#probably that is. lol.

[doodlebeeberry]

Can you tell us about the structural quirk? Im interested!

YAY im so glad you asked! i hope your ready for several paragraphs of object show conlang silly stuff annon.

this got pretty long so i put it under a readmore. i also added a couple doodle is there for fun and to hopefully make some of it a little clearer hehe

(btw this ask is in reference to my notes on this abt a quirk with a word i used in the drawing)

So! Something of relevance to keep in mind about Roadspeak, as ive taken to calling it, is its function in the world of fwd: itself. in-universe it is kind of similar to something like Esperanto, both being kinda constructed languages that arent spoken by any one country or group as a main language (nor are they meant to be). The creation process for both, though, was different. While Esperanto was created explicitly for the purpose of being a lingua franca (or universal second language, if you prefer) Roadspeak, despite becoming one, uh, wasn't.

It developed among traders, travelers, merchants and similar groups as a means of bridging gaps in communication between both customers and peers when out on the road. This is where the name Roadspeak comes from--its the speak of the road! it is a very clever name i know.

(in particular, it formed by means of just...smashing languages together and jumbling up their sounds, words, and grammatical rules. into a big melting pot of mess. not going into detail on this for brevity's sake but it makes for some Mess lol)

As such, Roadspeak is considered first and foremost a language of travel and commerce. Though its used for many, many other things now, thats is what its purpose was and is deep deep down at its core, which gets reflected in its vocab and rules. One particular quirk is in the way some verbs are sort-of conjugated.

See, Roadspeak is a gender neutral language (as objects in fwd dont have genders) as well as an object-type neutral one. Rather, verb forms are decided by the position and/or direction of the subject carrying out the verb relative to the direct object, or the tlaow and lors as they call it. usually this is done by using one or two prefixes slapped onto the base/non-finite verb.

the tlaow (position) comes first and is also generally the less important one. you pull from a different prefix set depending on what your direct object is: if its a person/animal/inanimate thing, youd use something more like below, above, left, right, in front, so on. for a place though you use cardinal directions like north/south/east/west while concepts like numbers or thoughts are exempt from tlaow conjugation all together. some dialects of roadspeak kinda just forgo the tlaow entirely sometimes, this one is a liiiitle be optional, but still get used and taught.

the lors (direction) comes second. Unlike tlaow, this only pulls from one set of prefixes regardless of what the object is: forwards, backwards, sideways, around, upwards, and downwards. this is also seen as more of a requirement when conjugating in most applicable circumstances.

Its worth noting that not all verbs get conjugated on the basis of tlaow and lors. Generally this only applies to action verbs, and only ones that are viewed as being more physical, for lack of better term, or as occurring in a direction as a necessity. run, jump, fall, reach, grab, dance, all these kinds of words would be conjugated. think, sing, blink, dream, sell (sometimes), be, words like this dont really need to be conjugated. you still can, but its not ungrammatical or anything.

as an example, look at the sentence "Sweet sits with Mp3."

plopping this into Roadspeak's structure, you'd need to figure out what sweet's position is relative to mp3, and what direction she moved when she sat. if she sat down alongside them, (and also noting that, in roadspeak, the position of the subject and object are flipped in a sentence) then the sentence would literally translate to "Mp3 beside-downwards-sits Sweet". Meanwhile, if she sits up in front of them, it would be "Mp3 front-upwards-sits Sweet". If all you know is that she sat down, though, then youd just say "Mp3 downwards-sits Sweetie".

does that make sense? I hope it does! heres another example, this time using actual Roadspeak:

(yes this is just the daily that spurned this ask lol)

the letters there read "jodit mi pavirrthol me!" with the verb in this case being "pavirrthol," or forward-give. "thol" means give, which is considered an tlaow/lors verb. When you present someone with something, you are giving it to them in a forward-facing, direct sense, so you would use "pavirr-" for the directional/lors. However, while the use of 'you' would imply the use of a tlaow prefix, theres no way for them to actually know what their position is relative to you when speaking here. Are they below you? in front? its impossible for them to know! so instead, the tlaow prefix is skipped entirely due to that lack of info. this leaves us with the word "pavirrthol" !

and thats the long and short of it! tldr: the quirk is that the word "pavirrthol" is conjugated on the basis of direction and position, but doesnt technically follow the formal rules required for doing so.

id rattle off more details, like the rest of the prefix list or contexts in which youd tlaow/lors conjugate non-directional verbs (like think) but i think this post has perhaps gone on long enough hehe.

[inkskinned]

please i love you i'm begging you bring back suspension of disbelief bring back trusting the audience like. i cannot handle any more dialogue that sounds like a legal document. "hello, i am here to talk to you about the incident from a few minutes ago, because i feel you might be unwell, and i am invested in your personal wellbeing." "thank you, i am unwell because the incident was hurtful to me due to my childhood, which was bad." I CANT!!!!

do you know how many people are mad that authors use "growled" as a word for "said"? it's just poetics! they do not literally mean "growled," it's just a common replacement for "said with force but in a low tone." it's normal! do you hear me!! help me i love you please let me out of here!!!

