#if i read it in my native language though it does sound like you’re putting out a hit on me jshshs (affectionate)

[the-travelling-snitch]

antagonistic you say��� 👀👀

also being a closeted vil fanboy, i can certainly relate to that lol + i love me a good piercing or some cool jewellery any day of the week!!

i have no doubts he knows how to use it effectively, especially after you said he’s on the more antagonistic side i’m even more curious haha

hi tato, i’d like to ask about some of your ocs, if the ask game is still open :]

for dmitri:

15. unique magic/signature spell: what is your twst oc's um (if applicable)? what can they do? what is the incantation? are there any weaknesses/loopholes and who can exploit those?

for oz:

14. talent: what is your twst oc's talent(s) and who can properly appreciate that?

though if you have an oc whose um/talent you’d rather talk about feel free to switch to them!!

also i think this is the first time i actually drop into your inbox, but your art is so cute and so nice to see on dash :>

HI hi this has been in my drafts for too long I am so sorry 😭 I finally recovered my initial sketch so I can get to it. I see you around! You always leave such nice comments to my arts, I really appreciate it <3 I remember you tagging me in those wholesome posts too :> It made me so happy ! <3

15. unique magic/signature spell: what is your twst oc's um (if applicable)? what can they do? what is the incantation? are there any weaknesses/loopholes and who can exploit those? 🍇 Lover's Vow / The binding ring. "To you I promise a bond that will stay until death do us part. Lover's Vow." - A golden ring appears on the target's ring finger as long as it remains there— the wearer would feel exactly what Dmitri feels or feigns to feel. - Applying the spell typically takes a tap on any part of the body. 🍇 There’s also another version of this spell that allows him to bind two people together. Something that he has practiced for years to master. The chant for this is slightly altered: "Will you promise each other a bond that will stay till death do us part? Lover's Vow." - In this version Dmitri can bind two people together, allowing them to feel each other’s emotions. - In terms of weaknesses, and loopholes as long as you avoid his touch he shouldn't be able to apply his um-- note that it has to be skin he touches. - The spell lasts longer if he touches the ring finger specifically. Otherwise the spell usually lasts a day or two.

14. talent: what is your twst oc's talent(s) and who can properly appreciate that? - I already answered Oz's talent so I'll tackle Dmitri's instead :> 🍇 Dmitri's talent is Singing! He prefers classical music more, and does Opera. - Some characters who I see appreciating his talent are Vil, Rook, and Malleus.

[jennifer-jeong]

Fluff + Slight Angst | Wanderer x Reader “A Name of Your Own”

SUMMARY Giving him an actual name <3

CONTENT Fluff, little bit of angst, mentions of his past, CHARACTERS ARE 18+

AUTHOR NOTES I think it’s so funny that if you try to name him “Dottore” he says “you can’t be serious…” LMAOOO Basically this is what I named Wanderer and this is how I imagine he’d react to the situation hehe Another Wanderer fic for you pookie <3 @thepurestgirll

WORD COUNT: 737

“My own name…?” the confused anemo user asks albeit rhetorically.

You’re in the sunlit akademiya library in the process of choosing a name for Mr Kabukimono/Kunikuzushi/Balladeer/Scaramouche/Wanderer/Hat Guy and he wonders why it feels so strange. He hasn’t really had a name that he necessarily cherished. All were titles given to him that have some alternative meaning or intention behind them. But this time, it’d be a name just for the sake of a name. A name to call him by, a name with a meaning about his soul, not about his status or appearance.

“克仁” (romanized: Katsuhito)

You say the name with a stern look and a gentle smile. He looks up at you, your words pulling him out of his thoughts.

It took you a little bit of research and time to put it together but you decided on this: a meaningful name in his native language.

“I can’t really read the language… What does it mean?” he asks, confused, as you show him the characters.

“克 (Katsu) meaning ‘to overcome,’ and 仁 (Hito) meaning ‘compassionate.’” You explain while writing the symbols on paper, teaching him how to spell his name and how to pronounce it.

“I just thought it fit you pretty nicely. You’ve been through a lot and you’ve come out alive and even after all that… you still somehow have kindness in you. I think that’s what compassion for yourself and others truly is.” You say gently as you look at the paper.

You’re looking at the name but he’s looking at you, his eyes softening at your words and his eyebrows raise ever so slightly. His face reads a mix of surprise and melancholic happiness. He’s surprised that you have such nice things to say about him. He thought that you, the traveler, and Paimon would end up just messing with him when picking a name. But he’s pleasantly surprised and starts to wonder if he really deserves something so nice.

You’d already discussed the name with Nahida and the traveling duo and they loved it. They were also happy to see how much thought you put in it.

“Are you okay?” You ask, looking at him, once again pulling him out of his thoughts. He didn’t realize he was just staring at you instead of paying attention to the paper.

He blinks a few times and stutters out a shy “y-yeah… I just wanted to say… thank you.”

Your eyes widen and then close as you smile at him, “aw you don’t need to thank me, just enjoy your new name!”

He looks down bashfully, trying to conceal his emotions and appreciation. His heart is beating fast, he doesn’t really understand it, especially considering he doesn’t really have an organic one. But he seems to feel emotion the same way you do. This used to piss him off. But right now, he’s kind of glad he can feel this way. He’s glad you make him feel this way.

You’re also feeling bubbly. You’re happy he likes it and it feels like it was a moment for you two to bond. You test the waters a little bit more and say “I was also thinking your nickname could be something like ‘Hito!’”

He blushes ever so slightly as he meets your eyes again. “That sounds…” he stops himself from saying “cute” and opts for “nice” instead.

He was usually pretty irritable and always wore an annoyed look, but because this was important and brought up a lot of emotion at the thought of his old names, he was pretty serious. He was vulnerable. But you didn’t hurt him. He would always remember that.

“Okay! Then it’s settled. Let’s go get some dinner, Hito.” You chime.

“Sounds good…” he replies, uncharacteristically quiet.

You don’t pry though, you know he’s only recently been introduced to the idea of living a life of his own, uncontrolled directly by someone. You figure that this talk about names also brought up unsavory memories.

But he was no longer a puppet to be used. He was just him, and he’d forever be grateful to the people who made that possible.

He watched you jog ahead of him, out of the library and into the sunset. The golden light illuminating your hair and outfit as it flowed in the breeze. You called out to him, telling him how the weather was lovely.

He smiled.

|| MASTERLIST ♡ || Thank you for reading! ||

[dasmidna]

How to write German in your König fanfics by a native speaker

It’s basically exactly what it says in the title. These last days, I’ve made a hobby out of reading König fanfiction and looking at the German in them and if I see one more bad google translation, I think I might actually cry

Listen, I have used google translate too. I admit that and I know that resources are limited unless you have a native speaker around. That’s what this guide is for!

Also, if you have any further questions or want a translation on something, absolutely feel free to message me. I have no problem giving you guys specific translations if it means I don’t have to read any more google translate stuff XD

If you’re just looking for a list of curses and pet names, because I feel like that’s the most used stuff, they’re at the very end. If you wanna learn more about German though, stick around! 

The contents of this includes:

German dialects

the German alphabet

gendered language

capitalization

the formal “you”

conjugation/declension

direct translations and when not to translate

writing bilingual characters

a note for smut writers

pet names

curses

German dialects So, first things first, unlike König, I am not Austrian. I’m German, meaning I speak, well, German-German if you so will.

The thing is though, König’s VA doesn’t speak Austrian-German either. Both in the English and the German dub of the game, he speaks the most accent-free standardized High German I have ever seen in my life. It’s a common thing in the dubbing industry to do, but I still feel like it’s worth pointing out that it’s not exactly accurate.

Germany is an official language in 6 different countries, in which the language will be different and that is not counting each different state in those, where equally vast differences can occur.

I have a Berlin accent, for example. If someone spoke to me in a Saxon accent, I wouldn’t understand shit and that’s just two states over.

So keep in mind that this guide caters to High German, which is the standard for the written language and also what König speaks in the game. It is not, however, an accurate representation of what an Austrian guy actually sounds like.

The German alphabet Ah yes. The enemy of every non-native speaker, right after the ultra-long Frankenstein words.

Generally speaking, German does use the Latin alphabet like English. Only that we have 30 letters instead of 26. The four special characters would be: ä, ö, ü and ß

I find it important to point out that those are their own characters. They are not interchangeable with any other character in the alphabet. ä is not the same as a, ö is not o and so on. So if I see one more person spelling König as Konig, I will commit arson.

And that is also the only thing I will actively blame people for. Google giving you bad translations is not your fault. But this? This irks me in ways you can’t even imagine. It would be like spelling king as kang, for example. You wouldn’t do this in English so please don’t do it in German either.

What do you do then if you have a limited keyboard? Well, either you use copy and paste (the easy way), or you use the official workaround. And yes, there are official replacements for these

Ä = Ae / ä = ae

Ö = Oe / ö = oe

Ü = ue / ü = ue

ẞ = SS / ß = ss

As you can see, the capital ß is replaced by two capital S instead of one capital and one lowercase. This is because this letter can never stand at the beginning of a word and thus, it would only be capitalized if you write in all caps.

It should also be said that not every ss can be replaced with an ß. You can write “Straße” as “Strasse” but you can’t spell “dass” as “daß”. It is not wrong per se as far as I know, but you just wouldn’t do it.  

Gendered language German is, to put it mildly, a very gendered language.

Linguistically, German has 3 genders: masculine, feminine, neutral. You need to watch out for this because it means there is often a male and female version for certain words.

Arzt = male doctor

Ärztin = female doctor

Also, even inanimate objects have gender. Cars are neutral, trees are masculine, the sun is feminine and so on.

A lot of times, people will use the “generic masculine”, meaning they will use the male version and “mean the women too”. Nowadays this is counted as outdated and insulting towards women/other female presenting identities.

Is this a very binary system? Yes. Which actually brings us to another issue: there is no they/them in German. There are workarounds, like neopronouns or other ways to describe people, but this is generally really tricky.

Long story short: watch out what gender the person you’re referring to is.

Capitalization This is by far the most common mistake I see made in fanfiction.

While in English, things are generally written in lowercase unless they’re names or things like “I” for example, German has a few extra rules

Nouns – these are always written with a capital letter. And yes, this includes pet names. Anything from Liebling to Maus or whatever else you chose, it needs to be capitalized. I beg you.

verbs that act as nouns – Now this rarely comes up in fanfiction and as far as I can see, platforms like google translate actually get this right, so I won’t get too far into this, but if you give an article to a verb, something like “the walking” it has to be capitalized in German

Formal pronouns – Which brings us to the next point!

The formal “you” Long story short: German has two variants of the pronoun “you”

One is the formal and polite way to address someone, the other is the informal and more casual version. Depending on the social context, people can be very picky about which version to use and addressing someone by the wrong version can be counted as an insult.

Formal you – Sie/Ihnen/Sie

Informal you – du/dir/dich

When do you use formal pronouns? Well, it depends. Here are the two main scenarios in which you would address someone formally

They’re above you in the social hierarchy. Your boss, teacher, superior, someone a lot older than you. All these people would be addressed with formal pronouns. Of course you wouldn’t address your family formally. Same if you count older people as close friends/found family.

You’re addressing an adult you don’t know personally. This can also depend a lot on context. A teacher will address an 18-year-old student formally, but the students will talk to each other informally among each other, even if they don’t know each other. Generally, you start addressing people formally around their 18th birthday or if you assume they’re around that age. If you’re the same age as someone, it depends a lot on the social context and how old you are, exactly.

Both of these examples can be ignored if the other person offers the informal you. Say you’re starting to befriend a coworker, the two of you would at some point agree to use “du” with each other. 

Conjugation/declension I know this sounds really grammar specific, but I noticed that platforms like google can’t conjugate or decline properly if they have too little information. Mostly because German grammar is a lot more dependent on context than English grammar is and also slightly more complicated.

An example!

Let’s work with the English word “promise”, which we can use in two contexts. Either as a verb or a noun. In both cases, it looks fairly similar and aside form promise/promises/promised, you won’t have much variation in both the verb’s conjugation and the noun’s declension.

German, however…oh boy. 

As a noun, it would be “Versprechen” and as a verb, it would be “versprechen”. Looks similar enough you say? Until you realize that the noun can be:

das Versprechen

des Versprechens

dem Versprechen

die Versprechen

These tiny differences can change a lot in the meaning of the sentence and also, how it has to look. Verbs aren’t any better either.

Let’s say you want your character to say “Promise?” as a short form of “Do you promise me that?”. In both sentences, the verb looks the same.

Put “Promise?” into Google translate however, you get “Versprechen?”. Which, as you can see, is the noun. It can be the infinitive verb form, but either would be wrong to use here.

Instead, “Promise?” should be “Versprochen?” (which is actually past tense) and “Do you promise me that?” would be “Versprichst du mir das?”

You see the problem?

What Google translate gave you is not wrong necessarily. It is a correct translation in a certain context. Only that it’s not the context you want to portray. So if you do use google translate or similar, give as much context as you possibly can.

Direct translations and when not to translate Sometimes, it’s honestly just better to don’t translate something at all. This might sound weird at first, but hear me out

I’ve seen it a couple of times that people will put military ranks into google translate and then have König refer to people by those titles.  

A couple of issues with that.

Again. Context. Say for example you give google the word “Captain”. It will give you the word used in the navy, which would be “Kapitän”. However, the actual equivalent rank in the army would be “Hauptmann”

Titles and ranks are rarely actually translated. Sometimes because they don’t have an equivalent or it’s too much of a hassle to mentally search for it or even just because they’re counted as part of the name. So, even if the entire sentence is in German, König would for example still say “Sergeant MacTavish” to Soap instead of “Feldwebel MacTavish”

When it comes to other direct translations, it just doesn’t work sometimes. Different languages don’t just have different words for things, they have different contexts and cultures associated with it. Languages work differently.

Another example for the last one in terms of pet names. Do not translate English pet names directly. It doesn’t work.

Let’s take “love”. Google Translate gives you “Liebe” as the translation. Which is not wrong, that’s the translation for the noun. The pet name however does not work like that, which is something I’ll touch on in the pet names part.

A problem is also that sometimes, your target language has more words, sometimes it has less. The best thing would be to look up a word in an actual bilingual dictionary. PONS is a great example.

Writing bilingual characters For the love of god, please don’t write bilingual characters switching their language in the middle of their sentence. I know that Activision didn’t do that much better, considering that König’s voice lines often do this mistake, but that’s not how bilingual people talk.

If we don’t know a word, we try to find a way around it. We don’t just say our native word, unless there’s someone around who speaks our native language or the two languages are related. Spanish and Italian would be a prime example for that but also German and Dutch, the Slavic languages or Nordic languages amongst each other.

Curses are an exception to this. At least personally, I do use German curses when talking to English-speakers. But even that is rare and really only happens as a knee-jerk reaction. Somebody scaring me, for example.

But other than that? Bilingual characters are completely able to separate their native language from any others they have learned.

Besides, König would have started learning English fairly young, I assume. I can only speak for the German education system but here, English became mandatory in 4th grade and was only droppable by grade 11. 

For smut writers I’m just gonna go ahead and say it: no German-speaker I know, me included, finds German dirty talk sexy. And to us, other German accents are also not considered hot. They’re just…weird.

Really, just once I want to see König absolutely cringing at using German in bed, especially if it’s heavily accented because that would be an accurate representation XD

Pet names Keep in mind that with German being a gendered language, a lot of these have a male and female version. Also take a look at the disclaimers. Just because these are actual pet names doesn’t mean people actually use them.  

Liebling – darling

meine Liebe (fem.)/mein Lieber (masc.) – my love; rare as an actual pet name and rather used in a teasing sense

Maus/Mausi/Mäuschen – mouse/little mouse/cute mouse

Spatz/Spatzi/Spätzchen – sparrow/little sparrow/cute sparrow

Hase/Hasi/Häschen – bunny/little bunny/cute bunny

Schatz/Schazi/Schätzchen – treasure/little treasure/cute treasure; Schätzchen can be very condescending if used towards woman and in general, this one is a 50/50 thing. Either you love it or you hate it. Personally, I know more people that hate it, but there are also some psychos that use this unironically  

Engel/Engelchen – angel/cute angel

Süße (fem.)/Süßer (masc.) – sweet one; same as Schatz. Not really liked and can be very creepy, especially if used on women

Herzblatt –This is rather used when talking about your partner instead of talking to them. As far as I know, it comes from the heart cards in a card deck and basically means your partner is good luck

Another thing to watch out for: the word for a platonic friend is the same as a boyfriend/girlfriend.

