad™️, but the drill-like lessons? Some sort of conditioning to desensitize killing? Dancing? And on that point, party members will comment on Lucanis’s fighting looking like a dance. So, I’m imagining a somewhat disgruntled Rook having to learn ballet at the ripe age of 13 because it helps with movement, flexibility, control, and discipline. This is feeding into the fact that maybe all crows had to do this (hence the comments about Lucanis), but because of what I’ve already said, Viago was much harsher about Rook’s lines being straight, toes being pointed, and having total control of their muscles and bodily movements. I’m literally picturing Viago standing at the front of a room with his arms crossed shouting “AGAIN!” at a lone Rook who did not live up to his standards for whatever ballet combination he’s having them do.

This is not at all under the assumption that Viago doesn’t care for Rook. He does, deeply. But because of the possible personal connotations of Rook being under his guidance, he feels that a harsh hand is best for them. And, it kind of proves to be? I mean, yeah you start the game with the knowledge that Rook has been lowkey ‘suspended’ from whatever faction you choose, but that could literally tie into Viago being a little too harsh on them. Rook becomes the savior of all of Thedas— if not the world, so…maybe all the ballet that they dreaded and shiver if they linger on a memory about for too long was for good reason.

I dunno. I had a lot of thoughts. I feel like I could go even further into them, but I also might save that for some prequel De Riva Rook fics/ headcannon list.

Also, if anyone else has had this thought or would like to discuss I am all ears (and all yap). I haven’t seen anything like this and I couldn’t not share it with the possibility of discussion— and I’m totally welcome to criticism as well! I know not everyone has the same headcannons for their own Rooks and that’s totally fine!

[puppetwoman17]

Okay, so there’s this Billy Batson post-Injustice fic called A Reason to Fight on AO3, and it’s got me wanting more fics like that.

I mean, there’s so many different ways it could go.

One fic could be where he did die, and we can’t bring him back. The JL are brought back together to take on an otherworldly evil(surprise surprise) and they need the help of the gods to do it. With both conventional and unconventional means, they’re able to be granted passage to Olympus for this one catastrophic emergency(begrudgingly, because the gods sorta hate their guts).

Then they see this one glowing building, separated from the rest. It’s got a lightning bolt on it. Sparks flying around it. Gives off a less imposing vibe. There’s suspicions about what it’s for, but no one feels compelled to ask. Until a leaguer(doesn’t have to be specific, maybe Guy Gardener or Flash or whatevs) gains enough courage to ask what that place is.

The god leading them to Zeus stops dead in their tracks. They don’t speak yet. They turn and look at the leaguer who was dumb enough to ask a grieving god a question like that.

And the god replies: “The Hall of Champions is where every champion goes when they die. They are allowed to spend their afterlife in complete relaxation as the fruits of their labor. They meet others like them and forgo the troubles of their mortal lives.”

The god says that last part bitterly.

The JL immediately knows who’s inside. The building just speaks Marvel. That same stupid league member asks if they can go inside. If they can speak to one of them, no one in particular(everyone knows they’re lying, but the guilt is just too much).

The god laughs. Actually just laughs right there, in front of a bunch of mortals and super powered people who dare to think they can come anywhere near the former Champion of Magic.

The god tells them: “We granted him his wish of being part of a team because we thought it would help him through such trying times. We thought he finally had others who would look after him, something we may not always be able to do. We thought he would finally, after all these years, have something akin to family.

“And just like that, those hopes and dreams were taken away, all because our champion finally saw the light again. If you go so much as a foot closer to him, the gods of Olympus will show you the same mercy you showed your so-called teammate.”

Lol, that’s as far as I’ve gotten.

Another fic could be where he actually didn’t die, like in A Reason to Fight. He comes back to life after recharging just like in A Reason to Fight. But this time, there’s a change.

He doesn’t make himself known. He changes his identity and stays under the league radar. He doesn’t transform into Cap, but he secretly helps the people of Fawcett with his powers because BILLY was chosen, not the avatar itself.

Dunno how to go about the next part. That all depends on the plot, what characters are still alive and still dead. The timeline of when exactly he comes back and how long he stays incognito.

But somehow, someway, the League becomes aware that Marvel, that Billy, is alive. They rush to see him after (however) long. They see him alive and well…

And he’s just disgusted. Heartbroken. Scared. Angry. Tells them to f*ck off and find some other kid’s dreams to destroy. Tells them to never contact him unless it’s for business that requires the Champion’s reputation. Because despite everything, he still takes his job as Champion very seriously. Because he thought he could finally trust these adults, and they turned their backs on him.

He especially hates Superman for the looks of guilt he gives him. Just wants to punch him in the face. Same with Diana. Same with Lantern. Same with Flash and Cy. Maybe not Batman, but even association can hurt.

Again, idk where this one might go, or how the plot is or whatever, but I need more post-Injustice fics on Billy Batson damnit!

[cuddlepilefics]

Borrowed hoodie

Fandom: TXT

Sickie: Yeonjun

Caregivers: TXT

Prompt: @sicktember

No one’s POV.:

Yeonjun sighed after catching a stuffy sneeze against his wrist. It seemed he was coming down with another cold, if he had even recovered from the previous one. Maybe he was just relapsing? It was hard to tell but what he did know was, his immune system was not doing its job and he was fed up with it. He had already battled through one hour of vocal lessons, insisting that he was fine and that his throat felt perfectly normal. That wasn’t a complete lie, considering how frequently he had been sick lately, a sore and irritated throat had become his new normal and his vocal teacher had accepted it because his voice was raspy more often than it was not.

It wouldn’t be that big of a deal, if Yeonjun didn’t know that he was also scheduled for five hours of dance practice, which he didn’t know how to muster the energy for. He hadn’t really slept well the previous night, feeling a little restless and struggling to breathe through his nose. That also explained the headache he was nursing but while it made sense, it couldn’t be helped. Though he was a little under the weather, he wasn’t properly sick, at least not yet. There was no way he’d get time off of his schedule to rest at this point. Maybe once he’d start running a fever, he’d be granted a break. Yeonjun wasn’t upset over this though, knowing full well that he had already missed valuable practice time when he was last sick, so he was already behind the rest of the group and if he wanted a genuine chance at catching up, he’d have to give it his all qnd not miss any more practice sessions.

“Getting sick again, hyung?”, Soobin asked in passing, as he slipped Yeonjun a travel pack of tissues after watching the older repeatedly run his wrist under his nose. They were used to seeing their eldest all sniffly, so the sight wasn’t too surprising. Soobin mused that it was more likely that his hyung hadn’t yet recovered from his most recent cold because there was no way he could catch another one so soon, right? Shaking his head, Yeonjun muttered: “I dunno. At this point, I’ve accepted this as normal.” He kept his voice low enough for only the leader to hear, not wanting to worry their dongsaengs. Soobin wasn’t necessarily pleased with hearing this but he also wasn’t too worried, well aware that the older tended to catch everything and anything that went around.

The down turn Yeonjun was taking once again, was also apparent in his dancing but none of the others dared to point it out, knowing their eldest was already under pressure to catch up. Not that Yeonjun needed to be told anyway, realizing himself just how badly he was slacking. He couldn’t seem to do anything about it though, his limps heavy and brain foggy, which made his moves sluggish. Dizzily crouching down during a water break, Yeonjun questioned whether he had gotten out of shape lately or if he was already more affected by this cold than he had expected. Hueningkai brought him his water bottle, earning a weak smile from the elder. Realizing that his hyung wouldn’t be able to continue soon, Soobin told them all to take ten and frowned when Yeonjun stretched out on the floor with a relieved sigh.

“Do you think you can continue or do you wanna go home, hyung?”, the leader asked softly, kneeling next to Yeonjun. Propping himself up on trembling arms, Yeonjun groaned: “I can go on. Missed far too much practice already and I’m not even properly sick, just a little under the weather …but when am I not?” – “You really need a very, very long vacation”, Soobin sighed sympathetically, “And a long and hot shower once we get home.” – “Sounds like heaven. Both. I’m achy as hell”, the older sniffled. He felt completely wiped and they had only gotten through the first hour. The air-conditioning blasting down on him made him shiver, which wasn’t too surprising because his shirt was entirely soaked as he had started sweating buckets while warming up.

Though Yeonjun made sure to drink enough water to compensate how much he was sweating, his headache only worsened and it got increasingly hard to convince himself it was brought on by dehydration. If he didn’t know any better, he’d guess that he was developing a fever. That’d at least explain why his mind was so hazy. He had already stumbled into Beomgyu earlier, almost knocking the younger over. Luckily, neither of them had gotten hurt but that was only a matter of time if Yeonjun kept going like this. That was also how Soobin managed to guilt trip him into sitting the rest of the practice out.

“Come on, take that sweaty shirt off. You can borrow my hoodie instead”, Soobin cooed, brushing Yeonjun’s damp bangs out of his face, “You’ll only get worse if you sit around in that. Look, you’re already shivering.” – “Yeah, I- I don’t really feel well”, Yeonjun rasped, resting his thumping head in his hands as he tried to find the energy to peel off his shirt. He could barely get it off, too sore to wriggle out of the sticky fabric. Soobin ended up helping him and smiled when Taehyun threw him their hyung’s towel, so he could dry off. Carefully slipping the hoodie over Yeonjun’s head, the leader smiled: “Do you wanna rest here till we’re done or do you want me to call manager-nim for a ride back to the dorm?” – “Rest here”, the eldest mumbled. He already came to consider himself as an inconvenience to his group and management team with how often they had had to accommodate his health lately.

Yeonjun lay down off to the side, a towel folded over his eyes to block out the light. He was lucky to always carry earplugs in his bag because there was no way he’d be able to sleep while his dongsaengs practiced with loud music. Right now, he was almost exhausted enough to drift off, if only he wasn’t so freaking cold. It made no sense. He should still be overheating from dancing and he wore Soobin’s thick hoodie. There was no way he could possibly be cold but yet here he was, shivering so hard he fought to keep his teeth from chattering. Maybe he should’ve taken Soobin up on the offer to arrange a ride back to the dorm. He’d probably be warmer in his room with the air-conditioning turned off and a warm duvet on his bed. Speaking up now would only be more of an inconvenience, so he didn’t dare to.

“How are you holding up, hyung?”, Beomgyu asked, when they packed up their bags after practice. Though he claimed to have rested well as to not worry his dongsaengs, Yeonjun hadn’t slept a wink. Forcing a smile, the eldest whispered: “I’m okay, Gyu. Tired though, really tired.” – “You look feverish, you know? There’s no point in me feeling your forehead because I’m still really warm but your eyes look glassy”, Beomgyu pointed out with a sad smile. Overhearing their conversation, Soobin already knew he’d be making some phone calls later that evening to clear his hyung’s schedule, whether the older liked it or not. The leader slung Yeonjun’s bag over his shoulder and asked: “Who wants to get takeout on the way home?” There were tired cheers, none of them having the energy left to cook. “Let’s get you some soup, hyung”, Soobin whispered as he linked arms with Yeonjun, “Judging by your voice, your throat needs it.” The eldest only gave a small nod. He had no appetite but knew they wouldn’t leave him alone and he really wanted to take something for the fever and headache.

