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z-007 · 3 years ago

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A Journey of Sadism (mental and physical)

I was born in the 21st of April 1992, in Jableh-Latakia. But, since my father was an employee for Total French company in Syria, I grew up in Damascus. At the age of 4, I was diagnosed with Diabetes type 1. It was very hard for me at the beginning when I was a child, and my mother suffered a lot, giving me insulin injections, which I found painful at that time, and analyzing my blood sugar to inspect what did I eat if the result was soaring sky high. I hated her at the beginning, simply because as a child, I didn’t understand the gravity of the situation. At 8 years old I went to a school that is Sunni Islamic Pre-Historic School in Dummar called -Young Scientists- something that I discovered later on to be ironic. In Syria, If you weren’t good at school, you were cursed, you became like a Boxing Heavybag. They also used Falakas, the art of whipping feet. It didn’t stop at that, simply because parents became part of this process too, using any tool at their disposal in beating their child, chair, water hose, hammer, clothes hanger, electric cables, let alone being slapped on the face in a way that I started feeling my bones were shaking, and my eyes will throw fire, or kicked in your head and started bleeding. All of this, was because my marks in Arabic, mathematics, history and geography were not good except in English. It was the best language to understand for me, and the subject in which I saw myself to be a good student. As a consequence of that, I started losing control and cause trouble to my so-called teachers at that time. Luckily in 2001, I found my sanctuary that took to a completely different world. It was the first time I saw James Bond in GoldenEye. I was so thrilled by the action sequence, the theme of betrayal and everything about it was cool. This was a turning point in my life to become a Bond fan. I also learnt how to sing rap songs like Faint for Linkin Park, and Bleed It Out. And all of my father’s friends who were French, British and Americans were impressed. It was something that I remember with a loving memory to those people. Later I watched the rest of the Bond films and the happiest moment in my life was when I found the complete DVD set in Tartus. Simply because no DVD store in Damascus had the complete set except one who was also our neighbor. The curse of buying films in Syria was that they were badly used CDs at the bloody beginning. It was very rare to have a CD converted from an original DVD. This greatest franchise in the whole world has sealed my internal wounds for not being a good student. Ironically, the mental case of mine came back to me when I was at High School, especially it was a time that determined who I am, luckily it passed with no harm to me, because a single mark changed future to some students .I forgot to mention, that the school principle when I was at the ninth grade, didn’t stop calling my parents and telling them not to spend a single penny on me, because he thought I will never be successful. But I brought a mark that was better than his children’s. In 2010, I became a student of English Literature in Damascus University, I remembered that I was not a bad student at that time with an average of 80 percent. But the Syrian Crisis began in 2011, the press was already screaming for blood and the political unrest escalated to the extent that we had to change residence. This was the bane of my existence to open my eyes and find myself in Latakia. I was simply cursed and hostile, because I didn’t speak like Alawaits, their accent felt like starving dogs, in other words, they bark. They are trivial, shallow minded wankers who had nothing inside their heads except clothes, mobile phones and narrating a fairytale about themselves having sex with girls and a horny 40-year-old women they come across and imagining penetrating their vaginas and sucking their nipples. I registered in Tishreen University at third year, I managed to transfer my documents to that platonic place. The professors didn’t like me, simply for participating in their lectures, and the fact that I spoke French, Spanish and a little bit Russian. As a consequence, I kept failing at University over and over. Moreover, I had different ideas, and University Professors are bigots and snobbish. Their opinion was the only one that matters. The impact of the mentioned earlier, had made my pain started with breakdowns, screaming my head off and security gathering around me like” what happened to you?”. Added to that, emotionally speaking, I had a horse sex drive in that Mohammadian society. Girls dressed in a way that said to male students, “come to me.”. The majority of women at that city showed their breasts, waist, legs, and what attracts me most their feet, especially, high heels, that gave them a very elegant look. For my good fortune, all I had in front of me was Pornographic DVDs and websites, so I kept masturbating from 11:30 pm until 10:00 am from night to daylight. Still wondering, how men attracted them, I didn’t have any idea, and the question kept circulating. I also hated the idea of marriage, especially that I always loved to live my life the way I fathomed. I didn’t like the idea of getting buried alive by being a bloody father and spend the rest of my life with only one Angry Factory, aka, one woman. The psychological problem kept increasing and started with depression; taking anti-depressants for a while and go back to my normal life when soothed down. I kept taking them every now and then. Students were not allowed to know about their mistakes at any cost, this was a University rule. Self-doubt has caused me to go to a neurologist who started doing me brain scans, simply, I just wanted to know why am I that stupid, for failing continuously and still I didn’t get an answer. I was always deprived of sleep, studying my arse off and my professors didn’t care seeing their students DIE and SUFFER in front of them. Everybody panicked from me, always avoided seeing me, treated as unusual man. At that time, due to the fact that I kept taking anti-depressants, they became ineffective and stopped giving me relief. Part of what killed me thousands of time when I’m still alive was realizing that I cannot become an MI6 agent at any cost. I simply wanted to do 1 % of what James Bond did, take notice, that I was not pursuing women, I was looking for action and suspense. I wanted to be stationed in the heart of ISIS or Spectre and operate in the shadows to protect Queen and Country. I didn’t like Hasan Nasrullah, Vladimir Putin who looked like a Bond villain or Ayatollah bloody Khomeini, even Ali Bin Abi Talib himself, and that’s why I was also crucified for being a James Bond fan. Family and friends made a laughing stock out of me. I started dinking excessively, and suicidal thoughts kept recurring to me. They didn’t stop driving me to bring a razor and wound myself to death, it wasn’t the MI6 job that destroyed me the most. It was self-doubt. Doubting my brain efficiency and abilities, and especially that I saw students whom I thought less capable to express themselves in English than I am. My family tried to see the professors in Tishreen University-Latakia, unsuccessfully. I simply couldn’t have any idea what is the main reason I kept failing over and over. How could I develop myself without knowing my mistakes?!!, I later told some people that I wanted to be an MI6 operative, I thought that might sooth my tension, however, it got things worse. I started attacking the professors while giving their lectures orally and physically. I also broke the classroom washbasin, and the entire classroom windows, then security staff gathered around me after 3 minutes, they were about to send me to an unknown destiny, later, everything stopped after the head of the English department told them not to take any action. The last problem I did was with World Literature professor, whose name is Noor AL Araby, she was a real bitch, I remembered studying her syllabus for a month, she told us that Virginia is not required for the exam, and she brought it. As a result of that, I wrote her three pornographic stories on the exam paper. Stories people see in Brazzers and Naughty America (Porn films companies). Everybody got pissed off, the story was about to be dragged from my house to a security branch for torture. Luckily, my uncle who was a Colonel in the Republican Guard he had connection to the President of the University, told the professor to drop out the case, but she was persistent to have my balls for Christmas decoration. She spread what I wrote her on the internet and about to send them to newspapers. My parents begged her not to and we had medical reports that proved that I had neurological and mental case. Then I was suspended from the University for years, from 2016, till now. She did all she could to destroy me to the utmost level. I was happy when I realized she got very agitated. Especially, there were students confirming that exam questions were paradoxical to the things she lectures about.

Suspension Time

At the time I was suspended it was a slow killer for me. Literary, I realized that I was the worst student in the history of the planet. I decided to follow Boxing, I remembered that I was fit enough for the game. I found out that I did well at round bouts on the ring. I could do sparring sessions, shadowboxing…etc. I was able to run at least 10kms per day, 300 sit-ups, 80 press ups and 20 pull-ups. I tried to be a champion but every time I kept persevering, in addition to that my left palm was broken and my right eye was wounded. I got cold and sick, and I realized that I had to spend at least 2 months with vaporizers, fertilizers and strong meds. I kept striving in Boxing with no success. I lost confidence in myself and felt humiliated. I said to myself, why didn’t I choose to work for the Syrian Secret Service, I went to the branches, and when they saw that I was discharged from the military because of diabetes type 1, they asked me to get lost. I was surprised when I found out that my dentist was an officer in the Ariel Intelligence in Syria, I told him the story, he said “this is not your fight, you might think that you can do well in the field, but your enemies are smarter than you, they know how they can take you down and destroy you once and for all. Second, we had people who kill targets, who can do silent killings, detonate and sabotage, whether male, or female, but they have nothing to lose, their parents are killed and very poor, working to make money, and you are a discharged, rich bastard and you want to join us. I’m surprised when you told me that. I was a James Bond fan like you, but believe me my friend, that the real intelligence work will never come up to your expectations. Once the film you watch finishes and the novel ends, go back to reality, what you look for does not exist. I realized that I couldn’t become an asset for MI6, or any spy agency in this world, I felt that I was under surveillance by my country. I knew that they could look at my messages, trace my location any time they wanted. That was not the real problem, suicidal thoughts and self-punishment ideas didn’t leave me. So, I talked to my uncle to send me to the Special Forces, or any Military Barracks to become a martyr, to take the bullets to my chest. I remembered when I drank wine bottle on my own, I told my parents that I wanted to wear a C4 charge belt and blow myself up inside ISIS. They were horrified, then I was unconscious and within minutes, I found myself inside the clinic, after I told my problem to the psychiatrist, about MI6 dream and the doubt that I’m under surveillance. He told my mother that I’m a Psychotic. I was injected with needles and medications that made me feel like cutting my head off. He also sent me to Damascus for electro-therapy (to take electricity directly to my brain). I also became a field of therapy by my Doctor, he was testing medications on me like Invega that made me shake while standing up. Hence, he decided to give me Zeldox 60 mg, second generation anti-psychotic. My only comfort was when I slept. Waking up to life while taking those meds was a curse. I lost my sexual drive (libido), I remember feeling dizzy all the time, I remember calling the doctor every time when I tell him about the side-effects concerning dizziness and loss of sexual drive, he kept telling me that what you say is incorrect and that it didn’t have any symptoms. By miracle, my father brought me lower dosage medication, life changed for me. I knew cat-houses in my city, every money woman I went to for an intercourse, they took a lot of money. They were abusing me. The sluts didn’t make me enjoy the intercourse the way I wanted. They were controlling me as well, and this is why I left them. After I told my psychiatrist that I reduced the dosage, he said that my condition will deteriorate. He confirmed to me that Chemistry in my brain was not right, then I told him to screw himself. Reducing the dosage had an effect as well. I remembered at a certain time that painkillers were like a bag of peanuts for me. And when night came I felt incredible fever in my head. I felt like being boiled alive. And I kept seeing nightmare afterwards, voices telling me that I will pay the price of reducing the medication dosage. Complete terror and horror kept chasing me for a very long time. After recovery, I logged into the James Bond groups on Facebook, they made me trivia to answer, did me a test about the James Bond 24 films from Dr.No 1962 to Spectre 2015. After I answered them all correctly, they called me Agent 00Zein. Made me an admin, and I had many friends from all around the world. In the 5th of October the global James Bond day , I celebrated with millions of the franchise fans. My great father, brought me a modern computer and IPhone X to follow up with these groups.

Nowadays, I’m not looking for immigration, nor women or anything else in this world. I have chosen to help my parents when they grow old, and help them. This is the best way I can pay them back. I decided to watch films about espionage world, read books, imagining the events and enjoy it fully and get my arse back to reality.

This is the only way; I cannot be punished.

I can imagine myself a soldier of 30 Assault Unit in Ian Fleming’s room 39 in WW2, or talking with Sir Alex Younger about my mission in VX or Whitehall. If not Sir Alex Younger, it could be Admiral Miles Messervy, Admiral Hargreaves, Madame Olivia Mansfield, or Lieutenant Colonel Gareth Mallory. And realize that” It was a matter of pride that the 00 Section has been chosen for this test. This painful experience kept coming back sometimes, notwithstanding, I have chosen to take with a pinch of salt, lol.

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ihavenoside · 3 years ago

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Unknown meme / liked for a meme || Always accepting.

@scnofnone asked:

"When something is this strange, one shouldn’t assume to understand anything specific about it at all."

He LED spun red, startled by the voice that came from behind him, a rare instance but after the day he just had, no one would particularly blame him for being jumpy. After all, he had deemed the rooftops to be the safest place to rest and reorganize his thoughts.

For starters, he’d have liked to know what he did to cause, what he determined to be the authority figures for this area to act like that. Also, why had they looked different from those he saw before. Part of him wondered if he just wondered into some sort of LARPing fair but everything around him was... slightly different when he had the moment to pay attention. Jer.usalem wasn’t the most technology advanced city in the world, in fact, it’s because it wasn’t and so full of history, that it was one of the reasons he was excited to take a trip here, even if it meant he had done it alone.

The day started out pretty normal for the week he had spend here. Today, he wanted to do a little souvenir shopping before moving to his next location. Generally, even thought he got some strange looks from time to time, because Jer.usalem wasn’t known to have androids, they were somewhat aware of their existence, but mostly using the ones made from Ru.ssia or Chi.na given that they were cheaper and not as advanced the ones U.S had made them.

He had stopped by what seemed to be an antic’s booth, being a person who liked odd things, he took a look. Lots of old books, some paintings, pottery. things being marks as genuine when they were clearly fakes with a simply scan. There had been some over priced jewelry that caught his eye. One in particularly because his scans read it as real. An 11th century fatimid gold armlet. It was discolored and looked to be missing the gems it once held. He had put it on his right wrist and thought about it. It was much to small to fit around his arm but he was reconstructing the idea that maybe it could be used as a bracelet and thinking about which friend might have liked it.

Suddenly, the band shrunk to the size of his wrist and the world around him seemed to slow, including himself. It was a strange sensation before everything resumed again. The thing that first caught his attention was his systems telling him his communications and navigation systems were unresponsive, which was weird. Then the gasps grab his attention, the LED on his right temple, spinning yellow as he took in the new information round him. He was confused and knew he stood out before as a tourist in his gray suit, black jeans but now he just plan looked out of place. The authority figures that once carried around assault rifles had been replaced with men in chainmail, bows and swords, and the stand he had been in front of was no longer there.

Before he could really process what was happening, the guards started shouting at him, telling him to stop what he was doing, which had only been standing there, and when he didn’t seem to comply with what they expected him to do, two raised their bows at him. First of all, their placement was bad, standing opposite sides from another, in each other's cross fire and secondly, the area was crowded. If they released there arrows and he dodged, it would strike the other or worse, someone else. Two others stood beside the drawn bowmen, having their swords drawn. He wanted to defuse the situation and raised his hands but action was apparently taken as hostile and the bowmen sent the arrows flying.

The calculation was easy and with a twist, he was able to catch both arrows, one in each hand before dropping them to the floor, rendering them harmless. That caused the other two with swords to charge, which with some basic defensive moves, he was able to disarm one before the other by dodging. The two bowmen then pulled their own swords and started charging at him.

As much as he wanted to stick around and understand what he had done to anger them and clear up whatever misunderstanding. Their body language told him they weren’t in the mood to talk and with the commotion that was being caused, he could hear more coming, which is when he decided it was a good time to run. Around each turn, it felt like he kept running into more and more of them and with his navigation system offline, he was running blindly. Turning another corner had him halt momentarily at the dead-end.

Another quick calculation later and he was able to determine he could scale the wall by kicking off either side and grab the ledge, which he did with moderate easy, however, he registered an impact to his left side and remembered hearing one of them shout the Ara.bian word for assassin. Once on top, he could see several rooftops had ladders and with quick look back and a dodge of another arrow what flew past his face. He saw the people that were chasing him rounding the corner and likely heading for the closest ladder next to him.

They might have not been able to scale the building the same way he did but at least it bought him time. This wasn't how he expected to spend his last day here, running and jumping uphill from rooftop to rooftop in the afternoon sun but as he suspected, his pursuers quickly gave up and lost track of him. Which he settled at resting under a weird rooftop awning.

This was when his bad habit of talking to himself came into play. The first thing he did was discard the arrow that nicked his side and had become stuck in his jacket. He discarded the arrow tip laced with blueblood to the floor of the roof, an injury he wasn’t at all concerned with. Was this all that it was about? His reputation from overseas being a deviant hunter was now causes some sort of international incident? Could that make sense? Why else would someone yell assassin? Media information was lost in translation all the time or rather purposely for propaganda but he couldn’t be that infamous, could he? Why was his communications and navigations programs unavailable? It still meant they were working, just he wasn’t getting a signal. Was he malfunctioning? Was this a weird cyberattack on him?

All questions he spoke out loud in English before he was surprised by the white hooded man and took on a defensive stance. The remark seemed innocents enough and even the way he spoke it seems non threatening but either this man had been here the entire time, which he was sure he hadn’t give he’s been pacing the roof top in thought or he had climb the side of the building, without a ladder and hasn’t made a sound while doing it.

“Identify yourself.” He demanded, auto defaulting to speaking fluent Arabic as a means of respecting the culture he was visiting, despite the other speaking to him in English, a stress related mistake. The other didn’t look like any of the ones that has been chasing him but he could also see the other was armed and while he, himself held no obvious weapons, he also had an air about him that spoke he shouldn’t be taken lightly in a fight. His LED spinning blue, ready for pretty much anything. He was still breathing heavy, trying to keep his systems cool but it was hot out and hotter up on the roofs.

#scnofnone #[Verse] Reconstructed #Filed Under: Ask

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shewhoridesonrainbows · 5 years ago

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Words Upon Your Skin - Ch. 4

Edit: A lot of people were confused about the ASL part so I added a mini explanation.

AO3

Chapter 1 * Chapter 2 * Chapter 3 * Chapter 4 *

As they approached the manor Damian swore Todd to secrecy again. He didn’t want the rest of his family’s opinions on the matter until he’d figured out how he even felt about having a person out in the world that was bonded to him. Todd was the only other person to have spent any extended time with the League so he was the only one that understood the mindset Damian was raised with. And he didn’t feel like reliving that aspect of his childhood at the moment.

The cave should’ve been cool but Damian was burning up. He’d thought the sweat building on the back of his neck was from the afternoon sun beating down on his dark clothing but, as the bike pulled to a stop inside the air conditioned area of the Batcave, Damian knew he was most likely experiencing a side effect of what he was drugged with.

Damian jumped off the bike and quickly checked his arm to make sure his soulmate’s message had faded before practically ripping his hoodie off. Left in just a T-shirt, Damian tossed the jacket on the ground at his feet.

“What’s wrong, Baby Bird?” Todd was still sitting on his bike though his helmet was perched in front of him. Damian glared at the offending garment he’d just thrown to the ground before answering.

“I was drugged today, Todd. Apparently, whatever it was causes hot flashes.” He was halfway towards the computer when he heard the door between the cave and the manor open. The sound of Todd’s boots followed him.

Three sets of footsteps were making their way down the stairs. As the got closer Damian whipped around to remind Todd of their agreement and when he faced his brother the man was staring wide eyed at Damian’s right arm. He glanced down just in time to see more French as the rest of his family got close enough to see it as well.

It was Grayson that spoke first.

“Why did you write French on your arm?”

“Uhh,” Damian’s mind was drawing a blank. The migraine is really affecting my cognitive skills.

It was Todd that came to the rescue, “He was practicing languages other than English and Arabic, duh.”

Goddammit Todd.

“Jason,” Drake piped up from behind Grayson, “the rest of us understand French. And why would Damian need to practice writing,” he twisted his head to get a better look at Damian’s arm. “Why would he need to write ‘Sorry for writing so much in one go. My friends say I ramble too much. I’ll wait for you-’” Damian cut off the translating by hiding his arm behind his back. He glared at everyone in front of him.

Everyone waited for someone else to break the silence.

“Alright,” Todd clapped his hands together, “I’m gonna bite the bullet and say it. Kid, you’re in a room with the best detectives in the world, everyone has already figured it out.” Grayson winced.

