#i think shes like. russian and japanese or russian and chinese maybe

[girlashfur]

what we think of wasian anya

[kelaeri]

The Many Languages of Dick Grayson

Apparently, according to Nightwing #54, he can speak 12, so I went on a little quest to see just how many I could identify.

Starting off with The Essential Batman Encyclopedia, the entry for Dick Grayson lists him as being trained in French, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Mandarin, and Cantonese with having some proficiency in an unknown Romani dialect. Given there are multiple examples of him speaking these languages throughout the comics, I am inclined to trust this claim. To start, we've got several examples of French (Gotham Knights #14, Detective Comics Annual #12, Nightwing #73, Grayson #10-- also featuring Spanish)

In Grayson #1 he speaks Russian only briefly, but in Detective Comics #36 he speaks it throughout.

As far as the Chinese languages go, while I believe Dick can speak Mandarin and/or Cantonese fairly well (Batman/Superman World's Finest #3), his Hanzi recognition and literacy could use some work.

Similarly, when the Titans head off to Japan in Titans Annual #1, we have Nightwing speaking Japanese in battle; however, when it comes to the prospective job of being a manga translator in Nightwing #125, he claims he doesn't know Japanese, which leads me to believe he is only proficient in speaking Japanese/Chinese and struggles with the writing systems.

So what about the languages not covered in the encyclopedia? To start, we have another romance language: Italian (Nightwing #72).

Followed by some alleged German (Nightwing #51, JLA #44)

And conversations in Farsi (Robin #175)

While I've seen some Tumblr and Reddit posts claim he knows Kikuyu, The Power Company: Manhunter #1 only says he "brushed up" on his Kikuyu before going to Kenya, so it is unknown how much of the language he actually speaks, but to me it doesn't seem likely to be a lot.

He also, to some unknown degree, speaks Tamaranean-- at least enough to hack into an alien computer (Action Comics #842).

As far as unspoken languages go, Dick is fluent in ASL, which is proven numerous times when he communicates with Jericho (New Teen Titans 1984).

And lastly, the two languages that remain rather uncertain are Romani and Cant-- largely due to the nature of the languages themselves and their representation in comics. "Romani," for instance, has several different dialects, and when Devin Grayson introduced it for Dick (Gotham Knights #20-21, Nightwing #91), she never specified which, and based on the lines she wrote, her research into the language was questionable at best. Writers since have recognized Dick's Romani heritage, but have not otherwise suggested he retained much of the language to be considered fluent.

Cant is an even wider term than Romani and can be seen as more of jargon for a particular language than a language itself, sometimes even being called a "pseudo-language." The colloquial term for American circus cant is Carny, or "Carny speak" as Boston Brand puts it in Batman: The Brave and the Bold #14 when he and Nightwing encounter a kid who speaks it.

So... this leaves us with 11 languages Dick has notable proficiency in: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Farsi, and ASL. And ~3 languages he has unknown proficiency in: Tamaranean, Kikuyu, Romani, and Carny/Cant (if you want to count it).

Maybe memory-loss Dick was including either Tamaranean or Kikuyu in that count from Nightwing #54, or maybe he knows some other language we haven't seen yet. Given how close the family is to the Al Ghuls, I personally think it would be cool if one of them was Arabic.

But anyway, hope you enjoyed this post! A lot I've seen covering this topic are very surface-level and label some of his more iffy languages as "fluent," so I hope this cleared things up. I've read tons of Nightwing, and I swear there are more examples, but sifting through the 1,000+ comics I've read of him is a lot haha. If y'all know of some others, let me know!

[yamishika]

have any other ethnicity headcanons for fairy tail characters?

Fairy Tail Characters Ethnicity HCs

I don’t have as much extensive proof as I do for my Erik headcanons post but I will explain my thoughts for why I think certain ethnicities.

Natsu Dragneel : Japanese + Greek? (Because of the clothing style in his past flashback with his biological family)

Erza Scarlet : British + ? - I say British because she reminds me of Lara Croft who in her older days had reddish hair, also English history is big on knights, which Erza is. The other half I can’t tell as I don’t actually know what to think of her father Rung as. He seems like a POC though. (Maybe Mexican?)

Lucy Heartfilia : British / American - Because Lucy’s heritage as a noble it reminds me more of English nobility, but then her characteristics remind me more of american for some reason (it doesn’t help that Lucy looks a lot like Ashley Graham from the original RE4 and she’s American so I am kind of biased there)

Gray Fullbuster : Canada or Serbia (I think that’s mainly because I am making the link of cold countries though). Also if with Serbian I can see Ultear and him coming from similar places)

Gajeel Redfox : Native American (His hair and features remind me of Native Americans and I don’t know he kind of reminds me and looks like of Ratohnhake:ton / Connor from AC3) Juvia Lockser : Spanish + Russian (Spanish as the name Juvia is Spanish origin and Russian since the ushanka she wears and her clothing style in general)

Jellal Fernandes : Mixed ethnic - Mixed Arab (mainly Levantine Arab) + Brazilian, but then in my HCs he’s also part Desi too since the name Jellal is most prominent in India (And I want Erik to have a desi bro in CS). And the Arab/South asian idea came from him wearing Kohl/Surma in S1 in the anime. 

Ultear Milkovich : Serbian with mixed Central Asian or Kazakh (Again cold countries but since Ultear looks Eurasian but with dark features these countries came to mind. Serbia because apparently the name Milkovich is Serbian origin)

Macbeth/Midnight :  English w/Scottish + Irish + Japanese - English/Scottish/Irish is a given since his name ‘Macbeth’ but since his aesthetic is alike to Visual Kei, I see Japanese influence. But I don’t know, I just can see Macbeth with a british accent, maybe that’s just me.

Sorano Aguria : French and Korean/Japanese (I don’t know why I have the French, it just fits me when discussing with my friend @acutemushroom. Korean/Japanese because despite having a Japanese name (her and Yukino) due to her features she gave me kind of Korean vibes for some reason)

Sawyer : English (I can’t explain other than the name. But I thought of Romanian too for some reason, so English + Romanian?)

Richard Buchanan : South African + Scottish? (My only thought for this was because Buchanan I knew it as a last name big in South Africa, and Scottish is probably because of the red hair and ruddy complexion that I know scottish people can have)

Meredy : Irish (I don’t know why, it was hard to think of anything for her)

Kinana : Desi (Since the name Kinana is an urdu name apparently - So Pakistani) 

Cana Alberona : Irish + Italian (Guildarts gave me tanned Irish vibes for some reason and Alberona is I believe an Italian name)

Minerva Orland : Chinese + Latina (She wears a Cheongsam and her hair reminds me of Chinese culture but then I see Latina too) BUT, maybe she has Egyptian too and Italian since Minerva (Italian/Latin) but the blue eyeliner/eyeshadow she always has is alike to Malachite powder that was used by ancient egyptians 

Laxus Dreyar : Ukrainian + Russian (He gives me eastern europe vibes and also his features) but also since he's Makarov’s grandson he’d have Russian in him 

Makarov Dreyar : Russian - (I think his full name is of Russian origin but I can't be sure.) These are the HCs I have off the top of my head, hope this answers your question!

[solarishashernoseinabook]

Solaris reads Murder as a Second Language, by Joan Hess (2013)

So yeah, this was the book I made the poll about. As this is a murder mystery I'm liveblogging, it's very likely I'll spoil the killer for you. Block the tag "solaris reads murder as a second language" if you don't want spoilers.

Murder as a Second Language is the 19th book in the Claire Malloy Mysteries and the first book by Joan Hess I've read. Last year I listened to about 30 minutes of the audiobook before DNF'ing it because of how trashy the first couple chapters were. Well, now I'm back, and we're going to see how bad the rest of it is.

MAASL picks up shortly after our main character Claire, long-time local business owner, has married Deputy Chief Peter Rosen, and just before she packs her daughter Caron off to college. To get into the college she wants, Caron has to spend the summer doing volunteer work, and Claire - now faced with the possibility of spare time - decides to volunteer as well. When a murder happens in town, Claire and Peter team up to solve the case.

Well, let's see what I've gotten myself into...

[Transcript: "Inez found thsi really cool place where we can volunteer to teach English as a second language to foreigners. It's like four hours a week, and we arrange our own schedules. I figure that if we're there from eleven to noon, we'll have plenty of time to go to the lake and the mall." /end]

Just setting up some background here. Caron has picked fairly easy volunteer work that gives her plenty of time to still enjoy summer, and only really has to devote 40 odd hours to it. As far as last-minute requirements to get into college go, Caron has it pretty damn easy.

Or maybe not. See, she has to attend a training session and...

