#lora speaks spanish

[insert-clever-username-1133]

hola soy nuevo aqui y no se que se ase por aqui solo se comparten imagenes o que mas se puede aser 😵‍💫

hola! yo hablo un poco español, perdón por contesta mal. pero en Tumblr puedes blog (con text) y hablas con otras personas con reblogs, dms, y replies. y sí, puedes también comparted imagenes. y perdón si "tú" forma es incorrecto, no sé si es incorrecto

[coffeewithcutcaffeine]

Much has been said and shown about Moldova over the past few weeks, mainly due to the referendum and presidential elections. Nonetheless, very few of us (including myself) have really sat down and tried to immerse ourselves (or at least understand) into the issues ordinary Moldovans have to face on a daily basis. Moldova is always looked upon as Romania's poorer little sister or a heavily Russified region, but to help them integrate themselves, push through the difficulties, and reach a particular goal, we must pay attention and try to hear them first.

The Slovak newspaper Denník N (in cooperation with its Czech counterpart, Deník N) published a wonderful article written by the Czech journalist Petra Procházková that delves deeper into the ordinary Moldovan soul and is a true eye-opener. You may not be able to relate to every opinion shared in the article (God is my witness that I didn't, either), but it might help you understand where it all comes from. It shows why it is important not to remain in our comfortable bubbles but speak out, explain, support our points of view with solid arguments. It also proves that the world sees Eastern Europe as a region not worthy of attention, which is something that must change in the following years.

Here is a link for those who can (and want to) read in Slovak:

For those who cannot but are interested in the topic, I am putting my own translation of the article below (warning, Russophilia mentioned; despite that, I encourage you to read it as someone who genuinely, from the bottom of her heart, cannot stand Russia and what it represents):

I shed all my tears there. How Lora from Moldova uprooted her cherry orchard and why the EU is to blame

(by Petra Procházková, Deník N)

The second round of Moldova’s presidential election on Sunday (November 3) will determine the country’s future. The candidates are the incumbent head of state, Maia Sandu, and the former prosecutor general, Alexandr Stoianoglo. The former represents the pro-Western direction of the country; the latter promises to mend broken relations with Russia, as well as maintain a certain type of neutrality until it becomes clear who will actually win in the region.

A young man in a sweatshirt stands by the stalls at the local market, passing the time. He has just arrived from Italy. Here in the westernmost tip of Moldova, in an area with fertile soil that is hard to find elsewhere in Europe, and people who know how to make the most of it, you cannot find work at all.

‘I’ve been travelling there for three years!’ Nikita says, pulling out his phone to show us some photos. ‘Here we pick watermelons, here pumpkins. They’ve got it nicely organised. They give us free accommodation, they feed us, though they charge a little for food. But not much. I get 7 euros for an hour of hard work. People here wouldn’t even dream of that. But now I have to go home for the winter.’

Around Nikita’s birthplace of Lipcani in Moldova, the soil is as fertile as in Italy. After all, 77 per cent of Moldova is farmland. Everything imaginable is grown here in the north-west. But Nikita is only one person out of a third of the working-age population who pick Italian or Spanish apples instead of Moldovan ones, or who look after feeble German pensioners. They even work as receptionists in Moscow or history teachers in Omsk. The dispersion, both geographical and professional, is enormous.

For there is no one left in Moldova who does not have to stay there.

‘It’d be enough for me to earn 10,000 lei (a little over 500 euros - ed.) at home. And I’d never go anywhere. It’s so beautiful here!’ Nikita says and goes off to kill time.

Cabbage and chrysanthemums

A woman in a warm waistcoat offers cabbage for 7 lei a kilo (about 0.35 euros - ed.). That is a good price. A few kilometres down the road, some men sell it for 10 lei. Ruslana, however, has lowered the price because the customers are few and ‘I’m not going to throw it away’.

‘We own a decent piece of land, but we can’t sell much of the produce. How much do we need per month to be able to live a normal life? About 10,000 lei. And I can’t earn that much from flowers and cabbages. But there is no other work here,’ she says.

Ruslana comes from the village of Trestieni. At home, she has children, a husband, grandparents, a pig, chickens, and several dogs. ‘We bottle and preserve everything we grow, we buy milk from our neighbour or exchange it for what we have in turn. We survive.’

Ruslana will not vote on Sunday. Whether it is one or the other who wins, she says, it will not make any difference to her family.

Even cheaper than Ruslana’s are the cabbage heads of Timur who lives in the neighbouring village of Satul - a kilo for 6 lei (about 0.30 euros - ed.). Neither he nor the other inhabitants of this remote region know that the World Bank has invested millions of euros in various agricultural projects in Moldova - for example, to boost the country’s competitiveness. Timur has heard something about this, but where is the money? He has no idea. Probably in other parts of Moldova. It certainly has not come here.

Nor has he heard that in 2022, the EU has temporarily liberalised trade in seven Moldovan agricultural products: tomatoes, garlic, grapes, apples, cherries, plums, and grape juice. These products were allowed to enter the EU market in larger quantities and with no customs duties. There are dozens of other EU projects and NGOs supporting Moldovan civil society and agriculture, but their echoes do not reach very far here, in the region between Ukraine and Romania.

Sugar and men’s suits at half-price

Timur will vote, but refuses to say who. Besides cabbage, he sells apples, a kilo for 0.50 euros. When he finds out that we are a Czechoslovak team, we get three apples for free. He served in our country in the 1980s, he announces with a smile. He spent two years in the 152nd Engineer Battalion in Zdechovice. He says he liked it there.

‘They say Stoianoglo wants us to be with Russia. But I’m not really sure about that. I have to ask you this. You know what? I’m going to vote, but no matter what the result is, I’m still going to stand here and sell. Sandu is supposed to lead us towards the EU. Stoianoglo towards Russia. You don’t want us in Europe, but Russia would accept us. I don’t think anything will change in my lifetime. For the worse, maybe.’

At home, Timur speaks Romanian, but his Russian is perfectly clear, without any traces of an accent. ‘I switch between languages as I please,’ he says.

The enterprising farmer manages to make a living not only as a ploughman and market seller. Every week he travels to the neighbouring country, Ukraine, to the city of Chernivtsi, for a big shopping trip. ‘It definitely pays off. Because a kilo of apples costs 10 hryvnia there, 10 lei here. But if you buy euros here and then exchange them for hryvnias there, it’s half as cheap as in Moldova,’ he says.

‘In Moldova, you buy a kilo of sugar for 20 lei; in Ukraine, when you re-count the money, convert it and exchange it, it’s 10. I buy what I need, bring what the customs allow me to bring, and sell it cheaply at home. And I can even dress myself well there. A suit here costs half as much as it does in Ukraine. And don’t even get me started on gas! Compared to us, the Ukrainians pay kopeks. But you can’t take gas with you. But these are all small things. What matters is that there is no war.’

The money for a funeral is saved for decades

Timur is one of the few who does not complain significantly or live from hand to mouth.

Vladimir died at the blessed age of 80. That’s quite an achievement by local standards. He had been on sick leave for the last three years, so more money was put aside for the funeral. His wife has survived a stroke and for the past twenty years, she has been thinking about how they will both say their final goodbyes to their fellow villagers. She has been saving money and now, her efforts have finally resulted in a nice, not too flashy, but not too modest funeral.

We are in the westernmost Moldovan village of Criva. It lies in the valley of the Prut River and is one of those villages where the old and the young live in a forced symbiosis. Productive adults have gone abroad to work, both to the West and to the East, to Europe or to Russia. Ideology played very little part in their decision-making. What mattered the most was who knew whom, who they bumped into, who helped them find a job.

‘My friend went there, so I went there as well,’ is the most common answer from Moldovans at the tip of the region gripped from above by Ukraine and from below by Romania.

The late Yuri’s daughter lives in Canada. This time, she sent more money than usual to help give her father a decent funeral feast. He deserved it. He drove a tractor in an agricultural county where the soil is the right colour and consistency. He supposedly did his job better than anyone else. He lived to see the collapse of collective farms and the decline of one of the most fertile parts of Europe, according to his relatives who also worked in agriculture. But the collectives collapsed with the fall of the Soviet Union, the borders with Russia remain closed, and nobody wants their apples, cabbages, nuts, potatoes, garlic, onions, or watermelons anymore.

A funeral is the worst kind of nightmare for Moldovans, and not only because it is a sad event associated with the death of a loved one. It also eats up a large part of the family’s savings. The final farewell here has its iron rules: the deceased’s shoes must be put on, and they must be dressed in new clothes, including underwear. This costs 3,000 lei. A car to take the open coffin with the body to the cemetery costs 2,000 lei. This, of course, is in addition to the payment for the priest’s services. If the body has been previously deposited in a morgue, one has to pay another 2,800 lei.

A new gravestone and the work involved in digging the grave and placing the coffin in it cost another few thousand lei. The most modest table in a restaurant costs around 6,000 lei. This is another trauma for the family, if we stop thinking for a moment about the death of a loved one - such a modest feast is considered a disgrace. In short, for less than 20,000 lei, you cannot secure a ‘decent’ funeral.

And a wedding? Unless you invite at least a hundred people, it is not a Moldovan wedding. In that case, you need to prepare at least 80,000 lei.

Victoria is saving money for a dance with her great-grandson

Campaigning for the election is not exactly a big affair here. There are only a few posters of Alexandr Stoianoglo, the challenger to the current Moldovan president Maia Sandu, in Lipcani and the surrounding villages. Lipcani is, for a change, the northernmost town in Moldova. From here, it is close to Ukraine as well as to Romania.

Alongside the posters, we finally come across a live campaign in the form of a woman in a stall holding a newspaper with Stoianoglo’s picture on the front cover. The volunteer’s name is Victoria. She has two grown-up children: a son who works in Russia, and a seriously ill daughter whom she looks after. Her daughter, Victoria’s granddaughter, also lives in Russia. Victoria worked all her productive life in the food distribution department of the local agricultural trade union. When the Soviet Union collapsed, so did the union.

‘How can you abolish agriculture in an agricultural country?’ she asks angrily, hoping that Mr Stoianoglo will steer the country in the right direction. ‘This president [Sandu] is leading us to ruin,’ she warns the few people who pass her by. The town, like all the surrounding villages, does not give a lively impression. The most active part of the population is somewhere in Europe or Russia.

Victoria has her reasons to complain. She has to work very hard to get something to eat. Not only does she hand out newspapers with Stoianoglo’s face on them, but she is also rewarded in kind. She refuses to reveal with what or how much.

‘I worked for thirty-eight years. In one place! And now, my pension is 2,770 lei (142 euros - ed.). My granddaughter used to help us from Russia, but then they closed the banks! We haven’t been able to receive anything from her in months! Tell me, is it my fault what is happening, and that because of this, the Russian banks are closed and I will starve to death here?’

Victoria lives in an old house that has never had gas. That seems to be an advantage now that prices have risen sharply again in the last year. Russian gas prices have been perfectly mirroring the deteriorating relations between Russia and Moldova over the last few years. As a result, raw materials are becoming more expensive. After Chișinău joined the anti-Russian coalition condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, Moldova had to give up cheap Russian raw materials for good. Many Moldovans take this personally, blaming both President Sandu and the EU.

‘We use wood for heating. Imagine, a cubic metre of wood cost 700 lei a few years ago. Now I had to buy a cubic metre for 1,400 lei. But if I wanted to heat my house, I wouldn’t have enough money to pay for electricity. I also have to pay for the internet. How else can I keep in touch with my granddaughter?’

A disability pension for her daughter could not be arranged. She is not the first person to tell us that it ‘does not work so easily here’. Mostly, she complains, it costs money. ‘To get the pension, you have to pay the official. And I don’t have the money for that right now.’

The granddaughter - now a geography and maths teacher with Russian citizenship living in distant Omsk - found herself literally on the other side of the front line as a result of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Without her financial help, both Victoria’s and her daughter’s situation has worsened dramatically. Victoria is genuinely upset about the sanctions; she says the war in Ukraine, literally just a few kilometres away, is none of her business. And the European Union? It has caused all of this.

‘I am going to vote because if Stoianoglo wins, maybe he will help me hug my great-grandson one day,’ explains Victoria.

Daniel is in sixth grade. ‘They send us pictures of themselves in the park, at the cinema, playing sports. They live like royalty! And how he does ballroom dances, in a tuxedo and with a little girl, they both look like something out of a fairy tale. When I manage to save a few kopeks here and there, I send it to him so he can buy something for himself. You know why? To remind him of his grandmother and great-grandmother. So he knows he has us still.’