Hueningkai was sweet enough to offer Yeonjun his shoulder to rest in during the drive back and stayed with the older while the rest went to pick up their dinner. How the eldest managed to get sick so frequently was beyond him. Yeonjun had to be under a lot of stress for his immune system to end up this week and considering that all of them were stressed, yet he was the one to get sick the most, it had to be bad. Not that Hueningkai could imagine what the responsibility of being a group’s eldest was like. It made his heart ache for the other though. He would’ve loved for Yeonjun to get some more sleep during the drive but the eldest frequently had to sit up coughing, the sound increasingly rough. “Do you want some water, hyung?”, the maknae whispered, reaching for his bag. Nodding gratefully, Yeonjun breathed: “Feel like my throat is all torn up.” – “I think I might still have a couple of cough drops in there somewhere, hang on”, Hueningkai muttered, rummaging through his bag, “Here, this might help some.”

“Alright, we got everything, let’s head home”, Soobin announced as he settled back into his seat, balancing a takeout bag on his lap. Buckling his seatbelt, the leader asked: “You wanna eat first or shower first, hyung?” – “I think I’ll eat first”, Yeonjun mumbled, “Won’t be able to stay awake for long after I shower. ‘m so freaking tired.” – “That’s alright, we’ll get you fed and medicated, so you can take that shower and head straight to bed afterwards”, Soobin chuckled. The remaining ride passed in silence as to not aggravate Yeonjun’s headache. Besides, all of them were rather tired after hours of dancing… and hungry.

As soon as they got back to the dorm, the younger members started to dish out the food, while Soobin went to the bathroom and fetched some medicine for Yeonjun to take with his meal. They picked a nutritious soup for the eldest because it’s go down easily while also providing his body with what it needed to recover. Still it was hard for Yeonjun to eat dinner when he had absolutely no appetite and his nose was blocked, making it feel like he was suffocating. He didn’t eat much but Soobin quietly praised him nonetheless, reminding him to take his medicine.

Walking the eldest to the bathroom, Beomgyu hummed: “Anything specific you wanna wear?” – “Ndo, just make sure it’s warm please”, Yeonjun rasped, steadying himself on the doorframe. It left his dongsaeng with a bad feeling about letting him shower alone, yet he busied himself with picking out a cozy outfit for his friend and listened closely in case the other fell.

Though it took quite some effort, Yeonjun washed up and sluggishly threw on the clothes Beomgyu had left for him in the sink. He was already half asleep when he looked himself down and realized that what he was wearing wasn’t his own hoodie. Beomgyu had lent him his own fuzzy comfort hoodie, that he always wore when he was upset because he claimed it made him feel better. Yeonjun felt his heart swell because the younger didn’t usually allow anyone to borrow it. It was an immense honor being allowed to wear it and maybe Beomgyu was right and it did have some special powers because Yeonjun already felt slightly better when he collapsed into bed.

[ao3userforgets]

i need to mutter into the void so i’m going to post under the cut the trials and tribs of my current clegan fic writing experience so no one including (especially) me has to make eye contact with it. it’s basically a diary entry. god bless anyone that reads it lol. love and light 🫶

goddamn writing this fic is kicking my ass. it was just meant to be an angsty gale introspective. then i started another and that was meant to be them just fucking absolute nasty style. now i fear they have combined, morphed, metamorphosed, and it’s becoming a monster. goddamn. what does one do in this situation? it would be my first time posting in this fandom and my second time posting fic at all. i’m shaking in my boots about it. there is so much wonderful fic being posted for this pairing and so many approaches and styles. i would love to get mine out and see it amongst those works. i’m just not sure how to go about constructing this fic and how to post about it. i’d like to post some bits and pieces and maybe someone will see it and tell me it’s worth it to finish it but first and foremost i’m really writing this for myself, because it’s the type of fic i love to read and also i feel like i need to be writing it so my mind is creating something. and it would feel like a waste to me and a let down for myself if i never post it. also i’m projecting very hard onto it and onto gale as a character, so it feels kind of personal in some parts? which can’t totally be avoided but because of that and because the way i write is also very personal to me it’s making something that should be fun to post about feel quite daunting. but i want to push myself so badly because it’s been years since i’ve done that, maybe i’ve never done that. and Of Course it’s wwii yaoi that’s gotten me to this point.

anyway, y’all ever think about gale identifying as a more feminine being than is expected for a man like him in the time he’s in, thus manifesting itself into years of repression he’s not entirely aware of until he meets and grows closer to bucky, and how he comes to terms with being awakened in such a way that has laid dormant until he’s in the literal u.s. military, and eventually in one of the least survivable theatres of the war, and in suffocating proximity day in and day out with one john bucky egan? and how he navigates his bond with marge, now in contrast to how he feels for john? and how even his childhood and the lives of his parents is being pushed forwards in his consciousness in relation to his sense of self and his place in the lives of others? oh and also how absolutely Biblically he wants john, in the most unconventional and all encompassing ways? all while he has no context for queerness and sexuality as it relates to himself? i dunno what freak would be into writing or reading that 👀 🚬💀

[saltydkdan]

Yo, Salt man. Decided to finally bite the bullet and dive into One Piece. Currently on Volume 4/Chapter 27 of the manga (also episode 2 of the Netflix live-action, really good ngl). I'm excited to read it, but the sheer length of the manga is extremely daunting to me, and I'm starting to wonder if it's even worth reading at this point. Dunno if you got any sort of tips or such to help someone like me through this, or at least boost morale?

Don’t worry! I felt the exact same way. The length of One Piece can feel really daunting when you start. However here is what I tell people to keep in mind:

Get to Arlong Park

This is what EVERYONE SAYS. But it really is true. Get to Arlong Park, and if you enjoy it, then you will 100% love this series. Arlong Park is the arc where One Piece starts to really become what it is known for (and in some senses Baratie too). And what’s cool is that as someone who has caught up, Arlong Park isn’t even my favorite anymore, far from it. Arlong Park made me a fan, but later stuff like Alabasta, Skypeia, and Water 7 especially made me HYPER FOCUS on the series.

Basically if you think Arlong Park and stuff like Baratie is good, it really only goes up from there, as it’s more or less a taste of what you’ll be getting as Oda develops the story. If you don’t like it tho? No harm no foul! You’re allowed to feel however you want! You can move on to something else if you feel like and that’s super okay. Though based on your current reactions I feel like you are def gonna like it LMAO.

You don’t have to binge ALL of it

You are totally allowed to pick it up and read a saga and then put it down to switch to something else for a bit. In fact, if you do find yourself getting too tired at points, def switch it up with another series, TV show, or video game! Nobody expects you to finish reading it in a month or something. It took me a full year to catch up after jumping on and off of it and I had a blast because I didn’t force it!

There’s a reason that the series is broken up into arcs and sagas! The end of a Saga specifically is meant to be a very good break point for you to do something else if you like!

And trust me, if you’re anything like me, you won’t want it to end. After I passed chapter 1,000 I had a sudden violent awakening that I was going to catch up and become a week to week reader and I got really sad LOL.

Being a One Piece reader feels rewarding!

This is something I would have loved to know going in, but reading/watching One Piece (especially nowadays) feels like an insanely rewarding experience.

I have no idea how Oda pulls it off, but there is information that is as immediate as Chapter 1 that is still relevant all these years later in Chapter 1,000+, it really feels rewarding to be into the series for so long.

I’ve never read or watched anything THIS LONG that rewards the reader like this, it’s so fun. And it’s also something that makes One Piece great to re-read or re-watch.

There are so many fun twists, turns, and reveals that are either foreshadowed, or established in a very small way early on. I can’t emphasize harder how fun and connected it makes everything feel.

I call it the opposite of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Because while Jojo will constantly reset itself with a new cast and characters every arc, instead One Piece doubles down, and is still revealing massive bombshells that we’re hinted at ages ago.

The series does show it’s age at times

I don’t like ending stuff on a bad note, but I like to let people know to keep in mind that One Piece has been running for a LONG time, and this can be both good and bad.

It’s good in the sense that I think it gets better and better over time, but bad in the sense that it does feature a couple of outdated depictions, as well as “Pervy” anime-esque humor that I honestly cannot enjoy personally. Just make sure you’re aware going in because some of it has aged… horribly.

That being said though, when One Piece gets depictions right it gets them SOOOO right.

There’s a reason that there’s an ongoing joke in the community that “Luffy would have died multiple times over if not for the Queer Community” lol it’s extremely correct

Reward yourself with the side content

One of my favorite things to do, is after I caught up to a certain point in the manga, is that I rewarded myself by watching one of the One Piece Films from around that time.

It’s a great thing to use as a rewarding little checkpoint and be like “Omg now that I’m this far, I can enjoy this fun animated film without fear of spoilers”.

And while a good chunk of films are very obviously not canon and don’t clearly fit into the overall story (I.e. there is not a good space for them to canonically exist) some of them actually do fit super well, and in my opinion, even add greatly to the overall story.

A big favorite of mine, One Piece: Baron Omatsuri, fits this description like a glove. Not only does it easily fit between the sagas of Skypeia and Water 7, but it even adds to the later themes of the story, and even foreshadows certain elements later on in a super fun way! Plus it’s one of the only One Piece films to have a very experimental direction, created by the guy who made Summer Wars. It feels very different, but in a super fun way, and works as a great little treat for getting as far as you have in the manga!

Anyway, I hope that this helps you out? Remember it isn’t a race, and you can pick up and put down the series whenever you want! There’s absolutely no pressure at all.

A part of me wants to kind of make a “read/watch list” for people who get into the series based off my own recommendation/experience. Obviously everyone is going to read and watch the anime in order, but it would probably be cool to know when you can check out certain side content like Anime-only specials and animated films during your read-through.

If anybody wants that let me know! (I’ll probably end up making it on my own time anyway I have zero self control).

Anyway yeah, enjoy One Piece!

[leaderpinhead]

Cater - Humming Harmony

Day 10 of Fluffcember 2024 Prompt: Carols (Fluffcember) Rating: General Pairing: Cater & Yuu (Friendship)

Yuu had been humming all day. Cater caught the off-key undertones when he sat with the frosh squad at lunch. She’d had a distant look on her face, like she was more stuck in her thoughts than interested in Jack’s and Sebek’s muscles straining while they competed to be the best arm-wrestling champion. 

Cater ran into her again in the hallway after classes. She stood alone and stared at the large tree the campus ghosts had dragged into the main hall and decorated. He listened to her humming for a bit before making himself known. “What’s up, Yuuie?” 

