#i speak a little spanish... not a lot but a little so it's very neat :3

[actuallyjustabiscuit]

So as someone who is very fond of the Latin American dub of certain Disney movies, I wanted to check out TADC in Spanish…

…and found some interesting dialogue changes.

Now changes in translation is not unheard of when dubbing something that was written in a different language, of course. This is usually done to help make the lip movements look more natural, but also because some jokes or expressions can hit different depending on the language.

And I think that’s really neat

So I wanna share some of these differences that I spotted from episode 3 🙂

“And Zooble returns to normal.”

“I’m already nor[mal]…”

So the original joke Jax makes in English is “And Zooble turns straight.” which Zooble then clarifies that their limbs just straighten out when they hold their breath.

But I think the change to Zooble getting defensive over their appearance (or just taking offense at the implication that they’re abnormal) makes the fact that they hate their body hit a lot harder.

“Bubble has those?”

This is referring to Bubble having feelings, which is certainly a good question.

It’s sounds like an insult, but I’d find it funnier if Zooble’s curiosity was sincere.

“Excuse me, could you repeat that? I don’t speak Lovecraftian.”

C’mon, we were all thinking this angel looked a little too much like an eldritch abomination.

“And Pomni, every time she comes back from one we lose a little more of her”

…this…really puts Pomni’s experience in the Circus into perspective.

It also makes me wonder how much Zooble is projecting here.

“Please, stay dead.”

Not much different from the original but I love that she says “porfis” instead of “por favor” because using the abbreviated version makes her sound cuter.

“Congratulations, my honey mariachi rockers (?)”

…I don’t even know…

My personal favorite dialogue change because Caine is basically saying “And that’s the end!” but instead of referring to a story (which is usually the context for which this phrase is used) he’s referring to his adventures.

I just thinks it’s fun how they essentially made Caine rhyme like a Dr. Suess character.

So…this…

I’m gonna try to explain why this scene hit me so much harder in Spanish. Again, it’s not that different from the original where Kinger says “In this world, the worst thing you can do is make someone think they’re not wanted or loved”

But here, it sounds almost...poetic? Melodic? My point is that he’s rhyming here, and I’m almost certain that it was intentional.

Like…directly translating this into English would not do this subtle change justice. Or vice versa! Directly translating the English version to Spanish would not hold the same aesthetically pleasing delivery.

And that’s another thing!

I want to give a quick shout out to the amazing voice actors that lent their talent for the Spanish dub of TADC.

Especially, Rodo Balderas (Caine), Maureen Herman (Zooble) and Elliot Leguizamo (Kinger), because WOW their performances in this episode was peak.

Elliot make Kinger so goofy. Like really goofy. Then when we get to the point where he talks about Queenie his voice gets so soft. You can feel how much he loves and misses her. Seriously, the range on this man!

Anyway, yeah, watching the show in Spanish definitely gives another enjoyable experience.

[gatorbites-imagines]

What about the cod boys (any of them but please könig included ,,^ ^,,) with a reader that has a touch of the tism/adhd and starts to slowly mirror and mimic their accents? Cause I do that and I think it would be funny to see their reactions

John “Soap” MacTavish, Simon “Ghost” Riley, Rodolfo Parra, and König

Headcanons

John “Soap” MacTavish

-          Soap would be so entertained the first time he hears you speak with a Scottish accent. He would think you did it on purpose in the beginning, until he notices how you are sounding more and more Scottish in your everyday life.

-          He still thinks it’s funny and cute though. Hed end up asking about it, which makes you realize you’ve been doing it. It probably makes you embarrassed, but he just smiles, kisses your cheek, and tells you he thinks it fits you well.

-          Soap cackles when you start using his ways of speaking, the kind that has Ghost telling him to speak English. Especially when he sees the look on Ghosts face when you and Soap have a whole conversation that he can’t keep up with.

 Simon “Ghost” Riley

-          Is it here I should mention if hc that Ghost is on the autism spectrum? He just gives me that vibe.

-          Ghost probably starts copying some of your accent too if you have one, but it would be you copying him more. Neither of you would realize until someone asks if you’re from Manchester. That’s when you both realize you’ve been doing it and you two have a little laugh about it.

-          He thinks its kinda cute, so he won’t make you stop copying his accent. It makes him feel closer to you in some way, like its something special between the two of you.

-          Ghost would find it very entertaining if the accent gets thicker if your drunk, he jokes that you are more British than he is when you get so drunk only he can really understand you with how thick the accent gets.

 Rodolfo “Rudy” Parra

-          Rudy thinks its so cute when you start to sound more and more like him, he especially loves how you pronounce words and how they roll of your tongue. He loves when you speak Spanish too, because you sound more and more like a local even if you’re not.

-          At some point you two end up just speaking a lot of Spanish together, Alejandro joins in too of course.

-          Rudy kisses you lovingly if you get embarrassed about copying him without realizing. He would tell you he doesn’t see it as a problem, and it just makes you more lovely to him.

-          You both use Spanish pet names after a while because you’ve just started picking up his vocabulary at some point. Rudy gets flustered the first time you use one of the pet names he uses for you out of the blue.

-          Alejandro definitely teases you both about this.

 König

-          König is a little confused when you start to sound more Austrian, but he just assumes its something that happens when you are around someone for so long.

-          He thinks its sweet when you use German words in passing like he does, since it’s just something you’ve picked up in passing.

-          König would at some point ask you about it and you explain the whole, copying accents thing that happens sometimes with people who are on the spectrum. He would listen with interest and be like “that’s neat” and go back to cuddling.

-          He mutters all kinds of sweet words to you in German and at some point, you start using the sweet words for him too, which always makes him blush and cover his face.

-          König laughs when at some point you yell at someone in German, because you’ve heard him do it during missions and just started copying him.

[everydayyoulovemeless]

I just saw the arcade post and pleaaasee can we get more? Something like arcade reacting to couriers that can speak Latin/or all of the companions reacting to someone that can speak Latin. Ty!

FNV Companions Reacting to a Courier That Speaks Latin

➼ Word Count » 0.7k ➼ Warnings » None ➼ Genre » Platonic/Romantic

Boone will actually pull a gun on you when you say something within his earshot. Even if it was some off-comment thing that some scholar said years ago. He associates the language with the Legion, so you'll have to very quickly explain yourself before he pulls the trigger on you. He'll hesitantly put the gun back down when you do, muttering an apology as he does so. He does feel bad about jumping the gun on you so fast, but you have to understand that it's a knee-jerk reaction from all his years working with the NCR and fighting Legionaries. He doesn't think he'll ever see the language the same way again. It only brings back bad memories, and he'll probably ask if you didn't speak it as much around him. If nothing else, then for his own sanity.