Victoria has seen Daniel twice - as a baby and when he was four years old. That was when her granddaughter could still come to visit her family in Moldova. But then came the COVID and the war.

‘Why, I am not afraid that the Russians will attack us. They’re like that, you know, if you leave them alone and don’t provoke them, they’ll leave you alone as well. We have to get along with them somehow,’ Victoria declares, adding: ‘I was born in the USSR, I went to school and worked all my life in the USSR. I learned everything in the USSR. I had everything I needed then. And now I live like a pauper. But I still want to do one thing - dance at Daniel’s wedding.’

Why should an Italian baker be any better?

Sitting by a half-empty box of tiny garlic heads, she is annoyed. Her name is Lelia. She worked as a saleswoman all her productive life and even managed to work her way up to a restaurant manager. ‘One euro buys two loaves of bread. That’s what we ended up with,’ she laughs bitterly.

Lelia celebrated her 83rd birthday on October 4. In 1996, she decided that her life was not over yet and went to Italy to look after a feeble Italian man with a pension of over 2,000 euros. ‘His family paid me 1,200 euros a month. The grandpa was ninety, he was good to me. He worked all his life as a baker, and look at what a nice pension he had.’

With this statement, any praise for Europe ends. ‘And I brought up six children, worked for thirty-eight years, and got what? A pension of 1,800 lei. 93 euros! What makes that baker better than me? Did he have eleven grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren like me? Go to hell with your EU!’ she shouts at us, as though we were to blame for her misery and need.

‘Russia is rich. You have nothing. No real natural resources. So no need to quarrel with the Russians,’ she concludes. ‘And yet you and Sandu want to drag us into a war.’

Her daughter, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren live in Russia. She will never have that kind of money. One of her younger grandchildren, however, works in France. ‘He graduated from two universities and got a job here in Moldova for a stupid 300 euros. How can you start a family on that? So he went to Paris to work as a taxi driver. With a degree in economics. If you believe in God, may He protect you,’ she ends the conversation with us because she says it leads nowhere. She is probably right.

It is all the fault of ‘those at the top’

The lady at the next stall has a pension of 1,900 lei (98 euros - ed.). Lora can count very well, she is an engineer. ‘Last year we uprooted twelve hectares of cherries. Oh, no! No disease! We grew them with love, but the real drudgery was picking them, and then we had to throw it all away three years in a row! Throw it away, you understand? We tried to sell a kilo of cherries here for 10 lei (0.50 euros - ed.), but nobody wanted to buy them. People are more likely to buy sugar or bread, but cherries? So we uprooted them. These twelve hectares are now a salt pan because I shed all the tears I had left there.’

Nothing grows on the land where the cherries, once a luxury item on Moscow’s markets, once grew on their trees. Thistles and weeds have taken over. Lora has kept two cows and is trying to sell her own cheese. Not a single person has come to her stall in the hour we have been talking to her.

‘We used to export everything to Russia before, but now? Not even a potato. Not even a litre of wine. Everything is closed, blocked, you can’t transfer any money, and you can’t get the goods across the border. So we sit here in the square with our goods like fools, waiting to see how the elections turn out. And what will they change? Nothing. And you in Europe are going to let us in with our apples? You have yours,’ Lora concludes.

When Lora’s Soviet collective farm disappeared, she fell from the pedestal of a chief economist to a job as a cleaner at a petrol station. But even that recently closed. She is left with two cows, which she says eat more than they earn.

Even Lora, the spokeswoman for the highly educated market workers, does not know what needs to change to make life better for Moldovans. She says the elections are useless. After a long silence, she shrugs her shoulders and finally reveals the secret of Moldova’s crisis: ‘What to do? You have to ask those at the top.’

[haystarlight]

Okay listen. I know that canonically, Carmen wasn't raised in Argentina, she was raised in V.I.L.E. Island and Spanish is not her main language. I get that.

But her mother is still Argentinian. It would've been a cute detail to give her an Argentina accent on the Spanish Dub as a nod to her mother.

Why the fuck is she speaking Mexican Spanish concha de la lora

[rosesandalfazemas]

Hi Rosa! Can I suggest a prompt?

Martín and Luciano have a huge fight, they end up needing to be pulled apart by Antonio and Port. Since they're still so angry, and Luci doesn't want to talk to Port while Martín doesn't listen to Antonio, the two brothers do a switch: Antonio takes Luciano aside, while Port pulls Martín to his car so they can go on a ride and clear his head a little.

Hi my dear! Everytime you send me a message is an honor to me~ I'll try my best!

Upside down

Spanish version

"And what was it this time? " Martin got into the car and slammed the door, obfuscated " My car is a week old, please " the blond didn't answer him and crossed his belt almost cutting it " ; including the belt.

"I'm shitting on your car, Gabriel! ¡La concha de la lora!"

"… Then get out."

Martin noticed how Portugal suddenly stared at him, with that seriousness that only Europeans had; that imperial coldness so… uncomfortable. In that tone of aquamarine eyes, it seemed creepy.

"… excuse me. " the blond suddenly said in anguish. The older man sighed, resigned and amused deep down, for he still felt the Latinos were like children fighting over their toys.

"Don't worry. That's what I came for.

"No, no, really. Soy un pelotudo, I apologize uncle, it's not with you " Argentina grabbed his forehead " . It's just that I'm insane when he gets on his nerves.

"Luciano has that quality " he added with a hint of acidity, starting the car " . But tell me on the way, you need to get out of the building.

"Yes… thank you. " he said pityingly, barely blushing and looking straight ahead, like a (huge) obfuscated child.

"Do you want to go eat? This old soul is in the mood for some good codfish and an old wine; that way the words come out of the chest better when they should."

Martin smiled with embarrassment, for his attitude seconds before. Portugal was not a great conversationalist, unlike his father; and he would not give him the comfort of words for hours, or kisses and hugs to which he was get used to. No. The older Iberian was more peaceful, silent and reflective; his actions did much more than his speeches or his judgments, which, though beautiful and eloquent, were brief and select.

In that wisdom of the old empires, Gabriel knew that such an emotional creature did not need a sermon, but to change the air and do something else.

"Yes, I'd love it."

And while Hernandez thought how much more nuanced the Iberian's voice was speaking in Spanish, lilting like Brazil's but deeper, Dos Anjos smiled briefly without taking his eyes off the road, and stepped out onto the path.

---ooo---

"… and that's what happened."

Brazil lowered his arms after recounting the whole episode by circling around Spain, who looked at him seated with attention and his (strange) seriousness.

"Okay. Look Luciano, the problem is that you two are like Gabo and me; similar in the annoying points, and different enough to confront each other. Add to that the fact that you are the references of Latin America; too much pressure on your shoulders. You explode at the slightest thing."

"It wasn't the slightest thing, uncle, he questioned the veracity of my desire to be free like all the others, in front of my other brothers! How dare he, someone like him!!!"

Antonio laughed and drank the wine at his side, shrugging his shoulders.

"What a dilemma to tell that to me, my dear."

Luciano stood still and blinked, realizing.

"Ah… " Antonio laughed, making a gesture.

"Don't worry, I get the point, I don't take it personally. But yes, that difference you have with all my kids feels harder sometimes. And they make you feel left out."

"… Yes."

"Well, it's not your fault, and it's not Martin's fault. If you ask me, I think you should talk again. I know how much you love each other, and that's why you fight like that " he pointed out, finishing his drink " . Let a few days go by, you know Tincho goes off when he feels attacked, and he thought you doubted his manhood with the joke after the meeting."

"It was a joke! Everyone makes him bad jokes and worse and he doesn't react like that!"

"Well, maybe he feels that with you he must show himself different, unbeatable at heart, since he considers you as the only rival worthy. That's not a bad thing."

"It is when he says such horrible things."

Spain sighed, looking at the golden cross on his breast and touching it, melancholy; searching for the words."

"Look, Lu; I didn't raise you, okay? But I do know something: I treated your father very badly for a long time. My children felt, I felt, that he was an inferior being, despite being my eldest and having been born by the same mother. That constant contradiction in my head made me very unstable in our bond, for I love him as I love few things in the land of the Lord. As I matured over the centuries I realized that, deep down, I wanted him to stop looking at others and look only at me. I was… I am, jealous, wow. Especially of the relationship he has with Albion. I want his attention, it's a reflex; and I did it in the worst way many times, until I understood how his space was shaped and that I should respect it. I think it's the same case."

"Why would Martin want my attention? " Da Silva suddenly blushed.

"Well, because he wants exclusivity with you… as far as beings like us can understand it, of course. Not like humans, not in that obsessive and monogamous way; but that you dedicate something of yours only to him. It can be the rivalry or the energy of confrontation. That's enough for him; it's just that he's young and with that hot blood he's got he's going off the deep end, like I'm telling you. That's all."

Brazil lowered his gaze and looked out the window of that private office, scratching his curls.

"I hadn't thought about it like that… " I look at Antonio " And what is the solution?"

"In my experience, a good gift and an apology. Martin will eventually realize his overreaction and do it on his own; I've seen that way with his kids too, so it comes naturally to him. If you don't conform, you ask him for distance."

The young nation nodded, twisting his mouth and looking at the European.

"… And you get along… well with Pai now?"

"That's a story for another day, kid" he smiled, enigmatic. "Try to solve your problems first."

Luciano half-smiled, nodding.

"Obrigado, tio Tonho."

It could have been many things, but Antonio certainly had the gift of healing with words.

[trabandovidas]

#im pretty sure not everyone in uruguay has the same accent#??? right?

No, we don't!

The accent of someone from Artigas or Rocha is different from that of someone from Durazno or Montevideo and such differences are pretty obvious to anyone that pays attention to it:

For example, the moment I step outside my departamento, i immediately get asked what country am I from, despite the fact that I was born and raised in UY, and have never lived anywhere else

This is because my accent -and the expressions and words i use- are quite different to the one used in other departments -especially to those used in the capital- to the point people don't even recognize me as another Uruguayan. Whenever I let people start guessing where they think I am from, based on my accent/expressions, I get either "central America", or "somewhere in Spain but have been living in UY for several years now"

So, nah, we don't have the same accent or speak the same variation of the rioplatense Spanish dialect ni en pedo

Uruguay has this problem where, even tho we have an actual diversity, it gets reduced and ignored in favor to Montevideo's middle class and above life experience. So whenever you see stuff like "Uruguay's Spanish", "Uruguay's accent" or alike, 99.99% of the time it just means "Montevideo middle class and upper's X"

Me, watching gringos pretend that “latinamerica Spanish” is a unique cohesive dialect:

[Painting of a gaucho drinking mate. His face is of tired judgement]

[shinandlux]

Why spanish (or any other language) is better than english Part 1 : The insults

As a bilingual, its A Lot more fun to swear in spanish than in english, and spanish swears feel waaayyy more aggresive (Plus its easier to express anger with them)

Say watever you want, but fuck will never compare to 'ANDATE A LA RECONCHA DE LA LORA HIJO DE TU REPUTISIMA MADRE CAGON DE MIERDA'

I encorage people who speak other language to leave your favourite insults as well :D

[to-dare-is-to-do]

i was tagged by the lovely @thethorkingdom 🧡 i appreciate it very very very much my dear

🐳name: Laura

🐳nickname: Lora, Mauci

🐳zodiac sign: Leo

🐳height: 172cm

🐳nationality: Slovenian

🐳languages spoken: slovenian, english, spanish, i also understand croatian, serbian, bosnian, i know some dutch and german and i'm currently learning french 🙃 oh and i also know the slovenian sign language (but i don't speak it lol)

🐳what time is it: 21:51

🐳celebrity crush: Tom Holland, Shawn Mendes, Bradley Simpson, Harry Winks, Leon Goretzka, Chris Evans, Lando Norris....we have enough material for an essay tho'

🐳favourite fictional characters: hermione granger, elizabeth bennet, sherlock holmes

🐳favourite musician: coldplay, the 1975, harry styles, sleeping at last, imagine dragons, khalid

🐳favourite sports team:

- football: spurs/bayern

- f1: mclaren

🐳favourite season: fall

🐳favourite flower: sunflower

🐳favourite scent: sea, rain, lemon grass

🐳favourite animal: red panda

🐳favourite food: lasagna

🐳dream car: mclaren 765lt or bmw x4

🐳dream trip: uff either something across scandinavia or a roadtrip throught middle and west europe

🐳instruments: i play flute and piano (badly)

🐳coffee, tea or hot chocolate: torn between coffee and tea

🐳dog or cat person: DOGGOOOO

🐳following: 269

🐳followers: 825

🐳other blogs: @to-andromeda-and-back

🐳blog established: june 2012 i believe

🐳do you have tumblr crush: of course i do! @kimmichsworld ❤

🐳do you get asks: well sometimes, i would love more but i think people are tired of me replying late 🤦‍♀️

🐳what is your lucky number: 8

🐳number of blankets you sleep with: 2

🐳average sleep hours: 6 (when i manage to fall asleep at least)

🐳random fact: i can walk on the trampoline wall 🤷‍♀️

i won't be tagging anyone because i'm super late to this and y'all probably done it already but if you want to do it feel free to say i tagged you

[norwegiatlas]

LORI / LORAE / ԼՈՐԻ

Lori is a conlang inspired by some of my favorite languages, which are Armenian, Finnish, Irish, Greenlandic, Spanish and Northern Sàmi. You’ll most likely see influences from these languages in Lori. It’s mostly an artistic conlang, but definitely has natural elements to it. Aesthetically, I wanted the conlang to look magical and a little witchy. I was oddly enough inspired by the Twilight Forest mod in Minecraft.