[Transcript: "Yeah," Caron muttered. "The training session was interminable. The teacher basically read aloud from the manual while we followed along, like we were illiterate. We broke for pizza and then listened to her drone on for another four hours. After that, the executive director, some pompous guy named Gregory Whistler, came in and thanked us for volunteering. I was so thrilled that I almost woke up."

"Then it got worse," Inez said. "The program director, who's Japanese and looks like she's a teenager, told us that because of the shortage of volunteers in the summer we would each get four students - and meet with them twice a week for an hour."

"For a total of Eight Hours." Caron's sigh evolved into an agonized moan. "We have to call them and find a time that's mutually convenient. It could be six in the morning or four in the afternoon. We may never make it to the lake." /end]

How heartbreaking! Caron, on the cusp of adulthood, faces a fraction of the responsibilities she will face in a year when she goes off to college! Her life is truly difficult (sarcasm)

[Transcript: "And I," Caron said, rolling her eyes, "have to tutor an old lady from Poland, a Chinese man, an Iranian woman, and a woman from Russia. How am I supposed to call them on the phone? They don't speak English. Like I speak Polish, Chinese, Russian, and whatever they speak in Iran. This is a nightmare, and I think we ought to just quit now. I say we set up a lemonade stand and donate the proceeds to some charity." /end]

And it gets worse (heavy sarcasm)! Did you know that people who need to learn English as a second language don't speak English perfectly? Caron is right to throw away the chance to go to a good college over this (heavy sarcasm)

Anyway, all is saved, because Claire promises to volunteer as well and take some of their students off their hands so Caron doesn't give up and go to the local community college instead. Personally I'd say a good parent would make their child take responsibility for themselves, but what do I know. This post is getting long, so check the reblogs for how well that works out for everyone

[raaorqtpbpdy]

Haunted

For the Phic Phight prompt: During a fight, Danny finds out he can survive in space. This leads to him [accidentally] terrorising the astronauts on the ISS à la every space thriller ever. (from @the-archer-goddess)

AO3 Link

[Warnings for outer space, and horror elements]

("Italicized dialogue" = Spoken in Russian)

Danny had chased ghosts a lot of places. At a certain point, after flying through buildings and mountains and the core of the Earth, he stopped paying attention to where he was. This particular ghost, an irritating little bugger known as Youngblood, who fancied himself an astronaut today, led Danny all the way into the stratosphere without the halfa even batting an eye.

By the time he captured Youngblood in the Fenton Thermos and took a moment to absorb his surroundings, he realized he was all the way in outer space. And wouldn't you know it, it turned out that ghosts, even half-ghosts, could survive in a total vacuum. There wasn't a chance in the Realms of Danny not taking advantage this new information, and, well, he'd always wanted to visit the International Space Station.

��

Kazimir Novikov, a Russian mathematician and programmer aboard the ISS, heard a tapping on the window. For a moment, he didn't think anything of it, until he heard the tapping again. The sound was coming from the other side of the thick glass. It was coming from outside the ship. He groaned.

"Ryuji!" he called out to the nearest engineer. Ryuji Mochizuki didn't speak Russian as well as he probably should've been able to, so they spoke to each other in English, though Kazimir's English wasn't quite perfect. "Sound like something shaken loose outside!" 

"Shaken loose?" questioned Ryuji. "Broken?"

"Maybe," Kazimir answered. "Don't know. Something tap on my window outside like tap tap taptap tap," he verbally mimicked the strange rhythm.

"Wait wait!" Denise Song, a Chinese-American biochemist interrupted. "What did the tapping sound like?" as if on cue, the tapping came again, this time on a different window, nearer the others. Tap tap taptap tap. Denise pushed herself to the window and looked through, but saw nothing out there that shouldn't be. Tap tap taptap tap. Cautiously, she tapped twice on the inside of the window.

In a flash, a boy appeared, grinning. He had white hair and luminous green eyes and disappeared in an instant. He hadn't been wearing a space suit. Denise gasped and if there had been gravity, she would've fallen on her ass.

"There's something out there!" she said. She repeated herself in Russian, then Japanese, just to make absolutely sure the message got through to her crew mates.

"What is?" Ryuji asked asked. "Loose coupling? Bent panel? Space debris?"

Denise shook her head. "I don't know what. Looked like a kid, but it vanished."

"Vanished?" Kazimir asked. That word wasn't in his English vocabulary.

"Исчез," she translated. "Disappeared. Gone."

"How could a child be outside?" Kazimir asked in Russian, scoffing. "I think you must be getting space-sick or something. You watch too many scary movies on your laptop."

"I swear I saw someone, Kaz!" she insisted. She turned to Ryuji and said, "You shouldn't go out there."

"If something is broken, I need to go fix it," Ryuji responded. "I have to at least check."

"It's not—" Denise cut herself off. Maybe they were right. She did watch a lot of horror movies; maybe she was imagining things. It could've been a trick of the light. Her eyes could've picked up on glare from the lights and her own reflection in the glass, and for a moment, it had just looked like there was someone outside. "Just... be careful."

"Of course," Ryuji promised.

He changed into his space suit, attached the safety line, and stepped off the edge of the ISS. He went for a little spacewalk along the side where they'd heard tapping, keeping an eye out for something loose, or bent out of shape, maybe a wrench or screwdriver that had accidentally been left hooked to the outside of the station. He and Amélie Chevalier, the other engineer on board, a robotics specialist from France, had done maintenance just two days before. One of them may have mistakenly left a tool behind, but there shouldn't have been any actual mechanical issues to deal with.

Ryuji checked the panels on the outside of the station, the hatches, the mechanical arms, examined each of the windows. Everything seemed to be in perfect working order. But... all three of them had heard that tapping noise. Something had to have made it. 

He felt a tug on his safety cable and looked behind him to see what he'd snagged it on. Nothing appeared to be there, and the cable floated freely in the vacuum of space. He tugged back, just in case, and for the barest of seconds, he could swore he saw a boy without a space suit holding onto the cable about ten feet down. Then Ryuji blinked, and the boy was gone, leaving him to wonder if he'd really seen him in the first place.

An uneasy feeling churned in the engineer's stomach. He'd done what he came out to do, even if he hadn't found anything. He was ready to go back in now. Whatever that was, his imagination or not, he really didn't want to meet it again. Once he was back inside, he told no one what he'd seen, only that nothing was loose or damaged, and he couldn't find the source of the tapping.

A few minutes later, Amélie screamed.

When an astronaut screamed like that on the International Space Station, everyone had to know why. Anything worth screaming about in space could mean fatalities for the crew.

"What is it, Amélie?" Miroslav Zima, the pilot, asked in Russian.

"I saw someone outside!" Amélie answered, on the verge of hysterics. "It was a boy, and he wasn't wearing a suit. He... he waved at me!"

"That's impossible Amélie," said Étouale Bois, the Latin-Quebecois botanist on board. "How much sleep have you gotten recently?" 

"I'm not sleep deprived!" Amélie insisted. "I know what I saw!"

"I saw him too," Denise said. "He tapped on the window. He smiled at me when I tapped back." She turned and translated for Ryuji, who's Russian wasn't as good as the others.

"I—" Ryuji started to say in English, then swallowed hard and shook his head. "I thought I saw a boy, too," he told them in a whisper. "I thought he tugged on my safety cable."

"White hair?" Denise asked, switching to English as well. "Glowing green eyes? Black jumpsuit, but no helmet?" Ryuji nodded. Amélie nodded too. "How could we all have seen the same thing if it wasn't really there?" she asked the other three.

"You could be messing with us," Miroslav pointed out. Then the lights flickered. Then the air grew cold. "Are you... messing with us?" Denise shook her head solemnly.

"Whatever it is... I think... I think it may have gotten inside somehow," Denise said as a shiver crawled up her spine. "I think it's close."

The six astronauts stilled, glancing around the chamber as if some sort of ghoul or alien might jump out at them somehow. Just when Étouale scoffed, about to make a snide remark about how all their crew mates were paranoid, an unfamiliar voice spoke from behind them.

"This place is the coolest thing ever!" claimed the voice of a young boy. This time, Amélie wasn't the only one who screamed. They all saw him. White hair and eyes like the light on an anglerfish, drawing them in, threatening to consume them whole.

"What the fuck is that!?" Étouale screeched. "How the fuck did a kid get up here!?"

The boy looked momentarily startled before vanishing again. The astronauts whipped their heads around, waiting for him to appear again. Slowly, without having to say anything, they all turned so they were back-to-back-to-back, ready on all sides for the boy, whoever or whatever he was, to appear again.