Arcade is... caught off guard? You're either from some sort of Legion territory or, you're a Follower he's never heard about, and he's terrified of it being the latter. He'll be very interested in talking to you further despite his lingering concerns. If you've learned Latin, you probably know many other things, and he'd love to find out how far your knowledge truly goes. He wants to pick your brain apart and see what's hiding underneath and would be glad, ecstatic even, to follow along with you, just to see where it'd take him. It's not every day he meets someone else who has similar interests to his own.

Raul doesn't really care, he just thinks it's neat. Not many wastelanders he meets are educated enough to be able to speak another language, and he's impressed that you managed to accomplish such a feat. Although, he does wish it could've been Spanish instead of a dead language only the slavers speak. He'll give you shit for it, but he's impressed nonetheless.

Lily doesn't understand a word you're saying and just assumes her schizophrenia is acting up again. That being said, she mostly just shrugs her shoulders and nods. She might not know what's happening, but she's sure that she'd probably agree with whatever you're saying.

Cass just rolls her eyes when she first hears you talking. Of course, she's traveling with a nerd. Don't take it the wrong way, she's not trying to be mean, but what is knowing Latin going to do you in the Mojave? Anyone who still speaks it also speaks English, so it's pretty much useless. All that time you spent studying the language could've been spent doing... well, anything else, and she thinks you're a little stupid for not considering that beforehand. It's not a deal breaker for her, she'll still travel with you, but she's definitely not as impressed as some of the others would be.

Veronica's more confused than anything. They don't speak that back at Hidden Valley, and she hasn't exactly heard the best things about the people familiar with the language. That's not to say she isn't interested in learning more about you or where you even learned to speak it. She's out here specifically to learn more about others, and you seem to be a good start. She'd even be willing to learn a few phrases from you. She's caught off guard but not entirely turned off by the idea.

ED-E will just beep back. You can't fully understand him, and he can't fully understand you. He sees this as a perfectly balanced relationship. Although a few others in the Divide also speak that language, and lucky for you, he remembers where they are. So, he has no issues guiding you straight toward them. Maybe you could be friends!

Rex is more attentive to your orders. His memories from before being The King's dog are a bit foggy but, when he hears you speak Latin, there's a part of him that remembers those words. Or, at least, the tone. Ceasar spoke a lot of Latin to him when he was under his care, and he may inadvertently associate you with the image he formerly had of him: powerful and demanding. He'll be sure to follow your orders thoroughly.

[pinkinsect]

can you elaborate on what you mean when you mention the "blue lock sociolect." because the linguistic/social situation that must be developing in this stanford prison ass training center fascinates me endlessly

hello this is going to be a lot. tldr at the end.

for anyone unaware, i use blue lock "sociolect" in this case specifically meaning the dialect that develops in the blue lock facility. i'd classify it more as a sociolect than a dialect, because while they now have a geographic location in common, i would say the speech features show up more in certain characters who've leaned into the blue lock egoist mentality more. the way hiori speaks changes as his view of himself and soccer change. (i also think that bltv enjoyers start talking like this. horrifically)

the blue lock sociolect is a phenomenon i invented in my mind palace to cope with the way i feel when i read blue lock and see phrases like "you're an eyesore, you pink-haired philistine" and "rotten orange." i brought it up in this post on my other blog some time ago, but in short, i've decided that the rather. unique way the blue lockers speak to one another is a result of putting 300 [and lowering] boys age 15-18 from all over japan in a hypercompetitive environment with very little adult supervision.

it's all about the individual, hence many of the insults taking the target's most striking physical trait and combining it with something the speaker decides is negative about the target. with japanese being a language with pretty structured assignments of appropriate politeness based on age, experience, and status, i could see it eroding given the general lack of older adult presence (ego appearing on a screen for like 15 minutes doesn't count, especially since he's rude as hell), and the mentality the players are encouraged to accept. rin isn't the best example given his dedication to hating across languages, cultures, and age ranges, but isagi pretty much comments on how he's rude as hell by social norms once, then clearly gets used to it.

i think the blue lock sociolect starts to diversify a bit once we enter the nel. the blue lock boys are shown studying english, but the nel introduces an environment where a lot of their teammates will most likely be speaking a language other than english or japanese within their teams (except for manshine but that's british english which isn't usually what's taught in japan so even then their contributions to the sociolect will be a bit different).

we don't know exactly how accurate the translation software is, or how it handles the cultural differences in honorific language, but based on some of the things we've seen (ness calling kunigami "kunigami-san" that one time, also ness being shown saying "ja" through the translation, "beinschuss" from kaiser, whatever's going on with charles, etc.) they're not always consistent.

(i haven't checked out the raws for these yet though, so im actually not entirely sure what's coming through in japanese.these could just be translation choices.)

this multi-language environment and the non-translation of certain speech could also have an impact on our blue lock players' vocabulary and introduce other languages' terms and speech patterns. japanese already has a pretty huge collection of loan words that eventually create "foreign" phrases that don't exist outside of japanese, so this facility could make this phenomenon occur more rapidly.

we see otoya say "golazo" during the fc barcha match, and while darai says the same thing during their bowling match, it wouldn't be too far off to assume that otoya picked it up from his spanish speaking teammates.

i could add more but this is getting too long so tl;dr: putting 300 15-18 year old boys in a prison with barely any adult supervision would make neat language shifts.

some features of the blue lock sociolect i think exist:

the particular type of insult we see so much of in blue lock

general lack of/comparatively less importance given to honorific language and polite conjugations of words

shounen protag accent (you'd know it when you hear it.)

increased usage of german, english, spanish, italian, and/or french terms

FAR less subject omission than average japanese, especially when the subject is "i" [thanks aryu.]

[liriostigre]

Hiiii ty for such a great uquiz!! Would it be possible to see the description of all the books you could get matched to? I’m curious what the vibes are for the rest!!

hi 🌷 here you go:

White Teeth by Zadie Smith: Excessive, maximalist and very ambitious multigenerational and multicultural epic novel that starts with the unlikely friendship between Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal. It explores themes of race, identity and the intersections of culture, heritage, and modernity. Clever and hilarious dialogue, very creative when it comes to language and style, unique and bold when it comes to narrative. Perhaps a flawed novel due to its ambition, but excellent nonetheless.

Despair by Vladimir Nabokov: Excellent writing; very ambitious and stylish. It is somewhat a twisted novel but you will find a lot of humor despite. The narrator speaks directly to the reader as he writes what he regards as his perfect crime. This novel is one of Nabokov's earliest works in which one can easily identify themes and literary devices that the author explored later in his most known works.

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño: Brilliant and stunning novel about poets and poetry! Very dense and challenging; it requires patience from the reader. This novel is so infinitely dear to me that i can't even explain its brilliance, but i have to give you at least an idea of the plot so: The story is arranged in three parts and told from multiple points of view. It starts in Mexico City, in the 70s, and continues across decades and continents. It follows the adventures and misadventures of Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima—poets, drug dealers, wanderes, criminals. Now, about the themes, the writing, the style, the narration? Just absolutely perfect even at its most tedious, difficult and anticlimactic parts.

