#since its all language and culture based it really makes no sense

[gonzohiccups]

Me: I'm gonna make a hard-ass, some guy that just really hits first and asks questions later, fuck yeah

Proceeds to make the softest, "I never asked for this- how do I please everyone" t boy, borderline self insert character I've ever made before

[room-surprise]

PSA: There are no Dungeons in Dungeon Meshi! They're labyrinths!

(WARNING FOR MANGA SPOILERS)

When the characters in the manga talk about dungeons, in Japanese they are actually using the word 迷宮 (meikyū) which means labyrinth. The connotation based on the kanji used is a palace or castle with many confusing rooms. The word “dungeon” (ダンジョン, danjon) is only every used in the manga’s title, when the narrator of the manga is referring to the title ("ahh Dungeon Meshi!"), or when Kui discusses dungoniums (ダンジョニウム/Danjoniumu) which she describes in the world guide as miniature dungeons, built to emulate a labyrinth.

The English loan word “dungeon” is most likely intended to catch Japanese reader’s eyes because it is foreign and exotic, and lead them into a false sense of security because of the Japanese pop culture perception of “dungeon” as a relatively harmless place where characters have formulaic adventures and gather resources as part of a game, or a game-like story.

“Dungeons” in Japanese pop culture can be sinister, but they have come to mean something as innocuous as “level” or “environment.” The early story of Dungeon Meshi is lighthearted and full of comedy, which reinforces this idea and leads readers to believe that the labyrinth in the story is just a generic backdrop with little inherent importance, like it is in many fantasy stories. However, Kui repeatedly suggests the labyrinth is not benign, that it is itself a monster and that anyone foolish enough to go into it is at risk of becoming food, and being devoured.

Before the word dungeon came to generically mean “place to exploit for resources” in fantasy fiction and gaming, its primary meaning was prison. So then the title “Dungeon Meshi” actually means “prison meal.” But who or what does the prison in Dungeon Meshi contain? Of all the people in the dungeon, who are the prisoners? And what does a “prison meal” really mean? A meal eaten by prisoners? A meal cooked by prisoners? A meal cooked using prisoners as ingredients? All of these meanings are implied and hinted at in the manga.

The characters in the story call the dungeon a labyrinth, which is a word that means a maze-like prison, specifically one that traps innocent young people and a man-eating monster inside. Both the monster and its food, the people, are prisoners… But which of them will die and be eaten? Who will escape the labyrinth in the end, and what will it cost them?

You’ll have to read Dungeon Meshi to find out!

======================

But so, you may ask, Mushroom, aside from all that stuff you just said, why does the dungeon/labyrinth distinction matter?

ARIADNE SPIDERS

(Using the cute version here to protect anyone with arachnophobia)

These are giant spiders that the elves use to produce silk, which they use to make the armor the Canaries wear. Though we don’t know for sure, it’s likely the spiders are domesticated in order to make farming their silk easier.

Ariadne is the name of an Ancient Greek mythological character, and may be derived from the Ancient Cretan dialectical elements ari (ἀρι-) "most" (which is an intensive prefix) and adnós (ἀδνός) "holy", but the exact origins of the name are unknown. It may be pre-Greek and not from the Indo-European language family at all.

Ariadne was a princess of Crete that helped the hero Thesus escape from the maze/dungeon that contained the minotaur by giving Theseus a ball of magic thread. 

The spiders in the manga have a pattern on their backs that looks like a maze, and their silk thread is the thing that protects the Canaries while they’re in the dungeon, and allows them to make it back out alive. The elves may consider the spiders “most holy” because they provide the means for them to protect themselves in battle.

Having the elves use a giant spider as a type of livestock might also be a playful reference to the drow (dark elves) of Dungeons & Dragons, since they worship a spider goddess, and Kui’s elves probably don’t worship the spiders if they’re using them as livestock… Though it’s also possible that they have a reverence for the spiders similar to the way cows are worshiped in parts of India, since some of elven culture appears to be based on South Asia!

THE CANARIES ARE BEING SACRIFICED TO THE DUNGEONS

Minos, Ariadne’s father, prayed to the God Poseidon to help him defeat his brothers and become king. He was sent a snow-white bull as a sign of the God’s favor. Minos was supposed to sacrifice the bull to Posiedon to show his gratitude, but because it was so beautiful Minos kept it, and sacrificed a different, inferior bull instead. 