Freund (masc.)/Freundin (fem.) = platonic friend

Freund (masc.)/Freundin (fem.) = boyfriend/girlfriend

Oftentimes, the latter is often made clear through saying “fester Freund/feste Freundin”, which would mean something like permanent or attached friend (don’t question it).

Sometimes it also depends on context again: “eine Freundin”, meaning “a female friend” is often seen as platonic vs. “meine Freundin” with “meine” meaning “mine”, it is often interpreted as romantic.

Some more terms for spouses would be

Ehemann (masc.) – husband

Ehefrau (fem.) – wife

mein Mann (masc.)/meine Frau (fem.) – shortened version of husband and wife

Lebensgefährte (masc. or neutral)/Lebensgefährtin (fem.) – literally means “life partner” and refers to either a husband/wife or an otherwise long-term romantic partner

Partner (masc. or neutral)/Partnerin (fem.) – just means partner

Curses Ah, yes. Let is just be said there are a lot of curses in German and we can get quite creative too. Sometimes, insults and curses can just be everyday words used in a certain sense. I shall compile some general ones here, however, as well as some of my personal favorites

I have to assume that some of these are a special quirk of my native dialect, so use with caution.

Scheiße – shit

verdammt – damn

verdammte Scheiße – fucking hell (literally “damned shit”)

Schnauze/Klappe/Fresse! – shut up!

Halt die Schnauze/Klappe/Fresse! – shut your mouth!

Fick dich – fuck you

Leck mich am Arsch – kiss my ass

Leck mich – kiss my ass, but shortened

Hackfresse – refers to someone who is ugly (literally “a face like ground beef”)

Arschloch – asshole

Du kannst mich mal – similar to fuck you/fuck me

Hast du Lack gesoffen? – are you crazy? (literally “did you drink paint?”)

alternatively: Er/Sie hat zu viel Lack gesoffen – He/she is crazy (literally “He/She drank too much paint”)

Du bist dumm wie ein Meter Feldweg – literally “You’re as stupid as a meter of dirt road”, means someone is being very stupid

Du denkst auch nur von der Wand bis zur Tapete – literally “Your train of thought reaches from the wall to the tapestry”, also meaning someone is very stupid

Intelligenzallergiker – someone allergic to intelligence, so very stupid

Warmduscher – refers to a very whiny/sensitive person (literally “someone who takes a warm shower”), mainly used for men

Nervensäge – refers to someone who is very annoying (“someone who saws your nerves”)

Arschkriecher – refers to someone who tries to earn the favor of another, in a very annoying way (“someone who crawls in someone else’s ass”)

Pissnelke – a nerd or know-it-all (literally made up of the words “piss” and “carnation”)

Arschgeige – annoying idiot (comes from the words “ass” and “violin”)

[laurits-loke-seier]

Skamløs 🐍 Part 3 / Rolig til sinns

🐍This is a y/n type of story. The reader is a foreigner; the reader is a female; I will try my very best to keep physical descriptions to a complete minimum.

🐍May contain strong language. No major triggers, but if there are any - worry not, you will be warned in advance! Also, it's my first time writing fanfiction & English is not ma native language, so please be kind 😅

Part 1 / Den nye jenta

Part 2 / Som en jeg kjenner

Also published on Wattpad

Summary: The part where you get involved into the weekend plans and finally get some peace at heart.

Today was that rare morning when I got to meet Liv before she went to sleep. My heart aches when I see how exhausted she always looks, even with a smile on her face. I once asked her doesn’t she feel like this routine is a bit too much for her. And she just smiled softly, saying that this is her life’s calling and she does not regret it one bit. And added with a laugh that it’s actually nicer to work night shifts anyway.

“God Morgen, Y/N.” Liv was sitting by the tiny round dining table, sipping tea. Breakfast was already waiting for me.

“God Morgen, Liv. How are you?” I sat down and started eating the pancakes she made. I honestly have never eaten smoother and more delicious pancakes in my entire life. I hummed from pleasure and she giggled at me.

“I’m alright, it was a quiet night. Read ‘The Little Prince’ to one of our little patients, see, she had a nightmare and couldn’t fall back to sleep.” Liv showed me the book that was resting on the table. I nodded, remembering the book well from my childhood, and smiled. “Oh, and you shouldn’t have made me the food.”

“You didn’t like it? Damn it, I should've asked what you liked…” 

“No, no! I loved it, it was delicious, thank you! I only meant that you shouldn’t have bothered with it, dear. You have school work to do, and I would rather have you spending time with your classmates having fun. Gathering experiences, you know?” she smiled at me sweetly. I let out an ‘aw’ sound and pouted.

“Your heart is golden, Liv. But it was no bother at all. I wanted to take care of you too.”

Liv patted my hand and whispered a thank you. She’s so precious, I barely can.

— At school

Before the history class, some of my classmates were sitting on several benches in the hallway, chatting.

“Hei!” I greeted everyone as soon as I was spotted by a few of them. People said they hello’s one over each other. I noticed Laurits looking at me carefully, basically side eyeing me.

I really want to understand what happened yesterday, but obviously I can’t talk about it now. So I just sat down across from him.

“So, what are the plans for the weekend?” Oscar chimed in all excited.

“You just want somebody to offer an activity, right?” Saxa called him out and he just shrugged. “We can have a little party at our family’s cabin.” she said examining her manicure, like she just suggested the most boring activity ever.

Everyone chimed in in agreement. Considering my first encounter with Saxa, I did not expect I was included so I stayed quiet and scrolled through my Instagram. 

“You’re not excited, new girl?” I looked up at her slowly, she was waiting for my response with a cheeky smile on her face.

“Oh. Should I be? Because our first encounter wasn’t quite warm, to be fair. Assumed I’m not invited.” I shrugged and went back to looking at my phone.

“What happened?” Oscar chuckled, clearly thirsty for gossip.

“Saxa wasn’t entirely welcoming to our new lovely addition to the class.” I looked at Laurits. He just called me lovely?

Saxa let out a sigh and leaned back with a thud.

“Ok, I wasn’t very nice. Sorry.” she shook her head. “Of course you’re invited.”

I was fighting myself from straight up declining such an invite, insulting her in front of everyone. But that is unnecessarily petty, even though very tempting. I let out a breath and put my phone back in the pocket.

“Sure. I’ll join this party. Sounds like it should be fun.” I politely smiled and stood up along with the bell calling to the class.

The rest of the day went fast. Laurits did not talk to me, again. During history,  we talked about other Norse gods and goddesses. Iðunn made me think of Liv: taking care of others, keeping them well. And what a coincidence, she always has a basket of apples in her kitchen, which now made me chuckle. I should try eating one and find eternal youth.

During lunch I found Laurits sitting on the steps, with his headphones on. He didn’t notice me coming towards him, or he just ignored me. So I tapped on his head lightly.

He raised his gaze at me. I motioned for him to take the headphones off. He sighed and did so.

“I would like us to talk. In private.” He kept looking at me, saying nothing. I opened my palms, like, c’mon.

“Okej.” he agreed and got up lazily, so I just turned on my heel and walked somewhere more quiet, hoping he was following me. “What is it?” He asked once I stopped at a spot.

“I believe I deserve to know what I did wrong yesterday to anger you so much.” I looked him straight in the eye. 

“You think you did something?” He blinked a few times, like in disbelief. I nodded. “You did nothing wrong.”

“Then why are you so distant with me?”

“Because I –” he stopped, looked at the ground then at me, “I don’t want to hurt you. In any way. You should know that some are wary of my company. And for reasons that kinda make sense.”

“I am already aware of that. And guess what, I don’t give a shit. Laurits, I want us to be friends. You feel so bizarrely familiar to me, I like you already. And… I don’t know how, but I feel that you couldn’t hurt me.” I felt my cheeks heating up, opening up to him like that. But I was being honest!

I finally dared to look at him, since he fell silent. His expression softened, but he still had some walls up, it was obvious to me.

“Familiar? How?” 

“I don’t know how to explain. Soulmates? No, too cheesy.” I cringed at my own guess. Laurits laughed softly.

“Well, maybe we are soulmates, who knows.”

I smiled at him for humouring me and lightly punched his arm. 

“So, soulmate-friends?” I asked carefully.

“Yeah. To be honest, you also feel familiar. It’s spooky.”

We laughed at it and my heart instantly felt lighter. Like being on good terms with him was something very important, even though I’m not one that gets attached to people. I get angry at people a lot easier.

“So, that party. Where in the fuck is that cabin?” I asked, while we walked to the last class of this week. 

“I’ll drive you there. Ever ridden a motorcycle?” he smirked. I nodded, feeling just as smug.

He made a ‘not bad’ face and fell onto his chair. Whereas I felt stupid butterflies in my stomach. Oh no, I care this much about his opinion on me? This can’t be good.

[daredevil-podfic-community]

Podfic Listener Preferences: Reading and Recording

Do you ever feel like you’re making wild guesses at what podfic listeners want?

Well, it’s fair to say that you can’t please everyone all the time, but our next few posts will present data from our Podfic Audience Survey (please take the survey and share it with your followers/friends!) that may give you more confidence when making decisions about how to produce your podfics.

This data is as of July 25, 2022 with 124 responses.

1. Is my voice okay?

This is a question we’ve tackled before, but while the linguist in me wants everyone to be open-minded to the diversity of human language, the fact is that people have preferences and prejudices when it comes to voices. So let’s tackle some tough numbers:

When asked if they had ever stopped listening to a podfic for a prompted list of reasons,

25% checked “I couldn’t understand the reader’s accent.”

16.9% checked “I could understand the reader’s accent, but I didn’t like it.”

38.7% checked “The reader’s accent was fine, but their voice itself was off-putting.”

Breaking down the numbers a bit more, 54.8% of respondents checked at least one of those options.

Not being able to understand an accent is a barrier for listeners, so if you have difficulties with pronunciation to the point that native speakers cannot understand you, pronunciation practice is needed before you find success in podficcing. Your accent doesn’t need to be perfect, though. In the post tagged above, I discuss which pronunciation errors cause misunderstandings, and I’m happy to further clarify if you message with questions.

Just “not liking” a person’s accent, even though you can understand it, is considered by most mainstream linguists to be a form of language discrimination usually rooted in unconscious biases against people who have that accent. To that entire category, I say “fuck ‘em.”

For simply not liking someone’s voice, it’s difficult to quantify what makes a voice more or less pleasing to one person or another. It can be arbitrary or deeply personal. However, looking at the write-in section may comfort you, because they tend to focus on things that you can change:

issues with character voices/acting (multiple write-ins for this)

fake British accents

monotone/flat readings (multiple write-ins for this)

recording when audibly sick (sneezing, sniffling)

trying too hard to do a “sexy voice”

These are all problems with things people actively do with their voices, rather than the intrinsic quality of the voice itself.

2. How professional does my recording setup need to be?

You don’t need a full recording studio, but you do need to create clear, easy to hear audio. 68% of survey respondents indicated that they have stopped listening to at least one podfic due to poor sound quality, which we defined as “Static, popping noises, volume issues.” Here’s some general guidance on how to avoid those:

You need a quiet space to record with minimal background noise, which may be difficult in busy households or urban environments. I used to do recordings in a closet with no exterior walls. Libraries may have quiet rooms you can reserve. Hanging soft, sound-absorbing materials like blankets or foam around your recording space helps.

You need a decent external microphone. The one in your laptop won’t cut it, nor will the one on your earbuds. That said, you don’t need to spend a ton of money. If you search “USB microphone” on Amazon, you can find plenty of options in the $15-30 range. Are they top of the line? No. Are they good enough? Yep!

You may see microphones with a Popping P Filter. When you voice sounds like P, you eject a puff of air that microphones interpret as a sudden volume increase. This creates popping noises and quiet spots. If your mic doesn’t have a filter, you can adjust by moving back from the mic or positioning your mouth so it is near the microphone but air is ejected past/alongside it.

Do a test run on sound quality before you start. Test, 123! Listen back, play with your microphone settings, spend some time getting the sound quality right before you invest time in recording.

3. How fast should I speak?

According to our survey, 16.1% of respondents have stopped listening to at least one podfic because the reading speed was too fast. 15.3% have stopped listening because the reading speed was too slow. Reading speed isn’t the most critical element, but it is important and it is possible to go too far in either direction. In my personal experience in voice training, I find that novices are much more likely to read too fast.

The vast majority of survey respondents (70.2%) indicated that they’re usually doing something else while they listen to podfic, with only 4% saying they usually are not.

This means that you don’t have your audience’s undivided attention. Split focus means mental audio processing speeds slow down, which means the reader needs to slow down, too.

Now, you don’t want to overcompensate and sound uncomfortably slow - no Eeyore reading, please! - but how fast your reading feels isn’t always how fast it sounds. A good reading pace may feel too slow while you’re speaking. Do a few test runs, record short passages, then listen back or ask friends to listen back for you to get a feel for the right speed.

4. How dramatic should my reading be?

Write-in responses provided complaints on either side of the spectrum. One complained about a reader that emphasized too many words, another about trying too hard to put on a “sexy” voice. On the other hand, we had many complaints about flat/monotone/droning readings.

Re-read each scene immediately before you record it. Get a feel for the emotion. Imagine this is a personal story that you’re telling to a friend. Are there parts that are difficult to talk about? Parts where you get excited or outraged or frustrated? Let yourself feel all of that while still trying to keep your reading clean and professional - those undercurrents of emotion will carry through. And not all scenes warrant strong emotion. There’s usually no reason to sound choked up or excited while describing the scenery.

Authors use line breaks, punctuation, and formatting to convey pacing and emphasis - make sure those are coming through in your reading.

When you’re not sure how you want to read something, try it a few different ways: flat, mild emotion, high emotion. Give yourself options, and then you can choose what sounds best when you go back for editing.

5. How should I do character voices?

Based on the responses we saw in section 1, we can see that character voices can be a tricky bit to tackle. Based on write-in responses and my personal experience with voice acting, here’s some guidance:

If you’re not confident in your ability to do an accent, skip it.

Use different accents only for character voices - that is, when the character is speaking dialogue - not for narration or the whole story.

Differentiate between character voices, especially if the story includes dialogue without tags (”Tom said,” “Alice asked”) to indicate who is speaking. Text has formatting to show that different people are speaking. You need to rely on a change in voice.

Character voice differentiation can include pitch (higher or lower voices), pitch variability (monotone vs bouncy), accents, pace/speed, nasal tones, gravel/gruffness, creakiness, and other speech quirks

Changing your posture and the shape of your mouth can help to create different voices. Maybe one character keeps their lips small and tight while the other has a loose, freely moving jaw. Try articulating from the front or back of your mouth, or from your nose.

Don’t overdo character voices, especially for characters with a lot of dialogue. One write-in called this “forced voice acting,” which I take to mean a voice that sounds unnatural. The harder you have to work to put on a voice, the less you’re able to focus on the emotive quality of their words. For a one-off character, a strong accent or silly voice may work, but if this is a character that will need to deliver important, expressive dialogue, make sure it’s a voice that you’re comfortable enough to fully inhabit in different emotional contexts.

If you don’t think you can create different enough character voices or you have two characters speaking together that sound similar, you can make creative/transformative choices to add dialogue tags for clarity.

Don’t use volume differences to differentiate between characters. Consistent volume, for listeners, is a matter of being able to hear or having your eardrums blown out by sudden loud noises. It’s disruptive. If a character has a quiet, whispery voice, you can create that effect close to full volume and move closer to the mic. If a character is loud and brash, lean away from the mic. You can also even out volume while editing.

[rodeoxqueen]

Dante, Vergil, V, and Nero With A Blind! S/O + Best Friend

((AO3 Request))

Spankyland Requested: 

“Hello RodeoQueen, I hope you are having a nice day. Can I order headcanons about Dante, Vergil, V and Nero (the latter as a friend) with a blind s / o? Something like Daredevil (?)