“He’s right but he shouldn’t have said it,” Bruce finally spoke. The man looked at his son carefully before continuing, “When were you going to tell us that you have a soulmate?”

“Were you going to tell us?” Grayson asked when Damian didn’t answer.

“I-” the youngest started, “I don’t know.”

In a rare act of brotherly love, Todd moved in front of Damian to stop anymore questions.

“Look guys, Baby Bird has only been with us for about seven years. He was raised by the League ‘til he was ten,” Todd took a breath before continuing. “After I was brought back, I spent time with the League, barely anything compared to Damian, but it was just enough to find out what they thought of soulmates.” Everyone started to look guilty when the League was brought up. They all knew how messed up that organization was. And how it messed up a good kid.

“Soulmate’s were a weakness. Nobody could join the League if they had one,” Damian’s voice was weak from behind To- No, Jason, I can at least call him Jason in my mind after this. “So I never wrote on myself as a child.”

“And you’ve almost always worn long sleeves so you never saw their messages,” Drake supplied and Damian nodded.

Before anyone could say anything else Alfred appeared beside the group.

“I believe Master Damian hasn’t read the newest message yet and, until he deems otherwise, it’s something between the two of them.”

And, since Alfred’s word was law, everyone scattered in opposite directions, leaving Damian by himself. After making sure no one was looking his way, he pulled his arm in front of himself and read.

‘Sorry for writing so much in one go. My friends say I ramble too much. I’ll wait for you to write back before sending another message. I hope you have a nice night…or day. I don’t know what time zone you’re in.’

The words took up all of his forearm and part of his hand. Damian could already tell that whoever they are, his soulmate would talk a lot. And normally that would annoy him but for some reason, reading the long winded messages sparked a warmth in his chest that had nothing to do with his hot flash. That warmth was urging him to write something back…but what?

After so long of radio silence his soulmate was probably even more surprised by this turn of events than he was. What do you say to someone that everyone else in the world would’ve grown up talking to? ‘Hey, sorry it took so long, my mother and grandfather hated the idea of soulmates and I just never thought about the possibility that you existed after I went to live with my father. How are you?’ No, that was ridiculous. Do I even want to bring them into my life at all? It’s not like being Robin is any safer than being the heir to the League of Assassins.

Damian was about to go into another downward spiral when his father coughed behind him.

“Damian, I’m sorry you had to go through what you did as a child. And I’m sorry you faced an inquisition here when you’re still figuring this out yourself.” His father awkwardly patted his shoulder then smiled gently. “If you have any questions, I’m here for you.”

“Father, I-” It went against the instincts forced into him as a child, but the last couple years of being surrounded by an annoying but loving family had softened those instincts. So Damian continued, “I don’t know what to say to someone I should’ve known since I could hold a pen.”

“Just introduce yourself. Ask them about their interests. If they’re your soulmate they’re probably smart enough to guess that something in your childhood prevented you from making contact. And I don’t think the universe would pair you with someone that wouldn’t understand that.”

Damian snorted, “I don’t know Father, Lady Luck hasn’t been smiling down at me lately.”

“Well, whatever you do, just know we’re here for you. I can’t say your brothers won’t tease you after everything has settled but just remember that it’s not meant to actually hurt you. If they go too far, tell them and they’ll back off.”

“Thanks, Father,” Damian smiled weakly, “I’ll try to come up with something to say.”

A single nod from his father before he walked towards Drake at the computer.

“What have you found so far?” The eldest Wayne asked.

Drake sat back in his chair and grabbed for his mug sitting on the console. He took a sip then started reading from his files.

“Based on the info that Damian was able to gather, these guys are bringing in more girls through this dock,” Drake circled Pier 5 on a map of Gotham’s bay area, “tonight. Whatever pre-drugged Damian found out told him to bring Titus so there’ll probably be security measures to keep out thermal imaging. And lastly, the time Damian wrote down was 11 pm,” he looked at Bruce, “if it were me I’d want to be there sooner.”

Bruce nodded, “So, we’ll shoot for the whole team to be there at ten, but I want someone down there now to stake out the area.” He stepped back to look at all of his sons gathered around. “I’m sending Nightwing for now, the rest of you be ready. We leave in three hours.”

Everyone agreed. Grayson bounded off towards the suits to gear up and head out while Jason went to his guns to get them ready. Bruce glared at the weapons before sighing.

“Jason-”

“Don’t worry, Bats,” Jason interrupted with his back still turned towards them, “I’m loading up rubber bullets. They’ll leave a hell of a bruise but they won’t kill.”

Bruce sighed again, shook his head, then walked back upstairs to the manor, muttering about ‘too many kids’ along the way.

With a quick glance to make sure nobody was looking (Grayson suiting up, Jason cleaning his guns, and Drake pouting at his now empty mug) Damian grabbed a pen and walked to a chair sitting in the darkest part of the cave. There was barely enough light to see with as he put the tip of the pen to his skin.

‘Hello, thank you for not asking why this is just starting now. My father suggested I ask what your interests are…’ Damian’s cheeks flamed up. Why did I say that my father told me to ask? I’m embarrassing myself in my first intentional message. He was about to wipe it off and hope that his soulmate had not seen the message yet when ink started welling up from beneath his skin.

‘I like fashion and video games. What about you?’

He was surprised again. They messaged back very quickly and, since the bond could tell that he’d already read the message, the ink faded just as quickly.

He tried to wipe away his writing but it only smudged. Damian jerked his head up in search of a towel or wet cloth to aid him only to see Alfred already holding one towards him. Damian grabbed it with a ‘thank you’.

“Don’t worry, Master Damian, I won’t tell your brothers,” Alfred said as he turned and walked away. Damian sent a silent ‘thank you’ at the butler’s retreating back.

After carefully cleaning the spot, Damian had to think of a safe interest of his to talk about. He was drawing a blank until Titus bounded down the stairs into the Batcave.

Damian smiled as he wrote.

‘I like animals.’

He didn’t have to wait long before his arm was full of a block of French.

‘Really? I’ve always wanted a pet of my own but my parents run a bakery so I was never able to get one. After I move I might get a dog or a cat. I used to want a hamster a couple years ago but I’ve realized it wouldn’t work out very well. I might lose them. Do you have any pets?’

He stared, wide eyed, at the paragraph. His ink on his arm hadn’t dried yet so wiping it away was significantly easier this time.

‘Yes, I have a Great Dane named Titus.’ From there the two soulmates went back and forth for a couple minutes, answering back as soon as the other’s message was read.

‘My friend looked it up and Great Danes are HUGE dogs. He even teased me that yours would be bigger than I am… my friend also told me to ask you something called ASL, do you know what that means?’

‘Titus is bigger than some grown men so I wouldn’t doubt that other Great Danes are bigger than a teenager.’ Damian’s face screwed up into a displeased expression at the end of his soulmate’s message unsure on how he felt about it. Before he could continue, another message from his soulmate came through.

‘Nevermind, he told me. He’s grounded from food from the bakery for the rest of the night for making me ask for your "age, sex, location". And, to answer my own question, I’m 16, a girl, and I live in Paris.’

‘I’m a year older, male, and I live in America’ Damian didn’t want to get too specific on his location. Getting a surprise soulmate was bad enough, I do NOT need her showing up in Gotham with so many villains running around. He just hoped his soulmate didn’t feel offended about his vagueness and, if his father was right about the universe, she would understand him.

‘Well,’ the word appeared on his arm followed closely with, ‘it was great talking to you. I have to go to bed now, my parents got on to me for staying up until almost 3 playing video games. Oh! I haven’t told them about you yet. The only reason my friend knows is because he’s the one that noticed the first message. Do you mind if I tell them?’

Damian’s heart stuttered. She waited to tell anyone until she checked if I wanted others to know.

‘I’m fine if you tell the people in your life about me. Most people are very excited to have a soulmate and I’m honestly surprised you didn’t immediately tell anyone, my family already knows so it would only be fair if yours did as well. I know my brothers are just waiting to be able to tease me.’

Great, now I’m rambling. My soulmate has already rubbed off on me.

‘How should we address each other since the bond blocks our names?’ He asked. The wait between this question and her answer was the longest gap in conversation on her end since they’d first began.

‘I think it should come naturally, don’t you think?’

‘Okay,’ he agreed. ‘I’ll let you get to sleep now, good night.’

He waited until she replied ‘good night’ back then stood. With the soulmate drama taken care of, it was time to suit up and be ready to leave.

As his soulmate slept, Robin had a job to do.

@vixen-uchiha @kel121288 @northernbluetongue @vivalakitty @bluerosette23 @angelofmusickaterinapetrova @zaladanee @crazylittlemunchkin @professionalfangirl1738 @violatiger8 @creator-josie @18-fandoms-unite-08 @dur55 @i-am-fandom-trash30 @i-like-fairytail-and-stuff @kanamexzeroyaoifangirl @schrodingers25

#maribat #daminette #soulmates #words upon your skin

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lunarnoona5342 · 4 years ago

Text

So I had a second attempt at a Pokémon X nuzlocke and beat it this time

For those who don't know, a nuzlocke is a self-enforced game mode of Pokémon where you can only catch the first Pokémon you encounter on a route, you must nickname them to encourage closeness, and if the Pokémon faint in battle, they are dead: you can no longer use them. I added an extra rule onto the route rule: I can catch the first Pokémon that comes from a rock smash on a route, since that's something that can rarely be done on routes anyway, and also I'm prone to killing Pokémon so I needed a fighting chance at this. With the rules sorted, we can move onto my second attempt at a nuzlocke (with my best friend Mar (@serpentine-fxrtune) beside me to help name my Pokémon and mock my dead ones with bonus friends Bread and Ariel (@catboy5000))

I played as a male named Takehiko because me, Mar, and a couple other friends have a Pokémon fan project thing going on between us and Takehiko is one of my characters who is Kalosian. When I was offered to be nicknamed Big T at the beginning of the game, I could not refuse. I picked Froakie to be my starter and already had naming issues, so I consulted Mar for a nickname. She suggested the French word for frog, and I just went with it because, yanno, Kalos is based on France. And so, I gained my first Pokémon, Grenouille. I go to route 2 and encounter the obligatory Pidgey (which doesn't count as my first encounter, I don't have any Pokéballs at this point) and sit through Serena teaching me to catch Pokémon (who btw I forgot existed in this game) by talking to Mar about something I remembered.

Me: I just wanna talk about SKZ's English names, specifically Changbin's name. Like it's normal, it's just Lewis, but CHAN TRIED TO CONVINCE HIM TO BE CALLED BARTHOLOMEW, THAT'S LIKE IF I TRIED TO GIVE BREAD AN ARABIC NAME AND CHOSE TO NAME HIM ABDUL RAHMAN, THAT'S NOT EASY TO SAY.

Me: Should I name my first Pokémon Bartholomew, for what Changbin could have been?

Mar, ever the enabler: Sure, I can't really stop you.

So I named the Weedle I caught Bartholomew, and proceeded into Santalune forest.

So we move on (and I'm just ignoring rival battles because they're just not it) and out to route 3, where I caught a Fletchling. Following on from my SKZ English names talk from earlier, I named the bird Sky, because Seungmin's English name is cute goddammit. So when I got to Santalune, I ran into a problem: I had no Pokémon that could be super effective against Viola. I head over to route 22 nearby after grabbing the roller skates to try and get Riolu for a first encounter. Instead of that, I got a Bunnelby.

Me: You are not Riolu... so you shall be named Not Riolu.

So instead of fretting over the type advantage Viola had on me, I chose to grind for higher levels to beat her Pokémon up with power instead; this is when the first casualty came in. Sky, the poor child, got killed by a Riolu using counter because peck didn't do the job of making it faint. Sky was the first to join the graveyaed (yes this is how I spelled it in game). Sky, though you were technically not Seungmin since you were female, you will be missed.

Also forgot to mention: Batholomew is a female too. Moving on-

So after spending a long time grinding, being a bit more careful this time, I finally felt like I was ready for Viola, and I was. I swept the floor with her, Grenouille carrying the team as he was a higher level than the rest. Upon reaching Viola's sister, Alexa, before route 4, I got an exp share, and then she reminded me of what happened in my first attempt at the nuzlocke.

Me: *says a thing about something being sad*

Me and Mar, at the same time: Alexa, play Despacito.

Mar: Name the Pokémon you catch on this route Despacito.

Me: Okay *gets a Flabébé*

Future me: *pockets memory for future Flabébé*

On route 4, I encounter a Skitty, but as I mentioned earlier, I am prone to killing Pokémon and end up killing the Skitty before I could catch it, so I just make my way over to Lumiose to get a Kanto starter after beating up all the trainers on the route.

So this was my conversation with Mar about which Kanto starter to pick (I have a grudge against Ch*rmander okay), and through this I chose its name too: Zekrom 💙

So on route 5 I catch a Furfrou that I nicknamed Floof because it floof and made my way to Camphier, where I went off with Shauna to get the Poké flute to get rid of the Snorlax blocking route 7. I collect the item, and on the way back I catch an Oddish that Mar named Pea for me. I got rid of the Snorlax by running the moment I interact with it - there was no way I'd fight that thing. Onto route 7, where I go into the purple flowers in hopes I get a blue Flabébé, but instead I got an orange one. Regardless of the colour, it was gonna be called Despacito.

In the connecting cave, I catch a Zubat that I named Ciel because I wanted to honour Sky by naming a bat the same thing, just Italian. I move on to route 8, where I get Shelly the Bagon, Shinju the Cubone from the Glistening Cave, and Itzy the Amaura from the fossil I got. It was on the other side of route 8 where the first of 2 rock smash Pokémon emerge, and I'm not sorry for killing the Binacle, it was Dwebble or nothing. In the Twitter thread I forgot to mention that I also caught a Helioptile that I nicknamed Frilly on route 9, but enough of that, now to Grant, the gym that killed my first Pokémon X nuzlocke...

Grant scared me a lot because of how I've always struggled to beat him even when I played normally: he's way too strong to just be a second gym leader. However, thanks to way too much grinding, I was able to beat Grant without any casualties.

So I can't remember how it happened, but at some point in route 10, Shinju died, I can't remember what caused it but it happened and ig I wasn't sad enough about it to remember. On route 10 though, I did get a Snubbull that I named Berri (Mar wanted to name it Ugli but I said No.)

So skip over Geosenge and off to route 11 and Reflective Cave, where I got Zappy the Dedenne and I then killed a Roggenrola by accident because, despite its sturdy ability, it still got hurt by Despacito's rocky helmet and fainted. Unfortunately this is where I lost 2 Pokémon. Kumi died to a Wobuffet that, idk what it did since I wasn't looking at the screen, but I'm assuming Kumi just couldn't take the counter, and fell to the same fate Sky did. Then, Itzy died too, by means I can't remember, but tbh it's me I probably did a dumb type matchup.

Either way I started making Itzy jokes to ease the pain of losing 2 Pokémon consecutively, like "maybe she just wasn't Icy, just on fire all along", and Ariel goes "perhaps she was just a wannabe... 💔".

By this point, my team consisted of Grenouille the Greninja, Zekrom the Charmeleon, Frilly the Helioptile, Despacito the Floette, Pea the Gloom, and Not Lucario the Diggersby (I renamed him from Not Riolu since it evolved).

Eventually, I get to Shalour and get the Lucario from Korrina, who I appropriately named Not DiggersB (Not Diggersby didn't fit so I improvised), and replace Not Lucario. I beat her in battle (without trying either I hadn't noticed I won until I was talking to Korrina again).

I gave up my route 12 encounter to get the Lapras the Pokémon breeder gifts you at the beginning of the route if you speak to him, and Mar named him Lettuce (because iceberg lettuce), and quickly grab myself a Tentacool from Azure Bay that I named Booze because it's water poison. It's when I'm grinding on route 12 for Ramos where I get my biggest casualty so far: Zekrom. Zekrom, the fully evolved Charizard, ready to take on the world, got killed by a Miltank that survived 2 hits from Zekrom and was able to land a bide on him.

Mar asked about Zekrom earlier because I got mocked for his death, and idc about it now but like, it hurt when it happened (yes I did threaten murder but my threats are empty, I'm not edgy I just swear a lot).

So I went and got rid of the Pokémon population of route 12 before *almost* going to Ramos. I noticed that I could go to route 13 before battling him, and it was there I could get a Slugma from the second (and final) use of the rock smash rule I had in place.

*over call*

Me: I'm gonna go take a risk and hope that I can get a Slugma on route 13 using rock smash.

Mar: Slipknot?

Me: *laughing* No, SLUGMA.

Mar: Oh, well you're naming it Slipknot now.

Needless to say, I got very lucky and got a Slugma on first encounter, and named it Slipknot. Unfortunately for me, however, catching Slipknot meant even more grinding for levels. Luckily, Courmarine is where you can get a lucky egg, which gives the holder more exp from battles, and with the use of Pokémon Amie, Slipknot caught up in no time (and evolved into Magcargo). Tbh the thing that took more time was bringing up Slipknot's affection on Pokémon Amie since you literally can't pet Slugma, which eliminates the main way to gain affection. The amount of times I played Tile Puzzle and Head It was quite a lot (never liked Berry Picker, stressful).

So I beat Ramos after pulling a risky move to protect Slipknot from Gogoat's ground move by bringing out Lapras and using ice beam to beat it. I bring the lights back to Lumiose city and go to beat Clemont, where the next big casualty happens - Not DiggersB. I had overestimated Not DiggersB's defense and lost him to an Ampharos that used thunder punch a bit too hard. This was a really bad death since I had a whole ground type in my box just sitting, waiting to be used, but nooooo, I had to used the fighting steel type with bone rush.

Not Lucario, in revenge for his counterpart, destroys Clemont's team, and we're off to Laverre. On route 14 I immediately catch a better ground type (Not a Fish the Stunfisk) and Not Lucario is relegated to the box again, the dirty HM slave. This means more grinding, passing the lucky egg over to Not a Fish, more PokéAmie, and more destruction of the Pokémon population (while also tryna level up both Pea and Despacito enough to get giga drain and moonblast respectively before evolving them into Florges and Bellossom).

To explain Pea and Despacito quickly (and Zappy too), they only evolve into their final forms when they are met with a sun stone (for Bellossom specifically and Heliolisk) and shiny stone (for Florges). I did have a sun stone but used it to evolve Helioptile int Heliolisk so I had to wait until I got to Anistar to get another sun stone, and I only got a shiny stone at the end of route 13, so I saved it until Despacito reached the right level for moonblast, then evolved it (thank you Mar for being the one who knew this info, I'm actual shit at Pokémon).

Anyway, I make it to Laverre, beat Valerie (and almost lose Pea that battle gave me a heart attack), beat up team flare in the factory, get master ball and big nugget, blah blah blah, get better clothes for Big T (which isn't much better male clothes in Pokémon is shit). I get a Foongus on route 15, consult Mar on a name because, once again, naming issues, and she names it Amanita for reasons I've honestly forgotten, and go over to Dendemille, where I redeem heart scales for better moves for Grenouille and Slipknot, and beat up more team flare.

Before I make my way over to Anistar though, I quickly go to route 16 to collect an obligatory Pumpkaboo (that I called Jack). I did (or tried to do in some cases) Pokémon Sword runs for my part of the fan project's E4 and on every file, I've caught a Pumpkaboo so it's tradition.

On route 17 I failed miserably at trying to catch a Delibird, which I wasn't upset about. I use the place to grind a bit more before I make it to Anistar. I grab the sun stone there to finally evolve Pea and just completely destroy Olympia with Grenouille.