To punish Minos, Poseidon made Mino’s wife fall in love with the bull, which resulted in her mating with it and giving birth to a half-man, half-bull monster, a minotaur that could only survive by eating human flesh. King Minos constructed a labyrinth to hide the proof of his family’s shame and keep the minotaur trapped inside it.

In order to avoid war with King Minos, the people of Athens made a bargain, and every few years they sent 14 youths from their noble families to Minos as a sacrifice. These young men and women were sent into the labyrinth, where they became lost and trapped, and were eventually eaten by the minotaur. This continued until Ariadne fell in love with one of the Athenian youths, Theseus, and gave him a ball of magic thread which allowed him to kill the minotaur and escape the labyrinth.

There’s many ways this tale parallels the story of Dungeon Meshi. The ancients used the demon to accomplish their goals, and eventually their use of the demon’s power and their failure to control it led to them having to imprison the demon in a maze, and conceal its existence from the rest of the world. Now the elves, the descendants of the ancients, regularly “sacrifice” some of the children of their noble families to the dungeon, in an attempt to keep the demon from breaking free and destroying the world…

(This is an excerpt from my Dungeon Meshi essay.)

[xerith-42]

I know it seems like striking on social media might not do enough, but as someone who has been outright obsessively using the internet since I was a child to the point that it is literally woven in my soul, been active and involved in online activism for about five years, and been using social media as marketing for about the same amount of time, I can confidently say that

THIS FUCKING WORKS!!

People base their entire businesses on their success on social media. They look at trending topics on twitter and don't see bite sized chunks of culture distilled to its finest and worst moments, they see market data! They don't see you as a single human being, they see you as a data point among thousands run through a probably AI assisted system that's prone to fucking up, that determines everything they're going to do.

How they're going to advertise, who they target it with it, what the general public wants. Every single major corporation uses data from social media websites to do this. Every. Single. One. Social media is a lot of things, and one of those things is a tool for business and politics. We know for a fact that social media politics bleeds out into the real world very fucking quickly.

Even if you can't strike financially, even if you have to go to work or school to survive, striking on social media is one of the best things you can do. Even if it's quiet. People are going to notice when thousands upon thousands of users across various sites go completely dark, and even more when some of them start getting real fucking loud about this. The US Capitalist Infused Government loves sweeping war crimes under the rug once they think the general public has forgotten about their atrocities and fallen into complacency. This system has been doing this for literal centuries.

Social media is just the newest and most expansive form we as a species have developed in the ongoing invention of ways to express our thoughts about things. It's the weirdest one, that's for sure, but executives pay attention to it. They don't often seek to understand it beyond a very basic level, because as I said, they view us as numbers on a screen, not as multifaceted incredibly and deeply fucked human beings. They do not seek to understand us on a personal level unless they think the cost of it won't outweigh the potential profit.

Pattern recognition is the tool of the moment. Machine Learning. Gathering endless amounts of data so we can replicate human existence through machines. You may think that social media strikes are ineffective because social media is just on the internet and it's "not real", but it is real! You are really doing stuff! You are contributing! Even if you're just lurking! Basic amounts of engagement can make a huge impact in a busted algorithm. Maybe you're not someone who would ever be drafted into an actual war-zone due to physical or mental health conditions, but you are probably a part of a key demographic of people that businesses are absolutely hungry for.

The budding adult has always been the target of greedy capitalists basically since this system was established and continued to get worse over time. The stage of your life when you are in the age range of 18-25 is an incredibly important transitional period, followed by a transitional period every six months until you lose sense of what six months even is because you haven't been happy in eight, and if you're in the 18-25 range currently, you got extra fucked by the pandemic. The world is in a turbulent stage and we are at the center of all of it and have been since 2001. Every single social media marketing expert will tell you the 18-25 demographic of social media users is a target demographic, because they are the most prone to extremes due to a life chock full of them.

We have to remember to be human, but we have to also know how to speak their language. They just see us as numbers? Let's show them some fucking numbers. Make posts about Gaza trend on every platform you have your hands on. Even if it's just liking posts, that gives them a slight boost in the algorithm. Commenting on posts is especially important on sites like Twitter and Instagram. But across every site the most important thing to do is reblog/retweet/share/send/copy link, whatever it is for that site, it is the biggest thing that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE looks at.

From a humble artist to a head of marketing at a billion dollar corporation about to have a meeting with a barely over 21 intern about how they need to run the twitter account, to said intern bumbling their way through adulthood with a job they only feel they're good at because they've been using social media since Skype was invented. We need to be loud, we need to make sure this can't be ignored, we can't sweep this under the rug. Mass media, especially coming out of the West, has been trying to censor, de-sanitize, and keep this issue quiet.