If the request is strange you can ignore it. Sorry if there is something misspelled, English is not my native language ^^u”

Howdy,

Please, call me Rodeo. And the request is just fine, your English is perfect. Enjoy. 

(Disclaimer: I am in full awareness that not every blind person deals with the same issues, take this request with a comedic grain of salt.)

Dante 

Hanging out at his shop is a disaster. You tap your cane against piles of beer cans and pizza boxes, tsking. 

Harmless jokes. So many harmless jokes. 

“As you can see, no pun intended-” 

“Dante, please.” 

Even though you can totally take care of yourself, he will still offer an arm to hold when crossing the streets. 

One day, Dante triggers and you tilt your head to where you think his head is. 

“My demon form makes me sound different.” He notes, his voice gravelly and low. 

“Yeah, but you look the same to me.” 

“Wait really-Oh. Oh, that was funny.” 

Dante takes you on motorcycle rides often. Although you can’t see the sights, you can feel the wind and hear the revving like a symphony as you ride fast and laugh louder. 

“Babe, is there anything you can’t do?” He flirts, seeing you spar with him. 

You suddenly pin him on the ground, your sunglasses glinting his smirking face in the reflection. 

“See?” You grin while applying pressure to his chest. 

“You got me there, sunshine.” 

Vergil 

He lets you touch his face to get a mental map. He notices you can’t stop smiling when his eyebrows cross slightly and your fingers trace the bump of his brow. 

Vergil does his best to make sure everything is where you always put it to prevent confusion. 

A common issue of being blind is people being condescending. Vergil will never let that happen. Not on his watch. 

As you can fight, he duels you accordingly. The whistle of the Yamato’s blade against the air is heard loud and clear next to your ear, as you place your hands upon the forged steel. In your close proximity and the blade trapped in your hold, Vergil’s stance hesitates just the slightest. You sense the opportunity and Vergil is swept off his feet with a clean swipe of your leg. 

“You depend too much on your sword.” You tease as you take your cane from where you put it against a wall. Vergil chuckles. 

Vergil gets his favorite poetry book in Braille form, so you can read it too. 

V 

You match when it comes to canes. 

V learns how to read Braille and makes it a habit to read out loud to you. 

Shadow will get things for you so you don’t have to. She’s a natural at it. 

One time someone tried to mug you and V in the dark of night. Of course, you were the most advantageous in this situation. V hands you his own cane as you give him your more fragile one. Before he can even say William Blake, you’ve knocked the knife out of the mugger’s hands and broken his knee. 

He’s always admiring you, seeing how your hands examine everything and you can memorize a room to your mind’s eye. 

V notices you can’t always tell when to stop pouring a cup of tea as you can’t see when it’s full. 

“Tell me when to stop pouring.” 

“Stop.” 

V squints as you continue to pour until the tea cascades off the cup. You turn your head, a wicked smile on your face. 

“You’re being coy, aren’t you?” 

“Of course I am.”  

Nero

“Hey, even if you’re blind, you’d be a better driver than Nico.” The offended cowgirl throws a wrench at him, which he ducks, leaving you open for injury. However, you catch the wrench without flinching, tossing it back to the general proximity from whence it came. 

Matching clout goggles. Enough said. 

He plays Braille Uno and Monopoly with you. He can’t play Poker with you because you can sense his leg shaking when the cards are in his favor. 

“You’re thinking of Kyrie.” 

“What?”

“I can hear you scratching your nose again.” 

If you’re in the mood to fight, he always has an open slot for you in his sparring sessions. 

“The Nero feels conflicted about fighting a good blind friend.” 

“I’ll kick your ass for that great Avatar reference.” 

“The Nero is now over his conflicted feelings-” 

He stops mid-sentence as you grapple him and make him tap out. Unseeing eyes shine with mirth as you help him up. 

[clouds-rambles]

Eyo,! Is it okay if I request a xiao and venti (separately) x reader that writes and sings really dark songs? Maybe their singing in a different language, so venti and xiao don't understand? If you need a reference for a song they react to, "suck it up" by maretu feat hatsune miku? Sorry for my english I suck.

My inbox rn is filled with such great submissions that I wanna answer them all right away but damn I’m gonna have a fat nap after writing this <3

Anyway hi of course it’s totally cool beans and don’t worry about your english i understood perfectly! My shameless ex-emo brain went straight to black veil brides while I was reading this ask and omg brain stop rn thanks xoxo

Pairings; (Seperate) Xiao, and Venti x reader

Warning(s); edgy songs ig, mention of trauma

Keep reading under the cut!

Venti

It’s not unusual for you and Venti to be humming along to similar tunes though occasionally you’ll hum something he doesn’t actually recognise. Which is rare for him

He probably won’t directly ask you what it is your singing because it’s bugging him a little bit that he doesn’t recognise the lyrics.

Eventually he does just ask you, which flusters you a little. Your famed bard boyfriend is asking you about your own music. You can’t help but feel a little intimidated

A little flustered you explain that you write music and it was one of your original compositions. That makes sense as to why he couldn’t place the song

He then presses you about the contents of the song, to which you explain that because you hail from Inazuma you had decided to write music in your native tongue over the common tongue of Teyvat

Venti is there like ‘wow why have I never thought of that’ he presses you about what you sing about to which you get a little flustered about

“Well it’s a little complicated” you tell him trying to completely dodge the question

“It’s okay! I can wrap my head around it!”

“Well I sing about the bad stuff that’s happened rather than the usual upbeat things you like to sing about” you explain rather flustered. Venti nods along with you seemingly more understanding than you had expected him to be

Although you aren’t really sure how you expected him to be when he eventually found out about the things you sing about

Venti being a great artist and understanding boyfriend sits down with you and composes his own song in a similar nature to your own, though he opts to create it in a language long forgotten, the language of old mondstat and his bard friend

Xiao

Xiao doesn’t explicitly pay attention to the lyrics of songs, if he likes how it sounds he’ll ask you to sing it for him again which more than once has caused you just to become flustered with the fact that your boyfriend likes the way your compositions sound

It takes him a while to notice that you’re not singing in the common tongue but that of mondstats language, which he is very much less than versed in

It takes Xiao a while longer for him to ask why you sing in your homes tongue over the common one to which you reply “it feels more personal that way, if suddenly someone spoke to you in a language of your childhood would it not feel more personal?”

He can’t help but agree, Xiao’s memories tease him with flashes of his childhood before he became the warrior he is now. The memories often show him his mother singing a soft lullaby in a language that even Xiao himself has almost forgotten. If he was a musician he would surely do a similar that

Xiao doesn’t really question the contents of your songs, you seem like you’re putting a lot of emotion into your work, he knows it’s your way of venting. Just like his own way is to fight the darkness that likes to claw its way into Liyue

Though at some point just like how you insisted to join him on his escapades through the country at the dead of night, Xiao brings up your songs expressing interest in what your singing about

Its a little awkward, while on the escapades with Xiao at night you can assess his emotions without asking outright. The adeptus before you is asking you to spill your heart of emotions that you barely have the confidence to write in your native tongue

You opt to tell him about one newer song, you translate the lyrics into the common tongue for him and his eyes read the words

“It’s about me?” he asks seeing through the thinly veiled metaphors. You nod as he continues to read the lyrics. You half hope he doesn’t ask more questions. He doesn’t.

Xiao can’t help but feel like he’s reading your diary with the emotions that are written on the page. The song is mainly about him, your concerns and the traumas that you have to accompany the relationship. He feels like you gave him a tamer version of what’s actually written. But he doesn’t mind. You’ve just exposed his heart for him to see and all he wants to do is kiss you

[mystic-sky]

This is just a request, but do you think you can write something short about gojo meeting his s/o who is a poc and how he’d react to her curly hair 🥺👉🏾👈🏾 the fandom is still pretty new so there’s not a lot of poc drabbles out there if any at all.

Here you go bby, I hope you enjoy 💕✨

Summary: An AU where you’re a sorcerest whose stationed in Japan due to the National Sorcerer Exchange Program I just made up lol. Even though it’s your first encounter Satoru is a big flirt, as usual✨💘

Word count: 1.7k

It was annoying, being one of the few special grade sorcerers based in Tokyo. Satoru Gojo often wished he could duplicate himself at least three or four times, just to reduce some of the workload stress he had. The older he got, the more he wished he wasn’t the strongest- and that’s a pretty surprising statement on his end.

He felt he couldn’t catch a break. Between special grade work, his students and now looking after Yuji Itadori, who hysterically swallowed a special grade object, he had a lot on his plate.

It was hardly a burden for him. He only wished he could be in multiple places at once. This way, he could make sure the higher ups wouldn’t mess with his students, who meant so much to him.

In sight of the increased special grade activity in Japan and several other countries, the first ever Sorcerer Exchange program was implemented by higher ups across the world. It would ensure that special and first grade sorcerers were evenly spread out and or placed in regions that needed special attention. Satoru wasn’t particularly fond of anything the higher ups did, but this idea wasn’t so bad.

“A government funded, international sorcerer exchange program,” Yaga informs Satoru, who sits across from him, idly drinking his tea.

“And how does this work exactly?” Satoru raises a brow at Yaga before dropping cubes of sugar into his cup, stirring loudly.

“For 6 month spans, high level sorcerers who applied to the exchange will be stationed in different countries to regulate curse activity.”

“Sounds like it pays more. Nanamin might like that.”

“It does, depending on your skill level.” Yaga sits back in his seat. “We’ve already received a few sorcerers from America, Africa, China, Russia-”

“All special grade?” Satoru interjects.

“Currently the exchange program only allows special and first grade sorcerers. Considering the high levels of cursed energy around the world this year, it would be best if we avoided any casualties by placing inexperienced sorcerers in the wrong places.”

“That reminds me. You’re prohibited from participating, considering we’re a red area. Until cursed activity improves here you won’t be allowed to participate.”

“Aww c’mon, you guys suck.” Satoru cocks his head back, sighing loudly.

He already traveled a lot for special grade missions but never for more than a few days. Now there was a whole six-month program and he wasn’t allowed to participate in it? Then again, he couldn’t leave Yuji here with the possibility of the higher ups trying to hurt him again. He promised himself he would protect all of his students.

“There are several meetings I must attend tomorrow and I’d like for you to be there. Don’t be late.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that all you wanted to talk about?” Satoru is already up and gripping the handle on the office door.

“I’ve also decided to assign a co-teacher to your first years, for your shorter stationed trips every now and then. She’s an extremely talented special grade from the exchange program. So you needn’t worry of a repeat of the detention center incident with Yuji.”

He had already swung the door open, towering above your body in the door frame. Your nose is barely touching his jacket, and hand almost touching his chest as you were attempting to knock. You take a step back, a bit startled.

“Oh! I’m sorry, I tried to knock,” you say, looking up at the blindfolded man in front of you. “I’m looking for Masamichi Yaga?”

Satoru is startled by your flawless Japanese, considering you’re clearly not of Japanese descent. He took note of your tan skin and big, curly hair that was pinned back in certain spots to display your face.

What a cutie.

“No, I’m Satoru Gojo. Principal Yaga’s the one sitting behind me.” He’s not entirely surprised by your appearance, considering he’s traveled all over the world to fight curses. “And you are?”

You almost think he’s flirting, considering how smooth the question was. Also, you’re now recognizing who he is, cheeks reddening a bit.

“I’m (Full Name). You’re the special grade I’m going to be subbing with for the first years! I’ve heard great things!” You politely bow a bit.

“I know.” His grin large and cocky as he steps out the way, allowing you to walk in. “No need to be so formal though.”

You’re slightly put off by his attitude, but principal Yaga interjects quickly.

“(Last Name), come in. I’ve been awaiting your arrival. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” Yaga is on his feet now, bowing towards you.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you too. I’m excited to work with you all.” You say as he motions you to sit and have some tea.

Satoru has found a reason to stay in the room, plopping down beside you and taking up his tea he had previously abandoned.

“Thanks for sending Ichiji to the airport to help with my belongings. I brought so much stuff, I hope it wasn’t too much for him.” You brain flashes back to Ichiji struggling to hold all of your luggage outside the baggage claim.

“Pffft, feel free to call on him whenever you want. That’s what he’s here for.” Satoru assures you, flashing you a toothy grin. You get the feeling that he probably made Ichiji’s job a living hell.

“I must say, Ms. (Last Name), your Japanese is remarkable. How did you become so fluent?” Yaga asks, filling your cup.

“I’m flattered. I taught myself what I could before attending (insert random ass college name in Japan) University. I’ve always admired Japanese culture so I studied it pretty hard. I can also speak (Native language, if you have one) and (two other languages of your choosing).”

“Wow, your Japanese is better than most locals.” Satoru chuckled. “And you’re pretty too. Lucky me.”

You shifted in place on the sofa. The most powerful sorcerer known to man was sitting beside you and he was complimenting you.

“Thank you,” you say loosely, picking up your teacup.

“Ahem,” Yaga interrupts, earning a tiny snort from Satoru.

“He hates it when I flirt.” Satoru whispers as he leans over towards you. Your face feels a bit hot, and you decide it’s from the steam of the tea in your face and not the handsome man leaning a bit too close to you. You set the cup down after the lightest sip.

“I hate to get down to business so soon Ms. (Last Name), but I’d like for you to get settled in as soon as possible. I’ve mapped out a few assignments for you this week. This is your first.” He slides the first report across the table.

“There have been several reports of abnormal cursed energy in Shinjuku City. It’s likely a special grade. I’d like for you to get to the bottom of it. It shouldn’t be a problem, considering your level of expertise. I’ve forwarded the documents to you as well.” The glint in his glasses makes you chuckle a bit. You flip through the report briefly.

“I skimmed this one on the flight. Whatever it is,” you begin, taking out your phone, “seems to be luring children. This corresponds with the rise in missing childrens’ cases I read about in Shinjuku.”

You place the article on your phone down on the table for principal Yaga to read. You liked to do your own research on locals news to see if curses had any sort of correspondence with a certain area’s events.

“You think a curse is kidnapping children?” Satoru suggests.

“It’s just a hunch. It’s nothing I haven’t encountered before.” You bite the nail on your thumb, realizing the inevitable.

“Unfortunately, if I’m correct, those children most likely aren’t alive.”

You stand up, firmly.

“I trust you’ll take care of it then,” Yaga hands your device towards you.

“Most definitely,” you look at your watch. “And I’ll be done before dinner.”

You offer the principal a smile before you slip on your trench coat, eager to take on your first mission.

“By all means, it can wait until the morning after you’ve rested.” Yaga persists.

“Nope! Not when children are potentially involved. I can’t risk it.” You straighten your clothes, and bow once more. “I’ll report back soon.”

“(Name) doesn’t let jet lag stop her from doing her job. What an admirable woman.” Satoru cooed.

“Well, Gojo-san, it was a pleasure meeting you.” You begin to wave but Satoru is on his feet, and right behind you, making you stumble back again.

“Oh no, I’m coming with you.” He grins. “I’ve gotta see what the most powerful special grade sorceress is capable of in person.”

While you had heard of your own nickname before, you hated when people called you that. You tried your best to be humble about it. There’s always new ways to improve your cursed technique, even if you don’t know how yet.

“So you do know who I am,” you shifted your stance, hands on your hips.

“I’ve heard a few things,” he says slyly. “But I’d like to see them first hand.”

“Hmph, alright then. I suppose you can show me around Shinjuku. It’s been a while since I’ve been there.” You flip your hair, making your way towards the door.

“And it’s your lucky day, I feel like showing off.” You say, peaking over your shoulder.

“Great, it’s a date.”

You stop dead in your tracks, just two steps out of Yaga’s office.

“What?”

“Even after four years of university in Japan? I said, it’s a date.”

The door shuts behind him, and his grin is even more smug.

The audacity.

“You’re not going on a date with me unless you ask me properly.” You roll your eyes, swaying down the steps. So this was Satoru Gojo.

“C’mon sweetheart, we’d be iconic as hell— the strongest man and the strongest woman? We’d be unstoppable.”

“I don’t even know what you look like underneath that thing.” You say, motioning towards his blindfold.

Oh , but you lied. You’d seen his Instagram.

He was a selfie fanatic. That and a cake fiend.

“Wanna see right now? Will it change your mind?” His voice low and steady behind you.