She jumped a little at his voice. Cater caught the same distant look on her face before her eyes snapped to focus on him. “Oh! Hey, Cater. What’re you doing here so late? Classes ended a while ago.” 

Cater tipped his head. He shrugged the shoulder where he carried his electric guitar case. “The Pop Music Club was scheduled to meet today. I’m probably running a little early, but I figured I’d skip out of Heartslabyul before Riddle asked about my grades.” 

Yuu hummed, but Cater could tell she wasn’t as attentive as usual. She looked around like she was a little lost before staring up at the tree again. Cater twirled a strand of hair around his finger. “You wanna hang out at the club today? We always need an audience!” 

Cater wasn’t sure she would accept the invitation, but her tentative nod prompted him to lead her to the classroom they usually used. They were the first to arrive, which didn’t shock Cater. He really had left the dorm earlier than usual to avoid Riddle.  

While he set up his guitar, Yuu shuffled around the classroom. She tapped a finger against a cymbal on Kalim’s drum set. Cater watched her find a stilted rhythm. She started humming again, but the timbre sounded unsure. 

Cater connected his guitar to one of the amps. He hung the strap across his shoulder. He tapped his foot until he felt like he found the same rhythm she hummed. He positioned his fingers along the strings on the neck of the guitar and plucked them one at a time to match Yuu’s humming. 

That same distant look reappeared, but Yuu hummed along with the tune he strummed. The more he repeated the notes, the surer his fingers became. The same confidence grew in Yuu too until she belted out, “Falalalalalalalala!” 

Cater laughed at her off-key singing. “What song is that? I don’t think I’ve ever heard it.” 

Yuu shrugged. “Dunno. It just got stuck in my head after I saw the decorations the ghosts put up for the winter holiday. If you haven’t heard it, then I guess it's a song from my world.” 

Cater carefully strummed a few chords. “Your world, huh? Maybe you’re feeling a little homesick?” 

It would explain why she was so out of it all day. Yuu didn’t talk much about her amnesia, but it was pretty common knowledge in Heartslabyul at this point. Whatever memory the song was connected to must have been important because he had never seen her act the way she had today. 

Yuu shook her head. She looked surer of herself now. “Not really. I think it was just bothering me because it was playing on repeat in my head, and I couldn’t figure it out. The falalalala part was throwing me off. Why would you put a fa in front of a la?” 

Catching the lightheartedness returning to her made Cater laugh along with her. He pulled his phone from his back pocket and waved it at Yuu. “We should totally record it and post it to Magicam. We could become pop icons overnight!” 

Yuu’s nose wrinkled. “And embarrass myself even more? No thanks. I’m way too aware that I can’t carry a tune.” 

Cater winked. “That’s why we get Kalim and Lilia to play as backup vocals. We call ourselves the #PopClub!” 

Yuu shook her head, but she didn’t hesitate humming along when Cater played the notes he had matched to her song. When Kalim and Lilia finally arrived, they eagerly joined in with their instruments. They spent the entirety of their club time finding the right notes and rhythm to create a full song ending with Yuu’s “Falalalalalalalala!” 

[altraviolet]

Hi!! I know it’s been so long since TEG’s conclusion, but after re-reading it, I’ve come to find myself having a few lingering questions:

1) If you were to reference both Mirage and Skywarp’s characterizations, in ‘The Echo Garden’, from any of their canon/corporate material fiction alternates—what would be the most comfortable for them to be associated towards?

Also, out of curiosity, have these two ever fantasized about becoming mentors / parents / caretakers? It’s not that important to me really, but I’d appreciate your opinion on the matter for future reference.

2) Hypothetically, when Soundwave does get inevitably beat up enough to the point of having it be a main priority to obtain supples from his home dimension, would he want to “fix” his elbows and knees and his whole… ace-fae ituation-say?

Like, I’ve been daydreaming a bunch about a specific outcome where he goes to his home dimension and ends up getting the glow up of his dreams—aka something a bit like his old gladiator get up. But at the same time not changing too much because of how contempt he already is with his form, and how he mostly just took a chance while getting repaired to ask for a few changes to his frame to make it more battle-ready instead of sneaky and shadowy. Man keeps taking hits from left to right and I’m horrified at the notion of his flat arms snapping and his stiff joints slowing him down.

3) Has there ever been anyone on the ‘Lost Light’ that actually enjoys being on the chore one cycle? I’m very aware from Soundwave’s POV that it’s like staring into the gates of barnacled-hell, but I’m sure there’s maybe one freak out there that takes pride in the somewhat cleansing ritualistic aspect of the crustacean colonists, the wet garbage, and Toaster’s debilitating demands when it comes to his standards.

4) Would the ‘Lost Light’ crew ever react negatively towards any newcomers who happen to be physically “amalgamated” with organic material ever since the… are-stay ive-dray incident? Even if it is proven to be harmless, would it still be plausible for them to have any extra security measures taken that might be harmful to said bi-organic-metal subjects?

5) Has Rodimus ever thought about how a Conjux bond would work between him and Soundwave?

Not even just like a super romantic way—well maybe at first—but like physically. I feel like a former Matrix holder and a God-killer living on a trans-dimensional spacecraft already makes a ludicrously dope power couple, so I feel like the universe could literally bend to their will at this point without much effort. But still, marriage yeah, but spark-bonding? They’d both probably cause a supernova at the alter if they’re not too careful.

6) DO THEY GO BACK FOR THUNDERCRACKER (and Starscream??? Wait is he also Skywarp’s brother, I actually don’t remember if he was even mentioned—). Well, would they ever go back for Thundercracker and or Starscream?

I seriously think in hat universe Starscream would be very dead but I’m not sure at all. Please correct me if necessary.

———

SORRY FOR THE RANTS!! I needed to get a few of these questions out of my system, and I’ll probably try to look up some more information from any previous posts I might’ve missed. To this day I’m still so enthralled with the world building in your AU it’s inspired me so much and I didn’t even realize it. If any of this seems too confusing I’m so so so sorry, I’m still nervous at the thought of asking these kinds of questions even if there are already answers.

NONETHELESS—have a great rest of your day!! :3

p.s. would it be possible for me to make an au from teg that takes place wayyyy into the future? like with a “conjuxed” maybe not “conjuxed” rodimus and soundwave. i dunno, the only reason for them to be conjuxed in this hypothetical au was to show the passage of time, or something. maybe skywarp’s brother(s?) would be on the ‘lost light’ too? would that work?

AH IT’S TOO MUCH!! AGAIN I’M SORRY!! I KNOW IT’S A LOT!! AGAIN, HAVE A SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS DAY OR NIGHT, WHICHEVER AAAUGH (>[]<)

Hi spinspin! Thanks for the long message. I'm glad you continue to enjoy the fic :)

1) If you were to reference both Mirage and Skywarp’s characterizations, in ‘The Echo Garden’, from any of their canon/corporate material fiction alternates—what would be the most comfortable for them to be associated towards?

Hmm. Mirage is closest to his G1 incarnation: a wealthy mech who didn't want to join the war. Skywarp is... not like any canon Skywarp I know of. I suppose his trickery is kinda in IDW2, but that's not what inspired that aspect of him. Both of them are a lot closer to their Face The Past characterizations than any canon, tbh.

Also, out of curiosity, have these two ever fantasized about becoming mentors / parents / caretakers?

Ah ok so... I'm absolutely NOPE on parent/caretaker stuff, so anything I wrote would never contain that (unless it was from canon and I was using that canon). I'm talking, push away with a ten foot stick aversion levels, lol.

Now a mentor... ehhhhhhhh... I think they're amenable to teach SW about crystals in TEG because it's part of, well, their reality, and they'd rather keep an eye on SW and teach him themselves than have him flounder around and accidentally ascend to a higher level of existence and destroy everything. It was a somewhat small detail, but Mirage did make their teaching him part of a deal: it wasn't done 100% out of the goodness of anyone's spark.

They wouldn't fantasize about mentoring, but they'd do it if they had to.

2) Hypothetically, when Soundwave does get inevitably beat up enough to the point of having it be a main priority to obtain supples from his home dimension, would he want to “fix” his elbows and knees and his whole… ace-fae ituation-say?

If SW was damaged enough to need to return to his dimension for metal and supplies, he wouldn't otherwise change his frame. There's nothing wrong with it in his mind. He went through the whole war with it. He's never complained about it or felt any kind of (for lack of a better word) dysphoria or regret for losing his gladiatorial frame.

Re: the damaged eye: I think he would aim to get that fixed, if they could find an optic lying around. Recall that in TFP you can't just slap inanimate parts into mechs. It's a big thing that you can't build organs in that part of the franchise (Arcee and Jack have a discussion where she says something like "Can you build me a small intestine, Jack?" lol).

3) Has there ever been anyone on the ‘Lost Light’ that actually enjoys being on the chore one cycle?

*writes a whole paragraph answering the question "Do mechs like their regular chores?"*

*rereads question*

oh LOL oh shit, you asked about the chore CYCLE. lol. sorry. I just got home from work. Uhhh no. Definitely no xD no one likes being on the chore cycle. It sucks purposefully, lol.

So like if Inferno got put on the chore cycle, he'd still have to do his job, but he'd be stuck with Toaster 95% of the time and they'd both hate that soooooo muuuuuch, and that's part of the point. It will discourage Inferno from being a bad boy xD If UM found out someone LIKED a certain aspect of the chore cycle, he'd remove that aspect from their rotation, lol.

[if you're curious what I wrote initially, here it is: In reality, most of the mechs treat their usual chores like a job. Some will like their jobs, some might not like them as much, but when Rodimus and Megatron and UM (and maybe Drift too) assigned the jobs, they took into account what mechs were built for and what they like to do. So, Inferno isn't weirdly into scraping out the plumbing, but he can do it, he knows he can do it better than anyone else (except maybe Hot Spot), and he's proud of his work. I'd say that all the mechs are pretty satisfied with their work, and they are proud of it.]

4) Would the ‘Lost Light’ crew ever react negatively towards any newcomers who happen to be physically “amalgamated” with organic material ever since the… are-stay ive-dray incident? Even if it is proven to be harmless, would it still be plausible for them to have any extra security measures taken that might be harmful to said bi-organic-metal subjects?

They do have a strict rule about bringing 100% organic beings aboard the LL. That's a no-go.

If they encountered a Cybertronian that was partially organic, like the Beast Wars continuity, or what Blackarachnia seems to be in TFA, they'd probably assess the situation on a by-person basis.

They're generally very careful and reticent about bringing people aboard (despite what we see Rodimus doing, lol). In over 3000 dimensions, they've only 'kept' 4 mechs, and they've invited only 2 aboard, as mentioned by name in the fic. Stardrive and... I think Rook? Another character got a quick shout out at one point. Obv TEG doesn't detail all 3000+ dimensions' worth of adventures. I think they'd let a few more mechs temporarily aboard. But overall, they're very careful about things.

