#lots of Gàidhlig in this one....

[mekachu04]

12. Love Language

Kidd - 6! | Killer - 9

Tags specifically for this chapter:

Kidd grew up speaking Gàidhlig

Killer understood som but didn't speak it often

Killer never knew Kidd's name

it's has been forgotten by now

there was coup in the area last summer/fall

Kidd used to have a family

they will come back up later

Kidd turns 6

they've known each other over a year by now

dropping in some Scottish traditions in because I can

Read at A03 linked above or here below cut

Drabbles from Pocket Jack's KiKi-tober Prompt list

The charm Killer had as a small child - the one that set adults at ease and gave him sympathy candies or coins - hadn't followed him into the reign of the newest City Boss. The men and woman who'd fed him if he gave them sad looks and batted his eye lashes were rotting in the bottom of the bay, and the ones who did give him a second glance these days had hands that lingered too long. Worse - those men seemed to want him to bring the kid around too and Killer would do a lot for a hot meal, but not at the kid's expense.

Killer had tried to do right by the kid - tried to take him to the adults for care, but no one wanted another little boy - another mouth to feed and still too small to do work in compensation. Killer knew that rejection intimately, tried not to let Eustass' sunshine boy see him crying hot bitter tears at the unfairness of the whole ordeal. The factories would scoop up the little girls, tuck them away in their brick boarding houses... but no one wanted the boys. Not until they were big enough and old enough to fight and bleed for them.

Killer had finally gotten big enough to belong to that, but with his last Boss and his men slaughtered, he had to keep his head down and stay quiet unless someone realized he was missed in the coup. This last turf war had him starting back over a square one again, only this time with the responsibility of someone else. And Killer couldn't bring himself to leave the boy behind; he'd been a part of the wooden port side of the city as long as he could remember. The dock men his only family, the innkeepers for the transients the only parental care he'd known. Eustass had been a hard-ass, but his old lady and the cook had regularly welcomed him in on cold and stormy nights, even when he didn't have a coin to his name. Even before he had a name!

Last winter, 10 days after First-Foot, Eustass himself had cornered Killer at the docks, handed him a soft ball wrapped in shiny paper, and told him under no uncertain terms was he to open it, and instead bring it to the Tavern right at sundown. At that point, Killer had been delivering all sorts of things he wasn't allowed to look at to all sorts of people he wasn't allow to talk to, and had held his free hand out demanding coin for the job. Eustass had smacked him upside the head and told him not to be greedy.

Well - Killer knew where to find the miserable old man if he didn't pay up in the end at least.

10 days into the new year, Killer entered Eustass' Tavern & Inn through the front door for the first time. Payday was 4 nights ago (9 more until the next one) and the Tavern was quiet, a sign posted on the door that he couldn't actually read - he wasn't a strong reader to start with, and it was far too long for him to puzzle out, but he did know that one of the words meant closed - which just confused him further. But Eustass had given him clear instructions, and the door had not been locked, so Killer let himself in.

He was expecting some kind of nefarious Boss meeting - he'd delivered to those quite a few times, Killer just didn't know Eustass was involved in that scene. Instead, he found the lights mostly dimmed, voices chatting away towards the kitchen.

Before he could call out, Mòr Mhàthair, the Matron of the business herself, peaked around the corner. He didn't think he'd ever seen someone brighten so much at seeing him of all people, and he turned to make sure someone else hadn't followed him in. No.. No the woman was smiling at him. She must have been waiting for the delivery.

"Wee barra!" she beckoned him over, and he dutifully held out the package once he reached her side. Instead, she'd gently corralled him in to where the staff and their children set up at a little table in the kitchen, "Chan eil, thoir dha a bhobain e."

Sunshine boy was sat at the place of honour, happily munching on black bun, a small stack of 6 shiny coins next to his plate. Killer looked back to the adults to make sure he was fulfilling the request correctly, surprised to see Eustass smirking at him from the back corner next to the oven. The old man nodded for him to go on, and Killer held out the wrapped package to the boy.

"Là breith sona dhuit!" Everyone chorused as the child tore into the paper, revealing small little stuffed toy of a boar. Killer froze, caught off guard as the words sunk in.

"Did Killer get you a little friend?" the cook asked, and the child held it up for all to see, a smile as bright as the sun across his face.

"Innis do Killer 'tapadh leibh.'" Eustass said, and the birthday boy turned to Killer with that thousand watt smile.

"Thank you Killer!"

Then they'd sat Killer down with the other children at the table of the birthday boy, fed him rich fruit cake and lamb cabbage rolls and when it had gotten late and time for all good boys to be in bed, the cook had tucked him already half asleep into one of the booths closest to the kitchen where the oven kept everything warm. He'd woken the next morning to fresh bread and a few coins for his trouble.

How could he ever abandon the kid after that, the only piece left to any of the good people who had the misfortune of being remembered by him alone.

First-Foot this year was more muted than Killer could ever remember; he'd always spend that night in the Heaps - he knew better than to risk someone's whole year on the likes of him - but there's always been such grandeur leading up to it. Festivals of fire and music and foot. Winter's were harsh, and everyone reveled in a chance to find some warmth and joy. But this last winter had been cold and grey and bitter. And no fanfare to banish the old in favor of new.

Still, dutifully, he counted the days - he'd always been very good at keeping track of things like that, and once the kid was set up on his little corner for begging, Killer slipped away. Usually, he stuck nearby, pilfering pockets. But he had a plan today that involved something else. He'd been skimping on the food he'd been buying for himself, trying to save up a few more coins for today especially.

Fruit might be expensive in the winter, but meat was in steady supply even if a lot was imported these days. Killer also knew for a fact that at least one tavern had gotten in some winter cabbage and he could easily get there and back before the kid missed him.

Days where short this time of year, and Killer got back just as the sun slipped behind the buildings and the temperatures started to drop. Little coin could be made this late - most people rushing to get home while any warmth remained, and Killer and the kid where no different. They picked their way quickly back to the hovel they had built for themselves in the Heaps this winter.

Once Killer - the larger of the two - crawled in, they drug the large scrap of sheet metal over the entrance until there was just enough room for the smaller boy to slip in. There was no one in the Heaps smaller than him and no one knew just how big the shelter was once inside, so they where left unbothered.

Killer moved a second smaller sheet over the gap from the inside as the kid carefully lit the little lamp they had. The piece would block the light and would help block the wind even if it was still quite drafty. "So where's you disappear to today?" the boy asked him, looking a little accusatory.

"Got a surprise for ya, Sunshine!" Killer help up the two packages he'd produced over the day. The first one was set out on their 'table,' freshly made and still hot cabbage rolls, stuffed with beef. More than enough to fill the stomach of any child.

The second was a little bag he tossed at his friend.

"I hate that name," the boy grumbled, even as he opened the little drawstring bag with a crudely stitched skull and crossbones on the outside. Seven coins spilled out on his palm, one for each year and another for luck. Killer had saved the cleanest newest coins he could find, and then buffed them to a brilliant shine - they'd be spent quickly, but in the mean time they shined like new.

"Sorry, Sorry, wont use it again," Regardless, Killer had grinned amiably through his apology, "Happy Birthday, kiddo."

The 6 year old marveled at the coins, before Killer's word caught up to him, "Tch! That's even worse than sunshine!"