So the game's plot "thickens" (aka Lysandre outright says he's the one in charge of team flare) so I do my protag thing, saving the world, when I have to deal with the most heartbreaking and stupid death ever.

Xerneas: *appears*

Me: Okay just master ball it.

Me: *accidentally picks quick ball*

Me: it might be okay it's the first turn anyway-

Xerneas, not expecting to battle so had moonblast ready for fun:👁👄👁 *kills Grenouille*

Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

This genuinely hurt me so much I wanted to cry, I was so close to getting Grenouille through it all and he dies to a misclick?! Luckily I got Xerneas in a master ball immediately afterwards. Since it counted as it was the only Pokémon I got in Geosenge, I aptly named it "YOU KILLER".

So I grind a bit more for Xerneas and make my way over to Snowbelle. On route 18 I got a Durant that I named Ditant because I couldn't spell, then got a Sliggoo on route 19 while grabbing sludge bomb for Pea so that she, along with Despacito, can be called the fairy killer.

Despacito the Dragon killer and Pea the Fairy killer honestly sounds so intimidating until you find out they're just a big flower patch and a weed, but they are scary, and can and will kill you without hesitation. I make it to Snowbelle and have to make my way to the Pokémon Village to grab Wulfric to be swept by a heavy metal band, and get myself a Trevenant I named Tree on route 20, and a Zoruark, that immediately replaced YOU KILLER in my party, from the village, and I named him Nuh. Nuh is basically the Muslim name for Noah, as in Noah's Ark Noah, so I did a grammatical joke based on that.

Nuh's Ark = the ark that belongs to Nuh

Nuh's Ark = Nuh is (Zoro)Ark

So I spend my time on route 21 accidentally killing the Ursaring I could've had and then ridding the waters of Lombré and Floatzel for Nuh using Pea. If someone had told me at the beginning of my nuzlocke that my star Pokémon would be a Bellossom, I would've laughed. After a while though, I felt ready. Pea, Despacito, Lettuce, Not a Fish, Slipknot, and Nuh (who I got a heart scale for to learn foul play) were all ready to go down Victory Road and beat the Pokémon League. On the way, I caught a Lickitung, my final Pokémon, that I named Balloon.

(I did have to leave victory road a few times because there's bits where you need to use strength, so I had to fetch Not Lucario because there was no way I was teaching any of my party a HM move this late in the game other than Lettuce learning surf and waterfall).

Going up Victory Road was a breeze (minus the multiple encounters in the caves), and I quickly made my way over to the Pokémon League. I went in, after healing my Pokémon, with an abundant amount of full restores to use freely (I had like P300k the money wasn't going anywhere).

I took on Siebold first, since he's the poetic guy and I wanted to show off Takehiko's abysmal fashion to him first. Needless to say, Pea beat him to a pulp (with Lettuce coming in clutch for his Gyrados by using thunderbolt). Siebold was by far the easiest E4 member.

Next was Wikstrom, whose Probopass had always worried me. It had sturdy, so every time Not a Fish tried to beat it, it'd just survive. Eventually, Wikstrom ran out of full restores, leading to it's untimely demise. Slipknot and Not a Fish cleared out the rest of his team easily.

I took on Malva next, who I legit didn't care about, and just had Lettuce spam surf until I beat her. It worked, of course, so that meant I only had one more battle to go: Drasna the dragon lady who, fun fact, is related to Iris, and is also therefore related to Leon and Hop!

I already knew Drasna would start with Dragalge, a danger to my dragon killer, so I sent out Not a Fish first just to get rid of it. I then sent Despacito out for her Altaria and Noivern, of which Noivern was actually able to land hits on Despacito, getting her in the yellow. Luckily for me, I had Pea learn Dazzling Gleam just in case I needed it, so I switched out Despacito for Pea when Druddigon came out, just to protect my big flower. Pea quickly handed Druddigon its ass as she beat it up without a hitch, and with that, I had finished the E4.

When I was checking if I needed to use my not so abundant amount of ethers and elixirs on my Pokémon, I was glad to find that I really only had to use it for Not a Fish's earthquake: I didn't have to use many moves against the E4, and earthquake was only down because of Wikstrom.

With my Pokémon healed up and ready, Despacito leading the party, I was ready to take on Champion Diantha. Her Hawlucha was up first, of which Despacito beat using moonblast in one fell swoop. She then went to beat up her Tyrantrum, who also fainted to a moonblast. She brought out Amourous next, aka what Itzy could've been, and Despacito used petal blizzard to beat it. The Amourous survived but didn't cause problems. I went to use petal blizzard but Diantha switched out for her Goodra, whose attack got boosted thanks to the grass type move.

Unfortunately for Diantha though, Goodra was a dragon type, so that thing fainted immediately afterwards thanks, once again, to moonblast. She brings back Amourous, who finally faints after a second bout of petal blizzard, and next up is her Gourgeist. It's at this point I finally let Despacito rest, bringing out my newly acquired Nuh, who comes out disguised as Slipknot. Nuh beats the Gourgeist in one move, meaning that Nuh's illusion is still up. Diantha brings out her final Pokémon, Gardevoir, and the battle is almost over.

I think the funniest part of the entire game for me was messing around with Nuh, because when Gardevoir used a psychic move: "It doesn't affect Slipknot..." Which is very funny considering it SHOULD affect Slipknot, it just doesn't affect Nuh, who's pretending to be Slipknot. Nuh takes the opportunity and uses foul play (as Slipknot, which also looks very peculiar) to take down Diantha's Gardevoir, and with that, I had beaten the champion. The nuzlocke was over...

Or was it?

Me: *getting fussy because the other 4 Sycamore pupils were getting credit for me single-handedly beating team flare*

Mar: NOONA THERE'S STILL A BATTLE LEFT, YOU NEED TO BATTLE AZ!

Me: oH

So the nuzlocke was *almost* over.

AZ was very very easy, the only issue I had was Lettuce not being up first to beat his Torkoal. His Sigilyph and Golurk were both very easy to beat, and nothing else really happened in the battle. With that battle over I had truly beaten my second attempt at a Pokémon X nuzlocke.

If you read this far, congratulations! You have read the equivalent of 75 tweets in (possibly) one sitting! Twitter kept capping me off every 25 tweets, so now I understand why Twitter au writers don't post abundantly. This was honestly so much fun, even though I did grieve over my dead Pokémon.

I wanna thank Mar for sticking with me the whole way, even though I was such a nuisance for asking every single time, without fail, what beats poison type Pokémon whenever I encountered one. When I said I'm shit at Pokémon, I wasn't lying: I'm Very Bad™ at the game.

I also wanna thank Bread and Ariel for just popping in during my run every now and again, even if all you wanted to do was mock me for Zekrom's death (which btw I don't get why you're still holding that to me? I'm more shocked you're not talking bout Grenouille lmao).

Would also like to thank my team, Pea the Bellossom, Despacito the Florges, Not a Fish the Stunfisk, Slipknot the Magcargo, Lettuce the Lapras, and Nuh the Zoroark (who, despite being a super new addition, pulled his weight very well). I wouldn't've won of not for y'all (Idc that they're fictional and can't read my thanks, I love them okay???).

Anywho, thank you for reading this if you chose to!

#noona.txt #long post #guess who forgot to taaaaaaag?#but yeah #take a shot everytime i say so #actually don't you might die #so yeah i pretty much copy-pasted this from my twitter thread #it was very fun as much as losing pokemon made me sad

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taketherisk · 4 years ago

Photo

DICK GRAYSON, AKA NIGHTWING ⟶

Full name

Richard John Grayson

Preferred name/nickname

Dick

Generally referred to as

Dick, Grayson, Nightwing

Appearance.

FACECLAIM: Toni Mahfud SEX: Male HEIGHT: 5′11″ WEIGHT: 175 lbs. BUILD: Very toned. Muscular, but not bulky. Tight, corded muscle typically seen on acrobats and ballet dancers. HAIR: Not too short, ever, even though he knows it’d be more practical for combat. It is usually long just because Dick doesn’t make time to see a barber until it starts getting in the way. EYES: Bright electric blue. HANDS: He has long fingers. He’s been told he should play the piano. He did not let Bruce sign him up for piano. SCARS: Dick has an old gunshot wound on his shoulder, as well as his knee, and also several, smaller scars scattered over his body. CLOTHES: He would rather elect to wear something comfortable than dress up or adhere to a particular style of fashion. He likes his uniforms to reflect who he is, because authenticity is important to him, but this often results in fashion mishaps.

Speech.

ACCENT: No accent. He worked hard to rid himself of anything that could stand out in his voice in order to lessen the chance of it being recognized. LANGUAGE: Dick is fluent in Romany, English, Spanish, Italian, Farsi, Japanese, German, Russian, French, American Sign Language, Latin, Arabic, Swahili, Kikuyu, Mandarin, and Cantonese. He has a decent grasp on Portuguese, Romanian, Ukrainian, and Dutch due to his fluency in other languages with notable similarities. He would likely understand and be able to carry on a conversation, but he would not be fluent. As far as alien languages, he has a fair grasp of Tamaranean and is fluent in Kryptonian. ARTICULATION: Dick has an extremely difficult time articulating his feelings. He processes those in his head. He has a natural tendency to deflect on others (or change the subject) rather than divulge negative thoughts. EDUCATION: Dick’s tendency to show off has nothing to do with words. However, he’s not a moron. He will drop a big word here and there if he just can’t think of another way to describe what he’s trying to say. LAUGHTER: Dick laughs all the time. Even at his own jokes. He is constantly seeking levity and a way to lighten the mood. Usually it is to distract himself, however, because he is always willing to listen to others with complete and quiet seriousness. GRUMP: When he was young he had his moments of grump, usually in the form of sneering or sarcasm, but he has (mostly) moved beyond that stage. BREATHING: Dick sighs a lot when he’s bored or made to wait. It isn’t because he’s trying to be rude, he barely even realizes he’s doing it, but he needs to direct the energy somewhere.

Mannerisms.

FACE: It depends. Dick’s priority first and foremost is maintaining a degree of professionalism. However, he feels very deeply and his internal ethics and values mean a lot to him. He has difficult displaying anything but authenticity. It takes effort to keep his face unreadable, but his sense of duty makes this possible. The same can’t be said around others, however. Dick wears his feelings on his sleeve. He just can’t help it. HANDS: Yes. He runs his hand through his hair, presses his knuckles against his lips, and gestures wildly with one hand even when he is completely silent. LEGS/FEET: Oh, yes. Dick has a lot of nervous energy. Not just because he keeps a lot to himself, but his mind moves quickly and is constantly making connections, moving on to the next thing, and it’s difficult for him to get caught up in trivial matters when he can see the bigger picture. EMOTIONAL OUTBURSTS: Now, I want to stress that this isn’t common. However, Dick has a temper. Despite wearing his heart on his sleeve and being willing to demonstrate positive feelings, anything that could be seen as negative or “wrong” is completely repressed. When under normal day to day stress of being a superhero, he can manage this well. However, when he is saddled with added pressure, stress, or experiences loss, he lashes out at the people he loves. For Dick, it makes more sense to push them away so they won’t see these flaws he isn’t even ready to acknowledge within himself. In these rare instances Dick can withdraw from his family. POSTURE: Dick is very confident, so his posture is typically very straight. However, he is prone to slumping in place when in the throes of self-disappointment. WALKING POSTURE: Because of his extensive background in dance and acrobatics, Dick is graceful without being aware of it. This translates to almost everything he does. At this point in his life, it simply comes naturally to him. PERSONAL SPACE: When it comes to people he is comfortable with, personal space does not exist. However, in the context of unwanted touch or flirting, he experiences obvious discomfort. SPACIAL AWARENESS: Dick has good spacial awareness simply due to his past as an acrobat and the constant vigilance he was expected to maintain as a young vigilante.

Health:

DIET: Dick doesn’t know recipes off the top of his head, but he can figure out how to cook anything with proper instructions. His biggest danger in the kitchen is getting distracted and forgetting something was ever in the oven. However, most of his meals are quick. He isn’t very good at managing his time. SLEEP: Because of his lifestyle, Dick’s sleeping pattern can be erratic. He also has a hard time getting to sleep. His mind overworks and he has too many nightmares. EXERCISE: He trains regularly, but with how often he patrols the streets his training is typically covered in patrol. ACTIVITY: This is strange for Dick. He overworks himself and is a perfectionist, but also lazy about other things that he doesn’t prioritize or see as important. For example: he will overwork himself to prove his competence and to live up to his need uphold an image of perfection. On the other hand, his counter is frequently scattered with days worth of mail and he regularly leaves his suit on the floor. I would never call him lazy, but he is an odd mix of unforgiving and laid back. CLEANLINESS: With a suit like that, he has no choice. He baths every night. Desperately. ODOUR: Bergamot and eucalyptus soap. Boy needs all the stress relief he can get. MEDICINAL DRUGS: No. NARCOTICS: No. ADDICTIONS: While he would never admit it, even to himself, Dick has a self-destructive streak and an addiction to adrenaline. He isn’t addicted to sex, but he had used it as a means to cope when he was at his very, very lowest. Again, this is not common for him. He is not comfortable with his inner darkness. ILLNESS: No. INJURIES: One of his knees is weaker than the other due to an old gunshot wound.

Personal.

INTROVERT/EXTROVERT?: Extrovert. Dick analyzes his environment and connecting seemingly unrelated events in order to form a conclusion and the best plan of action that is consistent with his inner values. OPTIMIST/PESSIMIST: Optimistic. GENDER: Cisgender. SEXUALITY: Dick falls in love easily. He finds it impossible to let go of people once they have found a way into his heart. Most of his serious relationships have been with women, but he has no preference for sex, race, species. Nothing. He cares about connections. However, he doesn’t spend a lot of time analyzing his sexuality and doesn’t think it’s important. ROMANTIC: He is extremely romantic and desperately wants to be married and have an idyllic life. However, he’s also made the mistake of convincing himself to take the step with the belief that it would fix a broken relationship. MEMORY: Dick is a big picture thinker. It isn’t his natural inclination to remember details. However, his training under Bruce has strengthened that tendency and he makes for a good detective. Most of his biggest breaks have been because of hunches and making connections, however, rather than remembering specific details like dates. PLANNING: Being leader of the Titans, Dick had no option but to plan. His goal was to keep his team safe. However, he was not happiest in the leadership role. He was good at it because of his interpersonal skills and ability to bring people together, as well as think on his feet, but he does best when working independently. It causes him too much stress to carry that responsibility. As Nightwing, he never has the sense that he is filling a role. PENSIVE: Yes. Dick is hard on himself and therefore spends a lot of time thinking about how he could have done something better, with better results, and blames himself when something goes wrong. INTUITION: Dick has extremely high intuition and it has gotten him out of tight spots in the past. It is his greatest strength. PROBLEM SOLVING: It depends on the puzzle. With dry facts, no. Dick’s problem-solving abilities hinge on the opportunity to approach the problem from various points of view. It is also important that the solution does not go against his personal values. Despite his tendency to prioritize ethical standards (and being more of a feeler), he is proficient with logic. GOALS: Dick has no broad, sweeping goals; all he wants is to prevent one kid from going through what he went through. INSECURITIES: Dick is insecure about his authenticity. He works hard to meet Bruce’s expectations, but he also hides things that don’t line up with this image. That tendency puts a wall between him and others. It is difficult for him to reconcile with not being perfect. ACHIEVEMENTS: His siblings. ANXIETY: Helplessness, boredom, and confusion give Dick the most anxiety. OVERWHELMED: He can often get overwhelmed, he carries too much on his shoulders, but it takes something extra to make him actually lash out. SELF-HELP: Unfortunately, he doesn’t. Dick’s coping mechanism is deflection, denial, and avoidance. He doesn’t like to discuss his own feelings because that would mean putting his issues on others. He would rather handle it himself. Unfortunately, he can’t. COMFORTS: An honest conversation and feeling as if he’s made real progress in his relationships with his brothers or in his own life. Stagnancy is not an option. BAD HABITS: Deflecting. PHILOSOPHY: Continuing to place trust in people, because anyone is capable of change.

Relationships.

FRIENDSHIPS: Dick is someone with a lot of friends, but they all know him in different capacities. He only has a handful of close friends. FRIENDS IN NEED: Dick is a supportive listener and is willing to stop everything to be there for the people he cares about. ADVERSARIES: Friendship, being lied to or betrayed. Romance is harder. Dick has a hard time ever letting go of past loves. ENEMIES: Betrayal and an understanding that no redemption exists. STRANGERS: Respectful, unless the stranger does something off the bat to insult or degrade Dick’s belief system. BEST FRIEND: Roy Harper and Wally West. LOVE: Barbara Gordon was the one that got away. WORST ENEMY: Joker. RESPECT: It depends on the enemy, but Dick would not be able to see them as a true enemy, or there would be substantial grey area.

Interactions.

MINGLING: Making new friends comes easily for Dick, but he would find it difficult to admit that trust does not. COMFORT LEVELS: He feels comfortable almost immediately. However, that switch can flip just as quickly if someone challenges one of his deeply held values. PHYSICAL: He is physical to those he knows well and knows would feel comfortable with it. Dick has been made to deal with unwelcome touching and it makes him uncomfortable. GROUPS: Dick is comfortable in a big group. He likes to relax and tease. Sometimes being one on one can be a bit too intense for him. Opening up to people doesn’t happen quickly. GENEROSITY: He is generous to a fault, to the point where he would be easily taken advantage of, but he has money to burn. JEALOUSY: Dick isn’t immune to jealousy and he felt his share when he was young and still understanding the ins and outs of relationships. He knows not everyone shares his desire to be monogamous and he is often concerned about making someone feel trapped. TEMPER: It takes a severe circumstance or a long build up of tension/issues/pressure/stress for Dick to lose his temper. However, it’s unnerving because he acts so out of character. EMPATHY: Dick is very empathetic, but he also puts his own values above others and this can come off as dismissive. AFFECTION: Touch. Gifts. Words of affirmation. Dick isn’t too proud and he’s certainly confident enough to admit his feelings for someone. He has no trouble being the pursuer. DISTASTE: The type of person he would dislike would either disrespect and speak against Dick’s personal moral code, something he holds very dear, or he would disrespect those close to him. His response would be stubbornly dismissive. If this were someone he cared about, he would desperately try to convince him that his way is best. ETIQUETTE: Dick’s etiquette is practiced because he was raised as Bruce Wayne’s heir. However, he has a hard time acting fake polite, which can put a considerable strain on interactions if he is offended or annoyed. RESPONSIBILITY: Yes. If Dick sees the consequences of his bad choices, he is quick to take responsibility and (sometimes unfair) blame. SELF ESTEEM: While Dick doesn’t let others push him around in any sense, if someone manages to tap into his insecurities, he will not lie and argue against the truth of his perceived shortcomings. However, when it comes to his decisions and competency, he has high self esteem and he will only listen to others if they present a solid point. CONFIDENCE: Only his family and those he cares about. HONESTY: Dick is always honest, but he also errs on the side of hopefulness and rarely speaks in absolutes unless it comes to his own feelings. He does not sugarcoat a situation when it looks bleak because he knows it does little good to lie and will not solve the problem. It ties into his difficulty in being fake. LEADER OR FOLLOWER: Leader. But he prefers working alone. PARTY TRICKS: He’s very flexible and knows a lot of random circus tricks. Tumbling, gymnastics, acrobatics, and impressive parkour gets some oohs and ahhs. PRAISE: Dick yearns for praise, but because he still feels as if he falls short, it is natural for him to find reasons to underscore his accomplishments. CRITICISM: Criticism is something he takes to heart if it taps into what he already thinks about himself. INSULTS: Unless they reflect his true inner self, Dick brushes them off. EMBARRASSMENT: No. When he is embarrassment, he finds a way to laugh it off. FLIRTING: Yes, but selectively flirtatious. Dick yearns for connection and validation, which is something he seems to think he’ll get from love. ATTENTION SPAN: It depends on the circumstance. Dick can be remarkably focused and he doesn’t tap out of the situation unless it is just incapable of holding his attention. He’s intelligent; so, like his body, his brain is restless and eager to jump onto the next theory once he’s exhausted the current one. SITUATIONS: Because Dick has remarkable empathy and he cares about people, he is very good at handling interpersonal conflict and treating his team the way he knows he’d want to be treated: like equals.

