#it is so hard to learn a language

[rosegoldthorns]

I am a person with a large vocabulary (in English)

I tend to use larger and more pretentious words because I like the way they sound and it's my humor. Words like rebuttal, amiable, quite, sustainable, appease able in my regular day to day conversations.

However with all this in mind, if I know another person has English as a second language AND are still learning, I would not hesitate to use a much more common vocabulary. If they are really new I would slow my speech, enunciate the important words and use basic sentence structure. To me this is common courtesy. I wouldn't assume by an accent or anything but, most of the time this works well.

Now, what I cannot for the life of me understand is how it is more acceptable for me to do this to a Child than a new English speaker.

I have had people ask me to not use bigger words around kids because they don't understand but those same people will mock those who are struggling with English. I do not get it. Kids need to soak in words. I got a large vocabulary by soaking it in from the adults around me.

Bottom line: kids need to be exposed to a large vocabulary. Adult foreign language learners are already trying as hard as they can, cut them some slack

[oobbbear]

I want to post this here too because I’ve seen it happen a few times

Please understand that there are cultural differences and language differences, if you see this happening let the person clarify what they meant, that person might just not be familiar with words the western side of the internet use

[hinamie]

playing around w slightly different hair renders

[htub]

I really like that they made Jor-El speak Kryptonian and Clark unable to understand him. The whole "aliens speak English" thing that happens in every goddamn media has bothered me all my life. Ik sometimes Clark just gets zapped in the brain for insta-second language but that always felt like a cheap shortcut.

Jor-El had a lot on his mind when he set up that magic spaceship okay. The world was ending and he was trying to do as much as he could before time ran out so he could be there for his son. He was rushing. He likely didn't consider Kal would be raised with a whole different language and not know any Kryptonian nor have anyone to teach him.

[eddis-not-eeddis]

How To Stop Killing Conversations

Talking is hard. People are confusing. Making friends is difficult, and interacting with coworkers is tortuous.

You want to make friends, you want to reach out, but it's hard and every time you start a conversation it dies, or limps along until both you and the person you're talking to are looking for excuses to kill it and put it out of it's misery so you can both escape the increasingly awkward situation.

As an introvert who has suffered a lot of social anxiety in my time, let me share a few tricks I've learned over the years going through hundreds and thousands of excruciatingly painful conversations until I found something that works. I've kind of distilled the process.

ALWAYS ASK A QUESTION!!!

The first thing is to always leave your partner an opening. You need to let each other talk for a conversation to get off the ground, but it's more than that, really. You need to actively encourage each other to talk. The best way to do that is to ask questions.

Here are two examples of an introduction: Example A

You: Hello.

Them: Hello.

You: Nice to meet you.

Them: Nice to meet you too.

Example B

Y: Hello, nice to meet you, how are you? T: I’m doing well, yourself?

Y: I've been really well. How are you liking the weather?

T: I'm so happy the weather's finally getting cooler, I'm looking forward to pumpkin spice season. Do you like lattes?

Do you see how in Example A the conversation wasn’t going anywhere? It just kinda died, because there weren’t any openings for new topics, whereas in Example B, there were openings to keep the conversation going.

But what do you do if your conversation partner is as socially inept as you were two minutes ago and doesn't play along? All is not lost.

Example C

Y: Hello, so nice to meet you, how have you been doing?

T: I'm doing well.

Y: That's great, are you enjoying the nice weather, then?

T: Yeah. I'm glad it's finally fall, I'm looking forward to pumpkin spice lattes.

Y: I love pumpkin spice lattes! Pumpkin spice anything, really. I recently got the best pumpkin spice candle at the shop down the road, have you been there?

Even if they don't leave you an opening, you can usually make one. It may be difficult, especially when they don't give you much to work with. This is where having a go-to script is a life-saver--me, I always default to talking about the weather, so when in doubt, you can do that.* The important thing right now is to keep fostering the conversation, so once you bring up the weather, segue into a question. When they answer the question, make a brief comment or observation from your own experience and build off of that comment or observation to ask another question.