[wolverinesorcery]

UNBLENDING CELTIC POLYTHEISTIC PRACTICES

Celtic Umbrella

This lesson is largely focusing on the insular Celtic nations & Brittany (Ireland/Eire, Scotland/Alba, Wales/Cymru, Cornwall/Kernow, Isle of Man/Mannin, & Brittany/Breizh) - traditionally regarded as 6 out of the 7 Celtic nations. Galicia/Galizia is the 7th, but because of a mix of the below + my own lack of knowledge, I won't be covering them.

The vast swath of Continental Celtic cultures are a different but equally complex topic thanks to extinction, revival, varying archaeological artefacts and the work of modern practioners to piece unknown parts back together.

This will serve as a quick 'n' dirty guide to the insular Celtic nations, Celtic as a label, blood percentages and ancestry, the whats and whys of "Celtic soup", and how to unblend practice.

The insular Celtic groups are split into two language groups: Brythonic languages and Gaelic languages.

Brythonic languages are Cymraeg/Welsh, Kernewek/Cornish, & Breton

Gaelic languages are Gàidhlig/Scottish, Gaeilge/Irish, & Gaelg/Manx.

The language split leads to certain folkloric and religious figures & elements being more common within the language group than without. All of these nations had historic cultural exchange and trade routes via the Celtic sea (and beyond). Despite this, it is still important to respect each as a home to distinct mythologies.

Pros/Cons of a broad Celtic umbrella

Pros

- Used within celtic nations to build solidarity - Relates to a set of cultures that have historic cultural exchange & broad shared experiences - A historic group category - Celtic nations’ culture is often protected under broad legislation that explicitly highlights its ‘Celtic-ness’.

Cons

- Can be used reductively (in academia & layman uses) - Often gives in to the dual threat of romanticisation/fetishisation & erasure - Conflates a lot of disparate practices under one banner - Can lead to centring ‘celtic american’ experiences. - Celtic as a broad ancestral category (along with associated symbols) has also been co-opted by white supremacist organisations.

In this I’m using ‘Celtic’ as a broad umbrella for the multiple pantheons! This isn’t ideal for specifics, but it is the fastest way to refer to the various pantheons of deities that’ll be referenced within this Q&A (& something that I use as a self identifier alongside Cornish).

What about blood % or ancestry?

A blood percentage or claimed Celtic ancestry is NOT a requirement to be a follower of any of the Celtic pantheons. The assumption that it does or is needed to disclose can feed easily into white supremacist narratives and rhetoric, along side the insidious implications that a white person in the USA with (perceived or real) Celtic ancestry is 'more celtic' than a person of colour living in a Celtic region (along with other romanticised notions of homogenously white cultures).

Along side this, a blood percentage or distant ancestry does not impart the culture and values of the Celtic region or it's recorded pagan practices by itself. Folk traditions are often passed down within families, but blood percentage is not a primary factor within this.

Connecting with ancestry is fine, good, and can be a fulfilling experience. It stops being beneficial when it leads to speaking over people with lived experiences & centres the USA-based published and authors - which can lead to blending/souping for reasons further on.

What is 'soup'?

Celtic soup is a semi-playful term coined by several polytheists (primarily aigeannagusacair on wordpress) to describe the phenomenon of conflating & combining all the separate pantheons and practices from the (mainly) insular Celtic nations into one singular practice - removing a lot of the regionalised folklore, associated mythos, & varying nuances of the nations that make up the soup.

Why does it happen?

The quick version of this is book trends and publishing meeting romanticisation and exotification of Celtic cultures (especially when mixed with pre-lapsarian views of the Nations). It's miles easier to sell a very generally titled book with a lot of Ireland and a little of everywhere else than it is to write, source and publish a separate book on each.

This is where centering American publishers and authors becomes an issue - the popular trend of USA-based pagan publications to conflate all celtic nations makes it hard to find information on, for example, Mannin practices because of the USA’s tendency to dominate media. Think of Llewellyn’s “Celtic Wisdom” series of books.

It has also been furthered by 'quick research guides'/TL;DR style posts based on the above (which have gained particular momentum on tumblr).

The things that have hindered the process in unblending/"de souping" is the difficulty in preserving independently published pamphlets/books from various nations (often more regionalised and immediately local than large, sweeping books generalising multiple practices) along with the difficulty of accessing historic resources via academic gatekeeping.

All of this has lead to a lack of awareness of the fact there is no, one, singular Celtic religion, practice or pantheon.

Why should I de-soup or unblend my practice?

Respecting the deities

It is, by and large, considered the bare minimum to understand and research a deity's origin and roots. The conflation of all insular Celtic deities under one singular unified pantheon can divorce them from their original cultures and contexts - the direct opposite to understanding and researching.

Folklore and myth surrounding various Celtic deities can be highly regionalised both in grounded reality and geomythically - these aren't interchangeable locations and are often highly symbolic within each nation.

Brú na Bóinne, an ancient burial mound in Ireland, as an entrance to the otherworld of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Carn Kenidjack & the Gump as a central site of Cornish folk entities feasts and parties, including Christianised elements of Bucca’s mythology.

The Mabinogion includes specific locations in Wales as well as broad Kingdoms - it’s implied that Annwn is somewhere within the historic kingdom of Dyfed, & two otherworldly feasts take place in Harlech & Ynys Gwales.

Conflating all celtic pantheons under one banner often leads to the prioritisation of the Irish pantheon, meaning all of the less ‘popular’ or recorded deities are sidelined and often left unresearched (which can lead to sources & resources falling into obscurity and becoming difficult to access).

Respecting the deities

Deities, spirits, entities, myth & folklore are often culturally significant both historically and to modern day people (just average folks along with practitoners/pagans/polytheists and organisations) located in the various Nations

A primary example is the initiatory Bardic orders of Wales and Cornwall.

Desouping/Unblending makes folklorist's lives easier as well as casual research less difficult to parse. The general books are a helpful jumping off point but when they constitute the bulk of writing on various Celtic polytheisms, they become a hinderance and a harm in the research process.

A lot of mythology outside of deities & polytheisms is also a victim of ‘souping' and is equally as culturally significant - Arthurian mythology is a feature of both Welsh and Cornish culture but is often applied liberally as an English mythology & and English figure.

Celtic nations being blended into one homogenous group is an easy way to erase cultural differences and remove agency from the people living in celtic nations. Cornwall is already considered by a large majority of people to be just an English county, and many areas of Wales are being renamed in English for the ease of English tourists.

How can I de-soup?

Chase down your sources' sources, and look for even more sources

Check your sources critically. Do they conflate all pantheons as one? Do they apply a collective label (the celts/celts/celt/celtic people) to modern day Celtic nations? How far back in history do they claim to reach?

Research the author, are they dubious in more ways than one? Have they written blog articles you can access to understand more of their viewpoints? Where are they located?

Find the people the author cites within their work - it can be time consuming but incredibly rewarding and can also give a good hint at the author's biases and research depth. You may even find useful further reading!

Find primary sources (or as close too), or translations of the originating folklore, e.g The Mabinogion. Going to the source of a pantheon’s mythos and folklore can be helpful in discerning where soup begins in more recent books as well as gaining insight into deities' actions and relationships.

Ask lots of questions

Question every source! Question every person telling you things that don't define what pantheon or region they’re talking about! Write all your questions down and search for answers! Talk to other polytheists that follow specific Celtic pantheons, find where your practices naturally overlap and where they have been forced into one practice by authors!

Be honest with yourself

There’s no foul in spreading your worship over several pantheons that fall under the celtic umbrella! A lot of polytheists worship multiple pantheons! But be aware of the potential for soup, and make sure you’re not exclusively reading and working from/with sources that conflate all practices as one.