It was so cold now that their breath misted in the air. In the climate controlled space station, it had been months since any of them felt this kind of cold, this bone-deep chill, like the icy grips of death in their very lungs. The lights flickered again, and the astronauts collectively held their breath.

"Sorry about the cold, it's just, I'm really excited to be here!"

The boy popped up again, in front of Miroslav, who took a swing at him on instinct. His fist passed right through the boy's head like he wasn't there at all. Again, the boy vanished, but this time a hollow, echoing giggle took his place. The laugh sounded like a child in a home video that they were watching after the child's funeral. Happy, but at the same time brimming with heartache.

"What kinds of experiments are you working on?" The leaves on Étouale's radishes rustled as if something brushed up against them, and frost formed. "Oops. Don't worry, I'll fix it!" Just like that, the frost evaporated. The boy turned visible again for an instant, then was gone from their sight.

"Who are you?" Kazimir demanded. "What are you?"

"Oh, sorry," the boy's voice chuckled nervously. He appeared again, standing on wall, upright to them all, as if gravity was somehow holding him there. "I'm Danny!" he said, smiling brightly as if he wasn't the most horrifying thing six astronauts who faced the vast, deadly vacuum of space every day had seen in their entire lives. "And I know you guys! Denise Song, Ryuji Mochizuki, Kazimir Novikov, Miroslav Zima, Amélie Chevalier, and Étouale Bois! Am I pronouncing that right? Étouale?"

Étouale nodded mutely. None of them could muster up a word to say to the mysterious teenage boy standing in front of them, who somehow knew all their names.

"I keep up on everything that goes on in space!" the boy said, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the astronauts were all fairly petrified with fear. "I follow NASA on all my social media so I can see what's going on up here. I never thought I'd be able to actually see it see it, not for years, at least."

"H-how did you get here?" Denise asked, trying to sound authoritative and failing miserably as her voice escaped her a timid squeak.

"I flew!" came the response. "Turns out ghosts can survive in space! Who knew? Not me! Isn't it awesome?"

"Ghost?" was all Denise managed to get out before he fainted, her unconscious form floating in the chamber. For all that she loved supernatural horror movies, she was not prepared to live one.

"Denise!" Ryuji called out to her, tapping the side of her face and trying to get her to wake up. He felt for a pulse, making sure the ghost boy hadn't somehow killed her. "She's okay. I think she fainted."

"Can you blame her?" Étouale asked. "I think I'll probably join her in a minute. I would not have signed up for this shit if I knew the ISS was fucking haunted."

"Haunted?" the boy cocked his head in confusion and looked around. "But I didn't sense any ghosts up here?"

"She's talking about you, kid," Miroslav told him, using the bars above to reposition himself in front of his crew mates. Kazimir slipped thought the passage on the opposite side to take the unconscious Denise out of there.

"Me? But I'm... oh... yeah..." A light green tinge rose to the boy's cheeks, and he looked down as if he was embarrassed. "Sorry, I guess I didn't think about—I was just really excited, you know. I didn't realize I was scaring you."

"Didn't realize?" Ryuji repeated, aghast. "Kid, you scared the absolute shit out of us!"

He looked even more chastised as he hunched his shoulders, shrinking into himself. "Sorry."

"You're... not going to hurt us?" Amélie asked cautiously.

"No!" The boy's eyes widened. "Definitely not! I just wanted to see the space station. You guys are, like, my heroes. I've always wanted to be an astronaut, you know."

"Is that so?" hesitantly, Amélie maneuvered past Miroslav, closer to the ghost boy. "What did you say your name was?"

"Danny Phantom," the boy said.

"Well, Danny, would you like to see the Astrobee robots?" she offered with a smile.

The boy lit up, his faintly glowing aura literally brightening at her offer to see the little fan propelled robotic assistants on the space station. "Would I ever!"

[neonartistycauseidk]

DROP CATCF HEADCANONS

Okay…..Okay….Okay….omg where do I start…..

I think I’ll try going by character???

Charlie:

…Gay. I know what you are sir. This man likes MEN. (I’m pretty sure a majority of people headcannon this…but whatever)

Charlie and Matilda (the one from the Jr.) are childhood besties and have been friends since kindergarten——he met James about a year later.

Perfect cinnamon roll. Literally can do NO WRONG…and thats to A FAULT.

Goody-two-shoes—-need I say more?

Listens to songs from the 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s on record because his family has quite a bit of records.

The shortest (height-wise) of the group…I’m not sure—-this one just feels right. (Like…maybe 5”4 or 5”5? He’s pretty short)

Also, definitely the youngest of the group…12 MAX at the time of the tour (I headcannon he was 10 during the main events of the story)

Became interested in Wonka through Grandpa Joes stories about working there

Loves his grandparents stories about their lives in general (despite Grandpa Joe’s being his favorites)

Gets in a relationship with James in the future (Implied in a previous post)

NEVER…and I mean…NEVER curses. The worst curse word to ever come out of him was “gee-willikers”

Mom friend/therapist friend of the group.

Oh…also the——matchmaker of the group…yeah…somehow this little guy got all of his friends together and HE doesn’t even know how it happened.

Violet:

Lesbian. WOMAN LOVER.

Was…actually pressured into gum chewing by her parents. I mean, just listen to any of her songs from the musicals…it’s pretty obvious.

Broke multiple Guinness World Records…her most notable, of course, being able to chew a singular piece of gum for a total of five months…yikes.

Despite being a “professional gum chewer”…she doesn’t actually care much for candy. It’s not like she down right DESPISES it, like Mike…but still.

If we’re talking modern au (not in the 70s or the early 2000s), she would absolutely be into Billie Eilish and AViVA

Lover of motorcycles and cars,

Leading me into my next headcannon: Violets a major tomboy…which should come as no surprise (much to her mothers dismay)

After the tour, her relationship with her parents became strained (more so than it already was) and she was often insulted by them for being “stupid” and “immature.” I mean, “how could a girl be told NOT to do something…but then do it any way?”….especially if it turned her BLUE.

Cut her hair, bleached it blonde, and left home the second she could…desperate to sever any relation/and or ties to family.

Ends up in a relationship with Matilda (Charlie’s bestie).

Bestie = Mike Teavee….OOOOGGH BOY these two are absolutely chaotic together. What a perfect duo

Likely the closest with Charlie post-tour? Idk it just sorta feels right.

Doesn’t stay dark blue for her entire life—-as she grows up, the color of her skin gets lighter…becoming and staying light blue when she’s around 16, I’d say.

Miranda:

Demisexual…likely Demi-aroace…

Speaks seven languages (Chinese, Russian, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, and English), however, she says she speaks six because “saying she speaks seven languages…would be bragging.”

Fences, plays soccer, and lacrosse

Plays the violin, piano, cello, harp, and flute

Student council president at her school

Participates in every extra-curricular activity her school offers

Similar to Violet, pressured into being the best by her parents…if she were in the book, movies, or musical adaptations—-Miranda and Violet would probably have a rivalry.

Very professional…speaks to everyone as if she’s speaking to—-like—-the president or something

Assumed she had her entire life planned out at the before the tour…at only 11 years old.

Thought she’d become a lawyer or a politician—-that or a schoolmaster, like her father.

Took the longest to warm up to all of the golden ticket winners post tour—-was afraid of feeling things.

Pretty much hated everyone at first and actually thought the tour was a “waste of time.”

However, she hated Augustus the least…so it kinda makes sense why she became…friends with him first.

Took her the longest to befriend Mike….OOOGH boy—-it was a struggle…since they, too, had a rivalry—-and she was convinced he was an UTTER BUFFOON before actually getting to know him.

Post tour, Miranda is left with red spots over her skin…luckily, though, there aren’t a lot.

Last one, calls Augustus “Auggie” in the future.

Augustus:

Demisexual and genderfluid (he/she/they pronouns…)

Nicest of the “rotten kids”

Actually, besides Charlie of course, has one of the best relationships with his parents (er—-well, mother…his father passed away before he could remember him).

Probably was the most willing of the “rotten” golden ticket winners to be friends with Charlie post tour

Cross dresses (mainly in the future) and probably gets fashion advice from Veruca—-okay, you know what…they’d probably bond over fashion.

Though everyone disliked Miranda (except Charlie because he literally cannot hate anyone), Augustus was the first to get Miranda to open up—-to everyone’s shock.

Unlikely lovers: Augustus and Miranda—-HEAR ME OUT.

Sweetest little guy…I can’t even.

After the tour, he began to have a healthier relationship with food.

Can sing opera level notes (I blame “A Little Bit of Good” from Chicago for this one)…So…I guess, vocally, he’d be a countertenor?

Never lost his German accent—-despite not living in Germany anymore when he’s older.

