#he doesn't seem to know much about linguistics either?

[ayakashibackstreet]

I need to protect my 60-something year old professor from this weird guy sitting in the back and being a real pain. What is his problem? Leave my little guy alone

[shytastemakerthing]

Hi! I wanted to say I love your writing and if I could request all TWST dorms x reader with wings? And with bird-like tendencies like collecting shiny things, ect. Thanks!!

A/N: Hello, hello, and thank you so much for this request and your patience as I can finally start working through more of the inbox! I do hope that you enjoy your request!

Prompt: All dorms with Yuu who has wings

Tw: None

Riddle, I feel like, knows quite a bit about animals. Between animal linguistics and then the animals in the dorm, several having wings, he is quite knowledgeable on the subject. This also means that if you ever need any help in wing care, he would certainly help out. Has caught you on more than one occasion taking anything you seem to find shiny. Has spoken to you about it several times, given it could have belonged to someone...... but then begins to intentionally leave around a few things here and there. Pins, coins, shiny pens. Lives in denial.

Trey: Finds these bird-like tendencies of yours to be rather amusing. Man is friends with Che'nya, who has cat-like tendencies. Wonders if it is a beast-kin thing. Is a little hesitant about letting you help in the kitchen. Lots of gunk is able to get into your wings and also doesn't want his favorite measuring spoons going missing. Perhaps he can gift you a pair of your own

Cater: The amount of videos that he has of you flying, snatching shiny things, or just carrying out other bird-related behavior, should be a crime. There is so much, but he is like your own personal cheerleader. You have snatched a few of his things on more than one occasion. Honestly melts at the softness of your wings. Can he stay here for a bit? Please?.....

Ace: Has tried to bribe you on more than one occasion to either snatch something for him given your attraction to anything shiny or just to get in some general trouble. Has yet to work. When he has seen this happen, can't help but to laugh at it. It's like you're an actual bird. A slap to the head with one of your wings usually shuts him up

Deuce: More worried when you take anything shiny that does not belong to you. Man is trying to be an honors student over here and it's a bit heard when you keep snatching things and he has to keep apologizing to people as certain things get returned. He will absolutely go to a shop or something to find random shiny materials for you to conveniently find on your little journeys

Leona: Finds the whole ordeal rather amusing to be honest. Just seeing people scramble to find something they swore they just had, all while he sees you making a quick fly into the air to avoid detection never fails to make him chuckle. Will also leave out the most random things in his room for you to snag. Not like he needs it anyway. Also, when allowed (as he knows that certain beast-types are rather sensitive with their additional limbs), he will use your wings as a pillow

Ruggie: Will 1000% enable this behavior of yours. Honestly, within the first week of the school year, you both had this arrangement going on. You find valuables to snag, he finds food, you split the profits. It's a win-win both ways. Please don't notice the little love-struck look in his eyes

Jack: Another one who is nervous about these habits of yours. He knows that there are times where you literally can't help yourself and instincts are in full drive, but there could be a day you take something from the wrong person. To help satiate this, he finds a plethora of coins, rocks, and little gems to leave around for you, more as a safety measure. Don't notice the intense wagging of his tail.......

Azul: Funnily enough, octopuses are also attracted to shiny materials and lights, much like the coin collection that he has. Seeing this behavior in you is rather amusing. Not to mention the quick getaway into the sky that ensures you won't be caught quickly. Perhaps the two of you can come to some sort of an agreement? More-so staring at your wings through that conversation. Are they as soft as they appear?

Jade: Noticed these habits when you managed to snatch the broach off of one of the hats from another Octavinelle student before said student could even react. Now he is intrigued. Through more observation, takes notice of the amount of shiny materials that go missing throughout the day. And the way your wings fluff and reflect the light? Be still, his beating heart. Now he needs more excuses to talk to you

Floyd: Another who will enable this behavior. It's hilarious to him to see all of this going down. What will you take next? Had that question answered the moment he saw your eyes land on his earring. Yeah, no. That one is off limits. But when you begin to see an array of scales beginning to make an appearance, you have a feeling as to who is behind all this. He left you scales, maybe you'll leave him a few feathers?

Kalim: Scarabia would be a gold mine of shiny materials that you can snag and quickly leave. Kalim certainly does not help in the manner, not when he keeps giving you all for these new things. Gold, precious stones, coins, he lets you go for it all. It would all be yours if Jamil didn't step in when he did. Absolutely loves to go on late-night flights with you. He'll take the carpet and then be in absolute awe of your wings

Jamil: You just became another headache for him... a rather cute headache. He knows that this instinct of yours is rather hard to ignore. Like some ancient drive in you to do these things that can't be buried away. This man begins to leave little beads out for you to take. At the end of the day? He will never admit just how quickly he falls asleep under the protection of your wings.

Vil: This man absolutely helps you with wing care. Washing those feathers, ensuring they are soft and bright in their colors. He can't imagine how difficult it must be to try and take care of it all on your own. Why, it took several hours just between the two of you. Your tendency to take shiny things does bother him quite a bit. He knows there is a drive within you to do this, and that it can be rather hard to ignore. He just tries to find other means to help satiate this urge of yours

Rook: This freak of nature 100% collects any feathers that you may shed throughout your time there. Also uses some of these feathers for that hat of his. Will often switch them out. Another one who helps tend to the wings, reveling in the softness of them, how they shake and flutter, the vivid colors of them. The man is a mess, a cheesy, poetic mess. The shiny things? He doesn't help in that regard. You've become someone he marvels at from afar when these instincts take over.

Epel: At times, encourages this behavior of yours. Maybe you'll find something rather nice and bring it to him. Not exactly the best at helping to take care of your wings, but he certainly tries. Another one who will absolutely fall asleep in those wings of yours

Idia: Ignihyde is also a rather dangerous spot for you if you like shiny things as the entire dorm is metal and technology, meaning lots of shiny things to grab. Idia was rather quick to pick up on this and find out it was you given all the cameras that were there. Has a bad habit of watching you through the cameras. Seeing you snatch anything you can get your hands on, the way that you fly, both in and out of the building. Maybe that's why you were currently in his room, eyes glued to the screen as you watched him play one of these new games of his...... and why he happens to now have a small collection of your feathers.

Malleus: To him, you are just as mischievous as a number of fae he has encountered, one of them currently enrolled in this school as well. Your love of shiny materials makes him chuckle (so long as none of it is iron). If it is shiny materials you wish for, then he would be all too happy to indulge you. Your wings, so different from his own. He could run his fingers through them for hours and remain content. To have such trust in him that you would allow his hands in a place as vulnerable as your wings makes his heart beat faster

Lilia: Is often stuck between scolding you for your instinctive behavior to take shiny things, and then also encouraging you to do so. As a fae, he would absolutely partake in these actions of yours. As a father, he wants to remind you that taking things that do not belong to you is not okay. All depends on what you find and where it came from. He can't begin to describe the security he strangely feels when he finds himself wrapped in your wings. Both laying in his bed, his smaller frame being held in yours, your wings surrounding him in a warmth of feathers, as if trying to shield him from everything that has happened to him in the past. You don't mind if he stays here for a little while, right?

Silver: Does not always see you when you snatch these shiny objects you seem to gravitate towards but finds it a tad amusing when he is told of these little events. it seems to be more so things you find randomly throughout the campus rather than something that belonged to someone. Your wings make for both the perfect pillow and blanket. So soft, warm, and fluffy. Has been found more than once asleep within them. Lilia has so many pictures.

Sebek: Clearly in awe of your wings. Their size, the strength they hold, the color, the shape of them, how the light reflects off of them, how they flow in the wind. The man is a mess, to be honest. Again, you also seem to gravitate towards shiny materials that are laying around campus rather than taking it off of someone. He often remarks how fae-like some of these behaviors are as well. Has been in contact with Lilia and members of his family (namely his grandfather who may know a thing or two about winged species). Slowly becomes a pro at taking care of you and these wings.

Have a wonderful day/night!

[captainlexapro]

hang on. I just need to talk about quinn's autograph for a minute because i have so much appreciation for the effort and intention he puts into it. (also i love linguistics/language/writing and how people sign their name is actually very interesting to me)

Been thinking about this (x) article from 2021 (and also very much demko saying "thoughtful" for his one word to describe huggy at the nhl awards this year. demmer u don't understand the implications of what you just said).

teammates chirping quinn for being a slow at signing because it's not a scribble or an unintelligible flourish...but he straight up doesn't give a fuck what they think because HE wants HIS signature to be easily distinguishable for FANS. like the awareness of how special that stuff can be for people. 💙 antoine agreeing that "you should always be able to tell the name without the number." YES!!! YOU GET IT!! (don't get me wrong, there can be iconic autographs that aren't legible whatsoever but idk. to me it's something about how it's a name and i'd like to be able to read it. it's so personal and a scribble doesn't feel personal).

i wanted to see how his signature has changed/progressed over the years, so i dug around a bit to see where he's landed at this point. let's back up to the beginning!

2018 (screenshot from this vid) -

huggy's first official nhl signature!!

his draft day signature shows he's still fully spelling out his first name. it also looks just very. teenage boy who can't do cursive.

BUT the elements are already there - heavy on the Qu, the Hu, (new nickname Q-hoo? like yoohoo? no? fine.) and the s. starting to stylize the gh.