The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington: Unconventional, absurd, imaginative and exuberantly surreal apocalyptic fairytale quest. It follows 92 year old Marian who is sent off to a peculiar old-age home. If you aren't familiar with Leanora Carrington's art you should look at some of her paintings because this wonderful novel feels just like her surrealist paintings!

Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls: This novella tells the story of a love affair between a depressed suburban housewife and an amphibian creature who escaped a scientific research center. It might sound like a quirky fiction story but it actually deals with the most mundane and banal aspects of life and human relationships. Brilliantly written; neat and precise prose, wonderful storytelling. The author knew what she was doing and not a single word she wrote was wasted.

The Borrowers by Mary Norton: Delicately written little adventure about tiny people who live in the secret places of houses. I am enamored (obsessed!!) with miniatures—dollhouses, dioramas, fairies—so imagine how dear this book is to me.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn: The murders of two girls bring reporter Camille Preaker back to her hometown. As she works to uncover the truth about those crimes, Camille finds herself forced to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past. Very entertaining read. It has best seller written all over it (which might not be the biggest compliment lol but i mean for this genre so it is a compliment).

Rage by Sergio Bizzio: Claustrophobic, anxiety inducing, fast-paced psychological thriller that made me think of Bong Joon-ho's Parasite the whole 4 hours it took me to read it. I read it in it's original language, Spanish, and i particularly loved the dialogue; its idiosyncrasies and authenticity (tqm Argentina!)

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby: Rob, an obsessive music fan, reminisces his top five worst break ups to understand his most recent heartbreak. He is a very arrogant and cynical guy who defines his entire life through records, and because he is constantly interacting with music that almost exclusively deals with love—and a very idealistic version of it—he finds himself unsatisfied with the way his life has turned out.

[laviejaguardia]

Is Latino not an ethnicity????

It isn't (and it isn't a race either). Latinidad is a political identity with some sociological, cultural and historical background. What it does not have -and I cannot stress this enough- is shared genetics/common ancestry which is how I see it most referred.

Here's the definition of ethnicity from Wikipedia:

And to use roughly the same source, here's the Wikipedia disaggregation of Latin America today (which ofc I have issues with lol I'm not missing the irony of telling you "Latin America is sooo diverse" while using the "Asian" category, but I need to make do:

See what I'm getting at?

Let's continue, you can say "well I didn't mean genetics, I meant everything else"

Okay language:

Latin America includes hundreds of native languages like Quechua, Mayan, Guaraní (oficial language of Paraguay!), Aymará or Nahuatl, and always has! Without counting the beautifully mixed and improved Spanish, Portuguese (which I called Brasilero for years as a kid lol) and French, or even later additions like Welsh, Japanese, Chinese or Arabic from immigrant clusters that still speak it or are currently arriving into the continent.

So language isn't it either.

I don't even need to get into traditions c'mon look at Carnaval in Brasil, día de los muertos in Ecuador, an 9 de julio in Argentina and tell me those are all the same. Look at empanadas, tacos, humitas, pizza brasilera, tequeños, asado, sudados, etc

Religion? Argentina alone has the second biggest Islamic and Jewish populations in America after the US. Sure Christianity is paramount given the invasion and imposition by Catholic monarchies by the Spanish and Portuguese, but to say it's the only religion is to spit in the face of again, hundreds of native people's whose religions have been systematically erased since 1492. It is also quite reductive to only take institutionalised religions as valid forms of worship, or to ignore the fact that most Catholicism here would give European orthodox Catholics a stroke.

Now, history and social treatment, here's where the good stuff is.

Independencias:

These all look super different but these are processes and most of them took place in the first 3 decades of the 1800s so they're not that far off. These were carried out with an idea of hermandad. They used to be virreynatos under the same rule, we (patriotas) were all getting independence from the same monarch power (realistas). There was a lot of collaboration between administrations and armies. This was a decision from the leaders of the time, to seek strength in numbers.

The fact that we had to gain independence is a point of contact as well. At that time "patria" was understood as the desire to be independent, there were no neat lines to separate the territories. At this point in history you'll find lots of key people like San Martín, Juana Azurduy and Bolivar talking about "pueblos americanos" as a way to claim independence from imperialist/colonial European rule. (Brasil had a different history with the Portuguese court moving there)

The term Latin America or Latinoamérica came by a little later, the earliest it's been found used is 1856 by a politician from Chile, as you can see, the context it is used in is purely political.

Historically, the term when used by Americans is heavily tied to a way to gather strength in solidarity for independence and rejection of foreign imperialist aspirations, from the United States, France, Spain, etc etc.

I think latinidad is in a way a self fulfilled prophecy, we were invaded and as such "unified" where before were hundreds of different peoples. We took that very same unification and made it ours, in part because the rest of the world insists on putting us all in the same bag (included with things like the School of the Americas in the 1960s-1980s where all of Latinamerica was deemed safer for the US to be ruled by genocidal military governments than democracies that smelled just a little communist. Spoiler! it wasn't safer for us who had to actually live under them)

I reject the idea of latinidad as an ethnicity because it stems from the idea of "la raza latina" which is very very racist ("latinos" were the white Europeans from Romance language countries aka Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, there was a clear hierarchy there usual to the era that still affects our social and economic framework). It's reductive and it pretends to obscure and muddle a very clear and deliberate political choice that is to identify as latinoamerican.

This also applies to the latin people who emigrate to the US and their descendants, both the ones fixing the lawns and the ones emigrating without need of a visa to work a stable 9-5. Even if it seems only the first ones get the name.

So what's latinidad? It's whatever we say it is, hope this helps ✌️

[jackals-ships]

NOW for the dog <3< dual relationship which again similar beats but ur honor. i am doing unethical science on them;

by this point Jackal is still Jackal or sometimes Prophet (kind of an in joke with them being ghb's left hand arm rabbit etc) and they've settled pretty firmly into the church. this is post Bachus "aren't you tired of being Nice?" and lovingly dragging all the latent sadism and etc to the surface

they do primarily interrogation ("interrogation") work and infiltration jobs, smthin smthin there's a no one expects the Spanish Inquisition joke here somewhere

anyways i like the idea that jackal runs into Saturn a few times by accident, by this point they're more confident but not "willingly interact with the Fucking Orphaner" confident so it's more of a "catches a glimpse and scampers off" or "local rat perched on a nearby roof is People Watching and oh hey ik that guy"

EVENTUALLY they end up having to Actually Work With Him. this is usually where i get a little hand wavey bc it's more an excuse for me to lock these two in a room together and put them in hamster mazes

jackal. immediately hates his guts. in just the Funniest To Me Way Possible they're immediately ".......BITCH?"

