#learning about stuff from germany. and also trying to learn german

[lgorstheme]

not taking criticism or notes at this time

[haru-dipthong]

Fansub Release + Analysis of Utena Ep 14

This is a big one!!

My fansub release posts aren't usually like this, but this episode is so jam packed with stuff I want to talk about that I had to write my translation notes as a series of essays. It's longer than usual so strap in!

First, a word on “The Mikage Seminar”

I’ve always found the translation “the Mikage Seminar” very strange. In English, a seminar is an event — a lecture. Yet “the Mikage Seminar” is discussed as though it’s not a recurring lecture, but a society or a school of therapy, or a cult (like scientology). In fact I did a bit of reading about scientology to try and find an alternative translation, and discovered that the origins of scientology, namely a set of ideas and practices called Dianetics, bears a lot of similarities to “the Mikage Seminar”. Both involve a type of therapy where one person looks into their mind and talks to an “auditor”.

The auditor coaxes the preclear to recall as much as possible. — Wikipedia

This in particular stood out to me! Mikage often says 「深く。もっと深く」 during his interviews (”Deeper. Dig deeper.”).

The Japanese word ゼミナール doesn’t actually come from the English “seminar” but the German “Seminar” (capitalised). According to Wikipedia, in Germany, and often in Japan, Seminar/ゼミナール is used to refer to a university course that includes a thesis project. So ゼミナール refers to a course of learning, rather than a talk or lecture. And it would make a lot of sense to call a system like Dianetics a “course”. Almost like a “course” of medicine — a “course” of psychological practices that you can join but never complete.

So it would make sense to translate it as “the Mikage Course”. But “course” has more meanings in English than just this, and in the context of a university this makes it sound more like a mundane teaching course. So I tried some other words: the Mikage Sessions, the Mikage Method, Mikage Psychotherapy, Mikage Therapy, the Mikage Movement. None seemed quite right. Until I remembered this post. ゼミナール is a foreign word in Japanese, why not find a foreign word for the translation? And so I settled on this:

The Mikage Seminarium, AKA The Society of the Black Rose…

Seminarium is Latin, and is where both the German and English derive seminar from. Its original meaning is “seed plot”, but it’s also just the Polish word for seminar. I really like how the Latin makes its meaning ambiguous — it kind of sounds like a location, kind of sounds like a society, and kind of sounds like a learning course. Because it is all of these things.

Anthy: では、香苗さん。失礼します。 Kanae: ね、あたしの事、お姉さんって呼んでいいのよ。もうすぐわたしはあなたの本当のお姉さんになるんだから。

A more literal translation:

Anthy: Thank you for having us, Kanae-san. Kanae: Please… you can just call me “sister”. I’m going to be your real sister soon enough anyway.

The translation I ended up going with:

Anthy: Thank you for having us, Miss Ohtori. Kanae: Please... you can just call me Kanae. We're going to be family soon. There's no need for the formalities.

Japanese honorifics strike again!

In English, sisters-in-law don’t ask to be called “sister”. That would be super weird in most scenarios, and this scene is trying to evoke a particular familiar feeling of closing a distance gap in a relationship. The audience is meant to relate. Changing how Anthy addresses Kanae was pivotal to this scene working properly.

わかりました。あなたは世界を革命するしかないでしょ。

I understand. Your only choice is to force the world to change around you.

This line is translated as “Your only choice is to revolutionise the world” by basically every other translation. The reason is clear �� the Japanese is the same as when Utena pulls the sword out of Anthy, or when any of the other characters talk about “revolutionising the world”. However, in this context, I don’t like it. The nuance of the English phrase is quite different to the Japanese phrase. In English, it’s often used to describe new commercial products: “This new device will revolutionise the world!” It comes with an implied “for the better”, but has used to describe technological developments so unexciting that it can also feel hollow. When the student council talk of revolutionising the world, they sound like revolutionaries — the context makes it work. But in this context, it comes out of nowhere and doesn’t have any of that fervour, which makes it sound hollow and flaccid when it should sound sinister and manipulative.

I think a pervading throughline for all the Black Rose duelists is that they see their problems as caused by other people, with themselves being blameless. Rather than change how they approach their situation, Mikage tells them they’re in the right.

Your behaviour will set you down a path. If that path leads to your goals, well done! However, if your path does not lead to your goals, there’s only two ways you can achieve them.

The first is to change your behaviour so that it does align with your goals. The second, impossible way, is for the rest of the world to change such that your current path DOES end up leading to your goals. This second way is not possible in the real world. But it is possible in Utena.

Also I’ll just leave this here: “around you” → “revolve” → “revolution” 👀

Kanae tried to build a relationship with Anthy in a passive, non-confrontational, extremely Japanese way — the way she has been taught to behave, the “proper” way, a mechanical following of the social scripts. We don’t see a lot of their relationship, but the way she behaved and spoke of behaving towards Anthy is very very similar to the way my Japanese grandmother has behaved towards my and my brother’s partners.

It was unthinkable to her to change this pattern of behaviour. Her only choice was to change Anthy, change the rest of the world, so that her behaviour would lead to the outcomes she wants. You could describe this forceful bending of reality to be “revolutionising the world”.

この黒薔薇のある限り、私はこれから嘘の私を演じなくて住む。

As long as I have this Black Rose, I'm free from the lie I was living before.

Besides gender, growing up, and resisting change (which exist as separate themes but also all intertwine as one), another major theme present in Utena is the self and subjective reality. The self is explored within those first major three themes, but also in terms of how the self dictates reality with the Black Rose duellists.

Black Rose Kanae says that her past self was a lie.

It reminds me of all the times when I’ve been going through a personal trial and I’ve looked back on my past self and thought “How naive I was. I understand things better now.” And then after a while I realise I was wrong, and my first self was more right. And then later still, maybe I re-realise that the second self was more right! And so on! The reality of truth (or to use Kanae’s language, “lies”) is so subjective.

Who dictates knowledge production? Who decides what is true; what is valid knowledge? This is a question of sociology - and at the moment that answer is "science does, kinda". But science and academic systems are supported by capitalist structures and tainted by capitalistic incentives — needing to be published in a journal, issues of replicability, the barrier to entry into academia in the first place, etc, etc. In the future we may find our current way of organising knowledge to be archaic and primitive in the same way we look back at medieval scholars.

But what about organising self-knowledge? Knowledge where the only one who can really decide what is true is yourself. And the only one that can decide what yourself even IS is yourself. I feel like I have looked back on my old ways of conceptualising myself many times (not even counting the gender-based revelations) and thought it primitive and archaic, and NOW I truly understand who I am and how to think of myself and how my thoughts interact with my other thoughts. But I have no doubt that I’ll look back on this current self of mine and reject their way of thinking too.

After their heart is replaced by the Black Rose, the duellists themselves frame this change as a moment of self realisation, of clarity. Once the rose is inside them, they wake up from themselves, like I have countless times. Kanae says herself, “This is the true me.” Honestly, I don’t doubt it. I think that version of Kanae was her true self at that moment, given the things influencing her. Being brainwashed doesn’t make you less of a person, or less yourself. It just makes you organise your reality differently.

心を凍結させて作っただけの間に合わせのデュエリストでは、彼女は破れないな。

We won't be able to defeat her by simply freezing someone's heart and forcing them to duel.