Life.

SHOPPING: Only when absolutely necessary. Dick doesn’t need to surround himself with things he doesn’t need. He rarely spends time at him as it is. DRIVING: Yes, all manners of vehicles. FINANCES: Being that Dick is the son of Bruce Wayne, his financial position is secure. He does have to set up everything through auto-pay however, or he will forget. MARRIAGE: Dick does want to get married because he thinks that falls in line with who he wants to be. KIDS: Same as above. PETS: He could take them or leave them, but he does like animals. He just doesn’t have time for them. LAW: Countless acts as a vigilante have been illegal, not least of all murdering Joker. ILLNESS/MENTAL OR OTHERWISE: Other than constant anxiety, no. WORRIES: Everything. Literally. Mainly he worries about the safety of his family. PEACE: Dick can’t stand total silence because he gets overwhelmed with his thoughts. He always has to have something playing, even if he’s not listening to it. PARTYING: Dick isn’t a big partier. He doesn’t like to drink or act fake, so it just isn’t his scene. HOBBIES: He likes to play the guitar. He also enjoys, particularly Shakespearean roles, and he’ll dramatically act out the parts and make his siblings laugh.

#muse: about

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rosamieaquino · 4 years ago

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WOR Task 003. Palace Profile.

BASICS

Full Name: Rosamie Amor Aquino Pronunciation: Row-suh-mee Aliases, if any: Rosa, Rose Date of Birth: November 30th 2094 Age: 25 Gender: Female Nationality: Filipino Religion, if applicable: Roman Catholic. But she sins like everyone else, she just goes to confession every time. Parents’ names: Father - Efren Aquino, Mother - Althea Aquino Siblings: One older sibling (The crown of the Philippines) Current relationship status: Betrothed to Thomas Adley Previous relationships: Sahir Bin Jabbar Al Nahyan. They were betrothed but it didn’t take long for Sahir to find a way to break it up. She was a little hurt at first but she didn’t hold it against him claiming it was just part of their stories.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Height: 5’3| Build: Thin Hair colour: Black Eye colour: Brown Glasses/contacts: None Tattoos: None Piercings: Ears, both lobes done three times. Two derma anchors on each hip. Typical clothing style: She prefers dresses to anything else and it’s not uncommon to find her in them even while she’s just lounging around. She’s not used to having to cover up too much with the weather in the Philippines. But her team of Lady’s did make sure to pack her some winter clothes as opposed to the amount of dresses she requested just because they knew the cold would become too much in Russia. It probably already is. Distinguishing features (scars, birthmarks, freckles, etc): She has a beauty mark on her right cheek that she likes to cover up with make up as much as possible. Despite her mother always telling her it was beautiful she’s self conscious about it. Dominant hand: Right

HEALTH

Health issues or illnesses, if any: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). She has a mild form that can cause a range of different symptoms including joint pain and fatigue to name a few. It’s never hindered her life too much and it had never gotten serious enough to cause any internal damage. Nobody outside of her family and her doctors (including the castle doctors) know about the disease. Allergies, if any: None Exercise habits: She tries to do things to keep up her physical strength, mostly swimming or horseback riding, but there are times when her disease does make it harder. This is when she’s mostly considered lazy and she lounges around most of the day. Dietary habits: She’s not picky but there are a few things she doesn’t enjoy in her diet. A lot of it has more to do with texture than anything. Other than that she’s pretty easy to please.

PERSONALITY

Accent: Her accent slips through a lot. Rosamie knows many languages but that distinct Tagalog accent always slips through. Speech style: She tends to speak pretty quickly sometimes, especially when she’s excited, and it sometimes makes it hard to understand her. She tries her best to be conscious of this. Most used word or phrase: “Ugh, that’s so romantic.” or “ You’re going to make me cry.” Do they curse?: Not usually but something can slip through every now and then. Any secrets? Other than her Lupus, no. Top priority/ies: For her? To have a happy life. She just wants to be loved, is that too much to ask? But her duty to her family comes before anything else. Most treasured possession: A rare copy of an illustrated Romeo and Juliet that her mother got for her on her sixteenth birthday. She keeps it in her room in a special case and only looks at it occasionally even though it’s her favorite thing. Addictions, if any: Her trashy romance books. Phobias: She doesn’t really have any major phobias. Snakes scare her along with the idea of parasites. Compulsions/ habits: She plays with her hair a lot when she’s thinking deeply about something. Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius Jung personality type: ENFP-A (The Campaigner) Moral alignment: Neutral Good Primary intelligence type(s): Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence and Interpersonal IntelligenceIntelligence Love language(s): Responds to physical touch Hogwarts house: Hufflepuff

PERSONAL

Birth order (royal): Second in line to the Filipino throne. Spare. Education level: Graduated University with a bachelor’s in English Literature and a bachelor’s in Politics. Languages spoken: Fluent in Filipino, Tagalog, English, and Arabic (since she thought she would be queen of a country where it was the official language). Special Skills: Is daydreaming a skill? Hobbies: Reading, writing, horseback riding, swimming

#{Rosamie: take me to the moon where i can sleep till noon}#wor.task

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senzacaponecoda · 5 years ago

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(res conlangii)

Waiting on data to come in for schoolwork so I kind of doodled a plan for the syntactic evolution of Góoreta which is probably as good as it’ll get and the new draft for what will be Tantapty 2.0, which would be like Pa3aty 4.0 or something by now. 5.0, 6.

Góoreta is ancestral, and was modeled as pretty much a prototypical Nubian language; based on Old Nubian directly.

Góoreta is mixed SOVT/SVTO. T and V are generally fused (i.e. auxiliaries are rare) but SOV is slightly more primary and it’s reflected in how the verb is marked.

So the maximal noun phase is something like {en} {adjunct} {adjective phrase} root.stem-{sg/pl/col}-{nom/dir/gen/cop/abs} {adjective phrase} {adjunct}, {en} being an optional semantically empty determiner (syntactically it helps clue the listener in to a complex NP), {sg/pl/col} being the East Sudanic singulative/plural/collective number markers, the dir case being a combined accusative-dative, cop being the copulatory case, basically the marker for the more topical half of a copula phrase (as opposed to the part traditionally called a predicate, which is confusing when you’re talking about languages that don’t use a verb to express it). Leftward adjuncts and adjective phrases tend to be alienable, rightward tend to be inalienable/attributive. Compounds are thus backwards for an OV lang: manfire, not fireman. Possession is always marked rightwardly. Supplementation common.

Adpositions are chiefly prepositions, but adpositions that were promoted to conjunctions before Góoreta are postpositive.

The maximal verb is {adv} root.stem-{caus}-{pret}-{inch}-{pass/recip/mid}-{neg}-{admir}-{modal}-{fut}-[PNG]-{subj}

Already pluractionals would be lexicalized. Moods not happening in the morphology would be adverbial or like CP level or something. Verbs are mostly regular, with no supplemental stems coming to mind. Verbs however can be compounded, and a passive-perfective participle phrase WITH (adv) verb-POS tends to deliver stative sentence structures.

So a kind of overview of the whole sentence I got from a book on Egyptian might look like

where d is indirect object and A is adjuncts. Small is pronomial arguments and caps is lexically full. Cs are not mutually exclusive.

It seems that it’s necessary to have both a post-Góoreta NS creole and a pre-Tantafty Afroasiatic creole of the creole in order to “marry” it into the family as my goal originally was.

AA was probably already VSO~VOS, and probably ergative-absolutative. This initial hybridization would actually be crown to actual Afroasiatic, maybe being more of a hybridization with a Pre-Afroasiatic.

T would then be broken from V, and the cross-linguistic tendency for creoles to trend SVO (although this is maybe a European bias error since creoles tend to be half IE due to colonialism) is a compromise.

So new syntactic structure is C-S-s-T-V-o-d-O-A It basically follows Góoreta’s SVO style syntax. The new NP is {en} root.stem-{sg/pl/col} {adjective phrase} {adjunct}

Which loses the Nubian case system.

The new VP is

{aux=V-TA-M-Neg} root.stem.{inch/caus} {other mood} POS

Everything outside the domain of the inchoative broke off. The tense system would probably revolve around the now inherently unaccusative perfect i-VERB-POS forms and an un-i’d form derived from that. Maybe from núu (at) such as what forms a progressive in many languages. This has an advantage of preparing the verbal system for a harmony derived Front/Back ablaut.

Unfortunately Tantafty retaining an admirative mood seems unlikely.

This is when the Afroasiatic elements become dominate, and the stage of the language borrowed is roughly sister to the non-Ethiopian type Afroasiatic languages.

New syntax overform is like S-T-V-s-d-o-O-A. V-s tend to form a unit.

Despite Egyptian losing it, verbs inherit the prefixing conjugation as it assists the Ca1a22a3 unmarked form of present tenses (though, maybe, really, it should lose it, the same way Egyptian did.)

New NP is

{en}-cl.ABS root.stem.{sg/pl/col}-cl.ABS {(a) complement} {adjective phrase}-cl.ABS {adjunct}

Agreement is normalized. Number is lexicalized. Class is introduced. All nouns inherit the PAA absolutative case (-a), although case is not a feature of the syntax. Old nominative -u occasionally used, grammaticalized into something of focalized case. New number system starts to arise from dragging {pl} suffix with -cl.ABS irregularly. (a) represents a connective element, like {of}

New VP would be

{aux} {caus}-root.{inch}.stem-{modal}-[PNG]

Auxiliaries handle most issues. The new causative from AA supplants NS’s productively, the inchoative is detectable but fossilized, like English -Cle in words like rattle, dabble, nipple, etc. Some new modals have attached themselves between the verb and the PNG markers, from the possessive markers, at least in the perfect aspect. Old modals provide at least a new subjunctive.

4. ~ 5. (split as legit branch, then future Amizightization/Arabization)

Language eventually shifts into VSO syntax preferably. Old focalizing case used for SVO word order subject.

Word order is T-V.s.d.o-S-O-A

NP is

{D}(-case?)-[N][S]stem[S]

[N][S]stem[S](-case?)

where S is state derived from the connector/absolutative case.

Every draft of Tantafty/Pa3atic thus far has had case but I’m not entirely sure why it would even arise at this stage.

The nisbe could give rise to a kind of genitive-dative. But an earlier stage is likely to have had an et-ha-qadoyshim kind of accusative preposition. By now I want {en} to have become {lá} so it might be something that looks like l-á~an-á or something. The genitive-dative would probably have to go - l>r is what the negative for NPs is going to end up as, and ní would end up declining for something that governs it instead of what it governs. I could be silly and use d~ð, which looks both Imazighen-y and Modern South Arabian-y at the same time. I like the idea of German-style case-on-the-article-ness though.

Nouns would thus be VCCVC in form preferentially I guess. Irregular forms would be the main vestige of Nilo-Saharan - supplemental singulative-collective-plural forms.

For VP I guess that means a form like

{AUX} {caus}.stem.{modal}-[PNG] {adv}

The causative would be partially fossilized into the verb. The auxiliary would handle most of the weight, but probably as preverbs like in Egyptian or Nahuatl or so on as a VSO correlate. Although preverb-auxiliary-verb is likely too. Morphological moods I guess would be heavily reduced, compared to, say, Arabic or something.

The perfective/imperfective system should break into a new stative (like the present perfect), new preterite, new imperfect, and new “cursive” system, where cursive is habitual, gnomic, or the like. That’s taken from an Amazight language but kind of nicely lines up with how English distinguishes present perfect, the past tenses, the progressive, and the simple present. Auxiliaries from “come” and “go” add tense to the paradigm. New moods to be determined, probably areally based on Siwi and Arabic. Voice probably has to be grammaticalized from a verb/preposition instead of an Afroasiatic-y one. Likely a good place for stand? “He stands damaged by battle.”

It would probably be realistic for Tantafty to gain a prefixing conjugation from a suffixing conjugation Coptic style. The Amazight languages do interesting things to their prefixing and suffixing conjugations though and I might want to base whatever I do about the yaCvCCvC present forms on something like that, however. It might be that the whole present form from PAA collapses into just a gender distinction of the subject, which I’m leaning towards. Then PN agreement happens in the suffixes.

Vestiges of NS would then mainly be pluractional vs singulative verbs. I might be able to fit an honorific/emphatic mood in akin to Góoreta’s admirative, which I really wanted, but it can’t really be a direct descendant.

I like the idea of Tantafty having serial verb constructions (which it’s had for years now) and I like the idea of the creoles having compound verbs. Something like an atelic verb head and a stative resultative verb pattern might be doable for a lot of verb nuances, and end up with some weird compounds on the way. A random bit of what looks like Mandarin syntax I guess. This would be, like, the cut-break compounds.

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apolesen · 6 years ago

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A phonological analysis of Cardassian

@illogicalbroccoli and I decided to sit down and analyse the Cardassian sound-system. This can serve as a guide for coining names and words. We have also included a description of what a Cardassian sounds like.

Limitations

This analysis is based on the names of all named Cardassians in alpha-canon (i.e. the TV series) (with exceptions of names that are clearly names of the production team that are added in writing just as place-holders), taken from the category ‘Cardassians’ on Memory Alpha. We have also taken into account the names of the sectors of the Union Capitals and the fan-coined names for body parts: chufa, chula, chuva (the spoons), prUt, ajan, vit (genitals). (We have also gone through the Cardassian names in Memory Beta and have considered how they would fit in, but not used them as basis for our analysis.) This is a fairly good sample, but with any sample, some phonemes and combinations of phonemes might not be represented.

We are treating the way these words are written as Federation transcription. That means that sometimes, we might find inconsistencies in it. We have tried to not invoke transcription errors too often, but at times we have simply to keep the system plausible.

The final thing is that Cardassian vocal organs are probably different from human ones. Do Cardassians have an uvula, do their teeth look the same, what is the range of movement of their tongue? However, in this post, I am assuming that their vocal organs are close enough to ours that we can use the same terminology.

Terminology

Stop - a consonant where the air-flow is completely cut off. These are /p, t, k, b, d, g/. If you can say it drawn out, it’s not a stop.

Fricative - another type of consonants where the air-flow is not completely cut off. If it’s a consonant you can say drawn out, it’s a fricative, such as /f/.

Sibilant - sibilants are strictly a kind of fricative, but are worth mentioning in their own right. They are s-sounds. If it sounds like something a snake might say, it’s a sibilant.

Affricate - a sound that starts as a stop and ends as a fricative, for instance English chap.

Cluster - any sounds that commonly occur together. Here I specifically mean consonant clusters, such as /pl/, /gr/, /rm/ etc.

Phoneme - a distinct sound in a specific language. Phonemes are identified by minimal pairs, words where the only thing that is different are the sounds we are investigating. For instance, English rent and lent are different words, and shows us that /r/ and /l/ are phonemes.

Allophone - an allophone is how a phoneme presents. A phoneme might manifest differently depending on its position in a word. As with phonemes, there are specific to languages. What is allophonic in one language can be phonemic in another.

Slashes are used for indicate phonemes, i.e. sounds. Angled brackets indicate graphemes, i.e. written signs.

I have used some IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) signs in this post, but have endeavoured to give examples wherever I can. A good resource is the website internationalphoneticalphabet dot org, where you will find a link to “IPA chart with sounds”. You can simply click the sign in question and it reads it to you.

The Cardassian phonetic system

We are proposing the following system:

p - t- k - q - v

b - d- g - ɢ - f - θ - ʃ - j - h

ʧ - ʦ

r - l - m- n- ŋ - s - z

a - e - i - ɔ - o - u - ei

In the following sections, I will go through them and explain our reasoning and give examples.

Stops

Cardassian has a balanced stop system, much like that of English:

/p/ - Paldar

/t/ - Tain

/k/ - Kelas

/b/ - Belor

/d/ - Damar

/g/ - Garak

However, the voiceless velar /k/ causes us some problems. This sound is sometimes written with <k> (e.g. kanar), but sometimes it is written with <c>, e.g. Broca, Preloc, Crell, Lemec. However, <c> is also used for a sibilant in the names Ocett and Macet. We could put this down to an error in transcription, but that is a dull out. Let us take another piece of data into account - the <gh> in Ghemor. At first glance, this might be an aspirated stop (a sound that occurs allophonically in English and sounds a bit more ‘breathy’), but if so, we would expect more aspirated stops. We could say that the examples of <c> as a velar are aspirated, but it does not ring true to me. Therefore, I suggest that <c> and <gh> represent uvular stops:

/q/ - Crell

/ɢ/ - Ghemor

The uvula is the thing that hangs down at the back of your mouth. In order to make this sound, you pronounce an ordinary velar (/k/ or /g/) but also bring up the back of your tongue and touch your uvula. These sounds do not occur in English, but does in Arabic and some Caucasian languages.

It is worth noting that there is one Cardassian name with a <q> in beta-canon, Andrul Taqut. This might be another example of the uvular.

Fricatives, affricates, liquids and nasals

The Cardassian fricative system is not as well-balanced as its stop system:

/v/ - Revok

/f/ - chufa

/θ/ - Thrax

/ʃ/ - Shoggoth

/j/ - Ziyal

It has both /v/ and /f/, but the latter only appears word-internally (e.g. chufa - there is a beta canon example of Fhret, but this is an odd cluster and I am going to put it aside). There is /θ/, transliterated <th> (like in English thirst), but no voiceless version (like English there). There is also /ʃ/ (English sheer) and /j/, (English yet).

As for affricates, there are two:

/ʧ/ - chuva

/ʦ/ - Marritza

The sound /ʧ/ is that of English chap and /ʦ/ is Italian pazzo (a /t/ and /s/ sound very close together).

The nasals, liquids and sibilants are much the same as in English:

/r/ - Garak

/l/ - gul

/m/ - Mila

/n/ - Nor

/ŋ/ - Lang

/s/ - Silaran

/z/ - Ziyal

What about the times <c> is used for a sibilant? It is noticeable that it only occurs word-internally and between vowels. We have three names with <s> word-internally and between vowels: Rusot, Moset and Russol (assuming the gemination does not show it is something else). Both the first and last cases are flanked by back vowels, so I suggest that they can be disregarded. We are then left with Ocett, Macet and Moset. I will suggest that <c> is used (by a very sloppy transcriber) to present an allophone of /s/ which occurs when the phoneme /s/ follows after a vowel and precedes a /e/. Usually, allophones are not written in different ways, so we would be correct writing these names as Osett and Maset.

Furthermore, there is a /h/, which often occurs within words.

Vowels

With the vowels, we must note that there is a problem as English vowels are very messed up. Do we assume that the orthography or the pronunciation is closer to the Cardassian truth? Most of the time, we think the pronunciation is closer, but with some provisions for English lenition. We decided upon this system:

/a/ - Garak

/e/ - Enabran

/i/ - Ziyal

/ɔ/ - Terok Nor (always transcribed with <o>)

/o/ - Ulani (sometimes transcribed with <o>, sometimes with capital <U>)*

/u/ - Dukat

*) We are assuming an inconsistency of transcription here, simply to allow for the orthography in prUt which does not occur in alpha canon.