Veruca:

…I don’t think she’s gay, guys—-although, I’m not opposed to demi-girl (she/they) Veruca. At the very most…I’d say bi-curious? (Oh god I hope this doesn’t offend anyone I’m so sorry I know people see her as a lesbian its just not something I see SORRY)

Definitely became nicer post tour—-she actually becomes ashamed of her past self.

Probably only remains in contact with her dad in the future considering the fact that her mother…wasn’t necessarily in the picture anyhow…

Does ballet. I LOVE this detail from the broadway musical…

Half Russian and British

Voice of reason when it comes to her and Mikes relationship (both platonically and romantically).

Ends up together with Mike eventually

If it’s modern au—-I could see Veruca being into musical theater (the “big ones” now specifically…even though I could see it being in my regular version of events)

Learns to be—-less spoiled, one could say…

Dresses in a lot less fancy clothing post tour—-of course it’s still nice clothing…but its not like she’s wearing luxurious, poofy, sparkling dresses everywhere and anywhere to “flaunt her families riches” in everyone’s face.

Mike:

Bisexual. No comment.

Modern au Mike would be OBSESSED with Saturday morning cartoons. He’d also be a Nickelodeon kid without a doubt. Spongebob would be his favorite…because of course it would…He’d also like Ed, Edd n Eddy.

Also modern au…Mike would be a theater kid. I feel like his favorite would be Spongebob the musical…..go figure.

Since I’m assuming Captain Knuckleduster (in the catcf verse) is a piece of media Mike consumes…(both shows and games based on Captain Knuckleduster)…I’m gonna say it was something he really loved as a kid…perhaps Captain Knuckleduster provided him comfort due to him feeling like a father figure to him. Hmmm…Do I smell daddy issues?

Yeah, Mike and his dad, Norman, aren’t very close…

…huh, it’s probably why Violet and Mike are close….they both have parental issues (Violet with her mom, mainly, and Mike with his dad).

Mike and his mother, Ethel, however…I actually feel like they end up on good terms and have a pretty good relationship in the future! I also feel like in the future that Mike learns to respect her and appreciate her.

In the future—-Mike probably becomes a physics teacher…Not only based on his interests but also out of respect for his mother (since his mother is normally portrayed to be a teacher).

Genius….Need I say more?

Post tour, Mike ends up—-pretty much back to normal size! Maybe an inch or two taller…but normal sized!…yet, theres a catch. Because of his body being stretched to UNGODLY lengths to try and fix him…he likely ended up with bones like rubber….and post tour, his limbs can stretch very far….uncontrollably.

But after bouts of depression, self-hatred, self-discovery, and then self-acceptance (and also therapy…lots of it), Mike realizes he can actually control it…basically giving him a super power almost (move over elastigirl…here comes Mike Teavee).

Ends up becoming pretty close with Charlie in the future too.

Thinks he’s a smooth a** mother f**ker when it comes to flirting…but…oh my god…he just…OOOOGH boy…he sucks at it. Can’t flirt in a smooth way AT ALL yet thinks he’s just so…good at it???? It probably drives Veruca insane (in a good way) and probably gets a laugh out of her too.

Okay, so, uh…That’s it for now! I hope you liked my headcannons!!! I’d love to hear yours! Also, thank you for listening to my babbling lol!

[motsimages]

Meeting people from other countries always introduces new world-views that you would have never considered ever before.

Like physical contact. In my culture, we touch to show we care, we listen, we are there for you. It is important to touch and to stay physically close. If someone has a problem, is struggling, crying or feeling down, physical contact is expected, or at least, physical closeness. You don't leave someone who is crying alone in their room unless they ask you to and you will check on them anyways.

A friend of mine remembers having a bad time after a breakup in Switzerland and her best friend (Swiss) there not even changing seats in the table to get closer to her, to her amazement. She listened and supported her, from a distance. I still remember a conversation with an English friend who said that when someone cries or is feeling down, you let them be and don't hug them or physically confort them in any way. I told him that is not the way with Spaniards.

Many cultures do not touch at all and reactions to the physical touch in Spain may vary. Some like it (most of the people I have met, some Chinese have gone crazy for physical contact), some don't (very rarely, usually usamericans or northern europeans). In any case, most of the time, at the beginning, people are shocked "why is this person touching me?" but not repulsed. Some show more surprise than others, some get used to it faster than others.

A Japanese friend was weirded out until he understood how the society works around physical contact, he travelled around Europe and came back and he said he had missed the contact (he thought it was a European thing). When he came back to Japan, he told me nobody touched him, not even his mom, which was a shock to me because if somebody hugs you in Spain, it will be your mom. He felt lonely and sad, and missed the physical closeness.

Usamericans are the only ones I have seen to be physically tense when receiving the slightest touch. I have seen fear in adult men when I was physically close to them (still not touching them, but too close according to their usual distance). And I was maybe doing nothing but exchanging info about our common class or other small talk.

Whenever I travel up north in Europe I have to physically restrain myself from moving my arms and touching people. I still move too much, touch too much and stay too close and this has led to some serious misunderstandings, particularly in the UK, where people thought I was flirting. This flirting thing, btw, is very frequent and foreigners who come to Spain tend to read it any physical contact as such. A French girl complained that all Spanish men were making too much advances on her (probably not that many, they were just physically close). A Russian closeted gay friend thought a lot of heterosexual men were gay just because they were hugging each other, grabbing each other by the shoulder or otherwise standing close to each other.

My last year abroad, I told my Northern European friends that I would expect hugs from them once I felt confortable enough to tell them that I personally need hugs and that culturally it is something we do in Spain. After this, I once asked a Swiss friend for a hug and he said "why?" and I was like "because I feel like having a hug? Who asks "why" to someone who is asking for a hug?"

A usamerican latino friend of mine was shocked when working in a Spanish school because children hugged him and he didn't know what to do. I was shocked myself: you hug them back, what are you going to do? They are children! They crave physical contact. And he explained that in the US that is frowned upon, you can be in trouble, people will think you are a pedophile or something. And I was like... what about 2-3-year-olds? and he said "no, never, they hug you, but you stay still, you don't touch them". I am still shocked and in dismay. How are you not going to touch children? Impossible. We touch children all the time in Spain, and they touch you.

And today I was interpreting for some Russian parents at the new school for their 8-year-old child and the teacher asked if it was ok to hug him because she is very affectionate with children. Parents said "sure, he loves hugs". When saying goodbye, the parents told him to hug the teacher but he didn't want to and the teacher said "it's fine, it's not mandatory, only when he wants". This child, by the way, was nervous when arriving at the school but he held my hand (not his parents') at the beginning because I told him I would translate for him whatever he needs. I remember being pleased and relieved when I discovered that Russians are also physically affectionate.

There is a current conversation in Spain to respect people, and particularly children, when they don't want physical contact, to let them choose when they want it and when they don't. But in any case the conversation is more about consent and social situations than it is against physical contact altogether.

And I remembered all these cultural situations regarding physical contact and hugs, because it is the thing I notice the most when I travel aboard, the thing I miss the most when I don't have it. When I finally came home after my travels, I knew I was home because the people I've known most of my life, my mom's friends, were holding my hand, hugging me, grabbing my shoulder and staying close to me when we were speaking.

[veefuls]

2024-04-05 16:40

I have for almost 3 weeks been putting off finishing my English assignment for no real reason, I'm just for some reason not doing it. It's easter break so it can wait.

I've been meaning to watch "Tell Me That You Love Me" which is a South Korean remake of the Japanese show "Say That You Love Me". I made it through about 2 and a half episodes, but it started buffering and I couldn't bother reconnecting to the internet so, that's where I've ended up. I usually don't really enjoy shows about adults adulting, but this one seems good and emotionally loaded to the point where I'm partaking in it.

I have literally nothing scheduled for a while, but I'm excited for Japan's GP on Sunday. Will have to wake up at 7 in the morning, but it's fine I guess...

ALSO on Monday next week "선재 업고 뒤어" (Lovely Runner is the English title I think they've settled on) is premiering the first episode and I'm stoked. It's based on a WebToon that I would like to read, but I'm saving it for afterward to spare myself from any dissapointment while watching the show. Byeon Wooseok is in it (damaged Russian-Korean drug smuggler CEO in Strong Girl Nam-soon (shit show btw)) and my bff Kim Hyeyoon (of Extraordinary You fame). They have a 30 cm height difference though... for some reason Hyeyoon is always casted with guys five times her height. Anyway it's about this girl whose favorite singer dies, she goes back in time and has to find a way to reroute his path. Seems promising, will be watching because my favorite actors are in it lol.