DO NOT LET YOURSELF BE SILENCED

There are tens of thousands of DEAD CHILDREN who have been BOMBED while in CIVILIAN AREAS and that is a FUCKING WAR CRIME.

THIS IS A GENOCIDE

Say that as many times as you can. Do not let it be ignored. A silent populous is a complacent one. Use your voice, even as small as it may seem. Make noise. Be loud. Be annoying. Don't let this be ignored. Talk about it everywhere you go. Do not let this be ignored.

Sometimes even we get disconnected from the real people around us. We base our sense of worth as a person based on the numbers going up or down but instead of developing a gambling addiction we just got angry about it but still fall into it because of cultural conditioning. But even if you only have let's say, completely random example, 70 followers. And only a small percent of them will see your post. Let's say maybe 20 on average, 30 on a good day, and even higher based on the machinations of fate. That's still 20 people who took time out of their day to read something you wrote, process something you created, share a part of your experience of living.

And likely they felt compelled to share it too, therefore increasing the spread of people who feel your influence. 20 people may not seem like a lot, but that has a major impact. Now imagine posts into the hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands and even millions. Those aren't just numbers. Each and every single one of those is just another person who might have reblogged a post because someone they like shared it, or because they wanted to spread its message, and that simple act causes a single post to have massive waves of effects from simple ripples.

Don't let yourself be discouraged. Don't think your voice or your impact "isn't enough to matter." Everything counts.

Don't let this be ignored. Don't become complacent. Know that every little thing counts, and to do every little thing you can.

[itoshiexx]

mi vida

synopsis: sae never thought someone could become his life, but that changed when you came.

pairing: itoshi sae x gn!reader | words: 749 | warnings: established relationship, fluff

notes: welcome back to "things i wrote on a whim when my boss wasn't at the office"!! apparently i write a lot better in english without much planning, so yeah. this idea came to me based on a personal experience, since i call my boyfriend "minha vida" (which is the same for "mi vida"/"my life" in portuguese) and i never really thought i could consider someone to be my life before him.

i really really hope you like it, and i wanna thank you all so much for all the love you've given to Unworthy (but chosen), every note and follower made me super happy! <3

and also, i'm so sorry if my description of the spanish culture is not accurate and for any english mistakes!

during his time in spain, sae learned a lot of things. mainly, how to improve his soccer career even more, striving to become the best in the world after already being the best in his country. 

he was a genius, of course, so it wasn’t really hard to learn the language or get acquainted with the city of madrid, which was a lot warmer than japan — in many ways. however, it was really fucking hard to get used to the customs of the spanish people and its culture, considering it was so different from the japanese. they were extremely welcome, and sae was anything but. if anything, he was even more closed than typical japanese people. 

in spain, people were always greeting each other with a kiss on each cheek, showing off bright smiles and making conversation with strangers. friends talked loudly among each other, giving hugs and always touching somehow. the concept of personal space? totally nonexistent. in short, it was weird. 

but nothing was weirder than couples. 

the concept of love was already foreign to sae. he didn’t understand how a feeling could envelop one so much and make it forget about the rest of the world. he didn’t know how such an abstract thing, with no sense of logic whatsoever, could be so overwhelming to the point of taking one’s life completely, until all you could see, think and feel was your significant other.

most of all, he couldn’t fathom how someone could become your life. 

“te amo, mi vida,” was what he used to hear an old couple say to each other. they were the owners of sae’s favorite restaurant, a small little place in the suburbs of Madrid, and always treated him with a kindness he didn’t deemed himself worthy of. 

at first, he wasn’t able to comprehend what the sentence meant. he could barely write it on google translate to try to get its meaning, and he didn’t really care enough. though, as the time went by and sae became more fond of the couple, he eventually gathered the courage to ask the woman about it. and he was very surprised to hear the answer. 

“it means ‘i love you, my life’,” she said, smiling from ear to ear and handing a glass of salted kombucha tea to sae. it was one of the reasons he adored the place so much — it was the only restaurant he found that served his favorite drink. 

the older itoshi could only stare, dumbfounded, and mumble, “…why?”

the woman laughed at the boy’s naiveté. “why, you ask? because that’s what he is to me.” 

sae only stared in silence, too stunned to speak.

“i… i don’t understand,” he confessed. it sounded silly, and kind of pathetic, but at that moment he didn’t really care. the woman gave another smile, this time an understanding countenance, and placed her wrinkly hand on his shoulder. 