ALPHABET & PHONETICS

a /a/, b /b/, c /ʃ/, d /d/, e /e/, ph /f/, g /g/, h /h/ ae /i/, ch /k/, l /l/, m /m/, n /n/, ou /o/, p /p/, r /ɾ/, s /s/, t /t/, o /ɔ/

(I’m not an expert with the IPA symbols, so I hope these are correct)

Lori can be written with both Latin letters and Armenian letters. I decided to do the Armenian letters as a way of trying to get myself more used to them since I’m trying to learn Armenian. All letters have the same phoneme as in Armenian, apart from վ (in Lori it’s /f/, in Armenian it’s /v/) and թ (in Lori it’s /t/, in Armenian it’s /tʰ/). 

NOUNS & ADJECTIVES

Nouns in Lori are declensed into number and optional definiteness in addition to 12 cases and 7 color moods. There are several declension systems, and which one to follow is decided by the ending of the noun. In this post I’ll keep it simple and showcase the most basic and most common declension, which you use with almost all nouns ending on a consonant.

DEFINITENESS

(ae) tom / a moon tom / the moon tomr / moons (e) tomr / the moons

CASES

nominative / tom - moon accusative / tomout - moon (as object of a sentence) dative / tome - moon (as indirect object of a sentence) genitive /  tomae - moon’s locative / tomac - on/in moon ablative / tomaàe - from moon lative / tomea - to moon komitative-instrumentative / tomach - with moon abessive / tomat - without moon translative / tomaph - into (the state of) moon essive / toma - as moon temporal / tomoum - when moon

nominative / tomr - moons accusative / tomoutr - moons (as object of a sentence) dative / tomre - moons (as indirect object of a sentence) genitive /  tomrae - moons’ locative / tomrac - on/in moons ablative / tomraàe - from moons lative / tomrea - to moons komitative-instrumentative / tomrach - with moons abessive / tomrat - without moons translative / tomraph - into (the state of) moons essive / tomra - as moons temporal / tomroum - when moons

ADJECTIVES

Adjectives are declensed into the same case as the noun they describe, just as in Finnish ;D

echreou tom - big moon echrac tomac - on big moon echrate tomrat - without big moons

COLOR MOODS

(still w.i.p.)

All nouns in Lori can be declensed into 7 color moods. These colors give the nouns a certain personal quality:

pocha - dog

red - you dislike this (pocha -> pochora) + r, or, chr orange - you crave this (pocha -> pochta) + t, et yellow - you fear this (pocha -> pochsa) + s green - you are pleased with this (pocha -> pochno) + n, no blue - you are waiting for this (pocha -> pochnaea) + nae indigo - you feel for this (pocha -> poucheg) + ou, oug, eg, g violet - you love this (pocha -> pochollaea) + ll, oll, ollae

How nouns are declensed into these is quite irregular, but in most cases the extra letters are added before the last vowel. Which letters, if there are more options, is free of choice. I think this adds an interesting personal level of expression to Lori, which is why I decided to add it in.

VERBS & ADVERBS

Verbs in Lori are conjugated in person, number, tense and mood. All infinitives end on -ae.

abrae - to speak, talk ollae - to love camnae - to sleep máegnae - to understand aoutae - to see

As verbs are conjugated in person, pronouns are not needed with them. 

amaet - I ta - you na & nou - it & he/she sachou - we  tachou - you (all) ea & eou - they & they (plural it)

When conjugating the verbs, the infinitive ending (-ae) is replaced with a tense/mood/person ending. 

present tense endings: -em, -et, -e, -elem, -eae, -es simple past tense endings: -aem, -aet, -ae, -aelaem, -aeh, -aes “just now” past tense endings: -ouchaem, -ouchaet, -ouchae, -ouchaelem, -ouche, -ouchaes “a while ago” past tense endings: -ouhaem, -ouhaet, -ouhae, -ouhaelem, -ouhe, -ouhaes potential past tense endings: -aeam, -aeat, -aea, -aealem, -eaet, -aeas future tense endings: -am, -at, -a, -alam, -aé, -as conditional mood endings: -om, -ot, -o, -aelom, -oae, -os

I sleep. / Camnem. / Շամնեմ։ She sees. / Aoutae. /  Աութի։ We spoke. / Abraelaem. /  Աբրիլիմ։ They just saw. / Aoutouchaes. /  Աութուկիս։ You loved once. / Ollaeouhaet. / Ոլլիուհիթ։ (irregular, keeps it’s infinitive mark) I might understood. / Màegnaeam. /  Մաեգնիամ։ You (all) will sleep. / Camnalam. /  Շամնալամ։ He would speak. / Abro. / Աբրո։

Lori has two imperatives:

abread - speak (polite, kind of like a request) abraech - speak! (command)

In Lori, you can place “which” sentences before the noun they are about, functioning as adjectives. 

Abraen pocha camne taeèlac. The dog, which spoke, is sleeping on the floor.

“Abraen” translates as “which spoke”. These can be conjugated into all the tenses and moods. The endings are:

-en (present), -aen (simple past), -achaen (”just now” past), -ahaen (”while ago” past), -aean (potential past), -an (future), -on (conditional)

Adverbs from adjectives are usually formed by either putting an en- affix on the adjectives, or a -st suffix. 

talla - quick entalla / tallast - quickly

However, there are several adverbs that don’t follow this.

peaecaegae - well (poae - good) aàech - loudly (troub - loud) mouschan - beautifully (moscharae - beautiful)

None of the adverbs not formed from adjectives follow these rules, for example “maerchetounaechaes” (right now). 

EXAMPLES AND SUCH

USEFUL PHRASES

Hey! / Aouae! Aoulen! Obasaech! Welcome! / Aoubranogae! Thank you! / Techastoumar! Techae! Thank you so much! / Charm techastoumare! Charm techae! My name is ... / Nonnem ... I am ... years old. / Agnourem ... I am from ... / ...-aáe anem.  How are you? / On naemech? I’m good. / Assem.  I’m not good. / Taegem. Good bye! / Mallan!  We’ll see eachother soon! / Tataeollan! What is it? / Phant an? What is this? / Phant chat an? What is that? / Phant choun an?  It is ... / ... an. This is ... / Chat ... an. That is ... / Choun ... an. There are ... / ... are.  I don’t speak Lori. / Ch’abrem loraet.  I don’t know. / Chour.  I don’t understand. / Cháegnem.  Could you (please) help me? / Ognochnet anou (dae)?

NUMBERS 1 TO 10

1 - aecha 2 - chas 3 - chare 4 - naed 5 - nach 6 - aecae 7 - caemst 8 - amst 9 -  maech 10 - aechno

COLORS

coustou - red tenot - orange chesae - yellow phoaet - greem namel - blue ougel - indigo manouco - violet aoual - white tona - black omag - gray trapho - brown

aeda - light natan - dark

aednamel - light blue natacoustou - dark red

EXAMPLE TEXT 

Nos natan an, aegn aeda an. Chour naemaenou t’sabaeérem, sachoum donnaaé pacar o toucar as. Aegn taebadrache aou nos alaeéd an. Aegnoum achbem, nosoum camnem boul macoucmaen. Esous aeannase aou tom aeane. Aed gnarane aou natanaeél ae abnaeéchen seleour an. Choraeod oullrat an.

Նոս նաթան ան, իգն իդա ան։ Կուր նիմինու թ՛սաբիերեմ, սակում դոննաի պաշար ո թուշար աս։ Իգն թիբադրակե աու նոս ալիեդ ան։ Իգնում ակբեմ, նոսում շամնեմ բուլ մաշուշմին։ Եսուս իաննասե աու թոմ իանե։ Իդ գնարանե աու նաթանիել ի աբնիեկեն սելեուր ան։ Կորիոդ ուլլրաթ ան։

The night is dark, the day is light. I don’t know which I prefer, because both has good sides and bad sides. At day a lot is happening while at night it’s quiet. At day I’m awake, at night I sleep comfortably in my bed. The sun grins while the moon smiles. The light shows the way while the darkness is a protecting cape. Choosing is impossible.

nos - night natan - dark an -  pres. 3. person sing. of “anae” (to be) aegn - day aeda - light chour - I don’t know naemaenou - which; what t’ - that sabaeérem - pres 1. person sing. of “sabaeérae” (to prefer) sachoum - because donnaáe - genitive sing. of “donna” (both things) pacar - good quality, pro o - and toucar - bad quality, con as - pres. 3. person plur. of “anae” (to be) taebadrache - pres. 3. person sing. of “taebadrachae” (to have a lot happen when) aou - while; eye alaeéd - quiet; calm aegnoum - temporal sing. of “aegn” (day) achbem - pres. 1. person sing. of “achbae” (to be awake) nosoum - temporal sing. of “nos” (night) camnem - pres. 1. person sing. of “camnae” (to sleep) boul - comfortably macoucmaen - locative sing. of “macou” (bed) + “-maen” (my) esous - sun aeannase - pres. 3. person sing. of “aeannasae” (to smile with teeth; to grin) tom - moon aeane - pres. 3. person sing. of “aeanae” (to smile) aed - light gnarane - pres. 3. person sing. of “gnaranae” (to show the way) natanaeél - darkness ae - indefinite marker abnaeéchen - “which”-form of “abnaeéchae” (to protect) seleour - cape choraeod - choosing, deciding oullrat - abessive plur. of “oull” (possibility)

_________

I sadly can’t show absolutely everything about Lori as this post would be really long then, but this should show the main features. If you have any questions about Lori, feel free to ask! I’ll make a post for my second conlang, Ayde, soon!

[ilserafino]

BASIC INFORMATION

FULL NAME

Francesco de Medici.

MEANING 

Francesco.

— Italian form of the Late Latin name Franciscus meaning "Frenchman", ultimately from the Germanic tribe of the Franks, who were named for a type of spear that they used.

De’ Medici.

— Patronymic of Medico, occupational name for a physician. (Latin medicus, from medere "to heal").

MONIKERS / NICKNAMES 

Ciccio.

— a childhood nickname, not often in use anymore.

Il Serafino.

— a widespread moniker, whispered of his angelic beauty and his fame in the arts.

TITLE

Lord of Tuscany.

— his title upon the passing of his father. 

GENDER & PRONOUNS 

cis male, he/him.

ETHNICITY 

White Italian.

DATE OF BIRTH & AGE: 

January 12, 1531, 28 years old.

ZODIAC SIGN

Capricorn.

ORIENTATION

homosexual homoromantic.

MARITAL STATUS

Single.

OCCUPATION

Artist.

— A master of the arts, though he has not yet formed his own atelier. focused particularly on painting and secondarily sculpting, though more often he prefers to be the subject than the creator.

Advisor to the Grand Duke of Florence.

— Primarily honorary, though this allows him a seat in his brother’s council. His presence is rarer than his absence.

CURRENT LOCATION

Castelgrande Castle, Switzerland.

BACKGROUND

PLACE OF BIRTH

Villa del Trebbio, Tuscany, Italy

RESIDENCES 

Villa del Trebbio, Tuscany, Italy (1531 - 1532 ) Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence, Italy ( 1532 - 1540 ) Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy (1540 - 1549 ) Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy ( 1549 - current )

RELIGIOUS VIEWS

Roman Catholic.