"But I don't want to make it about me. Doing that's bad, right?"

This is why that questions are important. If you haven't been asked a question, you kinda have to make it about you, you don't have a choice. But to keep from being an attention hog, follow up your shared experience or anecdote with another question.

Example D

T: I love pumpkin spice lattes

Y: Me too. I had the best pumpkin spice latte the other day at the cafe down the road, have you ever been there?

Now you've circled the conversation back around to them again, and you aren't taking the limelight. Sharing an experience is so important, you're trying to show that you understand, that you sympathize, that you relate.**

This really is the most important element of being a good conversationalist. You have to keep asking questions.

The one other thing I will touch on is introductions. DO NOT get into turn based combat.

Example E

Y: Hello

T: Hello

Y: Nice to meet you

T: Nice to meet you too.

Y: How are you doing?

T: I'm fine. You?

Y: Me too.

This will kill any possibility of continuing a conversation. Instead, get it all out of the way all at once, if at all possible.

Example F

Y: Hi, it's nice to meet you, how are you doing?

This is good, but this is better

Example G

Y: Hi, nice to meet you, how are you liking the weather?

Don't ask how they are doing, or if you do, before they can answer, follow it up with your placeholder (weather etc.) so they have to say some thing like

Example H

T: I'm fine, and I'm really liking the weather.

or

T: Not so great, the weather sucks.

Either of those options are much easier to work with than your basic "I'm fine."

Usually, if you can get past the introduction, you can get a conversation going. And then, even if you don't end up hitting it off with the person you're talking with, you at least don't leave the conversation feeling like you've died a thousand tiny deaths.

In fact, if you get past that introduction, you may have just made yourself a friend.

Remember folks, basically everyone around you is more afraid of you than you are of them, and in this benighted age no one has been taught conversation skills, so we are all pretty much in the same boat. (Unless you were born an extrovert, in which case we are all deeply envious and would probably kill you if we didn't need you in our sad and lonely lives so much.)

Have grace for one another, and for yourselves because talking with people is difficult.

Go forth, and stop killing conversations.

*If you are one of those awful people who likes to brag about how you hate small talk and only want to talk about important and meaningful things, I have one question: Do you ever have a conversation that lasts long enough to become meaningful? I thought not. Small talk is an important skill. Develop it.

**This is how you deal with sad or difficult situations too. When you want to show you sympathize with someone going through a hard time.

Example:

Y: How are you doing?

T: Not very well. My dog died last week.

Y: Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. My own dog died last year and I still miss her a lot. How are you handling it?

Now you've circled the conversation back around to them again. You aren't making it about you.

If y'all want, next time I can share how to extricate yourself from a conversation.

[benkyoutobentou]

LGBTQ+ Japanese Media for Pride Month

Happy pride month! There's no better time to read and watch queer media than June. I tend to read and watch mostly queer content, so I thought I'd drop some things that I've enjoyed over the years for those looking for something that they maybe haven't picked up before. Since lots of Japanese media tends to have multiple versions and adaptations, I'll be organizing this by representation rather than type of media. The version(s) that I've personally seen or read will be bolded. This will also be a little bit different from my usual Japanese media recommendation posts, as I will also be including media that I've read in English or watched with English subtitles. This is also an invitation for anyone to recommend things to me, especially ones that have LGBT rep outside of just gay and lesbian characters. I'm always looking for more stuff to enjoy!

MLM

同級生/Classmates (manga/anime movie): Two seemingly opposite boys meet during the choir festival at their all boys' school and develop a relationship. How could this not be the very first thing I recommend? This is one of my all time favorite BL series and one of my favorite movies as well. Seriously, I watch this at least three times per year (once being during June!). Nakamura Asumiko is one of my favorite manga artists, and this won't be the last series of hers on this list.