Anya and I discussed this in depth. I originally translated 心 as “mind”, because that was the first thing that popped into my head and I thought that was the simple part of the translation. However, Anya pointed out that it didn’t make sense with the themes of self and subjective reality, and I strongly agreed, so I changed it to “heart” instead.

Anya suggested “conscious mind” instead of “heart” but I think heart is more accurate. 心 (kokoro) can mean heart or mind in Japanese (I find it interesting that those two things are portrayed as opposites in English), and that kanji is found in the word for biological heart, 心臓 (shinzou). When they say of the Black Rose "This is your new heart" they use 心臓. They also say "Your new 命 (life/lifeforce)" which I translated as soul since it sounded more hardcore and because "your new life" is a set phrase in English meaning a new chapter in your life rather than your life force. I think the idea is that they're freezing the duellists' ability to love and feel empathy, which in my opinion is necessary for them to commit to the unbelievably selfish act of revolutionising/reconstructing/bending the entire structure of the world for their own convenience.

A very special thanks to @dontbe-lasanya for being there to talk through all these themes and ideas. I'm incredibly proud of this episode's translation and I wouldn't have been able to do it without them.

If you want to see more analysis like this, let me know! And also follow this blog to see episodes of the fansub as they're released. You can find all episodes released so far here:

Rose divider taken from this post

[alpaca-clouds]

Walkable Cities vs Americans

Let me talk about this in more details, after I already brought it up on Monday.

I am very aware that most users of this wonderful hellsite are very much living on some stolen land in North America. And hence are used to urban sprawl and to not getting anywhere without using a car, because it is not really feasible.

I know this. I am from Germany, but I have spent about 3,5 months in the USA between 2013 and 2014.

Now, while living in Germany the longest distance I have ever lived away from a proper supermarket was about 12 minutes on foot. At the time we had moved into a newly constructed area and for the first two years the supermarket that was supposed to be build there was just delayed. Hence the next supermarket was a bit away. After that supermarket was build, though, we had one in just 5 minutes walking distance.

This is of course connected to the fact that I always have lived in towns and cities - and that the few years of my childhood where I lived in a village... That village still had a supermarket just at the end of my street. Yes, I do have a friend who lives in a very rural part of Eastern Germany, who has to drive 40 minutes by car to reach a supermarket, as she is basically living in the German equivalent of a food desert.

Technically I was lucky, too, when I lived in the USA. Because the dorm I was being housed in was right across the street of a supermarket. I learned how ever that said supermarket was a) expensive as hell, and b) did not have good food. So, after trying it three times, I opted to once a week take a handcart and make my way over to the next Amish market about three miles away.

But something I generally learned while there was: People look at you as if you are insane for walking. I still very much remember when I was walking through the city looking for the harbor and I asked some old ladies for directions. "Oh, yeah, that is just in this direction. But it is more than a mile. Are you sure you wanna walk that?" And I just stood there: *confused German stare*

In fact, when i arrived at the dorm, someone was like: "Oh, great. We should celebrate and get to the coldstone! Let's take the car." And then we took the car to drive like 300 meters. And again I was standing there like: *confused German stare*

But... It is a bit of a two-sided issue, right? Because yeah, American cities are build around cars. If there are sidewalks they are often not easy to walk on. And if you are disabled, then tough luck. Chances are the side walks are not accessible for you. Especially if you need mobility aids of some sort.

And suburbia is not really accessible without a car either way. Especially not safely, given there are often only few street lights for crossing the roads and such.

Sure, the city centers are a bit easier to get around in. But even there you often have to walk a good way. Of course, given that the zoning laws often keep housing from anything commercial. While over here in Germany we just have a supermarket in the middle of a housing district, or have shops on the ground floor of a building that is otherwise used for housing that is often not possible in the US. And I get that.

And still... I do feel that there also is a bit of an issue a lot of folks have with even trying to just not use the car. Again: Who the flying fuck uses a car for 300 meters? (Unless they are disabled.) And that is stuff I saw several times in the USA. And in that case there was a proper and even fairly wide sidewalk. So... WHY?! Just WHY?!

[soso-chan126]

Ahkmenrah x fem! reader "Heimat"

I'm incredibly bored and watched some Night at the museum. Than it just happened that I thought a little bit (is indeed a rare process) and well I thought I could write a little oneshot for the pretty pharao. I couldn't help myself soo yeah. Btw the reader is in this oneshot from the time of the 20th century and to be more specific (is it written that way? idk well if not I am counting on all of you that you're going to tell me if it's right or not) the reader is from the time of the second world war and well there may be some topics that can trigger people. So I will put a trigger warning at the beginning. But well maybe not I'm not sure what I will include and so on and I also don't know how I make the reader so yeah... I will just go with the flow and write for my hearts content (not sure if I can put it that way). So before the beginning I write a quick definition for the word "Heimat". Ouhh and my little to long author notes are those little mini textes.

Heimat (german): "a place, where someone was born and grew up or is there long enough to have a feeling of being at home (is mostly a word for a place (and sometimes someone) that (or who) someone has a very special connection to)

translated out of the "Duden" can't say it's the right translation to the definition but well if someone of you has a better definition that's in english I'll gladly swap that with this one if you don't mind.

Well let's go then! ahh... btw I write about a female reader so yeah... if you want another one with gender neutral or a male reader ask right away and then I'll write it as soon as I can! I am not a native speaker so well it certainly has some errors and I'll correct them if you tell me where some are. Thanks and let's go!

TW: mentions of the holocaust, death, national socialists and some of the other stuff about the 2nd ww and also swearing but only lightly and once if I'm not mistaken

You have been warned. Reading on your own... I forgot the word. Eh... something like concequences ig but I'm not sure. It's way to late for writing tbh. And if you don't want to read the stuff with the 2nd ww then just skip the background. I will mark it for you guys.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Everyday I remember my cruel death. I am nothing but a little wax figurine that just resembles my once very much alive self but I still have her memorys. Even though I am only made out of wax and don't even have a real brain. She was a hero for a lot of people even though she was only a little artist that wasn't much known. She lived in nazi germany so she knew what was going on in germany. Even more because one of her friends worked for the terrifying camps. He told her a lot of things proudly and most of them weren't allowed to be told to zivilian people like herself. She took advantage of the knowledge and used it for her art. She showed the terrors of the war of the holocaust of everything.

She also started to try to change the world for the better and so she came into the view of the regime and their corrupted forces. She was able to trick them but well her luck ran out after she helped a spy of the united states. The spy learned a lot of things from her that were cultural differences between the two countries. With her help he was able to keep hidden. To his luck he looked also like a "typical german" probably had ancestors that were german people. However that was a reason why spys of the allies were basically searching for her so that she can also help them. She was bad at denying the need for help of other people. The spys that resided in her humble home also found out that she hid two jewish families in her house.

Europe and germany were her so called "Heimat" she looked up to Stefan Zweig who also saw europe as his "Heimat" or his home. But well his works were forbidden in germany thanks to the national socialists. She was enraged to find out that her favourite author isn't allowed in her home. But she couldn't give a single shit. She still had the books of him that she once bought. She hid them well. They always tried to find something so that they could arrest and torture her. Well she wasn't allowed to draw anymore and that was a problem but she never stopped with helping others out.