“I’ve got a curse to excorcise.” You roll your eyes, speeding up ahead of him. It didn’t help much considering his legs were so long.

“You know you wanna,” he bends down, voice deep in your ear.

“I’m not listening~

You’re far ahead of him now, attempting to hide the heat on your face and hearing deep chuckles echo behind you.

“Ah, this is going to be the best six months ever!” He laughs heartily.

A small smile crept on your lips.

Maybe it would be.

[sapphirelass]

Oh, darling... - Remus LupinxDaughter!Reader, Harry PotterxReader

Hiiiiiii😊

Hey, would you look at that! It’s only been a week since last time! So, this might be a bit confusing if you have read “Deal?” and “I’ll be by your side”, but hear me out: “Deal?” is still part 1, but since “I’ll be by your side” takes place after this one, that will now be part 3, and this part 2. Does that make sense? I hope so :) That means that this takes place between OotP and the Battle of Hogwarts, but I’m sure you’ll understand! :)

Deal? (Part 1) | Oh, darling... (Part 2) | I’ll be by your side (Part 3)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please note:

1: I don’t own any of the gifs used, nor any already established characters, so credit to the authors and original creators - You have done a phenomenal job :)

2: English is not my native language, as I was born and raised in Sweden. I have, however, studied English for almost a decade, so I don’t think it’ll be a problem, I just thought I’d let you know ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You probably already know this, but still:

Y/N - Your name

Y/N/N - Your nickname

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Word count: ≈ 5,5k (Ohhh, you’re in for a long one!)

Warnings: Blood, Torture & Capture (Malfoy Manor scenes from DH, not very descriptive, but consider yourself warned!), Greyback (both being violent and... intrusive?), use of the more offensive word for ‘Muggle-born’, angst, Bellatrix

And in case you were wondering, yes I did look up lunar charts from 1998 when writing this XD

Enjoy! :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh, darling...

“He’s abroad! He’s still looking for the wand, I knew it!”

“Harry-”

“Come on, Hermione, why are you so determined not to admit it? Vol-”

“HARRY NO!”

“-demort’s after the Elder Wand!”

“The name’s Taboo!”, Ron bellowed, leaping to his feet as a loud crack sounded outside the tent. “I told you, Harry, we can’t say it anymore! We’ve got to p-”

“Shhh!?”

(Y/N/N) had appeared behind Ron and put her hand over his mouth.

“Ron, our chances are gonna be even slimmer if you keep howling!”

The redhead nodded to confirm that he had understood what his friend had whispered, and she removed her hand. For a few *wonderful moments* the four of them thought they had made it! They waited in complete silence - Harry standing protectively in front of the others with his wand in a firm grip.

“Come out of there with ye’ hands up!”, came a rasping voice through the darkness. “You’ve got half a dozen wands aimed at ya’ and we don’t care who we curse!”

Harry turned around slowly and noticed Hermione and (Y/N) coming to a silent agreement. He was just about to ask the others what they thought they should do when Hermione aimed her wand at his face. There was a bang, a burst of white light and Harry buckled in agony, unable to see, as heavy footfalls surrounded the gang.

(Y/N/N) let out a small whimper as someone grabbed a fistfull of her hair and pulled her out of the tent. Harry, Ron and Hermione were wrested outside as well, and all four of them were restrained to prevent their escape. (Y/N) and Hermione both got their wrists bound together, but they stood next to each other while the snatchers questioned the boys.

Harry suddenly let out a distressed shout, because Scabior had smirked evilly and made his way closer to (Y/N/N).

“Don’t touch her! Don’t you dare!”

“Fine”, he said. “I won’t”

He turned back towards the girls, raised his wand and a swift movement caused (Y/N)’s legs to give in. She fell to her knees, her hands still tied behind her back. Harry opened his mouth to say something, but Scabior got there first.

“Ey, like I promised, I didn’t touch ‘er.”

He took a few threatening steps towards the girls and stood towering over (Y/N) as she was forced to kneel by the snatcher’s feet.

“And your name, girly?”

(Y/N/N) swallowed nervously before answering.

“Katie Bell. Halfblood.”

Scabior smiled again and walked over to Hermione. He was just about to ask her the same question when another snatcher approached them from behind.

“That’s a lie”

“What?”, asked Scabior. “What ‘ru on about?”

“I might not remember every single one.”, said the voice. “But when people are bit as revenge, I tend not to forget their name… or smell”

Fenrir Greyback stepped into the moonlight looking absolutely wild. His dirty hair was full of leaves and small sticks, and he had dried blood on his hands.

Scabior grabbed (Y/N)’s hair again, pulled her to her feet and pushed her towards Greyback. Harry struggled ferociously against the snatcher holding him, but it was no use. This gang might not be the smartest, but they were big, and strong. The situation seemed oddly familiar to Harry, and he realized that it remembered him of the few times Dudley’s friends had caught him and held him back while Dudley himself put his boxing skills to ‘good use’. This was worse though, and he kept fighting to get out of the snatcher’s grip despite knowing that it was impossible.

“Don’t touch her! Back off!!”

Greyback didn’t seem to hear Harry’s protests and roughly seized the collar of (Y/N)’s torn, dirty shirt. She tried to push him away, but without the use of her hands that proved to be very difficult, and Grayback pulled her closer instead. He grabbed her by the throat, and, because the werewolf was so tall, her feet no longer touched the ground once he could look her in the eye.

“HA!”

Greyback laughed darkly and threw the girl to the ground.

“Lupin…”, he muttered. “Didn’t know that traitor had a pup. You think daddy would like you to join or… pack?”

He bent down to his knees and dragged a sharp claw along her neck, forcing her to lift her head.

Both Harry and Ron had, at this point however, had enough and were just about to shout again when Scabior spoke up.

“C’mon Greyback. We’re wastin’ time. ‘m sure the ministry will let ya keep ‘er if the others are valuable enough. You take the halfbreed and we’ll bind the rest to the other prisoners.”

Greyback grabbed hold of the rope securing (Y/N) hands behind her back, and Scabior turned towards Hermione again.

“And you, love? A name? And blood status if you’d be so kind.”

“Penelope Clearwater, halfblood.”

“Easy enough to check.”

Someone yanked Harry, Ron and Hermione up by the hair, dragged them a few feet, pushed them down into a sitting position, and started binding them back to back with some other people.

A few snatchers went into the tent, presumably looking for anything of value, and the others kept a close eye on the bound prisoners. The group seemed to be getting ready to leave, but suddenly Scabior approached, a copy of the Daily Prophet in his right hand.

“Ang on a minute, Greyback! Look at this, in the Prophet! ‘Ermione Granger, mudblood known to be travellin’’ with ‘Arry Potter.’”

Greyback lifted Hermione’s head using his boot and said, “You know what little girly? This picture looks a hell of a lot like you.”

“It’s not me!”, said Hermione, “I swear it’s n-”

“Well this changes things, doesn’t it?”, whispered Greyback. Harry could still barely see, but noticed (Y/N) trembling as Greyback tightened his grip around her wrist. She stumbled slightly when the werewolf took a few steps towards Harry and bent down to get a closer look at his face.

“Oi, Vernon, what’s that on ya’ forehead?”

“Don’t touch it!”

“I thought you wore glasses, Potter”

“I found glasses!”

Another snatcher came running from the tent and seconds later Harry’s glasses had been rammed back on to his face.

“It is!”, howled Greyback triumphantly. “We’ve caught Potter!”

“So? To the ministry?”

“To hell with the ministry. I say we take them directly to You-know-who. Let’s take the boy to the Malfoys’ place”

“‘ru completely sure? Cause-”

“Who’s in charge here?”, roared Greyback. “I say it’s Potter, that’s 200000 galleons, and with any luck I’ll get the girl thrown in.”

The prisoners were dragged to their feet.

“I’ll get Potter too”, said Greyback while grabbing a fistfull of Harry’s hair. He wasn’t overly excited about standing so close to the vicious werewolf, but felt somewhat relieved when he was held right by (Y/N)’s side and she carefully leant her head on his shoulder. The small action gave him a sense of comfort despite the danger and seriousness of the situation.

“1, 2, 3…”

They disapparated.

~~~~~

“I know ‘e’s swollen, ma’am, but it’s ‘im.”, Scabior said. “If you look a bit closer, you’ll see his scar.”

“Bring them in.”

Harry and the rest were brutally shoved and kicked up broad stone steps into a hallway lined with portraits. Two figures rose from chairs in front of an ornate marble fireplace as the prisoners were forced into the room by the snatchers. Lucius Malfoy took a step forward.

“What’s this?”

“They say they have got Potter”, answered Narcissa coldly. “Draco, come here.”

Draco approached the prisoners apprehensively, but claimed not to be sure whether it, in fact, was Harry.

“How ‘bout them others, then?”, growled Greyback while pushing Ron, Hermione, (Y/N), Dean and Griphook forwards. “‘tis at least one mudblood, a Weasley and an Order member’s kid - recognize either?”

Draco still didn’t know, however Lucius Malfoy felt sure enough, and was just about to call ‘The Dark Lord’ when Bellatrix Lestrange entered the room and walked up to the captives. She began arguing with Lucius, but stopped abruptly when noticing the sword of Gryffindor being held by one of the snatchers.

Bellatrix went to attack, but changed her mind once Greyback told her that they had found the sword in Harry, Ron, Hermione and (Y/N)’s tent. Narcissa, who seemed increasingly worried as her sister attacked various people in the room, turned to the group of ‘kids’ again.

“Take these prisoners down to the cellar, Greyback”

“Wait!”, screeched Bellatrix. “All except… except the girls.”

“NO!”, exclaimed Harry just as Ron, struggling violently against the ropes that bound him, let out a loud roar.

“NO! You can have me! Keep me!!”

Bellatrix simply cackled evilly and said, “If one of them dies under questioning, I’ll take you next. Mudbloods, offsprings of Halfbreeds and blood traitors - they’re all the same to me. Greyback, take them downstairs and make sure they’re secure. But don’t do anything else. Yet...”

She grabbed both (Y/N) and Hermione by the hair and dragged them into the middle of the room. She let go and they both fell face first into the hard, dark floor with a crack. With a swift wave of her wand, thick ropes wrapped themselves around the girls’ ankles, effectively preventing them from escaping, and she then turned towards Greyback.

“Hurry up! Get them down quickly and you can have the Halfbreed. ‘m sure her screams will be enough to keep you entertained for a while?”

Greyback forced the rest of them into a dark passageway, his wand held out in front of him, projecting an invisible and irresistible force.

“Reckon she’ll let me have a bit of the girls when she’s finished with ‘em?”, Greyback crooned as he forced them along the corridor. “I’d say at least a bite or two each, wouldn’t you, boys? I think I’ll save the Lupin girl for Saturday, huh? I bet the full moon will make her taste even better, don’t you think??”

Both Harry and Ron were shaking in anger, but the invisible force kept them all in place. They were forced down a steep flight of stairs, still tied back-to-back and in danger of slipping and breaking their necks at any moment. At the bottom of the stairs was a heavy door, and Greyback opened it, pushed them all inside and slammed the door shut, but just as they hit the ground, a loud, panicked, heart wrenching scream was heard from directly above them.

“HERMIONE!? (Y/N/N)!?”

~~~~~

“I’m going to ask you again! Where did you take this sword? WHERE?!”

“We found it! - We found it! - PLEASE!!”

“You’re lying, you filthy mudblood, and I know it. You have been inside my vault at Gringotts! Tell the truth! TELL THE TRUTH!!”

“It was my fault!”, cried (Y/N) desperately, hoping that Bellatrix wouldn’t be as harsh on her since she was a half blood. Deep down, she knew that this was highly improbable, but she couldn’t stand watching Hermione writhing in pain. “I found it, Hermione had nothing to do with it! Leave her alone!”

Bellatrix dropped Hermione, and (Y/N) was pulled off the ground for the umpteenth time that day.

“Don’t you worry. You’ll get your fair share too - Ah!”

In just that moment, Greyback walked the last few steps of the stairs and entered the big room.

“Right on time, Grayback! Do what you want with this one.”

She threw (Y/N) into Greyback’s arms and turned back to Hermione.

“See if you can get anything of value out of her first, though. If her father is part of the Order as you say, then surely enough… persuasion… should give us something.”

Greyback dragged (Y/N) by the hair so that they were a few feet away from Bellatrix, and bent over the girl standing on all four. His wild face was merely inches from hers, and she flinched involuntarily feeling his warm breath on her neck. The werewolf stroked his hairy hand across her cheek, and (Y/N) closed her eyes, desperately trying to imagine being somewhere else. She was, however, fully aware of the fact that this was only the beginning. Greyback was famous for his savagery and brutal methods, and her father had once told her the story of their first encounter. Remus had told her how her grandfather, Lyall, had insulted the werewolf, who would later take his revenge by biting Lyall’s son.

Suddenly, a burning sensation spread from her neck down to her waist - causing her to let out a pained scream. She had been so lost in thought that she failed to notice Greyback raising his hand, with nails like claws, and slashing it across her body. Her thin shirt went from light green to red in a matter of seconds and she scrambled to get away from him - ultimately failing when he caught some of her hair between his hand and the floor.

“You know”, growled Greyback. “I told Potter and the blood traitor I’d save my sample of yourself for Saturday but… why choose?”

He grabbed her hands and held them far away from the rest of her body, giving her little to no chance of protecting herself, bent closer and sank his sharp teeth deep into her shoulder.

(Y/N) let out yet another bloodcurdling scream and thrashed violently, which only caused Greyback to scratch his claws across her face before swiftly standing and landing a rough kick to her stomach.

She coughed slightly and tried to get up, but it was then Greyback finally seemed to remember the fact that he owned a wand.

“What do ya’ think you’re doin’? Stay on the floor, where ya’ belong! CRUCIO!”

(Y/N) began writhing in pain, just like Hermione had earlier, but the sheer strength of the curse combined with previous pain, blood loss and the mental trauma of having been bitten by a werewolf - though not transformed at the time - was enough to make her stop fighting. She didn’t fully pass out, but lay limp at the floor.

Bellatrix had bound Hermione to a pillar near the fireplace and was instead questioning a goblin about the Sword of Gryffindor.

“No”, said Griphook. “It is a fake”

“Are you sure? Quite sure?”

“Yes”

“Good”, she said, and with a casual flick of her wand she slashed another deep cut on the goblin’s face. “And now - we call the Dark Lord. I’m sure we can dispose of these two”. She used her foot to turn (Y/N) over and studied her broken being with a sly smile. “Keep ‘em if you want, Greyback!”

“NOOOOOOOO!”

Ron and Harry dashed into the room, Ron disarming Bellatrix and Harry catching her wand while simultaneously stunning Lucius Malfoy.

“STOP OR THEY DIE!!”

Harry and Ron both looked at Bellatrix who held a struggling Hermione in one hand, and used the other to press a silver dagger to her neck - all while resting a high heeled boot millimetres above the throat of (Y/N)’s now unconscious form.

“Drop the wands, or I won’t hesitate to let them both die covered in their own filthy blood. I said DROP THEM!!!!”

The boys threw the wands to the floor and Draco, after being told to, picked them up. Harry could feel Voldemort approaching, and the situation felt quite hopeless… None of them had a wand, he and Ron stood with their hands by their shoulders and wands pointing in their direction, and Bellatrix - who had already taken Sirius from him - had both the girls in her grasp.

“Now, I think we ought to tie these little heroes up again.”, said Bellatrix softly. “While Greyback takes care of Miss Halfbreed. I suppose you could have the mudblood too, if you fancy it. I’m sure the Dark Lord won’t begrudge you that after all you have done tonight.”