ひだまりが聴こえる/I Hear the Sunspot (manga/movie): This follows a college student who agrees to become the designated note taker for a deaf classmate. I love this series and one of my favorite things about it is how much the romance takes a backseat to other things happening in the characters lives. It also has a large cast of deaf characters! If you're looking for something with representation outside of only LGBT and doesn't focus too much on romance, this is a really great choice.

30歳まで童貞だと魔法使いになれるらしい/Cherry Magic! 30 Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard (manga/drama/anime): After waking up on his thirtieth birthday, a businessman discovers that he has gained the ability to read minds. And with that, he discovers that his male coworker has a crush on him. For such a zany concept, this series is very cute and sweet. It's also always nice to see something that follows older characters (ie. not high school or college).

美しい彼/My Beautiful Man (novel/drama/manga): This follows a social outcast who ends up falling in love with a boy in the friend group of his high school bullies. This isn't a sweet and heartwarming romance at all, but it's also not pure toxicity. The drama is extremely bingeable and the author is a juggernaut in the BL light novel community for a reason.

消えた初恋/My Love Mix Up (manga/drama): Due to an eraser mishap, a boy admits to having feelings for another boy in order to save his actual crush from embarrassment. This series is The Blueprint for me in terms of romcoms. It does everything right for me and the characters especially stand out. It covers topics from discovering your identity and first love to dealing with homophobia and it does it all spectacularly. I also think that the manga does visual humor extremely well.

スリーピングデッド/Sleeping Dead (manga): After being stabbed to death on a routine patrol, a popular high school teacher wakes up on a metal table. I have no words [words]. This is definitely up there in my favorites, I love it so much. If you like queer horror, this is definitely one you need to pick up. I also found it very funny and the characters were extremely charming.

僕らの地球の歩き方/Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide (manga): A couple decides to travel the world together, promising that they'll get married upon their return to Japan. Probably my all time favorite manga ever. I love every single thing about this, especially how much this series loves the queer community. This manga is overflowing with love in all ways, and I'm overflowing with love for this manga.

きのう何食べた？/What Did You Eat Yesterday? (manga/drama): This series is basically just snippets of a gay man's daily life. He likes to cook. And you know what? It's all the better for it. This series is award winning and such a great time. The main character is so relatable and it covers some great LGBT+ topics. Honestly, it's a crime that I haven't seen the drama yet.

WLW

独り舞/Solo Dance (novel): After a violent encounter, a Taiwanese woman makes the choice to move to Japan. When reading this, I saw it mention Qiu Miaojin's Notes of a Crocodile, which I had just bought, and now that I've finally read it, I can easily see the influences that Qiu's works had on this one. This is a tough book to get through emotionally, but ultimately a worthwhile read, especially if you're looking for something more on the literary side.

ささやくように恋を唄う/Whisper Me a Love Song (manga/anime): A girl confesses to an upperclassman that she loves her music, but the upperclassman misunderstands it as a true confession of love. I adore this series and the relationships in it. It has a huge cast of female characters and also has a driving plot outside of just the romance. I'm a sucker for series about music and this one is one of my favorites.

あさがおと加瀬さん/Kase San and Morning Glories (manga/anime movie): A shy gardener and a popular track star become friends and begin dating. This series is so cute! It feels like a GL staple to me and is one I've been following for practically as long as I've been reading manga in Japanese. It also has a sequel series called 山田と加瀬さん/Yamada and Kase San which follows the two of them after high school.

メジロバナの咲く/A White Rose in Bloom (manga): After not being able to go home for Christmas, a girl is stuck in her boarding school with one other student, who seems to not like her. This is another one by Nakamura Asumiko and there's something about her writing which always sucks me in. I can't get enough of this series, it has wonderful vibes, impeccable art, and I just want more and more of the characters.

欠けた月とドーナッツ/Donuts Under a Crescent Moon (manga): This series is a slice of life following two coworkers and their growing relationship. It's very slow burn and puts a lot more emphasis on the feelings of coming into and realizing your sexuality as an adult and dealing with compulsory heterosexuality. I really loved this series and how it focused on issues surrounding but not directly related to the central romance.