Then someday one of her neighbours told her off to the ss. They came into her home and found everything the spy who resided with the young woman and also the jewish families, the forbidden books and her forbidden art studio. Also the books of different languages such as english, french, japanese, italian, spanish and much more. She learned them all and can speak some of them fluently while the others were a little rusty but good enough to communicate decently. They caught her and they also punished her. And their punishment was the reason for her death. She was a strong woman who helped as much people as she could by sending them off to other countries or hiding them and teaching them. The spy was also tortured and died right next her when a bomb of the english army fell onto the building they were in. He apologized to her but she told him that it wasn't his fault and that she decided for herself to walk on this path that was hidden in the darkness without any sight of light. She wanted to bring light into her home, her "Heimat". But she lost it and she pobably never gets it back. Well that's what her dying self thought but that wasn't exactly true.

~End of backstory~

She came back to life and well she is now my humble self who is a good friend of hystorical people like Sacagawea, Theodore Roosevelt and others. My personal favourite of them all is Ahkmenrah. He is a pharao of egypt who is dead like most of us. Makes sense right? And well he kind of is more to me. I certainly don't know what I am for him but he is more than a friend. I think it's enough to say that I have kind of a crush on the handsome egyptian man. Well okay it's a big crush to be honest.

Everytime when I have those nightmares about my death he's there to help me. I'm very thankful to have him. Even though I'm quite sad that I don't know about his feelings for me.

Well my little thoughts about my past and current situation were interrupted by hand that waved in front of my face. I blinked twice and mumbled a little "Wa?", that made him chuckle. "You were very deep into your thoughts today. Is something troubling you?", he asked me somewhat amused but also concerned. I just stared into his eyes and shook my head indicating a "no". He just sighs and asked if I could tell him about some stories that I read. He asked for some fairy tales. So I told him some. Mostly the famous ones like "Snow white", "Rapunzel", "The beauty and the beast" and also "Sleeping Beauty".

At some point he laid down and rested his head on my lap. I stopped reading and stared down on him with wide eyes. He eyed me from his position and asked what's wrong. He wasn't like this before. Never. And this shocked me. "Nothing's wrong. But tell me why are you laying your head on my lap?", I asked with a blush that told the world how embarassed and overworked I was from the whole situation. "I'm simply resting. I was feeling tired." Well he is dead so it was kind of a miracle for me to think that he can feel tired. I just shrugged and returned still a little flustered to reading the current story.

After I finished with the story I glanced down to Ahk who still rested his head on my lap. Surprisingly he kind of fell asleep. I watched his peaceful face and felt the heat returning into my face. I may be out of wax but well I kind of can blush at least at night. Though everyone can kind of. It's cute when I see Teddy blush because of Sacagawea or the other way around. I kind of still wonder how it's possible. But well we talk about a relict that can bring basically everything to life so questioning that kind of stuff can bring a headache to someone and by someone I mean myself.

As I was thinking and staring down on the handsome pharao on my lap the mentioned man was waking up and saw to me. Catching me red-handed as I was watching him sleep. I then registered that he had opened his beautiful brown eyes and well you can guess it. I became something similar to a living tomato. He smiled widely seeing me this flustered and laughed out loud.

"Thank you for guarding my sleep! But I'm sure that the sun will rise very soon." Indeed the sky was getting lighter every minute and it's just a matter of time that we need to be on our places. He sat up but put me to a halt when I wanted to stand up. "Could you answer me one little question about a german word?", he asked looking at the young woman with great interest. "Sure. What is your question?"

"What does "Heimat" mean?" Heimat. I haven't heard that word for long only thought about it. "Well "Heimat" is similar to the english word "home" but some people might say that it has a higher meaning. It's more connected with feelings and it doesn't need to be a place. Sometimes it's a person or a thing." "Hmm can you tell me if my usage of the word is correct?", he asked kind of nervous id I'm putting it right. I just nodded and he took a deep breath. That kind of makes it suspicious. Like if he's going to confess or something. He wouldn't right?

Then he grabbed for my hand and said "(Y/N) my beautiful little desert flower. You are everything to me and my "Heimat" is wherever you are. Eh.. could you tell me how I say in german that you're my "Heimat"?" "Du bist meine Heimat", I answered in a trance like state. "(Y/N). Du bist meine Heimat*" I teared up after he said that. "Du bist auch meine Heimat, Ahk.**" He caressed my cheek and kissed me slowly. It was a cute kiss that showed all his emotions for me and of course I reciprocated it as soon as I was out of my trance.

"I love you", he mumbled lowly while connecting his forehead with mine. "I love you too." He is my "Heimat" and I'm pretty sure he'll always be. Well as long as the tablet and the time are on our side.

What the two lovebirds haven't noticed was that the tablet had little corrosions over it. And that their next adventure is waiting for them.

Well that's it my friend's! It's really late and I'm kind of tired as idk. Especially since it's 3 a.m. And I need to go to school tomorrow like ahhhh! Am I dumb kinda. Do I have to write a class test in math tomorrow? Yes. Yes, I have to. Well that's the reason why I'm going to sleep now. So yeah. Ouh and if I got anything wrong tell me friendly if it's unfriendly I will simply ignore it. I'll make soon a masterlist and link it to this post and the other two as well. And yeah... See ya guys later!

Edited: Here is the masterlist!

Masterlist

Translation: "(Y/N). Du bist meine Heimat." -> "(Y/N). You're my home." * "Du bist auch meine Heimat, Ahk." -> "You're my home as well, Ahk." **

[fitzrove]

hello duchess of fitzrovia,, I see on your Mate interview translation video that you learned german for 3 years before being able to translate the video. may I ask how you learned? do you have any tips? thanks and stay well!!

Hii, thanks for asking! :D

This got long, so TL;DR:

1) Immerse yourself by putting yourself into situations where you truly have to speak/try to understand German to get through it. (Can be "I desperately want to understand this information I found online, but I won't unless I decipher and translate it".)

2) For listening and reading: Seek out a topic area you're genuinely interested in and learn about that in German. (I've never found Duolingo or other apps like that super helpful or interesting/motivating...)

3) For speaking practice especially, consider "real" language courses! For pronunciation, consider making musical cover songs your hobby xD (This is genuinely how I've gotten most of my pronunciation practice.)

I've been passively learning German for about 8 years now (started listening to German-language musicals in 2016), but I did only start learning actively and with intent in 2021. My "official" studies have been:

An A1 basic course in 2021 (6 weeks, 2ish hours a week)

A B1.2 Goethe course in 2023 (10 weeks, 2 hours a week)

A failed attempt at a B2.2 course in 2024 (stopped going because I got too busy with uni), and another B2.2 attempt that I'm currently completing :D

However, I would say that I've learned most of the language on my own, from watching musicals and interviews, reading books, articles and blog posts, and finally immersion - moving to Germany into a city where a lot of basic life things won't get done if you can't speak the language. For example: my apartment building caretaker (who gave me the keys and who I needed to call to fix my shower drain a month in) didn't speak any English, and neither did people at the tax bureau, town hall, supermarket, regional theatres... On trains, some important announcements will only be given in German, and some museums don't give all of their guided tours in English. This has been a huge help for me - sometimes it's a headache, but it does teach you a lot!!!