If you approach any Celtic polytheistic path with the attitude of blood percentage or 'ancestral right', stop and think critically about why you want to follow a Celtic polytheistic path. Is it because it's the most obviously 'open' path to follow? Is it a desire to experience what other folks experience? Being critical, turning inward, and really looking at yourself is important. Originally posted in the Raven's Keep discord server

[kevin-day-is-bi]

whats your favorite movie of all time?

-mel💜

Labyrinth!! I quote that movie Daily (literally I quoted it like. half an hour ago)

this isn't something I talk about a ton on here, but my main research focus within my intended major of history-focused anthropology is pre-Christian Scottish folklore. aka fairies. I study modern romantasy/faerie porn with a focus on how it relates to historical depictions of romance with the fae, I examine how YA as a whole treats the fae, I look at pretty much any depiction of the fae and/or general Scottish folklore relates back to "original" beliefs, though i often have to use secondhand biased sources due to the Catholic Church and English government working to erase that part of history (see: the goddess Bríde being turned into St Brigid). I've done two major research projects on this, studied Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) as my foreign language in high school, and did several additional creative research projects using the Gaelic language (including writing a ballad!)

and Labyrinth is one of the most interesting depictions! it uses a lot of original folkloric concepts regarding time rules, language rules, and physical spatial rules that you don't see as much (though interestingly, the language rules have become very popular in romantasy particularly. my theory is the growing acceptance of autistic creators leading to a boom in interest towards the idea of not being able to lie and having to ask direct, specific questions, along with having tone be a non-issue).

on a separate note, I think an old man trapping me in a magical maze is possibly one of the most on-brand wishes possible, which is the plot of the movie. it's a musical, every set piece is coated in glitter, and it has a ballroom scene. it's catnip to me

what's your favorite movie of all time!

[choirstaidhiona]

This Barbie Cries In Public, or I Wish I Could Show My Mum The Barbie Movie

Like everyone else in the world, I recently saw the Barbie Movie! I also saw Oppenheimer, in the cursed double bill of the century, and it's taken me days to process both of them and all the BigFeelingsTM That have come up from both, so in my first actual considered and proper blog post on this website since I was the world's angriest teenager, I'll be sharing them, alongside some thoughts about grief and gender and all that really fun and not miserable at all stuff.

Part 1. Barbie Girl

I was born in 1996, a weirdly large baby constantly dressed in pink and lace and frills, as my mum would say, "a proper girl". I loved dolls; baby dolls, Barbie dolls, Bratz dolls, doll house dolls, paper garland dolls I made whenever i had a sheet of printer paper handy for years of my life, Polly Pockets, those weird off-brand dolls you'd get in corner shops and chemists for some reason, all of them. I loved dolls. I still love dolls. I made a film last year where i painted dolls and animated them and it was sad and about childhood and death and memory. I used to film my Barbie Princess and The Pauper dolls singing together and I made a music video of it on my Karaoke machine, rigged up to my pink TV. I was, in short, A Barbie Girl.

When Bratz appeared in the supermarkets of Greenock, I remember the shift happening really clearly. I was in Primary 5 or 6 and my Grandad had died, Baby's First Big Death, and I drew everyone pictures of the outfits I'd dreamed up for my Bratz dolls, transfixed by their big mouths and big eyes and the way their clothes sat on their bodies. Drawing pictures for people made them happy. Drawing pictures for people made them tell me I was clever. Drawing pictures for people gave me a task and gave me a focus. I loved Bratz dolls because Barbie was too boring. I was getting too old for fairies and princesses (note: I have since regressed), Mattel's fixation of the era, since Barbie had already been a Doctor and a President long before I met her, and I didn't know she had all these cool talents and past careers. To me, she was part of a personal era I was moving on from. Bratz dolls didn't have jobs, they were like Ken from the Barbie movie, but their job wasn't Beach, it was Gorgeous. I don't think it's a coincidence that this was the era I'd been told specifically that there was something wrong with me by other girls for the first time.

I grew up in Gàidhlig Medium Education, a sectioned-off and sheltered part of the Scottish Education System that I owe my life to, I would not have survived, weirdness and spirit intact, in any other school, and I know that for a fact. I'd entered GME at 2 and 10 months old and left school at 18, having only known classrooms where everyone was a bit different because we belonged to this sort of movement of cultural reclamation. My only prolonged interactions with "The English" (the rest of our classmates from the English speaking part of our primary school, the ones not in the Gaelic unit) came at the end of primary school, when we started learning French together as a whole year group. It's not an exaggeration to say that GME kids were bullied appallingly by "The English", including a lot of the old-school teachers. I'll go into this properly another time, but I do think that I saw in Bratz the kind of aspirational teenhood I hoped would be beyond my late primary school experience of being othered- being edgy, wearing cool outfits, having boobs, and most of all, working at gorgeous.

Part 2. Oppenheimer Teen

Think of the most catastrophically annoying and angry kid you knew growing up, that was me. And I lived here, on Tumblr, blogging my early teens away - being not like other girls, then being radicalised by third wave feminism. Learning about queerness, and realising I wasn't just the best ally of life, I actually fancied by best friend. Discovering that the square root of happiness was hunger, (i mean this ironically, it's very much not) and documenting my ever growing thigh gap... all of it. I wanted to tear everything down. I gave this section the title of Oppenheimer Teen because I thought it would be funny, but honestly, I was more like the atomic bomb.

I'd long since been informed that playing with dolls wasn't okay anymore, it was embarrassing and for babies, and the only femininity I was happy to take part in was a half-understood Kinderwhore version of it. Everything i embodied in this era was based on Courtney Love's babydoll dresses, red lips, and bleached hair. The first time I bleached mine, it broke my mum's heart. She had breast cancer and was losing her shiny brown hair, while I was turning mine into custard-coloured chewing gum with 40 vol at the bathroom sink. I didn't want to be pretty because I didn't know how to be without being ridiculed for trying, I was hurt, and I was scared, and my mum was sick and my boyfriend was evil, and Jesus, I was so hungry all the time. Eventually, after about two years of starting fights I couldn't finish, and drinking 70cls of straight vodka while looking men (teenage boys) in the eye, and reading the communist manifesto on the 6am Gourock train home after parties I'm still processing in therapy, my mum got the all-clear. I dumped the boy who was abusing me, who by this time was a grown man, I dyed my hair pink, and green, and blue... and I met the first of the girls who would start to save my life, while we were drawing pictures and dressing up at art camp.

3. Actually Talking About The Barbie Movie

Every year that I haven't been a teenager has been better than the one before, this is something I've told every teenage girl who has ever told me she's worried about growing up, and I've seen a wave of calm wash over her face every time. I really saw myself in the angry, clever, moody group of teenagers Barbie meets in the school canteen when she arrives in our world. Sasha, who I think we've all realised/read by now was named for the Bratz doll along with her friends, tells her she doesn't represent her, she's let her down, she's old news!! This was how pink and sparkly girlishness felt to me at that age, I didn't look like Barbie anymore, and the girls who did were making my life hell. I had acne, and my period lasted three weeks at a time, and being a girl wasn't fun anymore. Everyone just cared about which Ken they were getting off with, meanwhile I'd just realised that death existed, and one day would come back and finish the job and take my mum away, what the fuck was Barbie fucking grinning about?