this is funny to me bc before hand Jackal was a little starry eyed "wow.... he's so Neat. and scary. mostly scary" not quite Idolization but somewhere in that vein yanno?

which. to be fair. he was Immediately irritated at having to work with the church in Any capacity but lbr Bachus is the only one dumb of ass enough to try and say "no" AND he's annoyed at having to work with specifically the highbloods weird pet

^ absolutely one of the ones who's first assumption was "there is NO way in hell that wasn't some kinda nepotism"

so he's just kinda off the bat An Ass + assumes they're gonna die and then HE'S gonna have to deal with THAT and it's gonna be a whole THING

it's when he talks down to them tho that jackals internally "ah. I have to kill a fish now." <- does NOT take disrespect well but at least knows enough to not immediately jump to biting him

anyways jackal immediately sets about being The Most God Damn Annoying Person Ever. you wish to speak down to the jackals?? have fun trying to figure out where your pants went. also all your pens. Fuck You They're Mine Now

this continues for the entirety of their time on his ship, just a whole Lot of petty irritation back and forth and snarking

this is also where dog earns their nickname, he refuses to remember their name bc of the assumption they're just gonna die anyways. so he calls them dog and they're just "🤔 damn your memory must be going huh" and general taunting him from Very High Places (it does say smthin that he can still get them but chooses not to)

it gets real funny POST job bc HIC decided that they work so well together (they arguably do actually, even if they won't admit that) that dog should stay on his ship for awhile bc smthin smthin learn to work with the church (miss Scylla just likes causing problems (affectionate))

they BOTH hate this SO MUCH dual was looking forward to the rat leaving, DOG was looking forward to being Anywhere Else

they immediately set back about being As Annoying As Possible. this is also when the two of them start actually fighting. no one wants to tussle with dog and they get antsy if they don't throw down so they just goad him as MUCH as possible

an like. there's no way they can best him without getting the drop on him + a lotta luck but they can give him a pretty good run for his money esp if they start Jus Full On Chomping. local fish taken off guard bc wwvhat the FUCK humans bite?? okay????

their romance 'romance' is ALSO very slow burn bc. they both absolutely refuse to admit to it. Saturn refuses to admit he got Got and dog is in camp "humans can't feel pitch emotions I hate him in. a perfectly normal way" "........palest diamond mine you have sent me some REALLY wild shit about that fish" "shut up-"

where the church ship dog was chilling on was only Contemplating locking them and Bachus in a room together Saturns crew does in fact; do so. it's a bold move that guarantees like 70-80% of the crew is gonna Get It but good GOD these two were all but fucking when they fought just KILL EACH OTHER or MAKE OUT

they do both. well dog kinda tries to stab him and that somehow turns into kissing and now they're the equivalent of a bitchy old married couple but with significantly more biting

[the-type-a]

What’re you headcanons for their (duncney’s) family situations? Is Courtney an overachieving only child? Is Duncan acting out because of middle child syndrome? Or is he youngest of four brothers? Or is Courtney Responsible Eldest Daughter?

Ooo I have some random little ones!

I’ll start with Courtney’s family

Up until Dramarama I always hc’d Courtney being an on child. But if she were to truly have a sibling, Courtney would 100% be the oldest. I don’t really have a preference with this tbh.

Courtney’s family is very traditional. They teach her how to speak Spanish so early that she actually speaks it before English.

Her parents were the type to read her stories and allow almost no screen time while growing up. She maybe got around it when she started first grade, but up until then? Nope. It was books and the occasional instrumental pieces as background noise.

Courtney’s family knows everything about everyone. It’s kind of neat while she’s younger but once she’s old enough to make her own mistakes (like normal kids) it’s like gossip within the family.

Courtney’s parents are so overprotective that they shelter her from experiencing a lot of normal things. Like going to your first sleep over, going to the movies on the weekends, probably some school dances, etc.

IF Courtney is allowed to go out with friends it’s only for that day and she better not ask to see them the following day or the following week because “she just went out.”

When she gets to high school she purposely joins all these clubs so she can be out of her house. But of course they have to highly respectable ones because her parents will be attending any debate, or recital.

Grades? Oh her parents are making sure she never comes home with anything less than an A. It helps her when applying to colleges but at what cost? Then when she’s finally at college she has the option to opt her parents from seeing her grades and it’s like a weight lifted off her.

No matter how old she gets she needs to respect her elders. They could be so so wrong or plain disrespectful but she has to force a smile at them.

Along with no matter how old she gets, she constantly feels like she has to ask her parents permission for just about anything. She could be moved out and 23 and still calls them to see if she should sign for this new car or whatever.

Courtney is expected to join the family every Sunday at church. Sick? Bring some tissues.

Now some for Duncan’s family

Idc what anyone says, Duncan is the middle child 100% He has two older brothers and two younger ones. It’s only natural for him to act out because one, attention and two, he’s bored af.

His parents aren’t super strict with any of them because “boys will be boys”. They also allowed friends to come over basically whenever.

Growing up he gets into petty trouble with his brothers but it’s not until he’s a teenager that he goes overboard.

At this point his brothers have chilled out, but not Duncan. His parents really try to buckle him down but it never works. They’ve sent him to therapy and all.

This is when his rocky relationship with his father begins. He’s just so tired of having to pick his son up at his own job.

Duncan’s family is so big yet he feels completely alone. The only people he truly thinks cares for him are his mom and nonna.

Growing up they went on yearly family trips. It was always fun and Duncan was allowed to bring a few friends. As he gets older this changes and he just refuses to be around his family.

His nonna teaches him how to speak Italian and he’s really the only grandson who can and actually speaks it with other older family members. His family might have a thing or two to say about his behavior but they can never say he doesn’t love his background.

School sucks. Everyone knows his family basically run the police station. And speaking of school, Duncan never fails a test. He may fall asleep in class, not participate, or just not show up at all— but he’s smart.

There’s a family rule, or really a dad rule, that if you’re 18 and graduated you have to leave the house or pay rent.

At one point Duncan’s window had bars because he kept sneaking out.

[the-gender-pirate]

Alright so I had an idea:

Jesse finds Nacho’s chain in the desert. Lalo’s ghost has been slinking around the lab. Nacho’s ghost follows Jesse in. Things happen.

I wrote a little very incomplete thing for the idea, let me know what you guys think :) (btw, italics mean they’re speaking Spanish, most of the dialogue is meant to be Spanish but I’m nowhere near fluent enough so this is the format for a bit). TW for described gore.

“You son of a bitch” Lalo stood behind Walter, clenching his fists in an effort to not charge Nacho over the table. “If it isn’t the traitor himself.” Not that him charging seemed like it could do much. His old accomplice was worse for wear: he sported a large crater where the left side of his head was. Viscera speckled his shirt, blood dried onto his neck. He didn't even have an ear anymore.

