#not synesthete culture

[synesthete-culture-is]

is there any sort of synesthesia flag/symbol?

I'm not sure! Let's see.

From a brief online search there doesn't appear to be any unified flag or symbol. There seem to be multiple flags that tie synesthesia into gender identity, but again, not one single flag.

Now I'm wondering what a unified symbol would look like. Synesthesia is so varied that it might be difficult... maybe something incorporating an arrow, to represent the transformation of one sensory input into another output? The synesthesia-gender identity flags mostly incorporate rainbows from my first glances, which makes sense given that most people think of color associations when they think of synesthesia - but again, synesthesia is so varied, and not all synesthesia involves color associations. We're a wide group!

[aro-culture-is]

synesthete aro culture is romance tasting too sweet and fuzzy and dry for your liking

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[plural-culture-is]

synesthetic plural culture is changing your profile and then realizing you feel a little like a different person after looking at the colors too long

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[shpjarkley]

The Best Prose Writer of the 21st Century Is Writing About Space Lesbians

I don't think I have ever read an author as fearless as Tamsyn Muir. If I have, they have never had the talent to pull off what she does. Her imagery is synesthetic, her syntax is Arachnean, her sentences are dissonant like a maestro's symphony. She's Michael Chabon in one line and Douglas Adams in the next. She's Poe and she's Pukicho. She's the new Shakespeare, complete with sex jokes and pop culture references. The absurdity that her byzantine grammar and archaic language are as parsable as they are visceral is only matched by the absurdity of successfully landing emotional beats that are punctuated by memes (my Alecto prediction is that I will be left sobbing by a sentence that contains "ligma balls").

Muir uses the English language for everything it's worth, reinvents it as a self-aware mosaic of literary history that stretches from antiquity to twenty-first century slang. She has to. The enormity of human love and grief is too vast to be contained within all the languages of the world, let alone one. The praxis of The Locked Tomb mirrors that of Catch-22, for they are united in their foundational tenet: Every atom in the universe put together cannot hold the pain that a single human soul can. Thus time, reality, language - those inadequate vessels of our sorrows - are bent and warped by the gravitational pull of a broken heart. To say it in Muir's own words: "Of such banality was grief made."

[self-dx-culture-is]

Welcome Post

This blog is inclusive of everyone who has a self-dx! All submissions should start with "Self dx/diagnosed culture is" (or a more specific version, such as "self dx autistic culture is").

I will ignore any posts asking me to diagnose them (as I'm not qualified), and I request that no one ask for help in self-diagnosis either. If I can find reliable resources, I will link them below, under the cut.

Feel free to vent, but let me now so I can tag it appropriately. If you would like, you may also request that reblogs and/or comments be turned off for that post.

Anons are welcome!

EDIT:

Since we've been getting some lately, I wanted to state that while I have nothing against sending people financial aid, that is not the purpose of this blog and we personally are uncomfortable sending money over the internet due to paranoia. If we start getting too many, we probably will start deleting them as it's somewhat stressful to even post them for others to see the request. This is not directed at anyone and is just a general statement so everyone is aware.

---

Claimed Anons may be found here(link)!

My Extensive (/sarc) DNI

NSFW content and blog followers (this makes us very uncomfortable)

If you come here just to spread hate or fakeclaiming, including anyone who uses "narc/histrionic/antisocial/borderline abuse" or uses "[all Cluster B terms]", "delusional", "insane", etc. as insults or otherwise misuses them.

Anyone who encourages harm relating to any disorder (e.g. pro ana, pro contact)

Transid (Transabled, transage, transrace, etc.). People with BIID are not included in this and are welcomed to interact.

(More may be added if incidents arise.)

About the Blog Owner:

We are an endogenic system and may be collectively called (the) Werewolf Pack. Our collective pronouns are She/They.

We have professionally diagnosed Amblyopia, Sensory Processing Disorder, Anxiety, Depression, PTSD, and Avoidant Personality Disorder. We have self-diagnosed Synesthesia and Visual Snow Syndrome, and are questioning Schizotypal Personality Disorder, Schizoid Personality Disorder, Autism, and ADHD.