*side notes: Qu is such a rough first letters pairing rip... it's a distinct shape. printing Q doesn't flow easily into the u while cursive Q is ugly (in my opinion) and idk if a lot of people actually know what a true cursive Q looks like (hint: it looks like a 2). also, "quinn" is hard just because it's SEVEN vertical elements back to back. i honestly think doing it in cursive requires more focus than printing. hughes is fun because it has the high and low elements right next to each other, which he emphasizes.*

2019 (nhl debut) -

oh boy. sill very choppy. still have those main elements of emphasis happening.

i feel like he probably hadn't started worrying about his signature yet (this was his first game, to be fair).

not a lot of connectivity (especially in Hughes)

the n has hints of what it will become later, though, which is cool to see!

2021 (from article)-

only writing Quinn now (only one dot for an i). maybe to speed it up, maybe just bc that's the nickname he goes by, maybe both.

seeing the connecting line/stroke between the g and h more prominently

s is looking more stylized as well

i think he's picking up the pen a fair amount still (maybe up to 8 or 9 strokes in this one?). so yeah, i'm sure it took a while compared to others...

2022 (from this silly vid)-

this is kind of not a 'true' signature to me bc 1) given the nature of the video i kind of doubt he would have put 100% effort into it (complete lack of stylized s) and 2) you can tell the surface/pen combo isn't great - see the jaggedness on the gh?

this is the most ~scribbly~ version i saw. like i said, idk if i really count this one but i don't want to dig around forever to find a confirmed 2022 signature

regardless, he seems to have sped it up and is better at the cursiveness aspect. Most of it is connected - i'd guess 5 total strokes for that version.

2023 (from wallpapers on the canucks' insta)-

definitely more committed to a "look"

Qu is kind of aggressive lol and the gh stroke isn't super smooth either. HOWEVER it is 100% a stylistic element he focuses on. also it's fast to connect them, so it probably feels pretty natural. just needed more practice on keeping that stroke aligned.

officially no dotting of the i anymore - just swooping up high (again, probably helps with speed)

we have the fully stylized s! i'm actually very fond of that part because lots of people will let the last letters fall to the wayside and basically just draw a line. he's kinda doing that a smidge with the n. but there's intention on the s and it looks very nice!

2023/2024 (from canucks' wallpapers & inhousemade insta)-

here we have our latest iteration

I reallyyy like the finishing on the n - it matches well with how he does the s, which is so pretty. such a fun letter to write lol

i think the gh line has been fully mastered at this point. and it's a good way to keep his signature legible but still give it a unique flair. not everyone's signature/name has that type of line so ppl can pick his name out rather easy i would guess.

i think huggy's probably settled on autograph style/look at this point. but i will still keep an eye out to see if he decides to try a new element!

thanks for reading and hopefully you found this mildly interesting ☺️

[raointean]

Funniest responses* to the "What does "Blorbo" mean?" question

(In reference to my silmarillion fandom linguistics project, the results of which you can find in my "survey says" tag)

*not necessarily the full response, some are just fragments from longer responses. Also, I'm not filtering by "correct" or "incorrect" responses

Special Little Guy (gender neutral)

Lmao. That's like, my special little guy. He takes up my brain space. I'm rotating him.

you know how lilo from lilo and stitch has that doll she made, complete with backstory? basically like that

one's blorbo is a character one cares a lot about. it kind of has like... condescending or woobifying connotations? like expressing that Maedhros is your blorbo is sort of uh... one imagines like, a chibi Maedhros. cute, not scary. but it doesn't necessarily imply the speaker has distorted perception of the character in general, just a sort of fondness

The character a person wants to use as a doll/stuffed animal

A character who the author loves too much (and knows it)

"OMG Blorbo was in the new trailer for 5 seconds!" is a common statement

which often provokes... strange thoughts at 11pm.

Beloved character who you think about entirely too much and also enjoy putting in Situations

It implies some degress of being pathetic as well.

No relation to Blorbo Baggins.

The character you put under a microscope, put through the cheese grater, put into the salad spinner, and squeeze like a plushie.

A beloved character whom you want to both stick in a microwave and protect with all you have

character one fangirls* over (*gender neutral)

Just a little guy, whom I am deeply enamored of and just want to squish on the head and see what happens.

Favourive character, often pathetic, someone to pity as much as love

obsessed. baby. Will run my mouth off about them

the word "favorite" wasn't enough to encapsulate "the exact kind of character made specifically for me in the lab" either. my friendgroup started calling those types of characters "callouts" because they were calling you out by existing Exactly To Your Tastes

(not necessarily in a way that condones their actions, but deeply beloved nonetheless)

The "cinnamon roll" kind. Idk I love Namo but I'd never call him a blorbo, it just wouldn't feel right.

??

dear?

My personal favourite character, whom I want to adopt even if he's a dark lord

A particularly beloved (or beloathed-in-a-positive-way) character.

Generally seem to be problematic favs.

I think it was originally meant to be somewhat mocking, but it was wholeheartedly adopted and is now used unironically.

A favored character that usually is subjected to great amounts of trauma and or fluff.

A favourite character, usually male

The obsession character

Feanor/character you are unreasonably attached to esp. if they are a Bad Person TM

The character who is most special and beloved to you (and often that means you're gonna put them through The Horrors)

a character that makes you chew on the bars of your enclosure

Special little character from my shows(tm)

usually having an aura of kicked wet puppy (brimby)

You'd build a shrine to them

Idk, ask the children 😹. Er. Hot character you like? I'm sure people have very complex definitions explaining why they like the hot character but I don't take fandom that seriously.

Your guy (gender neutral), not a comfort character, but perhaps a character you would like to see experience the worst situations possible (affectionate)

occasionally blorbo from my floor (my cat)

Just a widdle pathetic guy 🥺😈

A favourite character, thuogh usually one you squash like a stress ball or squeaky toy rather than put gently on a shelf

Ungoliant

Guy (gender neutral) who I hold in my hand like a neat rock and look at

character whom i will put in a glass and shake

character you are putting in the metaphorical salad spinner

A favourite character, often a war criminal treated like they did nothing wrong, they are a little kitty

(character you're particularly attached to and usually put in physically and/or mentally torturous situations for fun)

A character you’ve imprinted on and like seeing in misery. They’re your wet cat you enjoy pouring water on but also toweling off

Your favorite character, to whom no harm may come (except in the service of angst)

my guy. my friend my buddy. the person

Literally your favourite ever character, but not like you want to f*ck them, more like "how much can i let them suffer?"

Your favouritest character from media that you like to put in all kinds of situations, but is not morally problematic.

favourite character you want to bully

a fictional character that you like to an obsessive amount, typically more than other favourite characters; your specialist little guy; someone you are unwell about; you don’t always have to like your blorbo per day but they must take up constant thought space

[dedalvs]

Do you have any thoughts on the translation scene in Goncharov? I haven't seen a lot of people talking about it but it's a pretty pivotal scene and given that what they're doing is not dissimilar to a conlang imo i figured you might have some good insights

*sigh*

I figured someone was going to ask this eventually...

So listen, the whole translation scene in Goncharov is not technically conlang-related. It's actually even more brilliant, but it's hard to explain.

Since the tutor doesn't speak Russian and the nurse only speaks Italian, the aphasiac Soviet spy has to use an impromptu series of hand gestures to indicate that he either does or doesn't understand. I mean, you can glean that from the subtitles, so that's no big revelation.

But this is where it gets weird and...I mean, linguistically controversial, to say the least, but it was the 70s.

As the tutor and the nurse attempt to communicate with him and each other, they begin to winnow down their vocabulary to words that are cognate between Italian and Russian. And through this back and forth, the languages seem like they're blending, but what they're actually doing is reversing the sound changes of Italian and Russian until they both end up, improbably, at Proto-Indo-European. It's like something you'd see in Fantasia, but aural! It's...utterly bizarre.

And, of course the final word that the nurse and the tutor utter simultaneously, the one that brings the spy to tears, is *bʰewdʰ- "awake, aware"—which, I mean, knowing how the rest of the movie goes...yeah. Bombshell. And it's crazy to me that they didn't subtitle it! Like, you pretty much have to be a PIE scholar to get that, and the entire subplot hinges on it! I mean, bold isn't the word for it. Unfathomable. Cannot believe they got away with that...

Rumor has it that Morris Halle consulted on the film, but he's adamantly refused to talk about. (For years, he'd end all his guest lectures with, "Are they any questions about anything other than Goncharov?") He never once confirmed whether or not he was involved (of course, he wasn't credited, but that wouldn't be unusual for the time even if he was involved).

I can see why you'd think it would be a conlang, but the reverse-engineered sound changes were so precise, and the whole thing so by the book, that there really wasn't any actual invention. It was all Indo-European!

[ao3cassandraic]

I’m wondering about your thoughts on something I’ve been musing on after S2. How good is Aziraphale’s reading comprehension? How much does he understand subtext and metaphor? Because his behavior this season struck me with the impression that he didn’t really understand the books he collects. He’s clever at puzzle solving, and contains vast knowledge; but he always seems to take things at face value (when he’s not willfully misunderstanding), and refuses to give up black-and-white thinking, which would make it very difficult to analyze texts.

Angels, demons, language, and culture: part 1

You sure ask the difficult ones. (Which is great, I'm totally jazzed about it!)