気になってる人が男じゃなかった/The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy At All (manga): A girl develops a crush on a worker at a music store after bonding over their shared love of music. Little does she know, he's actually the girl who sits next to her in class. This manga has taken the world by storm to the point of having a collaboration with Nirvana, and let me tell you it deserves every bit of hype you've heard about it. The art and characters are both stunning and is absolutely worth the read.

ハロー、メランコリック！/Hello, Melancholic! (manga): A talented trombonist enters a high school without a wind band, but is scouted anyway by a drummer looking for a new member to join her combo band. This is another one where the romance takes a backseat to other stuff in the plot, can you tell that I love that sort of thing? I also really loved the ways they talked about music in here, and I could definitely relate to it as a musician myself. Apparently, all the chapter titles are songs as well.

さよならローズガーデン/Goodbye, My Rose Garden (manga): A young woman moves from Japan to England to find her favorite author and is hired on as a maid. Her boss agrees to help her find this author so long as she agrees to help her with a grisly task. This is another really lovely series with gorgeous art. Set in the Victorian era, this does have some time period appropriate homophobia but overall it didn't strike me as a very dark manga.

Transgender

彼らが本気で編むときは、/Close Knit (movie): A young girl goes to live with her uncle and his transgender girlfriend. This movie is so sweet and cute! I watched it a couple years back now, but I feel like a lot of specific scenes have stuck with me. This is definitely a good heartwarming Pride month movie night candidate.

不可解なぼくのすべてを/Love Me For Who I Am (manga): A nonbinary teen is offered a job at a crossdressing cafe run by a classmate's family. Although this series has a cast with multiple LGBT identities, I chose to include it here because the main theme seems to revolve around gender. I do recommend this series if you're looking for a cute and sweet story about gender issues, but I did have some hesitations about the way lesbians are portrayed in this manga.

ボーイミーツ��リア/Boy Meets Maria (manga): A boy who dreams of being an actor falls in love at first sight with a girl he sees dancing in his high school entrance ceremony, only to later find that she is actually a boy in his class. I feel like I always need to preface any recommendation for this manga by saying that a lot of people took issue with the way certain things and tropes are handled in this regarding being transgender. I personally didn't find it transphobic but I'm also just one person and can't speak for every nonbinary person out there. Regardless, I really enjoyed this. Be aware of trigger warnings when going into this one, it gets extremely graphic.

ボーイズ・ラン・ザ・ライオット/Boys Run the Riot (manga): Two high school boys bond over their shared love of fashion and start a brand together. I read this one a while back and never ended up finishing it but I do remember enjoying what I read! It's also by a transgender mangaka!

放浪息子/Wandering Son (manga/anime): This is a slice of life coming of age series that follows a middle school friend group revolving around two transgender friends. It's more of a slow paced series and a little bit on the more depressing side. The anime is also award winning and the manga was nominated!

星合の空/Stars Align (anime): This is a sports anime about a middle school boys' soft tennis team. I always hesitate to recommend this one because it was greenlit for a twenty four episode anime then cut down to twelve episodes during production. Rather than condense the story, the creator chose to animate only the first half of the series, so it's perpetually unfinished. Despite that, I still think it was a really wonderful anime and I would really love to see the rest of it one day because so much good stuff was set up!

Other/Multiple

しまなみ誰そ彼/Our Dreams at Dusk (manga): A gay teen is about to commit suicide after being outed to his classmates but sees a mysterious person jump from a balcony, which then leads him to a drop in center for LGBT people. I cannot say enough good things about this manga, it is phenomenal and is always my go-to for anyone looking for queer manga. It's heartfelt and beautiful and written by another one of my favorite mangaka, Kamatani Yuhki, who also happens to be X gender!