[wolfythewitch]

How does this keep happening to me

[eriochromatic]

blue, like the rooftops of the city over yonder blue, like the ghosts of brothers long gone

blue, like the crystalized hope of tomorrow blue, like my hair he'd braid gently when long

blue, like the ocean that drowned all my sorrows blue, like the smoke of my sister's last song

Day 8: Blue

[liquidstar]

If my mom sees a significant amount of blood she gets lightheaded, and has fainted on some occasions. Once it happened when we were kids, I wasn't there to witness it but I heard the story from my dad. Basically my brothers, around 7 or 8 at the time, were playing outside while my mom was making their lunch, and she accidentally cut her finger. It wasn't anything serious, but it drew a fair bit of blood and she passed out. My dad saw this and rushed over, but he didn't really know what to do so he just sort of started slapping her to wake her up (not recommended, but he had no idea and panicked)

At that exact moment my brothers both came in from playing, and all they saw was our mom unconscious on the floor and our dad slapping her. So, like, without even saying a word to each other they both just INSTANTLY start whaling on him, like, full blown attack mode to defend our mom. Which obviously didn't help the situation, but she did wake up and everything was fine.

Now our dad says that he's actually really glad they attacked him over what they thought was going on, because it means he raised good boys. And I still think that's true, they're very good boys.

[tanjir0se]

Disclaimer these are just a small sampling of some possible writer traits I’ve noticed either in myself or in fics I read. Also consider a rb for sample size !

[bytedykes]

ok fine maybe i DID come back wrong. what are you going to do about it. kill me? put me back in the ground? after all this effort? all this pain and suffering only to find out bringing me back wasn't worth it after all? you worked so hard. are you going to waste all of that just because im not what you wanted? just because i belong only to myself? are you going to let me pick out my own coffin

[krysmcscience]

I have some questions about karaoke night, Alex Hirsch. Very Important Questions. Which I will happily scream at a poor hapless baby triangle who can have no answers for me, and possibly also does not have object permanence yet.

Follow-up that is I guess suggestive, but let's be real here, Bill's a fucking triangle:

Dude slipped right into his birthday suit, lmao

this is so stupid :D

Anyway, I don't care what anyone says, this brilliant individual knows what's up - Bill is absolutely way more of a monsterfucker than Ford could or ever will be, full stop.

[junaip3r]

Good Omens + Parallels

[vesperosy]

messy comic i made of the Hater Siblings last year while i was playing through justice for all

i was going through growing pains stylistically at the time so i would probably do a lot of it differently now, but i thought people would like it

[queeranddepraved]

I have one kink and it's not a good idea.

[fanaticalthings]

next thing you're gonna tell me is that the butts match 🙄

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[emberglowfox]

birds of a feather

[lilislegacy]

Percy at ease

Percy calm, but a little on edge

Percy when mildly angry

Friendly reminder that Percy jackson - our beloved silly adorable seaweed brain - is absolutely terrifying. When he’s angry, when he’s scared, when he’s on edge - he’s not warm and fuzzy.

No other character gets that reaction from people. Jason (the sweetie) is perceived as calm and in control, nico (our favorite self-outcasted outcast) is perceived as solemn and creepy, reyna (girlboss queen slay) is perceived as confident and assertive, and annabeth (our girl) is perceived as fierce, clever, and formidable. They are all intimidating to an extent.

But not like Percy. No. Becasue even when he’s at ease, he’s described as wild and disobedient. And when he’s not at ease, even if just little bit, he’s perceived as powerful, dangerous, and scary. Someone who NOBODY wants to mess with. Nobody even questions his power. One look from him has literal gangs running the other way. One look from him has Leo so scared that he’s literally shaking, and feeling the same innate fright and alarm that he does when jason summons an ear-piercing, earth-shaking, deadly bolt of lighting.

like… HELLO??? can we all just sit on that for a moment?? good lord

One angry look from percy has people thinking one thing: Run.

Percy is, canonically, the character that people find the most frightening and intimidating.

And unless he’s in a good mood - which you better hope he is - the reality is that most of us would be completely terrified of him if we met him.

[marimbles]

Halloween comic two weeks late bc i will never let tamadrien die

[inkskinned]

probably time for this story i guess but when i was a kid there was a summer that my brother was really into making smoothies and milkshakes. part of this was that we didn't have AC and couldn't afford to run fans all day so it was kind of important to get good at making Cool Down Concoctions.

we also had a patch of mint, and he had two impressionable little sisters who had the attitude of "fuck it, might as well."

at one point, for fun, this 16 year old boy with a dream in his eye and scientific fervor in heart just wanted to see how far one could push the idea of "vanilla mint smoothie". how much vanilla extract and how much mint can go into a blender before it truly is inedible.

the answer is 3 cups of vanilla extract, 1/2 cup milk alternative, and about 50 sprigs (not leaves, whole spring) of mint. add ice and the courage of a child. idk, it was summer and we were bored.

the word i would use to describe the feeling of drinking it would maybe be "violent" or perhaps, like. "triangular." my nose felt pristine. inhaling following the first sip was like trying to sculpt a new face. i was ensconced in a mesh of horror. it was something beyond taste. for years after, i assumed those commercials that said "this is how it feels to chew five gum" were referencing the exact experience of this singular viscous smoothie.

what's worse is that we knew our mother would hate that we wasted so much vanilla extract. so we had to make it worth it. we had to actually finish the drink. it wasn't "wasting" it if we actually drank it, right? we huddled around outside in the blistering sun, gagging and passing around a single green potion, shivering with disgust. each sip was transcendent, but in a sort of non-euclidean way. i think this is where i lost my binary gender. it eroded certain parts of me in an acidic gut ecology collapse.

here's the thing about love and trust: the next day my brother made a different shake, and i drank it without complaint. it's been like 15 years. he's now a genuinely skilled cook. sometimes one of the three of us will fuck up in the kitchen or find something horrible or make a terrible smoothie mistake and then we pass it to each other, single potion bottle, and we say try it it's delicious. it always smells disgusting. and then, cerimonious, we drink it together. because that's what family does.