#im gonna write it as headcanon and worldbuilding but a lot of this is based on the timeline and game itself so u decide

[theriverpointace]

i have this h2g2 headcanon that i'm really rather fond of. im gonna talk about it.

okay so first of all, ford has to be able to speak english. which means that he learned how to speak english. and no, i refuse to believe that betelgeusian Just So Happens to work exactly like english, wow what a weird and useful coincidence! because (a) that's just lazy worldbuilding, and (b) we have at least one word in betelgeusian that translates into english: ford's name, ix. "ix" isn't a given name, it's a betelgeusian word given to ford as a nickname because he couldn't say his own name—and, presumably, neither could anybody around him.

i say that ford has to be able to speak english because he lived for fifteen years on a planet full of people without babel fish in their ears. if he came down and started babbling in betegeusian, he would have had a very different experience here. so he either learned english before hitching a ride to earth (highly unlikely, imo, considering how little a role earth plays in the galaxy—i doubt any earth language is too well-known in the wider galaxy), or he had to learn english when he first arrived. this latter is also backed up, to me, by the fact that ford was a bit careless in his original research. i just feel like he would have done the same thing as when he chose a name: get it almost right, but just a little bit off.

i do think ford picks up languages really quickly. in most parts of the galaxy, it doesn't matter if he can speak a language or not, since babel fish are pretty readily available, and everybody has one. however, because babel fish are so readily available, there's no need for a universal language that everybody speaks. the babel fish only work for your ears, not your eyes, so somebody as well-traveled as ford would, by necessity, pick up some basics in a lot of different languages. these basics probably include primarily what you'll find on menus and in travel ports, if i had to guess. (maybe there's some kind of companion to the guide, a hitchhiker's dictionary. maybe that's part of the guide? idk.)

but aside from the necessity of being able to read at least bits and pieces of many languages when one hitchhikes, i think ford does it to make up for not knowing his dad's praxibetel. so what, he never learned the dialect his father loved. so what, he couldn't ever learn to say his own name. so what, he killed his own father/uncle by doing so. so what?? he's gonna learn every other language in the galaxy, just to prove that he can. he's running around the galaxy, convinced that if he can write an article about a planet and know its dialects well enough to read and write them, then what happened to him won't ever happen to anybody else.

and that leads me to my next conclusion: that ford speaks accented english. obviously, everybody does, but i rather like the idea that the way he talks on earth—and possibly, everywhere else—always strikes everybody around him as different. everything else about him does—why shouldn't his voice? so yeah my ford doesn't have a british accent.

but of course, once they're off earth, up in space, once arthur has a babel fish, there's no need for ford to speak english anymore, so he returns to his native betelgeusian ... which leads to a rather surprised arthur going, "ford, what the hell happened to your accent?!"

because since ford isn't speaking a language arthur already knows, the babel fish has to translate his speech now! and i suppose i don't think the babel fish translates accents. like, i guess i don't totally understand how the babel fish works (am i meant to?) but ... i don't know. i think the fish eats up sound waves and what it excretes is something the user can understand based on what's already in their mind. that is to say, arthur, who grew up british and with british accents, hears anything the babel fish as to translate in a british accent. so when ford stops speaking accented but understandable english, and starts speaking a language arthur doesn't know, the babel fish translates with a british accent because that's just what's in arthur's mind.

tl;dr ford picks up languages really easily because he's got something to prove to his dead dad, he speaks english, and it confuses the hell out of arthur when he stops speaking english because the babel fish doesn't translate accents. this is one of my favorite headcanons about ford.

[jasperlion]

The Valentian Calendar

The calendar used in Valentia was approved by Mila when made by a sage, and it became the first year of the Valentian Calendar (as such, years in that calendar will be written #vc).

They divide their year not in month, but in seasons:               Flostym ↔ Spring               Avistym ↔ Summer               Pegastym  ↔ Fall               Wyrmstym  ↔ Winter

The game itself will not cycle through the seasons as you grind due to how the game events are set. Alm’s journey is meant to begin on the first of Flostym, 401vc. It is then meant to end on an undetermined date on Flostym of the year after that (402vc). As such, the seasons will not end naturally in the game, going on to a ridiculous amount of days because instead they cycle through chapter based on programming.

Knowing this is how the game was designed, we have no way of knowing how long the seasons last officially. However, there are some things we do know:            ->The Valentian year begins at the start of spring            ->The story events take place during the course of an entire year, ending on the same season, but not the same day.            ->Alm sets out in spring. Celica sets out in summer. They meet up in the castle right after it’s been retaken, and so technically Alm retook Zofia Castle in Avistym.