I delayed answering this ask because it sent me off in a lot of directions:

What is an angel's starting knowledge base?

In contrast, how and what do we humans learn about our world and one another?

Which of these learning methods is not really available to an angel?

What do humans learn from books, fiction especially?

What kinds of information get left implicit in books because authors are humans writing for other humans?

How would an angel fill in those blanks? How would those blanks distort an angel's notion of How Humans and Human Things Work?

What would angels generally and either Aziraphale or Muriel (because yeah, it's hard to have this discussion without thinking about Muriel too) specifically read human-authored fiction for?

I don't have all the answers to the above questions. Not even CLOSE. I happily invite my fellow meta-ists to weigh in on any or all of them!

But let's see what I can tease out. We'll start with factory settings, so to speak.

Angelic vs. human factory settings

(questions 1 through 3)

Angels have (one) language. They have music -- or, at least, they can sing Her praises (likely by rote). At least some, like our Starmaker, have the knowledge to do specific jobs. Note that Aziraphale not only doesn't know how to make stars and nebulas, he's not even clear on what a nebula is. We can safely assume from that that angels don't all possess the same set of knowledge and skills purely by virtue (heh) of being angels.

We don't see, however, how much of what they know is simply an angel's birthright versus how much of it is somehow educated into them. We also don't know how She divvies up necessary knowledge, though I'd think it safe (given most takes on angelology) to guess that angelic rank and intended function are part of Her calculus, perhaps even the whole of it.

What strikes me hardest is that angels seem to be created either as adults or children (which is what I believe the scareable "cherubs" are), and they may well never change that state. The Starmaker is childlike in some ways, but not a child. Likely never was a child! Aziraphale, Before the Beginning, isn't childlike at all; his personality seems pretty close to fully-formed.

And children learn so very, very much. Babies learn so much as babies, while their neuroplasticity is super super plastic! Especially they learn about relating to other beings! (Which the Starmaker is conspicuously Not Real Great at, honestly -- absorbed in the work of creation, the Starmaker does not pick up the feelings Aziraphale is laying down at all.)

Children also learn one OR MORE languages, and that "more" is rather important, because language shapes how we think to some extent (the extent of that extent, and its nature, are objects of fierce debate among linguists and neuroscientists), and different languages shape us differently. Just as Crowley (as plenty of theologians argue) did humanity a favor with the whole knowledge-of-good-and-evil thing, the Tower of Babel (assuming that was a thing that happened in the GOverse; no reason it wouldn't have, I suppose) added a whole lot of nuance and complexity and competing understandings to humanity's sense of itself and its universe.

Exactly how angels and demons manage to speak all human languages (which Crowley indicates they can) isn't clear. If we accept that the Tower of Babel happened, both Heaven and Hell must have had to figure out a way to deal with it.

We do see, however, that angels and demons can be fluent in human languages without being fluent in human thought or human cultures. Gabriel and Sandalphon speak perfect English yet barely know which end of a book is up. Hastur and Ligur can't disentangle ciao/chow. And, I mean, actual food? Fuhgeddaboudit. So I see their linguistic facility as a sort of Douglas Adams Babel fish: it can translate an angel's or demon's thought into the target language, but it can't help an angel or demon think like an actual speaker of that language.

As an example, Gabriel can tell Job and Sitis about their new children, perfectly fluently. His purely-linguistic fluency does not help him understand that they loved their old children, much less why.

This may explain why Aziraphale studied French under M. Rossignol. He perhaps didn't feel he understood how French speakers think, and was interested enough in that to learn the language (as other meta-ists have noted, the language of love!) the human way.

So yeah, if I have a conclusion here it's that angels and demons can seem as off-center as they often do from a human perspective because they wholly missed out on a key period of human brain development.

What they have in its place appears to be... rules. Which is, I think, where I'll take this next.

[dark-side-blog3]

How would you rank the six Jojo leads from the OG continuity from worst to best to end up with?

I'm gonna take this as an add-on to the would you rather game from before, so the answers will be super self-indulgent, and yandere.

Short answer is I would prefer to end up with none of the yanderes, at least not the jojo's. But in terms of damage, I suppose Jonathan is the safest, and Giorno is the worst. It should be Jolyne because Stone Ocean is more dangerous, but Giorno skeeves me out more. Jolynes only so low because everyone around her would instakill me.

+++++++++++++++++

Jonathan is a milk toast of a man. He's unthreatening, because of his noble code. If I got isekai'd, the worst Johnathan could possibly do to me is just have me associated with him, because Dio would fuck me up just to mess with him. In which case, I'd either have to avoid Jonathan so hard Dio can't target me, or I'd have to glue myself to his side so he could protect me from Dio. Which would be what feeds into his tendencies, but they're not really dangerous, so I suppose I'll just have to suck it up.

Joseph is funny and charming, and in earlier parts, he's cunning and witty. He leans heavily into the bad boy heartbreaker persona, so the idea that he's going to be possessive of his partner wouldn't seem out of the ordinary. And all of these would make him the match if it weren't offset by the cheating. How Suzie didn't kill him, I don't know. Her patience is infinite. I, on the other hand, would kill us both. Until then, he wouldn't be too bad.

Jotaro and I would fight way too much. He only wants to talk about his interests, and I can't shut up about my interests, and there is zero overlap between the two. There are only so many times I can endure a Clint Eastwood marathon, and there are only so many minutes he'll let me talk about pinnipeds or linguistics. I couldn't care less about the actual crimes he commits, but the clash of interests would be what makes him the (second) most unbearable.

Josuke has never faced long-term interpersonal consequences to his actions, which means that he'll be genuinely surprised if I stay mad at him after a fight. He nearly beat Okuyasu to death and they're best friends. He punched a hole through his mom and never got in trouble. So why am I still mad at him a week after a verbal fight that didn't even get violent? The world will never know (I will tell him every day, he just doesn't want to hear it). The only reason I wouldn't try to piss him off too much, like saying I got isekai'd and I can't stay in Morioh, is because I've seen Angelo. I choose to not be a fucked up rock Josuke does shameful things with.

Giorno is fucking creepy if you don't hear his internal monologues; which if isekai'd, I wouldn't be able to. I'm with Abbacchio on this, I don't trust this motherfucker. He just stares as people get injured in front of him, and waits until the last possible second to help them, and he's so obviously scheming behind those eyes. I would avoid him like the plague, even if I somehow got involved with the mafia. He's just so... Weird. And calculating. Giorno isn't the only smart jojo, but he is the most intimidating for his intelligence. The vibes are just so rancid on him... I'm throwing myself into the Tiber before I enter this narrative.

Jolyne is a puzzle. I'm not sure what I'd do if I got isekai'd... Do I avoid her and avoid the ire of Anasui, or get my ass beat by the enemy stand users literally everywhere? Not to mention the regular people who just happen to be in a supermax, who will probably prey on me for being an easy target. I'd be totally lost in terms of what to do. At least with the others, there's a hope of escape, or playing my cards right to utilize them. But I don't think there is a good strategy with Jolyne except carefully slotting myself in the toxic friendzone, and hoping for the best. At least it shouldn't be impossible to do.

[idyllic-affections]

The platonic kaeya hcs were amazing !! If you’re still taking requests, how abt expanding on kaeya and his sibling and maybe the ragnvindr family drama :oo

how does the presence of kaeya's sibling change the fallout?

summary. how, if at all, does the presence of kaeya's sibling change his falling out with diluc?

trigger & content warnings. blood, depictions of a broken nose, canon-typical ragnvindr family drama, crying, etc.

tropes, pairings, fic length, & other notes. angst, hurt/comfort. kaeya & younger sibling!reader, diluc & reader. 0.5k words. they/them pronouns for reader. this post is an expansion of these headcanons, but it can be read as a standalone.

author's thoughts. hello lovely!! thank you hehe... my kaeya content always seems to get less traction than my other genshin content so im very glad you like those hcs!! my requests are always open unless i explicitly state otherwise, so feel free to send anything in whenever. i dont work on requests in the order which they come in; i work on them based on what i find inspiring, so i dont feel the same pressure other writers might to fulfill their requests, you know? im not as worried about being overwhelmed or burnt out bc of that, so requests are always open <3

how does the presence of kaeya's younger sibling change his fallout with diluc? that is indeed a complex question.

the short answer is that it doesn't.

the long answer is a bit more complicated than that.

kaeya is very protective of his baby sibling. he does all that he can to ensure that they're safe and smart and capable, because if he happens to not be around and trouble comes their way...

well, he wants to be absolutely confident that they can handle it, whether that be by smooth-talking their way out of it (kaeya has admitted to certain people that he is very amused by the way they seem to have inherited his so-called "linguistic powers") or by fighting their way out of it.

moreover, he loves them so, so much. they most definitely have a target on their back because of that. kaeya knows he has a tendency to sometimes associate with people that... aren't exactly righteous when he needs information. he also knows that his sheer adoration for the sweetheart he somehow gets to call his sibling isn't a secret to anyone who's been in mondstadt for more than a day. he can't restrict their freedom (especially not in mondstadt of all nations), so to combat his fear, he teaches them how to handle themselves in all kinds of situations.

he always knew better than to lie to them about their heritage, for a lie that severe would only cause harm. kaeya treasured their trust far too dearly to so much as even scratch it slightly.