Her spiralling existential crisis throughout the film was truly jarring, only because I remember those exact moments of girlhood. I remember being 11, lying on the floor and crying and feeling like it would never stop. I remember being 8 and noticing my belly was rounder than the other girls at ballet. I remember sweating after a game of rounders at 10 and realising I stank and feeling like I was malfunctioning. I remember being so angry for a whole year when I was 9 that I wanted to bite people. I remember every time I wasn't being a "proper girl", and how I saw on everyone's face that they felt it too. I remember every time I realised that I wasn't perfect anymore, just like Barbie does, and that I just wasn't the way I was made anymore. And they still feel like fresh wounds, fresh failures, despite what 2012 Tumblr feminism taught me.

I've seen Tiktoks from the current generation of internet teens discussing how the film wasn't radical enough in its feminism, and I get it, to an extent. When you've been an Oppenheimer Teen - fighting boys about how they treat their girlfriends that you're secretly a bit in love with, spending your whole life placing your value in your intelligence and your rage so as not to be someone's Barbie, making online friends all over the world because no one gets you, reading feminist lit while your classmates are excited about YA Fiction - Gloria's monologue, the climax of the film's mission statement, feels like "okay, and??" And as I said, I was Sasha, eviscerating femininity for what it had done to me. But as I grow up, not a (Barbie) Girl, not yet at all a woman (I'm non binary, knowing that is vital to understanding that joke), but also no longer an Oppenheimer Teen, I see the spaces that the powerful, vengeful feminism of my youth is missing.

Every time my friends are mistreated by men who are supposed to love them, there is a beat before they remember who they are where they think they deserve it. We constantly wonder if we're over reacting to our own trauma. We lose weight through grief and are told we look great and we say thank you, and sometimes we mean it. We fear taking up space even though we can't help it. We wonder if we should go for jobs that we aren't technically qualified for, even though we have degrees and years of experience to contradict our gut feelings of inadequacy. We are clever, bright, talented people, but those of us who have a girlhood in our pasts have a unique never-quite-healed injury. It's like a broken ankle from falling off a trampoline when you were 10 that aches in cold weather even now, the ankle you always go over when you're drunk in heels. I didn't know I'd grow up and get less angry. I didn't know I'd pick my battles eventually like everyone kept telling me to at 15, instead of waging war on everyone. I didn't know there would be a day that life would figure out how to make me small. I thought I had shut up the Barbie Girl I once was by outsmarting her, but my heart is still baby pink, strawberry scented, and covered in sparkles, and it always will be.

When i sat there, bathed in pink light, surrounded by mums and daughters, best friends, sisters, queers who never got to be Barbie Girls but desperately wanted to be, grannies, and aunties, and tiny girls who have no idea how much their hearts are about to be broken, I held my friend Isla's hand and i kissed it and wiped tears off my cheeks, because we were all there, together, in the middle of the afternoon on a Monday, living not in a Barbie world, but the real one. The really shit one. And the biggest cinematic event of our lives was telling us we were right, and it wasn't our fault, and we didn't make it all up for attention, we weren't rude or bossy or difficult, we were traumatised and hurt and tired. The children we were who played with dolls, cutting off their hair before we were allowed to mess up our own, had been let down.

4. Still Talking About The Barbie Movie, But Also Talking About My Mum.

Nearly a month ago, my mum died. She had a brain tumour, diagnosed a decade after she had the all clear from breast cancer. These two acts of evil by the universe were unrelated, it wasn't a secondary tumour related to her first one, it was just bad luck. She had been sick for years, and before that she was sick in different ways for years, so it wasn't a shock, but it has forced me into a new era of my life in a way I wasn't ready for. Just like growing up.

My mum was born in poverty in the 1960s in the West of Scotland, and by the time I came along her life was a dreamscape compared to what she had once known. We had a standard, comfortable-enough, but still working-class life, but we lived in her Barbie Dream House. I got my love of clothes and dressing up from her, the colour palette of my life from her, and my internal monologue from her. We spent most of our time together until I moved to Glasgow at 19, even when I was raging and destructive, because she was sick, and because she knew I wasn't going to be that way forever. She had been a wee girl once, too. She knew why I wanted to bite people.

The moment in the Barbie Movie where Ruth Handler says "We mothers stand still so our daughters can look back to see how far they've come” launched into my chest like a fist and winded me. I was holding my friend Isla's hand at this point, too, she knew why I was crying and she cried too. I know this line was likely intended to be about career and the choices afforded to older women in the past, and the choices afforded now to mothers vs fathers, about the sacrifices of mothers and the love they send their creations, us, off into the world knowing, but my mum's own stillness was suddenly phrased in a new way, and it hurt. I don't want to look back on photos and videos to see where I left her, I want her to be dressed up in pink and glitter to go to the cinema with me. I wanted to cry with her and tell her I loved her for everything she did for me growing up, for putting up with me when I ruined by hair and dressed like a maniac and cost her a fortune in black eyeliner. I wanted to thank her for laughing and agreeing when i told her I wanted to bite people, I wanted to thank her for understanding my hormones were making me shouty and introverted and weird, not my intentions. I don't want to see how far I've come without her, she was supposed to be here.

I wish I could have discussed Gloria's point of view with her, watching her daughter grow up and away from her, in reference to our relationship. I wish we could have agreed we were so glad we got to the other side of that, and that every year I wasn't a teenager was better than the last for her, too. We would have laughed at Weird Barbie because all my dolls looked like her too. She would have remembered stories about my girlhood i'd never heard, she always did when we watched films together, often in her bed while the rain poured outside. The strangest part of losing my mum, has been losing the only witness to my entire life, because no one knows you the way the person who made you, lost you, and got you back knows you.

5. The End

Greta Gerwig has made me cry a lot, mostly about being a daughter to a mum, and growing up, and I love that this film fits solidly into her library, while standing out as an offering to a world that doesn't seek this kind of epiphany out. Barbie's mission as a doll was supposed to be about empowering women and girls, giving girls a role model when women didn't have space in the world to make globally successful films about how brilliant and capable and hurt and injured women are.

It's easy to look back after seeing the film, especially with all the history lessons included, and decide that Ruth Handler won the day with this mission, but I think The Barbie Movie will be the true closing chapter to this objective for Mattel. Isla (my friend whose hands I kept kissing and crying on in the cinema) and I were talking after the film about how kids now aren't growing up with the Barbie we had. They're not getting glamazon, can't stand up for the size of her boobs Barbie, with her yellow hair and a princess dress. They're getting flat footed, representative of them Barbie. She looks like she eats her dinners and she could actually do all the activities she's dressed to do, she's modern, and that's class, it's the next step in the evolution. That means that this film won't give the wee girls we were sat among in the cinema the same gut punches and feelings of nostalgia for girlhood when they grow up that it gave us. Their Barbies are just dolls, pals, they aren't trying to prove anything. There's no "please go further than I ever did, please" in the marketing, we all know we can be whatever we want to be in theory, we've heard it all and we're constantly under pressure to actualise it, like Gloria was talking about.

We've finally caught up to Barbie, we can, in theory, have our own homes and careers, we have the right to our own bank account, we don't, in theory, have to have families if we don't want them, we can be whatever we want, it just really, really fucking hurts trying to get there. And so we meet Barbie, all of us able to actually stand without a giant hand supporting us, Birkenstock to Birkenstock, looking out at what's to come. What's to come, is more of what's been, because we don't have equality, or anything close to it. We are still aching and being traumatised by our world. By the end of the film, Barbie is a real woman, a symbol of this new era Isla and I were talking about. She chose death and cellulite and misogyny over their absences because to feel, and to be real, and to stand with the girls who grew up loving her, is more noble.