Nacho blinked, staring at his former boss. More specifically, at the large hole in his neck. Blood crusted into the usually neat collar of his carefully pressed shirt. Was this what the assassins had done? Given Gus’ barely hidden ferocity and contempt, he assumed it would be way worse. “Fuck you.” He breathed, following behind Jesse as he made his way towards the large batch sitting on the table.

Lalo was dumbfounded, clearing the table and approaching his old friend. Or, at least he had thought this was his friend. “That’s all you have to say, Ignacio? I brought you in, I took you under my wing, I fucked you for god’s sake. And this is what I get?” He shoved the other, trying to get a reaction out of him. “You owe me a lot more than ‘fuck you’.”

Nacho shoved him back. Not like a little insubordination mattered when they were both dead. “I did what I had to do. Not like a Salamanca would understand.”

Lalo blinked. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“Oh poor Eduardo Salamanca. I hope the silver spoon didn’t hurt his mouth. I hope the one time he had to tie his own shoe didn’t leave any nasty blisters on his fingers.” Ignacio stepped up to Lalo. He seemed so much smaller now than he had before. “You wouldn’t understand having to sacrifice for your family. All you people do is take and take and take like the whole world belongs to you and you’re just letting us exist in it.”

Lalo wrinkled his nose, winding back and swinging his fist into the other specter’s stomach. He began to grapple with him while he crumpled towards the floor. “You think I never had to give something up? How about everything. I didn’t have friends, I couldn’t trust anyone. I let you in, Nachito, and look at what you did.”

[dragongirlafro]

42, 43, and 44

42: the last thing i ate had some hot dogs with cheese and mustard for lunch 😋

43: sexiest person that comes to my mind immediately ajdjajdjaj umm my bf @mattibee bc i just answered his ask and my mutual @gaytanic-panic bc i sent her an ask earlier 🙈🙈🙈🙈

44: a random fact about anything ok so i can't find any actual documentation abt her online so unfortunately you'll just have to trust me on this one BUT in pokémon UltraSun and UltraMoon in Konikoni City there's a girl who's a hairstylist and asks to see an Alolan Dugtrio for some reward i believe. anyways what's notable about her is that she speaks Spanish and she mentions she's from a foreign region. this led lots of fans to speculate that the next games would take place in a region based on Spain. that didn't happen the very next generation, but it did the generation afterwards with Scarlet and Violet! i just think that's a neat little foreshadowing tidbit :>

[simptasia]

You know what i've been thinking about? If Aaron was raised on the island, what would his accent be? Cause you see all those studies of the people of multiple countries coming together in remote places having children and their accents are something unheard of. Totally new accent. So by that would Aaron's accent be something like that? A mash of British/Australian/American/Korean/Iraqi/ whatever is wrong with Ben, like a totally new accent. Of course, I'm just condensing like Sawyer has his YeeHaw accent and Mike has a more New York, Hurley is Mexican and while he has an American accent in English when Speaking Spanish It's probably not that sooooo I'm just so curious on if they never left what the fuck their accent would be like. Plus, if they stayed on the island and Jin Suns kid was born there and in the future more babies would they inherit the same accent? Like say in this scenario Juliet/Sawyer or Kate/Jack or even fucking Charlie/desmond had children would they too inherit this new dialect/Accent thats contained to them only?Like would they create their own unique accent?, and when Aaron gets older he gets with Ji Yeon (which is so funny like the show runners were like yeah at the end they're still watching Bluey, we should totally imply they get together as adults) So if they hypothetically do get together in this idea where they never leave the island would their children help develop this complete unique accent?

funnily enough, you're pretty much describing what caused the australian accent to begin with. they plopped a ton of english and irish people here, added alcohol and a brand new fucked up way to talk was born

yes, studies show that a child's accent comes more from their enviroment more than their parents! hence why i have an adelaide aussie accent rather than my mum's southern english accent. because i grew up here. this also explains why daniel sounds american as opposed to his english mother. thats actually how it works (tho daniel also went to oxford during his teens so he should sound at least a bit more english but be glad we were spared jeremy attempting that)

i like this idea!

okay so, i think in regular world of lost, aaron grows up to have an american accent but with aussie turns of phrase. because i imagine aaron to be raised by claire and kate, in america. and also sawyer, miles, richard and frank are part of his life too. so claire is really outnumbered here. but he refers to her as "mum"

in this au where everybody stays on the island forever? ...probably still american because holy shit theres a lot of americans on this show but you're right, it could be at least a little muddled. i don't think it'd turn into an immediate frankenstein melting pot of aussie, england (north and south), american (yeehaw and otherwise), korean, iraqi and scottish because thats not exactly how accents work, it would take longer. but certain words and phrases would mix in aaron and ji yeon's (and the other hypothetical babies) little brains. and like certain pronunciations would probably be off. like, they'd be somewhat uncanny. also it's probable that these versions of aaron and ji would be so fucking good at accent impressions. oh and in this world, i like to think aaron can speak korean because he'd hear it around him a lot

so i think yeah the next gen in that AU would sound like,,, kinda weird sounding americans? so basically canadians

i've done my own recreational study of linguistics and phonetics in my time but i'd love to hear about this from somebody who knows more about this stuff than me. that'd be neat

also bless you for taking the take to adknowledge that not all the american accents are the same in this show (or in real life). i know i glide past it sometimes but its a fact i'm very aware of too

oh, oh, since you brought this up:

"Hurley is Mexican and while he has an American accent in English when Speaking Spanish It's probably not that sooooo"

i will take the opptunity to once again say that while hurley's voice is whiny american when he's speaking english (in a cute way! no dunk!), when he's speaking spanish his voice is absolutely beautiful

i realise that spanish accent > american accent isn't exactly a hot take but it blows me away because its coming out the same guy

thank you for allowing me to bring that up again. and for your time

[futuregws]

Trigger warning: mentions of p*dophilia

I'm seriously gonna need some people to get their heads out of their ass and start calling out the right people instead of reaching just so they can find a reason to hate on someone that doesn't deserve it.

For context for people that follow me or stumble across this and don't know, Sabrina has a song called "nonsense" that has this very random verse in the end of it, the whole song is just a very fun one, so in every show she does when she sings that song every time when it gets to that verse instead of singing what it says in the recorded version she makes one up on the spot for each show, they don't make sense 99% of the time they are not supposed to bc that part of the song is a joke she literally says it in the song actually.

Anyways this was what she said in one of the shows where she was opening for Taylor Swift, she was in Mexico and wanted to include some Spanish.

People are now calling her a p*dophile, for mentioning being a grown woman and looking like a "little girl" and then including "sexual" innuendos right after, for example like this person right here.

And when I tell you I've never wanted to bang my head against the wall so hard until I read this, I really don't want to make this post extremely long but I'm mad, so it's definitely gonna be, first of all the first line she's not calling herself a little girl she's not saying that looking like a little girl is "sexually desirable" all she's saying is that she's a grown ass woman and yet she's small as fuck and people still assume to this day that she's a lot younger than she actually is, bc she's fucking tiny.