Speaking of Byeon Wooseok, he has caused me grave emotional distress due to that gut wrenching movie "Soulmate" from 2023. You know, I was genuinely excited as he was getting more work after 20th Century Girl, but the actual heartbreak Soulmate caused me is unexplainable. I think about it all the time, anyway never ask me to watch a movie about two girls being friends I can't take it. I will not ever discuss 20th Century Girl so don't even bring it up.

On the 11th, the second season of Heartbreak High is coming out. I don't honestly know what I thought about the first season, it was too messy and not messy enough at the same time. Will be tuning in for this season though!

I've been thinking that I need to buy stuff. I've become too stingy. I put stuff in my cart and leave it there until it's gone out of stock. It's horrible I need to spend money. Either a vinyl or like an album of sorts, maybe a pair of jeans idk. RIIZE aren't releasing a physical album until June I think, so I have nothing to do on that front. Might check out Beyoncé's vinyls though...

Anyway, to wrap up, I'd like to recommend "Better Days" (2019), one of my favorite movies ever. I've watched it so many times, and each time I finish it I've learned something new. Music wise... Hikaru Utada's One Last Kiss. No reason just good song :) Will be having Chinese food for dinner.

Take care~~

[solradguy]

In X and XX's localizations, Jam speaks fluently in English, while in Xrd she speaks in broken English. I've been wondering how she speaks in Japanese because of this. Since my Japanese isn't good enough to really look into it, I thought I'd ask you.

So, she definitely speaks with a "Chinese person who's bad at Japanese" accent in XX and Xrd's audio dialog (couldn't find audio for X & I'm too lazy to boot it up atm but idk why it'd be any different). It's not great. In X/XX they made her English text dialog fluent but for some reason went back on that for Xrd. I guess maybe to be more accurate to the source material?

She uses アル (aru) a lot, which is a signifier that a character is Chinese. An English equivalent would probably be something like a Russian character speaking English and forgetting to use grammatical articles, since Russian doesn't have them, like Heavy from Team Fortress 2 ("I have yet to meet man who can outrun bullet"), except racist once you take into consideration Japan and China's history with each other. Her grammar in general is just as broken as the Xrd English translation is.

Here is the Jisho definition for aru:

Expressions (phrases, clauses, etc.) 1. be; is​ - Jocular, humorous term, Colloquialism, used in place of だ [da] when attributing an utterance to a Chinese person; poss. from Manchukuo pidgin

Jam is... really unfortunate... She seems like a moderately successful restaurant owner and genuinely works hard to get where she is so that's at least a saving grace, but there's a lot about her that's just straight up Chinese stereotyping...

I feel bad answering this with so many negative things about Jam, I hate being asked about something and having it all be negative haha... Like, I don't think it's bad enough to cancel ArcSys over or anything, but there is a lot of room for improvement. With how they've handled Bridget and Testament for Strive, I feel pretty good that they'll do the same for Jam. Here's hoping!!

[ryuuseirune]

As someone who likes DoL a lot (240 hours logged since last year)... I've never felt like there's a shortage of fanmade content for it. Many of my favorite artists on twitter are DoL fans and regularly draw art for it. Typo (typpo8), Tnso/rabbitguy, and Baiwa/Frog (byebyefr0g) have posted some cool DoL stuff if you're looking for recommendations. There's so many DoL fans online if you know where to look! It has a massive Chinese-speaking fanbase, so if you understand how to navigate Chinese fandom tags you can probably find even more. I feel like I see Sydney stuff at least every other day on the bird app lol.

I've also played a bit of CoC, but I've never seen it in the wild. So... I looked it up to see if there really is a shortage of fanworks, and found that there's actually quite a lot. On rule34, there's like 1.8k results for CoC 1 + 2 and only 1.6k for Funger 1+2. On Sad Panda/exhentai, there's a 432-page ongoing CoC comic that was last updated 3 days ago (September 30, 2024) and 73 other user-uploaded media. In comparison, funger only has 19 entries on exhentai as of the time I'm searching. (DoL has none, in case you're wondering).

I think it all depends on what sites you're on and the people you engage with. What kind of people like the media you're searching for? Are you considering all avenues? As someone who has scoured the deepest parts of the internet to discover pornography that suits my (incredibly specific) tastes, sometimes you'll find hidden vistas around every corner. Discords, surprisingly active forums, image boards (aka booru), Reddit communities, mastodon instances (aethy, baraag)... the list goes on and on.

If you're having trouble finding fandom spaces, I think all of the sites I mentioned above are decent options. It's really easy for fanworks to get lost on larger sites, so I'd stick to the smaller sites if possible. And, if you still can't find anyone after exhausting all your English options, maybe learn a couple languages for fun. (I'd say just kidding, but I'm really not.) Go join a super topic on Weibo. Support Japanese artists on Fantia and Pixiv. There's 2ch.hk if you speak Russian, though you might need to dig a bit before you find fandom stuff lol.

Also, I was talking with a fandom friend about image boards and she actually didn't know they existed, which made me realize that there's probably a lot of newer tumblr users who are unfamiliar with imageboards as a concept. They're basically sites exclusively made for uploading visual media (images/videos/gifs) and sorting them via functional tagging systems, usually with an entirely separate forum section for discussion.

There's a lot of imageboards out there with a lot of different uses/fanbases. I mentioned Rule 34 earlier, which has a lot of stuff for Western cartoons and Overwatch but it's also probably the most well-known image board nowadays just because of its iconic name. Danbooru and Gelbooru are the most popular ones for anime-adjacent stuff. There's also joibooru, which allows captions to pictures. Don't use Sankaku Complex (does that site still exist?); its tag search system is horrid and it doesn't provide image sources (not cool!). If you're a furry, e621 is good because it lets you sort between types of furries (canid, bovine, avian etc). Ehentai technically isn't an image board since you can also share files other than images, but it's been around since 1999 and has one of the largest databases of manga/doujin like... ever. And it has sooooo many images. If you're not using it as a fan of 2000s-2010s manga/anime/games, you're missing out. Its sister site exhentai hosts more extreme/controversial content, and you need an ehentai account to access it - otherwise you get a picture of a Sad Panda. Hence why users colloquially call it Sad Panda. You can also find scans of certain official media on there, so I'd consider getting an account if you want to scrounge up a high-quality PDF of that Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver guidebook you got from the Scholastic book fair when you were a child... just saying.

Anyway, all this to say... never give up hope in finding the porn you want. It's out there somewhere. And if it isn't... I guess that means you've just gotta make it yourself! Or pay someone else to. Or both. (If I revealed how much money I've spent on commissions over the past three years, I think I'd feel a moderate amount of embarrassment at my poor financial management.) I hope you find what you need, anon. I've struggled similarly but just know your people are out there somewhere.

do you ever think about how even though sex and sexuality is a HUGE part of fandom culture and often the main appeal for many people, it's considered weird to be a fandom-level Fan of something that is objectively meant to be porn? like, i somewhat get it with 3-episode shows that clearly just exist to be fetish material and have no real depth, but when it comes to genuine works of art like Corruption of Champions, or Degrees of Ludity, your usual fan spaces have so little room to work. i find it odd, seeing as horror doesn't seem to have the same issue? there's a LOT in Fear And Hunger that you just straight-up cannot depict on tumblr, but that doesn't stop people from drawing tons of fanart and openly loving the characters. but for so many amazing porn games, it's total radio silence.

--

There are fanvids of CockyBoys on AO3. There are some regulars at ye olde slash cons who are always ready with the live action porn recs. Tagame is pretty popular.

You phrased this like it was a general question, but you're talking about something very specific: porn games.

I think the fanworks makers who like CoC hang out on image boards full of dude users and f/monster noncon content. At least, that's where I remember seeing it mentioned.