Base Account: @kpopwerewolf(link)

Tagging System:

All posts will either be tagged as either "self dx culture is" or "not culture is"

All triggers are tagged as: "tw [trigger]"

Vents are tagged as both: "tw vent" & "vent"

Positivity posts are tagged as: "positivity"

Negative posts are tagged as both: "negative" & "negativity"

Discourse/Syscourse will be tagged as: "tw discourse / "tw syscourse"

Tagging for promo: @paranoia-culture-is, @abnormalcultureis, @ndcultureis, @adhd-culture-is, @adhd-culture--is, @autism-culture-is. @autistic-culture-is, @depression-culture-is, @disabled-culture-is, @dyslexia-culture-is, @dyscalculia-culture-is, @no-empathy-culture-is, @ocd-culture-is, @posic-culture, @tourettes-culture-is, @schizospec-culture-is, @schizotypalpd-culture-is, @schizoid-culture-is, @schizopositivity, @synesthete-culture-is, @cluster-a-pds, @cluster-c-pds-culture-is, @cluster-b-culture-is, @ppd-culture-is, @aspd-culture, @bpd-culture-is, @hpdcultureis, @narcissisticpdcultureis, @avpdcultureis, @dpdcultureis

(If you want your link removed let me know!)

Resources:

DSM-5.pdf - Google Drive(link)

(Plurality:)

https://morethanone.info/(link)

What Is Plurality? – Plurality Resource(link)

powertotheplurals.com | Resource & articles for everymany - Dissociative identity disorder and other forms of plurality.(link)

More will be added as found! Feel free to suggest resources you've found helpful yourself!

[echo-lover]

Hello there!

A few of my favorite Star Wars headcanons about clones

• Parental instinct

I've noticed that some clones have a highly developed paternal instinct.

I think Cut with his little family is not only one.

Hunter showed concern for childrens safety from the very beginning, like Kaleb and Gungi (surviving Wookie Jedi). He looks after Omega like his own daughter, as do the rest of the Bad Batch. Hunter definitely plays the role od father in his team as a responsible and a little overprotective leader.

Echo is the most mature in my opinion and in my eyes he will always be a mommy.

Waxer immediately felt the need to care for the newly met child and had no problem with hugging or comforting little Numa when she started crying. I just know that he loved children and secretly dreamed of starting a family, but he put himself entirely at being a soldier and protecting those who can not protect themselves.

Even Boil had grown strong bond owith Numa after some time and wanted to protect her at all costs.

I think Rex would also make a great father figure. He felt a strong need to take care of others. He acted as a mentor or an older brother for Ahsoka, and when he met Omega, he immediately got in touch with her. It's worth mentioning how he immediately stood between her and Bad Batch when he found out that the boys hadn't removed their chips yet. He remembered perfectly well what happened during Order 66. I'm sure he felt guilty that he had almost executed his longtime friend who trusted him with all her heart. He also felt responsible for his brothers who died in this tragic event.

I think this paternal instinct comes straight from Jango Fett's genes, who cared for Boba and loved him, and adopt him as his son. Jango asked specifily for him and knew from the very beggining that he want to adopt this kid. The Mandalorian culture is known for being easily attached to children, and they often decided to adopt kids, as fathers and mothers, and raise them like their own.

• Overprotective Hunter

Hunter is, in my opinion, the most sensitive and emotionally mature of the Bad Batch. He can read the feelings of others, especially those closest to him, so he always knew when something was wrong. Perhaps his enhanced senses have something to do with this.

He also has a tendency to be overprotective.

As a leader, he put the good of the squad before his own. I'm sure that running and hiding from the Empire, the constant pressure on his shoulders, was very tiring for him.

Hunter tried to protect Omega and his brothers the best way he could. That's why, the loss of any member of his family was a hard shoot in the heart for him. He sees it as a personal failure, as he failed his loved ones. He may start to think that Crosshair's words as true, that maybe he shouldn't be the leader, but he hasn't told anyone about his feelings and his own doubts.

But I think Echo knew... Echo knew that Hunter was worried and tired of the constant responsibility.

• Hunter and his senses

Hunter is a synesthete. This means that what he feels with one of his senses also affects the others. For example: he sees sounds, he can taste colors or numbers have colors for him. His synesthesia is a side effect of his enhanced senses.

Due to his heightened senses, Hunter also felt pain more intense than the other clones.

I still remember the moment Omega snuggled up to him after rescuing her when she was kidnapped by Cad Bane. Hunter winced in pain for a moment as his chest wound still was fresh. He had been shot with a blaster and almost get himself k!lled, and yet the most important thing to him was Omega. He ignored his own discomfort and focused fully on Omega, making sure nothing happened to his little girl. The expression of pain quickly turned into relief.

• Family

Some time after Omega joined the Bad Batch, they agreed on the role of family members:

Omega is their little sister, of course Hunter play the role of a father, while Echo is hailed as a mother. Our grumpy little bean muttered something about this being stupid idea at first, but in the end he liked being called mommy Echo.