The next line we don't even know 100% what she said some people are saying she said "neat" and not "big" but regardless, like I've mentioned before the last verse in nonsense is suppose to be exactly that, nonsense, it's not tied together sometimes it's just one liners. And she does make this verses sexual a lot of the time on her tour, but according to Spanish speaking people no one uses "Casita" to refer to their you know what. But honestly regardless of if it's sexual or not, it's so damn obvious that she was saying that bc of her height that I can't help but side eye the people making this about something else, and calling HER a p*do when there's ACTUAL celebrities that are out here dating children and no ones says anything like how about people start calling out THOSE instead of the woman that just wanted to make a funny verse about her height to include on her very unserious song.

*sigh* anyway stream "nonsense" and her whole album "emails I can't send"

[oceanblueeyesoul]

Hey amazing wonderful person! Sorry I was on my way to make this and remembered I need to bake 100 cookies for my student! Anywho could I have ship for the male marauders era and older stranger things boys (not hop age but not Dustin age either ❤️)

Zodiac: Gemini

Personality type thingy: ENTJ

Enneagram(I don’t know much about the personality things but I’m learning more and am OBSESSED): type 8

Harry Potter house(because that is like my personality 😂): Ravenclaw

Physical: I’m 5’7 with blonde hair, blue eyes and glasses! I’m a bit chubby but more of me to love!!

Personality: I do have OCD(but I’m on medicine so it’s all good) I am a fourth grade teacher!🤪 I have doggos that I love with my whole heart. I’m pretty calm but boring🙃 I’m very blunt but always with good intentions! I am VERY sassy and sarcastic though, some people cannot handle the mess I am 😂

Likes: my dogs, baby’s, cute fluffy pink things, kind people, reading, cleaning, baking(even tho I suck at it I’m getting better), leaning new things(I’m learning more about the personality types and Spanish rn!!)

Dislikes: anything scary(horror movies, spooky stuff), alcohol, disorganized places,

Random fact: I am the pickiest eater but I’ll try anything once! (When I was a kid there was a year that I ate nothing but cheerios)

Thank you so taking your time to do these I think they are so fun!! ❤️❤️

Hi there, sweetie! I really hope you like this a lot!

Harry Potter (Marauders Era) Matchup

Your Harry Potter (Marauders Era) soulmate is...

REMUS LUPIN!

The two of you would be reading books to each other together because you guys like to have each other's company a lot.

Both of you loves to keep things neat and tidy for everyday things and he would definitely helping you out with the kids at school.

He would definitely love your dogs so much that the dogs would recommend him into the family with you.

INFJ x ENFJ lovebirds!

Pisces x Gemini sweethearts!

Gryffindor x Ravenclaw soulmates!

Stranger Things Matchup

Your Stranger Things soulmate is...

JONATHAN BYERS!

He would definitely helping with your classroom by introducing the kids into photography and he would adore the kids in the classroom a lot.

He would learn new things with you in case you needed his help and plus, the two of you would try to learn to speak Spanish together in the classroom.

He would definitely be so good with babies a lot because he had to take care of Will when Will was a little kid and plus, he would love to bake with you because he knows how to cook a meal.

ISFP x ENTJ soulmates!

Cancer x Gemini lovebirds!

Ravenclaw x Ravenclaw sweethearts!

[rrbobani]

Tagged by @jenareuter Thank you for the tag!

Do you play an instrument? I used to play the flute a lot, mostly because of High School band class. I think I could still play it pretty well if I took the time to play it again!

Favourite book character? I don't normally read that much anymore, so I'll go for general character. Right now, I really like Chai from Hi-Fi Rush. He's just so endearing, himbo, and feely~ He gives me a lot of inspiration for one of my characters and he's such a likeable guy!

What’s your star sign? I'm a Cancer, though that's as far as I know. I just think the zodiac signs are neat, I don't really believe they affect parts of my life.

Favourite colour schemes? Anything with blue honestly, but I have a soft spot for pink and blue or a dark color with blue. I blame Atlantis: The Lost Empire for my love of blue, it's EVERYWHERE in that movie hehe

Naps or long sleep? Mnhhhhh... can I say both? I like naps, but I guess I like long sleep better. I'm a very sleepy person, but I also like staying up at night

What languages do you speak? Just English with a little bit of Spanish knowledge, though not enough to speak it. I honestly wish I knew it better considering have my family is Hispanic. Though, i wish to someday learn Spanish fully, alongside Japanese, Portuguese, and Tagalog.

Dreams/aspirations? I really just wish to live a simple and financially stable life, lol. Though I do want to create comics and have a merch store, though I'm leaning more towards comics. I'm just really bad with motivation.

Long hair or short hair? Short hair. I once had long hair, but finally getting it cut short I felt so FREE.

Bring a book character to life or go into the fictional world? Honestly, I'd rather just go into a fictional world. Even if it is like going through war, or apocalyptical, or in space, I would want to travel to it just to see it. I would simply just want to be put into a scifi world so I can travel and see the stars~ Thank you for listening to me ramble a bit~ Let's see, I tag: @bumbledd33, @whalechief, and @bowlersandtophats

[joshuahyslop]

BOOKS

The last 10 books I’ve read:

1. Zen in the Art of Writing - Ray Bradbury Before this I’d only ever read Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury. I’m not really into sci-fi books. But the photo of him on the book jacket was too good to pass up. He’s smiling, wearing impossibly huge glasses and holding his cat. It made me laugh and I recognized the name so I bought it. I was surprised to find a lot of very solid advice on writing and the approach to any creative endeavour. It was actually a very good little book.

2. Acres & Pains - S.J. Perelman This was random. I found this little book in a used bookstore here in Vancouver - one that I don’t often visit, and was happy to grab it for its $5 price tag. S.J. Perelman was a “humorist”, which, as far as I can understand it, basically means a comedian who knows big words. I would be surprised if David Sedaris did not grow up reading Perelman’s work. It’s very self-deprecating and quite droll. 

3. Selected Poems - William Carlos Williams I’ve been diving deeper into poetry. I don’t know if it’s because I’m in my mid-thirties or what, but I’m finding it more and more enjoyable. I’m still mainly reading Bukowski’s poems when I can find them, but in between I’m picking up classics like this and thoroughly enjoying doing so.

4. A Poetry Handbook - Mary Oliver Mary Oliver is one of my favourite poets and this book is her instruction manual on how to read and write poetry. She recommends other poets to check out, she talks about rhyme scheme and free verse and its origins. It’s a highly educational read for someone who writes for a living but it’s also enjoyable if you just like poetry. Worth checking out.