ヒラエスは旅路の果て/Hiraeth: The End of the Journey (manga): After the death of her best friend, a young girl decides to join a forgotten god and an immortal man on their journey to find death. Another Kamatani manga! This manga deals more with grief and mortality rather than queer identities, but if you want something with casually queer characters, this one is worth picking up. Also, this is one of only two manga to ever make me cry, and boy did I ugly cry at this one.

恋せぬふたり/Two People Who Can't Fall in Love (drama): Though I haven't watched this one, it's been on my radar for quite a while and I've heard so many good things. It's also harder to find series that have explicit aroace representation. This is about a woman who feels ostracized by her lack of romantic interest in anyone around her until she finds a blog about asexuality.

わたしは壁になりたい/I Want to Be a Wall (manga): This series is a marriage of convenience plot between an asexual BL fangirl and a gay man who never got over his childhood crush. I loved the relationship between the two characters and the depiction of a nontraditional family that still has love within it, even if it's not romantic.

Bonus- Music

I'm not one to look much in to the person behind the music, so I often don't know much about band members or singers of the music I listen to. However, there are two wonderful transgender artists that I listen to regularly in Japanese and couldn't pass up the opportunity to share their works with the world! Nakamura Ataru is a pop singer who also takes inspiration from traditional Japanese music. I love her enka styled songs such as 廃墟の森! The other artist is a bit more popular, and that's the rock band QUEEN BEE, whose lead singer is the incredibly talented Avu Chan. Avu Chan also voiced Inu Oh in one of my favorite movies, Inu Oh, which isn't (explicitly) queer, but is definitely worth watching anyways, even if just to hear Avu Chan's insane vocal abilities.

And so, those are (just a few) of my recommendations for Japanese queer reads to celebrate Pride month! If you have any recommendations for me, regardless of whether it's a movie or novel or manga or other, I would love to hear them!

[canisalbus]

I want you to know that your art is very important to me, and I'm very invested in all of the characters I have seen from you. Also, the discussion about Finnish and other languages having gendered words or not has been the last little push to get me to start learning Finnish which I think is fun.

I'm making this a little compilation post of all the language asks I got. Thank you for sharing, this was genuinely really interesting!

[inthewychelm]

ive been thinking about hard of hearing steve, who started losing his hearing after starcourt, the scoops troops are the first to find out because of how attached they are, robin erica and dustin all insist on steve learning to sign but he's insecure about learning a new language so they slowly learn and start teaching him

after vecna, eddie gets adopted to their little group and starts picking up on the signs and learning on his own, still struggles to hold a conversation, esp with the likes of robin or dustin, but he atleast knows simple words and phrases enough to communicate, eddie also gets into the habit of signing ILY to steve before he leaves, except steve rarely studies asl on his own most of what he remembers is from robin/erica/dustin, who never thought to teach him that specific sign, so steve just thinks eddie is just being a metalhead throwing up a 'rock on' gesture, hes still absolutely endeared by eddie doing this but he doesn't realize that eddie saying he loves him everyday, what follows is a ridiculous amount of pining where only steve doesn't know because everyone else know what that sign means, he only finds out because after gossiping with robin(who has tried to tell steve that its reciprocated) about eddie, erica interupts their convo by telling steve that eddie tells him he loves steve everyday (that clown is so obviously in love with you, how are you still pining? you're supposed to be a expert, steve?)

(edit 07/23: this fic is now on ao3)

[sapphoismymuse]

"linguistics is my passion!! i love languages!!"

what do you mean there are multiple different runic systems. what do you mean the runes in The Hobbit are completely different from the runes in Lotr. what do you mean i have to learn a completely different runic system now.

[shit-talker]

Had a vision of Charles playing violin

Capturing someone's likeness is so hard 😭 like I'm happy with how it turned out, but it just doesn't look like Charles to me someone help

[djsherriff-responses]

Bullfrog: This time of year reminds me of when the assassin brotherhood were all lost and I became the sole survivor of the entire creed

British branch of the Assassins creed: QUIT TELLING EVERYONE WE’RE DEAD

Bullfrog, who is French: les salauds britanniques ne comptent pas

[whatwooshkai]

for the smoke & mirrors ask - have you had 16 yet?