“you will understand one day, boy. and when your person comes, make sure to bring them here, right? i’d like to meet them!” 

the soccer player wanted to tell her that it would never happen. that the itoshi sae had no time for foolish things like love, and he most certainly would never love someone so much to the point of seeing them as his life. his life was soccer, and his goal was to become the best in the world. 

there was nothing else. 

oh, how he bit his tongue. 

it was at the age of twenty two when he entered the restaurant once again, and this time, not alone. you were walking by his side, with your hand intertwined in his, chatting excitedly while he just listened. a small smile was on his face, and his features were impossibly soft, in a way they only got around you. 

you, who were light in the darkness, who were comfort after a long day of practice, who was the one he loved most. you, who was the definition of home in every sense of the word. the only one that could make his heart swell so much it made it hard to breathe. 

he pulled your chair for you to sit like a true gentleman, and sat right next to you, always in need to touch you somehow. a hand was placed on your thigh while the other one opened the menu. and he turned to you, voice gentle like you could break:

“so, what would you like, mi vida?”

you, who was his life.

© 2023 itoshiexx. do not plagarise, translate, or repost any of my work on here or other sites.

[stirringwinds]

I can't agree more with your post about how natural languages are intimately tied to power dynamics, culture and personal identity. To make the nation personifications magically understand each other all the time is removing the depth and potential of their relationships with each other.

Since you mentioned that Alfred's first language was a Native American language, it sounds like he was close to the Native Americans as a child, and not only the English settlers. My thought is that Alfred, the personification of what would become the USA, was only "born" after the English settlers arrived. He was raised by Pilgrims, spoke only English and didn't have meaningful contact with the Native Americans. I'm not a fan of the idea that Alfred was a Native American personification who was born before the arrival of the colonists and was "kidnapped" by Arthur, as it implies that the tribe that he represented was the foundation of the modern USA. It makes more sense to me that he was a personification of the Pilgrim settlements when he was born. What are your thoughts on Alfred's "birth" and his relationships with the personifications around him as a child?

hello, thanks for your question!

to start off, i don't headcanon that nations are born the human way, but when they come into being, there are real cultural/linguistic links they have to other nations which I model on historical interactions and influences. my conception of Alfred is that his "birth"/beginnings are linked to Roanoke (aka the so-called "Lost Colony") and Jamestown (and its famine)—less so the Pilgrims/Mayflower in Massachusetts. but that difference aside, Alfred's 'beginnings' in my view certainly stem from British imperialism and European colonisation all the same. so he is not the personification of "Native America", because this would indeed be racist and homogenising: there can't be such a singular personification but would have to be multiple personifications to begin with. All of whom are much older and culturally distinct just like how Asia/Europe/Africa as a continent doesn't have one personification. this is a similar approach I take with my Mexico OC; she is Indigenous/European and spoke Nahuatl and Spanish, but she herself didn't come into being until Spanish colonisation—and there are other older personifications like Tlaxcala and Mexica (who was the head of the Triple Alliance/what we call the Aztec Empire and rivals with Tlaxcala, another pre-Columbian political entity).

so, for me Carolina Algonquian is one of Alfred's first languages—the other is English. the reason why I think he speaks Carolina Algonquian: the real-life interactions (from cooperative (barter, trade) to neutral to hostile—conflicts that happened since obviously the colonists were encroaching on other people's land) that occurred between the colonists and Algonquian-speaking peoples (such as Croatan and also Powhatan) occurred. All these were central to the history and trajectory of the early colonies. further, the research material on early colonial America I based his character on examined the experiences of biracial/multiethnic people and the dynamics of assimilation & cultural imperialism into Englishness that occurred. i'm from an ethnically-mixed family myself, which experienced cultural assimilation because of British imperialism that also resulted in a deprioritisation and loss of our other ancestral languages, so the cultural dimension of imperialism: how people navigate these faultlines, and pass or don't pass as a dominant group is something I'm interested in exploring.

hence, while i personally headcanon Alfred as mixed-race, he is certainly not an older personification that predates European colonisation of the Americas, and Arthur claims him as his son when he finds him with the Jamestown colonists, after the famine—so he isn't really 'kidnapped' because he isn't the personification of a pre-existing, Native nation. the Jamestown colonists don't really 'raise' him either—he appears to them as a young child who can already talk and walk, and they assume he is an orphan of sorts—after which Arthur comes into the picture. Arthur asserted his power by claiming Alfred as his son—just as the English politically claimed their colonial holdings, but Alfred certainly interacted with other personifications like Croatan or Powhatan and others, because that's who the English colonists themselves in Roanoke and Jamestown met. this contact imo, was meaningful in the sense that it was important and extensive—though obviously not wholly peaceful or conflict-free. So, in my headcanon, before Arthur arrived with the relief ship that met the starving Jamestown colonists, Alfred was regarded with some curiosity and at least distinct wariness, if not apprehension, by other nations because despite his familiarity with Carolina Algonquian, they know he is clearly linked to the encroaching English colonists—and they've heard similar stories already, about Mexico and Cuba.