The major advantage in taking courses, though, is that there's 1) someone to motivate/"force" you to do vocab and grammar exercises, 2) someone to give feedback and corrections, 3) a group to practice speaking with. The last point has been the most helpful for me, I think, because learning super eclectically means that my skills are kind of unbalanced... I read academic texts really well if I can look up individual words & I understand speech in most situations, but I struggle a lot with grammar and independent writing, and I used to be nervous speaking before starting to practice more formally in a classroom setting where there's help.

I think the most important tip I can give is to just dive in - force yourself into situations where the only way you get what you want is by speaking German or figuring out what words mean :D I picked up basic vocabulary and phrases from listening to musicals and reading transcriptions (important!) and translations of the songs I was listening to, and from there, it was easy to expand. For reading, I really recommend finding something that you're organically interested in otherwise (for me it's been 19th century history research and primary sources from that era, as well as musical theatre stuff); for listening, I recommend looking up documentaries/music/movies that you would also watch if they were in English. In many language classes they will purposefully teach you about German/DACH culture and show students "classics" from those countries, and while that's also important, I think for independent learning it's more effective to find something that you're really, genuinely personally passionate about.

I still Deepl difficult words and make a huge amount of grammar mistakes when speaking (my current course includes one-on-one discussion hours with the teacher which has been so helpful, but she needs to interrupt me about once a minute with "syntax... SYNTAX!!" xD) but I get complimented a lot on my German skills, largely due to the fact that I speak confidently despite the mistakes & have a decent accent >:)

[18shadesofmay]

dont ask how i know pt2, give me tips to learn german.

ok so ive completed C1.1 level german so i have tons of material if you (or anyone reading this) ever wants any.

duolingo/similar apps could get you off the ground, but that’s basically all they do. when i started, i was doing duolingo and although it helped, it couldnt really get me too far. so basically, apps like those are crap. just my opinion, it has worked for people, but i find it too repetitive, and honestly not a feasible option if it's your primary teacher. you need other forms of instruction.

if you’re serious then a good language course would be amazing, BUT you can get close to fluency even with just youtube.

some thoughts:

youtube channel: easy german (they have readymade playlists for each language level from A1 (absolute beginner) to C1 (advanced learner). they also have english subs, so that helps :)

BEST RESOURCE OUT THERE: DW learn german with Nicos Weg. It's fun, it's informative, and it plunges you into german culture in a way no other site i've seen does. basically you follow the story of a spanish guy that goes to germany to find his aunt and makes new friends. there's tests, practice and stuff after every chapter. it's very real-life oriented and great for day-to-day umgangssprache (conversational comprehension).

if you're just starting out, one very important point to note (one that helped me pick up some pace along my journey) is to have comprehensible input. you need to be consuming the language as much as possible, BUT still at your own comprehension level. if you can't understand a word then it's a waste of time.

youtube channel: Natürlich German is a super channel that focuses more on "acquiring" the language than learning it. it's straight countless hours of pure consumption. highly rec.

what's just as crucial, if not more, than consumption is good and consistent producing. keep writing. if possible, speaking. without an outlet, you'll be great at understanding stuff but will struggle to form basic sentences, because structure and grammar can't be mastered without formation. i could GLADLY help you out here, reach out to me anytime.

for building vocabulary: seedlang is THE BEST. it follows a flashcard-system and it's works wonders, i dont even know how i built so much of my day-to-day vocabulary with just a couple lessons on seedlang.

lastly, watch german films, shows, listen to german music, just try to expose yourself to the language as much as possible. starting off is the hardest bit. uske baad you're just building on what you already understand about the language. it'll be hard and it'll be rewarding.

you'll do great, dm me if you ever need anything ;)

[chocosea]

Suite Precure Novel Prologue & Chapter 1 Summary

(This book is first person perspective from Hibiki.)

Prologue:

This summarizes the series' events and sets up an ominous tone for the upcoming chapters.

Hibiki wonders why she never noticed the deep sadness that was always right next to her. She now feels like she's being chased after by a quiet dark wave that's engulfing her. This part is cryptic and probably refers to events later in the novel, but she's basically in a dark place where there is no more sounds, which she simultaneously wants to stay in forever and leave immediately. She doesn't know what to do and doesn't believe she can fight heroically.

She never thought in her wildest dreams that she would ever feel this way.

Chapter 1 — As for Us Since Then...

Hibiki is in her third year of middle school and is going to graduate soon. After graduation, she's going to study abroad in Germany for music stuff. This is taking after her dad, since he studied there and also can speak German.

That said, she gets the sense that her dad's German is weird, much like his Japanese is weird due to his quirky personality. Hibiki has doubts that people will understand his weird German, but he's also the only person she can learn the language from so she's getting instruction from him anyway.

In terms of music lessons, Hibiki is getting piano lessons from both her dad and Ouji. Ouji sometimes teaches her 1-on-1, which she hasn't told Kanade yet because she knows Kanade would be jealous. Unlike her dad, Ouji actually explains what parts she gets wrong and gently encourages her by telling her that everything will turn out right. This has endeared him to her greatly to the point that she starts feeling her heart beat faster and her temperature rising sometimes when they're alone. In other words, Hibiki now also has a crush on Ouji-senpai. (Or at least it very much sounds like it considering lines in the next chapter.)

Ellen (Eren?) is trying to be a musician and writes her own songs that she plays around town. Hibiki notes her songs are a little sad but beautiful, a fact she hasn't told Ellen because she feels that Ellen might get carried away. Trio the Minor have also come to stay in Kanon Town and sing Ellen's back vocals sometimes. They've apparently ditched their funny outfits and made their hair normal (boo). They work at the biggest music store in town and want to debut with Ellen.

Pii-chan is living with Hibiki. Hummy is working as a songstress in Majorland and is staying there all the time.

Otokichi has been telling Hibiki, Ako, and Ellen that they all sound off when they play music (or in Ako's case, sing), lately. Probably because they're all off doing their own thing and their hearts aren't in harmony anymore.

Hibiki has to play a performance with Kanade at a farewell party before she leaves for abroad but Kanade hasn't been showing up to practice at all because she's so busy with baking, trying to get into a prestigious baking school.

Since Kanade wasn't showing up to practice, Hibiki went to go steal some of her food from her club. Though she was counting on Kanade noticing her and getting mad at her in their usual joke routine (it's evident here that Hibiki likes baiting her like this), Kanade was busy talking to a friend in the hallway. Kanade is very serious and really upset at Seika (who has graduated) and says something slightly mean about Seika's tarts (calling them far too mediocre) to the friend she's talking with. Seika apparently wouldn't praise Kanade's latest cake. This surprises Hibiki, both on the front the Seika would say something about the delicious cake she's in the middle of stealing & eating, and that Kanade would ever say something like that about a senpai she looked up to so much.

The friend noticed Hibiki and Hibiki was ready to hear Kanade's loud tsukkomi "HIBIKIIIII!!!" but instead Kanade is just quiet and is like, "Sorry. i'm busy today," and tries to return to baking.

Hibiki pulled Kanade into the hallway and told her she thinks it's really important for them to practice, and that she really wants to have a good performance with Kanade in their "last" moments before she goes off to Germany. Kanade said "last" was dramatic, and that she's sorry she forgot but she'll show up next time. She does a wink + puts her hands together, which Hibiki thinks she looks so cute that she relents.