— Publicly, anyway. He is critical of the church and sympathizes with the religions of infidels, inquires about heresies and gleefully delves into the mystical. He believes in an Almighty, but he has rather a different conception than one that the Church would accept. 

EDUCATION

Educated in the court of one of the wealthiest families of Europe, the schooling that he has received would not at all lag behind the best educated of the continent. Though Francesco didn’t always seize the opportunities that were granted to him, and he was mediocre in most matters and excelled in only the few that excited him. He was often overshadowed by his sister, but he did not particularly seem to mind.

However, he received further education in catechism and theology in contemplation of the possibility for the life of the cloth. It seemed as though he was always in contest with his brother Giulio, and it was a contest that he never won. He did learn gleefully, but he tended to learn at his own pace and without care for the standards of others. 

Once it was clear that it was Giulio who was meant for the cloth, it was a struggle to find a vocation for Francesco. It was art, in the end, that suited his passions and his skills, and he was apprenticed in the ateliers of great masters, the most renowned of which was Titian.  

LANGUAGES SPOKEN 

Italian (Standard Italian as well as Tuscan), French, Latin, Greek, Spanish, Hebrew

ALLEGIANCES 

House of Medici

Holy Roman Empire

FAMILY :

Giovanni de Medici — father (deceased)

Agatuccia de Medici — mother (deceased)

Piero de Medici — older brother 

Giulio de Medici — older brother

Giovanna de Medici — twin sister

OTHER FAMILIAL RELATIONS :

Lucia della Rovere — sister-in-law

APPEARANCE

FACECLAIM

Niels Schneider

HAIR COLOUR / STYLE

Dark blonde to brown, a mess of curls that falls below his ears. 

EYE COLOUR / SHAPE 

A deep emerald green, with flecks of gold when the sunlight hits just right.

HEIGHT 

180cm

BUILD

Tall, muscles defined only by his leanness. 

SPEECH STYLE

Francesco normally speaks in slow, relaxed tones, drawn out and with an unfortunate tendency to sound mocking. His voice is easily animated by his emotions, and his heart is often on his sleeve. 

RECOGNIZABLE MARKINGS 

None.

BEAUTY HABITS 

Always dressed in the finest fabrics, dressed vibrantly and modern by the best tailors of Florence. Francesco devotes himself to looking like art itself, to embody beauty, and so he keeps careful never to sprout a single flaw.

PERSONALITY

TROPES

The Hedonist, The Dandy, Idle Rich, Brilliant, but Lazy, Ditzy Genius, Undiscriminating Addict, Cloudcuckoolander, Pretty Boy

INSPIRATIONS 

HISTORICAL:

Salai, Michelangelo

LITERATURE: 

Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Wotton, Francis Abernaty, Loras Tyrell

MYTHOLOGY:

Baldr, Apollo, Dionysus, Ganymede, Narcissus

MBTI

ENFP — The Campaigner

ENNEAGRAM

Type 7 (7w8) — The Enthusiast

ALIGNMENT 

Chaotic Neutral

TEMPERAMENT 

Sanguine

HOGWARTS HOUSE

Ravenclaw

POSITIVE TRAITS 

creative, charming, energetic

NEGATIVE TRAITS 

hedonistic, self-absorbed, ambitionless

HABITS 

tapping his feet, tapping his fingers

HOBBIES

drinking, playing the fiddle

USUAL DEMEANOR 

Bright and joyous, an effervescent soul that lights up the room with his presence. He walks with confidence and everflowing smiles. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and his emotions easily express themselves through his entire body.

HEALTH

PHYSICAL AILMENTS 

None.

NEUROLOGICAL CONDITION

Neurotypical.

PHOBIAS 

Pyrophobia — a fire at an atelier that cost a lover’s life has made him wary of fire. Though there’s not much he can do to avoid it at night, he’s very cautious.

ALLERGIES

None.

SLEEPING HABITS 

Often awake at night, working on a new creation, reading a book, or carousing. Most days he sleeps 5-6 hours, and he follows no schedule.

SOCIABILITY 

A social butterfly through and through. He enjoys meeting new people and spending time with old friends. He gets restless when he’s alone.

ADDICTIONS

Francesco is heavy on vices, often found with a goblet of the finest wines from all over the known world, and by himself, in private company, and in small parties, he consumes and purveys a variety of mind-altering substances. 

[mrsrcbinscn]

Franny Sor Framagucci Robinson Character Sheet 

Dear Mom and Dad, I'll send money, I'm so rich that it ain't funny It oughtta be more than enough to get you through - (x)

Archetype — The Creator 

Birthday — January 17, 1980

Zodiac Sign — Capricorn

MBTI — ENFJ-A (The Protagonist — 93% Extroverted, 56% Intuitive, 60% Feeling, 60% Judging, 83% Assertive)

Enneagram — Type 3w2 — The Charmer

Temperament — Sanguine 

Hogwarts House — Slytherin Primary, Hufflepuff Primary model, Gryffindor Secondary

Moral Alignment —  Lawful Good

Primary Vice — Pride

Primary Virtue — Charity or Diligence 

Element — Air

Song —  A Better Son/Daughter by Rilo Kiley

Overview:

Government name  —  Darareaksmey Francine Sor Framagucci Robinson Name  —  Franny Robinson/Franny Sor Robinson Mother — Sophea “Sophie” Sor

Father — Adrien Framagucci (stepfather, legally adopted her), Peter Boyd (biological father)

Mother’s Occupation — Restaurant owner 

Father’s Occupation — Construction worker

Family Finances — grew up in poverty, insanely wealthy now

Birth Order — Youngest

Brothers — stepbrothers Gaston and Art Framagucci (mother legally adopted them, if you say ‘step’ Franny will kill you), claims no others but has biological half brothers from Peter Boyd; John-Curtis “JC”  Boyd, Timothy “Timmy” Boyd

Sisters — claims none, but has biological half sisters by Peter Boyd; Sarah Boyd, Stacy Boyd, Shyann Boyd 

Other Close Family — spreadsheet

Best Friend — Daniel Maitland, Molly Vaughn (deceased)

Other Friends — Lora Lopez, Serghei Anton, Delia Weiss, Vanessa Pham, others

Enemies — most men on principle 

Home Life During Childhood — It was a good childhood. Working the restaurant was normal to Franny so she didn’t realize it was abnormal at first. Her parents tried not to let the kids realize how poor they actually were. 

Town or City Name(s) — Payne Lake, Georgia

Any Sports or Clubs — In high school she was in drama, show choir, orchestra, National Honor Society, and on the quiz bowl team

Favorite Toy or Game — Franny honestly loved hide and seek well into her teenage years because she was small enough to fit it the weirdest places to hide, and in the 80s and 90s in a small town in Georgia there wasn’t much to do so her friend group played Extreme Hide and Seek. Everyone wears all black like some kind of cult. Turn off all the lights in the house. Go crazy. 

Schooling — K-12 in Payne Lake, Georgia ; B.A.s. in Musical Theatre Performance and Jazz Studies at NYU; M.A. in Jazz Studies at Pride U

Favorite Subject — Anything that wasn’t math or chemistry 

Popular or Loner — Popular, has always been magnetic 

Important Experiences or Events — Her first time on stage, getting enough scholarship money to justify going to NYU, quickly growing to love the nerd she hit up to buy her waffles and never letting him go, the accident that changed her life, marrying Cornelius Robinson, finding the magic singing frogs, adopting Wilbur, discovering the severity of her fertility issues in 2008, 

Nationality — American-Cambodian (born American, given Cambodian citizenship in 2019)

Culture — Franny identifies most strongly with Cambodian, followed by broadly Southeast Asian sometimes with Buddhist attached, and that’s tied with ‘Rural Southern (USA)’ sometimes with POC attached. Franny feels pretty detached from “American Culture” in general. She more closely would identify with Southern USA culture in general than with general American with no modifiers. She also feels a little detached from Asian American culture in general because even though she grew up right outside of Atlanta and is familiar with Atlanta, she didn’t grow up in one of the big hubs of Asian American culture like LA, San Francisco, or NYC. White American and Black American culture surrounded her, and the Asian cultures surrounding her were immigrant or first-gen cultures that hadn’t really developed an American flavor yet. Franny understood more about Vietnamese and Thai culture than she did about general Asian American culture for a long time, because immigrants straight from Southeast Asia were the only Asians she grew up around. And she grew up in the 80s and 90s where Asian representation was yellowface and Long Duk Dong. She didn’t meet any Asian Americans who didn’t speak or at least understand their heritage language until college. And the experience of POC as a whole in the South is very different to the experience of a white person, so sometimes Franny feel disconnected from her white southern neighbors and more closely relates to black or non-white Latinx southerners in ways she doesn’t relate to white southerners, or Asian Americans from LA or NYC. 

Religion and beliefs — Buddhist

Languages spoken— Khmer, English, Vietnamese, French, Italian, (less fluently) Portuguese, Spanish, (can understand some) Thai, Lao, (impressive tourist) German, Dutch

Physical Appearance

Face Claim —  Elodie Yung

Complexion — Tanned skin, pale brown 

Hair Colour — Black

Eye Colour — Brown

Height — 5’5

Tattoos — Yes, a few. Wilbur’s adoption date over her heart, most notably

Piercings — Lobe, upper lobe, tragus, helix, and cartilage on both ears, and an anti-tragus on her left ear. And a nose piercing she got in college

Common Hairstyle — typically keeps her hair long and done nicely but she cuts it and donates it from time to time so will also rock short hair

Clothing Style — vintage-inspired but not proper vintage

Mannerisms — Biting the pads of her thumbs, gesturing wildly, narrating her actions sometimes in song, if she’s looking for scissors she walks through the house making a scissors motion with her fingers

Usual Expression — she’s got resting bitch face 

Health

Overall (do they get sick easily)? — No, her immune system is the real MVP and when she does get sick she’s like ‘I’m dYING’

Physical Ailments —  Infertility 

Neurological Conditions — Depression, Cyclothymia (rapid cycles of depressive and hypomanic episodes)

Allergies —  none 

Grooming Habits — Typically rinses her body daily, uses soap on the armpits daily, but proper washes her body every other day. Washes her hair every two or three days as needed, but if she was extra sweaty that day it gets washed. Waxes leg hair and eyebrows. 

Sleeping Habits — she generally gets a decent amount of sleep but it isn’t usually all at once. She’s a champion power-napper, and if she has three days cleared she’ll often sleep mainly all at once except have like a 2-3 hour period of wakefulness and productivity and then go back to sleep for two more hours, then take an hour nap later in the day.  

Eating Habits —  She’s a grazer. She doesn’t usually sit down and eat three times a day she’ll sneak like five small meals a day

Exercise Habits —   works out at least three days a week somewhat because she’s really sensitive to when people comment on her body so she’s afraid to give people a reason to say a negative comment. Like. She’s body positive, big supporter of you don’t gotta be skinny to be beautiful or healthy. But when people say things like “oh Franny you got a little jiggle in those thighs” it’s never said like a good or neutral thing. She had a lot of body image issues throughout high school and college, and came dangerously close to developing an eating disorder freshman year at NYU but kind of logicked herself from the ledge  

Emotional Stability — generally emotionally stable, like for someone with her mental illnesses she does great 

Body Temperature — runs hot 

Sociability — A social butterfly

Addictions — None; did abuse adderall in college but when she quit cold turkey she didn’t like. Suffer cravings. She wasn’t addicted, but she did abuse it to the point she realized “oh I need to...stop”

Drug Use — occasional use of drugs to make her trip, like acid, shrooms, but this is very rare, she doesn’t do it at home, usually if she’s on the road with other musicians or has gone to LA or NYC or London for a few days to have a songwriting session, the group will sometimes partake. Even then not every time. Used to experiment with drugs more in college, but still it was never...a TON. 

Alcohol Use — More than occasional less than frequent

Your Character’s Character: 

Bad Habits — swearing, next to no filter, temper when it comes to perceived injustices, tends to overload herself 

Good Habits — Keeps a detailed planner, is a maniac about drinking lots of water, is vocal about her needs and boundaries 

Best Characteristic — her warmth! She really is friendly and easy to get along with and wants to be nice. But she will not be walked over and will not allow her kind, marshmallow husband to be walked over so she will flip a switch to protect herself or her boys. 