Echo is a great addition to this crazy squad. He is the most experienced and can keep his family in line. It will never stop to amaze me how much good and love is hidden in the heart of a man who has never known a moment of comfort in his life and to whom no one has ever shown love. His physical and mental health were very bad after the events at Skako Minor. There was almost nothing left of the inexperienced Reg from the 501st Legion. Despite this, he will always remain my favorite character in all of Star Wars universe.

Wrecker is basically a second baby and needs to be looked after more than Omega, because if you let him out of your sight for a moment, he'll probably make a big mess.

Wrecker had the mind of a child trapped in the body of a large man. He is strong and could cause fear, but he have a soft heart. He cared for those closest to him, especially Omega. When his little sister was having a bad day and was sad, Wrecker was the first to make her laugh and even shared Lula, his beloved doll, with her.

I like to think that Tech and Crosshair are sort of twins (like Echo and Fives) they're a great duo and I miss their interaction so much. Tech, as the wise one, did not get in the way of the others, offering his advice when needed. Crosshair, on the other hand, although he seems cold and very distant, I think he would quickly like Omega and become a supportive, slightly sarcastic brother to her.

• Crosshair is not as cold as he looks

Crosshair hated being different, and called a freak from the very beggining. All his life he tried to blend in, to do his job well as a soldier, and as a member of the team. He didn't show it, but he was touched by other people's words about their group, different look, and specific abilities. That's why he hated Regs so much, he wanted to prove his worth to them. And also to himself.

When I saw Crosshair for the first time, I thought that he must have quite low self-esteem and become nervous in stressful situations. Whenever he took off his helmet, we saw him immediately reach for a toothpick. He felt the need to have something in his mouth to relieve the stress and tension in his body. He always seemed to me to be the type of perfectionist who pays great attention to detail and will practice until he achieves perfection in a specific field.

Despite his specific style, Crosshair wasn't as cold as he seemed. He really cared about Omega, and I'm sure that if they had the chance to spend more time together, Crosshair would like the girl and treat her like his little sister. He will destroy anyone who tries to harm Omega.

I also think that Crosshair secretly loves animals, especially cats. I imagined that it started with Wrecker once bring a white, homeless kitten to the Marauder. The animal started fawning at Crosshair's legs and refused to leave him even for a second. In the end, Cross liked it, petted him and cuddled with him, and even let him sleep in bed with him. Having a pet was a stress reliever for him. He named his kitten Alpine.

• The past still hurts, just as much as before

Echo often had terrible nightmares. We can see in the Bad Batch, that his PTSD was still very strong. Every contact with medical equipment could trigger a severe panic attack and anxiety. Fortunately, Omega was there to support him at the time. I'm always touched that even though Echo didn't know Omega back then, he trusted her enough that her presence really helped him come back to reality and understand that he was safe.

I'm sure that he had nightmares about being tortured and locked at Skako Minor, and also dreamed of Fives. I think because of this he may have even been afraid to fall asleep, and as a result he slept very little.

He missed his brother so much and blamed himself for not being there when he died. Echo was afraid of being locked up and deprived of help, so he tried to get involved as much as possible in the fight against the Empire. I think that was one of the main reasons he went back to Rex.

I also think that Echo and Tech had long conversations and spent a lot of time together while repairing or piloting the ship. They got along the best of the whole team and only with Tech, Echo felt relaxed enough to be able to talk about his feelings and problems he was struggling with. Tech never asked, like the overprotective Hunter, he just listened, and that was enough for Echo to discover a soul mate similar to his fallen brother, Fives.

I imagine one night Tech found out that Echo couldn't sleep and asked him what happened. Echo was so surprised that someone actually asked him how he felt that he didn't know what to say at first. He finally decided to open up and confess what was on his mind. Tech understood him and they became very close from then on. That's why Echo suffered so much after losing Tech. He felt as if he had lost half of his soul again.

I imagine that, Echo was the only one from the Bad Batch to still use Mando'a. He and Fives used to speak this language among themselves. Fives nicknamed him Ech'ika (little Echo). Now, Echo used to call Omega ad'ika. After Fives death, Echo sang an old anthem - Vode an (Brothers all) to honor the memory of his fallen brother. They had learned it when they were still cadets and used to sing it together before going into battle and all 501st knew the lyrics. This is one of my favorite headcanons.

I'm sure that Echo got a tattoo of a five in honor of Fives' death. In this way he always carried his brother with him and wanted to honor his memory.

• Nightmares

Omega took a while to get used to her new home after leaving Kamino. I imagine she often had nightmares that made her afraid to go to sleep alone. Hunter saw that and let the little girl sleep with him. He told her some stories about the planets they had visited on missions, and the bond between them grew stronger. He didn't admit it, but he had fond memories of those times together.