Her speech was interrupted by a peculiar grinding noise from above. All of them looked up and noticed Dobby on the chandelier. Bellatrix dropped Hermione and jumped out of the way - the chandelier falling on top of Hermione, (Y/N) and Griphook. Harry took the chance and pulled their wands out of Draco’s hand and then joined Ron in trying to get the girls to safety. He pointed all the wands at Greyback at the same time and shouted “STUPIFY!”, before picking (Y/N/N) up into his arms. They all stood surrounding Dobby who apparated them all out of there.

~~~~~

A soft knock caused (Y/N) to immediately look towards the door, but she breathed a sigh of relief once realizing that it was safe. She had been rather jumpy since their capture, and she hated feeling so… weak? Fragile? Hopeless?

“Hey, you doing alright?”

“Hi, Bill. Yes, I’m good. How’s Hermione?”

Bill smiled. “She’ll be fine. I’m sure it must have been horrifying for her, but trust me, we’ve seen worse. With both Fleur and Ron by her side I can’t find a reason to be worried. Honestly, I’m much more concerned about you.”

“Bill, I’m f-”

“No, see, I don’t think you are. Purely based on what the others have told me, you’ve gone through both physical and mental torture beyond what even the least decent person should consider ‘acceptable’. Your silence, constant twitching and rapid breathing further supports that theory. We just want to help.”

“Look, I appreciate that, I really do bu-”

“Do you want me to send word to your dad?”

“I- Wha- No! No, I’ll manage. A day or two to rest and a chance to process all that happened should get me back on my feet. I don’t want to worry him… Please, Bill, do-”

“Okay, I won’t write”, said Bill hesitantly. “But then you must promise to let us help. And if Remus contacts us asking whether we know anything about the four of you - I won’t lie. He’s done that roughly twice a week since November, though weirdly enough not the last couple of days, and there’s a bond of trust there, (Y/N/N). I trust you can understand that?”

“Of course”, she said, managing a weak smile. “But surely you, if anyone, would understand that you have to move on. I mean, you were attacked in essentially the same way last year and you sti-”

But Bill just shook his head.

“No, (Y/N/N), they’re not ‘essentially the same’. Not at all. When Greyback-”, (Y/N) flinched at the name and Bill put a hand on her shoulder. “When he attacked me, it was quick. Sure, it hurt like hell, but it was over in less than a minute. And I know you won’t like me saying this, but I suspect that was the case even for your dad. What he’s had to endure since that night is a whole nother story, but the actual moment? For the two of us, he was out to kill, and thankfully interrupted before he got the chance, but in your case I wouldn’t call it an ‘attack’ but rather… An intrusion, or violation if you will. (Y/N/N), what you went through, I can’t even imagine.”

Bill could tell the young girl didn’t know what to say, so he simply pulled her in for a gentle hug.

“Do you want me to ask Harry to come up?”

“What are they doing? I don’t wanna interru-”

“Just having dinner. We’d have brought you downstairs too, but you were still unconscious or sleeping half an hour ago. Fleur didn’t feel the need to drag you out of bed then.” He paused and examined her for a moment before standing.

“I’ll get him, give me a minute.”

~~~~~

“Harry, what if Dumbledore wanted us to work out the symbol in time to get the wand? What i-”

“Ron, I-”

Their conversation was interrupted when Bill entered the kitchen.

“Harry? She’s up.”

Harry turned to his best friend’s brother, a look of utter confusion on his face.

“I.. Wha- How is she? Can I-”

“Go. She’s trying to be strong, of course, yet there’s something more there. Her bravery is admirable, but I don’t think it’s very healthy to keep it all bottled up. If anyone could get her to let it out it’d be you. Go.”

~~~~~

Harry carefully pushed the door open, and his eyes immediately found hers. They had been friends for so many years now, that reading each other’s thoughts was considered ‘normal’. Harry was instantaneously relieved when she didn’t jump, flinch or move away from the door. He walked over to the bed and was pulled into a loving hug before even sitting down. That was not what he had expected…! Sure, he had hoped that she wouldn’t be completely broken, but considering everything he - they - had been through, he hadn’t dared to imagine any best case scenario only to be completely crushed by the truth.

“(Y/N/N)? How a-”

But that was all it took - for him to say her name. She wasn’t sobbing, just crying silently - tears falling freely from her eyes.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry, Harry. Crying’s not going to help anyone I just-”

“(Y/N/N), don’t apologize, please. Just let it out, you’re safe. I’m here and I’m not leaving you again, okay? You’re safe now. You’re sa-”

There was a loud ‘BANG’ on the front door. Harry grabbed his wand and took a few careful steps down the stairs, constantly making sure that (Y/N/N) was right behind him. He grabbed her hand tightly and watched as Bill, with his wand pointing towards the door, made his way from the kitchen to the hallway.

“Who is it?”

“It is I, Remus John Lupin. I’m a werewolf, married to Nymphadora Tonks, and you, the Secret Keeper of Shell Cottage, told me the address, and bade me come in an emergency.”

“Lupin!”

Bill ran to the door and wretched it open. (Y/N/N) looked over Harry’s shoulder and saw her dad stumble over the threshold before standing up straight and exclaiming “It’s a boy! We’ve named him Ted after Dora’s father.”

“Wow, that’s amazing!”, sad Bill sounding uncharacteristically nervous as he met Fleur’s gaze. Tonks having her baby would explain Remus’ lack of messages for the past few days, and Bill was starting to regret not letting him know about his daughter’s condition as soon as she had arrived.

Remus seemed to calm down slightly as well, and suddenly noticed Ron, Hermione, Dean and Luna at the dining table

“Wha-”, he began, but Bill just nodded towards the living room.

“Remus, look, I think you better sit down and I-”

But the older man didn’t seem to agree with whatever Bill was going to suggest.

“What happened?! When?! And whe-”

He didn’t get to say much more before two arms wrapped around him from behind. He knew, given the current state of the Wizarding World, that he should grab his wand and push them away, but he already suspected who it was. His theory was confirmed by a hoarse whisper:

“Dad.”

It was such a short word, but her voice broke nonetheless. He began turning around, desperate to get a good look at his daughter after over eight months apart, but she struggled against him.

“(Y/N/N), let me look at you?! Stop- NO, stop it I-”

He might just have travelled through a storm, but was still the stronger of the two. Physical strength would, however, prove to be essentially worthless, and the Marauder fell to his knees as soon as he laid eyes on his only daughter. He forced himself to look at her, but it must have been one of the most challenging things the man had ever had to do.

She was covered in deep wounds & scratches from head to toe. Her wrists were bloody and bruised and at least a few, red bite marks stood out against her otherwise pale skin. Her eyes were red, and her face was still covered in wet tears. She was trying her best to stand up straight, but no one knew (Y/N/N) like her father did - not even Harry - and Remus immediately sensed that something was wrong. She was crouching down ever so slightly - almost as if she had been curled up or forced into a fetal position for way too long.

“Oh, darling…”

Those two words were the only ones he managed while his mind desperately worked on processing the sight in front of him. He had come with the intention of sharing some joyful news, but this - what had happened instead - was way beyond his worst nightmares. His boggart had been the full moon for as long as he could remember, but he was quite sure the silvery orb would not glide out from the cupboard the next time he had to face one.

“(Y/N/N)?”, mumbled Harry. “Do you want some help upstairs? I feel like you two could use some privacy..?”

She nodded, and Harry, who had now also noticed her unusual posture, placed her right arm over his shoulders and helped her back up. Her father - naturally - followed closely behind.

~~~~~

(Y/N/N) sat back on the bed from before, her gaze focused on a particularly interesting spot on the floor. Her father sat down next to her and gently placed an arm around her small body, expertly avoiding the many red or brownish lines. She wanted to look back at him. To put her arm around him and return the hug, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Sure, he did promise her not to blame himself for whatever fights she chose, but this was different. She hadn’t chosen this one, and her wounds were far worse than anything Umbridge had ever accomplished. Just the thought of having to tell him who was responsible and what he had said frightened her. Not that she was scared of her dad, but she knew he would claim that everything was his fault. She couldn’t lie, though. Not this time. He deserved to know exactly what happened.

“(Y/N/N)? Darling? Are you okay? What happened?”

His voice was now extremely gentle, which was comforting for (Y/N) too. She took a deep breath and turned to face him. She spoke barely above a whisper, her neck still bruised and sore from the countless times she had been grabbed and held by it.

“Yes. Yes, I’m good. Or fine at least.”

“I assume you understand that I want to hear the full story, but I must ask - when?”

He reached towards her shoulder and gently brought his hand over the bite marks.

“‘round Easter, I don’t know exactly… seventh? eight? ninth? Not the eleventh though, I’m sure of that.”

His facial expression went from terrified to slightly calmer as he rubbed his temple.

“Okay, that’s… that’s good. Given the circumstances, I mean. And you’re absolutely positive? Because sometimes traumatic events can make you forge-”

“Dad, I’m sure! If there’s one part of me that’s in prime condition it’s my memory...I- I remember every second.”

She shuddered at the thought of if all, and quickly added, “He wasn’t transformed…”

Remus looked at her sadly, the truth, or at least parts of it, now clear to him.

“Not Gre-”

“DoN’t! Please...”

She put her head on his torso when he pulled her closer.

“Please, I can’t-”

“Breathe, Darling. You’re safe. I’m sorry I… Blimey I should have guessed. Took me months and I was barely five… C’mere.”

They sat like that for a while, Remus resting his head on his daughter’s while humming quietly. He eventually decided he couldn’t take it anymore and cleared his throat to catch her attention.

“(Y/N/N)? You have to tell me what happened. Have you gotten these wounds treated? They don’t look very good…”

“Trust me, they were much worse back then. I think Fleur did her best to heal them. She’s really goo-”

He looked away and took a deep breath. “You’re avoiding the question, (Y/N/N)…”

“Dad, I do-”

“YOU PROMISED!”

He slammed his hands down on the bed as his voice grew angrier.

“(Y/N), you promised me you’d never hide any kind of pain from me ever again?! I-”

He suddenly noticed his daughter desperately cowering away and lowered his voice.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, but I trusted that promise! And don’t even try to tell me how ‘you’re fine’ or ‘it’s not really even hurting anymore’. (Y/N/N), I have known you your whole life, let me help. You must te-”

“I know. I will. I know you deserve that, just… I don’t know where to start? A lot has happened… And I also need you to know that I didn’t break my promise. Bill and Harry told me I’ve been drifting in and out of consciousness for days. I only properly woke up an hour or so before you came and haven’t had time to send a message.”

He looked at her, and she moved closer again.

“Sor-”

“It’s good, dad. We’re good, don’t worry about it.”

Then she told him. The entire story - starting with breaking into the Ministry and then everything about Godric’s Hollow, The Lovegoods’ house - but came to an abrupt stop after that. She took a moment to collect her thoughts, but then shared the events of the past two weeks as well. She told her father all about Harry accidentally using You-Know-Who’s name, the group of snatchers surrounding them and their decision not to try to fight their way out.

“We were outnumbered, and had to hide the fact that they had just caught Harry. Hermione used a stinging jinx which, naturally, worked perfectly - they didn’t recognize him at first. They tied us all up and started asking questions about names, blood status and so on. None of us gave them our real names of course, and it worked well until… until he… until he stepped out of the shadows and told the others that the name I had given them was false. It took him a minute or two, but he claimed to… ‘recognize my smell’ - your smell, I suppose.”

“(Y/N/N), it’s m-”

“No! You can’t blame yourself. That was your part of the deal, remember?”

“Well, this time it seem like it actually was-”

“not your fault, exactly. The snatchers found some photographs in the Prophet, Harry’s glasses and a bunch of other stuff and kind of made the connection themselves.”

She explained how they were taken to Malfoy Manor. How Bellatrix had ordered everyone apart from the two girls down to the dungeons. How she had bound them even tighter before taking care of Hermione, and later Griphook, herself and leaving (Y/N) defenceless to deal with Greyback.

“Do you know what the worst part is? I barely even tried to defend myself. Merlin, I just felt so... weak!?! So worthless. He just stood there - right by my face - breathing and”, she shuddered again, “‘petting’. Then he hacked, and slashed, and bit, and kicked and pushed. Eventually realized he was in possession of a wand and… It was unbearable, I-I-I can’t even... ”

“Shhh, breathe, Darling, breathe! Easy there…”

He pulled her, if possible, even closer until she sat in her father’s lap. (Y/N) used to fall asleep in his lap when she was a little girl - the warmth and comfort calming her down - but it had been years since… She was, after all, a young adult now.

“Listen, and I need you to understand this because it is very important - you are not weak! Far from it! In a situation like what you have just described, if you are wandless and unable to practically defend yourself, coming with sly remarks and trying to argue with the one in possession of the wand would not only be dangerous, but also rather careless. If there was anything I could do to change what happened, then believe me, I would, but don’t for a second beat yourself up over your decisions.”

Remus looked at (Y/N/N), but chuckled slightly when he noticed his daughter slowly drifting off to sleep. He decided to shake her slightly and wake her before it was too late.

“(Y/N/N)? Don’t you think it’s better if we go home? You can go to sleep there instead?”

“What?”, she mumbled. “But, dad, we’re not done yet? Harry, Ron and Hermione-”

“-Will just have to do without you for a while. Listen to reason, darling. You are injured, shaken and can barely stand up straight - which is perfectly understandable! I’m just saying, the best thing you can do is probably to rest and let them go on for now. Who knows, maybe you will be able to go back after healing?”

Remus made a mental note to keep his daughter close to him from now on, and NOT to let her throw herself back into the war, but felt like this was the best way to convince her right away. He had missed her every minute since they had parted ways back in August, and dreamt of the day they’d reunite, but never had he imagined he’d find her in such a state. He swore to himself that he would always try to keep her safe.

His daughter

His darling

His (Y/N/N)

Never again…

~ L

Part 3 I’ll be by your side

Masterlist

[little-writers-posts]

Shall We Dance, Sunflower? (Elliot 'Mirage' Witt x GN Reader)

Author's Note: Hello! I wrote this because it has been on my mind for a while, so I wanted to let it out. I hope you like it! Please, excuse my writing, if anything is misspelt it is because English isn't my native language, but I did my best, :D

Warnings: SLIGHT SPOILER OF THE BOOK, if you have not read it yet it contains a bit of the lore on the book, mainly about Mirage's past.

Word Count: 2397

(Y/N's POV)

‘Meet me at the bar tonight? Got a surprise ;)’

I looked over at my phone, ‘Elliot’ was written on it and I felt my heart skip a beat.

Ever since I joined the games, I have grown close to all the other legends, however, I’ve had a soft spot for the curly haired man for a while now. We’ve been getting closer ever since we got teamed up the first time, Mirage has always been there for me, had my back in every game, even when we’re in different teams, he manages to get to me.

We’ve been meeting often at his bar, after each match. Lately, I’ve been staying a little longer than the rest of the group, even after Wraith and Rampart, Elliot and I have been talking back and forth about our lives outside of the games, getting to know each other, and surprisingly, his company is really good, and I started looking forward to our little chat at the end of each night. Most of the times I even help getting the bar cleaned and he walks me home. Slowly I’ve started to like him more and more.

It’s obvious that I find Elliot handsome, but his ways are the ones that really get to me, he may be an idiot, but sure as hell he makes me laugh like no other, and deep down he cares a lot about his friends, his family. He’s been through so much in his life, yet he still manages to have a positive view of life.

I got my phone and texted back.

‘Sure thing, handsome. What you got for me?’

‘Well, sunshine, it’s a surprise, so you’ll have to wait and see. Come by at 9 pm. :D’

I smiled and looked over at the clock, still, a couple of hours to go, so I got in the shower, got a nice set of clothing and some light makeup, nothing too fancy and then order some dinner.

When it was time, I left my apartment and went to Elliot’s bar. I noticed that the door was closed, it’s a bit weird since he usually has the bar opened at this hour. I knocked on the door and heard him urging me to go inside.

Once I got in, I saw him cleaning some of the cups, as soon as his eyes landed on me, he got a huge smile on his face.

“Welcome to the Witt’s, sunflower”

“Hey, handsome. Where’s everyone?”

“What do you mean everyone?... OH, the bar! Right, I closed it early today, didn’t have a lot of customers, so…”

“I see… So what you got for me, Witt? I’ve been looking forward to your surprise.”

I sit down on one of the stools near the counter, right in front of Elliot and let my chin rest on my hand.

“Someone’s pretty eager… Well, I… drumroll please!” He made little movements with his fingers as drumsticks while hitting the counter “I made a new bevi… bevere… cocktail!”

Elliot cheered as he shows me a couple of bottles.

“And I want you to be the first to try, sunshine! I mean, I’ve already tried it, but I want someone else’s opinion.” He said as he took out a glass and some drinks.