I will say though, if there's a vacancy in Barbieland now she's in LA, I have really bad cramp and I'm tired of crying for my mum, so I'll send my CV over if anyone has an in x

[practically-an-x-man]

✨💼🎯❤️✂️🍎💀🎓 for Madison Ophelia and Gia

Thank you so much!!!

Ask Game for Someone's OCs

✨- How did you come up with the OC’s name?

Madison: Her first name was just picked because I wanted her to have nicknames - I wanted her changing her name/nickname to represent the different stages in her life, where she goes by Maddie as a child, then exclusively uses her full name after running away from home, then is called Mads by Alex as a symbol that she's found another home. Her last name, Douglas, comes from the Gàidhlig "dubh" and "glas", which directly translates to "black gray" but less-literally means "dark river", signalling her connection to water and her aquatic mutation.

Ophelia: It was a combination of several things: alliterative O's to connect her to her father and the superhero trope of alliterative names, the name Ophelia to reference the tragic character in Hamlet and represent all the grief in her life and that her death was sparked by her own action (and potentially as a piece of long-game foreshadowing to Charybdis, with her madness), and her first and middle name (Jo) both being literary references as a connection to her mother.

Gia: Her first name was mainly picked just because I liked the way it sounded (technically it means "God is gracious" or "gift from God" which I suppose could be linked back to her clover, but I didn't plan it that way), but her last name is derived from a Greek salutation meaning "may you live forever" - fitting, don't you think? I was actually pretty proud of that one.

💼 - What do they do for a living?

Madison: At the moment, she's a full-time X-Man and doesn't really have a personal source of income outside that. Later, once she soft-retires to settle down in her own place, she'll make money selling wood carvings and ornate carpentry pieces.

Ophelia: She's a biomedical engineer who primarily works in prosthetics, and later acts as the face of Denarii Technology and Proceedings (AKA what used to be Oscorp, but rebranded and no longer military-focused)

Gia: She owns a flower shop in Hell's Kitchen!

🎯 -What do they do best?

Madison: She's a fantastic survivalist - drop her anywhere, she'll make it out alive.

Ophelia: Problem-solving, in a technical sense. She's great at building a machine to fix what needs fixing, and troubleshooting that when it goes wrong.

Gia: Appreciating the little things. Despite her anxiety, she is genuinely happy about the small pleasures in her life, and she's an optimist at heart (when the anxiety and PTSD doesn't interrupt that, at least)

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

Madison: When her older brother first got his driver's license, the two of them went driving around to look for Christmas presents for the family - they stopped for hot chocolates on the way, went through all kinds of gift-shopping gymnastics to avoid the other one discovering what present they got them, and then Johnny crashed into a snowbank getting out of the parking lot (everything was fine, it was just surprising and hilarious)

Ophelia: Winning the state robotics competition in high school and going out for ice cream afterwards - it was both an incredibly happy memory on its own and one of the last times she saw both of her parents alive and happy.

Gia: Visiting her grandparents and extended family in Greece for the first time, swimming in the ocean and hearing her grandmother cluck about riptides and sunscreen, getting into a splash war with her siblings and cousins until her eyes burned from the saltwater...

✂️ - What is one of your OC’s worst memories?

Madison: Excluding the absolute worst of the worst since that's a big plot point... being captured by the Brotherhood and having her mutation enhanced. She was physically struggling since the cell was so cold it put her into torpor, mentally struggling because having her mutation enhanced gave her some dysmorphia and depersonalization issues, and she either expected to die there or escape and have to rewrite her life entirely (since she expected to be cast out from the X-Men). It was torture for her in so many ways.

Ophelia: When Officer Stacy came to her door to tell her that her father had passed away. For one thing, her mother had died only a few months before that, so she was already grief-stricken and now newly orphaned, but she was also closer with her father to begin with and it was utterly devastating to lose him. It literally changed the entire course of her life, in a way.

Gia: When HYDRA cut off her leg in an attempt to see if the clover would regenerate it. She doesn't remember much from her time with HYDRA because of the trauma, but she remembers that. It was the most painful thing she's ever experienced, and to her represented a turning point in her life (she could, and does, pretend that her clover didn't change her life, but she can't ever get her leg back).

🍎 - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?

Madison: Moderate. She grew up in the 50's, so she always felt stifled by expectations of conformity. There was a lot more strain once she became a teenager, since they expected her to play into traditional gender roles and expect to become a housewife for someone, and that's never been how Madison rolls. Still, they weren't bad parents, and she genuinely does love them.

Ophelia: Incredibly close, to the point that losing them absolutely devastated her.

Gia: Very close at first, but it fractured after her younger sister's leukemia diagnosis and eventual death. It was never really the same after that, and only fractured further after everything with HYDRA.

💀 - Does your OC have any phobias?

Madison: Not really. She gets incredibly protective of her family - we're talking protective like a wild animal, she goes feral when they're in danger - but this isn't exactly a phobia.

Ophelia: Not a phobia either, but she's definitely a lot more wary about the multiverse after everything that happened with Charybdis. She's also a lot more wary of herself - Charybdis is a version of her, they're the same person at the core of it, and she's inwardly terrified of going down the same path as Charybdis.

Gia: Strangers. After HYDRA, she develops a strong case of agoraphobia, particularly with the anxiety that HYDRA could still be watching/targeting her through undercover agents, and anyone she encounters on the street could be one of those agents.

🎓 - How long have you had the OC?

Madison: Since 2020, I think? I started writing her story in mid-2021, but I think she was marinating in my mind for a while first.

Ophelia: Since December of 2021, after No Way Home came out.

Gia: A few months, since somewhere in the realm of November or December of 2023. I was in rehearsals for Little Shop of Horrors at that point, and all that time being cooped up in the puppets got me thinking about the codependence between Seymour and Twoey, which led to me thinking about an OC who's also linked to a plant (to both the success and detriment of their life), and Gia was born

[sailoropal]

My Pinned Bio / Summary

Hallo // This pinned bio makes it easier to explain myself, this blog, and what content will likely be spammed with it. As well as reaching out to other fans also thriving here, heh.

I must quickly clarify I do interact with 18+ content, so please, minors DNI and everyone else, proceed with caution; however, this post is SFW, hah!

About Me:

I go by Fae or Spec (She/They).

I am 24 years old - ENFP and queer [not a shock considering my sailor moon core]

A recent postgrad burnout woman who has resigned from the stressful 9 - 5 STEM grad job I had to now work as a disability student support worker. There's a lot more flexibility in this role that allows me to have passions and personality outside my Degrees and Academics, haha!

Regarding birth charts and for the sake of astrology I am Taurus Sun, Capricorn Moon, and Sagittarius Rising.

I have ASD - Like many women, I was late diagnosed due to many in my community dismissing my observational signs as "quirks" and "A wee bit away with the fae". I masked a lot in my life, but I realize it is essential for my mental health to unmask where possible.

My first language is Gàidhlig; later in my life, I learned English when I wanted to move from the Scottish isles, where I grew up. So, if you have a DnD/OC character influenced by Celtic Myth/Gaelic culture, I am happy to give advice and commentary.