Kanade tells her that a while ago a famous pastry baker came to visit and said she had talent. Hibiki wonders when that was and feels like Kanade is drifting from her, since before Hibiki would've been the first person Kanade would tell right after it happened.

Hibiki tries to invite Kanade to go to the ocean with Ako and Ellen and Kanade turns her down immediately because she's too busy. Kanade is thinking of setting up her own store instead of inheriting her dad's shop in the future too.

Hibiki feels like a kid who just had their favorite toy taken away. like she would just start bawling at Kanade being distant if she wasn't older.

Afterwards, Hibiki goes on an aimless walk and ends up in front of the clock tower where she sees Ellen. When she smiles at Hibiki, Hibiki internally compares her smile to a surprise present that makes her heart skip a beat "even though we're friends" (lol). Ellen also turns down Hibiki's offer to go to the beach, says she doesn't want to return to how they were before (alluding to having to fight and being evil due to her remaining guilt about the whole thing).

Hibiki goes to Shirabe Mansion and runs into Ako who is there because she ran away from Majorland temporarily (just for the day) as she's sick of having to hold her tongue to act like the queen that Mephisto and Aphrodite are training her to be. Even Otokichi says that she needs to try to tolerate it because she's going to be the queen of a whole country. So Ako is kind of arguing with all of her family right now.

Hibiki once again tries to suggest that the team all hang out but Ako immediately said "Can't." before Hibiki could even finish her sentence. RIP.

Hibiki is jealous of Kanade for having so much confidence in knowing what she wants to do to the point that she's not even asking her dad or Seika-senpai for advice anymore.

Hummy came to visit and brought cupcakes from Kanade's store — Hibiki notes that she doesn't remember the last time she's had these. Hibiki plays some piano with Hummy singing and narrates that she can relax around Hummy. It seems Hummy comes to hang out every now and then to check up on Pii-chan (Mephisto & Aphrodite ask her to do this periodically). Afterwards Hummy says goodbye and tells Hibiki to be happy while going back to Majorland.

Personal commentary:

The Ouji thing is extremely annoying. That's now 3/4 of the Suite girls who have had a crush on him, Ako only escaping because she was paired with Souta instead. (Speaking of which, where is that kid?)

It just seems so annoyingly out of character for Hibiki who didn't get his charm and had absolutely zero interest in him the whole series, even when he was just as kind and sparkly then too. I just don't like it. Hibikana wishful delusions aside, I feel like it should've just been left to Kanade since that was already established in show and far more in character.

Otherwise it's honestly cute that Hibiki is aware of her goading Kanade by stealing food routine and likes going through with the whole thing. It really indicates that despite her telling Kanade to buzz off multiple times in the first few eps of the anime she actually is taking actions to stay close to her also even if she didn't want to admit it. Even when they were barely speaking to each other they still had the fight routine about her stealing food from the baking club, which is something she probably did because it was an obvious way to get a reaction from Kanade. But unable to admit her feelings about it or talk about what was actually causing the rift in their relationship, she didn't know how to do anything else other than just fight with Kanade. (Though their initial fight with the whole tree waiting thing was silly as hell.) But like any interaction is better than none so Hibiki still stole food regularly enough for it to become a pattern between the two of them.

The other characters at the club also point that out in ep 1 (?) that Hibiki and Kanade actually are close and both of them shout that they aren't. Meanwhile they both get something out of the interaction enough to keep negging each other even though that isn't what they ultimately want.

However, unlike in the show where they would just start poking at each other's weak points emotionally, instead they both appear to be avoiding blow ups, even as they continue to dance around their emotions. Kind of weird though, since in show even in the early eps when they didn't admit that they were friends again Hibiki would do things like run to Kanade and confess that she's the number one fan of her cakes.

I feel like Kanade is throwing herself into her baking because she doesn't want to think about Hibiki leaving. So she's also avoiding all the things that will come off as like a "This our last time". I wonder if Kanade's new dream to own a posh store of her own is also a "I don't need Hibiki because I have a dream as big as hers" thing.

I don't really like the characterization that Otokichi would get on Ako's (who is like what, now, 9? 10?) case about being a future queen, or that Ako would speak so bluntly and coldly to him. I can sooort of see it but I expected Ako to have a better relationship with Otokichi than this. Rather than being cold to him, I expected her to have a harder time to say stuff that might disappoint him since he was there for her when neither of her parents were in the anime. Like if she was going to get mad at Otokichi I feel like it would be more of a frustrated, hurt / crying outburst type of mad that wants a hug rather than a cold freeze. Given Otokichi's goofy smile for her and stuff in the show, I also feel like he would've been less scolding about the whole thing and more of trying to give her gentler reminders. They're really trying to pull Ako as having to Grow Up immediately but it's kind of funny are you really going to grill your 9 year old like this. You and what, your entourage of clowns and animated self-playing instruments?

Anyway this book is a big tonal shift.

[tua-five]

Season 3 Episode 5!

⚠️⚠️ Don't read if you haven't watch s3! ⚠️⚠️

Omg, Klaus meets his mom!!! Oh, and finds out he died so many times...

Okay, but I actually love the fact that Tom Hopper's wife is Klaus's mom. I don't know why. It's just cool and sweet.

Aww.... but I forgot that Allsion got nightmares... it's so sweet how Ray would just immediately know and start helping.

This episode is just so quick. A lot of moments that I'm a little overwhelmed.

Even though Stanley knows that Diego isn't his dad, he still tells him that he flipping killed his brother. Yikes. Diego's freak out 😭 "And you were gonna dissolve the body!?"

Klaus's "even the naughty bits?"

That's it.

"Hate to say I told you so,"

"You love to say I told you so." Dang, Viktor!!

I really just want to know exactly where everyone is from. (And before I start, yes, I do know that Reginald made them learn many languages) because Five keeps speaking German. He said, "Nein!" In season 2, when everyone failed to meet the 90-minute deadline. And just now, he called the briefcase "kaput". Broken in german. I can definitely see Five being German, but everyone else in the Fandom believes he's from Greece. But I do fully believe he's from Germany. I don't know.

I also love "guy in a carpet." And Chen just accepts it and says,"I hope you win."

And then Klaus is like "sup! I'm back from the dead."

"What would happen if I cut off your head? Would it grow two of you?" And then Diego curs in, cause that's rude, right?

"Stan." He turns to look at Klaus. "Would it?"

"Klaus, do you know where the kugelblitz is?" "Yeah, I saw it!"

"Why didn't you tell anyone!?"

"I told you!" Yeah, Diego. He told you. Why even ask that question?

"You say stupid shut all the time!"

This is why we should listen to each other.

Olay, but as much as it's like.. arguing and stuff. I love their immediate concern for Viktor because harlan hurt him.

And omg, Five saying that Harlan was insignificant and then Viktor immediately with the comeback, "You once told me no one was insignificant." Yeah.. he's not wrong.

I love how Harlan is listening to Wind. And then specifies through a field of corn, and my first immediate thought was... Viktor doesn't have a good experience with field corn.

God. I really hate the writers. I mean, why couldn't stan be his actual son? They were so cute. He's yelling at Stan (not literally yelling, but disciplining, parenting,) and then he jokes around, making stan laugh by putting the cleaning supplies on his head? And then before he leaves the room he tells him not to forget about his ear medication downstairs??? Hello? He's such a good dad just for that to be thrown away?