5) Has Rodimus ever thought about how a Conjux bond would work between him and Soundwave? Not even just like a super romantic way—well maybe at first—but like physically... spark-bonding?

Mmmmmmmmm... hmm. Conjunx ritus, as we see in the comics, is a cultural thing. They're not literally bonded by the spark together. So you're asking about 2 things here, just to clarify.

re: conjunx ritus: hmmmmmmmmmmm idk, I don't see Rodimus doing that. 🤔 it's a cute idea for fic, of course. but staying true to Rodimus as a character? I don't see it. I could see something that was a mix of ceremonies between his and SW's dimensions. or maybe something that felt more casual.

re: spark-bonding: I think they wouldn't want to try this. SW's spark chamber is damaged and when he infiltrated Rodimus, Rodimus's body didn't react well. HMMMMMMM yeah I dunno. We did have the scene where Rodimus exposed his spark for SW, and SW enjoyed absorbing Rodimus's Rodimusness, and Rodimus felt pleasure from that. But that's quite different from them exposing open sparks to each other.

I think if they did do that, they'd be very careful about it.

Honestly, as the author, I'd have it hurt them >D idk, that just feels right, with all their dimensional differences. they need to find other ways to enjoy each other, lol. a lot of TEG's sexy stuff dashes expectations in the trolliest way possible on purpose, heheheheh

6) DO THEY GO BACK FOR THUNDERCRACKER (and Starscream??? Wait is he also Skywarp’s brother, I actually don’t remember if he was even mentioned—). Well, would they ever go back for Thundercracker and or Starscream?

Starscream is definitely extremely dead.

The last Skywarp knew about TC, he was in that building where Skywarp was found. The readers saw that building fill with molten energon. Sooooooooo...

I've said in several places that I've left seeds in TEG for a sequel, and we'll just say, that ever so slightly ambiguous mention of TC was a such a seed ;D

But, no, Mirage and Skywarp would not go back to their dimension for TC. They think he's dead and the price Soundwave pays for every dimensional portal is too high. They'd have no reason to go back, unless like... one of them was horribly injured.

p.s. would it be possible for me to make an au from teg that takes place wayyyy into the future?

ah, the sticky wicket. you have just as much right to make a TEG AU as I did making TEG from MTMTE in the first place. but, since you asked, I'm going to be honest. I prefer people not write their own TEG-based fics, AU or sequels or whatever. I feel like I worked really hard for this sandbox, and it's mine and I wanna play in it by myself, and it would be better if you made your own sandbox to play in, because you should practice building your own worlds and plotlines.

so like... I'm not going to get any AU you write taken down, or anything like that. but I won't read it and I wouldn't want to discuss it with you. I mean that in the very nicest way possible 🙏 I think creativity and expression are important, and it would be mean to squash yours. but also... those are my truthful answers. thank you for asking first. most authors don't mind other people using their AUs but I'm not one of them.

Thank you for the well wishes. Hope you have a good day, too :)

[many-but-one]

i dunno if you guys answer asks but what’s the best way to start… remembering? our social worker suggested hypnotherapy but i don’t know if that works well. we’re aware of the possibility of ramcoa trauma happening and have a few memories but we don’t know how to go about piecing things together

We do answer asks! We just forget we have an askbox sometimes. This one caught my attention in particular due to the mention of hypnotherapy and a possibility of RAMCOA trauma.

Obligatory “I’m not a therapist I’m just a random system on tumblr and you should make your own informed decisions on your own mental health.”

So if you suspect RAMCOA trauma in your history I would advise to be extremely careful and/or cautious about pursuing hypnotherapy. We have never done hypnotherapy and never will because hypnosis is a very common mode that programmers will use to create a dissociated state in a child. Hypnosis therefore is extremely triggering to us and if your system has parts who are programmed to run when hypnosis begins, it could cause a risk to your system’s stability.

As for tips on how to remember, all I will say is that you should probably consider the factors that make you unable to remember at this time.

Common reasons why amnesia can be strong/worsen for systems (side note: these are all personal experiences or experiences I’ve heard from other systems):

stress in daily life often causes amnesia barriers to strengthen or worsen

a lot of trauma has already recently come out. Especially in the case of HC-DID or C-DID where higher ups can often control amnesia levels to an extent, your gatekeepers will often increase amnesia levels if trauma has already recently slipped out to avoid even more slipping out

you are still having to consistently interact with someone who was involved in or complicit in your trauma. If you are living with your dad who you think is kind of a dick but not that bad and suddenly get memories that he tortured you, living with that person will become nearly impossible for your wellbeing. Gatekeepers will often keep stuff locked down when you are still having to be in contact with past abusers

you are not in a stable position to begin to receive trauma memories. People with CPTSD, a CDD, etc often report that they function fine enough when they are living in an abusive environment, but once they leave that environment and can truly relax, that’s when memories and flashbacks start hitting them and they become nearly nonfunctional despite being in a significantly calmer and safer environment. That’s your body and mind finally leaving fight or flight mode and when you truly get to relax for the first time it’s going to hit you like a truck.

Take it from a host that dug too much too soon and learned things way too fast: slow the fuck down. /meant gently. Your memories will surface in time. There is no rush to figure everything out. Trust me, the more you start learning the more you will probably be like “damn actually I don’t wanna know any more this is getting pretty bad” and by then your system will be like “WELL THAT’S TOO DAMN BAD.”

I had to get pulled from the host team for nearly a year because of how bad digging for memories fucked me up. Granted, I ended up taking up inner caretaking and inner deprogramming and now that our system is very nearly completely deprogrammed, my inner world job is less necessary so I can return to full time host business. There were several other factors that also led to me being unable to host again for so long, such as programmed parts constantly attacking and harming host team members (couldn’t handle that I am Fragile) and also having a harder time speaking in an American accent and masking my English one due to a series of splits that happened after we got divorced from our ex wife. I can mask my accent better now and my distress tolerance is much higher now due to having worked with programmed parts internally for so long, which makes me able to return to main host stuff and not get absolutely mentally destroyed anytime I experience a flashback or programmed response or an attack from a programmed part anymore.

If you have RAMCOA trauma, no matter if it was stuff from a single parent or a high control group, none of it will be fun to learn. It will be some of the most devastating, heart-wrenching, soul-crushing things you will ever experience, seeing flashbacks of your kid self being harmed in ways no human should be harmed, let alone an innocent kid. And I’m not saying you’re trying to learn for the fun of it, I’m assuming you want to learn for two reasons at least:

1) you’re in denial and need proof

2) you want to help your system heal

What I did to help myself through these two things were this:

When I experienced denial, such as when a part told me something or showed me something, I would just default to believing them no matter if I thought something like that could ever happen. My kid self deserves to have someone believe them. We were never believed as a kid, nobody paid attention, we were ignored. I’m never doing that to myself ever again. If the memory turns out to be a pseudomemory, or you realize maybe this didn’t really happen the way you thought, you’ll figure that out when you get there and that doesn’t mean you were faking it.

As for wanting to help my system heal, I learned I actually didn’t need to know as much info as I thought I needed to know to help my system heal. The extent of what I know now is a few visuals, that’s it. I have seen maybe about a dozen visual memories (not even in their entirety, often just 1 or 2 seconds of something) and the rest is just “this is what happened” as told to me by my parts. It’s like reading a horrible story, I’m incredibly detached from it. But the things I have seen have helped me learn to take my parts seriously when they tell me what happened. I catalogue their triggers, I learn what to avoid, I learn how to positively trigger out other parts who can help, I work on inner communication, etc. I don’t need to know all the details yet, that will come later. For now, I can teach my parts who haven’t seen the light of day for 15 years how to ground in the present and show them healthy coping skills. I can give them the comfort and love they always deserved. I don’t need to know what happened to do that. I can know it’s bad because they got triggered out when I looked in the mirror and they saw my red lipstick and freaked. I can know it’s bad because they internally look like a doll with no limbs or a young girl with no eyes and only a mouth full of teeth. I don’t need to see what made them that way/remember what made them that way to help them.

I hope my answer helped anon! Good luck!

-Dori 🌹(she/he/they)

[lingthusiasm]

Transcript Episode 88: No such thing as the oldest language

This is a transcript for Lingthusiasm episode ‘No such thing as the oldest language. It’s been lightly edited for readability. Listen to the episode here or wherever you get your podcasts. Links to studies mentioned and further reading can be found on the episode show notes page.

[Music]

Gretchen: Welcome to Lingthusiasm, a podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics! I’m Gretchen McCulloch.

Lauren: I’m Lauren Gawne. Today, we’re getting enthusiastic about old languages. But first, our most recent bonus episode was deleted scenes with three of our interviews from this year.

Gretchen: We had deleted scenes from our liveshow Q&A with Kirby Conrod about language and gender. We talked about reflexive pronouns, multiple pronouns in fiction, and talking about people who use multiple pronoun sets.

Lauren: We also have an excerpt from our interview with Itxaso Rodríguez-Ordóñez about Basque because it’s famous among linguists for having ergativity.

Gretchen: We wanted to know “What do Basque people themselves think about ergativity?” It turns out, there are jokes and cartoons about it, which Itxaso was able to share with us.

Lauren: Amazing and charming.

Gretchen: Finally, we have an excerpt from my conversation with authors Ada Palmer and Jo Walton about swearing in science fiction and fantasy. This excerpt talks about acronyms both of the swear-y and non-swear-y kind.

Lauren: You can get this bonus episode as well as a whole bunch more at patreon.com/lingthusiasm.

Gretchen: Also, yeah, maybe this is a good time to remember that we have over 80 bonus episodes.

Lauren: We have bonus episodes about the time a researcher smuggled a bunny into a classroom to do linguistics on children.

Gretchen: We also have a bonus episode about “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” and more phrases that contain all the letters of the alphabet – plus, what people do with phrases like this in languages that don’t have alphabets.

Lauren: We also have an entire bonus episode that’s just about the linguistics of numbers.

Gretchen: If you wish you had more lingthusiasm episodes to listen to right now, or if you just wanna help us keep making this podcast long into the future, we really appreciate everyone who becomes a patron.

Lauren: You can find all of that at patreon.com/lingthusiasm.

[Music]

Gretchen: Hey, Lauren, I’ve got big news.

Lauren: Yeah?

Gretchen: Did you know I’m from the oldest family lineage in the world?

Lauren: Wow! You sound like you are part of some prestigious, ancient, royal – I can only assume royal with that level of knowledge about your family lineage.

Gretchen: Well, you know, I have some family members who are really into genealogy. I’ve been looking at some family trees. And I have come to the conclusion that my family is the oldest family in the world.

Lauren: You know, I have grandparents, and they have grandparents, and I assume they had grandparents, and I guess my family goes all the way back as well. We didn’t come out of nowhere. I might not know all their names. I don’t think we were ever rulers of any nation state as far as I’m aware. But I dunno if you are from the oldest family lineage because I think everyone is.