Anime/Shows:

Attack on Titan, Avatar-The Last Airbender, Aggretsuko, Anohana, Bleach, Berserk, Chainsaw Man, Devilman Crybaby, Digimon, Dororo, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Made in Abyss, My Hero Academia, Naruto, One Piece, Pokémon, Sailor Moon, Shiki, Yu-gi-oh!, Yu Yu Hakusho, Lovely Complex, My Love Story!!, Wonder Egg Priority, Romantic Killer, Toradora, RWBY, ROTTMNT, Adventure Time, Bee and Puppycat, and a TON of K-dramas/C-dramas/J-dramas - atm I am watching a K-drama called The Glory and my most absolute fave is Strong Girl Bong-Soon.

I am starting the likes of Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer, and I am open to more recommendations!

Video Games:

Animal Crossing, Bloodborne, Baldur's Gate 3, Fire Emblem, Bravely Default, Cult of the Lamb, Dark Souls, Diablo, Hades, Stardew Valley, Rune Factory, Monster Hunter, Minecraft, Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, The Sims, Style Savvy DS series (Dress-up Games are my weakness), Pokémon, Super Princess Peach (also looking forward to the switch release!)

Okay, I am also obsessed with Dating Horror Games:

John Doe, Something's Wrong with Sunny Day Jack, DachaBo!, Frost Bite, My Dear Hatchet Man, House Hunted.

(I know Your Boyfriend is a popular one - the game is fun, but I am not a fan of the creator.)

I intend to play the likes of Touch Starved, Courtin' Cowboys, Snaggemon, Trapped with Jester, and more, heh. :^

Books:

I read a lot of Fanfiction alongside actual works by Elizabeth Lim, Sue Lynn Tan, Sarah J Maas, Judy Lin - Anything that is literally Chinese Mythic Based Plot, and Fae Smut, if I gotta be honest with you PFFT. I am on Booktok a ton, so recommendations are appreciated while I organise my Kindle.

Roleplay/Writing:

I have been roleplaying/writing since about 15/16, so I have a few years of writing experience creating OCs and writing out RP Ideas. I went on an extended hiatus as I finished university and took time off to deal with my mental health as I settled into a new routine. I am currently not outright seeking RP partners as I slowly find the time to write again, but I am open to people reaching out to discuss their OCs and RP ideas!

I am such a recluse who will binge fanart, headcanons, and fanfics - I love listening to people talk about their OCs, Fanfics, AUs, and the works. If you share my hyperfixations, don't hesitate to infodump! I might get distracted and forget to respond- but I WILL respond.

[cad-faoi-maeglin]

Hi there! I’ve been studying Gàidhlig on Duolingo for a while now and wanted to expand to Irish to understand the similarities and differences, only to find that there’s a bunch of weird AI/computer voice stuff in there that doesn’t match correct pronunciations at all. Would you have any advice on where to go to hear some proper voice samples? For Scottish Gaelic there’s learngaelic.scot which has lots of lessons and videos. I’m looking for something similar for Irish. No worries if you can’t think of anything! <3

Anon, I am so sorry! I answered this in my head and forgot that that isn't the same thing as actually posting an answer XD

I love the idea of looking at the two languages together! I was in Scotland late last year and I got so much entertainment just out of reading signs in Scottish Gaelic because so much of it was so similar to Irish and then suddenly there'd be a word or phrase that would be totally different. It was interesting to understand so much of a language I have never actually learned!

In terms of resources, I'm afraid I don't really know somewhere that does short learner clips. I learned my basics in school so I'm not very knowledgable about online resources... Of course there's most likely people on youtube who do lessons but I don't watch any so I can't reccomend anyone specific.

However! A few things to try are: 1) Teanglann: It's an Irish-English/English-Irish dictionary (it also has helpful grammar stuff) but! more relevant to your ask it has a recording of an actual person saying many, though not all, of the words! For example, the listing for Irish (language):

The site actually covers three dictionaries, those are the first three tabs. The fourth tab is grammar relevent to the word (declensions and conjugations, very helpful!). The last tab is pronunciation and covers the three main dialects. It's really helpful and quite interesting to hear the differences between the regions. Ulster Irish (the top one) should be the most similar to Gàidhlig. I love this site.

2) Irish Langauge Television: TG4 is the Irish language channel and much of its programming can be viewed online outside of Ireland. Some things are geolocked but not all. It has English subtitles, though annoyingly Irish subtitles seem to be a bit more case by case... And even if you feel a full on drama or documentary is a bit too much yet, there's short films and children's television or even the news which is obviously read out in a particularly clear way.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, but hopefully someone who follows me might have a better idea of resources?

Best of luck with your learning!

[namecantbeblank]

I've been thinking a lot so here's a little ramble.

I don't find this likely happening with QSMP, but with the rise of projects like it, I hope that Celtic languages get thrown into the mix, or that it would at least inspire more fluent speakers to create more content.

As an Irish person myself, I wish there was more content in our historical languages, but the fact that there's such a small population that actually speaks them fluently it makes it more difficult.

That's the issue, too. There's so few that stream regularly. Of the streamers I do know about, Yunitex (Irish/Gaelige), Cluicheamaid (Scottish Gaelic/Gàidhlig), YnChwarae (Welsh/Cymraeg), and one who speaks Breton, I think only like two are active.

I'm sure this is the case for a lot of communities and languages, so I just think it would be really cool to see more underrated ones in a group setting like this. Would raise more awareness and interest in stuff like that

ANYWAYS guys back to regularly scheduled program

[nehswritesstuffs]

Fic writer ask! 2, 17, 18, 23

Also good ones!

2. Do you read/reread your own fics?

Yes. All the time. Constantly. Whether it's because I'm continuing said fic or I just want to read it. This is why fic must almost always be self-indulgent, because if you're not writing the stuff you want to read, then what's the point? Sometimes I'll find old typos and may or may not fix them dependent on my mood lol.

17. What’s something you’ve learned about while doing research for a fic?

A lot of what I've done is built a lot of extra bulk in subjects I already knew stuff about, such as the effects of WWII on the UK or cryptids/fantasy creatures, but then also gain completely new things like Scots Gaelic. Kinda. Tha beagan Gàidhlig agam. What hinders me is spelling lolololol orz

18. What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic?

There are a lot of ones, honestly (like the entirety of in Want of An Heir lol), but I'll go with a more recent fic: Father Like Son, Mother Like Daughter, Parent Like Child. There's an entire exchange between Luffy and Law early in the fourth chapter that I just really, really like, but this one in particular gets me, where Law gets in Luffy's face and hisses this line: “Now you also know what it’s like to lose a sibling too soon. Do not disappoint me.” ...because at this juncture, neither of them know the depths of the other's losses. It's part of an exchange that's coming directly after both characters go through a major [partially mutual] loss that they promised themselves would never happen again. It's right before the timeskip too, with them both mourning with very different results, and it's just so fcking good since it shows off not only their mutual ignorance, but how cruel Law is and can be, especially towards Luffy.

23. How do you choose where to end a chapter (if you have multi-chapter works)?

It's like cooking: you do it by feel. Wish I could be more help.