Basing myself on real world dates on when the seasons begin and end, I have chosen to elect a static date for them for Valentia to make things easier, and so the dates will be as follows:

1st of flostym - march 21 | flostym lasts 92 days 1st of avistym - june 21 | avistym lasts 94 days 1st of pegastym - september 23 | pegastym lasts 90 days 1st of wyrmstym - december 22 | wyrmstym lasts 89 days*

*During a leap year, wyrmstym would have 90 days.

This is the date cycle this blog will function in when referring to the Valentian calendar, and so Alm would probably only celebrate the begining of the year on March 21st and so forth.

Because we know the Zodiac exists in Valentia and Archanea both (particularly, the western Zodiac), I have decided to base the ‘months’ upon them, as they all suit the seasons (Aries begins at the start of spring spring, Cancer heralds the start of summer, and so forth). Being seasonal divisions, they will serve their purpose here to mark the ‘period of season’ in which Valentia is undergoing (start | mid | end).

As Valentians write dates with basis on season and not ‘month’, these ‘months’ are instead delegated as modifiers for the season. I’ve decided to make their date nomenclature as follows:

# of [season], #vc (star sign) | 10th of Flostym, 401vc (Aries) 

real world equivalent as an example: 10th of Spring, 2019 (March)

Of course, it’s not a true equivalent, for march and aries aren’t the same month (they don’t occupy the same timespan), but you get the picture. The modifier basically lets the reader know what part of the season it’s in at a glance, similar but opposite of how, in Japan, dates are sometimes written as this:

31st of March, 2019 (Spring)

But the function of the month and season is flipped.

This is currently a work in progress, but you can see the dates specifics on this page custom page (mobile users, I apologize, you will likely be unable to see it unless you open the link on a browser and not the app). More will be detailed as I figure out how I want to display the information. PS: Apologies, there’s currently no scroller in place for the sections, so its gonna look wonky and some info is going to be cut off. It IS a work in progress and I have little time to finish the code I want to do for it, sorry in advance. If you’re having this problem on a wide browser window, making it small enough will make the sections take up more space each, making it all visible, so that’s a workaround until I finish my code.

Anyway thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[bmpmp3]

how do you find lancelot's route so far? :3

its cool~ to be honest i went in this game with like….the lowest expectations ‘cause I heard the character writing wasn’t as good as ikesens and so far yeah orz i honestly know very little about these dudes other than whatever nonsense my brain is headcanoning with the smallest bits of info (im TRYING TO CHILL ON THAT but goddamn man the arts so good and everything has…potential….theyre all little well drawn blobs of potentiaaaaaal) but eh im only 10 days in so things will probably changeikesen grabbed me by the balls in like three days but thats actually extremely unusual for me for a ticket based game, games that force me to play by their schedule instead of my own (very slow qwq) schedule are always at a disadvantage compared to games where you buy a route or the whole game for a set price and you just have it now just ‘cause of the person i am, ikesen’s actually the only ticket based f2p game ive actually played more than one route of oofso im definitely gonna give a chance and try to play at least two routes, theres still like 17 parts left to go so maybe things will change~

god i adore lancelots design tho (alsoO I THINK HIS CHARACTR WOULD BE SO INTERESTING…if i could just see it blease cybird hes like barely been in his own route orz lemme see that EGDELORD) 

i guess part way through this i stopped talking about lancelots route in particular and more of the game as a whole but i also wish the card system was like an actual system ‘cause the art….is so PRETTY and i ADORE IT but im currently not super invested in the card game aspect, or maybe it woulda been better without it entirely i feel like a very story heavy f2p game is usually better off without cards, and card based f2p games are usually better with shallower stories and more emphasis on gameplay, at least in my opinion

so far the only real thing drawing me to the game other than the art is how horny i get for potential even when im 80% sure nothing as wild or ridiculous as what i hope will happen will happen, but gODdamn i feel like the characters could be so interesting and i think they could explore a lot of neat stuff and i dunno man im latching on to any glimpse of worldbuilding theyre throwing at me im starving cybird bleaseits kinda a bummer so far right now ‘cause the only character i really feel attached to through the game (rather than whatever nonsense my brains hoping) is Alice 2.0 herself qwqof course like i said before im only 10 days in so anything can change lol

but yeah i dunno what im talking about or if any of that makes sense im sorry i should go to sleep goODNIGht