...

perhaps it would have been best to be honest and transparent with diluc, too?

diluc discriminates not between the alberich siblings, but he doesn't go out of his way to harm the youngest, either. they're only a child. surely they didn't know? though, by the end of everything...

diluc has landed a deep scratch on their cheek and possibly broken their nose, all because they did know the truth.

kaeya does not take that well.

if anything, the presence of kaeya's sibling worsens the fallout, for if kaeya were to ever blame himself for what happened, all of those thoughts disappear the moment diluc lays hands on what is most dear to him.

and as for kaeya's sibling?

"fuck you, ragnvindr. i hate you more than you'll ever know. have fun being alone. it's what you deserve."

they feel a rage that they've never felt before despite the blood dripping from their broken nose and split lip, despite the overall numbness of their face from their wounds.

protectiveness does go both ways with the alberichs, it seems.

even long after the fallout, when the raging fires are reduced to spiteful words and brief exchanges full of bitterness, kaeya's sibling still holds the deepest resentment towards diluc.

(diluc doesn't need to know that there are nights where all kaeya can do is helplessly hold them as they cry about wanting their other brother back.

all diluc knows is that they hate him.

knowing that, he can't bring himself to approach them.)

please consider reblogging, it helps me out quite a lot!

[faroreskiss]

The Power of Understanding / Part 2 (v2)

Read on Ao3

Rewritten v2 posted on: 2023/09/10

Cheat Sheet

Chapters: Pilot, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9

Summary: You have been with the Chain for a while now, as their "scholar" and translator. You know everything about them, because you are from our world. But do they know the truth about how you can understand everyone? Loosely based on the same reader in my NSFW fic, which is a very loose prequel to this one, and a work in progress. More background info to come, if I feel like it :D Isekai reader, but she doesn't know about the Linked Universe. Warnings: None. SFW. Maybe Teen? Points of interest: This is your thing if you are into the mystery of chain being able to talk to each other. I am an actual trained linguist IRL, hence this HAD to be written! Some fluffy Twilight x Reader content in this chapter.

So, what was happening to you today? You just couldn't stop thinking about Twilight for some reason. You even carried your work over the stables, having to inhale the smell of horseshit around you. 

But he was just... there. Not like he has been far away lately. You’ve literally been stuck with him (and the rest of the chain) for around two years. Your ‘situationship’ with Wild was still there, and the rest of the chain was aware of it, you were guessing.  You both weren’t exactly super subtle about it, hand holding and such and sometimes a small kiss here and there, but you were never explicit with it either. Nobody questioned anything, everybody had their… quirks, you guessed. 

Did they think you were just in a relationship, you wondered sometimes. Were they even familiar with the word, situationship? Gods, what would they think of the involvement of you, Zelda and Link at the same time, if they knew? Technically, everybody had their room in the house in Hateno, but, well... Ah, you really missed Zelda too, and her delicate fingers on… You took a breath and then sighed. You were getting distracted.

Anyway, nobody owes anyone explanations in the Chain that you learned. That was the agreement of the Links, in which you were indirectly included. If they don't want to tell, you don't force them.

Except, you pretty much knew everything. Well, you weren't really familiar with any game where all the Links were together except maybe some fanfiction where they met in the afterlife, but Wild didn't "exist" back then, from your perspective.

Now, Time was out with the others, getting some business done in Castle Town. Wild also joined him to get some ingredients for the recipes he learned from Malon.

Back to Twilight... You were watching his strong arms, brushing the horse gently. He definitely had a tall stature compared to the other Links. The Links you are in contact with are ranging from their mid to late twenties, maybe early thirties (except Wind, though he was still almost a 16/17 -year-old teenager). So, most of them were fully adults.

"Hey, I can feel ya starin', ya know, Trivia Queen,” he said with his Ordona drawl that occasionally made an appearance, sighing, while still brushing his Epona.

Right. That was your nickname. When you first arrived, you kept spouting things about them that you supposedly should not "know" about, which made the Links (except Wild, he was used to it) extremely suspicious. Over time, they got used to it, especially after finding out about your "job" at Wild's world, as a historian, linguistics scholar. So they left it at that.

The other rule was that you were not supposed to discuss one Link with another, unless you are sure you are not revealing any secrets.

...which was a rule that was established right after you revealed that Twilight is Wolfie, to Wild. Seems like the Old Man already knew (you and Wild joined the chain pretty much as the latest additions), and it was his idea to come up with it. And it was kind of unfair because Wild said he already knew Wolfie from his initial adventure! Hah, good riddance. It did end up being revealed to everyone anyway, after his near death experience.

Fair to say, you were the persona non-grata for a while. And that nickname was not Trivia Queen, but it was Trivia-something else for a while (Thanks, Vet).

"Mhm," you idly replied.

Twilight raised an eyebrow, catching you lost in thought while the stables filled with the scent of horse dung. "Hey," he called out again, his voice carrying a mix of amusement and curiosity. "Lost in your own world again?"

You sighed, blushing slightly, and tried to shake off the daydream of you and him in a big bear hug. "Yeah, just got a bit distracted," you admitted, turning your attention back to the ranch's budget paperwork. "These numbers can be quite mesmerizing, you know."

The rancher chuckled, his eyes warm as he continued brushing his Epona. "If you say so," he replied playfully. "But I have to admit, you manage to make even the most mundane tasks seem fascinating."

You couldn't help but smile at his compliment, feeling your heart flutter slightly. "Thanks, Link. You know how to make a 'trivia queen' blush," you teased back, trying to keep the conversation light-hearted.

His grin widened, and he leaned against the stable door, looking at you with that undeniable twinkle in his eyes. "Oh, really? Well, consider it a skill I've honed over time," he said, winking playfully.

You playfully rolled your eyes, trying to hide the butterflies in your stomach. "I suppose I'll have to keep my guard up around you, then," you replied, feigning a serious tone.

Twilight chuckled, and for a moment, the two of you locked eyes, a silent understanding passing between you.

"You wish you could," he winked.

There was an unspoken awareness that, despite the friendly banter, there were lines he would not cross. You respected his relationship with Wild, and he respected your history with him. And of course, the fact that everybody's existence is but a flicker...

Yes... Who knows how long you will still be here anyway? Even the stuff with Wild and Flora is as dangerous as it is. You can literally disappear and get back to your own world, leaving them behind.

This was the thing that was stopping you from the other type of "feelings" you could catch. You never spoke about this with Wild or Flora. To be fair, not like there was any time to. You… literally had the most intense moment of intimacy one night, and less than 24 hours after that, you and Link were taken in via the portal and met with 8 other Links. Poor guy even hesitated to sleep with you in the same bedroll, literally the night after. 

 And since the adventures with the Chain started, there was this weird gloom between you two sometimes (both missing Zelda), but the respect you have for each other never disappeared. That was another unspoken agreement.

The moment you want to speak about this awkward issue of you having a heart big enough for love for other people, the reality of your existence would be bare.

Anybody can disappear, forever, anytime.

Time's return broke the moment, and you both quickly resumed your tasks, acting as if nothing significant had transpired. "So, what were you two chatting about?" Time inquired with a sly grin.

"Just discussing the ranch's budget," you replied casually, keeping things vague.

The Old Man raised an eyebrow but seemed to take your word for it. "Alright then, just remember we've got some preparations to make before the next portal appears," he said, his eyes flickering with a knowing but serious glint. It wasn't the first time he witnessed something like this.

You nodded, grateful for the diversion. "Of course, I'll get back to work."

As the day went on, you couldn't help but steal glances at Twilight, his presence always managing to captivate you. Though you were the "translation magic" of the group, your understanding of him went beyond language. It was a connection that had been forged through shared experiences and unspoken feelings of the last couple of years, despite the initial incidents you had.

And as you continued to work alongside the Chain, you held onto the hope that, in the midst of all the chaos and adventure, there might be a chance for your paths to intertwine in a more profound way. For now, you would cherish the friendly banter and the secret glances, knowing that no matter how many worlds you traveled, Twilight would be a part of your heart's journey, for now.

[admirableadmiranda]

Hi! I have an perhaps silly question!

I am currently reading volume 4 & 5 of the official translation. Up till now, I didn't have that many problems with it (mostly because it's been years since I read the fan one and since I don't speak Chinese and English isn't my first language the only thing I noticed at first was that it... read ? Better if that makes sense? It was easier at least.

But I have. Concerns. Does Wei Wuxian truly say fuck (or whatever equivalent there is in swear words) all the time? Because I noticed it in vol 4 and now I keep seeing it! I know he's supposed to be pretty informal, but that + the way he speaks sometimes ("I know I've got a bad rep" ??? "What are you doing on my turf"???) keep taking me out of the story xD idk if it's because I took a break in my rereading and got used to fics modifying his speech patterns... but given that when I'm writing mdzs fics I usually make sure to... idk adapt the speech patterns so they're not too modern sounding? Am I overthinking this? Should I let wwx say fuck all the time?? XD

Hope this doesn't bother you and thank you in advance for your answer!!

Hi! Hello again! How’s it going?

So full disclosure I have not read the official translation in full yet, but uhh… yeah I’ve seen more than enough of Suika’s prose to know that there’s something off about the way she translates WWX that just eliminates an important element of his character.