Gretchen: Well, this is not a mutually exclusive statement. I can be from the oldest family lineage, and you can be from the oldest family lineage, and everyone listening to this podcast can be all from the oldest family lineage in the world because we’re all descended from the earliest humans.

Lauren: This is a good point.

Gretchen: Psych!

Lauren: I think it’s definitely worth remembering the difference between the very fact that we are all from the same humans – and the difference between that and knowing names of specific individuals back to a certain point.

Gretchen: I should clarify – I am not royalty. I do not actually know the names all the way back because at a certain point writing stops existing and, at some point before that, people stopped recording my ancestors. I don’t know when it stops.

Lauren: But there’s definitely a tradition in certain royal families and stuff of being able to claim that you can trace your family back to, you know, maybe –

Gretchen: Like Apollo or something.

Lauren: Oh, gosh, like, mythical characters, okay. I was thinking of just tracing them back a thousand years, but I guess –

Gretchen: Tracing them back to Adam and Eve or tracing them back to Helen of Troy or Apollo or these sorts of things. I feel like – at least I’ve heard of this. I think that talking about human ancestral lineages helps us make sense of the types of claims that people also make about languages being the oldest language.

Lauren: I feel like I’ve heard this before – different languages making claim to being the oldest language.

Gretchen: I’ve heard it quite a lot. I did a bit of research, and I looked up a list of some languages that people have claimed to be the oldest.

Lauren: Okay, what did you find?

Gretchen: A lot of things that can’t all be true at the same time.

Lauren: Or can all be true because all languages are descended from some early human capacity for human language.

Gretchen: Right. There’s different geographical hot spots, you know, people making claims about Egyptian, about Sanskrit, Greek, Chinese, Aramaic, Farsi, Tamil, Korean, Basque – speaking of Basque episodes. Sometimes, people look at reconstructed languages like Proto-Indo-European, which is, you know, the old thing that the modern-day Indo-European Languages are descended from. But part of the issue here is that, at least for spoken languages – and we’re gonna get to sign languages – but at least for spoken languages, babies can’t raise themselves.

Lauren: Unfortunately, I, personally, have to say after the last few years.

Gretchen: Deeply inconveniently –

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: – for adult sleep schedules. If you have a baby with typical hearing, and they’re being raised in a community or even by one person, they’re gonna acquire language from the people that are raising it.

Lauren: Absolutely – in much the same way we all have people giving us genetic input, we also have people giving us linguistic input and continuing on that transmission of human language.

Gretchen: Exactly. When the languages claim to be “old,” that’s often more of a political claim or a religious claim or a heritage claim than it is a linguistic claim because we think that languages probably have a common ancestor. Certainly, all languages are learnable by all humans. If you raise a baby in a given environment, they’ll grow up with the language that’s around them. The human capacity for language seems to be common across all of us. We just don’t know what that tens-of-thousands-year-old early language looked like.

Lauren: In much the same way we lose track of earlier ancestors when we get earlier than written records. We talked about this in the reconstructing old languages episode that there’s just a point where you can’t go back further because there’s just not enough information to say exactly how Proto-Indo-European might have, at some earlier point, been related to, say, the Sino-Tibetan languages or the Niger-Congo family.

Gretchen: Right. We also talked about this in the writing systems episode where writing systems had been invented about 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 years ago, but human language probably emerged sometime between 50,000 and 150,000 years ago, which is so much older. That’s 10-times-to-30-times older than that. We don’t know because sounds and signs leave impressions on the air waves that vanish very quickly and don’t leave fossils until writing starts being developed much later.

Lauren: Very inconvenient.

Gretchen: Absolutely the first thing I would do with a time machine.

Lauren: All of those languages that you mentioned as people laying claim to them being the oldest, they come from all kinds of different language families. Although, I have to say, a very Indo-European, Western skew there, which probably reflects the corners of the internet that you have access to.

Gretchen: This reflects the people that are making claims like this on the English-speaking internet that I’m looking at and the modern-day nation states and religious traditions and cultural traditions that are making claims to certain types of legitimacy via having access to old texts or having access to uninterrupted transmission of stories and legends and mythologies that give them those sorts of claims. There’s no reason to think that a whole bunch of languages on the North and South American continents are not also equally old as all the other languages, but people aren’t doing nation state building with them, and so they don’t tend to show up on those lists.

Lauren: Yeah. A lot of nation state building, a lot of religion happening there as well. I think about how yoga is – I love a bit of yoga, and I think it’s really lovely that all the yoga terms are still given to you in this older Sanskritic language, but it definitely is done sometimes with this claim to legitimacy and prestige in the same way that having something in Latin for the Catholic Church gives that same kind of vibe.

Gretchen: I think about this scene from the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding where you have the daughter, who’s the one that’s getting married. She’s in the car as a teen with her parents. It’s this scene where the parents are being a bit cringe-y in the way that teens often experience their parents to be. The dad is saying, “Name a word. I will tell you how it comes from Greek,” because he’s got this big Greek pride thing going.

Lauren: This a classic Greek-American migrant pride happening.

Gretchen: Right. He says, “arachnophobia,” and he’s explaining how the roots come from Greek, and that one’s true. Then the daughter’s friend, who’s in the back seat, is rolling her eyes and saying, “Well, what about ‘kimono’?”

Lauren: Ah, “kimono” the Japanese robe?

Gretchen: Yes. The Dad’s like, “Oh, no, it’s from Greek. Here’s this connection that I have found.”

Lauren: I like his linguistic ad-libbing skills.

Gretchen: It’s certainly a great improvisational performance skill. The movie is clearly designed to put the viewer in sympathy with the young girls in the back seat who are teasing him, and the daughter’s face-palming at this claim, which is one of the reasons why it’s one of my favourite examples of people making up fake etymologies in media because you don’t leave the movie thinking, “Oh, I never realised ‘kimono’ was from Greek.” You leave that movie being like, “Ah, here’s this dad who has over-exaggerated pride in his heritage that doesn’t allow for other people’s heritage to also have words that come from them.” It’s a claim that he's making for personal reasons and for heritage reasons that doesn’t have linguistic founding, but none of these claims have linguistic founding.

Lauren: The dad has come kind of close to a linguistic truth though, which is that linguists talk about languages having features that can be either conservative or innovative. Modern Greek has a lot of the same sound features as Ancient Greek, which is probably helped by that consistent writing system. A writing system definitely helps transmission stay stable because you can point back to older texts. English has probably slowed down a lot in its change because of the writing system as well.

Gretchen: Genuinely, English has borrowed a lot of words from Greek – as well as a lot of other languages that are not Greek. This gets to both Greek and Sanskrit and Chinese having these eras that are talked about as “classical” or as “old,” which is an era that the present-day people, or some slightly earlier group of people, looked back on and thought, “Yeah, those people were doing some cool stuff. We’re gonna call it ‘classical’ because we liked it in history.”

Lauren: I do love the idea that Chaucer had no idea that he was moving on from Old English to Middle English because there wasn’t a Modern English yet.

Gretchen: How could you describe yourself as “Middle English” – that’s sort of like the “late-stage capitalism” that implies that we’re towards the end of something. Like, we don’t know, folks.

Lauren: I don’t think English always does self-deprecating well. English has a lot of belief in its superiority as a language. I think we can say that about the ideology behind English. But I do love that English didn’t go for “Classical English.” Imagine if we said Beowulf was written in “Classical English.”

Gretchen: We could have, yeah. We could have.

Lauren: We just went with, “Ah, that’s old. I don’t understand it. It’s got cases. It’s got all these extra affixes. It’s old. It’s a bit stuffy.”

Gretchen: That may have been because they were comparing it already to Classical Latin and Classical Greek, which was even more antique. The English speakers were looking elsewhere for their golden age. I don’t think people often claim that English is the oldest language because English speakers are seeing the history of their society located in this Greco-Latin tradition.

Lauren: Yeah, I think that’s a good explanation for it. I do wonder if maybe the attitude that we now have towards Shakespearean English, if maybe that will become “Classical English” when we’re a bit further on, and Shakespeare becomes even less accessible.

Gretchen: Right. And if Shakespeare becomes the text that everyone is referring to because it’s this quote-unquote “classic” text but calling something a “classical era” reflects on the subsequent era and what they thought about the older one more so than the era itself.

Lauren: Having this ability to distinguish between an “old” or a “classical” and a “modern” version of a language requires that writing tradition, whereas the majority of human languages, for the majority of human history, have happily existed and transmitted knowledge without a writing system. These writing systems make us very focused on pinning down. I super appreciate the website Glottolog, which catalogues languages and all the names they’re known by. We have a lot of languages that are “classical,” like “Classical Chinese” or “Classical Quechua.” We have some “early” – so “Early Irish.”

Gretchen: I think I’ve also heard of “Old Irish.”

Lauren: We have “Old Chinese” and “Old Japanese” in Glottolog, but I’ve definitely also heard them referred to as “classical,” so slightly different vibes there. Of course, you have things like “Ancient Hebrew,” which, older than old, very prestigious. I particularly like the precision with which some names get given to different languages over time. Glottolog has an “Old Modern Welsh,” which is nice and specific. I particularly appreciate the “Imperial-Middle-Modern Aramaic.”

Gretchen: “Imperial-Middle-Modern Aramaic.” That also gets to languages being named and being spread through empire and conquest and wars, which is also part of that historical tradition that people look back to.

Lauren: For sure. That’s part of the narrative building around languages. A lot of what is maintained about a language is religious documents or documents of imperial rule. That means that that imperial form might have been a particular register. Imagine if all that we had about English was the tax forms that we have.

Gretchen: Oh, god, that would be really boring.

Lauren: You would have a very different idea of what English is compared to how it’s spoken day-to-day. That’s what makes this understanding of old languages just from a written record really challenging.

Gretchen: When I think about trying to understand the history of languages just from the written record, I’m reminded of this classic joke – I dunno if you’ve heard this one – where you’re walking down the street one night, and you see someone standing under a streetlight looking at their feet and trying to search for something. You go, “Oh, what are you looking for?” And the person says, “Oh, my contact lens. It fell out. I’m trying to find it.” And you say, “Oh, did you lose it under the streetlight?” And the person goes, “No, I lost it a block over that way, but there’s no streetlight there, so it’s much easier to search here.”

Lauren: [Laughs] Hmm.

Gretchen: I guess this is a joke that doesn’t work so well now that everyone has phones with flashlights on them, and contact lenses have improved their technology and don’t pop out spontaneously like that. But when we’re looking for the history of language, it’s like looking under the streetlight because that’s where it’s easy to look. It’s not actually doing a random sample of all of the bits of history – many of which are just lost to us.