Another full circle moment. We all know five said "I'm the daddy here!" To Luther in season 2. And now Diego says it. "I'm the daddy here.." to lila.

Allison just said, "The new timeline will just be worse for me." And yep. I truly believe it will. She might've gotten everything she wanted in this last timeline, but everything comes with a cost.

Oh... wow.. yeah. "Luther just said you can't use me for that" and Allsion said that she can of she wants to. Then she rumors him to stay. He begs her not to. And then... she rumors him again. And we all know that.

Oi.. Klaus telling Five that that's the Mother's of Agony. Symbol or whatever.

And then we find badass Pogo.

The gifs!

Sorry in advance that there isn't much gifs. I'm in a bit of a rush today and wasn't sure if I was even going to be able to watch this episode so I didn't have much time to write all of this or find the gifs.

I'm not sure if or when I'll watch and post tomorrow's episode but I'll try to as soon as I can! Love you all!

[hetalia-has-a-secretary]

How would the German Brothers, France, England, Russia, and China react to their American s/o (who recently moved countries to move in with them) dealing with extreme homesickness?

German Brothers + Allies with a homesick S/O

(I made this for a S/O from anywhere in the world since America already lives there and he must be included. Everyone loves that greasy bomber jacket blonde lol)

German Brothers:

Germany:

He understands what homesickness feels like. Between the wars from the past, and the meetings for the future he usually upholds, he is rarely at his nice clean home.

He does his best to console them, and buys them stuff from their home country.

One day he was talking with Italy, and was shocked when Italy suggested to just have more meetings in their home country and bring them with when they start to miss it.

He starts to do just that.

Makes extra time to take them to nice resturants or their hometown and to visit as much of their family and friends as possible.

He realizes having them as a traveling companion helped his stress levels so now they're his emotional support S/O!

Now at least when they miss their home, they won't be alone in that.

Prussia:

Man is retired, and LOVES to travel and learn stuff.

Has no problem sneaking his S/O away to their country.

Movie nights with subtitles will happen frequently. He's not even paying attention he's just so happy his Jewel is happy.

Also cooks a lot of food from their homelands as well as gifts and tacky tourist gages just to make them smile.

Allies:

America:

Doesn't fully understand at first since he couldn't WAIT to break free from England.

Doesn't stop him from bringing his S/O to all the themed resturants in America.

Even has pinned down all the cultural museum spots from their Homeland.

Has an endless knowledge about S/O's heritage of cryptic and ghouls.

Loves seeing them happy and will fly them out, even if he can't go with due to restrictions.

Will help make an album of photos and magazines and newspapers and all that good stuff with them.

Also expect a LOT of imported snacks from their home country as well.

England:

We will pretend he thinks museums don't exist, and that his country doesn't have any major art works.

This will be the ONLY time it's a good thing because now his S/O can ramble off what all the foreign words are.

Laughs when he learns the British museums didn't realize a relic was NOT in fact used to make biscuits.

He won't be able to go with them, but sends a friend of theirs to go with and gives them an allowance to go on a shopping spree and eat at the highest quality of resturants/food markets.

Bring him back a teacup, or pottery piece and he will fight tears over the fact they thought of him just as much as he did of them.

France:

HUGE advocate for getting to travel with his S/O.

Unless there's a riot outside his window he will drop everything to go.

"It would be unfair to give up your life completely just for me, non?"

Showers them with romantic evenings and maybe a get together with friends and family.

France has an amazing wifi connection so he will set up a place to video chat with their friends.

After all even just friends can bring you back home.

Will have random people send postcards so his S/O can make a picture map of their countries best sight seeing places.

Even if he does most the work.

China

He's not too keen on traveling there, and rarely let's his S/O go back

But when they do its not a small trip. We're talking a couple months, or until they had enough.

He will try his best to incorporate foods from the other country and enjoys the process.

He has also shipped out many books and movies to China for them.

Though he will evidently receive chinese rip offs, and gets agitated and apologetic.

He knows it's an issue, they guy is trying his hardest!

Russia

He gets a little sad, thinking they just don't want to be with him.

Even so that in itself is understandable, but decides to go on a trip with them anyway.

Look out if it's a nice and sunny beach like country (or has any beaches regardless)

He will become a very happy sunburnt Russian. Sunscreen? What's that?

His S/O will have to fight with him ti actually go back home because how their home is him new home, da?

Have fun with your summer stays!

[sorenphelps]

I need to know more about Hungary! 8, 14, 22, 26, and 29 please ❤️

Hi there! Here we go, it took way longer to answer than expected...

8. do you get confused with other nationalities? if so, which ones and by whom?

It's a tricky question on my end, because I am partly Vietnamese on my father's side, so I'm usually not assumed to be Hungarian at all (even tho that as I'm getting older I'm looking more and more Caucasian). I'm assumed to be Chinese, because Asian=Chinese in most people's minds here. (It's actually a pet peeve of mine, but that's another question.) I think Hungarians in general get confused with Slavic/Balkan people? Maybe Germans? Idk, when abroad they often think my mother is either Russian or French, while my bf is thought to be Austrian (which is fair enough, because his ancestors are from Austria/Germany).

14. do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV?

Already answered here.

22. what makes you proud about your country? what makes you ashamed?

Proud: We are ridiculously good at some sports, we are I think the 14th in most Olympic Games medals per capita list at the moment. We also have a lot of Nobel prize winners (we are the 13th I think?), and generally a lot of cool things were invented by Hungarians (e.g. Rubik cube, matches, ballpoint pens, Vitamin C, the basis of computers, the basis of Microsoft Word and Excel, etc.). I also think our language is badass, it's in the top10 hardest languages to learn. I also really like how diverse our gastronomy can be, and the so called ruin pubs are good stuff.

Ashamed: Politics... And the general attitude of people, I mean when I can see a sign printed out in Hungarian in hotel cafeterias abroad, saying "Please do not steal!", I feel like denying where I'm from.

26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal?

Hungary is mostly non-existent is Hollywood, but since a lot of American movies/TV shows are actually produced in Hungary, recently we are mentioned by name more (see the Black Widow movie for example). Sometimes our language is used as like an evil devil "language", or we are just vaguely referred as "East European" or "Post Communist" or part of the Balkan. We are depicted as uncultured poor people and/or criminals. Not the most flattering portrayal, however there is some truth in all.🤷🏻‍♀️

29. does your region/city have a beef with another place in your country?

Oh boy, it's easier to list the ones we don't hate. XD We have a mutual friendship with Poland, but that's about it? Hungarians hate everyone (including themselves). We were very, lets say, unlucky with our history, so we are a country who is surrounded by itself population-wise. Therefore we hate every neighboring country (I think maybe Romania the most?). We are historically super bad at picking sides (I mean we always were on the eventually losing side of every big conflict), so it's no wonder that nowdays we try to be good with Russia, China, Turkey, Trump's USA... As I said, politics are bad here.

[adiffident]

I am once again reading fics from recommendation lists and honestly no shade to the writers but if your writing about other cultures don't you do your research?? because it's very painful reading ships were one person is supposed to be german-ish or multilingual and you just have to put it down because it's painfully inaccurate

public transportation in Germany is generally pretty shitty, nothing's on time and trains also just sometimes don't arrive

Honestly if your character is a professor from a german university town he will not praise the efficiency of the U-Bahn in comparison to the New York subway because his city doesn't have a U-Bahn??