[sugareey-makes-stuff]

Hey Krissy! For the ask game, how about numbers 1 and 3 or 4 from your Where do we go from here? series, please? (which I love to bits) You can do for all of the fics in it or one/some or overall,, anything you like ❣️ Thank you

Hi CBG! Oh gods, I've been meaning to answer this for a while, so now is better than never! I'm glad you're enjoying these little one shots for this whole arc (which will have something added to it later this year since I have 1-2 one shots in progress already). 1: What inspired you to write the fic this way? Where do I even start? You know, when I wanted to get back into writing again in 2020, I need something to motivate me so I thought I’d pick up a prompt table from rarepair_shorts to do that. I had already been drawing Perciver for a while, and I had binge-read everything that existed. But I wanted more content with missing moments and scenes from Percy’s PoV and Oliver’s PoV that loosely followed canon. So, I decided to go make that myself, I guess? I have no chill and I'm self-indulgent. 😂 Rather than writing a bunch of random one shots, I adapted the prompt table as my foundation to make a world where Percy and Oliver are best friends, go through the ups and downs of growing up, break apart and then reunite. Because those are all normal things that happen in life. And they're human. When I was outlining how each prompt would inspire something for a fic, I ended up with a really big doc that became my blueprints for this series. I also decided to say screw it with the "rules," and I've written what I have so far out of order and I've been updating that way too. A lot of my writing ends up being influenced by what I can provide at a given moment, and sometimes, chronological order doesn't always work (and can hinder the creative juices). When I finally posted up Little did I know in May 2021 (because yeah, it took a year to finish, edit and have the bravery to post something I wrote after not having done that in a looonggg time), I had low expectations. And I knew there wasn't nearly as much traction for rare pairs as there are for common ships. But I'm grateful I wrote something for myself, and I'm still proud of how it came out. LOL, little did I know that people would eat that story right up and want more. The rest is history. 😉 3: What’s your favorite line of narration? From Love me like that:

But there was something about the way Percy pronounced and stressed syllables so smoothly in Gàidhlig that made his blood run hot.

I adore this line because the fact that Percy knows how to speak Scottish Gaelic, and that Oliver likes that a lot gives me all the feels (and being able to incorporate Gaelic in this fic put some of my knowledge to good use!). 4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue? From There's a guiding light, this is more of a dialogue excerpt:

“You’re already an expert though,” Percy stated, lips quirking up as the husky nuzzled his fingers before taking off. “Only because I know what to focus on now,” Oliver admitted, an unexpected flush colouring his cheeks. “Your turn.”

This right here, just shows how much Oliver cares (and loves) Percy. As a friend, and human being, and this is what I appreciate about these two. 💖 Thanks for the asks! ___ Have more fan fic q's? Feel free to ask away!

[thewomanwhoboughttheworld]

Who am I

Hello to everyone who wants to read this silly little introduction (which will be ongoing, as I may forget something or want to add something in the future). I'd just like to tell y'all who I am and, let's be honest, to have a place in which I can easily reach things I've published.

This will probably be boring, I already know that, but let's still put it out there. Ongoing post, as I may be adding something more as things come to mind.

So, the basics:

I'm V. or Val, your choice.

I'm a she/her.

I'm cis, asexual and I don't want to define my romantic orientation - if I have to, I'd say queer romantic.

I was born in 1995, so I'm definitely an adult and definitely that confused generation between Millennials and Gen Z. I still consider myself a Millennial, tho.

My big three are Sagittarius sun (birthday is on 14/12), Sagittarius rising, Virgo Moon.

I'm Italian, so English isn't my first language.

However, I have a BD in Foreign Languages and Literatures and a MD in Music, Film and Theatre.

I can speak four languages: Italian (first), English, German and French.

I'm learning Gàidhlig and Cymraeg on Duolingo!

I work in the theatre! Not an actor or something artistic, I work in the offices, but still!!

I like writing. I'm not very good or consistent, but sometimes I like to indulge in it. I want to try and occasionally write something here.

If you get to talk to me in my DMs, it won't be long until I start talking about my cats. That's it, I'm one of those terrible people whose first thought in the morning is their cats. I have three: one is a senior who, in July 2024, is turning 19, and the others are 7 and 4. My little spawns of Hell ♡

Dream holiday destination? Japan. I'm sure one day I'll have enough money to go there.

Something more about my likes and dislikes:

My favourite band is Queen. I love a lot of other bands, like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd etc., but Queen will always hold a special place in my heart.

My favourite singer is David Bowie. As for Queen, I love a lot of singers - Queen members themselves, George Michael, Harry Styles... But Bowie's got that je ne sais quoi that makes him special. I even wrote my MD thesis on him.

I generally enjoy reading classics more than new books. I don't think reading classics makes you superior, I think it's just something that has to do with what you're used to and what resonates with you the most. After all, it's all a matter of personal taste!

My favourite genres I think are horror, gothic, science fiction and I don't know. I mean, if I see something I like, I will read it.

My favourite writer must be Stephen King, though I love Edgar Allan Poe unconditionally. I know they are both problematic in certain ways, but what can I do? I just lose myself in their pages, especially in King's books.

Now this could make people see me in a bad light, but I can't help what I feel. One of my favourite books, one of my comfort books is Stephen King's IT. I KNOW, I KNOW but bear with me. I know it's about an alien eating and unaliving children and I am well aware of how problematic that scene is. But I can't help loving The Losers, feeling like they're my friends too. I love how friendship is portrayed, how much emphasis is put on trust and love, and how humanity is depicted. It's better to cut it short because I could talk about this book for hours lmao.

Back to the light - hah, you wish - my favourite playwright is Bertolt Brecht.

Some of my favourite films: Labyrinth (THE David Bowie is just *chef's kiss*), Jesus Christ Superstar (have seen it on stage with Ted Neeley, I'm so in love with this musical I can't put it into words), Jojo Rabbit, Young Frankenstein.

Some of my favourite series: Glee (extremely problematic, but you have to understand I was the right age when it came out and it reminds me of my teenage years. I can't stop loving it), Good Omens, Sherlock, Doctor Who, Bojack Horseman, Happy Days, Stranger Things, Barry.

I may be a little too much in love with David Tennant, but I mean. Who isn't?

I will rage if anyone dares say anything disrespectful in regards to Henry Winkler. That man is too sweet for his own sake and I love him so much.

Master posts under here, so that I too can find it more accessible if I want to get there:

Good Omens headcanons, incorrect quotes, edits & co

Fanfictions

[charlestrask]

love learning gàidhlig and coming across words that are so similar in sound/meaning to english words it makes me want to look thru the etymology to see if they're actually related. like falamh (empty) and fallow. probably some connection there. tìoraidh (bye) and saying cheerio as goodbye. this one im 100% sure has no etymological connection but its still a fun coincidence that they sound so similar. gu leòr (enough/a lot) and galore. this one almost certainly has an etymological connection. i also like not looking any of these up and just guessing.

similarly i like the trend that older languages like gàidhlig have where they dont actually have a word for a modern thing so they just take the word and write it like you would in that language. telebhisean. rèidio. plèana. trèana. language is fun.

[anxious-art-block]

LU Headcanons Part 3: I Thought of These While Watching Baymax

SCOTTISH LEGEND

“Aye.” “Wur youse vaccinated wi’ a gramophone needle?!” “A wee devil more like.” “Yer aff yer heid, Wild.” “It’s pure dead brilliant!” “She was a bonnie lass…” “Speak O’ the Devil.” “Aye right!” “Moan fur a wee drink, Cap’n?”

My grandfather is Scottish so these are things I’ve ACTUALLY heard him say

Also, her Hylian is based on Gàidhlig to further prove this 

Vegetarian Sky

When the Chain is on Tetra’s ship for the first time, Wind gathers the crew into singing The Wellerman 

When Four is arguing with someone he stands on the nearest stump, table, or chair to reach their height or taller. He needs to assert dominance.