Worst Characteristic — unforgiving

Worst Memory — it’s a tie between her experience with sexual assault, and the time her biological father’s wife found out Franny was his biological child, and came into her mother’s restaurant when she was visiting with her pretty new HUSBAND, and Nancy Boyd proceeded to beat up Franny and her mother

Best Memory — Adopting Wilbur! It WAS marrying Cornelius but sorry Neil it’s her baby boy now

Proud of — Her husband, she is so proud to be Cornelius Robinson’s wife. She proud to be her mother’s daughter. And she’s proud of her accomplishments in music and philanthropy 

Embarrassed by — Nothing, she’s great

Driving Style — Oh, aggressive. She’s an offensive driver. Cusses. 

Strong Points —  she doesn’t quit, she’s the walk through hell and keep going type of person

Temperament — generally she’s pretty even-tempered. It’s easy to set her off in an instant though if you’re being racist, sexist - any type of shitty person tbh, or being shitty toward her husband or son, but for the most part she’s pretty chill. She deff has crazy bitch energy just under the surface though and you can tell

Attitude — Franny’s not particularly bitchy, but you know, she can be

Weakness — can’t do basic math, very overly self-critical, perfectionist

Fears — Something happening to Wilbur tbh. That’s her greatest fear, losing her son. 

Phobias — Franny does not throw up. She refuses. She will literally feel nauseous and horrible all day to avoid puking. It makes her so anxious, she will nOT. 

Secrets — None really? Like she doesn’t blab her life story to everyone but Cornelius knows everything about her. She has no secrets from her husband. 

Regrets — Not adopting more children when she and Cornelius got married knowing they both wanted a big family; ever meeting up with her biological father 

Feels Vulnerable When — She cries in front of people. Franny hates doing it. She’d rather die tbh

Pet Peeves — when people are rude to wait staff 

Conflicts — She sometimes feels a surge of resentment for her husband during her depressive episodes because she kind of feels like she’s pulled most of the weight in their marriage from Day 1 as far as running the home, and feels like although he purported to also want a big family he never even offered to take HIS turn pulling back from work so they could adopt a second child when it became clear it wasn’t gonna happen for them biologically, but then Franny hates herself for that because Cornelius is the kindest, most loving, most wonderful husband and father and she feels so privileged to call herself his wife and...yeah they just need to have a long talk about it tbh

Motivation — to be the best at everything she does; to force space for herself where she and people like her have previously been excluded, to be so great that you can’t ignore her

Short Term Goals and Hopes — have a baby, but she’s 40 now and knows its not gonna happen 

Long Term Goals and Hopes —she’s...kinda done everything she ever set out to do other than have lots of children

Sexuality — Bisexual, leans toward women, but had more experience with men because compulsory heterosexuality in the US in the 90s and early 2000s, and genuinely fell in love with a man are has been with just him for twenty years now

Exercise Routine  — Doesn’t spend much time on cardio because she gets enough cardio walking around town and Pride U. Mainly works on her core, legs, and strength training so if a man tries to grab her she can kick his ass

Day or Night Person — Would be nocturnal if she could be

Introvert or Extrovert — Extrovert

Optimist or Pessimist — She’s naturally pretty cynical but she’s worked for like twenty-five years to have a more optimistic outlook on things. It’s 50/50 now I’d say 

Likes and Styles:

Music — there isn’t really a genre she doesn’t like - like her initial fame was in jazz, but she has an equal affection for jazz and bluegrass/classic country/folk music. She also is in an indie band, Seoul Hanoi’d. And like rap music - usually old school Atlanta rap, but she likes Kendrick Lamar and some other current rappers.

Books — She likes to read or listen to audiobooks about pretty much any subject except music and musicians.

Foods — Cambodian food!!

Drinks — She likes sweet tea, aaaand her alcohol of choice is Anything

Animals — Possums :3 She wants a pet possum so bad, she follows pet possums on instagram and cries at their cute posts

Sports — She played tennis in high school, that’s the extent of her sports knowledge

Social Issues — all of them. Climate change, racial justice, intersectional feminism, VACCINATE ALL THE CHILDREN UNLESS THEY MEDICALLY CANNOT BE, de-mining, Green New Deal, punch Nazis, hey maybe don’t put children in cages, Myanmar can you please not do that genocide you’re doing that would be swell, poor people deserve access to healthcare and education, housing-first approach to homelessness, the good stuff 

Favorite Saying — “Hoes mad”, usually said dismissively when she receives a death threat after a political tweet, or after a racist one for just being an Asian woman in the public eye

Clothing — Franny prefers skirts, dresses, and jumpsuits/rompers to shirt + trousers

Jewelry — She never takes off her wedding ring. She’s married af

TV Shows — Schitt’s Creek, Kim’s Convenience, a lot of Canadian TV she really thinks is funny

Movies — She’s a big nerd that loves a good documentary or otherwise educational movie

Greatest Want — More children, including one biological child because her mother always talked about pregnancy and childbirth like it was the most humbling and empowering experience she’d ever had, and Franny wants that. But she’s 40 and knows she won’t have that. 

Greatest Need — a baby lmao

Where and How Does Your Character Live Now:

Home — In a big-ass house in the wealthiest part of town, maybe even the biggest house 

Household furnishings — Not overdecorated. A lot of people live there, but Franny’s very much the lady of the house, and even more so than her husband is the head of the household. She’s not a dictator, like her mother-in-law and other relatives have added their touches to the home decor, but it is very much Franny’s Home with notes of the others. She’s very particular about her kitchen, but is very flexible with the rest of the common spaces. 

Most Cherished Possession — Family photographs of her mother and her family before the Khmer Rouge. Franny bears a striking resemblance to her Aunt Kesor, who was the older sister her mother had idolized, but who died during the Khmer Rouge years. Franny only knows of the resemblance from photographs.

Neighborhood — The rich people part of town 

Town or City Name — Swynlake, England

Details of Town or City — lol

Married Before — Cornelius is her first and only husband and unless he cheats on her she’s never ever leaving that man

Significant Other Before — nobody important 

Children — Wilbur Robinson, wants/wanted more

Relationship with Family — Close! Both to her in-laws, biological maternal family, and stepfamily

Car — 2020 Nissan Qashqai

Career — Singer, song-writer, musician, composer, musical actress, actress, university music professor

Dream Career — Musical actress

Dream Life — Married to Cornelius, with lots of kids, living her best life

Love Life — Happily married to the love of her life, her sunshine, the jelly to her fish, Cornelius Robinson

Talents or Skills — music, cooking, acting

Intelligence Level — High? Like she can’t do basic math but everything else. She’s a musical genius, is good with languages, and is pretty perceptive

Finances — Loaded

Your Character’s Life Before Your Story:

Past Careers — restaurant worker, event staff

Past Lovers — nobody worth mentioning 

Biggest Mistakes — “I don’t make mistakes”

Biggest Achievements — Grammys, induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, being the first Cambodian person to win a Grammy, International Bluegrass Music Association awards, ASCAP awards, and being awarded the national medal of the arts by Barack Obama in 2015 

[dwindledglow]

001. MEET LORENA

FULL NAME: lorena ayana torres. PREFERRED NAME: lorena. NICKNAME/S: lora and loren. DATE OF BIRTH: september 29th, 1998. GENDER & PRONOUNS: cis female & she/her. ORIENTATION: hetero. RELIGION: non-practicing christian. RELATIONSHIP STATUS: in a relationship with romeo mathers. OCCUPATION: full time university student and intern at a law firm. RESIDENCE: gramercy park, new york city.

002. CHECK LORENA’S BACKGROUND

HOMETOWN: ibiza, spain. NATIONALITY: spanish. ETHNIC BACKGROUND: spanish. LINGUISTICS: spanish which is her native language and english, french, portuguese, italian and latin in a fluent level. EDUCATION: she attended the university of oxford where she got a BA in history and, currently, she’s attending columbia’s university law school. CRIMINAL RECORD: clean. BIRTH ORDER: second. FATHER: iker arturo torres, born on april 26th, 1970 in valencia, spain where he still resides and works as an architect in his own architecture firm. MOTHER: clara maria torres, née gonzález, born on june 29th, 1970 in barcelona, spain, currently residing in valencia, spain and working as a marketing manager in her own management firm. SISTER/S: none. BROTHER/S: xabier alfonso torres, born on october 31st, 1993 in valencia, spain, currently residing in sagaponack, suffolk county and working as a neurologist. andres rodrigo torres, born on november 22nd, 2000 in valencia, spain where he still resides and studies. SIGNIFICANT OTHER: romeo mathers. CHILDREN: none so far. OTHER RELEVANT FAMILY: alexa marie torres, née bennett, xabier’s wife thus sister-in-law. diego rafael torres, xabier and alexa’s son, nephew. EX/ES: jordi martínez and lewis stewart. PETS: none so far.

003. GET UP CLOSE & PERSONAL

HEIGHT: 5′6″ or 168 cm. WEIGHT: between 123 lbs or 55 kg and 129 lbs or 58.5 kg. BODY BUILD: two or three years ago, lorena was a rather slim girl with no accentuated curves and, pretty much, your classical supermodel shape. she has, since, put on some weight, not because she wished to do so but because her body seems to have gone through some changes. she’s still slim, she doesn’t have a particularly big bust - 32B - and she still has her toned tummy but her waist is now more accentuated and her thighs and bum have definitely grown considerably ever since.  EYE COLOR: brown, sometimes appearing to be deep brown, others appearing to be hazel, almost a green shade. EYESIGHT: she has myopia so she wears contacts on a daily basis. when she’s trying to rest her eyes and give it some away time from the contacts, she wears her glasses. HAIR COLOR & STYLE: she has dark brown, nearly black hair and she has never really bothered changing colors or messing with dyes of sorts because she’s scared to damage her hair. she doesn’t get wild with the styles either - generally, she wears her hair down and allows its natural wavy texture to shine through. if she’s meeting with clients, she’ll either straighten it or throw it in a sleek bun or updo. at home, when she’s just chilling, she sometimes throws it in a ponytail or wears it half up, half down. DOMINANT HAND: right. NOTABLE PHYSICAL TRAITS: her eyes, particularly their shape and specific shade of brown that sometimes can trick you into thinking they’re green. her pouty lips that she hated when she was a child but has since grown to love. her dark hair and her skin tone, how tan she naturally is which always ends up being brought up to attention.  SCARS AND MARKS: besides the occasional scar and mark that we all get, there’s nothing in particular. TATTOOS: she has a wunjo tattoo behind her right ear, a greek symbol, the rune, meant to symbolize joy and happiness. she has a micro, minimalistic lotus flower with watercolor — reference — tattooed on the inside of her left wrist, meant to represent that regardless of the toxicity and negativity that might surround her at times, she will always stay graceful and be as kind as she can be. along the outer side of her right foot, she has gotten the quote a menos que los dejes, something her older brother, xabier, used to tell her whenever she went to him, crying about the people putting her down and trying to demean her ; essentially, it’s a reminder that no one can bring her down unless she lets them. along the side, extending from her right hipbone to her bum, she has the quote those who fan your flames in cursive and white ink. lastly, on the back of her neck, she has the word headstrong in bold, uppercase font. PIERCINGS: she has her regular lobes pierced. VOICECLAIM: cindy kimberly. ACCENT & INTENSITY: between the years in england and the time in new york, lorena has almost completely lost her accent. when she’s speaking spanish, you can tell she’s a native, but when she switches to english, that fades away and you can’t decipher whether english is or isn’t her primary language. ALLERGIES: none that she’s aware of. PHOBIAS & FEARS: though she would never admit it and would say she has no fears, solitude. MENTAL & PHYSICAL ILLNESSES: none so far. ALCOHOL USE: sometimes. SMOKING: no, she doesn’t smoke. NARCOTICS USE: she used to do weed when she needed to unwind but she hasn’t done it for a while. INDULGENT FOOD: sometimes, when she’s stressed out mainly. SPLURGE SPENDING: it doesn’t happen, she’s very careful with her money. GAMBLING: no, never.