• Fives and his twin

If Fives survived, he would be the first to side with Rex to save Echo. Seeing his beloved brother alive, but connected to computer and badly hurt, he would be both happy and devastated at the same time. Fives would do absolutely anything to be reunited with his beloved twin, even if the whole Galaxy was against him and thought he's crazy.

After being rescued, Fives would make sure Echo was fewling comfortable and help him overcome his PTSD episodes. Then he would join the Bad Batch with Echo, because he didn't wanted him to feel different. Despite some problems, the Bad Batch accepted them as their own and they became very close, like family. I pictured them sitting around fire and how they shared stories from various missions together.

Then Fives saw that Echo was trully happy. He hugged him close, and when Echo asked what happened, Fives simply replied, "I'm just happy you're here, vod'ika. That's all."

• Astronomy lesson

Tech taught Omega astronomy. How to read sky maps and name constellations. They often sat together at night, watching the sky. Hunter would get a little angry when they stay up too late, fearing that both his brother and little sister would be sick, but his anger faded quickly when he saw the smile on Omega's face. Papa Hunter would do anything to make his little girl happy.

• Two captains

Howzer is Rex's twin, like Fives and Echo. They are giving the same vibe. They trained together from an early age, still as cadets, and then the war separated them. They are also very similar in character. Courageous and great leaders, they do not abandon their people until the very end. I feel they would get along pretty well.

• Brothers for life

Cody was like an older brother to Rex. His ore'vod. He trusted him the most of all the clones.They were inseparable from the beginning of the war and became very close after the Umbara ARC. I imagine Cody was comforting a devastated Rex. He knew perfectly well that under the mask of captain's determination there was a lot of pain and suffering after loss of many brothers. They were both good people who saw a lot of evil and death in their lives. They carried mourning in their hearts and finaly were able tolet go all their emotions. It was the first time Rex had let tears flow in his brother's arms. He felt loved and safe, and Cody didn't let him go for a long time. From this moment, they looked at each other a bit differently, carefully analyzing the other's emotions and making sure that everything was okay. Besides being strong and serious leaders, they were caring and loving brothers on the inside.

Also, I just know that they were having small competition. The 501st and 212th were competing against each other as to which legion/batalion was more effective in combat. General Kenobi and Anakin secretly supported this fun game.

• Suffering medic

Kix put a lot of pressure on himself as a medic. He wanted to save as many lives as possible and not let a single soldier die. He always fought to the very end, refusing to rest until the last man was healed. Each death of his brother was equally painful for him and he treated it as a personal failure.

Umbara left a huge mark on him. He failed. So many of his brothers had fallen, and he worked until he was breathless. Only when he was so exhausted, that he could no longer stand on his own, he agreed to take a break.

Kix sat alone against the wall, looking at his hands, and cried quietly. His hands and armor were covered with the blood of his brothers. Some of them were badly hurt, others didn't make it. Kix wished he were in their place right now and felt guilty. It was hard for him to be the one that survived.

He didn't know how long he sat like that, but at one moment he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and a calm voice that he recognized immediately. It was Jesse. His best friend, his brother... Jesse told him that he did everything he could, that it wasn't his fault, but Kix wasn't convinced.

Then Jesse, seeing how bad his brother's condition was, that he started shaking, without thinking much, he wrapped his arms around Kix, pulling him into a tight hug. The medic did not protest and gave vent to his emotions and helplessness. It was the first time anyone was interested in his health. He had always been responsible for others and now someone was taking care of him. It felt nice, warm... Kix hugged back his brother and they both know that they feel the same way.

[justaboymadeofhoneyandglass]

hey guys just calling the synesthesia community rn

if you did not know there's actually a synesthesia-culture is- blog! its not that big atm but i think it's an amazing idea for the community to get together and learn a bit more about our own and each others experiences!

anyways, heres the blog, i hope the mod doesn't mind me doing this @synesthete-culture-is

[brown-little-robin]

Hello, Robin!! *waves*

Since we got onto the topic of synesthesia, now I’m quite curious: how did you come to find out that you had synesthesia? What did that process look like for you?

Hi, Grace!! *waves back*!

YEAH OKAY SO! It was pretty interesting! In a nutshell, it went: I hear about synesthesia and go "couldn't be me! my color associations must be made-up and only in my head!". I learn that not everyone sees real-time subtitles in their mental space. I learn that not everyone has a mental space. weird, but okay. I keep thinking about it for a few years. I read various synesthete's descriptions of their own experiences, including symptoms that are different from what I initially assumed was The Only True Synesthesia. (useful athough limited terms: "associative" versus "projective" synesthesia.) I talk to a psychology grad student who explains how synesthesia works, physically, in the brain. I finally accept that I process almost everything through the color center of my brain. Every concept, thought, sound, and touch-sensation registers as "color/light" to me. I have two fields of vision, which I cannot turn on or off at will: the physical one and the mental one, and sometimes they overlap. I decide that I definitely have synesthesia.