[justsomeoneintoomanyfandoms]

rahhh okok so um i saw the matchup stuff- so now im requesting a matchup for bsd & demon slayer (pick whichever 1 you want)

take ur time writing and if ur busy or ur requests r closed then ignore this and any errors i may make, thanks in advance!!!

moving on; basic info: any prns work, abrosexual, preference for female characters but im rlly fine with anything, anemic with unspecified heart issues

basic appearance; long-ish brown hair, dark brown eyes, pale, 5'9

likes: i adore kitty cats, drawing or making little trinkets or origami- more so blank flowers- but its not often i do that. i enjoy roleplaying, writing stories or requesting stuff every now and then- more frequently reading manga and playing w/ friends, and i do stay up often to play with said friends due to a pretty big timezone difference. other then those, some more practical things i like- such as learning new languages (specifics listed in extra), reading up on history and things alike, more preferably somewhere quiet, (usually listening to true crime while doing so), the color magenta/purple or teal,

dislikes: places that r way too quiet- i cant rlly stand it that much + it makes my ears ring, bugs, surgery or certain illnesses (that 1 abdomen pain thing- i forgot what it was called), being ignored/left out, fish & peanuts, swimming and some other stuff, stress or making promises i cant fufill/having people depend on things im unable to provide for them,

personality: usually around people i dont know so well im more on the silent and more tired side then, and when im around my close friends or people i know well i can get a bit loud and energetic- although sometimes i might be a little mean, (ex; calling someone rat, dummy, etc...). Whenevr im out with friends i'll usually avoid talking to people, or like.. plan ahead before i say/do something since i overthink a bit too often, more often about health when im alone. i do say or text out of pocket things and use maybe a bit too many emojis,

hobbies; painting, drawing, reading manga/books, writing,

enneagram, zodiac, mbti; five, capricorn and intj

love language; i dont really give hugs or like.. holding hands stuff since im not into physical contact or things like that, so i'll usually do acts of service or give gifts instead- ex; giving flowers/trinkets or making food or smt like tha t. i couldn't really care for what dates would be like, so anything goes

extra: i do know quite a few languages (russian, japanese, german), while i know a bit of chinese, yay

hope that suffices for the request, thanks in advance 😋

Hi! Thank you for your request ! I decided to give you a matchup for both of the fandoms your requested. Sorry it took a while. I hope you like your matchups!

In Bungo Stray Dogs, I match you with...

Because of her age in the show, canonically, I would say this is more of a platonic matchup. However, for the sake of a romantic matchup, this will be based on an aged up Kyoka.

Kyoka would love sitting with you and folding origami. She finds it relaxing and she loves decorating her room with the flowers and animals that you make together.

Please talk to her about all kinds of languages and history. She enjoys listening to you talk about your interests. She’s more of a listener than a talker so feel free to talk as much or as little as you want. Either way won’t bother her.

Any medical things you need to do or remember because of your conditions, Kyoka will be more than willing to help with. She’s got a pretty good memory so she’ll always be able to help you with appointments or medication.

Will take care of any bugs that come across your path. She’s pretty unphased by them so she doesn’t mind moving them outside.

In Demon Slayer, I match you with...

Mitsuri loves that you can speak so many different languages! She thinks it’s super romantic, especially if you say sweet phrases to her in a language she doesn’t know.

There’s never a quiet moment when Mitsuri’s around. She’s always got something to talk about. But she’s also a really good listener so if you want to talk about anything, she’ll make sure you feel heard.

She’s really good at including everyone so you’ll never feel like you’re being ignored or left out when she’s around.

If you give her any handmade trinkets, she will treasure them forever. If it’s something like a bracelet, she’s going to wear it everywhere she goes.

If it’s something like an origami flower, Mitsuri will put it on her bedside table so she can see it when she wakes up every morning.

Mitsuri’s pretty scared of bugs so please don’t ask her to get rid of any bugs for you. She’s getting someone else to deal with it.

[asparklerwhowrites]

writing high fantasy: a series ~ part 1; language

navigation - rules - masterlist

am i using this an excuse to rant about my new fixations? yes. 

I genuinely feel like linguistics is SUCH a cool worldbuilding aspect but it just isn’t?? explored enough?? LIKE GODAMNIT do you not understand the possibilities of different dialects and just differences in regions? imagine character a asking a question in dialect A and character B giving a long-winded explanation in dialect B which character A just nods along too, but when asked to explain to the other members of their team they're just like “bold of you to expect me to understand that”

disclaimer: this is stuff my mom and i talk about while watching gujarati cooking shows im not a linguist and this is my own personal experience!!

#1. If there’s a nationally spoken language, it ORIGINATED from a certain region

so, basically, spoken (and written) language differs over regions. mostly, the region where it originated from will have the most “pure” and “original” version of the language, with a lot of high-level words other people may not understand. this is so useful for comedy because a lot of people may just go ??? like what are you saying man use simpler language. 

#2. Vocabulary!! and Accents!! Differ!! Depending!! On!! Where!! You’re!! From!!

if there are multiple languages spoken in your country/world, its ineviable that languages will mix. words from another lanuage may be modified and added to another one. it really annoys me when languages are treated as untouchable “wholes” as if they aren’t growing changing evolving things?? some examples of books where different languages aren’t written that well are the Grishaverse. inej learnt kerch but she NEVER used suli words in it by mistake?? or the fact that ketterdam a motherfucking PORT CITY never had misunderstandings due to different accents and vocabulary?? wild. unrealistic. 

#3. the implications of language

okay. lmao. there are studies that show how you literally think differently when using different languages (re: the movie arrival) and ITS SO COOL. maybe a character switches to a different language when bargaining with murderers and talking to their s.o?? or maybe they choose to speak really formally in one language and only knows slang in another. its extremely varied and fun to experiment with!

#4. SOCIOLINGUISTICS and honorific systems

essentially, the way society affects language. when is formal language used? when is informal language used? do women talk differently from men? how many levels of politeness/rudeness are there? additionally, honorific systems are some of my favourite things - an honorific system exists in some languages like Japanese, for example, in which a suffix is added to the name of a person for formalness and is a social norm. there are so many implications of it, and can be used in so many different ways. 

#5. an example (last point i swear)

one of my favourite books that incorporates language SO WELL is these violent delights by chloe gong. the incorporation of different Chinese dialects, switching of languages between English to Russian to French, all with diffrent connotations and implications. it was a DREAM reading it, because i have literally never seen a book have so much detail in languages. 

anywayyyyy be glad i deleted all my rants of my personal experiences witih the amalgamation of gujarati and marathi, you really dont want to know.

[writingwithcolor]

I have this character who is Chinese-Russian but born in London in 1980. Her father is Chinese but died before she was born. I’m left wondering how that would affect her identity and if her Chinese heritage will end up being neglected despite her Chinese grandparents still being alive. She is a third generation immigrant fyi.

Chinese Russian woman, 1980s London, loss of culture with parent’s death

The cultural disconnect narrative

Well, the extent to which she’s connected to her Chinese culture will vary depending on her surroundings. Not at all possibly, if she’s had no exposure to it in her life! To which I ask: must we have another cultural disconnection narrative?

Quoting one of our other mods: “Why do authors really love the cultural disconnection narrative? Especially when they never experienced it themselves. Cultural disconnection is inherently traumatic.”

…So instead I’d implore you to explore some plausible ways that your character might instead continue to grow up connected to Chinese culture, despite her Chinese parent not being in her life! 

Connecting to Chinese culture

In what ways (besides through their parents) would third-generation Chinese diaspora connect to their Chinese culture?

Well, speaking from personal experience of being an immigrant in the UK (and current immigrant in the US)-- Chinese people exist everywhere. More so now than ever, but I think there was a fair amount of Chinese-British immigrants in the 80s as well. So, that’s definitely a place that she would probably grow up surrounded by other Chinese people, depending on where she lives in London. The UK is an incredibly cosmopolitan country, and has had a long history of relations with China (remember, British occupation of the UK after the Opium Wars).

Would she have Chinese friends at school who she spends a lot of time with, Chinese relatives also living in London, or even a Chinese godparent (or several, like myself and my own siblings) that’d be willing to teach her about Chinese culture, languages, and more?

(From Jess: Are there Chinese language schools in her community? That was certainly how I got my cultural connections, despite being the only Chinese kid in my classes throughout elementary school (with maybe 1-2 years being one of two Chinese kids).)

They could participate in activities in the local Chinese community like Mid-Autumn, Lunar New Year, Dragon Boat, etc.

Maybe she even celebrates her culture with people from other (East, some Southeast) Asian cultures, as I do myself! 

Before I continue, please note that these are not the same as Chinese culture, and that these cultures merely share similarities as a result of these places going through so much cultural exchange! I am just speaking from my own experience of having grown up in a community with many ESEAs from other cultures, with whom I share many cultural elements with.

Might she celebrate the Lunar New Year with a Korean, or Vietnamese family? Or could she possibly frequent a nearby Chinatown where Chinese people own businesses [linked is a page on Chinatowns in the UK], or even watch Taiwanese dramas too? Maybe she goes to a house of worship often with a large population of Chinese people.

Even though I’ve always been connected with my Chinese culture, I admit to having casual influence from other ESEA cultures- Taiwanese drinks, Korean music, Japanese animation, Vietnamese Little Saigon restaurants, Hongkongese cafes, Indonesian food, and so much more.

This next point is mostly personal experience coupled with what I’ve observed from peers and friends that are Chinese diaspora in the US, but oftentimes we do remain close with grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins, and other family living in other continents. 