5. Selected Poems - Antonio Machado This was one of the books recommended in “A Poetry Handbook”. Along with Li Po (whose poetry I had an immensely hard time tracking down) and Jack Gilbert. I knew nothing of Machado when I bought this book and now I know a little bit. The introduction to this book of poems was super helpful, but it’s 67 pages with footnotes and takes about as long to read as the rest of the entire book. One neat aspect was that the left side of every page was the original poem in Spanish, the right side was its translation. I don’t speak Spanish but it was cool to be able to see his intended rhythm. 

6. Invisible Boy - Harrison Mooney I grew up in Abbotsford, aka “Canada’s Bible Belt”: an almost exclusively white community with well over 100 churches. Harrison did too. We were somewhere between childhood acquaintances and childhood friends. We knew each other, I’d been to his house a couple times, but he was two years older than me so we were never super close. His book is about his experience as a Black boy being adopted by a white Christian fundamentalist family. Looking back I see so much of the racism that was prevalent in that town, in our school and in those churches that I did not experience because I’m white. It was an enjoyable book because it’s very well written. It’s very funny and very sad. But it was difficult as well because I knew those people, those places, those institutions, first hand but I was so largely ignorant of his, and so many others, experiences. And, though I can’t relate to the racism he experienced, I can relate to the confusion he felt trying his best to embrace a religion he was indoctrinated into. I can relate to the guilt of not fully believing, but not wanting to let anyone down. I can’t imagine the added burden of experiencing racism daily (even in his own home) and the questions that being adopted would constantly bring up. This is a book not meant to be missed. Do yourself a favour and check it out.

7. The Roominghouse Madrigals - Charles Bukowski This is a selection of his early poetry between the years 1946 and 1966. It’s a classic example of his work and reminded me, yet again, of why I love reading his stuff. I don’t know what it is. Not every poem connects with me, but enough of them do that I can sit and read his poetry for hours. I have.

8. The Fire Next Time - James Baldwin This has been in my stack of “books to read” for months but after reading Harrison’s book and his description of his encounter with this book I grabbed it and dove in. It’s quite a short read, but it’s incredibly powerful. I kept thinking, “Why was I not aware of his writing when I was in high school?” The answer is fairly obvious and, to put it mildly, disappointing. Still, if I was ever a teacher (not bloody likely) and I taught any kind of History or English class, this would be required reading for all my students. 

9. The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America - Thomas King Previously I’d only ever read, “The Truth About Stories” by Thomas King. It’s a short book but I loved it. I’ve been wanting to get to this book for a long time. Finally, after moving cities and having a week off in Mexico, I was able to dive in. It’s a great book - particularly as a Canadian who was never taught anything other than Christian propaganda regarding the Indigenous peoples of North America and their relationship with white colonizers. It was very informative, very disappointing to read and very sad. But I was also inspired by the Indigenous people and their resiliency and moved by their thoughtful and wise approach to nature. I also enjoyed how funny King is. It’s a fantastic book.

10. The Road - Cormac McCarthy There’s not much to say here. I love McCarthy’s writing but, not surprising, this was incredibly sad. Good if you like his stuff, but maybe not the place to start if you’ve never read anything by him before. 

more soon, -joshua

[realityhelixcreates]

By Talos, This Can't be Happening ch. 11: Ruins of Empire

The past always leaves its mark, in some way or another.

@cardwrecks @captainbaddecisions @whocares-idont I just realized it's been some time.

?~?~?~?~?

They crept away from the farmhouse just before the break of dawn, having been awoken by odd sounds neither of them trusted. They gathered up their things very quickly, dousing the fire and gathering the chickens which had been smoking and drying all night, then began putting distance between the farmhouse and themselves.

“Could have just been a mountain lion.” Helix said.

“Y'get how that's also bad though.” he answered, and they lapsed into silence as the stars faded against the slowly rising sun.

Helix spotted a fallen tree and left the road to examine it while Swag kept a look out for...everything plus mountain lions apparently.

“Thoughts?” he called.

“Hickory. Not new enough to be green, not old enough to be rotting. It's perfect!”

She took her hatchet and began chopping merrily away at a long branch. Little wood chips flew everywhere; she would likely be brushing them out of her hair for hours. After a few minutes, she presented him with a length of solid wood roughly three feet long.

“Good weight?” she asked. “I can thin it out a bit, if you need.”

“No, it...” he hefted the branch, gave it an experimental twist, a spin, a swing. It was thicker, heavier towards one end, and the balance of that was familiar in his palm. “Yeah, I can work with this.”

“Great!” she chirped, then chopped up the rest of the branch into semi-even lengths, and tied them into a bundle which she slung over her back. “This will come in handy later tonight. I doubt we'll reach the city before tomorrow.”

They made their way back to the road, Swag picking the larger chips of wood out of her hair like a grooming monkey.

“So, can you tell me anything about Markarth?” he asked. “Since I'm supposed to be from there?”

“It's beautiful. I was only there once, but it left an impression. There were great spires of stone that the homes and shops were built into, so the city was mostly vertical. The palace was built into a cliff face. There was an attempted murder in the marketplace in broad daylight, the first day I was there.”

“Sounds like a party.”

“There was a lot going on. The Nords have left their mark on it, but it was originally a Dwemer city, and the architecture and metal works really showed it.”

“Now, what does that mean though? What is a Dwemer? I take it they're some kind of people?”

“Yeah...a kind of elf. But they don't exist anymore. If I've got it right, they went to war with the ancestors of the dark elves, like the ones at Azura's shrine, and they did something that made them all disappear overnight. Probably the biggest mystery in Tamriel.”

“Now when you say 'disappear'...”

“I mean gone.” she snapped her fingers. “Poof! No corpses, no clue where or how. Just gone. Left their cities still running, but empty. They used steam power thousands of years ago, had gas lights, created an alloy that still hasn't been reformulated, and built clockwork and machines out of it! They rejected the known gods and made a religion out of logic and philosophy, harnessed sound as magic, but...we know so little about them. Their language was unique, and no one speaks it anymore...but...if I could get my hands on one of the texts...”

“Do you think? They sound pretty neat. Clockwork, steam power, and machines? In this setting? If you could read the books, you might revolutionize this whole world!”

Something in her face fell.

“I'm...not sure I want to do that. It's just, this world seems quaint on its head, beautiful and fresh. Sure. But it's constantly at war. This is an empire. It has filled out to the edges of the continent, spreading its cultural influence like a suffocating blanket, just like we did, and the British before that, and the French before that, and the Spanish before that, and the Dutch-”

“Right.”

“And the point is, they would dearly love to reach past those edges, and so would every other empire on the planet. They're limited right now, in key ways. But a Tamrielic Age of Exploration-and everything that comes with it-is not something I want to be responsible for. And even if I didn't care about that, if I were to supply this knowledge, I'd never know another moment's peace. Everybody would want me, whether I wanted it or not. I do not belong to this world. I do not belong to any world. And though I might have to live within this empire right now, I won't be a slave to it, and I won't make it any easier for it to make slaves of anyone else.”