Basically, the process of finding out I had synesthesia was part paying careful, consistent attention to how my brain works, and part learning how other people's brains work. I had to learn that my experiences were not just What Everyone Does, and come up with my own terms for my own experiences as well as adopting certain existing terms!

Detailed timeline of Robin's Synesthesia Adventure below the cut! <3

1) At age 10, I have an argument with dad where I argue that 5 is green, and he says it's red, and I say NO it's GREEN, and he says "well it could really be either, I could see 5 being green", and I stop, confused, and think ....no, every number is only ONE color (except for the number 2 which is two colors at once), what is he talking about. I could understand 5 being red for dad and green for me, but the idea that 5 was totally unconnected to color, that this argument had no basis in reality? that was weird.

2) years later, I learn the term "synesthesia". Cool! I think. Couldn't be me, since when I look at the number five, it isn't green on the page, exactly. It's just green in my head, and sometimes on the page. Same with all the other letters and numbers, and with sounds and textures. High short sounds only make bright neon flashes in my head, and cello is only brown and fuzzy in my head, and guitar only makes sharp metallic shapes in my head, and so on; it's not like I'm actually seeing sounds. Also, "R" is "red", and "Y" is yellow, and "G" is green, and many such things; if I really had synesthesia, surely the pairings would be totally random and not influenced by my culture or the stuff I grew up with. surely.

3) I read a book from the perspective of a character with synesthesia (who also had magic alien communication powers related to that), and HER symptoms were so extreme that it confirmed me in the belief that I definitely did not have synesthesia, because I don't like, hallucinate! (note: the definition of hallucination is a bit loose. you could argue that I do hallucinate. but anyway.) but I, unlike this fictional character, don't react physically to sound-colors like they're real! Except when things are so loud that I experience them as bright and instinctively close my eyes, but that doesn't count. surely.

4) I get into a research rabbit-trail on synesthesia. synesthesia is so cool! what is it like to have that? from the inside? wait, this sounds like me. wait, you can have associative synesthesia versus projective synesthesia?? what's the difference?? WHY DO I FEEL LIKE I HAVE BOTH ASSOCIATIVE AND PROJECTIVE SYNESTHESIA. I have to be making this up. I don't think these words exactly fit my experiences; I definitely see the colors I associate with things, but not in the real world, not exactly, not all the time. hmm.

5) I learn that most people don't experience ticker-tape synesthesia (involuntarily seeing captions as people speak). It is at THIS point that I first go: yeah, I definitely have SOMETHING. I DEFINITELY have THAT. But then I think, wait, I don't see captions for ALL LANGUAGES. that must mean I'm making it up. when people speak a different language than English around me, all I see is blobs of color, like how it looks when people sing without words, and occasional "captions" when I pick up something that my brain can transliterate into Roman characters. surely this is not synesthesia. this is just... Thinking.

6) After upwards of a year of wondering about this and observing myself, I come to the conclusion that although the specific associations are not intrinsic to my brain (for instance, I develop color associations with friends that I don't have with strangers, and letters correspond to related colors), my synesthesia is both consistent and involuntary; piano was white sparkles five years ago, and it's still white sparkles now. I am not making it up on purpose. It happens whether I want it to or not, and I cannot turn the sensations off when I try. This is just something my brain does. (note: recently I've been having fun watching my brain come up with colors for the Japanese characters I'm learning! ら,る,れ, and ろ are all red :])

6.5) I meet a grad student in psychology at my university who hears that I think I might have synesthesia. He is DELIGHTED to share the current research on exactly how synesthesia forms in the brain with me, out loud and via sketching on a napkin. I kid you not, on a napkin. I learn that synesthesia is a physical process in the brain, and that almost every baby is born with some form of synesthesia; sensational signals (electrical impulses) travel to multiple receiving parts of their brain through your neurons. Eventually, baby brains figure out to send visual signals only to certain areas, such as the color and shape sensing areas, and auditory signals only to auditory receiving, and so on, without triggering the other parts. HOWEVER. Synesthetes' brains never quite lose some of the more convoluted sensational paths. (side note: you can also develop synesthesia later in life because the brain is very flexible and very weird. people sometimes gain it after a brain injury, for instance.) anyway, I, personally, seem to route all of my sensations through the color processing area in the brain. I don't know why, but maybe because it seems to be useful to my memory recall systems! When I try to retrieve memories, the first thing I always think of is the color I associate with a memory/concept/thought. Then my brain uses that color as a key to find the related memory/concept/thought.