Although we’re not able to see our grandparents and distant relatives much, my family’s always made efforts to video call or message our relatives from time-to-time. Especially now with restricted travel…

Obviously there may be barriers that hinder her ability to communicate with her grandparents and family living in China. 

Do her grandparents speak only Cantonese, Mandarin, or another dialect? Maybe she’d probably start studying another language in order to communicate with them! 

Does her family not have the money to afford a phone/etc to communicate? Maybe she’d take on a part-time job or two so that they could afford it!

Perhaps her mom has contact with her in-laws as well.

A final question I’d like to leave you off with: If this were reversed and the character’s white Russian parent (from another country) had died, would she still make efforts to connect to the Russian part of her family? As I mentioned above, I’m honestly pretty tired of seeing the same old “POC reconnects to their culture” trope and while those are the situations for a lot of POC, I can’t think of this being done well by those who don’t have firsthand experience with this, especially for a culture that you’re not a part of. In stories like these, OwnVoices is especially critical. 

(Chinese readers, especially those living in London, let us know if there are any other additions you would like to include!)

~ Mod Emme

[luna-loner]

Irina Jelavic: Of Lovers and Languages

@bismuthwisdom sorry I didn't see your tags earlier. I've actually wondered about what languages Irina speaks, and since you've brought it up, I now wanna talk about it.

First, we're gonna need an important screenshot:

So, it's said that Irina is fluent in ten languages. She's stated that the best way to learn a language is to get a lover who can speak it. The above map is list of some (pretty sure some) of her "lovers" who will help us determine which langauages she speaks.

Note: some of these hearts don't necessary fall over the man's country of origin. For example, Shinji's heart is placed next to Japan's map, likely because it'll cover it if it was placed on top. Likewise, David's heart is placed above Great Britian.

Okay, let's move on to the list:

Serbian: Of course, we're gonna start the list with her mother tongue.

English: Yeah, this one's obvious.

Japanese: Another obvious one.

Japanese Sign Language: As I've mentioned before, she communicated with Karasuma and the kids through sign language during the island arc.

French: Again, the Reaper Arc reveals she's been teaching Megu French.

Arabic: In that same arc, Yada mentioned one of Irina's story involving Arabian royalty and nearly lead to a war. 7 years later, she's sent to infiltrate an organization in the Middle East.

Portuguese: Pretty sure Anderson is from Brazil because apparently, his name is a popular there. I'm not sure how popular though, but we've got some Brazilian celebrities, namely athletes like Anderson Silva, Anderson Varejão, and Anderson Luís de Abreu Oliveira. So yeah, Irina knows portuguese.

Korean: First, we have Ji Sung (also spelled Ji-seong), whose heart is right next to South Korea. Second, in chapter 25, Irina briefly talks about Korean pronounciation.

So these are the languages I'm sure Irina is fluent in. There's still 2 more, and my guesses are:

Spanish or Italian: I'm not quite sure where Christiano is supposed to be from. I initially thought of Spain, but his heart can also be seen right next to Italy, so who knows? Maybe she knows both languages?

Eric...I'm not sure which African country he's supposed to be from, so I don't know which language Irina would acquire ro seduce him. Maybe she didn't have to pick up a new language though, maybe Eric already spoke French or Arabic.

Also, it should be noted Serbia has several minority languages. Maybe Irina is fluent in some of them.

For headcanons, I'd say she'd be fluent in Russian, Chinese, and Vietnamese; all of which she learns during canon or during the time skip.

That's all I've got on Irina. For the second tag, I'll do another post for the students because this one's long enough. However, I can make some language hcs for Korosensei and Karasuma.

Korosensei:

As a once notorious assassin, I don't doubt that he's just as multilingual as Irina is; I just don't know which langauges he would know. I like to think he's fluent in Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, and speaks in several dialects) since he keeps flying over to China and because he specializes in he Chinese cuisine.

Karasuma:

English: We did see him use it in Episode 10.

Japanese Sign Language: Again, the island arc.

I like to think that after marriage, Irina insists he learn Serbian since 1) their daughter will have more speakers to communicate with and 2) Irina already speaks his mother tongue, why can't he learn hers?

I can see her suggestively offering her help and like the straight lace that he is, Karasuma declines. Nevertheless, he agrees with her reasons and Serbian becomes their secret language, though they use it even when they don't gave to be secretive.

Also, I can see Karasuma shooting down her advances only in her mother tongue. It's his way of teasing her and Irina starts wondering if asking him to learn Serbian was a mistake...

[bipedalseal]

do you have a separate blog for crafting?? in any case, pls answer these for research purposes hehe: 🌿 💌 ❄️ 🐸

Yeah, I have a sideblog just for it. I accidentally showed it on stream once LOL

🌿 - What tips would you give to a beginner? What tips you wish you had known when you started?

That there's a lot of different ways to do a thing, a lot of it depending on your culture or geography, but they all aim to minimize injury while maximizing efficiency. For crochet, it's that your wrist should NOT be angled downwards while you work because it tires you out faster. Work on minimizing your movements once you get the basics down. Your tensioning finger doesn't need to move a lot if you set up the tension good. Also, learn Russian crocheting if you can, it minimizes movements a lot and makes really speedy work. And for knitting, left-hand tensioning (Continental) isn't always fastest lol. Right-hand tensioning (English) can go pretty fast, mostly by having something to brace the right needle with (by locking it in the armpit, with a knitting belt etc). Also, find a way to distribute the weight of your work evenly so your left wrist doesn't get tired quickly.

💌 Do you know other bloggers who inspire you to create? Recommend a few!

@-handweavers of course. A weaver and has good perspectives on racism and imperialism. They don't always post their crafting, but when they do it's my absolute favorite textile art. The lace rot squad, whose urls I've forgotten unfortunately. Outside the tumblr sphere, there's Hazel Tindall. I haven't read her blog a lot but her designs are always great to look at.

❄ Do you have any crafting (either craft or community related) peeves?

Specifically those Knitting Around the World books or a similar variety, where they claim to have knitwear inspired by various fashions all over the world but in reality have 74840404 designs for Western Europe and have either Japan or China for Asia. The one time it had more than 2 countries for Asia, it was Russia 😍 The Chinese one will ALWAYS be red. You're lucky if an African country that isn't Egypt is mentioned, let alone somewhere from Oceania.

Now that we've mentioned Japan, the way people tout 'Japan-inspired!' is annoying too. Haiku Knits--jeez, I hate that book. It looks like nornal knitwear. I'm not surprised that the Japanese people the author met thought their work had Scandinavian influence instead of Japanese. There is barely anything Japanese there. If they do, it's just the silhouette of kimonos and maybe some tabi socks. I guess I should be grateful they're not making 'indigenous inspired' designs and profitting off of that? One author that I think actually does this well is Vicki Square with her Knit Kimono series, because she does some actual research into it, and her designs are more than just vague kimono shape with an anecdote about Japan.

🐸 What do you wish people who don't craft understood better?

That it can be as nuanced and complicated as any other skill. @ing those knitting.com techbros lol. It can be as artsy or as utilitarian or as cheap or as expensive as the crafter wishes. Cheap as in the craft, not the product--crafting takes an enormous amount of time to be able to do skillfully and speedily, and time is a pretty dang expensive resource if you ask me. Also, yes, a handmade product will be much more worth it in the long run. Because it's made by people who actually care about its long term durability and aren't rushing to put out a product on an asdembly line. Not to mention its sentimental value too.

[womenofwonder]

RWBY characters races for AUs set in our world.

How I’m going to do this: three things. The first, the city they live in Remnant. This is the least important because that leaves us with only five…maybe six places compared to our world’s hundreds of countries.

The second will be the original of their names, which they’ll have to keep in the AUs, meaning that they need some culture background for them.

The third will be their fairy tale origins.

So to start, Ruby Rose:

She lives in Vale, which is similar to France (I’ll explain why in another post maybe), but technically grew up in patch, a small island off the coast of Vale. I have no idea about Patch’s culture as we hardly ever see it, so I’m going to skip this one. We also don’t know if either Summer or Taiyang was originally from Vale.

We know Taiyang is Chinese from his name, so I’m going to say she’s half Chinese. I also wrote a western au once and really love the idea of Taiyang being an Asian Redneck…so I think I’m going to say Ruby is very, very southern just because that would be adorable.

But if you don’t want that idea I generally see Taiyang being either Asian-American or Asian-French, or Asian-British if your doing a HP AU. Summer is harder to pin down, but Red Riding Hood was originally an Italian fable, so I’m going to have her be Italian or Italian-American.

Weiss:

Weiss is German, although making her simply white America/British would work. I could see her being Russian too in some AU because Atlas fits well as Russia. For American works, Pennsylvania has quite the German population and coal mines, so that works pretty well for her.