“Am I going to die, Elliot?” The amount of alcohol he was pouring mixing with other fruits was unbelievable.

“I’m still here, so I don’t think so. Plus, I´ll kill you in the ring, not outside. Although, I think Revenant might kill all of us in our sleep.”

“I believe he might kill Loba first, to be honest” I grinned a little “Though I think he’ll have to face Bangs first, and she won’t go easy on him.”

“You think they are a thing? Loba and Anita, I mean.”

“I don’t know, but sure as hell, they look like it, and they look cute together.”

Elliot muttered something under his breath as he finished preparing the drink.

“What was that?”

“What was what? I didn’t say anything” Elliot nearly spilled the drink when he put it in front of me.

“I didn’t know that the great Mirage was afraid of speaking what’s on his mind. Guess you are afraid of something.”

“I don’t fear anything, sunshine. Now, you are the one afraid of having a taste, right?”

“No, no, I’ll taste it… eventually.”

I smiled. The drink had a yellowish colour and the smell seemed to burn my nostrils due to the alcohol, but I brought the glass to my lips and took a sip. Elliot was looking rather nervous at me, biting his bottom lip. I took another sip.

“So… How is it? C’mon, don’t leave me hanging, (Y/N).”

I laughed a little. “It’s great, Elliot, as surprising as it may seem, it tastes really good. You should definitely put it on the menu, the guys are gonna love it.”

“Really?? You don’t think I should add anything else, lemon or…”

“No, I like it the way it is, really.”

Elliot had the widest grin I’ve ever seen.

“Do you have a name for it yet?”

“Name? No, not really, I didn’t think about it.”

“You could name it ‘The Unwitty’” I laughed.

“What does that mean?” Elliot looked confused.

“Unwitty? It usually refers to someone who’s not clever, and I believe that after a few of these, you are definitely not the brightest person in the room” I said as I looked at the half-empty glass “Also, it rhymes a little with your last name, so it could be a pun, since… well… you know… you made the drink…”

“Well, that’s a lot cleveree… cleverir… more clever than what I thought”

“And what were you thinking?”

He looked at me and ended up scratching the back of his neck.

“Well, something in the lines of sunflower, maybe… or sunshine…”

“Oh, because of the colour! I get it! Never knew a drink with a name like that, but it should work.” I smiled.

“Yeah… the colour…”

Elliot started to pack up the drinks and clean what was left on the bar. He turned his back to me as I finished the drink, so I jumped over the counter and started to clean the dirty glasses in the sink.

“Hey, you don’t have to do that (Y/N)”

“It’s alright, you know that I like helping you out, plus I got a free drink” I smiled and bumped against his shoulder.

“Thanks, (Y/N).”

We finished cleaning the rest of the bar and I leaned against the counter, Elliot did the same on the other side. However, he did have a foolish grin on his face, like he was up to someth…

“I got an idea!” he clapped his hands and smiled at me.

“This can’t be good…”

“Of course it’s a good idea! I only have good ideas, sunshine!”

“Hm… No, not always, remember that one time on the zipline across Airbase…”

“No, no, no, no, no. That doesn’t count! It was all Crypto’s fault, not mine!!” He whined at me, pointing his finger like he was schooling me which made me laughed out loud “ANYWAYS, it is still pretty early to take you home, so…”

Elliot grabbed the Bluetooth controller for his sound equipment at the bar and started to go through the songs.

“What are you doing, Elliot?”

“Choosing a song.” He smiled.

“For what, exactly?” God, I think I know where this is going…

Elliot picked a pop song, one of those popular ones that are on the radio stations and stretched out his hand, bowing slightly to me.

“Shall we dance, sunflower?”

“No, absolutely not, sorry. Not happening.”

The look on his face was hilarious, I would’ve laughed harder if it wasn’t for his genuine heartbroken expression.

“But why…?”

“Elliot, dear… I don’t dance, I’ve never danced in my life, and I know I’m terrible at it. So, I’ll spare your toes and I won’t step on you.”

“I don’t mind it. Plus, I’m a pretty good dancer, I’m sure I can lead you through it.” He smiled and this time he took the liberty to take my hand and guided me to the centre of the bar.

“Elliot, this is not a good idea.” I shook my head in disbelief.

“Shhhh… I’ll guide you. Let Mirage take the lead.”

We started slowly moving at the rhythm of the song, shifting weight from one foot to the other and soon we were swinging backwards, dipping low and then soaring into the air. Elliot never let go of my hand and guided me through every move. I never felt so carefree and happy, in a small space it was just him and me having one hell of a good time.

I have no idea how many songs went by, my heart was pounding against my chest rapidly like I was in training. And then a slow melody came into play, Elliot’s smile grew wider, and he pulled me against him, one hand on my waist, the other holding my hand.

I looked up and his face was close to mine, my heart was beating faster than before, and I thought it wasn’t possible, and all the butterflies started to fly in my stomach.

Elliot started to guide me through the song once more, this time in a very slow rhythm, one step at a time.

“You’re doing great, sunshine.” He praised.

I felt my cheeks getting warmer and I looked away, anywhere but his face.

He then tried a turn, however, he stopped midway through, and pushed my back against his chest, the arm on my waist circled all the way as he hugged from the back, his other hand still holding on to mine. He leaned his face against mine, so our cheeks were touching. I felt like my breath got caught up in my throat and everything around us stopped.

We were still swinging slightly, but I could feel him moving his face, and then slowly he left a kiss on my neck.

And then another kiss.

And then another kiss.

And the last kiss had me shiver all over. He noticed.

“Seems like I found a sweet spot… Right?”

I smiled.

“Hm… I don’t know, maybe you should try it again, just to make sure.”

He chuckled, turning me back to face him. This time we were much closer than the last, so much that the tips of our noses were barely touching.

We stood still for what it felt like an eternity, I was too afraid to move, I didn’t want to ruin anything.

Elliot looked down, staring at my lips as he gulped.

“Damn… I want to kiss you so bad…” He whispered.

“Why don’t you…?”

“I’m scared, (Y/N).”

“Wha..”

I tried to look back into his eyes, but Elliot held me closer, and I had to rest my forehead against his shoulder.

“All my life, (Y/N), I saw the ones that I care about, the ones that I love, leaving me. I saw friends die, disappearing, leaving. It started with my father, who barely even knew me. Then, my brothers I couldn't even have a proper goodbye, because no one cared to try to find them. My mom is slowly leaving me, with each passing day her memory gets worse and I fear the day she won’t remember me at all and I…”

He was shaking a little which had me hugging him even more, trying to encourage him to talk to me.

“Elliot.”

“I can’t stand the thought of you leaving me, (Y/N), in any way. Makes my heart sting, my breath disappears, and my all body physically hurt. If anything happens to you while you’re with me, I’ll never forgive myself, I want to keep you safe, but it seems like I bring bad luck to everyone that I’m close to, and I can’t do that to you, (Y/N), not you…”

“Elliot, look at me.” I tried to push him lightly, but he wouldn’t let go. “Please, please look at me.”

He loosened his grip on me a little. I manage to look back into his eyes, and I realise that I’ve never seen those eyes that sad, bearing so much pain, that it started to hurt me too.

“Elliot, listen, I’m not going anywhere. I know how to defend myself and I’m here to stay, you’re stuck with me, at least as long as you’ll have me. If anything, you’ve been my good luck charm, ever since I joined the games you’ve had my back, you’re there for me every single time, you make me laugh more than anyone has ever made me, when I’m with you I’m genuinely happy like I have no cares in the world. We all have our ghosts, but we’re here to fight them, I’m here to help you, Elliot. You are the life and soul in every place you go, how could you ever be bad luck? You have a golden heart, and don’t tell yourself otherwise. Please, Elliot… I…”

He didn’t let me finish.

He held my check in his hand and leaned in, kissing me.

I never felt anything like that before, like he was made for me, all my thoughts were clouded by the feeling of his lips on mine. I reached my hand to the back of his neck, pampering with the hairs there.

I felt his tongue pushing its way into my mouth, and I let it. My heart was beating louder in my chest, my hands were shaking, but I wanted him to know how much I cared, how much I wanted him, how much I loved him, just him.

We fell breathless and broke the kiss, leaning our foreheads against each other.

“You have no idea, how long I’ve wanted that, and how much I needed you, (Y/N).”

I smiled and hugged his neck, pulling him more to me. His hands were massaging my back, up and down.

“My heart is beating so fast, it feels like it’s gonna jump out of my chest, I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way before, with anyone… Can we do it again?”

“Oh, Elliot, you don’t have to ask that. Of course, you can.”

He leaned in and we kissed once more.

If this is dancing… We definitely need to do that more often.

[meichenxi]

Hey, could I ask you how you do shadowing? Like the different ways you do it? You mentioned in your tag that shadowing is good and I'd love to hear how you do it! I do not attempt shadowing much so I don't really know what helps, etc. ToT (my studyblr is rigelmejo)

Hellooo! Thank you for the interesting question!

Tbh I think I do it fairly basically - I don’t use any particularly fancy software, but software like Language Learning with Netflix has certainly made it easier. There’s a whole video on how to get the most of it here: [on mobile, link didn't work - How to study Chinese with Netflix! by Chinese Zero To Hero] (I’d recommend checking out all of their videos actually, they’ve done a bunch of livestreams recently and they place a lot of emphasis on shadowing + the course they are trying to sell you is…actually phenomenally good)

(Also, I have to preface this by saying that I have been very lucky in terms of pronunciation: I learnt about 80% of my current vocabulary by ear without characters or pinyin. I have been in China for eight months in total, and while I didn’t speak Chinese for all of that, I was constantly soaking in info on natural sentence intonation. I still often don’t know officially what the tone of a vocabulary item is, especially if it changes tone like 教, 为 or 相, but I don’t get yelled at so I have definitely internalised a lot of those changes. I definitely would have more trouble with this if I hadn’t had that experience - my other areas are waaaay weaker because of this though- my reading SUCKS lmao and I can literally handwrite about ten characters)

Anyway. How I shadow:

1) Quite simply by playing the line, and repeating it with all the emotion it has!! I usually use Netflix or Viki for this. I try to do it as fast as possible, and if I can’t do the whole thing, I ‘chunk’ it: if I were doing the sentence 我们还不知道他会不会来, I would start from the end with 他会不会来, then 不知道他会不会来, and then the whole sentence. Notice that this isn’t breaking it down into words or even grammatical phrases, but intonational phrases: it would be perfectly sensible to just do 会不会来 without the 他 but realistically, since this is a question, it’s likely that a strong stress will be placed on the first 会, and you wouldn’t be able to replicate that without also included the more weakly stressed syllable before.

2) I locate (intentionally or subconsciously) the main locus of stress within the sentence, and I focus on that accordingly. Tones may become less extreme if they are not stressed, and may become more exaggerated if stressed. This is always a good exercise. I accompany this with physical actions - I throw my hands down, I sigh, I groan!

3) I put away the text, and don’t look at the tones or even my computer screen - more on this below.

4) Finally, when I think I’ve got it reasonably accurate, I’ll record them speaking the line into my phone with an appropriate pause for copying and play it back to myself at various points throughout the day.

5) I then go and find other words with the same tone contour to slot in, and copy it again. After that, I find words that are slightly different tonally and pop them in too.

6) I finally do fun things like hold a conversation with myself. This can be really simple phrases imbued with some kind of emotion - 这个女子到底是谁呀？为什么不认识我？应该是新手吧。You can do this either really informally, or very formally, or both - trying to speak in the latter way is very fun! So then it’d be idk something more like: 那位姑娘是何人，来自何处？This is fun because you can really slow down your speech and sound as elegant as you like!! (this will sound stilted if you do it for modern speech, but it’s a very fun exercise)

Choosing your media!!

1) Don’t use donghuas. Seriously. The voice actors usually speak at a ridiculous pace and not with the same range of ‘normal’ intonation

2) Your Chinese is definitely good enough to recognise when anyone is quoting poetry or speaking in a paricularly sexy literary way so, uh…don’t do that. That rules dramas like Nirvana in Fire OUT.

3) Modern dramas and reality TV shows CAN be great, but they can also be quite intimidatingly quick and almost too mushy at times. I’d recommend informal speech in guzhuang dramas more, because they have professional voice actors and extensive sound editing, meaning that although it might be fast and the vocabulary harder, it’s actually much more accessible and easier to copy. You don’t want to be stuck with the awfulness of 50% failed foreigner and 50% 12 year old boy who can’t enunciate properly!!

4) CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON WISELY. I try to find characters that speak in a dramatic, whiny or childish way. This is so important! There’s literally no use copying Lan Wangji unless you want to be able to have that particular cadence and tone of voice you get reciting poetry. Childish/whiny/dramatic characters on the other hand stress some words very strongly, and rush others together - this is great for hearing what actual real speech sounds like. Whininess wins. In The Untamed, characters like Wei Wuxian (not yllz!wwx but just…regular wwx), 一问三不知 Nie Huaisang, Jin Ling, and Jingyi are all great. Also Jiggy, who is just very extra constantly and speaks much slower as well, which really helps. In SHL characters like Gu Xiang are good.

5) CHOOSE YOUR VOICE WISELY! If you are really aiming to copy them 100% (which you should try at least sometimes), you want somebody with your pitch range to sound normal. I have a sort of party trick in Chinese that because I’ve spent so much time listening to women in guzhuang dramas I can change my voice and sound like a) a scheming concubine with honeyed words, or b) the voice of the Beijing metro. My teacher found it hysterically funny. But it’s not my natural voice, and if I speak like that for too long it hurts. The women usually are too high for me, and the big burly manly men too low - so I’d recommend finding a man with a higher voice, or an older woman (like some of the female characters in Nirvana in Fire). Again, sorry that this is mostly the Untamed (I’m just most familiar with it) but the voice actors for Wei Wuxian and some of the juniors (+jiggy) has a higher voice. Likewise Chengling in Word of Honour.

On intonation in general:

- The thing is that whilst shadowing is useful it requires prior ability in a whole bunch of other skills that you can train - it relies on your ability to accurately mimic pitch, emotion and other contrasts. Training this in ANY language, including your native one, will help your ability to do this in Chinese - so I’d recommend spending a fair amount of time practicing shadowing (or speaking just after somebody whilst listening to a string of text, like monolingual simultaneous interpreting) in your native language too. Any training copying accents or mimicking other people is going to similarly help, regardless of the language.

So, with that in mind, further tips:

1) Hum / try to copy the intonation without any words. What this does is force you to pay attention to what the intonation actually is, versus what you may think it should be.

2) Don’t look at the text! Do! Not! Look! At! The! Text! If you look at the characters or pinyin you’re telling yourself ‘ok this is a third tone here’ etc, but you want to override the part of your brain that has gotten into bad habits and is supremely self-confident in how you’re pronouncing the third tone, and actually just go straight back to mimicking.

3) Don’t be afraid to do it with vocabulary that is way beyond your level. Actually, I find this can sometimes be helpful, because you don’t have a prior idea about how a particular tone pair should be useful - and you don’t know which tone you should be producing.

4) Learn vocabulary by ear - listen to a vocab podcast or even make one yourself (I often do this; I record my daily Anki and listen back to it through headphones copying throughout the day - if you’re not confident in your pronunciation you can get Google Translate to do it). Similarly, pick unknown vocabulary out of a longer segment and remember it, trying to internalise the tones instead of figuring out which tone it is.

5) Find emotional sentences, and copy them with emotion. This is SO CRUCIAL!!! We remember things when we relate to them, and when we imbue them with emotion - and it also helps in hearing exactly how an angry second tone sounds, for instance.

6) When you’re copying, look up, and imagine you are having an actual conversation. Carry yourself with conviction and poise!! Really try to whine like wwx or slime like jgy. After a couple of turns copying them, try to turn off the audio and keep delivering it in the same manner.

7) Swap individual words out. Once you have a line properly figured out, swap a word or two that has a different tone pair, and focus on delivering it with the same pattern of stress.

8) Finally, practice doing this in your native language too!! It’s a skill that we don’t use often, and it can be trained. Some people are terrible at it at first go even in their native language, but you can work on it!