Wow.

7) Sharing this experience isn't necessary to have synesthesia, but I realize that my synesthesia significantly affects my functioning; due to having two fields of vision that overlap sometimes (like glass being laid over the real world or something), I get easily overwhelmed/overstimulated. And being overwhelmed causes my "synesthesia vision" to overlap MORE with the real world, causing more distress, causing a spiral of overstimulation that I seek to escape via closing my eyes, putting on music in earbuds, or leaving the room. A lot of what I and others had labeled "being shy", I realized, wasn't that I didn't want to be around people; it was my body getting stressed out and overwhelmed and trying to escape the double vision by any means necessary. It also gave me a tendency to dissociate and ignore my body. I become gentler with myself and learn to work with my brain, including knowing when to embrace discomfort and open my senses versus when to accept that the current overwhelm is not helpful and dissociate intentionally and/or remove myself to a quieter environment.

8) present day! I am still learning more about synesthesia and I love talking to people with different forms of it, or people with related conditions like aphantasia (face-blindness / inability to mentally visualize). I also like to argue about it. April is pale purple and I will FIGHT YOU on that.

if you have any questions or comments or things that stood out to you about this you'd like to exclaim over, please feel free to reply or dm or send an ask about it!! I Love Talking About Synesthesia >:D

[host-cultureis]

Synesthetic host culture is...yeah I just heard how me and the others look. No, it's hard for me to visualize, you're supposed to be just scribbles to me. Yeah I'll still draw you, bro, no worries. (Idk how you look but the others dropped me the information, wish me gl)

And then someone new comes and you go: new colors?? Who are you? (She was an angel and I can visualize him the best👍)

— 📛🗞️

.

[collidescopeeyes]

Can u do general hc with neeko pls:3?

Mostly recovered from my exams and assorted medical fuckery, so back on my regular ish posting schedule! 🎉

Random Relationship Headcanons: Neeko

- She's so whipped it's embarrassing, like you could've been dating for years and she still acts like she has a crush on you, like full watching you from across the room sighing dreamily, blushes when you hold hands levels of head-over-heels. She can't help it, she just likes you so much!

- Some pretty key facts–she’s a magic shapeshifter empath from a dead culture where mimicking someone's face is the equivalent of going ‘hey, how are you?’. Oovi-Kat are inherently synesthetic, though the exact sense associations vary between individuals (color is always one, but some have textures or sounds–Neeko’s is taste!). Burnt orange could mean bitterness for one and sickness for another, so their inherent empathic/telepathic abilities do a lot of heavy lifting in their communication.

- The fronds on her head and spine are basically magically sensitive pineal glands, and they're very sensitive. She has great eyesight but not great hearing, and often doesn't notice if she's being loud. The colored scale parts of her skin are very smooth, and her human skin (soft-skin she calls it) is much more sensitive comparatively. Her tail is prehensile, and her fingertips are sort of textured, like a geckos. She doesn't blush like a human, instead her fronds and scales turn a sort of sunset gradient. Also, if you have a favorite color, you'll notice her stripes turning that color a lot.

- Vastayan relationships involve a certain amount of intent-based magic bonding–declaring yourself to be in a relationship is literally a minor enchantment that intertwines your magic with one anothers. For a Vastaya whose physiological makeup is intrinsically linked with their mana, this is a Big Deal–for a human, it really depends on how in tune they are with their own magical ability. For Oovi-Kat, whose empathic and shapeshifting abilities are based on their ability to read and mimic others magical essence, this means a constant inherent empathic link to their partner, which would usually require them to assume someone's form to achieve.

- Obviously this is a pretty big gesture of trust even if you wouldn't be able to sense Neeko's emotions in the same way, and Neeko’s been around humans enough by this point to know they can be kinda weird about having their thoughts and feelings read? So in the early stages your relationship she's lowkey vibrating out of her skin because she knows she loves you and she desperately wants that kind of closeness with you, but she also doesn't want to freak you out because what if you say no?? What if you break your bond on purpose because it's too much? That would absolutely shatter her, so she tries really hard to make sure you know what you're agreeing to, but it's also very difficult for her to explain–it’s like explaining how to breathe, empath magic is just something she and everyone she knew was born and raised with. Once she finally gets to declare that she's yours and you're hers and that bond takes form, she's so happy she almost starts crying.

- With that in mind, Neeko is great at understanding what you're thinking and anticipating your needs! If you're having a bad day she'll do whatever she can to improve it, and honestly it's hard to stay in a bad mood when she's so sweet and so absolutely hell-bent on helping you feel better.