Lauren: Indeed. I like thinking about the imperial languages and the classical languages because sometimes we do get written records that help give us a glimpse into just how ordinary people were going about living their lives.

Gretchen: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, can we talk about the clay tablet?

Lauren: We can absolutely talk about the clay tablet that I know what you mean because you’re talking about the complaint to Ea-nāṣir, which is a clay tablet that’s written in Akkadian cuneiform. It’s considered to be the world’s oldest known written complaint.

Gretchen: This is from a customer named Nanni who’s complaining about the quality of the copper ingots that was received.

Lauren: The thing that I love about this is that there is this complaint, but also, they’re pretty sure they found Ea-nāṣir’s house because there are other complaints about the quality of the copper in this residence.

Gretchen: We really think we know who’s at fault here.

Lauren: Yeah. It seems like he was just a provider of adequate quality copper, and people really needed to go to a better place to get a better quality of copper.

Gretchen: Cuneiform is also this interesting example of searching under the streetlight for the contact lens because the language Sumerian was written in cuneiform, and then later, Akkadian, which is a Semitic language related to modern-day Arabic and Hebrew, and Hittite, which is an Indo-European language related to English and Sanskrit and a bunch of other languages. They were all using this system of stamping the ends of reeds in these pointy triangle shapes onto clay blocks. Do you know what happens to clay blocks when they’re in a house, and the house burns down?

Lauren: They just get fired and made more resilient.

Gretchen: They get made incredibly durable. If people were writing on parchment or in textiles – like in fabrics or cords or strings or on leather or wood – most of those don’t get preserved the same way because you expose them to water, and they start rotting.

Lauren: And they don’t do great with fire.

Gretchen: They really don’t do great with fire. Animals will eat them. Clay has none of these problems. We don’t even know if we know what all of the ancient writing systems are because the ones that have survived are the ones on clay or stone.

Lauren: I was so charmed when I learnt about Latin curse tablets, which are very similar to the complaints to Ea-nāṣir. These are small bits of lead that people could scratch a curse or a wish onto, and then they would throw them into some kind of sacred water. They found, like, 130 of these at Bath in Britian, but they appear to have popped up all over the Roman Empire. It’s just like these tiny insights into the pettiness of humanity as opposed to the great works of literature, or we’ve talked about how the Rosetta Stone was in these three official languages and was all about a declaration about taxation.

Gretchen: But instead, you can have “This curse is on Gaius because he stole my dog” sort of thing.

Lauren: “I have given to the goddess Sulis the six silver coins which I have lost. It is for the goddess to extract them from the names written below” – and then just lists people who owe this person cash.

Gretchen: That’s petty. I like it.

Lauren: Yeah, so annoyed.

Gretchen: I actually read a romance novel called Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall, which was set in Bath and used the ancient Bath curse tablets as a plot point.

Lauren: So charming.

Gretchen: If anyone wants to read curse tablets and also “romantasy” I think is what we’re calling the genre now.

Lauren: I feel like Jane Austen would’ve included curse tablets if she knew about them.

Gretchen: I think she was no stranger to pettiness. It’s very convenient that they wrote their curses on lead tablets, which is such an incredibly durable format. Imagine if they’d written them on cloth, and then we’d never have them for posterity.

Lauren: I feel sad for all the human pettiness that we’ve lost access to.

Gretchen: Two other old writing systems that we have access to because of the durability of the materials they were written on are oracle bone script, which is the ancestor to Chinese – another writing system that we think developed from scratch because we can see it developing thousands of years ago.

Lauren: Oracle bones written on I believe turtle bones and turtle shells.

Gretchen: Yes, hence the “bone” part – also very durable material and also used for religious purposes.

Lauren: My sympathy and thanks to the turtles.

Gretchen: Indeed. Then the early Mesoamerican writing systems, of which the oldest one is the Olmec writing system, which were written on ceramics. They show representations of drawings of things that look like a codex-shaped book made out of bark which, obviously, we don’t have. We just have ceramic drawings of the bark. Come on!

Lauren: Oh, no!

Gretchen: Ah, it’s so close!

Lauren: How cruel to point out that we’re missing information.

Gretchen: You thought you were mad about the Library of Alexandria burning down. Wait until you hear about the Olmec bark.

Lauren: Yeah, ah, that really gets you and just is a reminder of how much we can’t say about the history of human language because of what we don’t have a record of.

Gretchen: Well, you know, before we do a whole episode about things that we don’t know – because much as we can make fun of searching for the contact lens under the streetlight, we don’t know what we don’t know.

Lauren: Indeed.

Gretchen: What’s something else that people sometimes mean when they say a language is “old”?

Lauren: Well, this goes back to that conservative idea that some languages just have conservative features that haven’t changed as much. A language that has a lot of sound changes we might call very “innovative,” or they’ve “innovated” a new way of doing the tense on the verbs. You can trace it back to an older form of the language, but it looks very different at this point in time.

Gretchen: I think the example that I’m most familiar with this is Icelandic versus English. In the last thousand years or so, English has had a lot of contact from things like the Norman Conquest, which introduced a lot of French words to English, compared to Icelandic, which has had less of that. Icelanders have an easier time reading something like their sagas, which are 800 and more years old, than English speakers have reading texts like Chaucer, which are about the same age but have had a lot more linguistic changes happening because of more contact in English over the years.

Lauren: That’s one of the things that linguists who look at when a language tends to be more innovative and change, it tends to be during these periods of contact. It tends to be during periods of invasion. English had the French come up from the south, repeated Viking incursions from all around the coast. They all had an impact on the language. I find it really interesting. Icelanders are really proud of how conservative the language is and that they still can read these older stories. I think in some ways English has created this story for itself where it’s really proud of the fact that it is this language that continues to take influences from places and is really innovative. These are just part of the story that a language can tell about itself and the speakers can tell about it.

Gretchen: I think that there are reasons to be proud of any language that don’t have to rely on age as the sole arbiter of legitimacy. In some cases, it’s that rupture with the past that people use as a point of pride. I’m thinking of Haitian Creole, for example, which is descended from French. You can hear that French influence. When I’ve heard people speaking Haitian Creole, it almost sounds like they’re speaking a French dialect that I don’t quite know. But the writing system is very different. It’s much more phonetic than French is. The word for “me” in Haitian Creole is “mwa,” and it’s written M-W-A. The word for “me” in Modern French is “moi,” pronounced the same way but written M-O-I.

Lauren: Right.

Gretchen: It used to be pronounced /moɪ/. This is why you get “roy” and /ʁwa/ for “king” and stuff like this, hence the spelling. But the sound changes happened in French. When the Haitian speakers were deciding how to write their language down, they were like, “No, we’re gonna have a phonetic system. We don’t need to be beholden to the French system. We’re gonna have something that establishes our identity as something that’s distinct from French.”

Lauren: For anyone who’s tried to learn the French spelling, especially those endings that are still in the writing system but not in the pronunciation system, I think it’s fair to say French has gone through a number of sound innovations, even if it might be more conservative in other features of the grammar.

Gretchen: It’s very conservative in the writing system, but the sounds have changed a lot.

Lauren: It’s interesting you bring up Haitian Creole because creoles are the result of this intense contact between two or more languages. They often get labelled as being “new,” which is kind of the flip side of this discourse around “old” languages.

Gretchen: That’s controversial in linguistics whether to consider creoles “new” or to consider them older. What they definitely have is children being raised by people who also already had some amount of language. Babies can’t raise themselves. But they do have this situation where their speakers were prevented from learning how to read and write, learning how to access the formal varieties of language, often very violently and through horrible circumstances. A lot of creoles came about because of the slave trade, because of historical systems of oppression. The language transmission was not the same as if you were learning it from parents who’d been educated in the language, but they were still learning from people who had access to the language. There’s been a bit of a swing in creole studies more recently to say, “What if we don’t consider these completely new? What if we think about the ancestral features that they have in common with the languages they’re descended from?” which you can readily trace as well.

Lauren: Thinking in terms of which features are innovative rather than the whole language as being new. Maybe it has a very innovative way of doing the noun structure, but it still has a lot of the features of the two different – or multiple different – languages in terms of sounds, and so taking apart the different linguistic elements and not just focusing on the whole thing as being “new” or “old” and trying to apply these labels that don’t actually account for what’s happening.

Gretchen: It can be kind of exoticising to creoles to say, “Oh, these are completely different from all of the other ways that languages have gotten transmitted,” when what’s also going on is kids in a community who were exposed to a bunch of languages or a bunch of different linguistic inputs at a time making sense of that and coming up with, collaboratively, something with the other kids in the community that is different from what people were speaking before but still has that ancestral link.

Lauren: There are contexts in which children are raised without that access to language transmission. That is when a d/Deaf child is born into a hearing and spoken language family context, which means that they’re not getting that language.

Gretchen: Generally, the child and the parents and the family and community members do end up with some amount of ways of communicating based on the existing gestures that people do alongside a spoken language and elaborating on them, making them more complex, because you are trying to communicate somehow. There are linguistic studies about this, right?

Lauren: Ideally, in an ideal world, if you’re a d/Deaf child, you would want to have access to signed language input through, ideally, your family but also your wider educational context. Some d/Deaf children do get hearing aids. They are useful but not a perfect replication of the hearing child experience. That’s a possibility. There are some contexts where children have just developed this communication system with their hearing family in their own home context. These are known as “home sign.” There have been examples of this, and they have been studied. One of the most famous examples that has been described in a lot of detail is the example of David and his family. Susan Goldin-Meadow and her collaborators over the years have done a lot of work looking at the way David and, especially, his mother communicate with each other.

Gretchen: This is a really tough situation. I think these studies started in the early ’90s. Hopefully, people know better now and can give their d/Deaf kids access to a sign language, but given that this happened, what can we learn from the situation?

Lauren: Goldin-Meadow definitely started publishing about this in the early ’80s. So, David – who I will forever think of as a 7-to-10-year-old child – is actually a GenX-er who, if he had kids himself, they’re undergraduates now.

Gretchen: Okay. It’s good to put famous children from studies in perspective.

Lauren: Because they are – it’s like the Shirley Temple phenomenon, right. David, in my mind, is always just this kid who’s learning to communicate with his mom, but he’s a fully-grown, tax-paying adult now.

Gretchen: What was he doing when he was communicating with his mom in this immortalised-in-amber childhood years?

Lauren: What was really interesting from a thinking-about-this-human-capacity-for-language-and-communication perspective is that his mother and the family developed this way of communicating with him that grew out of their typical gestures and context and a lot of showing each other stuff.

Gretchen: Pointing to things and so on.

Lauren: Pointing – so useful in all languages and all contexts. What they found was that David was creating systematic order out of the gestures that he was getting. So, he had more systematic structure in terms of the hand shape that he was using – he created these hand shape structures and these individual signs that his mom would also use but not as consistently as him. It’s actually the child taking this really idiosyncratic, raw gesture material from his mom. Gestures in spoken language context tend to be a bit more freeform and unstructured than, say, something like a signed language, which uses the same hands but in a very different way. He wasn’t doing something that was a fully structured language, but it had more structure than what he was being given.