There is also one diphthong (or at least one that we can find evidence of):

/ei/ - Tain **

**) Even if this is written with an <a>, the first part of this diphthong is clearly an /e/.

Notably, Cardassian does not have a schwa, /ǝ/, which is a sound in the very middle of the mouth like in chocolate. This occurs when an unstressed vowel is weakened to the extent that we don’t bother to put our tongue up or down but simply keep it in a fairly neutral position. Because

Vowel length is marked, and appears to orthographically be shown by double vowels, as in Boheeka, Aamin. At least once, these are separated by an accent, Darhe’el. The accent also occurs in the name Pa’Dar, where it rather seems to show a shortening of the preceding vowel. I am going to chalk this up to a misunderstanding in the transcription.

A note on the uses of <h> in beta canon

I have discussed <gh> in Ghemor. However, it is worth mentioning that there are some odd uses of <h> in beta-canon names: Khevet, Efheny, Rhukal, Rhemet, Mhevet.

Most of these can, in my opinion, be dismissed. Khevet could be an uvular that has been written that way by influence of the transcription of Ghemor. Rhukal and Rhemet are probably examples of the phoneme /r/. It might be an allophonic variation not shown in names such as Rusot and Rugal (perhaps Bajoran doesn’t have this variation and that’s why Rugal’s name is written without it?). As for Efheny, I do not think that the <h> is there to show a change in the /f/, but that there is supposed to be a hiatus between them, Ef-heny. When it comes to Mhevet, I think we need to look at the character in question. Arati Mhevet is from North Torr, which is a poor and close-knit community, and precisely the kind that might have a distinct dialect. I propose that the <mh> represents a labial that is found in the North Torr dialect and not in ‘standard’ Cardassian.

Permitted clusters

Languages are governed by some internal rules of sounds that can and can’t go together and only in certain positions. For instance, initial /ks/ is generally not permitted in English, which is why words such as xylophone and xenophobic are often pronounced starting with something like /z/. Similarly, English does not allow initial /pt/ and /ps/, which is why words starting with these, e.g. pterodactyl and psychologist, often are pronounced with the <p> silent.

In Cardassian, we can see some general rules for permitted clusters.

Clusters consisting of a stop plus /r/ are generally permitted. Liquid plus stop is rare, as are fricative-initial clusters.

However, this obscures a lot.

Stop-initial clusters:

pr, tr, kr, br, dr

kl, gl

-ks#

When it comes to stop plus /r/, all are permitted with the exception of /gr/. In the case of stop plus /l/, only velars, /k/ and /g/, are allowed. The only stop-nasal cluster allowed in /gn/.

The hash indicates the end of a word; the combination /ks/ is only allowed at the end of words (there is a Cardassian name Thrax).

Liquid-initial clusters are:

rb, rd, rt, rl, rn, rm, rv

ld, lt

Liquid+stop clusters are generally rare, and /r/-initial clusters are far more common than /l/-initial ones.

Nasal-initial clusters are:

nd, nt, np, mp

As for clusters starting in fricatives or sibilants, there are only two:

θr, sk

A Cardassian Accent

What a person sounds like when speaking a language which is not their first language is down to what phonology they are used to. For instance, a native speaker of Hindi may pronounce sounds that are not retroflexed in English as retroflexed, as that is a common sound in Hindi. The allowed clusters in a language also often carries over.

As we have established what sounds and clusters occur in Cardassian, we can extrapolate what a Cardassian-speaker might sound like if they were speaking English. The amount of accent one has depends on a great number of things - age of second language acquisition, previous bilingualism, general aptitude for language, amount of progress. In my opinion, someone like Garak would not have much of an accent, but people with less experience of other languages and less exposure to native English-speakers will have a more noticeable accent.

As there is no voiceless fricative /ð/, like in English there, so a Cardassian-speaker might say “dere”. The /f/ phoneme is never initial, so while a Cardassian-speaker might be able to pronounce English sofa well, they might struggle with foal and instead say “voal” (which might lead to interesting misunderstandings). They would have trouble with English diphthongs, of which there are a lot. They might also make distinctions that an English speaker would not, such as using an uvular velar in certain positions.

As the consonant clusters that are allowed in Cardassian are fairly few, a Cardassian-speaker will struggle with some of the clusters in English. Words like star or morsel might cause them trouble. They might add a vowel in between - “satar” - or drop one of the segments “mosel”.

We have not taken things like accenting patterns and word melody into account, as there is not really any data that allows us to reconstruct it, but that too would change how a Cardassian accent would sound.

#star trek #ds9 #cardassians #cardassian worldbuilding

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rezares · 5 years ago

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Spill The Tea || Aurora and Fadela Kasraoui-Muller

tl;dr: Reza’s dumb ass leaves something incriminating lying around, and the middle sibling is thrilled to spill some tea.

@spindlesandrosethorns

WORD COUNT: 3036

DATED: August 22, 2019

FADELA KASRAOUI-MULLER

If you asked Fadela (which nobody ever did) she would tell you her older brother was Booboo The Fool. Lucky for the world, Fadela wasn’t a woman who sat still and waited for her cue to speak, so she made her opinion on her brother known regardless. To his face, no less.

Had she been born a Hamdi instead of a Fadela he would have punched her. But Reza was too noble to hit a woman, even one who he knew could and would hit him back twice as hard, or who sometimes hit him first when the mood was right.

Her dumbass brother sometimes needed a mild ass-kicking to get his shit together. She was always happy to oblige.

And in true Booboo The Fool fashion Reza had done the one thing you’re not supposed to do with someone else’s unrequited love and acknowledged it. Not only did he acknowledge it, but he confronted it head on. Like a car crash. And yallah. The fallout was simply glorious!

Er, no Fadela. That’s bitchy. We’re working on our empathy these days.

Correction: the fallout provided astounding reagents for Fadela to collect on the sly, but was simply tragic for poor Aurora. Not origin story of a serial killer tragic but certainly origin story of an old spinster worthy.

How she still managed to face him at least twice a week to study magic was beyond her. If Fadela had a heart to be broken, she couldn’t face the man who broke her heart so casually for the sake of honesty. What was Reza trying to accomplish anyway? Clear some guilty conscience?

“Psh. Idiot.” Fadela snorted aloud, going back to reading the grimoire in her little corner of the workshop.

Aurora

Aurora had almost gotten used to having a broken heart.

It no longer horrified her to see the black bruises and fissures spread out across her chest and shoulders. She was used to the dull pain being around Reza and Sabiha caused her. She had stopped trying to force herself to smile.

It wasn't a good thing to be used to, but being accustomed to it meant the pain couldn't take her by surprise anymore. Especially since she was being stupid and coming back at least twice a week to have her heart broken again.

She still let herself in, only now she didn't announce herself with a warm greeting. Her entrances now were silent things; just a shadow making herself at home where she would never belong. Once her things were dropped by the front door of the workshop, Aurora made her way quietly through the cottage. It was still a mess from the last lesson, and she sighed softly as she began to straighten up before Reza could join them. She waved a hello to Fadela, then got to work.

The cottage was nearly neat and tidy again when Aurora went to put some jars left on Reza's desk back on the shelf, and was surprised to find a picture of a man she had never seen before staring up at her from under the jar. Something about his portrait set off warning bells in the back of Aurora's mind - a sixth sense she had picked up not from magic, but from a lifetime of observing from the sidelines - and she began to clear the desk even further.

Was it probably an invasion of privacy? A little. But desk tops were fair game, Reza knew that. He so rarely told her anything, less so now than before, so she had to get her information in other ways.

FADELA KASRAOUI-MÜLLER

Fadela waved back at her brother’s apprentice but otherwise paid her about as much attention as one does a fruit fly. Ears tuned for buzzing, but not particularly interested.

But the buzzing didn’t come.

Odd, Fadela had to admit, but again — fruit fly. It’s not that Fadela didn’t like Aurora (she didn’t like anybody) it was just Aurora didn’t come around for her.

While Aurora shuffled things on Reza’s workstation, Fadela was immersed in her own work.

AURORA

Aurora didn’t have to dig far at all to find the rest of the paperwork to go with the picture, which was better for her sense of guilt if anything else. This wasn’t buried, this wasn’t hidden. Just… forgotten.

Why did Reza have a picture of a man with such sinister eyes on his desk?

There was a whole folder that followed the picture, and Aurora sat at Reza’s desk - which often doubled as hers as well - as she began to flip through it. News clippings, hand written notes, maps - most written in what Aurora recognized as Reza’s personal code. It wasn’t something Aurora knew how to translate by any stretch of the imagination, but she had seen his notes often enough to pick up familiar words. Sorcerer… Tunisia… missing....

Aurora flipped through the pages quirker now, until she found an article in English, printed off an international news website. The article was about the death of a family of five in Tunisia, outlining all but the most brutal of details and still making Aurora’s skin crawl regardless. Some talk about the crime, the investigation, and then, a single, fuzzy shot from a security camera…

The same man from the portrait, looking dead ahead as he was caught, mid-pace leaving the crime scene.

Aurora’s stomach bottomed out, the young woman flipping back to the map and looking at the littering of ‘x’s and ‘o’s across its surface, like Reza was tracking something… or someone.

That thought was enough to get Aurora out of her chair, crossing over to Fadela’s workspace and setting the photo down in front of her. “Who’s this?” she asked quietly.

FADELA KASRAOUI-MÜLLER

A rustling of papers had reached her ears but was just as quickly forgotten. The sorcerers shared a desk, it wasn’t uncommon for them to read the other’s work.

It wasn’t until a photo of a sorcerer Fadela hadn’t seen in years appeared in front of her that she thought ah, I should’ve turned around. Then again it was her idiot brother’s own fault. Shouldn’t have left the Mekki file laying about. Did he forget so easily how meddlesome his apprentice was?

The older woman tsked and shook her head at the photo before casting a sideways glance at Reza’s desk.

“I see the dumbass left his murder file out in the open again.”

AURORA

Shockingly, Aurora wasn’t in the mood for the patented Kasroui-Muller brand of Cryptic Sarcasm and Nonanswers.

“Not a name, Fadela,” she said, not moving the picture from the desk or her eyes from Fadela. “Who is this man and why does Reza have an encoded ‘murder file’ on him.”

FADELA

Ah, well. If her brother left his dirty laundry out for the world to see, was it really a crime for Fadela to organize it?

“Mekki Masmoudi. He was the old Rory, once upon a time.”

AURORA

Mekki Masmoudi?

(Put that on the list of names Aurora’s Accent wouldn’t let her pronounce.)

Aurora took the photo slowly back, looking at the face staring back at her and feeling dread dripping down her spine. The old Rory… he must have been one of Reza’s old apprentices, then. He'd mentioned he'd taught a few. But then…

"Define 'murder file'," she asked, not looking away from the picture.

FADELA

“Did I fucking stutter?” The middle Kasraoui-Müller sibling deadpanned, spinning around in her spinny chair to look at Aurora.

Fadela crossed her arms over her chest and gestured to Reza’s desk with her chin. Oh, he was so lucky his young apprentice who just idolized him couldn’t read Arabic. If only she knew what Fadela knew.

And if Aurora asked the right questions she’d tell her.

“I mean, Reza’s hunting him like a deer. And intends to kill him.”

AURORA

Seriously, the sass? Unnecessary. Aurora silently rolled her eyes, giving Fadela a flat look when she spun around. She waited for older woman’s reply, and her eyes went wide at the blunt answer. Reza intended… to what?

Her eyes jumped back to the file, to the article she had left on the top on the desk. A family of five, killed in their home. By a man Reza had taught. She had only skimmed the article, hadn’t gone too deep into the details until her stomach had turned, but if Reza was trying…

Had he…. Was Mekki using magic to kill people?

“I…” Aurora said softly, mind churning rapidly. Questions breeding questions upon questions such that Aurora didn’t even have time to ask the first bunch.

Just ask a question! Reza… he could be callous, but he wasn’t cruel. He was a good man; she still believed that. There had to be a reason!

“How long has Reza been hunting him?” Aurora asked quietly.

FADELA

The older woman watched as the wheels turned in the younger’s head, briefly glancing longingly at the gorgeous wisp of Pure Panic that floated from her that Fadela knew better than to leap up and bottle. It’s only make her angry.

“Mm. Mekki went Dark about se...ven? Seven years, yeah. Reza even hunted him from his hospital bed and wheelchair in Austria.”

Reza was many things, but he didn’t half-ass anything. Even his murder plans.

AURORA

Seven years. That was barely a year after Sabiha had been born. For a moment, Aurora imagined how terrifying it must have been to have an infant daughter and a murder happy apprentice running around, and suddenly the murder file made a little more sense.

Aurora dropped into her seat, resting her head in the hand that wasn’t holding Mekki’s photograph. This was… a lot. “Let me guess, he’s not going to authorities because the government is anti-Magick trash,” she sighed after a moment, tossing Mekki’s photo on to the desk before pressing both hands together over her mouth. So. The man she was (against all better judgement) in love with was actively hunting down a murderer to kill him and exact vigilante justice.

Oh, her life was so much fun!

“If… if the file is out, does that mean he found new information?” she asked after several silent minutes. She wasn’t sure why Fadela was being so forthcoming, but hopefully, she could get just a few more answers out of her.

FADELA

Did it mean that? Not necessarily. Sometimes when Reza drank the file came out. Alcohol could make him particularly eager to graffiti Hammamet with Mekki Masmoudi’s blood. This time though?

“Oh habibi. He’s closing in on the sick bastard. Reza’s tracked him across eight countries over the years and he’s popped back up in Tunisia after two years away. My brother is like a cobra, gearing up to strike.”

AURORA

You know, of all the things to get caught on while being told about her friend’s premeditated murder plans, nicknames shouldn’t be one of them. But here she was, feeling that familiar cracking across her chest as Fadela casually used the nickname Reza had given her, the one that had used to make Aurora feel, well… a little special. It was cute, it was such a beautiful word to hear in his accent, and apparently it meant nothing if Fadela was casually whipping it out.

Further proof that Reza never had and never would see something more in Aurora. Fuck, one day that was going to stop hurting.

Focus, Aurora, your friend is plotting a murder. You can get sad and heartbroken later.

Soon, huh? Aurora walked back to the desk and to the file, looking at the map that had been covered in ‘x’s and ‘o’s. One of those marks was Mekki. One of those marks was a man Reza fully intended to kill.

FADELA

“Reza’s traced him to Al Huwariyah, which is near our home city. Seriously. Less than a two hour drive from Hammamet if traffic’s light.” Fadela continued, taking Aurora’s stunned silence as an invitation to elaborate. “Reza and I have made a day trip out to there before.”

“Which is odd. Mekki has no connections or history there. I doubt he’s going to stay there for long, it’s a pretty small town. Probably just a pitstop.” She sighed and shrugged a shoulder. “But who’s to say?”

Mekki was unpredictable even when he wasn’t a dark sorcerer.

And truthfully, Fadela wasn’t all that invested in this. Mekki was Reza’s pet homicide project, not hers. She only cared insofar as it pertained to her big brother. His pain over his former apprentice’s betrayal still weighed heavily on her. She’d been Mekki’s friend once. She’d seen but ignored the signs. And it ended up hurting her brother deeply.

“Anyway. Hopefully Reza’s not going to go all soft and pussy out this time. Damn near got himself killed before, the idiot.”

AURORA

Aurora listened carefully to Fadela, grateful she wasn't just throwing town names around with no description or context. It helped her keep everything straight in her mind.

(An idea was starting to form; a tiny whisper from deep in her heart that was no doubt a bad plan. She tried to ignore it.)

Her head snapped around at Fadela's last comment, eyebrows furrowing. "He's caught him before?" she asked before realizing it was a dumb question. They had to have fought if Mekki had hurt Reza and nearly killed him. And now Reza was going after him again. Alone. She braced herself against the desk, staring out the window with a thoughtful frown.

(The whispering got louder, the gentle nudge against her mind still there despite the magical bruises and fractures that implied there was nothing left in her heart at all.)

(But what if he wasn't alone, this time?)

"So he has to move soon if he wants to get this guy," Aurora said quietly, one hand fiddling with her necklace.

FADELA

“Mm. He caught up to him in Tataouine— which is deep in the desert, on the total other end of the country. Like. Five...and a halfish hours’ drive in good traffic. Sabiha was three, for our timeline of murder here.” Fadela then paused, letting the memories come back fresh.

She should’ve gone with him. Her brother was too soft to be the hardened warrior he had to force himself to become.

“Reza explained it like this. He had a chance to kill him and had even gone in for the kill initially. But Mekki was a young boy when Reza first met him and first mentored him. When he was about to end him, Mekki’s younger face flashed in his mind and he tried to give him one last chance to surrender and reform. My brother almost paid for his kindness.”

It didn’t take a sorceress to see the Rage physically surrounding Fadela.

“He won’t make that mistake again. Mekki Masmoudi has used up all of his chances.”

Again, Fadela shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe he’ll wait until he thinks he’s more stationary. Reza has eyes all over the Maghreb and the rest of the MENA region. He was hunting him even when he couldn’t walk.”

AURORA

Listening to Fadela tell the story, Aurora almost couldn’t believe it was real. It didn’t feel real. And honestly, Aurora would not put it past Fadela to make all this up just to fuck with her. But there was no hint of deceit in her voice or in the magic around her, no red flags that assured her this was just a bad prank.

There was a very dangerous man out there who one of her best friends was determined to kill, and who had only just survived the first attempt to do so.

Aurora had begun to pull on a thick strand of hair, pressing it to her lips as she thought. “I… at the risk of sounding like an idiot, why doesn’t Reza take this to the police in Tunisa?” she asked. “I know the government doesn’t like Magicks but if this man is that dangerous…”

FADELA

Fadela let out a mirthless chuckle at Rory’s question. “My brother has a few magic related charges on his record. He needs to avoid the police, and also not get arrested and tortured again.” She was truly so innocent that Fadela felt bad for exposing the ugliness of the reality for sorcerers from their neck of the woods.

“Sorcerers have our own justice system, our own customs, laws, and judges, juries, and executioners.” Fadela explained. “There’s no courthouse or bailiff or fancy robes, but we handle delivering justice to our own. And Mekki is Reza’s own more than anybody else’s.”

“Reza has recognized some of his spellwork in Mekki’s crimes. It’s been modified of course for his purposes, but it’s very obviously bastardized from Reza’s work. He taught him all he knew and blames himself. Reza created this monster, and he’s determined to fix it.”

“He’ll kill him more mercifully than any Tunisian cop would.”

AURORA

Aurora listened to Fadela’s answer and nodded faintly, still playing with the strand of hair she had pressed to her mouth. She wanted to say a lot of very unkind things about the system that left Reza with the impression that anything he had personally done had caused this, but now wasn’t the time.

“Fair,” she murmured, not looking away from the windows. She took a deep breath before letting it out slow. “Thank you, for telling me all of this,” she said, finally looking towards Fadela.

FADELA

Fadela narrowed her eyes at Aurora and considered her response. No, she wasn’t ready to admit she liked her, and Aurora did not get to know Fadela did this because she thought she should know. Plan B it was.

“You know there’s nothing I love more in this world than talking shit about my brother, and sharing the dirt on him. It’s because he’s a better person than I am. Less blood on his hands, less moody, less of a bitch.” Fadela sighed, examining her nails. “You didn’t miss the bit about the blood though, did you?”

She didn’t wait for a response. “Good. Of course you didn’t, habibi. Now give me the murder file, I’ll put it in its not even remotely secret spot.”