For what you’re saying between ExR and Suika’s translations with Suika being easier to read, I get that. ExR has a lot of trouble with tenses and plenty of times they use a word that’s not quite what they actually want it to mean, so it takes more work to read what they intend to say over what the text says, but Suika’s text only really is improved by being cleaned up, @kimalysong and @jiangwanyinscatmom have a lot of posts on text either vastly altered from the intent or lines just flat out missing, if you’re curious about going down the rabbit hole of the official translation.

Now WWX does swear on occasion, especially when he’s younger and using the rougher Yunmeng dialect, but the other lines you’ve quoted tend to have Suika’s usual problem of making lower class characters speak roughly and often with southern accents regardless of how they sound in Chinese or with consideration to the character at hand. Wei Wuxian has an incredible grasp of language and literally switches linguistic registers depending on who he’s talking to and what the situation is and given some of his lines that I’ve seen in the official translation compared to stuff in exr or that my friend has translated for me, it seems like Suika has flattened all of that out in favor of her usual style of handling lower class characters.

I think you’re noticing it because it’s at odds with everyone else’s translations and grasp of WWX. While ExR has its own troubles with grammar at times, you can still see the strength in his language usage, to say nothing of Fanyiyi and Taming Wangxian’s translations which are much more solid on that front(@mxtxfanatic has posts comparing the language uses between exr, Fanyiyi and Taming Wangxian if you’re curious) and really lay out a well spoken character who can adjust his speech as needed (and drop the occasional precision fuck strike when needed).

I am not impressed by Suika’s way of translating characters speech especially as it pertains to Wei Wuxian, and I think you’re right to say that it feels weird. Don’t follow her style of speech, continue to write a WWX who absolutely understands the tangled web of a world he lives in and adjusts his language for the person at hand consistently.

[foone]

Mundane Kaya Sona timeline and links

(I'm just trying to organize what I've written so far and what I still need to write, but hey, links if you want to read)

Prologue: The Wizard arrives on earth. Rudapedi emergency-teleports in and finds himself in a rainstorm in Seattle, and panics because he's from a dry world. When exactly this takes place isn't exactly clear: it's months or years before The Crash.

The Crash (not written): A truck crashes somewhere in middle-america. The FBI gets involved when it's discovered to be carrying stolen US nuclear weapons, encased in carved white stone "coffins" marked in an unknown language.

Meeting the Wizard (not written): The FBI finds evidence of The Wizard though a language match in pictures taken by a former roommate. The wizard has moved out already, and when they track him down to a cabin in the woods, he escapes. They get his books.

Recruiting the Linguist: The FBI agent recruits the linguist to figure out the language in the books. She's reluctant but agrees. Lots of books are dropped off.

Magic Books? The number pages in the books changes based on who is reading them. I'm not certain if this is going to be included. I like it as a concept but I'm not certain it fits the story, but I already wrote it so I might end up stuffing it somewhere, and it seems to make sense here.

Presentation for the FBI (not written): The linguist meets back up with the FBI (weeks/months later?) and gives an update on her progress: There's two scripts at use in the books. One's for titles and special circumstances and she doesn't really have enough info to decode it, the other she's figured out. The books talk a lot about magic and an "Empire of Kaya Sona" that controls a lot of different places.

Post presentation off-record (not written): The FBI agent reveals The Crash to The Linguist, and follows up: they caught The Wizard. She thinks she can talk to him with how much she knows of the language so far. They set up a meeting.

Meeting the Wizard (partial snippet written: definitely needs more): She is able to talk to the wizard using a tablet and her language model. She is able to get him to translate the coffin markings: "Sword of Heaven", which is the epithet of the prince (and a pun: it's a nuke!). Possibly more info revealed here (such as why the Wizard is depowered), before...

9. The FBI attacked. The interrogation room is attacked by agents from the Kalic Empire. The power is cut and a magician and two crossbowmen are clearing the building. With some help from the wizard and linguist, the FBI agent disables them enough to re-power the wizard to takes them out.

10. Magical language snippet (written but not published?): The wizard used magic to let them communicate without the tablet, and the linguist realized that he's not speaking english, she's speaking Kalic. Not sure if this goes in, if I clean it up and publish, or if it gets rewritten into another chapter?

11. The escape: They're driving away in the rain, and the wizard is explaining why the coffins were transported by truck instead of magically (inter-world teleports go to fixed locations on the planet). He rants about healthcare and is still mad at the rain. One note here: I've written it as Jay driving, but as of the end of chapter 9 he probably has a concussion. Either he got better Really Fast or I should probably rewrite this so the linguist is driving?

And that's all that's really plotted at the moment. Some bits to fill in, and then I need to figure out what happens after this.

Somewhere around "chapters" (using this term very loosely) 8-11, the Kalic Empire also attacks the place where the coffins are being stored and gets them back, but I'm not really sure if that's going to be shown or just mentioned.

Other bits where I've written about this story:

Not a love story, and mana deficit is ADHD

Inspiration and questions

A question about the no-rain thing

Inspiration for the Prologue

An earlier chapter list with some differences

A long ago twitter thread that talks a little bit about the fundamental conflict between no-mana planets like Earth and magical planets like Kaya Sona, why Earth hasn't been invaded by a Magical Empire before, and how that peace is coming to an end.

Which reminds me of another thing I need to figure out: There's some events on Kaya Sona (the home world of the Kalic Empire) which explain why the wizard had to flee to Earth. That definitely needs to be explained, but I'm not sure yet if it'll be a flashback or if I'll just have The Wizard explain it. I might want to make this story entirely earth-based, rather than jumping back and forth between the mundane setting and the machinations of the royal court of a Magic Empire. It seems more fun to just have the magical empire in another dimension just be a big Outside Context Problem for modern-day earth.

Finally, NAMES:

The FBI Agent is named Jay (and his lastname is something like Jenkins/Johnson). The Wizard is Rudapedi Yonfer. The Linguist I don't think I've named yet in anything written, but I think her name is Sarah? And the Kalic Empire is ruled by House Nor. The current ruling empire is Typec Nor, the usurping prince is written as "Nemis" on my oldest story guidelines but I'll probably change that (IT'S JUST NEMESIS WITH A COUPLE LETTERS MISSING), and I can't remember the deposed prince's name. I gotta dig up some paper documents from like 1996 to figure that out... but I don't think he's going to be involved in this story much. He's been banished to some other world where he's fighting a guerilla war against somebody not very important to this story.

Random-note: This is unconnected to my 101 magical pistols setting. That one is really more for a bunch of short-stories and doesn't have an overarching narrative, plus their magic works differently. They're much more into magical items (mainly pistols, obviously) and don't have the whole rain/mana thing going on.

[badbatchposts]

Quiet Corners of the Galaxy, Chapter 8

While on a routine mission for Cid, the Bad Batch encounter a woman fleeing from the Empire. Crosshair suspects her seemingly free-spirited, nomadic existence is actually a cover for something else, but struggles to keep his attraction toward her in check as their personalities and ideals clash.

Relevant tags: Slow Burn, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Smut (it finally starts getting spicy in a couple more chapters!), Canon-Typical Violence, Alcohol Use

Chapters posted 1-2x weekly!

Read the full fic so far on AO3

Read previous chapters on Tumblr: Ch. 1 l Ch. 2 l Ch. 3 l Ch. 4 l Ch. 5 l Ch. 6 l Ch. 7

Chapter 8 summary: The Batch learns a little bit more about Dara, but Crosshair is still suspicious, and he really doesn't like the way things are going between her and Hunter.

Chapter Notes: WE GET A LITTLE BIT OF LOW KEY SMUT, FINALLY. But it's a slow-burn so we have a ways to go before we really GET THERE. Content: 18+, masturbation, sexual fantasy

“So, you were formerly a linguist?” Several hours later, standing at the bar in Cid’s parlor, Tech picked up the earlier thread of their conversation. When they had arrived at Cid’s, a particularly bloated-looking Twi’lek had emerged from her office, giving them all a cursory glance before depositing a case of credits with their employer and gesturing magisterially to the Rodian, who followed him out the door. Hunter had met with Cid to hammer out the details of their next job, and they were now winding down the night in the empty dive, the Trandoshan having long since retreated to her back rooms.

“A long time ago now,” Dara replied, taking a generous sip of her drink. “That’s how I first got traveling. Doing fieldwork, studying lesser-known languages.”

“Fascinating,” Tech said brightly. No doubt he was looking forward to interrogating Dara on the finer details of some of her research. However, before he could continue, Echo interrupted him.

“What made you stop?” the ARC trooper asked.

Wrecker, occasionally the most emotionally intelligent among them, elbowed him, probably leaving a bruise. “I don’t think she wants to talk about that,” he scolded, in what would have been a whisper, if he had ever actually learned how to speak quietly.

Dara smiled, a little sadly. “It’s okay, Wrecker. It was the war. I just couldn’t convince myself that it was worth doing anymore. You know—around all that destruction and death, it was hard to keep believing that studying words really mattered.” She shook her head, as if trying to clear it of painful thoughts. “Then the war ended, and it didn’t seem like the Empire would be much interested in preserving the languages or cultures they felt were beneath them. They’d rather just wipe them all out.”

Echo gave her shoulder a kind squeeze, although his expression was serious. “You might be right about that. But there are a lot of us out there that think those people are worth protecting, too.”