overall, yes, the political/cultural origins of the United States are very much connected to the British Empire's settler-colonialism. For that reason Alfred is Arthur's 'son', because he is English—but he is not just English or European, because the truth of the British Empire is that while there was a racial and class hierarchy that privileged Englishness and then whiteness generally, the actual human communities that shaped the colonies were never homogeneous ethnically/culturally. Biracial/mixed people existed—and those European colonies as a whole were shaped by the varied dynamics of Native and other non-European influences and contact—whether it was involuntary or voluntary, cooperative, neutral or hostile. that's the angle I've personally chosen to take—and I would end off with emphasising that this is just my approach—because I think there's certainly more than one way to approach Alfred's beginnings and cultural identity.

[bonefall]

Since you mentioned only cats and a few other distant animals are sentient, does this mean foxes are getting their sentience removed? Midnight can talk to foxes in the books and even convinces some foxes to leave a patrol of cats alone (the foxes are WEIRDLY violent and talk about eating the cats too lmaoo).

I assume Hollyleaf's changes mean the Fox Cub Incident is either being moved or just removed entirely, I always found that small plot point interesting in face of all those "Non-cat in clan" AUs. Seems like something that could be interesting if an "us vs them" argument was formed from it, especially if it was targeted against Midnight and calling her unholy yknow?

Yeah, that sapience is gone completely. In this universe, language is limited only to humans, cats, and some distant animals that are far outside the range of Albion (elephants, bottlenoses, some parrots, etc)

And Hollyleaf's story especially. Ngl to you, I don't like that fox idea. Or anything about Hollyleaf's Story. I think it was the worst possible route to take.

"Hollyleaf will be a mother to this evil creature to learn what it's like to love something that hates you. It is so sad to be your mom Leafpool (Squirrel-who?). Don't you feel like a shitty daughter now, Holly? Let's not ask any questions about the code btw, or how you were already filled with crushing shame from it. Or how it made you so disgusted about the idea of pregnant nuns that you flipped your shit and ruined the lives of your entire family. No, what really mattered about this situation was maternal empathy. Also here take the nearest male character we can find to ship you with, we accidentally made Cinderheart too gay when she was upset about your death lmao"

But, digressing, putting my distaste of that novella aside,

WC is profoundly xenophobic already with just the cats, and I think it was a CATASTROPHIC mistake to make it so every animal is secretly intelligent but speaks animal language. Now every conflict between cats and their predators is an ethnic dispute! You're chasing out groups of people perfectly capable of reasoning if you bridged the language barrier, but they're also ACTUAL PREDATORS.

AT BEST; It's the same uncomfortable situations that Zootopia and Lion King ends up tripping over. In Zootopia, predators are used as an allegory for oppressed groups... but predators are MADE to eat prey. A rabbit is RIGHT to be terrified of a fox, twice its size with a jaw made for catching bunnies. In Lion King, lions have divine authority to rule over their dinner/subjects, and chase out any animal based on their personal ideology... which just so happens to only be leveraged against rival predator species.

(Nerd preemption: yes i know about lion guard. I do not think diverse Lion Cops were the solution you think it is.)

Carelessly adding sapience to "natural systems" often ends up accidentally justifying bigotry. Bigotry doesn't MAKE SENSE, it's bullshit we made up and perpetuate through culture, but food webs are completely logical. The rabbit fears the fox because the fox eats rabbits. The lion hates the hyena because they compete for the same food. Gazelles don't happily submit to an overlord who is divinely capable of deciding who should live and who should die, it's just nature.

But it gets even worse-- because it's actually WORST CASE; the Erins saw that complicated moral problem and went, "don't worry! They're actually born evil! Foxes just talk about food and killing things :)"

like... my brother in cats, YOU gave them language in the first place! What was the fucking point if they were just going to be evil barbarians anyway?!? For ONE scene where Midnight could show off her Duolingo streak???