"You do it! You're the leader!"

"I am not asking! Boulder, you ask."

"Okay-"

"Actually, nevermind. This is stupid. I'll just use my hoses-"

"No! You are not spraying me in the face again, you almost broke my optics-"

"Oh shut up, you were fine!"

"Barely!"

"Blades is correct, that level of pressure-"

"Stay out of this, Chase!"

"Seriously, guys, I don't mind asking-"

Cody sighs, lowering the lift all the way down before the rescue bots break out into an all out brawl. Five minutes of listening to them bicker and yet he still has no idea what they want.

"Hey guys!" he announces, and every helm snaps over. Cody is suddenly aware of the size difference. "Whatcha talkin' 'bout?"

The rescue bots' gazes flit between Cody and each other, seemingly having a silent conversation before Boulder pipes up and says, "We want you to wash our faces."

"Huh?"

"Our faces," Chase repeats. "We would like you to wash them."

"Yeah, I heard," Cody says, giving them a lopsided smile. "I just wanna know why."

"Well, back on Cybertron you'd have to go to a detailer to get your face properly cleaned," Blades explains. "Lots of small seams, big servos, it's not exactly easy to do it yourself. But we figured, since your servos are so small...?"

None of the rescue bots are looking at him. Boulder is very interested in their hands, Blades is scuffing his feet, Heatwave is tapping a beat on his arm that makes Chase's finials flick in time.

Oh my god. Are they... embarrassed?

Cody coughs into his fist to stifle a laugh. His dad says it all the time: "For a race of advanced alien robots, they're just as bad as us."

"I can wash your faces!" Cody assures them. "Frankie'll be here soon, and she'll be happy to help too!"

There's clear embarrassment radiating off the bots, but Cody decides not to let them stew in it and runs to the storage closet to grab the supplies, fumbling with his comm link at the same time.

"Hey, Frankie," he says, pressing his cheek to his shoulder as he puts the car soap in a bucket with some sponges and towels. "How far are you?"

"Walking in now," her voice crackles over the comm line. "Why?"

"The bots asked for their faces washed, so we're doing that," he explains, grabbing a second bucket.

"Why...?"

Cody shrugs, then realizes she can't see him. "Because they asked. Isn't that a good enough reason?"

Frankie sighs, but there's a smile in her voice. "I guess so. Coming down the lift now."

"Don't get off, we'll need some height." Cody carries his supplies out of the closet, past the bots who are currently greeting Frankie, up onto the lift beside her. He sets down their supplies and they divide them between each other, and Heatwave fills their buckets when prompted.

Boulder and Blades come forward first, sitting down and letting Frankie adjust the lift so they're at the perfect height.

Cody has been close to the rescue bots before. He sits on their shoulders, they carry him around in their hands, sometimes they sit him atop their helms! But he realizes that he's never been this close to their faces, and now he understands why they wanted this.

Boulder's faceplate isn't perfectly smooth, there are small grooves and seams and scratches and scuffs, there's little divots under their optics that almost look like tear ducts. Cody dips the sponge into the soapy water and starts on Boulder's cheek, but nearly drops it when the rumbling starts up.

Blades had slumped over immediately, leaning his chin onto the railing of the lift, and while Boulder was doing a better job of keeping themselves upright, twin rumbling rises from their chests, the unmistakable purr of an engine.

Frankie and Cody exchange looks, not wanting to ruin the moment. Like cats! Frankie signs excitedly, and Cody can't help but grin, because they are.

There's a shocking amount of dirt on Boulder's face, so it takes almost two hours to get the towel to come out clean when he wipes it across their cheek. Blades has fully fallen asleep.

Heatwave's tapping his arm impatiently while Chase has busied himself with a book, but his tapping foot is giving him away as well.

"All done!" Cody announces, clapping his hands together, and Boulder blinks sleepily, before giving him a big smile.