While they all have their “Titles” since they’re all named Link, how ‘bout some nicknames?

Twilight: Cub/Rancher/Twi Time: Dad/Old Man/Sir Wild: Pup/Gremlin/Champion/Princess Wind: Sailor/Young One/Ghostie Four: Smithy/Munchkin/Artificer Warriors: Captain/Princey/Pretty Boy/Wars Legend: Vetertan/A Sheòid [by Ravio]/Honeybee [by Ravio] Hyrule: Traveler/Roolie/Buttercup Sky: Angel/Darling [by Sun]/Hero

Twi’s Hylian is based on Chinese [I like the idea of him singing Yours Forever from Over the Moon about Midna ;-;]

Legend just… doesn’t mention that he’s the prince of his Hyrule. Like it literally just slips his mind until they’re there and he talks to Fable and it just slips out, and he’s like “oh did I not mention that?” 

Obviously, due to the number of musical instruments, challenges, and quests in the Zelda universe, people have given their HCs about the boys’ musical talents, so here’s my 2 cents:

Fuck the idea that having the hero's spirit also means being tone-deaf, what about the Chain being able to sing and the ZELDAS CAN’T

TAKE THAT HYLIA

Hyrule doesn’t sing a lot, it would draw too much attention in his Hyrule so he chooses not to, but he has a very haunting air to his voice [I use Ashley Serena as a reference to how he would sound] and sounds lovely when he does

And because of his travels, he’s a very good dancer! Like, REALLY good. He learned all sorts of stuff from the places he’s been, and simply enjoys doing it which only made the skill grow

TWILIGHT SOUNDS LIKE JEON JUNGKOOK 

It was first discovered that he could sing so well when he was about 13 when he was on the ranch just singing aloud to the goats and Ilia heard him and told e v e r y o n e 

Legend has a smooth and deep voice, can sing in like 6 different languages, and can play like every instrument invented 

Srsly u could probably give it a brand new one and would probably pick it up within like a minute 

Warriors: This piano costs more than your house

I will continue to draw Twi in JKs outfits, so feel free to drop me ones u wanna see him in [like send an ask or smth]

Anyway

Time and Malon will make little duets often, with him on his ocarina and her singing, or them both singing just cause they love each other *sobs*

Ok enough music stuff on to the shit y’all care about 

Wild and Flora were goofing off and trying on each other’s royal dress and guard uniform then looked in the mirror and both just kinda went  “Oh.”

This is me saying they’re both trans [icons]

I really like the nicknames thing for the Chain & Co. so my idea is that Wild calls themselves that even after the journey, and that their Zelda ditches the name ‘Zelda’ and changes it to Florian 

“So, what’s your Princess Zelda like?” “Oh, I don’t have a Princess Zelda.” “???” “No, I have a Prince Florian.”

I also demand - platonic or romantic - that we keep the absolute CHAOS that those two have

LITERALLY TRIED TO MAKE WILD EAT A FROG IN CANON WHERE IS THAT ENERGY Y’ALL

W H E R E  I S  I T

Gives Wild his old royal dress and Wild cries

Twilight has really sharp K9s [c’mon there had to be SOME side effects to being a wolf for a while]

And is secretly a cat person

Four loves Wild’s Hyrule ‘cause of the surplus of minerals and mining

Time calls the Chain “His boys” 

Sky will take random sticks or logs he finds and carve small designs into them when he’s bored, as well as idly strumming his lyre 

You're welcome

[winterwrites23]

What are your headcannons for the Auld Alliance?

I don't know much about the Auld Alliance so I'll go in general. 

They were both teenagers when the alliance was formed.

Obviously, they bonded over their dislike of England.

France was Scotland's first big crush and it was hilarious/adorable to watch a cocky, arrogant teenager Scotland turn into a bashful schoolboy. 

Aside of culture and cuisine, they taught each other’s language, but Scotland was a hopeless cause because of his strong accent.

But that didn’t stop him from one day try to impress France by saying: “Tu es la plus belle personne que j’ai jamais rencontrée.” But rather than say ‘plus belle’, he said ‘poubelle’ so he basically ended up declaring that France was ‘the most trash person he ever met’ instead of ‘the most beautiful person’. 

Amidst the sheer confusion from that declaration, France couldn’t deny he was completely endeared by the attempt (and probably the moment he fell for him). Later, France would do the same and say something in almost perfect Gàidhlig. Scotland had a goofy smile on his face for the rest of the day.

Once they exchanged rings to chase off human suitors and ‘forgot’ to take it off for several decades. Probably caused a jealous streak from England when he saw the rings.

They fooled around throughout the centuries, but preferably stayed as close friends, even when their duty as Nations put them in opposite sides.

Though that didn’t stop them from shamelessly flirt with each other.

In other words, the Auld Alliance is where they found the support and shoulder to lean on they didn’t know they needed. Which surprises a lot of people nowadays because they’re complete opposite: one who likes fancy things, dresses to the nines and be pampered and the other who lives a frugal life with an eye-gouging weird wardrobe. Somehow they make it work.

[ayeforscotland]

I was born in Scotland, raised speaking gàidhlig and had only one mark against my scottish identity: Irn-Bru makes me sick. But then I saw Irn-Bru 1901 in the local shop and not only does is taste wonderful but it does not make me ill, so I can finally be complete in my identity.

There’s a lot more to being Scottish than drinking Irn Bru, despite how much I meme about it

[practically-an-x-man]

do your OCs that speak other languages have specific words/speech quirks/speech patterns that drift into English? (for example Lea says "saa" 「さぁ」 as a filler word instead of "um" or "well")

Oooh, okay, this is fascinating! I wish I had a better answer for this one honestly, but I don't know enough filler words/linguistic trends in other languages to answer this one 100% accurately. I did my best, though.

Well, Robin's first language is technically ASL, so she used to accidentally switch her grammar around or drop words because she was translating ASL into English and it doesn't really have filler words. She also had a much more pronounced Deaf accent as a kid. She doesn't have that so much as an adult, mainly because going into theatre gave her a lot of classes on diction and enunciation to be heard from the stage, but if she's distracted those old habits will slip out a little more (or she'll just plain switch back to ASL, it's easier).

Rae grew up with a lot of languages, and tends to adopt a few more trends while she's living in a certain country (it's mostly unconscious, but also helps her drop her foreigner's accent in the language she's working on). She grew up primarily on Scottish Gaelic, though - like Robin, her accent gets thicker when she's distracted or tired, and once in a while (again, if she's tired, normally she's careful about speaking since she's a translator) she'll start a sentence with "tha" before correcting herself - Gàidhlig starts most of its sentences with the tense at the beginning of the sentence, rather than at the middle like English. She'll catch herself enough if the sentence was more complex or starts with a verb, but those simpler tense words sometimes slip through.

Jasper, as I said before, is Cajun and will slip into Cajun French when they're frustrated. I think they also slip into it a little more with throwaway pet names or casual phrases - calling someone cher without realizing it, muttering "oh, pauve ti bete" ("poor thing") when a young patient is in pain, saying "À r’oir" instead of "goodbye", things like that. They don't do it when they're uncomfortable, since they're a little worried they'd be made fun of/not taken seriously and so watch their words, but it comes out a little more once they're comfortable.

Ophelia speaks Italian... but honestly I don't know quite enough about the Italian language to understand its trends. Though when she was a kid, her S sounds did come out a little more like Z's, especially if her Nonna was in town that week.