Dara nodded, looking at the clone with some warmth, then shrugged. “Anyway, I don’t mean to bring the mood down. What about you boys? You fought in the war, obviously, but you’re not like the other clones. You’re all enhanced, you said? Let me guess…” She glanced at each of them in turn. “Extra brawn,” she gestured at Wrecker. He posed, flexing his muscles, with a grin. “And Tech… extra brain.” He beamed smugly at her. “Echo…extra mechanics?” The ARC trooper flushed a little, and she winked at him.

Dara’s eyes then lit on Crosshair. She nodded assuredly, certain of her assessment. “Extra asshole.” The others chuckled knowingly as the sniper glared at her.

Finally, Dara’s gaze made its way to Hunter, and she lifted her eyebrows flirtatiously, a small smile playing across her lips. “What about you then? Where are you hiding all those enhancements?”

Hunter’s own expression settled into an easy, charming smirk. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”  

Tech adjusted his goggles and, either unaware of or choosing to ignore any subtext to their exchange, launched into an explanation. “He has significantly more perceptive senses than the average human, being able to see, hear, smell, and feel to a much keener degree, as well as being able to sense electromagnetic frequencies and combine all of this sensory input for the purposes of tracking.”

Dara gently bumped her shoulder against Hunter’s. “Sounds useful. In a lot of contexts,” she added suggestively. “How much can you sense, then?”

Hunter chuckled a little. “Let’s just say I know everything that happens on my ship.”

“Get a room,” Crosshair growled. Dara laughed and leaned over Hunter to reach behind the bar, helping herself to an unattended bottle of liquor. The sniper noticed that Sergeant gently hovered his hand across her lower back, guiding and steadying her as she popped back into her seat and began to refill all of their glasses.

One drink later—during which Crosshair eyed the pair darkly as Dara every so often let her hand rest on Hunter’s knee while she spoke to him, and the Sergeant repeatedly returned his own to linger on her back or at her elbow—the squad finally departed Cid’s, enroute to the Marauder to tuck in for the night before departing for their next mission.

But once they had exited the bar, before Dara could continue following the rest of the clones, Crosshair stopped in front of her, impeding her progress. “Wait. I need to talk to you,” he muttered.  

The others paused as well, looking at them questioningly. Dara sighed exasperatedly and gave them a shrug. “We’ll catch up.”

His brothers were barely out of sight before Crosshair pulled Dara into the nearest alley. He pinned her against the wall with one forearm across her chest. Dara hardly reacted, looking rather bored. “This isn’t talking,” she pointed out mildly.

Crosshair scowled. “I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but stay away from Hunter.” 

Dara rolled her eyes. He thought he must have been hurting her a little, but she continued to ignore the explicit threat behind his demand. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Some people—normal people—just like to have a little harmless fun occasionally.” She quirked an eyebrow up. “Not you, I’m sure. But Hunter’s a big boy. I think he can decide for himself whether he wants to…” She paused briefly, running her tongue, ever-so-slightly, between her lips, as if savoring the words. “…play with me.”

The sniper snorted derisively and leaned closer, hardened eyes glued on hers. “Hunter couldn’t handle you.”

“Oh, and I suppose you could?” Dara murmured. Crosshair didn’t respond; he had realized that their faces were only inches away from each other, and for a moment all he could think about was the feel of her body pressed between himself and the cold, grimy wall. Unable to resist the impulse, he allowed his free hand to roam beneath the hem of her shirt, stroking with calloused fingers along the small of her back where Hunter had grazed her earlier. He gently traced upwards along her soft skin, noticing, with some surprise, as its smoothness was interrupted by the raised knot of a scar—not the subtle puckering formed by blaster fire that he had seen on her abdomen, but the welt left behind from a deep gash.

Crosshair could feel Dara’s fingers probing him similarly, tracing along the gaps between the armor plates at his waist. Neither of them looked away. Her lips ghosted along his jaw to his ear, and he felt the warm tickle of her breath as she opened her mouth to whisper to him.

“I’d rather fuck every other clone in the galaxy, starting with each one of your brothers, than be with you.”

With a determined shove and well-placed kick, Dara freed herself, stalking off toward the Marauder and leaving a momentarily stunned Crosshair alone in the alley before he finally shook himself and followed, trailing far behind.

By the time he reached the ship Dara was nowhere to be found. The others sat in the cabin, still chatting. Hunter looked at him disapprovingly as he joined them. “What did you do to upset her? She came in and went straight to the hold without even saying anything.”

Crosshair flared his nostrils angrily. “Me? She’s the one manipulating you.”

He expected the Sergeant to be irritated, or at the very least, broody. Instead, he grinned and elbowed Tech. “Looks like Echo’s not the only one a little sweet on her.” The ARC trooper turned pink, while Tech looked mildly amused.

Crosshair was infuriated, but before he could open his mouth, Wrecker weighed in, also smiling widely. It was so rare they got to torment Crosshair instead of being the ones subject to his taunting. “Well, obviously she likes me the most. I’m the most fun.”

“Oh, no,” Tech disagreed. “While our shared academic pursuits make her rather compatible with myself, the suggestiveness of her interactions with Hunter was quite substantial evidence in his favor.”

“It sure was. I’m counting on that,” Hunter contributed mischievously.

Even Echo couldn’t help teasing. “Hey now! I thought she and I had a bit of a moment back at the bar there.”

The sniper finally got a word in. “None of you are taking this seriously. We know she’s lying about something, and we don’t even know who she is! We can’t trust her!”

Hunter clapped him on the back good-naturedly, putting an end to the game. “Everything is fine, Crosshair. It’s just flirting. Nobody is letting her manipulate them. Things have been hard enough for us for a long time—it won’t hurt to relax and talk to a woman every once in a while. At least this one’s never shot at us.”

“Not yet,” he muttered darkly. His brothers ignored him, carrying on with some sort of debate on which of the women who had shot at them they would still sleep with and dealing out a deck of cards.

However, only a few minutes later, Hunter began to tense up. Crosshair eyed him suspiciously. The Sergeant had stopped participating in the conversation and was avoiding eye contact with the others, occasionally angling his head then holding still intently. The sniper had seen that gesture from him before: Hunter was listening to something. Suddenly, he became flushed and began shifting awkwardly in his seat.

“Are you alright, Hunter?” Tech queried.

The Sergeant nodded, throwing down his cards. “Just tired. Going to bed.” He disappeared into the bunkroom before any of them could reply.

Crosshair scowled and rose from the galley table where they were gathered, prowling toward the back of the ship. He stealthily crept up to the door of the cargo hold and paused, listening. While the sounds were well-muffled by the thick walls, he could make out a few stifled moans, then a gentle, drawn-out sigh: “Oh, Hunter…”

Heatedly, he punched the key to open the door and entered the dimly lit room. Dara was in her hammock, one hand moving beneath her blanket and the other wrapped in her own hair. As soon as he entered, she gripped the blanket tightly with both hands, drawing it up to her chin protectively. “Do you mind?!” she yelped, a little panicked. He liked that sound.

The sniper folded his arms. “Gotta do an inventory in here before we leave for the mission tomorrow.”

Dara looked ready to tear his throat out with her teeth. “Right now?!”

Crosshair didn’t answer, just smirked. She made a rude gesture at him and pulled the blanket the rest of the way over her head with an irritated groan. He puttered around the room quietly for a few minutes, waiting until the gentle rhythm of Dara’s breathing indicated she may have fallen asleep.

The sniper exited the hold and stripped off his armor, storing it carefully before heading to the fresher. Sighing, he turned on the shower and leaned one forearm against the wall, resting his head against it and letting the hot water temporarily melt his frustrations away as he focused on the problem at hand.

He didn’t trust Dara for one second, but he still couldn’t figure out what exactly she was holding back. It wasn’t just the Imperial shuttle, the gaps in her story. No, her confidence as she diverted the maintenance tech at the prison had been too practiced. She had said she was a linguist—a linguist with scars from blaster fire and what he suspected was either shrapnel or a stab wound, and that’s before the injuries he found her with.

Thinking of that last scar reminded him of the feel of it beneath his fingers, the knots and raised edges brushing up against soft skin and softer flesh. He felt himself grow hard as he realized he was standing in the exact position as when he’d had her pinned in the alley. Kriff, he had to admit that he wanted her. He’d wanted to take her right there against the filthy wall, make her forget the small touches and easy flirtation she and Hunter had exchanged at the bar.

Hunter. Dara had known he could hear her from anywhere on the ship. She’d been touching herself, moaning his name on purpose. She wanted Hunter to hear her, was toying with him, turning him on from an entirely different room. Whether because she truly wanted him, she wanted something from him, or simply because it was exactly what Crosshair had told her not to do. I’d rather fuck every other clone in the galaxy, starting with each one of your brothers…

Crosshair hated her.

He hated her, he distrusted her, and he wanted to watch her come undone underneath him while she screamed his name and begged for more.

That should be his name she was moaning.

Crosshair’s free hand tugged erratically at his cock, working himself while he imagined Dara whimpering, the whole of her exposed to him and at his mercy, her curves beneath his hands and his tongue in her mouth while he made her cum over and over again. His hands gripping her silvery hair by the roots, his teeth on her neck, her taste on his lips. Finally, he felt himself stiffen everywhere, letting out a strangled grunt before the sweet relief of his release flooded his senses and left him panting, still leaning on his forearm against the cool durasteel wall.