004. DIG DEEPER

CAN THEY DRIVE? yes, she can drive. CAN THEY COOK & BAKE? yes and yes. CAN THEY CHANGE A FLAT TIRE? yes. CAN THEY TIE A TIE? yes. CAN THEY SWIM? yes. CAN THEY RIDE A BICYCLE? yes. CAN THEY JUMP START A CAR? no. CAN THEY BRAID HAIR? yes. CAN THEY PICK A LOCK? yes. EXTROVERTED OR INTROVERTED? extroverted. DISORGANIZED OR ORGANIZED? organized. CLOSE OR OPEN MINDED? open minded. CALM OR ANXIOUS? calm. PATIENT OR IMPATIENT? depends on the situation. OUTSPOKEN OR RESERVED? outspoken. LEADER OR FOLLOWER? leader. OPTIMISTIC OR PESSIMISTIC? optimistic. TRADITIONAL OR MODERN? modern. HARD-WORKING OR LAZY? hard-working. CULTURED OR UNCULTURED? cultured. LOYAL OR DISLOYAL? loyal. FAITHFUL OR UNFAITHFUL? faithful. NIGHT OWL OR EARLY BIRD? night owl. HEAVY OR LIGHT SLEEPER? light sleeper. COFFEE OR TEA? coffee. DAY OR NIGHT? night. TAKING BATHS OR SHOWERS? baths. COCA COLA OR PEPSI? coca cola. CATS OR DOGS? dogs. NETFLIX OR CINEMA? netflix. SHOWS OR MOVIES? movies. LAPTOP OR GAMING CONSOLE? laptop. HEALTHY OR JUNK FOOD? healthy food. ICE CREAM OR FROZEN YOGURT? ice cream. PIZZA OR HAMBURGER? hamburger. LOLLIPOPS OR GUMMY WORMS? lollipops. BEACH OR POOL? both. SNOWBALLS FIGHTING OR ICESKATING? iceskating. LITERATURE OR SCIENCE? literature. HISTORY OR ART? history. CHOCOLATE BARS OR COTTON CANDY? cotton candy. XBOX OR PLAYSTATION? playstation. FACE-TO-FACE OR PHONE INTERACTIONS? face-to-face interactions. DRAMA OR SCI-FI? drama. HORROR OR COMEDY? horror.

005. LORENA’S FAVORITES

FAVORITE ACTIVITY: reading. FAVORITE ANIMAL: butterfly. FAVORITE BOOK: rising strong by brené brown as nonfiction and, perhaps, a little life by hanya yanigihara as fiction. FAVORITE COLOR/S: deep red. FAVORITE CUISINE: spanish. FAVORITE DISH/ES: fideuà, gazpacho, spanish tortilla and churros. FAVORITE DRINK/S: sangria, rosé wine, limeade and orxata. FAVORITE FLOWER/S: red roses, red carnation and white daisies. FAVORITE GEM: moonstone. FAVORITE MOVIE: pulp fiction by quentin tarantino. FAVORITE SONG: truth is ( the spanish version ) by sabrina claudio. FAVORITE SCENT/S: the scent of nail polish, lime and strawberries. FAVORITE SHOW/S: vis a vis, how to get away with murder, suits, scandal and élite. FAVORITE SPORT/S & TEAM THEY SUPPORT: soccer, she supports valencia cf and tottenham hotspur fc. FAVORITE SEASON OF THE YEAR: summer. VACATION DESTINATION: tokyo, japan or kauai, hawaii.

[janiedean]

Mood lightener ask, I am intrigued by book recs from you since you mentioned something about a dinosaur series a bit ago? Color me intrigued so top five books you'd recommend for people who enjoy ASoIaF?

OH GOD THANK YOU XDDD

okay so, I’m taking the dinosaurs out first because... well. hahah.

the dinosaur lords is ABSOLUTELY a thing you might wanna try out if you like asoiaf for reasons, BUT I’m warning you, the author died before finishing it (unless he wrote the last three but didn’t have publishing contract for the second part of the six-books plan but no one quite knows and no idea) so most likely you’ll never get a conclusion, warning you beforehand so that’s why I’m putting it outside the top five. BUT IF YOU LIKE ASOIAF YOU SHOULD STILL TRY IT because:

the author was a friend of grrm’s and it shows;

it’s literally asoiaf except people go around on dinosaurs;

NO, REALLY;

there’s at least a couple characters who are totally asoiaf homages (there’s a dude named jaume who’s basically jaime and loras’s lovechild I SWEAR HE IS HE’S EVEN THE HEAD OF THE LOCAL KINGSGUARD) but not in a way that makes it look like plagiarism;

admittedly it takes a bit to find its rhythm, but when it does it’s really good because the worldbuilding is amazing and like... it’s basically fictional medieval europe with dinosaurs but to a really good degree and the representation is a+++, in the sense that idk one of the main four is obv. irish romani (or what irish romani are in that universe), a few are def. catalan, the french guy is really so french you wanna die, the italian dude actually comes from the oldest university in the realm, there’s people from russia/greece and the protagonist is basically some three eastern europeans countries thrown in one character but not stereotypically, like the guy is obv. a mix of russian/polish/mongol and he’s really a good character in that sense, there’s germans too, spanish ofc, like it’s really good in that sense

DINOSAURS FIGHTING DINOSAURS WHILE THEIR KNIGHTS RIDE THEM

there’s an entire supernatural angle with ARCHANGELS WHO MIGHT BE ROBOTS which is honestly intriguing and a+ and I just wish the books hadn’t finished just before going deep into it

if you also want lgbt+ rep............. well, two out of the three supposedly straight characters are irish romani dude and the protagonist and I can 100% assure you that everyone I dragged into reading those books agreed with me that in each single scene they have together (ie: most of them) they’re gayer than Actual Gay People in these books, but other than them half of the cast is bi, the gay sex is better written than the straight sex (forreal there’s one of the few actually.... sexy m/m oral sex scenes I read in published fiction???), their sexuality is not the whole of their personality but it’s fairly stated that most of them are Really Not Straight and it’s really done well;

actually THE ENTIRE KINGSGUARD IS GUYS WHO FIGHT VERY WELL BUT LOVE ARTS AS WELL AND THEY ALL SLEEP WITH EACH OTHER EXCEPT THE TOKEN STRAIGHT FRENCH CHARACTER THAT THE JAIME AND LORAS LOVECHILD HAS A CRUSH ON and ngl I thought they would end up fucking at some point if the books went on so... XDDD anyway a+++ kingsguard >>> the one in asoiaf;

ngl at some points there’s some badly written sex scenes (the straight ones lmao I’m 99,9% sure milàn was not that straight himself) and it’s not half as complex as asoiaf and doesn’t have as many characters but it has the same scheme except with dinosaurs, archangels being robots and three people are straight and two of them are in love anyway;

so tldr I greatly recommend the dinosaur lords if you want something similar to asoiaf, don’t expect an ending, enjoy dinosaurs and a lot of nice rep for everyone. also Y’ALL HAVE TO SHIP ROB AND KARYL WITH ME BECAUSE THEY’RE RIDICULOUS.

.... wow, and you asked me the top five. lmaaaaao. anyway, given that the dinosaur lords will not be in the top five, I’ll go and advise you to read:

IAN TREGILLIS’S ALCHEMY WARS, which is not like **fantasy** but it’s alternate history where the netherlands win the colonial wars in the 16th century because they figure out how to make brass androids and they use it to basically destroy the british and drive the french to canada while they conquer the US instead of the british. it’s a trilogy, it’s completed, it’s flawless and features: FRENCH CATHOLICS VS DUTCH CALVINISTS WITH THE FRENCH WANTING TO TAKE BACK PARIS, PREDESTINATION VS FREE WILL IN THE ANDROIDS DISCOURSE, REHASH OF 16TH/17TH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY DONE GREATLY, the greatest female character of genre literature since grrm (berenice GUYS BERENICE IS THE BEST GOD I LOVE HER SFM), the evil antagonist who’s a gal cersei wishes she was (like she’s terrible but she’s competent), the davos-like french general who knits in his spare time and the protagonist is the cinnamon roll-est android ever I love him sfm OH and the one time I cried because of a catholic fictional priest. guys tregillis is an a+++ top notch writer who has no time to waste with fillers and knows how to write a story even if HE HATES ME AND HE WANTS ME TO SUFFER and like... alchemy wars is really really good give it a go k?1,5. tregillis also wrote another alternate history trilogy, the milkweed tryptich, which is basically ‘the nazis create the x-men to win the war and so the british counteract by evoking ctuhulu and it goes exactly as it promises’. now: I have a love-hate rship with that one because the last book is narratively working but I hate everything it chose to be for reasons also i wanna punch the protagonist in the face, but thesuperevilgirl is totes the cersei of the situation and her brother has.... some srs jaime moments lmao he’s also my favorite ofc god klaus ily so much, and it has... some... well... ENGAGING choices lol I mean i loved book one and two and the third I did reluctantly but it could be an option? anyway ian tregillis is amazing and y’all should read him bye

the curse of chalion by lois mcmaster bujold has, as the amazing soul who recommended it to me pointed out, a protagonist that manages to be jaime and theon and partially sandor put into one. IT AMAZINGLY WORKS. the plot is kiiiinda more straightforward if you know spanish history bc the moment you figure out it’s the fantasy version of how castille and aragona united you know where it heads, but it has a lot of nice twists, also some a+ lgbt+ rep tho not as much as the dinosaur lords and the protagonist is.... really great I love him XD also ngl the fact that it ends fairly nicely is a balm so I’d try it, there’s other books in the same verse but I haven’t gotten around to read them yet

... guys stephen king’s dark tower is my fantasy favorite series EVER like ever, I love asoiaf and brienne is in my heart and she’s my true rep but nothing will top TDT for me ever for reasons and while it’s a completely different thing I still recommend it. caveat: I hate the last book with a vengeance and I think king fucked up the last two thirds real bad, but..... hey, it’s finished and the rest is 100% worth it. also jaime is totally the lovechild of the male protagonist and the other male-coprotagonist who are also my #1 ship ever in history so I’d give it a go ;) ;) ;) also while eddie’s my fave roland deschain is honestly the kind of character that you can only bow in front of like if I ever made an oc one hundredth as good as roland is in conception and execution and everything I’d feel like I accomplished everything I need in life. IT’S WORTH IT. TRY IT.

terry pratchett’s discworld: yes, it’s 41 books. yes it’s a lot. but you can read them by cycle which makes it a lot easier, they’re fun (the first three are a bit meh but the rest is all top notch I swear), they’re sarcastic and witty and delightful and it’s a++++ fantasy and I’ve been wanting to do the asoiaf au for ages sigh but anyway if you don’t want dark and grim but also want a+++ narrative, good satire about how our world sucks and a lot of fun at the expense of our pop culture (guys the book about their version of australia is a hoot and there’s a leonardo da vinci!!) GO FOR IT. IT’S AMAZING. also your life isn’t complete until you read about sam vimes and the local version of death speaking in capslock and being a cat person. also charles dance plays one of the mains in one of the tv adaptations and he was delightful xD

this is going to gain me rotten tomatoes, but....... grrm’s shared series wild cards. that he has going on with fifteen other writers including the aforementioned tregillis and milàn.yes, it’s like 28 books by now. no, it’s not perfect by all means and certain arcs are a total wtf and you don’t even have to read all of it, but especially grrm’s characters in it are obvious templates for asoiaf people (the powerful and amazing turtle is dark sam tarly and jay ackroyd is basically jaime without the incest and the extra good looks while lohengrin is brienne’s spiritual twin except for the looks), the shared worldbuilding is great, the alternate history story where buddy holly didn’t die and some of the protagonists organized a concert for him bc he was poor as hell was genius, and while a lot of the older stuff is dated and most likely was progressive for the eighties and would read a bit wonky now they always were super-inclusive, it has a bunch of nonwhite/nonstraight characters (esp. in the last books but there were also in the old ones, and the longest-standing gay dude since the eighties got a husband in the last trilogy!!! it was so ;_;), the alternate history is really good imvho and if you enjoy asoiaf you probably would like most of wild cards. if you want a reading order I made one here. xD

here you go sorry it took me one hour to answer it but IT GOT LONG XDD

[youve-cath-to-be-kitten-me]

Congratulations!!! 💖💖💖💖 (I'm sending so much 😂) ✨, theater emoji, 📚, 👑(I was literally hearing the GoT soundtrack when I say this. 😂) 🎆Morgenthorn, and also 💛?

VALLLLLL thank you, lovely!! (Sending many is always a good thing, don’t worry! Also, yeah the theater emoji is a little hard to find oops sorry about that) ❤️

✨ - Blog Compliment!