Some people think germany is digital heaven but that is not the case. It's very far behind in internet speed and digital equipment in schools and unis

Your professor cannot complain about blackboards 😭, especially if he teaches poetry. No, white boards are not more common. Like I'm a comp sci major and we have white boards in our building but all other lecture halls have blackboards and if I have my classes in the humanities or math department there's just blackboards??

Of course the equipment of the schools and unis is also dependent on state funding, donations and location but come on

People speak English, good English. Pretty much every non-British/American/Canadian/Australian etc. person speaks English, so keep up

Sometimes I try to force myself to keep reading because of the time period but no, making someone practically infantile while speaking English is fucking weird

Also just writing accents into the words is fucking weird and the way in which they're written doesn't make sense

(I also read a fic where the "Russian" accent just was german?? Google translate is free?? And also as a slavic person: what the fuck? There is a difference between da/ja and @ the people thinking slavic languages and german are equally harsh gibberish my relatives think my accent is "harsh" because I have a german one)

Also @ people incorporating german snippets into fics don't use the formal "you". I guess Americans don't learn different languages but formal pronouns are actually pretty common in most languages

Dirty talk in german is not sexy. It just isn't

Writing a modern AU with a German jew is very funny(but also very much not) because there are so few few jews in Germany today.. ever heard of the holocaust? Yeah european jews faced genocide and not just the German ones. I guess as an American it's pretty common to meet jews but that literally has a reason(!!!)

German people are also as a majority atheists or just christian-ish. Making someone fanatically catholic is weird (but more accurate if they're from Bavaria). Generally evangelism is more common

If you make someone speak another language *like so* using English idioms doesn't make sense (I always translate in my head and it doesn't work)

And accidentally "switching languages" like in fics doesn't happen or just if you are in an environment where you have to constantly switch between and translate multiple languages and are very tired but you realize mostly immediately

Knowing all vocabulary isn't realistic. Your vocabulary is dependent on the context for which you use those languages, so you can translate some stuff immediately but I mostly know the meaning of vocabulary separately but can't translate on the spot

...

Yeah I just can't read most fics ... :/

[what-even-is-thiss]

hi so i was wondering where you learned german because it seems like youre pretty fluent and im really trying to learn it but I can only take it once a semester at my school and i feel like its not working

I’m not fluent by any stretch of the imagination. At my best I think I was somewhere between A2 and B1. Able to have simple conversations and watch kids tv but not able to communicate about complex topics. I’m super out of practice with talking and right now I’m trying to get better at reading.

But where I learned it is a bit messy. I started learning in middle school and high school but stopped my sophomore year. Then I sporadically used free resources online like duolingo and the Deutsch Welle learn German site and other apps. I also made flash cards and read news sites for kids and stuff once in a while.

In the summer between high school and college I stayed with my aunt and uncle who live in Switzerland and have a house in Germany and I had reason to interact with my uncle’s family and for the most part none of them spoke English so I had some practice communicating with people with my cousins helping me get across more complicated ideas.

In college I spent one more year taking German. Since then I’ve gone through long stretches of time not studying it and have dabbled in other languages. I revisit it once in a while using a bunch of different stuff basically to just reverse the decay that happens when I don’t use it for a while. I’m not actively trying to get better at it. Just get back to where I was.

I’ve personally got no ambitions of becoming fluent at this point in my life. There’s not a lot of reason to use it where I live and I’m not on the best of terms with my family in Europe anymore. But I like German generally and I try to at least not get worse at it.

What I generally do when I go back to revisit it is relatively simple and usually goes on for a couple months. I review some stuff on duolingo, I buy a book for kids or language learners that either I’ve already read in English or is about a subject I know a lot about and I read that. I also personally get a lot of mileage out of writing down vocabulary lists. Drilling flash cards doesn’t do much for me but making flash cards is useful. So instead of wasting a bunch of index cards now I just write down vocabulary lists in a notebook every couple of days, either using old flash cards or a list from an online resource or one of the old textbooks I have knocking around.

Watching cooking videos in German is also something I do generally even when I’m not studying it because I just like Sallys Welt, which is a YouTube channel. A very mainstream youtube channel in the German speaking world. But she speaks clearly and is generally likable and I like her videos.

Idk if literally any of that is helpful. I’m super all over the place when it comes to studying. And in my experience thinking that you can use just one method to learn a language just isn’t realistic anyways.

[cha-melodius]

OMG I remembered I have another ask for you: I can’t seem to find The Man from Uncle to watch in the UK, which is a shame bc I want to read your fics about it and also Henry Cavill gets me all 🫠 ever since he wore a henley on Superman. So, here’s my question: tell me a little bit about it? A little backstory on Napollya (iirc from your posts 😂) so that maybe I can just enjoy the fics? Pretty please? x

Back in action for asks! *cracks knuckles*

I would love to give you some backstory! (Also, if any of my TMFU folks are reading this and know where to stream it in the UK, please chime in!)

The good news is that for a lot of my AUs you probably don't need a huge amount of the background to appreciate the dynamic. It's a pretty classic enemies to friends to lovers setup, with the added bonus that (in the movie) they are actually true enemies rather than just people who dislike each other haha. I am going to put the rest of this behind a cut—no major spoilers for the movie, but it's gonna get long lol. So if anyone else also wants a character rundown + some important stuff about their dynamic so they can dive into some of my other fics, here's your primer!

Ok, so character rundown:

Napoleon Solo: aka "Cowboy," aka "The CIA's finest", formerly a top tier art thief who no one could catch, until he finally tripped up and got arrested. The CIA plucked him out of prison to work for them, and his handler still treats him like criminal dirt. Enjoys fancy cooking, classic yet fashionable suits, is utterly charming, a massive flirt, supposed to be the 'womanizer' but consistently shows a refreshing respect for women (especially given the James Bond comparison).

Illya Kuryakin: aka "Peril", aka "The youngest person to join the KGB", a giant (6'5"), inhumanly strong, super hostile and gruff exterior, surprisingly bad liar, polite king to little old ladies, actually softer than a marshmallow on the inside. His father was a Soviet official who got thrown in the gulag when he was a kid for embezzlement, forcing his mother into a kind of prostitution to survive. Probably resulting from that trauma, he suffers from dissociative episodes when he gets extremely upset in which he does things like trashes hotel rooms (his hands shake when he feels one coming on). Manipulated by his handler with threats of being sent to the gulag like his father. Favors turtlenecks and simple outfits, also a fashion snob. Extremely attached to his father's watch, which he wears.

Gaby Teller: aka "Chop Shop Girl", East German auto mechanic who's father was a nuclear scientist pulled out of Germany by the Americans during the war, leaving her behind as a kid. No-nonsense, prefers slacks when dressing herself, sometimes plays mother to our bickering boys. Possible alcohol problems.

Alexander Waverly: British Naval Intelligence, ultimately organizing the operation, a bit of an asshole but in a charming way, keeps together the team at the end as UNCLE (independent spy organization).

Victoria Vinciguerra: The evil mastermind. Napoleon sleeps with her at one point to save the operation, later she drugs him and leaves him to be tortured. Very tall, very fashionable.