***

The moment Crosshair had finally left the cargo hold, lured away by her purposeful steady breathing, Dara had slipped her fingers back beneath the waistband of her pants, positioning her index and middle finger on either side of her clit and resuming the rhythmic, reliable back-and-forth that always got her there.

It was hard to believe the balls on that karking asshole. Inventory, she thought with a skeptical snort. More like listening at her doorway. Sure, she’d been saying Hunter’s name on purpose, half enjoying the fantasy, half interested in testing whether he could really hear everything happening on his ship. Of course, if that asshole hadn’t put her in such a foul mood outside the bar, then she probably would’ve just slept with Hunter to begin with, but once she’d gotten alone and the rage had subsided, she had thought, hey, why not toy with him a little, a bit of a tease never hurt with the build-up, she was stuck tagging along with the squad for a while longer, there would be plenty more opportunities to get the Sergeant alone. And kriff, she’d meant what she’d said to that asshole, there was nothing wrong with a bit of harmless fun, she had needs just like anyone else, and kriff knows she could use the stress relief and it had been a long while for her, not like she’d had much time or inclination or the options to try sleeping with anyone lately.

Dara felt any hint of pleasure slipping away as her mind raced back toward her anger, her worries, the reasons for her recent celibacy. Focus, focus. She tried thinking about Hunter again. Kriff he was good-looking. The tattoo, the golden-brown skin, the broad shoulders narrowing down to that fine waist, the strength of him. Even the broodiness, she liked a little darkness, that gravelly voice. There was something about his hands, too. The way she’d seen him playing with his knives earlier, spinning them expertly between his fingers. She started feeling the pleasure build up inside her again, her stomach fluttering a little. Yes, that was good, his hands, hovering at her back, pulling the knife out of his vambrace, adjusting the scope on his rifle, his fingers were so slender, precise, expert, inserting that stupid toothpick into his mouth—

NO. Wrong clone. Start over. Go back to the touches. She’d liked leaning over him at the bar, feeling his hand just barely grazing against her. How would his fingers feel against her skin? Rough callouses roaming up her hips to her waist, gently stroking her back, rubbing her scar, the way he held her down with his arm across her chest hurt so good and kriff the way he looked into her eyes stirred something in her, he was always looking at her so intently, glaring or with sneering amusement, just looking dangerous other times, he’d looked dangerous tonight, she’d wanted to reach up and trace that stupid tattoo circling his eye—

Kriff. He’d ruined this for her, that asshole. With a final, low grunt of frustration, Dara gave up any hope at finding satisfaction that night, choosing instead to stare at the ceiling of the cargo hold and think about her choices and where they had led her until she finally fell into an uneasy sleep.

Next chapter

Tag List: @stardusthuntress @skellymom

Dara used to be a linguistic anthropologist, but for aliens. A linguistic alienologist? I like to think she would be super into the Poletecs from the Bad Batch Clone Wars arc.

We also finally get some Dara POV! Her internal monologue is a lot.

[glisten-inthedark]

“Because let's assume he's been watching everyone for a while, even before season 1”

Reading this I thought “okay but how would he know who to watch?” and then I realized that back when I rewatched season four a few months back I got really hung up on one detail about Henry Creel and that was how obsessed he was with the limits of time. We see him rewind the grandfather clock and it seems to allude to him having the desire to manipulate time or exist outside of it. So I wonder if maybe while in Dimension X he achieved that goal. Maybe Dimension X exists outside the boundaries of time of our world or maybe Henry is able to manipulate time. And we know UD Hawkins is frozen in time and they make special mention of that in season four. Nancy is the one who realizes it and then Nancy is the one Henry gives visions of the future to.

The show even starts off with a Magic 8 Ball that supposedly tells you the future if you ask it questions.

The only thing that doesn’t make sense to me is if Henry has foresight or exists outside of time like Dormammu or can manipulate time, then why doesn’t he rewind time when the Mind Flayer loses or use his foresight to find out the party’s plans to defeat him.

It bugs me that they emphasized time so much with Henry and had him rewind the clock because it seems so important and I can’t figure out why!

Hello, hi there! So, a few things to help you ponder on your last question are now much on an answer as it is added information lmao.

Firstly, in the inspiration board for season 4 there was the movie Arrival and if I'm not mistaken, they didn't cross it out.

In case you haven't watched or any other people haven't either, spoilers alert and explanations about the plot and the story it follows.

The movie follows the story of a linguistics professor who is called by the military to help translate the language of aliens that landed on Earth.

When we are first presented with the movie, we see snippets of the main character's life, but we later learn that those weren't her past, but her future and that the aliens could see their future as well, which was why they were on Earth in the first place.

From a narrative standpoint, the movie follows the same idea most sci-fi movies have been following for a while now, ever since some of Einstein's theories have been proved correct.

So if they didn't cross it out, that means they didn't use it, which means they might in season 5, but in which way?

And yes, Henry does want to manipulate time - he even says something about seconds, hours, and days when he's talking to Eleven -, and I figured that he could already do it due to how we see him move the clock.

But, maybe once he ends up in Dimension X, he loses the ability to do so because if we want to be science-y about it, current physics theory about time is that it doesn't exist like we perceive it, and it's not a straight line that goes from past, to present, to future.

But, they do also mention Back to the Future which follows different laws of time travel than current sci-fi movies do.

So you asked, if he does have foresight or if he can manipulate time, then why can't he do it? I might be reaching, so don't take my word for it, but maybe it's because he can only do it in our world? Maybe because our world is already constricted by the concept of time as we know that he can do it which might be one of the reasons he wants to come back?

Maybe he can't do it in the UD because there's no time in the UD, or at least, not the concept of it.

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 16 of Nona the Ninth

So I'm realizing now that these John chapters are occurring during times when Nona falls asleep in the story, so they may be Nona's dreams. But Nona has to describe her dreams to Camilla every morning, and so far she's only talked about dreaming about the pool scene, she doesn't talk about having these dreams about John, so I'm not sure they're actually her dreams, or if there's something going on here where Harrow and Nona are both in the same body and are having different dreams, like what happened in the last book, but I don't know

I wonder if she had some telepathic sense of Honesty getting all upset on the other side of the door

Well, I don't think that would really have inconvenienced Ianthe that much, but it would have been inconvenient to actually be down with the crowd during that, so

So they do think that necromancers are the same walking dead bodies, or that the register the same way to those kinds of tests?

I was going to wonder why someone would specifically breed a dog to have six legs, but honestly, people specifically breed dogs to have a lot of random features purely to match someone's aesthetic idea of the The Ideal Dog, so sure, I can believe there's a breed of dog in this universe that was bred specifically to have six legs

It's interesting, because Hot Sauce could totally have let Honesty come with them and also go see the broadcast, but she didn't. I wonder if she sees the other kids as too young, but doesn't see Nona that way even though Nona is a lot more innocent than Honesty and Hot Sauce even specifically told her not to go to the park earlier, when she brought everyone else there except Kevin. Or maybe she just thought she had a better chance of coercing Nona into letting her go or coming with her if Honesty wasn't there?

I wonder what she means by that

If this is meant to be from one of the other books somewhere, I wasn't able to find it, and I don't remember it appearing, either. It also doesn't seem to be anywhere else in this book

So she does seem to know House genuinely, at least a little bit, and doesn't need whatever telepathy thing to understand it, but it's just a broadcast and Ianthe isn't actually there, and she doesn't mention having trouble again after this. Maybe there is something about seeing someone that ties into this power somehow? But the way Nona describes it doesn't really make sense without something supernatural happening

I wonder what kind of history New Rho has that there are 17 official languages. The only two real countries with more than 11 official languages are Bolivia and India, Bolivia having that number due to officially recognizing a large number of indigenous languages, and India having that many because there are like 700 different languages spoken in India, so only 22 of them being official is actually relatively conservative (and the country with 11 official languages is South Africa, which obviously also has colonial history). But I was under the impression here that most of the linguistic diversity of New Rho was due to people being temporarily resettled from other planets, there's basically no way that those languages would be official languages in this context. So is this then saying that there were 17 widely spoken local languages in New Rho before all the resettlement happened? Or does the fact that it's called New Rho mean that it has some colonial history (I mean, independently from whatever colonial history it has with the Nine Houses), and therefore was in the same situation as Bolivia and South Africa? If there are any indigenous people in this city, Nona hasn't made any comment about it

Earlier, it seemed like We Suffer thought that the negotiator was coming to negotiate with BOE specifically, Ianthe, or, I guess, John, seems willing to negotiate only with the local government, and even then, this agreement that she is suggesting seems to be designed to be broken instantly so that John can then do whatever he wants as punishment for that. Was there actually planned to be negotiation with BOE? Or does John not yet know what happened to the Sixth House and BOE are hoping they can force a negotiation with that info?