Gretchen: His brain was really starved for linguistic input, and he was trying to extract as many linguistic vitamins and minerals as he could from this incomplete gestural system that he was being given as the closest approximation of language. Obviously, we do wish that David, who was raised in the US I think –

Lauren: I think.

Gretchen: – had just been given access to ASL, which lots of people already were using in the US and could’ve happened where he would’ve gotten the fully-fledged, healthy balanced diet of lots of linguistic input from lots of people, but the child brain seems to want to reconstruct language out of whatever is available to it.

Lauren: This type of system, which is often called “home sign,” is not the same as a fully-fledged sign language. Children often don’t have the same level of linguistic structure. They obviously can’t communicate with people outside of the home context who don’t know the signs that they’ve created with the family. I think it’s also worth pointing out that it is more structured than you would expect it to be from the input. We’ve seen when you take children from these emerging structures, and you bring enough d/Deaf people together, you actually get a real blossoming of a full linguistic system.

Gretchen: The most famous example of this is in Nicaragua in the 1980s, where a bunch of d/Deaf children were brought together at a school for the first time. The school wasn’t trying to teach them a signed language; they were trying to do an oralist method of education, which is [grumbles] – about which the less said, the better – but the kids themselves were coming in with their home sign systems and developing them further in contact with each other. When the next generation of kids showed up, and they had access to this combined home sign system, they really turned it into a full-fledged sign language, which is now – Nicaraguan Sign Language is the national sign language in Nicaragua. These types of languages are some good candidates for “youngest” language, even if we don’t know what the “oldest” language looked like.

Lauren: The amazing thing about Nicaraguan Sign Language is there were linguists on the ground pretty much from the beginning of the school in 1980s. There is a documentation of how this language has evolved. It was the older signers coming in, communicating with the younger children coming to the school, who then created more of the structure – so being a bit like David but in this really rich communicative and linguistic environment and building this structure into the language.

Gretchen: It seems to take those two generations of linguistic input. That feels very reassuring to me which is that language is so robust that even if we lose all of our writing systems, and we lose all of our memory of writing systems, and we lose access to the memory of what language looks – like, suddenly we all wake up with amnesia or something – we would rediscover this. Even though they wouldn’t be the same languages, we’d put something back together and still be able to talk to each other.

Lauren: We know this because Nicaraguan Sign Language is not the only example we have of a recently developed language that has emerged. The Nicaraguan Sign Language is a school-based sign, but we also have what are known as “village-based” sign systems, which is where there might be a d/Deaf family, or a number of d/Deaf families in the village – or a very high percentage of d/Deaf population – and a sign language emerges that the whole village, d/Deaf and hearing, use to communicate. It’s usually “village” because it is these smaller communities where people gather and live together and have to communicate with each other all the time.

Gretchen: And if you have an island or somewhere in the mountains or somewhere were there’s a high degree of genetic d/Deafness because there’s a relatively high degree of isolation, you can have a third of the village be d/Deaf, in which case, everybody in that village is learning signs from each other at a young age. I think the famous example of that that I’ve heard of relatively nearby is Martha’s Vineyard in the US, which is an island, I think. It has a village sign language.

Lauren: Lynn Hou talked about Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language in the interview she did with us, which is in a tribal group in a desert in southern Israel.

Gretchen: There’s also Kata Kolok, which is also know as Benkala Sign Language or Balinese Sign Language, which is a village sign language indigenous to two neighbouring villages in northern Bali, Indonesia. Similar situations there.

Lauren: We see this robustness of language and these “young” languages but building on this underlying human tendency to want to create linguistic structure when you bring enough people who can communicate together.

Gretchen: A really interesting example that I’ve encountered recently of what it’s like to suddenly have at least access in terms of format or modality to language, even if you don’t know what everything means yet, is in the book True Biz by Sara Novic, which is set at a school for the d/Deaf. One of the main characters is a d/Deaf girl whose cochlear implants have been malfunctioning, and so she hasn’t been raised with access to a sign language, but suddenly, she’s in this school now and is learning ASL and trying to get her cochlear implants to still work but, in the meantime, is suddenly immersed in this environment where she has full access to language instead of this piecemeal access via attempting to lip read or attempting to use these implants that haven’t been working very well for her. The author is d/Deaf and talks about a variety of different types of experiences that people can have in that context.

Lauren: I really appreciated how this book made the most of the written format to occasionally just not give you what another character was saying, and so you get this experience of being the young protagonist in the book suddenly like, “I’m only getting half of this sentence. I don’t know what’s happening. It’s very stressful.”

Gretchen: Because there’s just a bunch of blank spaces. There were also some places where there were drawings of words that were being talked about or worksheets that she was seeing with line diagrams of different signs. Despite the fact that it’s a book that’s in written English trying to convey ASL, which is not English and doesn’t have a standard way of being written, I think it’s doing a really interesting job of trying to convey that experience.

Lauren: That lack of writing system for signed languages means that a lot of the history of signing in human language history has been lost to us. There have been different signing communities at different times in history. It’s probably been a very common way of humans doing language, but we just don’t know because it’s not in the streetlight of the written record.

Gretchen: Right. We don’t even know if the first language – the “oldest” language – was a spoken language or a signed language. People have come up with arguments for both things. We just don’t know.

Lauren: Which in some ways I find very relaxing instead of constantly trying to make cases for which language is the “oldest” or which is the “newest,” you can just let go of those debates because they are all, at the end of the day, unproveable. You can just enjoy the variety of human language without it being a competition.

Gretchen: A language doesn’t have to be the oldest language or even the newest language in order to be cool. Languages are great. All languages are interesting and valid, and people should have the right to have access to them when they want them. By listening to this episode, you’re participating in part of that chain of human language transmission that stretches beyond anyone’s written record or recorded record or video record. You’re still part of it.

[Music]

Gretchen: For more Lingthusiasm and links to all the things mentioned in this episode, go to lingthusiasm.com. You can listen to us on all the podcast platforms or at lingthusiasm.com. You can get transcripts of every episode at lingthusiasm.com/transcripts. You can follow @lingthusiasm on all of the social media sites. You can get scarves with lots of linguistics patterns on them including IPA symbols, branching tree diagrams, bouba and kiki, and our favourite esoteric Unicode symbols, plus other Lingthusiasm merch – like our new “Etymology isn’t Destiny” t-shirts and aesthetic IPA posters – at lingthusiasm.com/merch. Links to my social media can be found at gretchenmcculloch.com. I blog as AllThingsLinguistic.com. My book about internet language is called Because Internet.

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Gretchen: Lingthusiasm is created and produced by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our Senior Producer is Claire Gawne, our Editorial Producer is Sarah Dopierala, our Production Assistant is Martha Tsutsui-Billins, and our Editorial Assistant is Jon Kruk. Our music is “Ancient City” by The Triangles.

Lauren: Stay lingthusiastic!

[Music]

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[triple-moon-rp]

Harsh Wake Up Call

Starring Lua

TW: Implied Suicide/Suicidal Idealization, Meltdown

—

On the outskirts of Pentagram City, lies a blissfully unconscious new sinner, unaware of the world around her. Until her eyes made of obsidian with ruby pupils faced the red sky open once more. Lua blinks once, twice, as awareness comes back to her. Lightning begins to crackle around her as her marred pale face turns completely black, obscuring the scowl on her face. Dark clouds and the sound of thunder surround her body. Her fingernails immediately find her scalp, digging in, and she wails.

“WHY?! Why am I AWAKE?!?! I should be DEAD! Why am I not DEAD?!?”

The sound of her screaming and repeating the same question is drowned out by the massive thunderstorm she created unconsciously. It lasts for about five minutes, dying down as she tries to calm herself after feeling dizzy. Her hands move to her face, pressing down, her knees press into her chest as she rocks back and forward while sitting on the dusty ground.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine. Everything is fine, everything is fine,” she chants until her breathing becomes more regulated.

When her hands pull away from her face, it slowly turns back to white like watching a timelapse of the moon going into its full moon phase. Exhaustion permeates her small body as she tries to finish grounding herself to reality.

“I can feel… dirt, my skin, and hair… I smell… rain and… sulfur? I see… red sky? Mountains?” she laughs hollowly as she takes in her surroundings for the first time and stands, “Have I… Has it really been so long that I’ve forgotten what outside of my house looks like? No… There’s no destroyed debris, and I know I felt the roof collapse on me during that storm… Where…? Where am I?”

Her head turns towards the bustling city. Looks like a 10 minute walk from where she’s standing. Fuck, if this is a wizard of Oz bullshit situation, she’s going to punch someone. Not that she can throw a punch to save her life. Might as well start walking. No point in sitting around and waiting to possibly wake up.

The walk was probably the most exercise she’s gotten in a while, but she manages to keep pushing on. The moment she observes the forms of the Pentagram City’s denizens, her confusion compounds. If this was just a lucid dream, normally the moment she realizes, she’s able to wake up rather easily or control it in some way. However, the pain building in her calves tells her otherwise. That’s the only thing that feels real to her. There’s nothing human about the people walking around her. Some of them even look like the nightmare fuel she’d sketch back in highschool.

As much as she hated it, she needed to ask someone. Unfortunately, most ignored her and kept walking before she could utter a second syllable. Fifth try’s the charm, apparently. A sort of anthropomorphic lizard dressed in tattered clothes laying in the gutter answers her question.

“What’d ya think, toots?” he scoffs at her, earning a quiet rumble from Lua.

“If I had an idea, I wouldn’t be askin’... I dunno, could be the Goblin King’s Domain for all I know!”

He hiccups mid snicker, “I reckon you can call it that. Didja really miss the big ol’ neon sign sayin’ “Welcome to Hell”?”

There was a neon sign? If there was, she doesn’t recall seeing it. “Wait, you mean like, Hell from the New Testament or is it Hel from Norse mythology? So I am dead?” She supposes it makes sense if this isn’t some near-death dream she’s having.

He frog blinks and simply shrugs before resuming his drinking and self-pity.

“... Welp, thanks anyway,” she walks away once it became clear she wasn’t going to get any more useful information out of the drunkard.

There’s still so many questions she wants answers to, and her brain asking all of them at once isn’t helping. But the most significant one she needs to focus on is what is she going to do now? She wasn’t planning on there being an afterlife and she knows nothing about this place. Being forced to start completely over but with absolutely nothing and in an equally hostile, if not more, place? Just thinking about it feels overwhelming. Where does she even start? Where does she go? Should she make another attempt?

Lost in thought, mumbling to herself, she doesn’t even notice electrocuting some sinner trying to pickpocket her, let alone her new reflection in a passing window. It isn’t until she bumps into a pole that she’s knocked out of her little world. How embarrassing… but a flier pinned to that post catches her eye thanks to it. 