Naturally. The only chains on Helix were forged and placed by herself, and could just as easily be thrown off. She would never allow herself to be caged.

He eyed that ring on her hand once more. Only ever by her choice.

“That's a good point. This place feels so different from home, but it's still full of people, isn't it? And people are gonna people.”

“Even the Dwemer were known to be slavers. They destroyed an entire race of elves in that way. Their remnants still wander, down in the depths of their ruined cities. I've seen them.”

She shuddered.

“Those places were...disquieting. So perfect and precise, so united in their aesthetic. It made the parts that were broken almost more beautiful by comparison. Everything exactly as it had been left. Beds made. Plates on tables. Steam still hissing through the pipes, gears still spinning. The sounds of industry still groaning through an empty, otherwise silent city. It was...almost obscene. It wasn't even a tomb. Not even a memorial. It was a...a lie. 'Wait for us', it said. 'We've just popped out for a moment. We'll be back soon.' But no one's coming back. Their leavings should at least be allowed to return to the earth. It made me want to bring it all down.”

“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings?”

“Yes. That's how its supposed to be.” she replied to his poetic interjection. “I was in a terrible place when last here, and I never want to go back down into those empty lands.”

“If we see any, we don't have to go in. Maybe we can kick over a stone or two and then leave.”

It was kind of a shame to leave info on the table like that, but this world would develop at its own pace, and on its own cycles. Helix lived by cycles, and it wasn't his job to rain advancement upon these masses.

The morning fog burned away as the sun climbed higher, lighting up the crumbling tops of mostly toppled stone walls in the distance.

“Speaking of ruins...” he murmured.

“Looks Imperial from here. Another watchtower maybe? Wanna go look?”

“Looks like the road is taking us that direction anyway. If there's any more of that grainy hard cheese, I'm taking it all.”

Helix giggled.

“You're gonna miss it when we leave.”

“Nah, it's like a Grana Padano, I can get it back home. You ever tried it? I'll get you some, the really good stuff. We can feed each other little bits, figs and pomegranate seeds, finocchiona maybe, that apricot preserve you make. That one cocktail you like. That silk wrap dress of yours, the purple one that comes off easy if you pull the ties right. Make a night of it. Whatever avenues of hedonistic debauchery we decide to wander down.”

She smiled, favored him with that glance of hers that always felt like it was about to set his hair on fire.

“You spoil me.” she purred.

“You know I love it.”

“I do.”

She did. They knew each other's love languages to fluency. Give. Share. Touch. Adore.

Off the road, inside those crumbling walls, no one would be able to see them. He didn't particularly care if they were watched, but she did, and that was part of it.

That little flame tickled his blood, lightened his step, and she skipped along beside him, buoyed by that same anticipatory elation.

The ruins were larger than he'd thought; three towers at least, and a wall all the way around. Almost none of it remained, no roofs, and only portions of wall. But that was all they needed.

Maybe it had been an important place once, sacred ground or a military outpost. Now it was merely overgrown grasses, flowering bushes, and moss-covered stone, a place to back her up against a stable section of wall, to grasp at warm flesh beneath layers of cloth, to thrust tongue between yielding lips-

-To screech in surprise as a sword tore through his cloak and stuck between stone blocks, barely missing Helix's shoulder.

“Goddamn cockblockin, motherfucker-!” Swag snarled, rounding on their attacker, only to scream again and press Helix harder against the wall behind him.

Creaking and clacking, a fully de-fleshed human skeleton tugged uselessly at its trapped sword. Several others emerged from behind the flowering bushes, carrying weapons, but nothing to identify who they might have once been but rotting scraps of armor.

Terror washed through him. It was ridiculous. Skeletons were a joke. A cartoonish spooky-scary holiday decoration, or a goth kid's aesthetic. They weren't actually frightening.

Right up until they were right there, in all their radiant wrongness, advancing with weapons raised. Until they outnumbered you. And no amount of pedantic killjoy Twitter rationality made them disappear, no perfect understanding of how the lack of muscles, ligaments, and tendons should mean they shouldn't be able to move, they just did. They had no eyes to see him, and it didn't matter. They knew where he was. They had no brains for motor control, and it didn't matter. They held their swords anyway. Logic and reason were no longer a shield, and he was completely disarmed.

One of them dashed forward, sword swinging, and Swag took Helix to the ground with him as the ragged blade whistled through the air where they were previously standing. Helix screamed beneath him, a startling sound of hatred and fury. She whipped one hand out from under him, and unleashed a bolt of purple lightning that blasted the bones apart.

Helix wriggled free from his protective panic, and destroyed the stuck skeleton with a double handed swing of her hatchet, shattering its naked skull.

“Edward, your cane!” she hollered. “Fuck 'em up!”

That galvanized him, the weight of the branch in his hands dredging up years-old know how. Weaving between them-they were clumsy, erratic-dodging stabs and swings, bashing limbs and splintering bones with the heavy end of the cane. They were brittle things, vulnerable to a good smash, to Helix's crackling electricity, but they had numbers.

“Over here!” Helix demanded, backed up against a crumbling section of wall. “Bring them over here! Just do it!” she cried at his wordless protest.

He danced back over to her, several skeletons recklessly chasing him.

“What now?”

“Get ready to duck!”

Helix slapped her hands against the decaying wall, releasing a ball of lightning that demolished the blocks. The wall wobbled; Helix dragged Swag back down to the ground as the top several feet of stones toppled down onto the approaching skeletons.

The last of their bony foes continued to advance, whatever fell magic that animated it unable to return any brains to its weathered head. Swag kicked its legs out from under it, dashing its skull against the stones.

Helix dragged herself back to her feet and stalked the area with her hatchet, demolishing every skull she came across, loathing swirling around her face. Swag rested against the wall, just letting her do it. Maybe it kept them from getting back up again, like zombies.

Oh god, were there zombies too???

Shoulders heaving and hands trembling, she returned to lean against the remnants of the wall beside him, catching her breath.

“All okay?” he asked.

“Lucky.” she breathed. “They were poorly made. Old. Fragile. Ugh, I hate the undead. I hate the magic that makes them, and I hate the people who use that magic. Necromancers. I hate Necromancers.”

“I can...understand that.” he said, but he was thinking, thinking...

And she caught the thread of thought, wound it around her fingers.

“Narci is a wight.” she said simply. “A spirit. All worlds are full of spirits. They aren't like this. They typically have their own minds and wills. But these? These are just slaves. Dolls. Mockery and desecration. They need to be returned to the earth.”

“That was a fuckin' nightmare. Never thought I'd be scared of skeletons.” he said. “They were just so...wrong.”

“They are dead. And we have freed them forever. Now put me up against that wall and fuck me senseless.”

He raised an eyebrow, but his blood was still high.

“...As my queen commands.” he said, reaching for her shaking shoulders.

?~?~?~?~?