About intonation in general:

1) I think a lot of pronunciation problems with people sounding unnatural or stiff ultimately come down to a fundamental misunderstanding of what intonation looks like across different languages. In English we mark it by pitch: and we are so used to the rhetoric that Chinese has ‘tone’ and not ‘intonation’ that we try and focus on blindly copying every single word textbook perfect without listening to how it actually sounds.

2) Chinese does have intonation!!! Except that, unlike English, when you stress a word, the pitch doesn’t change, but the tone contour is exaggerated - basically the only time you will ever hear a full third tone is in isolated or very exaggerated speech. If you have a Chinese friend, get them to record a sentence like the English ‘I didn’t ask her to steal his rucksack’, and put stress on the different elements of it - I didn’t ask, I didn’t ask, I didn’t ask, and so on. Notice and copy how the tones change. When shadowing, you should always be paying attention to where the stress is in the sentence: when you speak by yourself, practicing saying a sentence neutrally, and then with stress on one component, the next, and so on. If it feels unnatural, it’s because you might not have practicised like this before - it’ll get better!

Hope that’s somewhat helpful / interesting!

- 梅晨曦

[imaginativeamateur]

[Sharing Corner] Tips on Starting a Fanfiction Blog

This post is the story of my blog and some tips for anyone that wants to start blogging! A big shout out to @rinnegankakashi for mentioning me, otherwise, this post would not exist in the first place.

I pitched the ball with the mindset to improve my English (in fact, I even put it in the description once😅😅) because I'm not a native English speaker. My story is quite funny to tell. When I started blogging, I was watching Naruto and reading others' works on Tumblr. And I thought they were amazing, and so can I. That being said, I'm amateur and can't be any more amateur😅 but I believe everyone has room for improvement.

Generally, the most important tip I can give you when starting a blog is that you must adore what you do and you must be willing to dedicate your time and energy to it. For me, looking at y'all interactions boosts my energy so much. The second most important one is that you should be able to balance things out. You shouldn't spend too much time on this and neglect other aspects of life. The third one is being persistent. My blog was quite 'uneventful' at first and I definitely felt the input wasn't matching the output. However, everything soon turned the other way and I can't be any happier right now with its current status!

More specific and technical tips👇:

Organizing your blog:

Generating a theme: Aesthetically speaking, I think you should plan how to organize your blog (masterlists, taglists, format for posts, tags, images for posts if you plan to include them, fonts, borders, colors, etc.) Even though it's solely written works, it will definitely be more interesting to work on polishing your blog's appearance, too. For my blog, I'm currently using 'Lilac' by @seychethemes. I changed some stuff around but the basics are still credited to the original creator, a huge huge thank you💖.

Setting your boundaries: Make sure to state what you write and what you are UNCOMFORTABLE❗️ writing about. In my opinion, making it clear in the first place is crucial to avoid any misunderstanding or just undesirable circumstances in the future. I put my 'boundaries' right in the Masterlist, in the Disclaimers section.

Taking request: This one totally depends on you but there's an opportunity cost to it. If you take requests, it might feel a bit pressuring sometimes, that's why having a balanced life is crucial, again. But you'll have a lot of ideas if you open requests (my readers are brilliant💖💖). I suggest if you want a mix of both, close your requests when you have received a certain number of inboxes. Hence, you can also consider opening special requests for events.

Adding a tip jar: Very necessary😝😝!

Planning your content:

Establishing a concrete structure: In my opinion, what you want to write about varies impulsively over time (mine does for sure🙃) so I make sure to have a list of formats or genres that I write for (drabbles, short series, collections, short fics, headcanons). This way, I know when to get back at times I drift away--which unfortunately happens a lot😢.

Knowing your strength: I think if you want to produce great pieces, knowing what areas that you'd shine the brightest with fanfictions is necessary. For me, I can show my full potential with fluffs, mainly corny, overly dramatic (it's cheesy but it's the truth😝😝).

Not forcing yourself: Writing is a creative process and you'll lose creativity when you're forced into it. For me, sometimes it just takes an hour to pour out pages of writing. But for other times, I'd sit for hours rewriting the same paragraph. So if you don't feel like it, just leave it aside, go do other stuff, and get back at a later time.

Coming up with ideas: As to how I came up with my ideas, I use old-school mindmaps🤓. I come up with different roles that the reader could partake in and stem off from there. For example, I'd have the reader be a childhood friend of that character and write about the moment they reunite. I think another essential strategy is to just use anything around you as an inspiration. For 'The Bracelet', I literally looked at a bracelet I won at a fair, and BOOM! a child was born😎.

Reading others' works: Read, read, read. You'll be able to learn their different styles and see what would work for your different pieces! You'd also learn more sophisticated words, too😂!

Writing your masterpiece:

Dealing with repetitive diction: It's a pain in the butt for me, especially since I'm not a native speaker so I don't really know many ways to express something. I mainly use Thesaurus for single-phrased words. And this website is the painkiller😂. There are many great resources online and even on Tumblr. Search for 'body language cheatsheet' or something along the line.

Sounding smooth: I definitely recommend reading your work out loud. It helps with identifying awkward structural issues and grammar, too. This also helps with making the dialogues less stiff.

Achieving 'the mood': To set a specific mood for your work, I personally think that paying more time to describe the setting is crucial. Choosing the right words is important, too. I recommend closing your eyes and imagining the scene before you start writing😇, really helpful for me!

P.S.: I really appreciate you for reaching this far. I just want to say thank you so much for your patience. I've been quite inactive for the past few days on Tumblr due to placement tests in school. But I'll return with some fics this weekend, hopefully!

And to prospective writer @rinnegankakashi, I'll be so glad if we can do a collab soon😙😙! And sorry for the late reply!

Have a great day, Everyone!

[omoi-no-hoka]

A friend told me that when a native Japanese comments on your Nihongo speaking by saying きれいな言葉 (kirei na kotoba), it's not really a compliment and is contrary to what the phrase literally means. If this phrase is directed to someone, what's the most polite reaction/action that the person should have/do next?

Hmm. This is a very interesting ask. I wonder if your friend is a Japanese person or a non-native speaker, because it’s not a compliment I’ve heard much. To be honest, receiving praise about my Japanese is a huge pet peeve of mine, so I’d like to delve into this topic a little bit. Let me talk about why they praise us even when all we say is a simple “arigatou,” and then how you can respond to that praise.

Note: You will see me refer to “foreigners” (a.k.a. “Non-Japanese people) as “gaijin” in this article. “Gaijin” （外人） is a truncated version of “gaikokujin” 外国人 (a person from outside of Japan). By removing the middle “koku” (country), we are left with the word gaijin, which literally translates to “outsider.”

Some people see this as an offensive term, and I am one of them. So when I use the word “gaijin,” I do it order to highlight how foreigners are truly viewed as “outsiders” in certain circumstances by certain Japanese people. 

Note 2: You are WAY more likely to receive praise if you clearly do not look Japanese. This post is told from my perspective, a girl so white she freaking glows in the dark.

Stereotypes of Gaijin Held by Japanese People

If you go to Japan and try to use Japanese, no matter how fluent or non-fluent you are, you will be complimented on your Nihongo by Japanese strangers. Japanese people are very quick to give compliments even if all you say is a simple “arigatou gozaimasu.” As a people they are polite and complimentary, and they appreciate even small gestures like you taking the time to learn “arigatou” even though you’re a tourist, for example. Some of these compliments are sincere, and other times they say it because even if your Japanese isn’t good, at least you’re trying, and they appreciate the effort. 

There are quite a few TV shows in Japan that capitalize on gaijin in Japan, such as “YOU wa nani shi ni Nippon he?” (Why did YOU come to Japan?) in which they scavenge for interesting gaijin at airports and follow them on their trips. (I was once picked up for this show, but when I was like, “Yo I’m just going back home to Hokkaido and starting up work tomorrow,” they were like, “oh, you are not the gaijin image that we want to show Japan” and ditched me lol.)

Basically, most of these shows like to capitalize on a very particular image of gaijin:

They cannot speak Japanese, or at most can only speak broken Japanese, and they certainly can’t read Japanese

They cannot use chopsticks well

They do not like/fully appreciate Japanese food, like raw fish, meat, or eggs

They generally do not understand Japanese customs. (I watched one episode about a hippie dude who was walking around Japan BAREFOOT. BAREFOOT. ENTERING SHOPS AND PLACES WITHOUT SHOES ON, FEET FILTHY. He said, “Japanese people are so nice--no one minds if I come in barefoot.” THEY DO MIND, YOU INGRATE. THEY’RE JUST TOO POLITE TO TELL YOU TO GET THE EFF OUT. Who knows how many Japanese people think that Americans think it’s okay to walk around barefoot now, even though we have “No shoes no shirt no service” signs everywhere for this very purpose!)

Only 3% of the Japanese population is non-Japanese. This means that many, many Japanese people have never met a gaijin in person and base their assumptions of us entirely off the media and the stereotypes proliferated there. 

One of the things Japanese people (and most other people in the world, for that matter) mistakenly believe is that Japanese is the hardest language in the world to learn. 

Real talk: from an unbiased, purely linguistic standpoint, there is no such thing as a “hard” or “easy” language. There is such a thing as “linguistic distance,” which measures how much one language and another differs. For example, Italian and Spanish share so much grammar and similar vocabulary that their distance is short. Conversely, there is a substantial linguistic distance between Spanish and Korean.

However, a short linguistic distance does not equal “easy to learn.” 

Japanese is quite distant from all languages other than Korean. And yeah, kanji’s a bitch. I won’t argue with you there. But from personal experience, as a native English speaker, I found German harder to learn than Japanese, despite German being much linguistically closer to my native language. It all varies from person to person. 

But many Japanese people will tell you, “Japanese is so hard, isn’t it? It’s so impressive that you can speak it. It’s the hardest language.” And then their eyeballs drop out of their sockets when you tell them that you can read tHe KaNjI as well. 

Many Japanese people are convinced that not only is Japanese the hardest language in the world, but also almost no foreigners are able to speak it. This, coupled with their culture of politeness, leads them to be quick to praise our use of Japanese, no matter how good or bad it is. 

And therein lies my pet peeve with quick praise. Just a simple “arigatou gozaimasu” and some Japanese people will fawn over how sugoi your nihongo is, and in my eyes it sort of diminishes the actual level of sugoi my nihongo is. If that makes sense lol. I guess I just wish that people would treat me like a fellow Japanese person instead of a gaijin.

Common Praise

Here are some common phrases you might hear if someone is impressed with your Japanese, listed roughly from most common to least:

日本語がとてもお上手ですね！ Nihongo ga totemo ojouzu desu ne! You are very good at Japanese!

日本語ペラペラですね！ Nihongo perapera desu ne! You’re fluent in Japanese!

日本人みたいに喋れるじゃん！ Nihonjin mitai ni shabereru jan! You can speak just like a Japanese person!

日本人より日本語喋れるじゃん！ Nihonjin yori nihongo shabereru jan! You speak Japanese better than Japanese people do!

ナマリがまったくない！ Namari ga mattaku nai! You don’t have an accent at all!

発音がきれいです！ Hatsuon ga kirei desu! Your pronunciation is beautiful!

綺麗なお言葉です。 Kireina okotoba desu. You speak beautifully.

Y’know, I don’t think I’ve ever heard that last compliment before. To me, it sounds a little...stiff. Like maybe something an employee at a store would say to the customer who is trying to talk to them, and the employee is trying to be polite, but may not be 100% sincere. Sometimes that stiff, formal Japanese hides a person’s true warmth, though, so it’s a bit hard to tell. 

How to Respond to Praise

In America, if you are praised, it is common to reply with a “Thank you,” and then you can follow that up with a sign of humility or pride, like “Thank you, but I still have a lot to learn,” or “Thank you, I’ve been studying for a few years now!”

However, in Japan, you do not thank them. Instead, you contradict them. If someone says, “You are very good at Japanese!” you are meant to say “No, I’m not at all.”

This is not only limited to praise regarding Japanese. If someone says your outfit looks cute, you should say something like, “Really? This shirt is so old it’s about to get holes in it.” If someone says you are good at sports you should say, “Oh no, I’m terribly clumsy. Today must be a lucky day.” For example.

If they continue to praise you a second time, deny it again. 

If they praise you a third time, then you can say something like, “It’s thanks to you,” or “I’ve had a lot of help to get to this point.” Basically, you make sure that you are not prideful, and you give credit to those around you.

Japanese culture appreciates humility over pride, and puts others before oneself. These two facets of culture greatly shape nearly every social interaction.

Here are some things you can say if someone praises your Japanese:

いえいえ、まだ勉強中です！ Ie ie, mada benkyou-chuu desu! No no, I’m still learning!

いえいえ、まだまだです。 Ie ie, mada-mada desu. No no, I still have a long way to go.

いえいえ、そんなことないです。 Ie ie, sonna koto nai desu. No no, not at all.

My favorite is the “benkyou-chuu” one, because I’ll be studying Japanese until the day I die. 

As an extra little thing to make you even more natural, when you say the “ie ie,” do this hand motion (and not the facial expression lol):

This little hand wave in front of the face, with the tip of your middle finger at the same height as the tip of your nose, is a Japanese hand gesture that means...man, how do I put this into words?

“No no, you are thinking too highly of me” or “No no, don’t go to such trouble for me” or “No no, I’m fine, thank you.” It’s a super handy gesture!

HAH, “handy”

Anyways. You can use this gesture when you are declining praise, but you can also use it at a restaurant, for example. Maybe a waitress asks, “Do you want another beer?” And you can give the little hand wave and a smile to mean, “I’m good, thanks.” You can also say “Kekkou desu” as you do the motion.

Hope this post was of use to you!

[soulbutterlanguages]

How to REALLY teach yourself a language Part #1

OKAY since my last few posts about learning to read have gone over so well I’m going to start a new series where I take my experiences learning a language and turn them into methodical steps to teach yourself a language.

I’ve noticed that with all the polyglot/multilingual content no one actually discusses how they acquire language, they just talk about flashcards and quizlet and I never found that very helpful.

SO for reference, I am currently conversational in both French (5 years) and German (2 years) both of which I learned in a class room setting, but I have wildly different understandings and histories of these languages. I would say, despite having spent more than twice the amount of time on French, my level in German swiftly surpassed my level in French (at least on a conversationally). I will discuss why this might be, from both a personal and an acquisitional standpoint.

I have recently started teaching myself Russian and I will be talking about how I’m doing that. 

Without further ado, here are the tools you need to teach yourself a language

(complete beginner’s) textbook/starter guide

for most major languages, there are numerous free pdf’s of material for beginners, there are also many, many websites that I’ve found that are very good

slap “beginner ______ textbook pdf” into google and you’ll probably have pages and pages of results to choose from

IMPORTANT: choose ONE guide, that’s great if you find multiple that you like and you can cross check information against each of them, but if you’re skipping back and forth between them, it’s going to fatigue you very very quickly

something to take notes on

there is evidence that shows that writing by hand helps you remember something more than typing it out and this is my recommendation

some sort of audio output

hundreds of thousands of YouTube channels are dedicated to teaching languages, I’m certain that you can find one that works for you

someone who speaks/has learned the target language

this is the trickiest for most people but it is possible to find a tutor for free. Resources like iTalki and r/Language_Exchange, even Omegle (although as always, be careful on the internet) are solid ways to get in speaking/writing/whatever

it’s important to try speaking and writing as soon as possible and getting input on your own work is absolutely crucial to the learning process

I would prefer someone who has learned your target language and can explain to you the grammar points over a random native speaker, but whatever you can find is great if it works for you

you’re going to laugh at this one but a reason to learn this language

if you’re learning it because “it sounds pretty,” the likelihood is that your motivation will run out at some point. Do you like the music? Do you like the culture? The food? The Folklore? The history? 

you need something that will reinvigorate your interest when it starts to fade

For me, I discovered German music which I ADORE, and it keeps coming out (as music often does) so every time I hear a new song I like, I want to understand it, I want to learn the words. This helps me tremendously. I guarantee that if I had never found German music, I would probably not have continued to study the language. Because “it sounds pretty” is a perfectly valid reason to get started, but is that enough to keep you going and pushing through this long-term goal?

hard goals

I like the class setting because I feel as though I am disappointing the teacher when I don’t turn things in or do poorly and that motivates me to finish my work well. I like the structure of getting assignments in

You will have so much more stamina if you say “I’m going to finish two chapters in this textbook by Monday” rather than “I’m going to be conversational by next year.” Make your goals obtainable by putting numbers on them, goals that you can check off a to-do list 

[danteinthedevildom]

So, talkin abt multilingual Mams, 

I was gonna make this post anyway but then I saw @cheerypining​​ put this in the tags of my post re: Mams’ English in his character song:

I would like to hollar out a hell yes! 