So to summarize,

It was an awful idea to start with

It was executed in the worst possible way

In a series that is already plagued with xenophobic sentiment, this somehow made it even worse and more direct

If it was completely nuked it from the story, the series would be immediately better with minimal change. Holly caring for what is essentially the clan cat-equivalent of an exotic animal like a chimp or a tiger cub would have done the same thing

There is not even a glimmer of an idea here that justifies the poison that full sapience does to the wider implications of the series.

Don't even get me started on the Badger Debaucle in TNP, which is actually in my top 5 for most vile things in WC

So if I don't explicitly say that a species in BB is capable of true language, assume it is non-sapient. Talking animals like Midnight and Rat Leader are magical individuals-- gods, curses, etc.

[thickenmyblood]

Hi Maca, I hope you can answer my question about Damen’s previous love-sex life before Laurent.

I remember, there is this paragraph where is revealed that Damen came out while he was in college but only is reveled that he likes men, nothing specific about his sex experiences or anything.

“…He never really told them he liked men, the way Damen did, simply making out with a first-year guy in one of those college parties Nikandros used to drag them to. They had all thought it was a one-time thing, that it was the alcohol and the excitement of having passed his exams. Apparently, they were wrong.”

And now in chapter 19 I think its revealed that Damen was clueless or so ignorant about Laurents habits and whatever related to sex with men, and that make wonder if you could explain or give more details about Damen previous experiences.

I know you have stated in the same chapter these lines.

“He always has, ever since he got that first handjob halfway into being fourteen, through all the awkward and quick first times, through all the new awkward and quick first times with guys...”

but it seems that he was not very experienced and only had “firsts times.” with no further experiences to gain more understandings or to learn the basics mechanics.

Maybe I’m misinterpreting the paragraphs since English is not my native language, if that’s the case, please forgive, because you are a terrific writer, and the mistake is mine.

Any way thanks for your time and one more question, the books that Damen had read to understand Laurents and Nicaise behavior and trauma really exists or are based in real ones…

Thanks again for your time. And thanks for this fiction it’s really well written, engaging, you have the ability to capture your reader's emotions and imagination.

Ju_Katze.

hello!!! sorry for the late reply.

in hiuh, damen has had sex with men before laurent, but as you pointed out they were all "first times" in the sense that it was just hooking up (also, that quote is referencing things like "first time getting a blowjob from a guy, first time giving head yourself, first time fucking a guy".) you don't necessarily talk to a one-night stand about things like douching or prepping or the weird and toxic culture around not eating pre-sex that some people participate in. damen isn't stupid, but he is oblivious and ignorant about many things in this fic, and he doesn't really notice things (anything?) that escape the bubble of his comfort and experience (other examples include "the help" or waiters at restaurants and coffee shops, mental health issues, health issues in general like IBS or Celiac's, etc.)

additionally, you could use this bit of backstory to read how and why damen dating laurent was such a fundamental shift in his life and, especially, his friendships. we know nikandros has never liked laurent, and we know why, but it's also possible that nikandros and the entire friend group (aktis and elon, specifically) were not exactly bothered by damen "coming out" as bi because they saw it as a phase or as a sex-only thing. having casual sex with men is not the same as being in a committed relationship with one. which is why when laurent and damen break up, nikandros's options for damen are always women. i also think it's interesting that damen only considered dating a man seriously after his father was dead.

as for details about damen's previous experiences, they're not part of the story so they're not "canon", but I always imagined hiuh damen to be, essentially, a fuckboy (affectionate). he likes sex, he likes boys and girls, he likes other people knowing that he's good at things (and that includes sex). i like the idea that he started having sex when he was young (14) but that unlike what happened to laurent, it wasn't traumatic or weird or bad. that's why I liked the phrase "awkward and quick first times". that's usually the case with first times: you don't know what you're doing, sometimes there's sneaking around involved so you have to be quick about it, you're excited so it is quick, etc. it's my personal headcanon that his previous partners have always been "discreet" in the way laurent is, which speaks more about damen's toxic masculinity than his real personal taste. even if it was just a one night stand, he could never fuck someone like ancel, who wears "more feminine" clothes, does his nails, is into makeup, is more open and vocal about his queerness, etc.

about the self-help books: i'd say 99% of them are not real, but they are based on real books that you can find online. i read the body keeps the score (very problematic) and a bunch of others (like, a few pages of healing the shame that binds you) but ultimately decided it was better to just stick to original things.

i hope this cleared things up for you!!! thank you for the cool questions!! and congrats on your english, it's very good!