Val Val Val you are so nice and So. Freaking. Relatable. We fangirl over all the same things and it’s so nice to have a friend who likes so many of the same things as me and has similar opinions (especially about GoT!) You are so lovely and ily!

🎭 - Song from a Musical + Favorite Line!

Only Us from Dear Evan Hansen

We can just watch the whole world disappear until you’re the only one I still know how to see, it’s just you and me

📚 - Book Recommendation + Favorite Quote!

What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

(Building off of Only Us, the book actually references the song multiple times)

“God, Arthur,” he kisses me, “Te quiero. Estoy enamorado. You don’t even know.” And I don’t speak a word of Spanish, but when I look at his face, I get it.

👑 - Game of Thrones Blog Rate!

House - Targaryen, Tyrell, Stark, Lannister, Greyjoy, Mormont, Baratheon, Arryn, Tully, Martell, None

Home - Dragonstone, King’s Landing, Highgarden, Winterfell, The Vale, Storm’s End, Bear Island, Dorne, The Iron Islands, Casterly Rock, Castle Black

Best Friend - Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, Robb Stark, Bran Stark, Margaery Tyrell, Loras Tyrell, Jon Snow, Ygritte, Tormund Giantsbane, Jaime Lannister, Tyrion Lannister, Jorah Mormont, Lyanna Mormont, Tommen Baratheon, Myrcella Baratheon, Theon Greyjoy, Yara Greyjoy, Brienne of Tarth, Podrick Payne, Gendry Baratheon

Enemy - The Night King, Cersei Lannister, Petyr Baelish, The Masters of Slaver's Bay, Ramsay Bolton, Joffrey Baratheon, Roose Bolton, Walder Frey, The Mountain, Qyburn, Melisandre, The Faceless Men

Mentor - Olenna Tyrell, The Faceless Man, Ned Stark, Petyr Baelish, Tyrion Lannister, Ser Davos Seaworth, Benjen Stark, Cersei Lannister, Tywin Lannister, Robert Baratheon, Aemon Targaryen, The Hound, Brienne of Tarth, Melisandre

Powers/Abilities/Skills - Sword fighting, changing faces, power from the Lord of Light, Manipulation, fighting blind, speaking many languages, dragon riding, horseback riding, knowledge of poison, ability to make many allies, warging, immortality, raising the dead

Pets - direwolf, dragon, cat, ice dragon, raven, horse, elephant

🎆 - Opinion on a Ship! (Morgenthorn)

*to the Spider-Man theme* Morgenthorn. Morgenthorn. Lalalalala Morgenthorn. Actually though Morgenthorn is ADORABLE AS HECK. The only reason I’m not as hardcore of a shipper is because Ash is such a shippable character so my attention is on multiple ships with Ash haha.

💛 - Why I followed you!

If I remember correctly, you followed me first and started the convos (something I was immediately impressed by, because I tend to sit in the shadows and wait for someone to approach me). You were so incredibly nice and after a very short amount of time I decided to follow you! Technical difficulties seem to be a recurring theme when I follow people, but eventually tumblr accepted the fact that I wanted to follow you, and the rest is history!

[au-tumn-al]

TTGC has been out for 2 weeks now and since it’s been enough time for me to stop crying and actually do the post-game stuff, I want to get all my thoughts out about it. It’ll be under a cut because it’ll be long, and I’m not sure how many of my followers are actually interested in what I have to say. Which is ofc fine, I just like talking about it and I’ve been sitting on some of this for a while.

To start off, I loved Torna ~ The Golden Country. It’s the best expansion DLC we’ll be seeing from Nintendo, and probably from most other games in general, for a while. 

I like its core cast of main characters than base XC2, and I think I like it a little more than XC1’s as well. I didn’t actually like any of the characters more than my favorites from base XC2, but as a whole, they were all really likable and never felt like they were falling behind in the background. I never felt like “yeah, I like them I guess” to any of the cast members like Sharla was for me from XC1, and a pretty decent chunk of the protagonists in XC2. ...Because XC2′s cast was way too huge with too much focus on the antagonists and somehow not enough at the same time, but that’s neither here. Technically Team Hugo isn’t really as important to the story as Lora, Jin, Addam, and Mythra, but the sidequests very easily fixed that for me. All the characters were very present in the side-content so I never forgot about them. I regularly did sidequests when they popped up so it felt like a natural part of the story.

I would say that it delivered in everything that I was hoping for from a story standpoint but it really, really didn’t. One of the things I was looking forward to the most was seeing more of Amalthus and Malos’s dynamic before Malos left to start his rampage. Their relationship is only told through subtext in the core game and what we saw was interesting. Even in some of chapter 8 and 9, it almost felt like they were trying one-up the other on how much destruction they could cause. Malos’s “Amalthus, you never disappoint” line delivery even makes it sound like he was looking forward to what his driver would be throwing at Alrest.

The only thing we got from Torna about how they were initially with each other was

Malos shows up and Amalthus’s knee-jerk reaction is a deadpan “oh god, it’s this asshole” look. I enjoyed it probably more than I was meant to, but I wish we got to see more. Maybe it was a little unrealistic to expect it, but considering how much of the story depends on their relationship with each other, was it really?

Another thing I was hoping for was more backstory for Minoth. I wanted to know if he knew Malos (which was actually answered though, so that was nice) since they shared a driver, and I really wanted to know how he ended up becoming a flesh eater. Judicium was already destroyed by the time TTGC rolled around and we barely went into what a flesh eater even was, so that was lame. That said though, the game did go into his relationship with Amalthus and it told us all that was really important, on top of giving us some other stuff I wasn’t expecting (a North American wild west motif, Spanish, a weapon deadass called “gunknife”, and Elma’s specials except more stylized) so you certainly won’t hear me complaining. I loved what we got with Minoth even if it wasn’t exactly what I wanted, and I think he’s great. 

Another thing that I was expecting was for Malos to have more screentime. He was heavily advertised so I think I’m justified in expecting this. There wasn’t necessarily anything about Malos I wanted expanded upon, I just wanted to see him more since he makes everything about a billion times more entertaining just by being there. He completely stole the show in every cutscene he was in and I loved every second of it. He was kicking everyone’s asses in his first boss fight and even won, but I was loving his script, animation, and voice acting far too much to care. 

there was a nice little detail to his animation too

After he punches the ground for the Monado Cyclone(?), you can see him shaking his hand off because like damn, that probably hurt. ,,,I just liked it. Don’t ask me why. 

He’s probably the main reason I only play in English to be honest. His voice actor sells the script and character so perfectly. I seriously don’t know if I’d like Malos as much as I do if he was played by someone else. He might be the only Xenoblade character other than maybe Shulk and Lin that I can say this about. 

OH

and his monologue to the party right after his first boss fight where he says “they see the divine flame of life and piss all over it” while sauntering away was actually the best scene in the game. We didn’t see as much of Malos as I would have wanted, but every scene we did get was the best so like with Minoth, I can’t complain. I love this man. He’s the most entertaining sack of shit I’ve ever had the pleasure of enjoying.

My ruined expectations and Malos aside, what the game actually gave us was so good, I can’t even complain about the things I wanted to see because they gave us plenty of stuff I didn’t know I wanted. The two biggest ones, for me anyway, are Mythra and Addam.

I had no idea that TTGC would flesh her out the way they did, and I am not disappointed. Mythra was amazing in TTGC, and really made me appreciate her and her character arc in the base game a lot more. I loved how generally unbearable and unlikable they made her. She’s completely self-absorbed and full of herself, and just overall extremely similar to Malos. The way the game handles her attitude was really well done too. Because the other characters are constantly calling her out for her bad behavior (esp. Jin and Brighid. Lora chips in too sometimes) and lack of awareness on top of being the verbal punching bag and the butt of a lot of the jokes in the game, she’s not obnoxious to the player. She could have been really annoying, but she wasn’t. On the topic of the jokes though, I laughed at more of TTGC’s comedy. They relied less on anime tropes and were more character focused, which are usually the jokes I like more. The game felt a lot more like XC1 in that aspect, and that was really great.

Moving on, I loved Addam. He was my favorite character in the game. Making him act like Mythra’s dad was something I wasn’t expecting and I loved it. I have a pretty big post in my drafts where I talk about him extensively so that should go up at some point. It’s mostly about how he’s a really good foil to Rex and how he failed as a driver rather than about his pretty fabulous dynamic with Mythra (even if he ended up rejecting her as his blade, he did accept her as person for him to take care of, and he did everything he could in that area) though. Oh, and because there’s no way to shoehorn this in that Addam post, I want to bring something up. I don’t know if there’s any good footage of this (if there is, please send it to me so I can edit it in), but there’s a post battle conversation between Mythra and Lora that goes kind of like this:

Mythra: “Hey, Lora, what do you do when the going gets tough?”

Lora: “Just think about the people I care about.”

Mythra: “Think of loved ones, huh?”

Lora: “Yeah. If I do that, I’m usually grinning like an idiot.”

Now, let’s look at Mythra when she’s at one of her lowest. She’s scared and feels alone. Malos is attacking her with everything he’s got, and she’s is looking for anything to hold on to. ...You see where I’m going with this.

She flashes to memories of her friends, and thinks of both Addam and Milton specifically. The thing is though, for all she knows, Milton could be dead from Malos’s initial attack, and Addam is doing everything he can to hold her back from fully transforming into Pneuma because of his distrust and fear of her. Mythra trying to think of all her loved ones wasn’t enough, and then all she got was a confusing vision of a person she’d never met before. She’s completely alone, confused, and hurt, and she doesn’t have anything there to ground her. That’s when she breaks down in tears, and then starts sinking Torna in a daze because she can’t control her power. 

...on a more positive note, two of the visions she gets of Rex is of him accepting her in chapter 7. 

So that was finding comfort in a loved one, but it was just too soon. Like Jin told her, her true driver and real time to come as her own as a person wasn’t in Torna. It certainly didn’t help at the time, though.

At that point in chapter 7, she was in a similarly low state as she was in TTGC, except she had Rex that time, and then was fully able to achieve her full power as an Aegis. It should be noted Mythra’s “I just...want...to save...” line was apparently horribly translated, and the original was more along the lines of her begging for someone to save her. That’s what I hear anyway and I can believe it. It makes more sense that way. 

Good God, was this a great expansion. It was already pretty fantastic with just its setting and premise alone, but it does an even better job in making me appreciate a lot of the scenes in XC2. Even the already-amazing scene in chapter 7. sPEAKING OF ALREADY AMAZING SCENES MADE BETTER BY TTGC

Rex: “I don’t even know what I’m doing here anymore... Did...did I go wrong somewhere...?”

This is one of my favorite Mythra scenes in the entire game, TTGC included. It’s so small but it’s so good. I don’t think I even need to explain why this is made better by TTGC. 

XC2 is very loud, and unabashedly anime, but it has quiet scenes like this and dammit, are they the best parts of the game. I think they’re even made better by the fact XC2′s tone is generally so upbeat and anime.

I said this before, but TTGC didn’t tell us anything new. We already knew pretty much all of the events of the game before it came out. Maybe we were missing a few details, but in the end, we knew how things were going to go down. Mythra becoming a much more interesting character because of the expansion pass just by being able to see her growth just shows how important the “show, don’t tell” rule is. 

I love Haze a lot. I hate how she’s a third wheel in Team Lora, I hate how Addam and Jin are the only people who really pay any attention to her, and I hate even more that no one hugs her when she’s crying at the end of the game.

oh yeah, Lora and Jin were the main characters. They weren’t very interesting to me (Lora barely had an arc and all of Jin’s intricacies mostly come from the base game) so I don’t have a lot to say about them other than I really liked them. The ending would have completely broke me if the game forced me to watch Lora die so I don’t even care that it was left out. 

People consider the lyrics of “A Moment of Eternity” a message from Lora to Jin but I like to pretend that it’s Addam to Mythra because it’s less depressing that way. The singer is encouraging their loved one to find someone to help them move on and if it was to Jin, that meant that Lora’s last wish for him never happened. He met Malos and then

R

E

G

R

E

S

S

E

D

but seriously though, it could be both. The song ties in pretty well to “One Last You”, and that was very obviously from Pneuma about Rex. It was probably supposed to be up to interpretation anyway. ...a little off-topic, but there’s a line in the song that goes “time flowed differently for us/not to say it was all bad” and then there’s a scene where Addam talks about how he doesn’t have enough time to adapt to Mythra so...idk, maybe that’s something? I mean, Lora got 17 years with Jin, so she didn’t exactly have the short one year Addam had with Mythra.

i’m done now. 