The thing with Mams is that he isn’t stupid. He’s smart as fuck, he’s just motivated by self interest and fixation. It’s easier for him to learn things that are of interest to him, or that expand his interests. He’s got that sweet, sweet ADD brain.

So, if language helps him spread out his influence, make money, expand his contacts? It’s gonna be that lil bit easier for him to figure out. It might even be a fixation of his. Learn a language; open opportunities in the place that language hails from. Gain an interest in how language works. Learn other languages bc it’s fun. 

Consider, then, if you will, for some of that tastey lore-building, 

Mams starting out learning the languages of the most influencial/opulent human powers. It’s beneficial for him to figure out how to speak their language if he really wants to get at their pockets, and you can’t really smooth talk someone if you barely understand the way their haggling works. How is anyone going to trust you if their idioms go over your head, or if you miss some slang that marks you very starkly as an outsider? It’s a lot easier if they think you’re like them; if you know the little things that’ll get them lowering their guard around you. 

He’s great with dialects, too. With differences between the upper and lower classes. It only takes one slip-up using court language around the common folk, or using the dialet of the north in the south, for him to recognise how important those divisions are. He works with trust, and the eventual corruption of that trust, and it becomes pretty clear to him pretty quick that trust can only be attained the more like his target he sounds. 

Dead languages still live on in Mammon’s brain. He’s fluent in them, and even though he hasn’t really had to use them in some time, for some reason they’ve just never faded away. You can pretty much use him as a way to track how languages changed over time, how regional variants were influenced by other languages or cultures, when various languages died out and what replaced them. 

It’s not something that he really thinks about. It was beneficial for him, so he learnt it. Beyond that, it was fun, and he enjoyed it. He doesn’t really give himself credit for just how much linguistic history he has stored inside his head, and he really doesn’t put much credit into how goddamn useful it is - or would be - for modern historians. That’s not what he’s interested in. He’s content to leave Satan to the books, to the past; he’s got more of a propensity for the practicality, anyway. 

Listening to him talk is actually pretty astounding. The ease with which he slips into each language, the depth of his understanding for even the slight nuances between regions, makes him seem like a native speaker. The speed, too, is absolutely stunning; you’ve never seen a more baffling sight than Mammon, speaking mild-mannered in Russian to a witch, switching mid-sentence into heavily-flirtatious French to order from the waitress that came to their table. It’s like he doesn’t even stumble between the two, both as natural to him as breathing. 

He has his preferences, of course. When he’s not using the language for his own goals - doesn’t need to, for instance, be careful about his word choice to ensure a bond of trust is made - he quickly slips into a dialect that is most comfortable for him. He might use ‘watashi’ or ‘ore’ when he’s on the job, might tack on the ‘gozaimasu’ to his greetings to make them polite, but when he’s just generally speaking Japanese? That’s when he starts using ‘ore-sama’, when he drops all the humble or stilted phrases; uses ‘ja ne’ instead of ‘sayounara'. That’s when, in English, he stops making sure to enunciate fully; starts shortening ‘you’ to ‘ya’, cuts off the ‘g’ from ‘ing’ words, starts peppering in ‘crap’ instead of ‘stuff’, lets his words slur together to make ‘whaddaya’ out of ‘what are you’. 

He’s naturally an informal guy! It’s just the way he prefers to talk. He hates the pompous lingo, even if it’s usually the most beneficial to learn for what he does. If the language he’s speaking has a way to show belligerent informality, he will absolutely use it whenever he can. It’s a choice, make no mistake; he can arguably speak better in most languages than the stupid high academics. He just doesn’t enjoy that crap when it’s not immediately useful to him. 

(Yes, that does mean he can comprehend even the most pompously written academic papers. No, that doesn’t mean he wants to read them. He would much sooner stab a fork into his giblets than sit down for any period of time and read that wordy bullshit. Same goes for a lot of Satan’s literature; it’s just not enjoyable for him to read, even if he can perfectly understand it.)

Sometimes a word works better in one language than another. It can get extremely frustrating for him, if he has a very specific point to get across; unless someone knows both languages, they’re never going to fully understand. And why use five words in the inefficient language when one in the efficient language would have been even better for his intent? ‘Fernweh’ works much better than ‘imagine being homesick for a place you’ve never been’, after all.  

Mams has a tendency to drop in words he likes from other languages, which makes some of his speech sound a little confusing. He doesn’t think it makes him sound smarter, and he’s not doing it to show off; just, sometimes, he thinks ‘hey’ sounds better than ‘ohayou’, or that ‘ciao’ is cooler and more aloof than ‘au revoir’. Plus, it’s kinda funny when you’re talking to someone Lucifer and you insult them in a language they don’t understand. 

(I mean, in English, we literally say stuff like “it has a little je ne sais quoi,” [it has a little something that I can’t adequately express] so we merge languages into our own in order to better express ourselves. Mams does the same. He just does it with words and phrases that aren’t always naturally used together within that language.)

Do you understand the amount of skill that comes with being able to do this without even stopping to think? He somehow manages to do it in a way that makes each sentence still perfectly fluent and understandable in translation. It’s a little incredible, actually, considering he doesn’t put any stock into this ability. It’s just natural for him. Why’s he gotta think on it more than that? 

(This does mean, the few times someone points it out, that he gets incredibly flustered. Especially if they say it in awe, or in praise. It really is just second nature to him, not even something he’s putting on for show or something that he’s trying to be good at, so being given so much positive attention for it is... well. It’s surprising, and a little nice, actually. But also genuinely embarrasing. It’s perhaps the only time he’ll struggle to find words in any language.)

In conclusion:

Hell yeah I love reinforcin the idea that Mams ain’t stupid and that there’s a lot of goddamn skill that comes with learnin languages and learnin them to such a degree you can accurately pepper their words into your speech without stoppin to think. 

[alwaysabeautifullife]

How did you learn so many languages. Do you have any tips?

Yes!!!! Yes I do!!!

Everything I wish I could tell myself before starting my language “journey” lol:

🦩Dont be intimidated

Don’t be intimidated, specifically by doing listening or speaking practice. I know in the US (or for most English speakers), when we hear someone that speaks perfect English but merely has an accent we think “they don’t speak English”, but from experience this mentality is not shared with other languages. When you know even a little bit of a language or can’t speak it very well, natives speakers are really really encouraging. I think since we view not being 100% fluent without so much as an accent, as “not knowing any of a language” we are hard on ourselves and give up pretty easily.

🦩Listening practice is as important as studying vocabulary and grammar

When you listen to native speakers talk, you are training your ear even though you don’t understand it. Listen and listen, eventually your brain stops picking out English words that aren’t even there, but rather, starts to catch patterns in the language (for example, the same words sticks out to you over and over).

🦩Set realistic and doable goals or you’ll get discouraged and quit

If you are a busy person, make small goals to fit language study in. Don’t tell yourself that you need to master _____ within a week. Instead give yourself 15 mins of reading in the evening, and 25 mins of language listening in the morning. It’s also easier to add the language into stuff you do on a daily basis anyway. For example if you are religious, find your prayers you pray daily in the language you are learning.

🦩learn to read the language first (obviously this tip might not be applicable for character based languages like Chinese)

I know everyone says “immersion is the best and most important part of language” but honestly, a lot of our native speaking knowledge comes from our literacy education. When we are taught how to read, it’s through reading we can discover new words through context. It’s also easy to pick up new language reading since it’s available anywhere, where immersion is only available when you are surrounded by native speakers. The first thing I do is learn how to read and write the language, then the entire language becomes accessible to me.

🦩Spend time perfecting the sounds of the language that are most difficult for you

The vocal sounds of a language is the foundation of a language. I know we are all impatient and want to simply learn as many phrases as possible as fast as possible, but if you get down the unfamiliar sounds of a language that don’t exist in English, you’ll have a better foundation of the language and your speaking and listening will be better from the very beginning. So take the time to practice those weird sounds by looking into the position of the tongue and where the sound comes from, from the chest to the lips. Look into how tense the mouth is, how much air comes from the lips, what the sound is like next to other sounds. When you master this speaking becomes more instinctual and it’s easier to pick up the language.

🦩Search YouTube, google, Instagram IN THE LANGUAGE YOU ARE STUDYING.

Don’t search “korean music” or “korean kids tv” or even “korean vegetables” in google. Just translate how to say them in a translator app, then copy and paste them into the search bar. This way native korean information, videos, posts will come up. For example, if you’re in the mood for some horror comics, and want to read/watch them in the language you are learning, go to the translator app, and figure out how to say them, then search it. It works way better, even if the translation isn’t correct or more natural, you’ll still get the information, posts, and videos you want to see.

🦩Find ways to practice speaking the language (I use HiNative) and don’t be discouraged by corrections.

Getting corrected does not mean you’re wrong, corrections are the most useful part of learning a language. If you are the type of person who is sensitive to criticism, you need to remind yourself corrections are NOT criticism. They are NOT a reflection of your progress, they are NOT you failing! You will always be corrected as a language learner and the sooner you are gentle with yourself in learning the sooner you will learn more. Get those first corrections out of the way, allow yourself to butcher pronunciation, get corrected for the first 10 times, let it sting a little and move on. Eventually you will be begging native speakers to tell you every little detail in where you went wrong!

🦩Tv and Books seems to be more useful for immersion and listening practice then music does

So far in my experience music is its very weird and abstract, and the things said in music aren’t really useful in speaking? It’s good for gathering vocab, but if you want music listening practice that’s music based try searching for rap in that language, although obviously you’ll be picking up a lot of informal language in music/rap. Tv shows however are typically how people really do talk, so turn off English subs and just listen! Books are really useful for learning new vocabulary, but sometimes written language is different than spoken (often), although when you speak it the way you’ve learned from a book the worst you’ll sound is “formal and poetic”.

🦩Look up “insert language you are learning phrases and words that aren’t useful or correct”

There so many programs and books that teach you phrases you’ll never use or that are only appropriate in very specific situations. I don’t know why language programs do this, but learning which ones are weird or only in specific settings before you start learning really helps. Chinese Especially does this...like I learned so many phrases and words that natives will never use and have no purpose???

🦩Know the different subjects of learning a language and which apps to use for that

Everyone uses Duolingo, but this app alone won’t make you speak a language. Duolingo and Memrise are great for memorizing vocab, but, is it vocab that in the context of your reading and listening practice? Are you learning words you are hearing and reading all the time? Duolingo is a lot of fun but I feel like the vocab is so broad and it doesn’t go deep enough into the language. Feel free to use it at first to get used to the sounds of the language, but try using flash card apps like quizlet or Anki instead where you can write down and study words you are hearing constantly. Memrise does have actually study sets for many language books and lessons! So you can study words you are hearing in specific programs and books which is pretty useful in regards to vocab.

There obviously is more than just learning vocab. What about grammar, listening practice, speaking practice and reading? If you are wanting to use primarily apps find out which apps are available for your language. Here is an example of the apps I use for each subject. Be aware some languages are not available on them.

Vocab: quizlet, anki

Grammar: books (printed or kindle), YouTube grammar lessons, websites

Reading: books (printed or kindle), beelinguapp, instagram (posts that have text), Netflix/YouTube with both subtitles in the language you are learning and spoken in language you are learning, epic app

Writing: just use paper and pencil/pen

Listening: audio books (beelinguapp/epic/kindle/YouTube), tv and movies (Netflix/YouTube etc with no English subs), conversations on YouTube (search in language you are studying, don’t search “Spanish conversations” or “Japanese conversations”)

Speaking: HiNative (pretty much all I use since it’s all languages, quick, and you get immediately answered and corrected by native speakers), get friends in language you are learning through lots of apps

Translator: it’s really hard to find a good one, most of them are really weird so only use them for words and the most basic or simple phrases and sentences, otherwise use HiNative to ask native speakers directly, or ask people on the apps that connect you to native speakers

🌱I should note that for talking to native speakers I only like HiNative, since it’s built to NOT be a form of social networking at all. It’s not personal in anyway, and there’s no way to private message or speak to other users outside a asking questions publicly. The people on there are only about learning or teaching a language, not usually making friends. I’ve found the sites that are built to make native speaking friends aren’t useful to me personally, as most of the native speakers are either dudes looking for a woman to date or people wanting to only practice English with you, so they wasted a lot of my study time. People who are willing to help you learn are there, but it takes time to filter everything else out. If you would find it helpful to make friends by all means use them but I don’t really use it myself.🌱

You don’t want to really study EVERY SUBJECT every single day (unless you have the time). It can get really overwhelming, and you don’t really absorb information that if you are just cramming. While I would say it’s good to read and listen daily, spread subjects out over the week. Grammar on Monday and Friday, vocab on Tuesday and Thursday. Take one day to review all of what you’ve learned all week. Pick a day you have the largest block of free time. Bi-weekly works fine too.

I have an old post on how I organize my study time for multiple languages: https://alwaysabeautifullife.tumblr.com/post/182817883372/what-do-you-use-to-learn-your-languages-im

🦩Write sentences daily of everything you’ve learned (no THIS I RECOMMEND DAILY)

Write as many as you can. Use all the grammar you’ve learned, the words you’ve learned, everything! Write them in your notes and submit them to be corrected in HiNative. The sentences they correct, put them in flash cards!

🦩It’s ok to abandon languages you aren’t passionate in

So you’ve learned to read the language, and you know basic phrases, and now you just don’t want to do it anymore. If you can’t think of any reason to maintain it and don’t know why you are studying it, learning some of the language is good! Fluency does NOT need to be everyone’s goal. You can hold a conversation, and that’s good enough for you. Feel free to try out various languages, there will be one or some that really are your passion, it’s fine to have the goal of fluency in those and conversational in others.

Don’t abandon languages however because you feel discouraged. Discouragement is just a bump to get over, when you train your brain to maintain study habits through the days you feel discouraged, you make it habitual. Habits are harder to break and abandon! Evaluate your reasonings for wanting to speak a language, and your reasons for abandoning them if you want. Don’t let difficulty, disorganized, discouragement, or poor time management get in your way!!

🦩With all that said it’s ok to take breaks

It’s ok to get overwhelmed and take breaks from language learning. If you can still maintain what you’ve learned by listening to music in your language or staying connected in some way that’s good, but the “you’ll loose a language” isn’t entirely true. I’ve taken year long breaks and refreshing what I learned previously is pretty easy! Your brain really does go “oh yeah I do remember this!” when you’re studying information you studied years ago.

🦩Be gentle with yourself

Be gentle with yourself. People that claim to be fluent in 6 months are selling something or want to be an influencer. Don’t compare yourself to them. Language learning even for natives is a lifetime education. It’s not something you do for 6 months then stop. It’s continual and that looks different for everyone (yes native speakers included). Don’t bother watching YouTube videos on how to learn in 10 mins or 3 months, you’ll only get discouraged about your own amazing progress and all the work you’ve done.

🦩Plan your “can you say something in it” phrase now

This one is just for fun but after hearing you are learning a language the first thing you’ll get asked is “oh cool you speak (insert target language here)? Can you say something in (insert target language here)?” It does not matter what level of fluency you are at, you will absolutely forget the entire language and your own native language when you are asked this because it sends your brain to another dimension. So think of some funny phrases to say to people who ask, master them, then when they ask what they mean you can have a laugh. Other wise you will say something stupid of jumbled words (my go to was ‘we women are fruit’ for some reason thanks brain you’re incredible) you’ve learned that don’t belong in a sentence, or even worse you’ll run a blank and you’ll just look at them like:

🍳👄🍳

So think of inside jokes to tell your friends, funny phrases, even goofy insults! Memorize them and tell them at your friends and family to torture them because they can’t escape sound waves! It’s a good way to memorize the language but also to become confortable speaking it!

Please excuse any errors I don’t wanna go over my mistakes so pretend u can’t see them 🙈