#rory #r: fadela & lamia #it begins

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xadoheandterra · 6 years ago

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Title: Fait Accompli Fandom: Harry Potter, Assassins Creed Characters: Petunia Durlsey, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter Warnings: emotional manipulation, heavily implied eugenics, misuse of science, heavily implied mental manipulation, implied child abuse, character death Parts: I | II | III Summary: Petunia Dursley neé Evans had a lot of regrets in her life. Her sister, their estrangement, her marriage. This, she determined, would not be one of them. Notes: This was literally the first Assassin’s Creed fanfiction idea I ever had, and it was a crossover. This idea initially came to me when I started to play the first Assassin’s Creed in a build up anticipation for Odyssey. I had a hard time writing it originally so I scrapped it. I worked on Dreaming Bitter Darkly instead after Odyssey came out and that became my first Assassin’s Creed fic. Needless to say this isn’t going to be an emotionally happy story. At all. Petunia is not a nice woman, and this is 100% from her point of view. I do have a “sequel” planned, or rather a series of 3 stories that will take place. This and it’s two parts (still being written) and another short story that technically takes place at the same time, to set up the background for the story that I wanted to write originally.

I’m still not sure how it’ll go, but I figured I’d put this mess out there.

“Thank you for not slamming the door in my face,” Petunia said softly. The chairs were surprisingly comfortable, and from what she could see the girl in front of her tried rather hard to be accommodating despite the utter distaste. Petunia scrutinized her as subtly as she dared—she didn’t know what this child could do, not like she knew her nephew. The red hair was garish, didn’t fit her face at all, and the brow eyes reminded her far too much of the amber color from years Petunia wanted to forget.

“For whatever reason Harry loves you,” Ginny said as she set two cups of tea down on the table.

“And you love him,” Petunia took her cup and sipped the tea. Excellently made, she noted.

“I do,” Ginny agreed. She held on to her own cup tightly, knuckles white from the grip. Petunia set the china down and breathed out heavily.

“How far along are you, dear?” Petunia asked instead. “Your third, right?” She watched how Ginny’s face lit up with a smile, a little splotchy with the freckles that didn’t quite do her any favors—or at least, Petunia didn’t think so. She was so plain, but perhaps that was what Harry liked. Petunia wouldn’t know.

“Yes,” Ginny said, and her voice was bright and cheerful at the thought of the child. “A daughter.”

“A daughter?” Petunia let a smile cross her face. “Harry would love that.”

“He does,” Ginny agreed, voice soft.

A daughter. Petunia glanced to the swell of Ginny’s belly and felt—empty.

Lily named the boy Harry James Potter. Petunia didn’t know how she felt, to know the child bore that name, but she pushed on. Raising her nephew was no easy task and it wasn’t because Vernon hated the boy, although Vernon did make the task far harder than Petunia would’ve liked. No, little Harry was a silent tyke and struggled with his words. He made it apparent that there was something wholly Other about him in the way that Lily nor Petunia were as children. Petunia glowed, and Lily had always been ethereal in likeness, but Harry took it to other places.

Vernon hated anything different, foreign or otherwise. James Potter made the man infuriated, and it wasn’t a surprise to Petunia that he hated the man’s son just as much. Harry looked nothing like the family except that she had Lily, and by that notion Petunia and Lily’s father’s, bright green eyes. The almond shape wasn’t even quite like Lily’s—it held more of that Potter in it than anything. He lacked the red-as-blood hair, or the pale spun locks of Petunia’s and took far more after his own father.

Dark skin, foreign, with bright eyes and unmanageable hair. Petunia knew all about unmanageable hair—Lily’s hair had been a nightmare to take care of, far too curly and wild shaped to be tamed, but they did tame it. Harry had the thick nest of dark locks that didn’t work the way Lily or Petunia’s own hair did. It went everywhere, refused to come right, and drove her batty. She tried to shave it down short and for a time as an infant it worked, but the older Harry grew the less he allowed his hair to be short.

There were other discrepancies of course not associated with his gift. He watched the birds with uncanny and sharp eyes, almost inhuman, and when he did speak—well, the boy couldn’t make up his mind what language he was supposed to talk in. Some days he spoke proper English and others he spoke Arabic, a language Petunia only knew because of her Uncles. Petunia never displayed this, never spoke the language at home or around her own child, and reprimanded the boy when he did so without prompting.

For the longest time when Harry finally started school the teachers were concerned that he had some strange sort of disability. Petunia worked to disabuse them of the notions, to get the boy to speak English as much as possible, and to remind him precisely that his Uncle would hate to hear of how freakish he happened to act. The way the small child would stare at him, with wide eyes that made her think of Lily had Petunia’s heart clenched.

At the age of eight Harry needed glasses, so Petunia took him and got him a pair and that was when she decided to contact her Uncles and let them know about the boy. She had eight years of observed interactions, and they rarely talked to her these days as their focus was on far more fruitful endeavors. Especially since Dudley showed no real signs of any sort of inheritance of the likes of Lily or herself. Petunia resented them, a little, in how they cut her out and deemed her child a failure.

“How much does he know?”

Petunia looked to Harry who stared up at the doctor that drew a bit of the boy’s blood and pursed her lips.

“Nothing,” Petunia said eventually. “Severus was never recruited.”

Her Uncle hummed and murmured a faint, “A pity. The boy had potential. His father?”

“James Potter.”

They had no records on Potter, no knowledge of the lineage, but at least now they might have a chance, Petunia noted, with how much they drew and the varied sets of samples.

“Keep him ignorant,” her Uncle said. “We might have a use for the boy.”

Petunia nodded her head and collected Harry who stared at her Uncle, and at the doctors who eyes far too old for his face.

At ten Harry came up to her dressed in Dudley’s rags. He looked at her with those too old eyes and carefully fished out a necklace with a cross and set it on the counter. Petunia looked down at the boy and refused to look at the cross he handed her.

“They can’t be trusted,” Harry said in clear spoken English with a whisper of a voice.

“No,” Petunia agreed. “They cannot.”

Two months later Harry turned eleven and the letters started to arrive. Petunia watched events unfold as Vernon grew more and more enraged with the idea of her nephew to enter that world. Petunia let him, didn’t counter any arguments he made because Petunia could admit she hated them. She hated how they turned Lily from her, and that no matter what she tried she couldn’t get her little sister back. She hated that they made her into a liar with a broken promise.

Albus Dumbledore was at least a somewhat decent whatever it was he was. He kept Petunia up to date over the years about the messes her nephew got up and into. Without his comments Petunia would never have gotten Harry into the lessons that would lead toward his survival. She didn’t like the man. He made her chest feel as if it were full of cold fire and fury. Whatever Albus Dumbledore was Petunia knew he couldn’t be trusted with her nephew’s welfare, just as he couldn’t ever be trusted with Lily’s.

Just as their Uncles couldn’t be trusted, either, but Petunia kept those misforgiving’s to herself.

That first year when Harry came home Petunia talked with him about death, and about his responsibility toward the death of his teacher. They talked in the dead of night, with whispers through the door to the boys room about what he’d seen and felt.

I didn’t like it.

You shouldn’t like it, boy.

I don’t want to kill anyone, Aunt Petunia.

Petunia explained that sometimes others didn’t care about the wants and needs of the people around him. They talked for hours, and then the twins showed up and stole the boy away. The coldness in Petunia’s heart reminded her of lies. The boy had spoken about how he never wanted to return to a world that would do what his professor had done, and then the boy was gone.

Good riddance.

Harry was near thirteen when Petunia signed him up for lessons with an old blade master that she happened to learn of from one of the neighborhood get togethers of the various wives. She hated the idea that the boy would learn to fight with a blade, but she knew a lost cause when she heard one. Harry came home that year with tales of a giant snake, of an item that possessed a girl, and of a sword that he’d barely had been capable of using to defend himself with.

It…felt natural.

To kill?

To hold a sword. Not to kill. Killing…killing isn’t natural, Aunt Petunia.

Good. Never let killing be natural, boy.

The sword lessons kept the boy out of the house while Vernon’s sister visited and kept the friction between them to a minimum. Not for the first time Petunia debated a divorce from her husband, debated to just take her son and her nephew and leave in the dead of the night. A small part of her though felt as if the choice of husband made for her couldn’t have been wrong. Her Uncles never led her astray as a girl, why would they as a woman?

Petunia hated Marge more than she hated anything, so when the boy lost control over his gift and forced the foul woman to blow up like a balloon, Petunia hid a smile in her wine glass. He left that same day, and Petunia cancelled his blade lessons with a smile still hidden on her face.

At fourteen the boy had grown to be lanky. He wasn’t tall. Vernon refused to give the boy food enough that Petunia doubted he’d ever be tall like her, but he was thin as a wisp and that was a true Evans trait. These nights Harry joined her in the living room while Vernon snored and Dudley slept. He looked haunted and confused during their whispered talks. His too old eyes looked age appropriate this summer and that felt wrong to Petunia.

Are they human?

The question haunted her, a little, Petunia knew. She wondered if what she’d been told was true. Were these ‘wizards’ and ‘witches’ the last descendants of the Precursors, or were they merely the next evolution of humanity? Petunia didn’t know science, didn’t know genetics. She followed orders like a good girl, married who she’d been told, practiced her gifts as commanded, and recited the rules as needed. She was a good puppet.

I don’t know.

I don’t think they are.

Harry spoke about how some of them could change their shape, become an animal, and how that felt unnatural and as natural as breathing to him in both ways. They talked about things, senses, that the boy had that he didn’t understand. He brought up the strange disconnect between his own memories, the fantastical tales of time travel. Petunia didn’t doubt the time travel.

There is an artifact, Petunia whispered as the boy curled into her lap in the dead of night, that can turn back time. Or at least we think it can. Ancient…powerful tools.

When Petunia looked into the boy’s eyes she knew—he understood precisely what she spoke of.

#assassin's creed #harry potter #fanfic #crossover #fic: fait accompli #petunia dursley #she is not a nice woman #faceless templars #fic: with broken wing

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wileyfoxwrites · 3 years ago

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Rosamie Amor Aquino || 27 (in a few weeks) || Princess of The Philippines

Name Pronunciation: Row-suh-mee Family: Ezekiel Aquino (Older brother) Hometown: Manila Birthday: November 30th Age: 27 Sexuality: Straight Preferred Pronouns: She/Her Aliases, if any: Rosa, Rose Nationality: Filipino Religion, if applicable: Roman Catholic. But she sins like everyone else, she just goes to confession every time. Parents’ names: Father - Efren Aquino, Mother - Althea Aquino Current relationship status: Betrothed to Thomas Adley Previous relationships: Sahir Bin Jabbar Al Nahyan. They were betrothed but it didn’t take long for Sahir to find a way to break it up. She was a little hurt at first but she didn’t hold it against him claiming it was just part of their stories.

Under the cut there are mentions of chronic illness, kidnapping, torture.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Height: 5’3 Hair colour: Black Eye colour: Brown Glasses/contacts: None Tattoos: None Piercings: Ears, both lobes done three times. Typical clothing style: She prefers dresses to anything else and it’s not uncommon to find her in them even while she’s just lounging around. She’s not used to having to cover up too much with the weather in the Philippines. Distinguishing features (scars, birthmarks, freckles, etc): She has a beauty mark on her right cheek that she likes to cover up with make up as much as possible. Despite her mother always telling her it was beautiful she’s self conscious about it. Dominant hand: Right

HEALTH

Health issues or illnesses, if any: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). She has a mild form that can cause a range of different symptoms including joint pain and fatigue to name a few. It’s never hindered her life too much and it had never gotten serious enough to cause any internal damage. Nobody outside of her family and her doctors (including the castle doctors) know about the disease. Allergies, if any: None Exercise habits: She tries to do things to keep up her physical strength, mostly horseback riding, but there are times when her disease does make it harder. This is when she’s mostly considered lazy and she lounges around most of the day. Dietary habits: She’s not picky but there are a few things she doesn’t enjoy in her diet. A lot of it has more to do with texture than anything. Other than that she’s pretty easy to please.

PERSONALITY

Accent: Her accent slips through a lot. Rosamie knows many languages but that distinct Tagalog accent always slips through. Speech style: She tends to speak pretty quickly sometimes, especially when she’s excited, and it sometimes makes it hard to understand her. She tries her best to be conscious of this. Most used word or phrase: “Ugh, that’s so romantic.” or “ You’re going to make me cry.” Do they curse?: Not usually but something can slip through every now and then. Any secrets? Her Lupus diagnosis and her betrothed being gay. Top priority/ies: For her? To have a happy life. She just wants to be loved, is that too much to ask? But her duty to her family comes before anything else. Most treasured possession: A rare copy of an illustrated Romeo and Juliet that her mother got for her on her sixteenth birthday. She keeps it in her room in a special case and only looks at it occasionally even though it’s her favorite thing. Addictions, if any: Her trashy romance books that she’s not supposed to read. Phobias: She doesn’t really have any major phobias. Snakes scare her along with the idea of parasites. Compulsions/ habits: She plays with her hair a lot when she’s thinking deeply about something. Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius

OTHER

Education level: Graduated University with a bachelor’s in English Literature and a bachelor’s in Politics. Languages spoken: Fluent in Filipino, Tagalog, English, and Arabic (since she thought she would be queen of a country where it was the official language). Hobbies: Reading, writing, horseback riding, swimming

Biography/Headcanons:

In the heart of Cebu City was where her Highness Queen Althea Aquino went into labor for the second time at the vacation home owned by the Aquino family. With four weeks left in her pregnancy, and none of them expecting an early delivery, the King had been on official business in Manila when he'd received the urgent call. King Efren quickly left the leaders from three other countries, leaving an advisor behind to reschedule and apologize profusely, and barely made it back to Cebu in time to help welcome Princess Rosamie Amor Aquino to the world. With Rosa being born a tad early, the Aquino family was set up in a private suite in one of the best hospitals the city could offer and the country waited with bated breath to hear that the princess would not be facing any major health issues because she was too impatient to be carried to full term. The announcement didn't take long and with her health no longer in question the country celebrated for a full week after Rosa's birth. Her mother has always said that Rosamie was just too excited to give her love to everybody who was patiently waiting for her and that, coupled with her flare for the dramatics, was why their baby girl arrived the way she had.

Ever since Rosamie was a little girl she’s been certain that fate and true love were very real. She lived off true romance, the girl taking in as many of the epic love stories written throughout the years as she could along with all the romantic comedies that came her way. She’s a sucker for love and she believes that everyone has their own stories to play out while on the path to their person. Soulmates, friends to lovers, hate to love, she adores it all and will most likely bug everyone about their own love lives to get her fix. Unfortunately for her, she hasn’t been so lucky in that department herself. This doesn’t do anything to quell her beliefs with each failure only fueling her more and more to find her epic romance, and she’s hoping that her and her betrothed will be the beginning of her own novel.

After a premature birth the Aquino family had been worried for years that Rosa might have extenuating issues that would result from it. But by the time she was six and had yet to show any signs of slowing down the King and Queen had stopped worrying about any potential risks. Even so, as Rosa grew older it became apparent that she was not the healthiest person in the world, especially towards the end of her teen years, and at the age of nineteen she was officially diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus, an auto immune disease that effects many parts of her body. It was decided by the family that the only people who would ever be told about Rosamie's disease were the palace doctors (at home and later the ones in Khatanga and Thailand) in an effort to keep people from believing that her disease would affect her ability to take on responsibility and keep a country together. She has a mild form that can cause a range of different symptoms including joint pain and fatigue to name a few. It’s never hindered her life too much and it had never gotten serious enough to cause any internal damage. She tries to do things to keep up her physical strength, mostly horseback riding, but there are times when her disease does make it harder. This is when she’s mostly considered lazy and she lounges around most of the day. For the most part she is okay with keeping this a secret but she does feel a little guilt about it when it comes to the people who care about her...or the one's she feels like she's deceiving.

She’s loyal when it comes to her country and she’s insisted that she be a part of her older siblings’ training in case she may be needed to step in one day. Or in case she ended up marrying a crown. She’s someone who would never want to go into a situation involving her lineage without the knowledge she needs to help the monarchy along. Despite how naïve she can be she never wants to be in a situation where she can’t hold her own and most people are surprised when Rosamie gets into political rants. Her sense of duty also outweighs her dream of finding romance. She goes where she’s told, does what she must do, and has barely any complaints about doing so.

She doesn’t know her own privilege. There have been times when she didn’t understand why other people weren’t always able to do the same things that she’s been able to do in life, especially when she was younger. She doesn’t think about money the way she should and has also been known to put her foot in her mouth with the staff or less privileged people are around. She’s someone who will accidentally take advantage of the staff and their duties to her without realizing she might be running someone ragged and she complains when she must do something for herself. Lazy might be a good word to describe her on occasion. She doesn’t do this to be cruel, she just doesn’t realize that she might not be treating them in the best way.

Being one of the kidnapped, most had expected Rosa to come out of the situation with more trauma than she is willing to showcase. Being tortured the way her and the other royals had been doesn’t come without scars, both physical and emotional. But Rosa was determined not to let her experience change who she was as a person. Unfortunately, the only way she really knows how to cope with it all is by throwing herself into her daydreams. She was bad about wild tales and adventures forming in her mind before but after the ordeal it seemed that she was constantly daydreaming to bring her out of real life and into her fantasy world where no one can touch her. She’s aware that eventually this will catch up to her, and she still has her moments where she feels like she’s drowning, but for the most part she’s been doing well with keeping things together.

The moment her little world came crashing down was the moment she realized her future was never going to be what she had pictured it being. Walking in on her betrothed and his lover had been the crushing blow that sent her head floating down from the clouds and Rosa is now struggling to figure out what to do. She’s angry, mostly at being lied to, but she also feels pretty hopeless for her own future. So hopeless in fact that she’s starting to exhibit some destructive behavior.

#Rosamie: I dont mean to come off selfish but I want it all || Musings #Rosamie: I know you love it when the hairpins start to fall || Mirror #Rosamie: Melodies and memories stories that sound absurd || Ipod #Rosamie: Take me to the moon where I can sleep til noon || Memes #Rosamie: Above all else she was never boring || Mentions #Rosamie: She drew silver linings of her own || Convos #Verse: Wor

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lingthusiasm · 7 years ago

Text

Transcript Lingthusiasm Episode 10: Learning languages linguistically

This is a transcript for Lingthusiasm Episode 10: Learning languages linguistically. It’s been lightly edited for readability. Listen to the episode here or wherever you get your podcasts. Links to studies mentioned and further reading can be found on the Episode 10 shownotes page.

Gretchen: Welcome to Lingthusiasm, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics. I'm Gretchen McCulloch,

Lauren: and I'm Lauren Gawne, and today we'll be talking about how learning a language is a way of giving yourself great linguistic skills. But first, Gretchen, you sound amazing!

Gretchen: Thank you! You're hearing me on this new microphone, actually a recorder, which is thanks to our lovely patrons who have enabled us to buy this microphone. Lauren, how is it that you always sounded so good?

Lauren: It wasn't just sheer, natural magic, it's because I have been using, since the beginning of the podcast, an audio recorder called a Zoom H4N, which -- the H4N Zoom have a slightly newer model as well, but these recorders are kind of linguist-famous for being reliable, solid recorders, especially for doing things like fieldwork, so I've had one for quite a few years to do my linguistic fieldwork with, so if you listen to any of my recordings from Yolmo or Syuba or any of those in the archives that I have, they're made on this very same recorder and so that's why I've always been able to sound good without us needing any budget for that. But now we're twinsies, and you have a Zoom H4N as well.

Gretchen: So now I have a matching one. They're friends.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: They haven't met yet, but that's okay, they're going to meet in audio heaven, so that we will sound the same audiowise and so that I can learn how to use it from Lauren and we're going to sound really good, so that's exciting!