"Thank you!" they say brightly, standing up shakily and picking up Blades with them, making room for the other two.

Chase takes a spot in front of Frankie as Heatwave sits in front of Cody. He leans onto his hands to brings his face close enough for Cody to reach it.

Heatwave looks exhausted already, and far worse for wear than Boulder did. It almost seems like there's dark circles under his optics, there's dirt crusted into the scar on his cheek and in the seams of his jaw, and there's a dent just below his left optic.

He's asleep in minutes.

All four rescue bots' engines purr in time.

[kaurwreck]

y'all stop saying fyodor has never looked so sincerely angry before. he has.

I know this because, and this is not an exaggeration, the vast majority of my manga revisits are to enjoy his expressions of anger, disdain, and malcontent. i shit you not, several of my bsd meta posts wholly unrelated to fyodor were written because I happened to notice something else while flipping through to imbibe fedya's hissy fits. I don't reread the manga when I do this, just those scenes, unless something else catches my attention.

anyway, stop disrespecting my beloved pastime.

[kurithedweeb]

Ru’aun is the region with the most dialects, but it doesn’t have its own sign language. In Ru’aun, you have the Common language, the Yggdrasil forest language, the Eastern dialect, the Western dialect, and three different werewolf dialects, plus the old tongue is still fairly common among scholars and religious peoples and is used in schools in O’khasis and Scaleswind.

In Tu’la, you have the overarching common language, the desert dialect, the jungle dialect, and a fairly widespread sign language. It’s very common for meif’wa to communicate using sub-vocalizations but humans and some meif’wa hybrids can’t do this. It’s highly debated on whether or not the local werewolf population can understand sub-vocalizations. As a compromise for when meif’wa go non-verbal or when they can’t risk being overheard, the sign language is used. Tu’la sign doesn’t use many big motions, the hands are usually kept close to the chest and the angle of the hand and positioning of the fingers is very important. Many signs look similar, so it’s easy to get mixed up if you’re a beginner and it’s hard to distinguish which is which in the dark if you don’t have good night vision.

Gal’ruk sign is the complete opposite. Very expressive motions, lots of waving in patterns, and very few specific hand shapes. The snow and ice and all the layers you’re wearing eats up a lot of sound so communicating at a distance can be difficult. The hand shapes are limited to what you can manage with mittens, so it’s basically open hand with or without thumb sticking out, closed hand with or without thumb sticking out, and pointing. With such a small population, basically everyone knows at least the basics. Galenk is the local spoken language among the Enki Warrior Tribe, but some also speak Ru’auni Common, usually taught by whoever gets shipwrecked there.

[stockholmgf]

i have to mute myself every day on the phone with my bf so i can “tell” him all about the surprises i’m working on for him cause i simply cannot keep my mouth shut

[tyuncat]

thinking about possessive but soft dom!soobin who gets jealous when you get physically too close (in his opinion) to the other members. you’re his treasured possesion and he does not like to share.

soobin, who pulls you back to him and anxiously fidgets with the hem of your skirt for the remainder of the evening.

soobin, who appears calm and won’t say a word but gives a death stare every time any of the members dares to look your way.

soobin, who won’t let go of your hand the whole way home, looking at you like you hung the moon and the stars, occasionally kissing your lips fleetingly and tearing up a bit thinking about the possibility of losing you one day.

finally soobin who touches you like you were made out of the finest porcelain and could break under mere pressure of his hands, leaving butterfly kisses all over your body, trying to leave delicate marks to show that you’re only his, without causing even a tiny bit of pain or discomfort. eating you out like a starved man, like you were the only thing he wants to taste forever. so sweet and addictive. tears of desperation forming in his eyes once again as he says "they would never give it to you like i do, they would never treat you the same way. you’re mine, only mine". and later falling asleep holding your fragile body in his warm caring embrace, whispering words of affection in your ear and making sure that you know he would never let any other man touch you.

you’re ruined for anyone else by him anyway.