Also other minor character you may come across in AUs: Oleg (Illya's KGB handler), Sanders (Napoleon's CIA handler), Alexander Vinciguerra (Victoria's husband), Rudi Teller (Gaby's Nazi uncle).

The main thrust of the movie is that Napoleon and Illya are both sent to East Berlin to try to extract Gaby for their own purposes, only to learn that they will actually be force to work as a team to take down the bad guys. They actively try to kill each other in not just their first but also second meeting. There's a scene where they argue over fashion while buying Gaby a new wardrobe that is *chef's kiss*. Extreme levels of banter and snark in every interaction. BUT, as these things go, they gain a grudging respect for each other. Napoleon saves Illya's life, Illya saves Napoleon's life. They work together as a team exceptionally well. By the end, they are trading extremely fond insults. There are moments of self-sacrificial plays to save a teammate you're not even supposed to like, gift giving, betraying your principles/agency for the other person. There is a canonical will-they-won't they between Illya and Gaby during the movie (one of the reasons another major ship in this fandom is an ot3 between them), but nothing actually happens.

I think that basically sums up their dynamic and gives you the backstory you'd need for the AUs especially. For the post-canon ones it's a little tricker since I'd rather not give away the main twist of the movie, BUT a lot of them are kind of "in the future working as a team already" setup that don't really reference movie events, so you'd honestly probably be fine there too.

All right, that's a lot of text lol. I hope it helps, and I hope you enjoy the fics if you decide to dive in!

[stratocumulusperlucidus]

8, 13, and 22? :)

8. How many languages do you know?

My mother tongue is french, then I learned english, which I'm pretty much fluent in.

I also learned spanish for like 5 years in school pero hace mucho tiempo y ahora puedo leer un poco pero no hablar muy bien.

I learned some german because of Tokio Hotel and because my sister lived in germany for a few years, but it's not an easy language so I didn't go very far.

Then my sister moved to sweden so I learned a bit of that too. I love how it sounds, but haven't practiced in a while. I only know a few basic words/phrases, not much.

I visited Shanghai a few years ago and when I came back I wanted to try and learn some chinese (why not before I went? idk, it could have been useful lmao), so I've been learning on duolingo for a few years now. It's duolingo so I don't have a great level but I LOVE the grammar, it seems very logical and easy to me (no gendered nouns, no verb conjugation, what a dream!!), and it's fun being able to decipher a few characters here and there whenever I see something written in chinese.

And I got curious about arabic so I started learning that too on duolingo, like last year I think? Learning a new alphabet is very fun!!

Whew that's a looooong answer lol so that's 7 if you take into account the languages I only dabble in.

13. Your dream place to visit?

I went to the Grand Canyon once in december and there was so much fog I couldn't see anything so I'd really like to go back and actually see it!

22. Best memory you could think of?

I was thinking of a bunch of memories and then this one made me tear up so: when I got back from spending 9 months in Canada as an exchange student, and @adropofred was waiting for me at the airport and oh that feeling of relief, of pure joy and love, finally seeing them again and hugging them after so long? yeah.

Ask me stuff, get to know me!

[gemsofgreece]

greeks are indeed the main issue when it comes to spread the greek language. I live in germany and also went to a Greek school a few times a week in the afternoon (after my normal German school) and although my greek isn't perfect I dare to say I was still the best pupil speaking it bc my parents were of the few ones only speaking in Greek to me. most other parents spoke either a mix of Greek and German or straight up only German w them. partially it wasn't the parents' fault as they were 2nd gen greeks living there so they grew up in Germany, too and their parents also didn't really bother speaking to them fully greek, in an attempt to merge w their new home country and the culture (as it often happens w immigrant families). wasn't much different w my Italian neighbors either where the kids barely spoke/understood Italian. but then I see people from other countries/ continents only speaking in their native language to their kids no matter what and I'm like, why can't greeks be like this, too? I know greek isn't always the easiest especially when living in a different country. but if other immigrants manage keeping their native languages along w learning/speaking German, why can't we? or worse, they come up w new words like μπροτάκια. a mix of the German word "Brot" (bread) and the greek word ψωμάκια (buns), essentially meaning buns w it but instead of using the greek word they just mixed it w the German one 🙃 like the amount of times I met greeks (in my age) but they could barely speak greek is alarming. and it's obviously the parents/grandparents' fault. my grandpa has relatives in South Germany and when he asked them if they speak greek to their grandchildren they said no. and he told them "they're gonna learn German in school anyway. what they're not going to learn there is greek! so speak greek to them!" and I think he is right. sure you can still be and feel greek even without speaking it by just keeping traditions and other cultural stuff alive. but speaking the language helps you connect w all this and other greeks in a deeper way. so speak greek to your kids! please! it's such a nice language, it's a pity!

(sorry for the long message. just needed to vent about my personal experience a little)

Thank you for this message! I have no insight what the Greek immigrant (or just immigrant)’s experience with struggling to preserve the heritage is like but it must definitely be tough work. I understand second generation parents who don’t succeed much in teaching the mother tongue to their kids. But first generation? That’s straight out problematic. I believe your grandpa is right. Besides, it is absolutely possible for kids to learn more than one language - if a kid can learn English and another foreign language besides, say, German then they are perfectly capable of learning their own ethnic language too. If they don’t, then apparently the parents have failed or intentionally didn’t make it clear to the children what the significance of this is.

A kid desn’t understand concepts like heritage, roots, culture very well. If the parents try to teach the language as a chore or as a form of ethical obligation, it might not succeed. They should treat the language learning as something natural or obvious or if that’s not easy then as something fascinating or useful IMO. Because I have received mail from Greeks of the diaspora who weren’t taught Greek well by their family and they realise they want to know it only in late puberty or adulthood, when the aforementioned concepts are better understood. This is generally something that usually interests people when they grow and mature. But when a lot of time has passed people often make the mistake to feel that maybe they lost their chance or the cord is cut for good now or that they wouldn’t be able to get connected on a deeper level even if they tried. Which is wrong of course, you can (re)gain the lost touch at any age as long as you genuinely try to. But the neglect or avoidance of the parents (for whatever reason) in this matter makes it so much more difficult for their offspring later.

This of course applies to all immigrants struggling with the preservation of their language and culture. The immigrants you mentioned, who still succeed a lot in that are probably ones where tradition and religion have a very strong influence in the structure of their family / society so it is necessary for them. Not always, but usually, I think.

[misfit-among-the-angels]

I'm curious about how many languages you speak, since you seem to travel a lot. Moreover your mother tongue has a relatively small number of speakers and I assume that not much international information and media is available in lithuanian, pressuring the need to learn "bigger" languages.

Hab einen schönen Abend, baltische Prinzessin.

Besides Lithuanian of course I can speak English very well, almost to native speaker level. I also can speak a bit of German. Tbh I can understand wayy more in German than i can say or write. 😅 I'm trying to learn it by myself for years now, i have some German roots and i always liked a lot of stuff about Germany and while others around me were saying that German sounds so harsh i would argue them. And i think that's about it. I probably could say something in russian but i hate that language (for very obvious reasons). I'm relatively a slow learner when it comes to languages.

It was worse in the past, now we have more and more info available in Lithuanian but if you know English well then you can find way more stuff. I think the biggest "pressure" to learn English comes from knowing that pretty much all the jobs require to know at least one foreign language but I think that's normal.

Vielen Dank!