I also have to wonder how she's avoiding issues caused by the resurrection beast. I don't think it's someone pretending to be Ianthe, because she has the right eyes, and there isn't realistically anyone else who could have arrived in the shuttle

That's very much not a description of Ianthe's hair. Is she wearing a wig? Did she create different hair for herself with necromancy? The idea that Ianthe's natural hair was not aesthetically pleasing enough for this broadcast and had to be replaced is actually quite funny

I wonder if this is like, they know about the Sixth House and are hoping that they'll just be able to show up somehow, or if they know they left of their own volition and think they might be here for some reason but don't know that they're kind of being held hostage by BOE, or if this is just a general kind of thing they say when trying to reclaim old territory

So Ianthe has adopted Cytherea's name scheme, I guess

I still have no idea how they use European royal titles in the Nine Houses. Before becoming a Lyctor, Ianthe was a princess, now she is a prince. What is the difference between a prince and a princess in this context? Certainly not gender. Is prince a higher title than princess? It's not clear

Is... is she still dead? Did John not actually resurrect her? Are we doing more Weekend at Bernie's where he's just parading around her never-rotting corpse and being like, yo, what's up, this is my daughter?

Or maybe, if she's actually alive because it's not possible for her to die, but just still missing her soul, John can't actually do anything about that?

Anyway, I'm sure if Gideon were actually alive she would have things to say here, and those things would probably be "what the fuck Ianthe" and she therefore wouldn't be part of the broadcast

Anyway anyway, I guess that's what happened to Gideon's body. I imagine John probably sees other people having possession of it as a national security risk at the very least, since it can be used to undo his blood wards

Confirmed I guess that John just doesn't have any clue that Gaius and Gaia are not in fact related

Apparently Kiriona is actually just the Maori equivalent of "Gideon", I can see how that would work out if there's no /g d/ and r is a rolled r or a tap. But you'd think that if John wanted to preserve the Maori language in some way he would have actually done that 10,000 years ago instead of, I guess we're supposed to take away, having everyone speak NZ English?

Also, John seems to be labeling her his heir, which is odd even aside from the fact that she doesn't seem to be alive, since John hasn't had an heir for 10,000 years and probably doesn't expect to ever die. I guess maybe after two people tried to kill him and one almost succeeded in the last book he is starting to feel a little more mortal? Only, to actually be his heir, I think Gideon has to be alive first

So, as previously mentioned, there have so far been zero towers in this story, so I can't imagine what the significance of "Tower Prince" is

I do not know what the poison cats are a reference to

I mean, doesn't Hot Sauce have history fighting necromancers? Whatever else she thinks they are, she should definitely know they're real

I couldn't make much of the conversation with the Angel in the car, she seems probably involved in some stuff, but exactly what stuff, it's not clear. But then

So when she said she was "sort of" a doctor, did she mean she was a vet?

Honestly, at this point I think it's equally likely (maybe more likely!) that this was meant in "multiple people in the same body" sense rather than the "gender-neutral" sense. But it really should be "them" in this context, the way that "her" in the previous paragraph in the same context is also a object pronoun, and the way that we usually say "it is me" and not "it is I" like you're fucking Dracula or something

Wouldn't Camilla have gone out to pick up Nona and figure out what happened to Pyrrha before this? I can understand if she didn't want to go out when the broadcast was happening, but I don't get the impression that the Building is that far from the school - if Pyrrha left before noon to get Nona and then didn't come back for a couple hours, wouldn't Camilla go looking for her at that point?

But I wonder if she somehow wound up at the barracks and is now being asked to give the Emperor's Evidence, whatever that is

[rubylarkspur22]

Random Spiralling for the KNY x AtLE AU

I'm hyperfixating, and wanna throw out some ideas for this AU! It's extremely rudimentary, but let's see what I cook up.

Characters (at least the most direct parallels):

Kanao -> Milo

Tanjirou -> Kida

Nezuko -> also Kida

Either Muzan or Douma would take the role of Rourke

Daki -> Helga

Inosuke -> Mole... I don't make the rules...

Genya -> Vinny

Kie -> Kida's father

Sanemi -> Whitmore(don't worry, very different personalities, mostly here for the connection to Kanae)

Shinobu and Kanae -> Thaddeus/Milo's grandpa (but they're Kanao's sisters here)

Himejima -> Sweet

Other rules currently do not have characters designated to them...

Story:

Destruction of Atlantis, Tanjirou gets the trauma of watching his dad get beamed up by the magic rock in the sky... Sorry, Tanjirou!

Kanao is trying to arrange meetings and get funding for expeditions to find Atlantis. This is difficult because 1. Atlantis is seen as a myth or conspiracy theory, and 2. Kanao is a lady in 1914, 'nuff said. So if she doesn't get outright rejected, her meetings tend to end up getting sabotaged(sudden schedule changes, or location changes tend to be the culprit).

Daki arrives at Kanao's apartment, and takes her to meet Sanemi. She has an extremely vague idea who he is from his surname, as Kanae mentioned she dated a guy named Shinazugawa before she died and Shinobu went missing(probably dead, but nobody found a body yet), and this guy seems about the right age.

The expedition begins, Kanao is at least a tad more aggressive with people.

Yadda yadda, volcano, then Kanao meets our intrepid siblings. Nezuko and Tanjirou discuss what to do with her, not knowing Kanao understands every word they're saying, and Tanjirou ultimately ends up healing her injury.

Nezuko is much more distrustful of the expedition team, being significantly more on edge around them than Tanjirou as they lead them to Kie. After the group is allowed to stay the night, Kie talks to Tanjirou and Nezuko about the decision and asks them to find out what the newcomers want. Nezuko goes the incognito route, spying from the shadows for anything suspicious, while Tanjirou approaches Kanao with the desire to ask her questions.

Tanjirou and Kanao talk, and Nezuko discovers the ruse. After Tanjirou and Kanao learn about the Heart, they actually end up being confronted by Nezuko before the team shows up. And Nezuko promptly rams Kanao up against a wall with a knife to her throat, demanding to know what the expedition is looking for. Tanjirou tries to meditate, Kanao is confused, then Nezuko explains she saw guns. They immediately realize something ain't right, and Kanao isn't in the know.

Expedition team arrives just as Nezuko steps back from Kanao, and tries to convince Kanao to join them because Nezuko attacked her. Kanao tells them she knows why they're really there, and a fight breaks out. Nezuko gets shot(nothing serious, just enough to stun her so they can restrain her), and the siblings are taken hostage to force Kanao to read the page.

The Crystal Scene happens, with Tanjirou being chosen and Kanao passing the hell out of the folks responsible for their conundrum. (An actual line I imagine here: "Oh, so you're gonna wave the gun around? Good luck translating when your linguist is full of lead.")

After Kie does(RIP), and since Tanjirou's been taken, Nezuko is suddenly given the title of Queen. She and Kanao(with a little help from Himejima) give each other pep talks and go to save Tanjirou!

Future sister-in-law tag team! They get Tanjirou back, save the day, and all is well!

Team goes back to the surface, Tanjirou becomes King and Kanao stays in Atlantis to help them recover their lost culture. Mostly. Getting a husband who loves and respects her as both a person and an academic is a pretty damn nice perk too...

[thelunarfairy]

How do you think Tsukasa will react to more of Hanako's words [I hate you so much]?

Tsukasa has never had confirmation, he never heard that prayer (confession) in which he fervently believed. As far as I know and we know, at least.

By the memory of Amane fixing the clock and Tsukasa saying «But you want it to be here, don't you?... Or do you want it to just disappear?» We can say that Amane was never clear about his feelings for his brother. All actions, not words.

Amane used confusing words and Tsukasa believed that his older brother hated him.

Now the words are being spoken, though they are more filled with frustration than actual hatred.

And as you mentioned, he usually takes everything literally.

Adding that Amane keeps denying his concern by deflecting and using Nene as an excuse. No, I didn't hear your call for help, I came for Yashiro and you were here; There is nothing hidden behind that, it was just a coincidence.

In the end, Tsukasa is right: it's time to say what Amane/Hanako wants.

[Could it be I know or no, you don't? I will allow myself to dream of an answer that may not lead to arguments and misunderstandings that are not addressed until later.]

tchao ^-^

By the way, it's nice to see that there are different ways to say goodbye to someone depending on the context. I know that they also exist in Spanish but I usually take them as something very formal (I like to say chao better, it sounds close and friendly and not awkward).

Maybe he would smile, already waiting for that answer. He is surprised by kind actions, words especially. That's not what Amane offered him.

Tsukasa always expects the worst from Amane, I want to see the face he will make when Amane confesses clearly that he loves him, clearly and objectively, that is something that I find interesting.

He already believes that Amane hates him, so it doesn't make much difference to him. Tsukasa has been constantly trying to get Amane to be honest, but this seems to be an exhaustingly long process without many positive responses.

He tried until he got tired. Tsukasa is tired of waiting.

Ah, Hanako complicates simple things (but not easy) He Ties a knot in a drop of water.

But, I'll confess that I don't judge him, confessing love in words is difficult, I've never been able to do it either, oh, I'm very ashamed, so I understand Amane.

HOWEVER, when you realize that the person you love is trying hard to hear your feelings from you, even if your actions show it, you have to say it. (oh, I would definitely blush and not be able to look the person in the eye, so embarrassed >.<)

Sink into shame, it passes, but the meaning of your words to that person does not.

She will always remember when you tell her you love her. Especially if you're the type like me and Amane, who are embarrassed to admit it, hahaha.

The person will know that you made an effort to tell them that you love them.

Learning that is missing in Amane.

Hahaha, always good to talk about linguistic curiosities, right? ^^

Anyway, we'll see you soon.

Tchau | adiós ^^