[vryivs]

fanfic writer interview

thank you @tiesanjiaoshenanigans

How many works do you have on AO3? 52

What's your total AO3 word count? 571, 768

Your top 5 stories by kudos/likes:

Tangerine, Macaron (seongjoong)

the dirt that you're made of (yanqing)

恋の予感 (the longest path to us) (seongjoong)

If I Can Leave One Memory (sansang)

the stars are here (seongjoong)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? yes!! i usually go through my comments right before i upload a new fic or chapter, just because that's easiest

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending? god um ok. one sec. it's definitely 白镜 - White Mirror. tragic lesbians... most of what i write has a happy or at least ambiguous ending but this one follows canon so it's a tragedy instead

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending? oh man! tbh it's probably 恋の予感 (the longest path to us) again. although nearly everything i write ends happy

Do you write crossovers? not rlly... they just don't appeal to me that much so I've never written them. i dont read them either

Have you ever received hate on a fic? nope! considering how long ive been writing it honestly kind of surprises me--its not even like i write particularly safe stuff either. i figure that maybe its because so much of my work is so personal that a people tend to maintain good etiquette and dont talk shit directly to me

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? yes. the cinematic kind lol. last time i wrote something explicit was fine, but i much prefer writing smut in a more literary style? not sure if that makes sense. the writing equivalent of close shots and fancy camera angles and lens flare, although that doesnt mean that i cant be crass when i want

Have you ever had a fic stolen? i dont think so, but its not like i check

Have you ever had a fic translated? nop! someday i want to get good enough to translate my own hsr work into chinese just bc so much of what i write is influenced by reading and learning about chinese culture and linguistic quirks, but that wont be any time soon

Have you ever co-written a fic before? yes!! several actually. lonely 'til you hold me was a collab with a pinch hitter for the event it was for. then i also wrote on my old account Accursed Spawn with @shineoftherainbow which to this day i am obsessed with

What's your all-time favorite ship? oh man... i am fickle and my tastes change by the week, but i think i will always have a soft spot for einsla, even if i dont write them much

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will? never say never but probably the seongjoong royalty au. i had it planned and everything but then people started discoursing around eden and the planned ending i wrote was potentially too topical, so i waited and then i lost steam.

What are your writing strengths? flow i think? ive always been pretty good at keeping things moving at a good pace. i edit myself a lot (and practice editing on some actual published books too!) so its become second nature to chop and change and move things around.

What are your writing weaknesses? actually writing. just kidding. probably that when i get stuck on something i tend to focus only on the fact that im stuck and cannot continue until i have unstuck myself

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? depends on what is meant my this! if it's about honorifics in dialogue (eg, hyung, -chan, dajie etc) i support it, since a lot don't translate well to english. Same with terms of endearment like -ito and -ie. if it's whole dialogue, it really depends. am i supposed to be able to understand the dialogue? is it something that could've been written just as well with 'he says, in [language]', does the author understand what they're writing, is it a text based or verbal conversation? does the pov character understand what's being said? (personally the best way to have dialogue in other languages is if the pov character isn't supposed to understand it. but always be aware that a native speaker of that language may still read the fic)

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to? kiamei! i love my lesbian mothers.

What's your favorite fic you've written?

白镜 - White Mirror. lets go lesbians! i really enjoyed writing in this style

tagging: @shineoftherainbow @himbodevotee @nicenightmare13 @morifiinwe @marichild @linhuine

[heliopauseentertainments]

Thinking about the language fic post, but honestly... I'm more tempted to conlang some stuff together because that's really the best way to actually get underlying language bits to reference. Otherwise it won't make much sense.

Downside: I have too many questions to ask based on the limited information available about the language(s) used by alien robots. I'm not really sure where to start.

I'm not touching on varieties of "speaking hand" yet. Yet. That is a threat.

Let's start with: PHONOLOGY & PHONETICS

For example, question number one: what would any given language spoken by Cybertronians sound like?

There's no reason alien robots should use verbal speech in ways familiar to us, either via human-like vocal tracts even via "verbal" means at all.

Because they are aliens. Because they are robots. Both separate reasons that are somewhat independent of each other.

Some things have to be assumed to be similar as part of the conceit of the material of the material given to us. Material between continuities is quite different so for sanity, lets pick IDW1.

Conceits we're forced to work with:

Cybertronians are repeatedly shown to whisper, shout, and make sounds with their mouths or some sort of vocal apparatus in the mouth/throat area if their mouths have been removed. Therefore, their vocal tract is mostly analogous to ours for most intents an purposes. Perhaps some of the sounds that come out are necessarily different or could have additional features or limitations based on the shapes and motion ranges of their articulatory organs.