Lauren: Yeah, and a big thanks to our patrons for that.

Gretchen: Yeah! And it is thanks to people on Patreon that we were able to make this possible and keep doing that, so that is really exciting. Also, they get to listen to bonus episodes and this month's bonus episode is about hypercorrection.

Lauren: Bonus episodes will also sound amazing because they're all on the shiny new recorder as well.

Gretchen: Yes!

Lauren: As you said, our current one is hypercorrection, but we also have a whole bunch of other bonus content and you can get all of it if you become a monthly supporter of the show.

Gretchen: On patreon.com/lingthusiasm or follow the links from our website/social media. And by the time you're listening to this, I will also be in Kentucky at the Linguistics Summer Institute, or Lingstitute as we like to call it, and we are recording this in advance because we're organised like that, but that will be having lots of stuff going on.

Lauren: 'Cause you're going to be a bit busy.

Gretchen: Ha, I'm going to be really busy -- that'll have lots of stuff going on on the Lingstitute hashtag, which we can link to, and as well my class at the Institute -- I'm going to be teaching a class on linguistics communication, linguistics outreach, how to be better at explaining linguistics and bringing linguistics to more people -- and so we're going to be using the hashtag LingComm, that's LingComm with two Ms as in communication --

Lauren: Awesome.

Gretchen: -- and so you can follow those as well if you want to follow along with the class and see what we've been up to.

Lauren: I will definitely be doing that.

Gretchen: Lauren is going to be, like, co-teaching the class from afar, she doesn't know it yet, but she's going to be like, "Hey, go support my students!" [Music]

Lauren: So, Gretchen, you're a linguist. How many languages do you speak?

Gretchen: That's a good question! That is a question that a lot of linguists get, a lot of the time.

Lauren: It's a question that a lot of linguists get -- it's a little bit annoying because it misrepresents the idea that linguistics is just about learning lots of languages, but independent of being a linguist, you'll find that people who study how language works are often interested in learning other languages as a way of kind of getting an understanding of how they work.

Gretchen: Yeah, and I think for me, because -- at least personally, the way I got into linguistics was in high school, I came across pop linguistics books and stuff like this, and I was like, "Wow, this is so cool, I want to do this when I get to university." But I knew that I couldn't do it in high school, there's no high school linguistics course that I could take then -- they're still very rare in high schools -- and so I said to myself, "Well, I know it's not quite the same as language learning, but I'm going to at least enrol in all of the language classes that I can because I'm sure it won't do any harm. And, you know, I could be learning about cell biology or something, or I could learn more languages and I think the language would be more useful," and I think they were for me. I mean, cell biology's fine if you're into it, but like...

Lauren: So what languages do you have experience of learning?

Gretchen: So, I started learning French in grade four when I was in school, because that's the latest age you can learn French in for Canadian schools. It would have been nice to learn it earlier, but that wasn't offered. And then I did a Scottish Gaelic summer camp when I was like 10 or 12 or something? I went to Cape Breton and I spent a week learning Scottish Gaelic. Everyone else was there to learn, like, fiddle and step dancing and stuff and I was like, "I'm just going to take all the language ones." I don't remember a whole lot of that, except for the fact that they put the verbs at the beginning of the sentences, which is really neat, and I have a couple songs memorised from that, so that's fun. So I can occasionally sometimes do something with a song. But I didn't really know much about grammar except what I'd learned from French at that point, so I didn't have a lot to hold on to there.

Lauren: Yep.

Gretchen: I also mostly self-studied Latin in grade 10, because again, I was interested in linguistics, and at that point in my mind, linguistics and Classics overlapped a lot, and the history of grammatical descriptions of English is very bound up in Latin. So I was like, clearly, this is the thing I need to do. So I got myself a Latin textbook and worked through all the exercises.

Lauren: Of course! This is a very good insight into how Gretchen's brain works there.

Gretchen: And then in grade 11 I convinced my guidance counselor against his better judgment to let me take both Intro Spanish and Intro German and continue my French --

Lauren: Right.

Gretchen: -- because I was like, "Look, I'm not picking between these."

Lauren: That's a lot of language.

Gretchen: That was a really interesting experience, because one day, I remember, in German class we did numbers and then I went to math, and then in Spanish class an hour later we were doing numbers and I was like, "I can't... handle this..."

Lauren: Right, yeah, challenging.

Gretchen: But it really taught my brain. I really convinced my brain that there was more than one other language than French.

Lauren: Yup.

Gretchen: 'Cause this is a problem a lot of people run into you when you're learning another language is that you're like, "Okay, I have my native language and then I have, like, every other language" and they just blend into each other too much."

Lauren: Ah, that is how my brain is organised, definitely.

Gretchen: I have to say, if you really want to convince your brain that there are multiple languages, learning them all in parallel is one way to get that. It's not pretty at the time, but it has been very persistent! Yeah, so then in undergrad I was trying to do about one new language a year for about eight years or so. So in undergrad I took Ancient Greek for a year and then I was like, "I'm doing too many European languages this is ridiculous," and so then the next year I took Arabic. I took that for two years and then wrote my honours thesis about Arabic.

Lauren: Yep.

Gretchen: And then I did a field methods class on Kinyarwanda, which is a Bantu language spoken in Rwanda. And that was really interesting, but I learned more about that from kind of the linguistic side than from the conversational side.

Lauren: Yep.

Gretchen: I only remember a few words. And then I took Italian just for fun, because I needed to fill an elective.

Lauren: You needed to fill in your romance paradigm.

Gretchen: Yeah, I needed -- I was like, I feel really incomplete in the romance languages! I still have never learned Portuguese and I don't know if it would be a good use of time, but there's a part of me that wants to, just to fill it in. Yeah! And then I got to grad school, and then in grad school I did a field methods class in the first semester on Mi'kmaq, which is an Algonquian language located in Eastern Canada, and then I kept on working with that language and the language teaching classes and stuff for the rest of my degree and for my thesis. So yeah, that was kind of when I stopped learning a new language every year.

Lauren: Fair enough!

Gretchen: But I had a really good run of it!

Lauren: Yeah!

Gretchen: And the European languages got easier and easier as I kept learning more of them. The non-European languages were each their own unique challenge, as far as the grammar went.

Lauren: Right.

Gretchen: Yeah, so I have a pretty extensive language learning history and I definitely don't remember all of these, so obviously the question of "What do you know, what do you speak, what do you learn?" is always one that comes up when you're talking about speaking lots of languages. But I did spend a lot of time in language classes.

Lauren: Yeah, fair enough.

Gretchen: What about you? You speak some languages.

Lauren: I kind of lumped my language learning into three different phases of my life. So, the first exposure I had to language learning was in primary school. My primary school taught Italian, but by "taught Italian" I mean in this very Australian -- Australia is, like, upsettingly proud of its monolingual educational focus, I think, so a lot of schools do some amount of language learning, but there's no real understanding, or nothing imparts to students why you might be learning this or why it might be interesting to care about another culture or a language, and so I learnt lots of random Italian vocabulary and some songs in primary school and at the start of high school. And then when I changed schools halfway through high school, no one felt at all compelled to encourage me to keep going with Italian or to take up one of the languages at that school, and I didn't really understand the idea of learning languages. Everyone in my family day-to-day spoke English, everyone in my social life day-to-day spoke English, and other countries and languages just seemed really far away. So that was kind of my early, underwhelming language exposure. Does mean I can navigate an Italian menu quite well sometimes, but not much more.

Gretchen: Yeah, I mean, I guess for me in Canada, the French thing was, "Well, you should stay in French because it'll help you get a job later." Because if you want to work in tourism, or if you want to work for the government, it's useful to be able to speak French. So it was very kind of, like, mercenary-focused around learning the language.

Lauren: And also being in Canada, like, even if you're in an English-speaking province, you're exposed to this idea that French is a language in the wild, like it's on your groceries when you buy them and it's in the news --

Gretchen: Yeah.

Lauren: -- kind of thing.

Gretchen: Yeah.

Lauren: So then after high school, I went to live in Poland for a year and that was interesting, because my grandmother's Polish and it's her first language and so I was interested in kind of reconnecting with that and also kind of just living somewhere different and doing something different. And that's my period of, like, understanding the motivation for language learning, but it was before I'd done linguistics or really had any good role models for language learning and so I became pretty competent, but I missed out on a lot of things that are kind of considered good practice for becoming a strong second language learner. So I was having some lessons, but I wasn't always good at kind of encouraging myself to speak to people in certain contexts, and so I really enjoyed doing that, but when I got to Australia there weren't many opportunities to continue that. And for some reason I think I was so annoyed about that when I started university that I never took up a language course.

Gretchen: I took, like, all the languages, I was like, "Oh, I can finally take other languages!"

Lauren: I really don't understand what 19-year-old Lauren was thinking, but I'm really thankful that she took linguistics, because obviously I've been pretty enthusiastic about it ever since. And that kind of led to my third era of language learning, which has been kind of understanding, like, post- studying linguistics, understanding my own motivations and practices and behaviours in language learning, and since then I've learnt Nepali, which I use in kind of day-to-day interactions when I'm on fieldwork, and Nepali is great because it's an Indo-Aryan language, so it's part of this larger Indo-European family, so it's not too hard for me to get my head around in terms of the structure, but it does some really cool, nifty things with the grammar. And I've also learnt -- to varying degrees, not as well -- a couple of different Tibetan dialects that I've worked with. I would say my competency there is more what we call passive competency in linguistics. So, I can understand a lot of things that are said to me, I often can't reply that speedily or I end up just falling back on Nepali. And then I've also been learning some Auslan at various points while in Australia, which is the Australian sign language. It's related to British Sign and New Zealand Sign Language, and now that I've moved back to Australia I'm really looking forward to getting back into Auslan. And that's been really great because it's completely unrelated to my study, I just really enjoy it. So that's kind of a whirlwind tour of my --

Gretchen: And it's related to your research in the sense that you do gesture, and so having a better understanding of sign probably helps you with gesture research? I don't know, I'm making this up.

Lauren: It helps with my gesture research, but, you know, I think as a linguist I can kind of make the excuse that any language learning is helpful for my job to some degree, but I also just love Auslan and learning a sign language is a really fun change from spoken language to a sign language is quite good for my brain, and it does get less chatted up with all the random bits of Italian and, you know, café French.

Gretchen: I never had the opportunity to learn sign language, although I'm sure I could find lessons now. If I was going to learn another language it might be either ASL or LSQ, which is Langue des Signes Québécoise, and I'm not quite sure what the relative linguistic situation there is about, which one is spoken more in Montreal, but yeah. I knew a linguist who could speak Mayan and was learning ASL and was like, "My brain is trying to do Mayan structures in ASL and it's the weirdest thing."

Lauren: Oh, that's great, that's so good.

Gretchen: Yeah! So, I don't know if that happens everybody, but I guess some people do get that kind of cross-modal transfer. For me, the question of, okay, how many languages do you speak is, I can answer that, but I feel like I'm kind of letting down the team in that case because I don't speak a lot of them terribly well, and I think for me one of the things that changed was when I started learning non-European languages, I mean the grammar was very different, but also the kind of cultural context that you come into learning those is a lot different. So, you know, as an English speaker, learning French, particularly in Canada where they're both official languages and so on, that's very different from being either an English- or French-speaker in Canada learning a Canadian indigenous language where, you know, indigenous languages aren't on the cereal boxes.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: Where they aren't being taught in schools from a very young age the way English and French are.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: So I think becoming more aware of kind of the colonial context in which language learning and denying people the opportunity to learn their language is a bigger issue that I became more aware of.

Lauren: I grew up in Australia on Bunurong country and that is a language that is now taught in some primary schools around that area, which makes me so happy and I wish that was a thing that happened when I was a kid. There is a lot of complexity around, you know, language ownership, especially in the Australian context -- who is allowed to learn a language and which parts of a language -- it doesn't operate the same as, say, English or French or Italian where you can hand someone a textbook and they kind of have the right to speak the whole language. So there's an imbalance there, and there's also just -- same in Australia as in Canada -- that historical imbalance of who is expected to learn whose language.

Gretchen: Yeah, exactly, and if you say, like, okay, well, my ancestors are the ones that were preventing their ancestors from learning the language in the first place and now I want to come in and I've decided it's cool, like, that's a weird position to be in.

Lauren: And there's also a bit of a problem in Australia with heritage languages. So as I mentioned, my grandmother is a native Polish speaker and out of all of my aunts and uncles and my cousins, I'm the only one who speaks or, more likely, spoke that language with her to any kind of degree of competency, because in Australia there's this erasure, often, of people's migrant languages and their linguistic experience. And she was told to never speak Polish, or, she's also a fluent German speaker, and was told to not speak either of those to her own children because it would interfere with their English. And those attitudes are kind of changing...

Gretchen: Yeah, I think it's the same here, though a lot of people, at least -- I'm not sure so much about people who came over in like the '60s -- you get this kind of generation that immigrates, speaks their language, they learn English, and then their kids grow up and they're kind of more or less bilingual, and then the grandkids only really speak the dominant language.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: Depending on the community, some of them try to retain their heritage language more -- they'll send their kids to Chinese school or Hebrew school or something on the weekends to try to have them retain that connection to their heritage language, and some of them don't have access to those schools, or don't feel the pressure to do that, so it depends on the community, but there's a lot of language loss. And I think that's something else that doesn't come up so much in language classes, is there's this sense when you go into a language class that you walk in and then you're starting with zero knowledge and you're going to have the knowledge, like, spooned into you the way that when you walk into a math class, you don't know any math, or when you walk into a science class you don't know what a cell is and you just have to get that told to you and then you know.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: Whereas for kids that are coming from a heritage language context, they may know some stuff, and there may also be a lot more guilt about not knowing this stuff, or feeling like you should already know it, which you don't get so much, like, I didn't run into that learning French or something.

Lauren: And there's also a kind of prestige thing about learning certain languages as certain communities, and so a lot of English-dominant or English-monolingual parents might see a lot of prestige in sending their child to a bilingual English-French school because French bilingualism has this prestige status, but then we have these children who come in who are amazing bilinguals in, say, Vietnamese and English, or, in Australia we have a lot of indigenous children who are Kriol speakers, so that's a language that has a lot of English words that have created it, but it is its own language, or they speak a variety that's called Aboriginal Australian English. So they speak these varieties and then they come into school and they're in a similar position where they're bilingual or they're trying to become English speakers as well as Kriol speakers. Even though there are, you know, many cognitive benefits that people discuss in relation to multilingualism, there's not the social prestige and there's a lot of issues with getting people to accept that these children need additional support to move towards being full bilinguals and so that kind of thing, when you're kind of just signing up for your undergraduate Spanish class or you're taking Japanese or Arabic or some of the global languages, you can often not be aware that there's a lot of social prestige and a lot of good fortune to just be able to do that.

Gretchen: And I think also that our expectations are different when it comes to rolling up to a college-level language class and spending a couple semesters learning Japanese or Spanish or something, like, "Oh, now I kind of speak this!" And you can -- you know, you passed the test but if you go there you can barely do greetings. Whereas, if you have someone who speaks a different first language at home coming into an English-dominated school environment, that's gonna be a very different situation because they're now going to be expected to function at the same level as these kids that have all of this English at home as well. It's not just like, "Oh, I can say a few greetings and read menus and signs now and now I speak this language," it's -- you're not functioning completely 100% like a native English speaker, like you're doing something wrong, and like who we value bilingualism coming from.

Lauren: Yeah, and also what the motivation for people to learn a language is. So for a lot of people, to learn English is increasingly considered a kind of economic necessity to move forward in life. Like, when I was in Nepal, for me, learning Nepali was a great way to connect with people, it's a way to allow me to do my job, but no one is forcing me to learn Nepali in my family to improve my economic outlook or allow me to work overseas, whereas a lot of my friends are really struggling to learn English and and feel like they are obliged to learn English to have a more secure economic future and that's, like, it's such a gulf in expectations. And you know, if I didn't speak Nepali I would probably still get by day to day in Nepal because so many people can accommodate my linguistic needs and so many people there speak an amount of English now to get by day to day, and they're massively different motivations.

Gretchen: And something else that you run into, I think, in English-speaking areas is that, like, English is a lingua franca, so even people who don't speak the same first language, they all speak English as a second language. And in those contexts, sometimes the native English speakers can be the ones that speak too quickly or use too many idioms or aren't paying attention to doing the comprehension checks that you do if something's your second language, and so you have a kind of global English and you have a kind of too quick English, or too nativised English as well in some of those contexts.

Lauren: Yeah, I think -- and this is something you have a post on, about learning second languages -- like, learning other languages has made me far more tolerant and understanding of people who have different levels of English speaking.

Gretchen: For me, being able to say, oh, okay, so this person's English is around the level of my French, which makes me able to say -- I'll only say things in English to this person that I could say in French.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: Or this person's English is around the level of my Spanish. My Spanish is much worse than my French, so now I'll only say things in English that I could say in Spanish.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: And to be able to kind of put myself in the shoes of what do I find useful if someone's trying to do a comprehension check with me, you know, it's not just a matter of talking louder, but sometimes it's a matter of articulating a little bit more clearly, or a matter of saying something two or three times in the same sort of way. Yeah, figuring out, like, what do I appreciate when someone is doing for me in a second language and how can I do that if I'm talking to someone who's less fluent in English, I think is one thing -- I think another thing that comes up for me with second language speaking is there's a big rupture between the classroom experience of learning a language and the real-life experience of speaking a language that you're less fluent in.

Lauren: Oh my gosh, so much.

Gretchen: Let's pause it and think about how big that it is, right. Like, there's a lot there. And you can be, like, a straight-A student in your language classroom, or you can get all of the -- check off all of the things on Duolingo or Rosetta Stone or one of those, and tick all the boxes and yet when it comes to speaking, you're like, "Uhhh..."

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: Or you don't even want to let on that you do speak any of the language because it's so terrifying.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: How have you dealt with this?

Lauren: Well, I consider myself pretty articulate in English and I've just kind of had to accept that I'm a different person in Nepali because I just don't have the same linguistic repertoire that I have in my native language, and so in Nepali I'm a very quiet person, I do a lot of listening and I make really bad jokes about my poor language to kind of offset the fact that my language is really poor.

Gretchen: Yeah, yeah, you become kind of more willing to laugh at yourself.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: To compensate. I think for me, yeah, I'm less verbally dexterous in French; I'm pretty fluent in the sense of doing stuff, but it's harder for me to make just kind of idle small talk.

Lauren: Yup.

Gretchen: Like, beyond one or two stock -- I have one or two stock things, but if I'm trying to make casual conversation about something, I don't always have those words, so maybe that's just not a kind of conversation that I'm currently able to have in French.

Lauren: So I think the big difference for me between learning Polish and learning Nepali is that I just -- even though my Nepali was atrocious when I first turned up in the country, I made a point, even with people who spoke English, to make our day-to-day social interactions in Nepali. And it was horrific for everyone and it was exhausting for the first little bit, but in a way I've benefited because there were all these relationships that I now have that I had so much more Nepali practice, whereas in Polish, because my language was really poor when I arrived, a lot of my initial relationships and friendships that I set up were in English and that kind of set the tone for those. So I've learnt to use that doggedness about just kind of sticking with it even though I've only got like three sentences' worth of interaction to have, but it is really exhausting. And it's the benefit of being in the country.

Gretchen: Yeah, I found this -- so I live in Montreal and when I moved here, I had, my whole life, this cautionary tale that my mom and my uncle had both learned some French in school and then they had tried to improve it when they were around university age, and my mom had gone to some sort of -- to a camp thing where they were only allowed to speak French and they had to sign a contract that said they'd get kicked out if they spoke any English, and --

Lauren: A contract!