Half of this was me gushing about Mythra. I don’t even care because I loved her. Please forgive any of the obvious signs that I didn’t spend very long proofreading this thanks--

[selinaneveahcrystal]

Lorna Learns Spanish From A Five Year Old--- Part 2

......

They're having breakfast as a family fourteen years down the road, no longer on the run, and with an added additional son to their small tight knit family, when the topic of Spanish came up again like a broken record.

"Anoche nos bebimos una botella entera de Whisky." Lorna raised her eyebrows as her son announced, hoisting his sister with his shoulders as both teens slumped into their chairs with a groan, placing their heads on the table simultaneously.

"Oh wow." Lorna said sarcastically. "And it was to what kind of occasion that you had to have underage drinking?"

Her son groaned at her from beneath his heavy lidded eyes.

"It was because of that cabrón down the road." Dom moaned. "He dumped Allora for someone else and we had pity comfort drinks."

"So...it's over a boy." Lorna raised her eyebrows at her nineteen year old daughter. "And not the fact that you two wanted to have fun trying out alcohol? Because I'd think that reason to be more believable than the reason you just gave me."

"I told you she wouldn't believe that one!"She suppressed a grin as her son hissed at his sister, kicking Allora's shins with vehement accuracy before yelping at the metal that his sister had flicked at his forehead.

"Hey. No flicking metal projectiles on to your brother's forehead." Lorna snatched the ring that bounced off Dom's forehead, before green light flickered between her fingers, and the metal rings that sat on her daughter's fingers flew towards her hands. "I'm confiscating these."

Allora threw her hands up in annoyance, before groaning as her head protested.

"It's part of my wardrobe, Mom!" She moaned into the table. "I won't look half as cool as I usually do if I don't have them, and you used to wear them too!"

"Yeah, I used to wear them, but for practicality, not misguided fashion sense." Lorna waved the rings at her daughter. "And these don't match your dress."

"Then I'll wear my leather jacket, crop top and jeans then!" Allora growled. "Punk style." A grin twitched on Lorna's lips. Ever since Lorna had shown her daughter past photos of Marcos and herself in the Mutant Underground Headquarters, helping other mutants during her impressionable teenage years, Allora's wardrobe had changed drastically from flowery dresses to a style reminiscent of her style back then. Not that she was unhappy with that development---no, she was glad that her daughter had picked up certain traits that she liked about herself, alongside with that powerful desire to help others in need---that was the reason why she'd been so proud when Allora had drawn up a whole presentation arguing why Marcos and her should allow her to join the Mutant Underground Teen Forces that the school ran in the future when she was twelve, because it touched her heart to know that some part of the Justice Marcos and her had fought for back in the days was still present in their children, despite their very different lives.

"That should be more practical, but are you sure you want to go for a rescue mission half sober and with a pounding headache?" She rummaged through the cupboards for aspirin. "A split moment of hesitation might cost you your life if you go in there half prepared and not in good shape. " She heard her daughter mutter a Spanish curse under her breath. "Hey. Language."

Her own hazel eyes stared back at her from Allora's grumpy face, and she chuckled, running her hand affectionately through her daughter's curls.

"Alright, come here." She settled herself on the sofa, patting her lap as her daughter clambered on like a lumbering bear, before dropping her head on Lorna's legs with a groan.

"Lora! That isn't fair, I'm in pain too, so why can't I cuddle a bit!" Lorna grinned as Allora kicked her brother in the chest, swatting his face away as Dom tried to come close.

"Go away. Mama's mine." Her daughter huffed with as much dignity she could muster while lying incapacitated on her lap. "You go find Papa."

"No!" Her son protested immediately. "Do you know how weird it is for a guy and a guy that are related by blood to lie on the other's lap?" Allora looked at her brother with judging eyes.

"I ain't a guy, so nope." Lorna chuckled as her daughter deadpanned.

"Dom, you can sit on the other side." Her son shifted uncomfortably, then leant his head against a cushion instead.

"Nah. I'll pass." He blew the strands of his dark hair away from his eyes.

"Oh, this is a familiar scene." Lorna looked up as Marcos entered, eyebrows raised at their two incapacitated children. "Lora, you haven't taken to lying on your Mami's lap since you were what, four?"

"Five." Allora groaned, a hand over her eyes as Marcos leant over to peck Lorna's lips. "And that was when I was teaching Mama Spanish." She paused for a moment, sniggering at the expense of her headache. "She was so bad at it."

Lorna slapped her daughter's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, I speak Spanish just fine now, you cheeky little--"

"That was after six years after I taught you and with Dad helping." Allora snorted. "You weren't even fluent when Dommie was born!" She sat up, grinning slightly at her brother, who chortled. "You should have heard her pronounce refrigerador back then." A snort escaped from Allora's lips. "We were looking for a new refrigerator once at the Spanish Flea Market and mom totally gave up trying to ask for one in Spanish. Every time she asked for a refreegorifico they kept asking her to repeat."

"Oh yeah." Dom grinned. "In the end she was so done she just said refrigerator. She simplified it to, Hey, You know those things with the sticky doors that keep things cold? And they were so enlightened the moment she changed to English." Lorna rolled her eyes at her sniggering children.

~~~~

Anoche nos bebimos una botella entera de Whisky. = We drank a whole bottle of whiskey last night.

cabrón = Bastard

@eclipsepolarisxauroraborealis

[x----tine]

How Words Occupy Space: An Interview with Cristine Brache

By Monica Uszerowicz

01/23/2019

In the Spanish language, the word cazar means “to hunt”; the word casar, “to marry.” Cristine Brache, a native speaker, loves this because the humor — and maybe the pain — is immediately felt. Without a regional lisp, the two sound nearly or exactly the same. Commit to me; commit me.

I briefly met Brache, the Puerto Rican and Cuban artist and writer, last year. I’d wanted to speak for much longer, because some of the objects she’s made — a ceramic dunce cap, a handless clock, a keychain soliciting both pain and its cessation, the popular “Pain in Women” shirt — feel delicate and biting, like an ant tickling the skin. I liked her poetry too, its melancholy and how cutting it feels. In “Finding Her Way,” she writes: “staring out the windows she resented all the genitals of the world/and her breath/she resented her hair and her presence on the earth/longing for objectification/and loss of will.”

When we met, we talked for a long time: about our Caribbean matriarchies; about what it feels like to be a daughter of mothers who lived in-between places, felt in-between; about writing poems as children and how they were stupid; about how even now language can feel like a failure, but words themselves — the objecthood of them, their feel — engender playful struggle. “Language fails often,” she told me. “It’s all an approximation, as close as I can get to something that felt meaningful to me.”

We spoke again recently, following the November release of her first book POEMS, through CODÉTTE. In it, Brache sketches words like images: flowers anywhere but a grave (“we lay flowers where people die/But not where people live/Not where hearts are broken/Not on my mother or the months of May or June”), a body worth no more than its exact weight (“men like an hourglass figure/and its cream-colored sand/can exactly calculate/the amount of time it takes/for you to stop paying attention to me”). Women, as told in her poems, are subjected to hegemony and hurt, but Brache laughs at the men, all of them: “It’s what’s on the inside that counts/I should cut my tongue to relax you”; “resistance is just fear/it’s inevitable, like math.”

In February, her solo exhibition, Cristine’s Secret Garden, opens at Locust Projects in Miami. Here she’ll create a kind of simulacrum of a South Floridian backyard, with shrines and statues of saints — often stand-ins for Orishas, deities from Yoruba religions. Her Orishas are matriarchal figures in her life. They’re odes, she tells me, to the coping mechanisms we utilize to function, to stay afloat. Saints and orishas sometimes offer a balm to long-suffering mortals; Brache’s deities are goddesses of self-protection, exhaustion, ancestral trauma. There’s no deliberate through line between her visual art and writing, and it would be reductive to draw one, but here we speak about both.

¤

MONICA USZEROWICZ: Tell me about the decision to finally publish your work in a book.

CRISTINE BRACHE: Lora, who runs CODÉTTE, asked if I wanted to do a book with her. I’ve been sitting on a lot of poetry, because I’ve been writing since fifth grade. But I am always wary of publishing bad poems — I think there is a fine line between a good poem and a bad poem, and I wanted to have something I could stand behind for a long period of time. It’s important to me, and I wanted to be careful with it.

MU: Upon reading your book, Chris Kraus wrote that you “work dually as a visual artist and poet, and this gives her writing a particular charge. Poetry, for Brache, becomes the default, the last resort, and a means of covert assault in matters of living where language has led.”

CB: I was so flattered; it’s really thoughtful. I cold-messaged her and was surprised she actually got back to me. There are so many more poems I don’t think I’d ever publish, and many of the poems in this book are so old. Getting that feedback made me feel validated. I know that sounds dumb. But I think poems are the one place I allow myself to be really unapologetic about how I’m feeling. Maybe with artwork, I consider the viewer — I don’t compromise what I’m doing, but it’s a different kind of interaction, walking through a gallery space, as opposed to writing for myself. It’s very private.

All writing, I think, especially if you’re writing about your experience and sharing that with people, is the most vulnerable thing. Art and performance can be, too, but my artwork — though I might say it’s diaristic — is very mediated. Reading poems — they’re not mediated at all. I write to feelings I had during a moment that was meaningful to me; to get to the meat of that pain or love or whatever emotion it is, you do it alone.

MU: The poems are places in which to exist differently.

CB: It’s this place for me I’ve always had where I can express myself without being accountable to another person about what I’m feeling or who I am. Because of where you’re born, or who you are — there are so many reasons why some people can’t be seen or heard, so at least I have this. I’m very protective of it.

MU: Intimacy and power often brush up against each other in your poems, the way they do in relationships.

CB: It’s everywhere — even when it’s not there, it’s there. That stuff is inevitable, even if it’s not intended. You can try your hardest to be thoughtful, and still say things that accentuate the inherent power dynamics between people. My work is about these power dynamics, but there’s more, too — I think I focus so much on it because it hurts to be on the bottom when you know you can be on the top. But you can’t be, because society’s not structured that way. There’s always this sense of having someone see you and own your identity, because they’re already projecting whatever cultural associations they have with how you look and who you are — so much that they don’t even let you exist.

There are so many inequalities — in the art world and everywhere else. It’s harder for women and people of color. It is so much harder. And it’s harder still to convey that to someone who doesn’t have that experience. You almost can’t even say it, because they get defensive. But it’s everywhere, and it’s so suffocating, and it’s really hard to endure. But we do it. You find ways to move around these power structures.

MU: I was thinking, also, about the wordplay in your poetry. It’s a really joyous kind of tool.

CB: I’m super-conscious of it. I love thinking about words: what they mean, their multiple definitions, how they cut you a certain way when you lay them against other words. I do it with objects, too — how they’re propped up against each other, how they occupy space. It’s the same process I use when I write. I’ve always been obsessed with language, eager to find where there are atypical connections that have standardized forms.

MU: I love how in Spanish “extraño” means “strange” and “te extraño” means “I miss you.”

CB: Extraño can mean foreign — not familiar to you. It’s something I like a lot about Spanish: to hunt is “cazar” and to marry, “casar.” That would make a good poem, see. I’m sitting on that for something.

MU: Last time we spoke, we talked about family — matriarchy, particularly, and how the work in your show is addressing it.

CB: My grandma and mom were both born and raised in Puerto Rico; my grandma moved to Brooklyn, met my grandpa there, and they eventually had to move back to Puerto Rico. There were a lot of issues with her being brown in the US at that time. I’m trying to observe how people code their oppression so that they can function. I feel like women, and people who are immigrants, or their children — all of them have to deal with the sense of protecting themselves. Santeria became illegal when the Spaniards colonized the Caribbean. So what did people do? They codified their religion with Catholic iconography and language. We do this all the time: women, poor people, basically anyone who’s not a rich, white man — we find ways to codify who we are so that it’s palatable for the culture, for the patriarchy, for where we’re at.

With the show, I want to honor these people and ask, given the variables that we have in an oppressive system, how can we empower ourselves? The exhibition uses Santeria as a template for these very detailed coping mechanisms. There are shrines, each one to an attribute. Like the Orishas in Santeria: they’re gods and goddesses of thunder, health, war. I wanted to give my shrines atypical attributes: vulnerability, vanity, mental illness, sadness, exhaustion. And collective trauma. Do we have gods for that?