Hazbin Hotel… blah blah… Redemption… blah blah… Free room and board? Now that got her attention. Free is always affordable! Still, it could be a trick. How does she know this isn’t some weird cult about “salvation” or a lure to harvest organs from poor unfortunate souls? Better question: what does she really have to lose now? It seems as good of a starting place as any to find somewhere to sleep that isn’t the streets. She’ll just have to make sure to ask any and all questions about their goals and purpose, be firm on where she stands, and get the fuck out of there before it’s too late if it turns out sketchy. Now she just has to find the place… which may or may not require her to ask for assistance from the locals again… Uggghhhhhhhhhhhhh… Today’s going to be a long day.

[stevenbasic]

GITJ Post 309: Back to the Study Clinics, p1

That was one of the hardest things I’ve done in a while, just a few minutes ago, leave that beautiful, perfectly built woman alone, asleep in my apartment. There’s nothing I’d rather have done than snuck back under the sheets with Melissa and spend the rest of the morning - even after my pretty embarrassing loss of control against her as she slept. But, duty called and here I am - in the office. I had taken the chance to clean off what I could from Melissa’s remarkable behind, shower quick, and get dressed. Through the whole thing she basically slept, though she did give me a drowsy little kissy-face when I told her ‘bye, I’ve gotta go to work.’

“Yeah there are nights she barely sleeps at all,” Josie was explaining to me, as I readied myself in the hallway to go in to see our first study clinic patient for the morning, waiting in an exam room a few doors down. If you remember, our office had become an external study site for testing Evolution Pharmaceuticals new OTC dietary supplement for women as they looked for FDA approval. “And then there are times,” Josie finished, “where she’s, like, comatoast.”

“Comatose,” I corrected h-

“Yeah whatever,” she continued, pressing on. Josie, one of my new, poorly-trained medical assistants, had known Melissa a long time. Though younger than my new Office Manager by five years or so, I think, she understood her friend well and somehow in fact knew she was upstairs in my apartment sleeping off a night of vodka. That my staff knew my Office Manager had spent the night with me was a little embarrassing, a lot unprofessional, but just another small chip out of the armor of my professional dignity and male pride. “She can sometimes sleep for, like, two days straight,” Josie continued, readjusting her long, medium-brown hair in its ponytail, “especially if she gets really excited.” 

At that, I tried not to blush, or notice how - with her hands behind her head - Josie’s breasts seemed quite big today.

“Anything really exciting happen last night? This morning? Hm?” Josie then giggled, taking a second to adjust the strap of her bra through her thin blue scrubs. The ‘wink wink’ in her voice was plain to hear, and it brought flashes of memories, Melissa’s and my time together on the couch, and in bed. Josie seemed to know more than she should.

“Well, I think all you girls got a little excited at the bar last night, by the election results,” I began, loathe to start recounting the more lurid details of the evening to my young employee, “but, let’s get to work. Now, why are we doing this on a Wednesday, seeing study patients? Tell me again what that email said?”

“They said they’re fast-tracking everything, ‘cuz of the election results,” Josie explained, reaching out to readjust the two pens in the chest pocket of my new lab coat. The girls had ordered a few in smaller sizes for me. “Evolution needs us to see at least twenty a week now th-"

“Twenty? For real?” I remarked, the idea of it boggling my mind, which was already reeling after the election results, “that’s more than twice as many as we said would be doable when we started..!”

“Yeah I dunno…” Josie agreed, with a noncommittal shrug.

I huffed in my indignity, knowing I really had very little say in the matter at this point. Olivia, Sheryl, Gianna…they were the real decision makers with this thing; as much as I hated to admit it I was more a worker-bee at this point, a drone. The women who ran things at Evolution controlled the money, and - acutely aware of how my geriatric practice was suffering, how anemic it’d become under recent mismanagement - I knew we needed the cash.

“Anyway, who’s supposed to see this patient with me?” I began again, knowing that Josie was scheduled to assist my APRN Vida with Mr. Kowalski’s procedure down the hall, “And what’s this first patient’s name?”

“Her name’s Thalia, Thalia Bates. I don’t think you’ve seen her before. She started on treatment at Evolution. She’s the daughter of some politician guy, a senator from like Minnesota or Canada or something,”  Josie answered, handing me a chart, “and it’s Karen, the new nurse, who’ll be coming in with you. She’s worked with the patient before but I don’t think she’s here yet so-”

I opened the manila folder but just then both Josie and I turned our heads to see Angie, one of the girls from accounting, step out of one of the study exam rooms down the hall, the one where my patient awaited, and scoot quickly away in the opposite direction. She was shoving something into her purse. 

I saw Josie’s eyes narrow. She pulled out her phone, started a text.

“Anyway, I really have to get started so if you’ll excuse me…” I announced, snapping the patient’s chart closed and moving towards the room. I was a little confused why an accountant would be in a room with a patient but whatever. 

“Wait wait,” Josie stopped me, actually stepping towards me as I approached the room, “I didn’t think you were supposed to see these patients alone, by yourself? Karen’s not here yet?””

“It’s fine,” I replied, entering the room. With my first breath my vision began to swim. Spots, patterns appeared on the walls, straight lines and vines warped and everything in my world suddenly became focused on one thing…

“Hi doctor,” the hyper-developed teen seated in a chair across the small room from me chirped, “I’m Thalia…”

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More GITJ at my Patreon

[nezumiva]

dunno if somebody has brought this up already, but ‘hobo’ is considered an offensive term for homeless people & I’ve seen many people advise against using it 👍 I really like the vid ! but that Did take me a little off guard

My bad! Wasn’t aware. It had just become so synonymous with that version of Phoenix in the fandom that it didn’t occur to me. I’ll avoid it in the future!

[polyamorouspunk]

is it wrong that im like. i dunno. sad bc my gf didnt make me anything for christmas.

i love her to death and shes great im so lucky i have her and technically we never discussed gift giving but i kind of assumed? we're long distance so like physical stuff was mostly off the table but i drew her and a bunch of characters she loves and wrote a little letter to her and just sent her pictures of that. and the whole week before today she was talking abt how she was drawing and making stuff for all her friends (i even comforted her bc she was worried people wouldnt like them but i said it was a really sweet gift) and then this morning when i sent it to her she liked it just fine but said "sorry i didnt make u anything" which is fine i shouldnt have assumed but we've been together for nine months now so. and i figured cause i sent my gift pretty early she'd maybe use some of her free time today to even make a little doodle for me but she didn't. and then an hour ago went to bed with just a "im tired. goodnight" which is unusual for her ? i dunno i dont want to sound entitled but im just. sad.

Okay so! I actually had a very similar conversation with my therapist this week about gift giving and feeling entitled.

So, my thing the past few years I’ve had a job and my own real money (aka not what my mom put in my bank account so I could like. Eat while going to school and stuff) my thing has always been I want to be the kind of gift-giver I always wanted in my life.

I do not think it is unreasonable for a child to wish they had better presents, and I’m NOT saying my presents were all bad. I got a scooter for Easter one year, I got an Xbox for I think Christmas, I got an American Girl Doll one year for Easter… so like I’m not saying “boohoo me”, because like I remember someone I was friends with a few years back telling me she had a hard time relating to her peers growing up because they would all talk about video games like you know Wii Sports or Mario Kart, something in theory like everyone had experience with at some point in their lives, kind of cultural moments you know, but she was too poor to ever afford things like that. But at the same time, you know, I remember going over my friends houses as a kid, and they had big houses with pools and big TVs and… you know you could tell that we were lower middle class and they were a bit more medium middle class. Same thing with my family as I got older. When I visit my family in Pittsburgh, they have very large houses and are very middle class. They can afford lots of trips and things, etc. So no, I don’t want to “boohoo me” but I think as a child that’s reasonable. All this to say, I wanted to be the gift giver that I wanted as a child. So I have been SPOILING people. I mean I spend $100+ on my mom for presents the past 3 years. I got my gf enough presents to fit in the box I was sending. I just kept going out and buying more and more until the box was full. I started buying Valentine’s Day presents for my gf while I was Christmas shopping. I always got my younger cousins something for their birthdays.

I talked to my therapist where I was like. I almost feel like shopping for people has become a compulsion. And that’s dangerous. I made a joke in a server I’m in that I said I was done buying my mom presents and then I bought her 5 more and someone was like “do you really love your mom or do you really love presents” and it’s like well of course I love my mom but I just really like buying presents. And my therapist was like hey. If this is really bringing you joy, and you are aware of the dangers of overspending and keeping it in mind, then what’s the harm? If you can afford it and it makes you happy that’s not a bad thing. And I’m like yeah you’re right, I just worry it’s gonna get out of hand, but I’m keeping an eye on it because of that worry.

But another thing I brought up to her too was disappointment in gifts I was getting because it made me feel like people don’t view me the way I want them to, and that ties into my gender. My therapist was like what was one present you got this year that really hit the mark and made you feel seen, and I was like Key got me a Pennywise patch. I’m like I love being the horror person. I love being seen as that. And my therapist was like okay what was a present you got that kind of missed the mark? And I was like. Well my mom got me pumpkin spice pancake mix. Because I like pancakes and also pumpkin spice. Which is true. But like.

My mom has also missed the mark a few times before which has caused tension. Like during Covid she got me a Wii for my birthday and I was like. Why do I want a Wii. And she was like so we can play games. And I was like. So you just wanted a Wii to play games and used my birthday as an excuse to get it even though it’s not something I’m interested in or want whatsoever and I’m not going to touch it. And surprise surprise it just sits there.

My mom got me card games for Christmas too and it’s like. We don’t play card games. I mean she at least made sure to get one that’s 2 player since it’s just us, but like. We don’t really play card games with each other. That’s not something I’m interested in doing with her. She wants to play card games with me so she got my card games for Christmas, just like she wanted to play Wii with me so she got me a Wii for my birthday. These things do not reflect me in any way.

And my therapist told me it’s understandable, especially when it relates to like gender, not feeling like you’re seen and being disappointed in that.

All of this to say, it’s not so much the “I didn’t get the gift I want, sadness” or “I didn’t get a gift, sadness” entitlement as much as it’s an issue that’s much deeper rooted, and something like this brings it to the surface.

You’re not upset because you didn’t get a gift. You’re upset because someone you put a lot of effort into put a lot of effort into other people and none into you, making you feel like you don’t matter as much in their life as other people. Like you are not worth their time and effort. And then as if that wasn’t enough, on top of that, they seemed very blasé about the whole thing.

I do not think it is “entitled” to expect someone to put as much effort into a relationship as you are giving, and it’s reasonable to be disappointed when they seem like they don’t even care that’s the case.

You do not sound entitled. You sound completely reasonable. And I’m really sorry you feel that way and things turned out that way. That honestly sucks.