Gretchen: Yeah! This is how you create this social pressure. This is not uncommon in language learning camps, actually, is that you signed yourself up for this contract.

Lauren: Okay.

Gretchen: And my uncle instead had gone to Montreal where over half the population is bilingual.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: And at the end of their respective summers, my mom's French was quite good and my uncle's French had not improved at all, really, because he just spoke English with everybody.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: Because he didn't have to do it. And so I said to myself, well, I'm moving to Montreal, I'm not going to be like my uncle -- lovely guy, but I'm not going to do this thing. I'm going to decide that the city speaks French to me, that even when people try to switch into English, I don't have to accept that. The analogy I like to use is that somebody trying to switch into English on you is like them trying to pick up the check.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: It's a very nice thing for them to do, but you don't always want to be in the situation where other people are picking up the check for you.

Lauren: Yup.

Gretchen: And once you realise that you can sometimes pick up the check, it gives you this tremendous feeling of power and altruism to be like, "I am so magnanimous and I am paying for this now!"

Lauren: So smugness is one of your secret language learning powers.

Gretchen: Yeah, be more smug to speak better, to learn language better.

Lauren: Yeah, fair enough.

Gretchen: So, you know ,if you're in a context where -- like a service-type interaction where you're in a store or restaurant or something, and someone says -- in Montreal it's very common to hear "Bonjour hi," and what they're trying to do is say, "Pick a language so I can speak to you in it."

Lauren: Right, yeah.

Gretchen: And because it's pretty much impossible to get a job in downtown Montreal if you're not bilingual in English and French.

Lauren: Okay.

Gretchen: And so, saying, okay, like, most people, what they want in that situation is they want to be able to speak their first language. And I know this because I worked at a museum for a couple summers and I was one of the designated bilingual staff members, and when I could find a tourist who was speaking French and I could speak French to them, you could just see this relief wash over them in waves. It was beautiful. And the nice thing about, you know, particularly if I'm going to the grocery store or whatever, is you have lots of microinteractions where it's just a couple sentences. And so even if you end up in English for one of them, you can do French the next time and it's okay.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: So you have a lot of kind of micro- practice. And so I think, you know, they say that speaking a second language improves your executive functioning, or your --

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: -- you know, that kind of quick-wittedness and self-control and these kinds of things, and I think one of it is it gives you this practice in being very persistent and putting yourself in situations where you're uncomfortable and working through that, and I think that's one of the places where that benefit is really apparent.

Lauren: It's definitely given me this ability to be, like, having a very basic conversation using one half of my brain and the other half of my brain going, "Okay, what's next? What's next?" Have we got words, have we got words? What are the words? What've we got? What can I talk about next?! Um, um, um..." And I find that knowing that my brain can do those two things and I can look relatively chill while doing that has definitely helped my English public speaking. Like, I know when I lecture now, my brain is kind of doing the same thing and I'm like, well that's okay, it's just running that parallel process and it's fine, and others keep saying sentences in this really like methodical one word after the other kind of way and so, yeah, I think it does -- it helps with that level of executive functioning.

Gretchen: I think it's also taught me more about how conversations are structured. And this is something I never got in the language classroom, but how to talk around something that you don't have the word for so that the other person can supply the word for you?

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: So, like, if I want to buy a zipper or something in Montreal, I don't know the French word for zipper, but I can talk around, like, "Oh yeah, I need this thing," and point to one and they'll be like, "Oh, of course, un zipper," or whatever it is. And then I'm like, "Yes, obviously, I clearly knew this word, I just chose not to say it right now until you did, obviously."

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: And, you know, being able to use words like "this thing" or "that thing" or point to stuff or indefinite types of words, I think we spend a lot of time trying to get vocabulary lists of concrete nouns into people's heads when you can't learn all of the nouns. You need to learn how to learn nouns in context the way speakers do. You know, as a child you don't go memorise a vocabulary list of what all possible things you can put on a pizza are, you just pick them up as people are pointing to them and stuff like that.

Lauren: Yeah, definitely. I think also the difference in my language learning now is that I have moved through language and interactions and language a bit more with my linguist brain on, and so becoming more competent in the language involves more than -- like, when I was learning Polish or even Italian as a kid, it was all about learning the words and what order they go in and those kind of early language learning experiences, whereas now I pay a lot more attention to things that happen in social interactions. So how if interrupting someone is an okay thing to do or if people kind of leave a lot of silence. So in a lot of my social interactions in Nepal, people are very happy to leave long silences and I think when I was starting to learn Nepali and a couple of other languages of Nepal, I was always like, "Okay, okay, what do I say next? What do I say next? There's a silence, I have to say a thing, I have to ask a question, isn't that how it works?" And now I know the social rhythm of interactions allows for a lot more, like, "I want to sit here for a bit and then one of us can think of a thing to say, that's okay."

Gretchen: Yeah.

Lauren: Also politeness. So, like, who to be polite to and who you can be informal with. So for example, in Nepali you have different verb politeness registers for, like, a more honorific one if you're talking to someone who's more senior than you, and a much more informal one for friends, and an even more informal one that is, like, it would be so rude for me to learn it in a Nepali context that I've just never bothered to because that makes that easier. And at the start, learning who to say those things to -- and now, like, I know with some of the younger kids I know I'll occasionally use those more honorific ones if I want to be like, "Oh, I'm treating you as an adult now," like, "You're growing up," or if I want to bring someone in a bit more conspiratorially, I'll use the informal one -- and so knowing how to navigate those social features of the language, not just conjugating the verbs for those.

Gretchen: I think being able to say, like, having more tolerance for yourself on saying, if I'm going to make these mistakes, that's very interesting because this is what it tells us about my language capacity right now. Or I'm interested in what I'm doing, but I'm not as -- there's a sense of okay, well, you should just be able to acquire a language and now it's done and you've got it and you totally speak it, and that's not a thing that you end up at, but where do I have intuitions about this and where do I not have intuitions about this.

Lauren: There's a whole field of second language acquisition in linguistics that just looks at how people go about learning their second language and I remember taking that class as an undergraduate and just being really relieved to know things that we know are pretty common facts about language acquisition, like there's often a very rapid acceleration and then a plateau in learning. So moving from being an intermediate competent to an advanced speaker involves a lot more work for visible improvement.

Gretchen: Yeah, something that was very interesting for me to learn in second language acquisition classrooms was that we have this sense that, oh, you need to start learning a language as a baby because otherwise you're going to be doomed and you're always going to, you know, it's always going to be hard for you. But there are actually some domains where adults have an advantage or older speakers, older children even, have an advantage. And so children tend to be better at the phonology side, so they're going to learn the sounds, the subtle distinctions, because that's all they're being exposed to and they have that capability. But it takes a long time for kids to learn a significant amount of vocabulary or grammar. Like, if you think about a baby, right, a baby gets exposed to a language. And as many hours in a day as it's awake, for a whole year, generally, before it even says a single word. Like if you gave an adult that kind of exposure, if you had them literally only being exposed to that language and you're like, "Yeah, we don't really expect me to talk for a whole year," that's just not what our expectations are when it comes to adults. And the fact that an adult can walk out of an hour-long class and have half a dozen words that they pretty much know, even if they have forgotten half of them by next week, that's still six words that they've learned, and the baby takes like a year and a half to learn that.

Lauren: Six words up on the baby! And the other thing is that, like, I'm learning a language around having a full-time job and hobbies, whereas a child is literally doing nothing besides being fed, put to bed, hanging out listening to language, and they don't even have to speak.

Gretchen: They're not doing nothing but learning the language! You gotta learn to sit up at some point in there, too, that's pretty difficult.

Lauren: Yup.

Gretchen: But I mean, you've also got to learn a lot of stuff as a baby, like the fact that you have a mouth and that words exist and that language is possible. Like, these are things that adults don't have to learn.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: And adults have these tremendous advantages -- you don't necessarily want to be doing all of your language learning by writing stuff down because that's one of the ways that people get very dependent on a paper and not very confident about talking -- but as an adult you do have the ability to write stuff down and go study it and, you know, spend an hour of focused practice on a bunch of words and then remember them next week. And the kids don't do that kind of focus practice, already knowing how to read and write in one language makes it easier to learn it again, so there are certain advantages. So adults learn, like, vocabulary and syntax a lot quicker than babies do, even if you end up still having an accent. Also, in addition to that kind of first year where you don't expect kids to be able to do anything, there's also the later period of if you have a three-year-old who's fluent in English or whatever language, you don't expect a three-year-old to be able to do a whole lot. You don't expect them to be able to negotiate business deals or follow complex instructions or, like, write novels. There's a lot you don't expect a three-year-old or a five-year-old or even like an eight- or ten-year-old to be able to do. You don't expect ten-year-olds to know contract law.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: Whereas if you're an adult and you're learning a language for business purposes, you often want to be able to go directly into a business context or directly into complex social environments, like, we don't expect kids to be particularly good diplomats in a social context where you have to keep secrets and stuff. So our expectations are a lot higher as adults.

Lauren: Good work adults, you just have a pat on the back.

Gretchen: Yeah, adults: underrated language learners.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: Even though it's difficult, and spending, like, three or four hours a week on it, which is considered a pretty good amount for a language class, is not very much at all compared to what a kid gets. I think there's a general idea that if you are really serious about being a language learner, you don't just go to class for three hours and figure you'll get it eventually. Like, people do watch movies and listen to books on tape and give themselves a whole bunch of extra exposure and stuff as well, but that's considered like a kind of high-intensity language learning thing.

Lauren: And I think it's okay if you get as far as learning how to order a coffee in Italian or you get as far as being able to make small talk with your friends in Swahili. If that's your aim, then that's great. We're not saying that you have to start a language and you have to become completely fluent in it, but knowing what social aspirations you have for the language you're learning and being aware that it's the language that exists in a culture and it has things like its own way of making jokes and being polite and having conversations definitely help you get the most out of your language learning experience.

Gretchen: It's also worth pointing out that there are different levels of resources available for language learning, like we're used to the idea that any language is going to have bilingual dictionaries or online resources or TV shows and this kind of thing in that language, and that's not something that exists for all languages either. So, you know, which languages you even can learn is something that also comes up.

Lauren: It comes back to that economic access and prestige thing that we talked about at the start and I think that's one thing to also think about when you're deciding to embark on language learning is the fact that some languages are more accessible.

[Music]

Lauren: For more Lingthusiasm and links to all the things mentioned in this episode, go to lingthusiasm.com. You can listen to us on iTunes, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, or wherever you get your podcasts, and you can follow Lingthusiasm on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. I tweet and blog as Superlinguo.

Gretchen: And I can be found as @GretchenAMcC on Twitter and my blog is AllThingsLinguistic.com. To listen to bonus episodes, ask us your linguistics questions, and help keep the show ad-free and sustainable, go to patreon.com/lingthusiasm, or follow the links from our website, lingthusiasm.com. Current bonus topics include hypercorrection as well as the behind-the-scenes story of doggo-speak, how to explain linguistics to employers, how to teach yourself linguistics, and swearing. And you could help us pick the next topic by becoming a patron. Can't afford a pledge? That's okay too. We also really appreciate if you can rate us on iTunes or recommend Lingthusiasm to anyone who needs a little more linguistics in their life.

Lauren: Lingthusiasm is created and produced by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our producer is Claire and our music is by The Triangles.

Gretchen: Stay lingthusiastic!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

[Music]

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The Best Things to Do and See in Israel: Looking Past the Conflict

I didn’t at all know what to expect when I boarded that flight to Israel.

My friends had been sending me articles about El Al, Israel’s flagship airline, and their onboard missile defense systems. Apparently, they have the most sophisticated security system of any airline in existence.

I had been warned about the airport interrogations and had been told not to let anyone stamp my passport. Some countries don’t recognize Israel as a country and won’t let you enter if they see that you’ve crossed the border.

It’s a complicated place, this Israel.

It’s no easy task understanding what’s going on over here, and the whole story involves elements of history, politics and religion from hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

If you want to brush up on your knowledge, it might be worth reading this.

I’ll do my best to address the conflict in a future article because I think I would be doing both the country and yourselves, the readers of this website, a disservice by not broaching the subject. But outside of the conflict, and through sinking my teeth into the culture, people, food, and religion, I walked away with a very different understanding of Israel as it stands today.

And on top of that, I found something in Israel that I truly wasn’t expecting.

Things to Do in Israel

My three weeks in Israel were a whirlwind. I covered almost half of the country in the first couple of days, and somewhat slowly completed the rest of it over the following two weeks. I wasn’t totally sure what to expect from a country found right in the middle of a desert, but I knew I would find some unexpected treasures.

And a lot of sand.

Land Rover-ing in the Negev Desert

Inside the Ramon Crater

The Ramon Crater (aka Mitzpe Ramon), found in the Negev Desert, is 28 miles wide and is actually not a crater–it’s what it called a makhtesh. There’s not actually an English translation for this word because the geological landform it refers to is unique to this specific region, where the two official languages are Hebrew and Arabic.

Hanging off the edge of the Ramon Crater

Cruising in the Negev Desert with Adam Sela

A makhtesh is essentially a valley caused by thousands of years of erosion. A hard outer layer of rock forms over a landmass and the softer minerals underneath it wash away. The top layer then crumbles into the empty space below, creating what you see in the images above.

Exploring the Negev Desert with Adam Sela and his Land Rover

Adam Sela, a South African transplant and regional expert, loaded us up into his Land Rover and showed us petrified artifacts, geological formations, and stunning views of one of Israel’s most unique landscapes.

His trusty Land Rover has clocked more than 1.3 million km in the Negev Desert.

Pro tip: Ask Adam about his other job—he has some incredibly interesting stories!

Photographing the Dead Sea

Toasted land next to the turquoise Dead Sea

I didn’t have very high expectations of the Dead Sea. From what I had heard, the coastline was littered with garbage and the water was gross and murky. To be perfectly honest, these assessments are mostly true—the swimming areas of the Dead Sea are cluttered with plastic bags and bottles and the water is brown and salty.

Getting outside of the swimming areas, though, and photographing some of the vistas in the lesser-known areas of the Dead Sea was particularly rewarding. Long turquoise waves brushed up against the toasted brown of the desert, creating an exceptionally rare effect. One particular area on the southern Dead Sea, just outside of Jerusalem, is host to huge salt formations and was perhaps one of the most photogenic vistas I’ve ever seen.

Salt formations at the southern Dead Sea

At 420 meters below sea level, the Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth. It’s salt concentration is so high that every part of your body floats and trying to keep any limb below the surface of the water is a difficult and hilarious task.

Pro tip: Don’t shave any part of your body before swimming in the Dead Sea. The salt burns, burns, burns, and if you’re a lady, well, it’s not going to be a pleasant experience.

Exploring Timna National Park

Timna selfie!

30 miles outside the resort town of Eilat lies Timna Valley, an old copper mine now encompassed by a park. Most notably known for it’s unusual and stunning rock formations, the sights in the Timna National Park were created through hundreds of years of rock fractures and erosion.

Climbing Solomon’s Pillars, Timna National Park

With limited time available, I decided to conquer one monument rather than just barely see them all. Solomon’s Pillars, perhaps the most well-known formation in the valley, called my name, and I made it my mission to climb the entire thing. There are stairs leading about halfway up, but the rest required some free climbing.

View of Timna National Park from the top of Solomon’s Pillars

The views from the top, though? Totally worth it.

Pro tip: Don’t rent bikes at Timna. They’re impossible to ride in the sand.

Experiencing the Holiest City in the World

Looking out over Jerusalem

I didn’t have a particular interest in visiting the holy sites of Israel, but I found them just about everywhere I went. Jerusalem is hugely significant to many religions including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and there are sacred places for each religion found all over Jerusalem.

– In Christianity, Jerusalem is the place where Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected.

– For the Jews, Jerusalem is the ancestral and spiritual homeland. Those who practice outside of Jerusalem pray facing its direction.

– In Islam, Jerusalem is sacred due to its association with Islamic prophets, namely Muhammed, who is believed to be a messenger for God. Abraham, David, Solomon, and Jesus are also regarded as Prophets of Islam, and each one has a tie to Jerusalem.

Western Wall, Jerusalem

The site where Jesus was buried

Lighting a candle inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

People of each faith intensely desire ownership of the city of Jerusalem, and so religion plays a large part in the conflict I mentioned before. Currently the people live in general peace within the city, but there is still a lot of tension. Jerusalem is divided, in fact, and one-half is considered to be a part of the new State of Israel (which was only recognized recently—in 1949) while the other still remains a part of the Palestinian Territories.

To see the holiest place on earth was, indeed, an eye opening experience. To see a city so largely divided, yet living as one, was something else entirely.

Pro tip: The Abraham Hostel in Jerusalem is just minutes from the famous Mehane Yehuda Market and a 15-minute walk to the Old City. They have affordable dorm beds and private rooms and they provide one of the most comprehensive hosteling systems I’ve ever seen.

Falafel, Hummus, and Tahini, Oh My!

Eating in Israel is something to be especially excited about. I wasn’t excited when I arrived, but the more food I was presented with, the more infatuated with the cuisine I became.

With influences coming from all over the Mediterranean and Middle East, the present day cuisine in Israel is something of a Jewish fusion including foods from all over those regions. I was met with chickpeas in almost every form, and some manifestation of bread and olive oil at almost every meal.

And though it usually was, when hummus wasn’t served, I got very, very angry.

Connecting with My Heritage

Coffee with Moshe, my 2nd cousin

But my pilgrimage to Israel was enriched by something more significant than incredible experiences and delicious food. I not only saw one of my good friends who now lives in Tel Aviv, but I met some of my family for the first time—cousins on the side of my family that I haven’t connected with much.

I’ll tell you a secret. It’s something I don’t share with people often, but I have four names on my birth certificate. The name I don’t publicize is a German name which extends from my father in the United States to his family who now lives in Israel. Until my trip to Israel, I had never met another person with this name. But, when I saw the smiles on Hannah and Moshe’s faces, and when I met Henia, Sharon, and Gaya, I felt a unique sense of coming home that I had never experienced before.

You see, my grandparents left Vienna in 1939 at the start of the German invasion and, after a year of refuge in Italy, they migrated to Israel where they have remained ever since. Somehow, their warm welcomes and stories of my family left me feeling like I had found a piece of myself that I never knew I was missing.

Even though I had never met these people, something in me felt safe, and something between us clicked. They told me stories of family which gave context to my name. I felt like I had known them forever. They were my blood, and I could feel it. Through some strange twist of fate, I came to Israel as a tourist, but left feeling like I had found another home.

More Information on Visiting Israel

Traveling to Israel is safe. Unless there are imminent warnings, there is no need to worry about traveling in Israel–it’s a wonderful, culturally eye-opening place to visit.

If you’re looking for more information on visiting Israel, Tourist Israel is the go-to resource for planning your travels in the region. From tours to hotels, restaurants to events, it’s the single most valuable guide I’ve found. Check them out now!

The topic of Israel can be controversial. This is a travel article, not a political one. Please keep your comments relevant and respectful.

READ NEXT: Breaking the Rules in Petra, Jordan: Free Climbing to the Top of the Monastery

Disclaimer: My trip to Israel was made possible through partnerships with the Israel Ministry of Tourism, Tourist Israel, Abraham Tours, and Abraham Hostels. Partnerships like these allow me to continue bringing you content from all over the world. I never allow such partnerships to compromise the integrity of my words and I will only ever recommend companies that I genuinely trust and believe in. Thank you for reading

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