- She's much less good at explaining her own feelings in a way that you can understand. She knows you physically can't communicate in the same way, but sometimes it's frustrating when she's trying to to express an emotion but the only way she can think to do it is by calling it chewy maroon. Also, for the longest time she doesn't get that you can't see ultra-violet, it just doesn't make sense to her.

- She would love it if you learnt Oovi-Katian, though full fluency in the language relies on shapeshifting ability–color mimicry and projection of sho’ma are a pretty integral aspect of tonality and nuance in her language. She'd be utterly touched if you wanted to try anyway–for one it's literally an endangered language, and for another she has difficulty fully expressing herself within the limitations of Ionian dialects.

- If you're very attuned to your magic, either through natural talent or practice, you'll also begin to get a sense for her feelings through your bond. The first time she senses you clumsily trying to communicate through your bond-link she's so excited she literally tackles you. It's mostly just a sense of feelings and vague impressions of thoughts, but it means the absolute world to Neeko to share that kind of bond with someone again–after her people were wiped out, she sometimes doubted it was even possible.

- She's clingy. For one her entire species is extinct and she's petrified of losing you, but also she just naturally craves closeness and she really doesn't have much in the way of a sense of propriety. She'll hug your arm or hold your hand or just generally find some way to hang off you. Her tail has a habit of curling around your ankle, and if you're sitting down you can bet she'll find a way to snug up next to or on you (she's small and doesn't weigh a lot). She CANNOT sleep without cuddles and you will inevitably wake up with her wrapped around you like a lizard on a tree branch.

- She hates the cold and in chilly weather she will attempt to bodily climb into your coat while you're wearing it. Also, notoriously steals your clothes in any weather, but she's cute so she gets away with it. She hates wearing shoes though. Socks are on thin ice, but the long ones are cute, those can stay.

- If she can spend time with you, she will, doesn't matter where you're going or what you're doing–and she'll invent reasons to come with you, doesn't matter if you're about to go to the most virulent anti-Vastayan city in Ionia, she'll just disguise herself and it'll be fine! So Neeko can come with you now, right? :)) No matter how much she gives you the puppy dog eyes, taking her sometimes leads to issues–she can be impulsive, and she doesn't really understand things like ‘money’ or ‘theft’ or ‘breaking and entering’. If you put your foot down and go out without her she'll sulk for a bit, but the second you come home she'll forget all about it and just be excited you're back, regardless of whether you've been gone for five minutes or five hours.

- She'll still imitate your form sometimes, especially when you're away. She doesn't need it to feel your thoughts and, but wrapping herself in your sho’ma is comforting, and you'll frequently catch her admiring herself when she's wearing your face. If you're self conscious about your appearance she'll go out of her way to make sure you see just how beautiful she thinks you are. Also, gives you compliments literally every day and means every single one of them, you're the prettiest most gorgeous person she's ever seen and you need to be made aware of this. She can dish it out but she can't take it though–give her a compliment and she basically explodes.

- She's always bringing you little gifts, flowers or food or trinkets she found. The ultimate success for her is wearing something she brought you, Neeko has succeeded in life and can pass away peacefully now. Also, she really likes wearing matching accessories--a bracelet or necklace or even the flowers she wears in her hair, she likes having a little token she can hold on to that reminds her of you.

- Overall, sweetest girl, 10/10.

[synesthete-culture-is]

I haven't posted on this blog in over a year.

This is not for lack of love and interest. I think sharing our varied experiences of synesthesia is awesome. I've just had a very taxing year mentally and am now in the midst of applying to college, which doesn't help.

SO: I'm going to go through ye olde inbox and see what posts you all have graced me with there, and begin to post again. I probably won't tag them with anything more than "synesthete culture is" / "synesthesia" and may not get around to answering questions. That's my current capacity for Tumblr Sideblogging™️. But I don't want to abandon this account entirely, and so I'm forging onward.

Thanks to all you lovely people for sticking around. You are amazing. <3

[scribblyspaceskeleton]

Synesthete culture is hitting the volume button to turn down the brightness on your laptop screen

[bmpmp3]

my toxic visual culture major and also synesthete trait is the fact that i consider music history to be basically visual culture too

[thevagabondexpress]

okay so my dad and i are talking about language and the acquisition of language and he turns to me and he has this idea: so humans weren't always authors, writing was invented by various cultures at various points in time. which means, in each culture that invented a writing system, someone at some point had to make a connection between the sounds we make and symbols we can see. he considers that perhaps the first inventors of writing were synesthetic.