Blake is really complicated. From Remment Australia which is culturally SEA (south East Asian), has an English name but parents with a Hindu-inspired names, but neither looking vaguely Indian. I’m going to assume her family are immigrants (as they are in cannon I think) to Australia, maybe even changed their name to help them fit in. Immigrants from where? Well, India is an option, but I like to think Malaysia. They have a large Indian and Chinese population, and I like to think Blake is a mixture of Chinese, Malay, and Indian ethnicities, from Malaysia and immigrated to Australia. And if you think this is crazy or unrealistic, you haven’t seen anything yet. The sheer mix of cultures I’ve seen growing up as an ex-pat is insane. This isn’t too crazy.

For Yang, we already have Taiyang as an Asian red-neck. Or at least I do. Raven and Qrow are going to be a little harder to pin down, but I’m think bandits getting replaced by mafia. Which mafia? I don’t know, take you’re pick. Branwen is Welsh, but I can’t think of a Welsh mafia. Coming from Mistral I would see them as being Triad, not Yakuza because Raven’s gang is famous for being less than coordinated.

If you need a logical reason for Yang having blonde hair, Taiyang could be only half Chinese, half blonde (blonde is race right?).

Either way I see Raven operating in an American city like New York or Detroit.

This would mean Yang is fully Chinese ethnically.

JNPR:

Jaune’s name and inspiration are all French. However his mother does come from Mistral (I think), so I do see him being half Chinese, but nationally French. It’s also funny to imagine him with a French accent.

Pyrrha: she’s Greek or maybe Greek-American with her parents being recent immigrants. Argus seems to Remnent-Greece and her name and fairy tale are greek.

Nora: she should be Scandinavian. I feel like in a MCU AU she’s Thor’s daughter. But she also grew up as a street rat in Mistral, which is hard to fit in our world. Therefore I’m going to have her in America, the great melting pot (and also America seems to be more like Mistral than any other Remnent king with our state system), and she going to ethically Scandinavian but knowing nothing of her culture due to her upbringing.

Ren: obviously Chinese, but I might have him be American-Chinese to fit his story nicely in with Nora’s.

Others:

Coco: we’re all ignoring that she’s based off Coco Channel, so let’s make her a LA girl

Velvet: Australia, because of the accent. Or maybe English because that is her story origin

Fox: he’s difficult, because tribes are pretty rare in modern AUs. But his story could work for various things. He’s one of the few black characters so he could come from practically any African tribe (I’m currently going with Hausa because it’s one of the few I know anything about). His name is based off ‘the fox and the hound’ which is a rare American story, so he could also be from a Native American tribe if you want the AU to be more American-based.

Yatsuhashi: Japanese, this one is thankfully easy.

Sun: Chinese. He comes from a tribe as well, but I can’t think of any nomadic Chinese tribes except the Uyghurs. Making Sun a Uyghur doesn’t make much sense but it will serve to piss off certain people on the internet. And now this is going to be taken down, isn’t it? Oh wait, this is tumbrl. This is anarchy. It won’t. Forgot why I liked this place for a second.

Scarlet: sorry for the rambling there. Anyway, Scarlet is definitely English. “I hope I don’t get sand in my shoes.”

Sage: well, he’s black, but other then that we have nothing to go one. He’s also from Mistral but that doesn’t really work? If Mistral is America as well as China I guess we can make him African American. Or whatever else works best for the AU. He might be Indian too now that I think of it. Or even Maori. Really options are limitless here.

Neptune: Yeah, so probably just American, but does have both a French last name and an Italian first name. So probably ethically American (aka white mutt). Also he lives near a port, I think I’m gonna gone with him being from Tacoma Washington because I am.

Flynt: African American

Neon: Japanese-American because of her meme (it started as part of Japanese pop song on YouTube, the latter of which is America summed up in one invention)

Oscar: Hispanic-American, he just looks it. And I’m guessing he lives in Kansas for obvious reasons. His last name isn’t Hispanic but their could be a lot of reasons for that. Or he could be Native American (Pawnee, Cheyenne, and Osage are all Native American tribes in Kansas).

Penny: well if she’s still a robot she probably stays white, but if you want her human in this AU she might end up being half black as Pietro is, although she also could just be adopted. I guess the later makes more sense, huh? I figure she’s American, with her dad working with a ‘well meaning’ but ultimately corrupt government. Probably living in DC, as that has both the government and the poverty issues.

Emerald: oohh, boy. This is hard. Sustrai is Basque, and Aladdin is a French addition to an Arabian story, she herself is dark skinned with anime features that are super unhelpful for this sorta thing.

I have three ideas. Brazilian, mostly as there’s no South American themed RWBY characters I can think of, and it’s diverse enough that someone looking like Emerald would fit. Secondly, for American centered stories she’s just an orphan with no idea of her ethnicity. Or she could be African, Indian, Pacific Islander, or Hispanic or some mixture between those four. It’s honestly really hard to tell. In my fanfic she’s from Suriname and ethnically 1/4 Indian, 1/2 Creole, and 1/4 Javanese.

Ilia: Sioux (Native American). Ilia means a lot of things in a lot of different languages, and Amitola mean rainbow in Sioux, so I decided to just stick with that.

Mercury: American, white mutt American. I’m guessing New York or Philli for where he grew up, it seems like a place where he’d be comfortable

Neo: the new novel reveals her father lived in vale (btw I haven’t read it, I’m just getting this off the internet) and her mother was a assassin who’s origins aren’t known. She doesn’t really have a fairy tale. So I’m going to go with British or French (thank RWBY thoughts for the first one) although in an American AU she works as just a white American.

Robyn: depends on what Atlas is in this AU, but probably German or American.

Qrow: I already mentioned he’s probably Chinese due to being from Mistral. It’s a bit weird to think of him as Asian, but not as weird as it to think of Raven as white, so I’ll take it. Although I do like the idea of him being American Irish, that’s fun.

Winter: whatever Atlas is in this AU, German or American, although British and Russian would work well too.

Maria: Mexican

Salem: If you want a AU where she’s just a normal person then New England or Italian for her story origin

Watts: British

Tyrian: uh…I have no idea, but he looks white. And he kinda has a British accent? I want him to be southern for the accent tho. Probably just another crazy American

Cinder: her fairy tale is French but her origin is Chinese. Also, Cinderella doesn’t really have an origin, it’s an ancient story with every culture having at least one Cinderella story. So I’m going to say Chinese.

Hazel: American, from the Midwest. He’s darkish so maybe he’s a POC? Part Native American or Hispanic? Idk or really care I can’t stand Hazel

Roman Torchwick: American-Italian, he runs/works for the mafia

Ozpin: American because of the whole wizard-of-Oz-thing or French, because he seems to have come from Vale.

Glynda: American or French for the same reasons Ozpin is

Oobleck: Jewish American (because Dr. Seuss was)

Professor Port: Russian, due to his fairy tale, or English, due to his style

Taiyang: already said he’s a red-neck Asian.

Raven: depending on whether you want her to be white or not, either Chinese or Irish American, like I already said.

Cordovin: Karen

Ironwood: again, depends on Atlas in the AU. Either American or German…maybe Russian

Clover: Irish-American (or German, obviously the ace-ops depend on where Atlas is. I’m just going to do the rest of them assuming Atlas is American because Germany isn’t that diverse)

Harriet: African-American, I guess. It kinda messes with the story because Harriet is supposed to be privileged, which doesn’t really work in this AU, but she’s also obviously black.

Elm: Just normal American, maybe greek-American because of the Aesop fable themes

Vine: Tibetan based on his design

Marrow: either African-American or Pakistani/Indian-American. (I’m personally going for Pakistani)

Klein: english. All butlers are English. It’s a rule.

Pietro: African-American

Johanna: Pakistani or Indian American

Fiona: Jewish-American (kinda random but while she’s obviously white she also needs to be a minority for the Faunus thing to work)

May: normal upper glass American/German

Ghira: Half Malay, Half Indian, from Malaysia but immigrated to Australia later in life

Kali: half Chinese, half Indian, but also from Malaysia

Adam: much like Fiona I’m going to assume he’s Jewish due to him being white but still needing to be a minority. German or American, again, depending on where Atlas is. Or he could be Chinese, even though it doesn’t work with his name, due to the theory that he was trafficked much like Cinder. I’m going with ethically Jewish though

Sienna Khan: Indian

Huh, I actually finished that. I’m pretty sure I was accidentally racist multiple times and apologize in advance,

I’m exhausted and starving and not thinking straight. But anyway, here it is. Your very messy guide to modern RWBY AUs. I swear this was insane to sort out.