[skydigiblogs]

back on my bullshit (thinking about translation theory in the context of my silly little monster cartoons <3)

(this ended up so so fucking long so i put it under a read more lmao)

specifically thinking about it in the context of like a handful of world/postcolonial lit courses we took and some anth courses

what i mean by that is like

when it comes to just literature there are already so many things that have to be taken into account for translation! let's say you're taking a poem. in its native language, that poem has a sound, a rhythm, a way of communicating that a lot of poetry in a lot of languages do. when you translate it to another language, like english, are you going to translate in a way that preserves the meaning most, or a way that attempts to approximate the meaning while preserving the synesthetic qualities of its sounds?

the homeric epics are a really fun example for comparative translation analysis imo. and i mean fun because there are so many translations of them into english, and at least one madlad decided to make a prose translation of an epic poem. only recently did the first translation of the poem by a woman get published, and that revealed that a lot of biases in the linguistic nuance were kind of getting smoothed over like a crease in clay.

(i have a copy of emily wilson's translation but am not the guy who reads classics in our system, i just write the essays lmao. but she wrote multiple times about the theory of translation she was working with and if you're at all interested in this topic, look her up.)

but even if you aren't translating a text from antiquity and are, say, working with a more contemporary example of literary translation, you still have to bridge the gap between two cultures that may be very different. just a word for word translation may not work too, because figurative language like idioms might not be understood by the language you're translating to.

the amount of cultural knowledge required to sculpt a truly effective translation that preserves the image of the original while making it comprehensible to an otherwise ignorant audience is just. so cool to me. i say this as someone who could never really do translation work myself, on account of not having that kind of complex grasp on another language than my native one, of course, but you don't have to be fluently billingual to understand what i'm talking about here, imo.

another example, and one that i actually wrote comparative analysis on, is work from charles baudelaire's les fleurs du mal ("the flowers of evil"). works of short poetry are effective case studies in what different translations can look like, because translations of baudelaire's poetry still portray the subject matter in a way that is presumably true to the original french. while something may always be lost in translation (there's a saying for a reason there), the philosophy behind one's translation can also highlight one's own reading of a text, and offer a closer insight into said text for foreign audiences (me, it's me, i'm the foreign audience reading charles baudelaire in world lit and going absolutely insane about translation theory).

for my mileage, you end up seeing a paradigm between translations that span between "strict" and "loose," if that makes any sense. a strict translation makes no changes in its translation, preserving the literature in its entirety as it is translated, to the best approximation possible where a direct translation is impossible. a loose translation meanwhile may make more artistic choices in its translation, foregoing certain details in order to better articulate the artistry in the original work.

okay, now, the reason i'm thinking about this today, right now.

in literature this is already a complex subject, but when you get into other forms of art, like animation in the case of this blogs primary topic, there become a lot more moving parts. like with literature, there's going to be the simple fact of looking into a cultural window and trying to communicate that snapshot to foreigners.

with subtitling, you can add things like translator's notes. this is a non-diegetic method of communicating information to your audience, and you can see it present in literature as well (footnotes or endnotes are a frequent addition to many translated works; hell, they're common even in non-translated works). in animated works where there are vocal tracks (like anime openings or insert songs), you can also have subtitles for those, no problem!

however, when it comes to dubbing, you automatically include more elements to juggle in your translation work. you have to take into account individual voice, background tracks, visuals, etc. etc.. the method most dubs handle translating the work often discourages non-diegetic methods of communicating information, so you're less likely to see translator's notes in dub work. sometimes this even includes changing on-screen text so that a foreign audience can read it.

the lengths to which a dubbing company is willing to censor in translation is also, obviously, a conversation worth noting (see again my losing my shit at pinnochimon packing heat). a phenomenon i'm sure we've all noticed when it comes to dubbing (as opposed to most translations of literature i've seen) is that dubs may market to a specific age range in translation. sometimes that may end up defanging a work's themes, or changing them entirely. the censorship of a dub may come out of a cultural difference or hesitance to show certain subjects to a younger audience, but regardless it is part of the theory behind some dub work.

i don't really have a conclusion to this, but it's just in my mind a lot while i'm watching some of these series for the first time subbed. by all means, i don't think dubbing is a bad thing (if anything it's complex), but having the experience of watching the sub is allowing me to do a type of comparative analysis i don't think i've ever had the chance to actively do.

i know that there are folks who have done more thorough comparative analysis work than i'll probably end up doing, of course (there are so many wonderful blogs here on tumblr alone about that meta-analysis). it's just that i'm enjoying engaging with a childhood interest in a way that i suppose i didn't know i wanted to do so badly.

[sunstormbudgie]

synesthesia culture is not realising that the silly internet argument over red maths vs blue maths was never about the colours inherent to the concept of mathematics

which honestly makes more sense in hindsight as it's a well known fact that no two synesthetes see colours the same way, so why bother to start arguments about it