Cybertronian speech (for Neocybex specifically) in the original writing of the continuity is rendered in English (under the guise of scifi Universal Translator tech). Sometimes British English varieties, sometimes American English varieties, depending on the writer. While this is a necessary conceit for a comic book meant for an English-speaking audience, this means we don't actually encounter a lot of the sounds (or renderings thereof) of Neocybex and its varieties as it's spoken. This also biases us to understand their cultures through the lens of localization to English (but that's a secondary problem).

Limited stock of Neocybex words are available as a result of the previous point. Mostly we have toponyms (place names), religious vocabulary (the roots of which are usually Latin or Greek and thus could also be seen as the result of localization rather than the original vocabulary), and personal names (many of which are also localized for our convenience). Even legal terminology is translated into English words. We really only get toponyms as a source.

The available word stock is rendered in the English version of the Roman alphabet for the necessary conceit of "writing in English for the audience." That means that sound capture of those Neocybex words is inherently imperfect since it's limited by the writing system. Also as the material is written, we don't know what it actually sounds like (broadly). Romanization is a loose approximation at best.

That makes what their available phonological and phonetic systems look like a bit of a headscratcher.

But we do know one thing for sure.

Windblade can't pronounce /θ/ (the voiceless dental fricative at the end of "earth"). This sound is reportedly difficult to pronounce for Cybertronians and the English toponym of our planet is also not being picked up by their Universal Translator (which amusingly also doesn't work on non-Neocybex Cybertronian languages like Primal Vernacular).

I still have no idea what Neocybex sounds like, but I know it doesn't have /θ/.

Anyway, I'm going to keep pondering this.

I have many more questions.

Are there forbidden syllable structures?

Is it a tonal language to some degree? How is the language timed (mora, stress, syllable, etc.)?

What is the orthography like (because the ones we're given are English ciphers, which is bullshit)? Are there non-verbal components only present in the orthography?

How related to modern Neocybex is Primal Vernacular? Is it the ancestor language? Was it restricted to liturgical use after a certain period?

What is the grammar like? What features are marked and in what way? Does it have grammatical case? Does it have noun classes? Does it mark animacy? Does it use word order to make grammatical meaning?

What is the syntax like more specifically?

What is the morphological typology?

[voice trails off into the distance, still asking questions]

[dailyanarchistposts]

We don’t want autonomy

Daniel and Miriam live in the community Juan Lincopan, at Ranquilhue, with their three daughters. The community consists of about 300 families living on 400 hectares, and is trying to retake another 1000 hectares. They live amongst gentle, rolling hills, partially forested, above the northwest part of the Lleu Lleu. Alongside their house, which they’ve just finished building themselves, Daniel and Miriam have a large garden, and higher up on the hill a field for potato and barley. Someone in the community owns a tractor he rents out for plowing, otherwise they would plow with oxen. In their garden they practice organic agriculture, though they haven’t yet begun to implement this practice in the fields.

They have chickens and a steady supply of eggs, dogs that live in the space under the house and warn of anyone approaching, they make their own bread and cook and heat the house with a wood stove. The house has a water connection but no sewage; all the graywater drains into the garden, and at the edge of the yard is an outhouse.

Proudly, Miriam shows me a line of trees they have planted near their house, all native species like the notro, haulli, arayan, and hazelnut. “We found the seedlings up in the mountains and brought them down here,” she explains. The top of the hill is still covered in exotic eucalyptus trees, which drain the water table, but they’re harvesting the eucalyptus for firewood and slowly replacing them with native species.

They want their daughters to go to school at least until they learn how to read, but there doesn’t seem to be any great pressure to attend. During the days that we stay with them, one daughter seems to be playing hooky permanently. Miriam says she likes to bring her daughters along on land recovery actions so they can get a sense of the struggle, and an understanding that all this is their territory.

In the past, most young Mapuche went to the cities but now an increasing number are staying in the country. What they really need now is an independent school in their community, that will not train Chilean citizens but will be based in the Mapuche worldview.

Both Daniel and Miriam used to belong to the C.A.M. but they have since left it. “The C.A.M. came from the outside and did their work very well, but after the actions they’d leave, and who would receive the consequences? The community. We don’t think that’s a good strategy. We work inside the community to make the struggle from the inside. Even if it takes 15, 20 years.”

C.A.M., though it was the most radical Mapuche organization until recently, proposes autonomy instead of independence, meaning that the Mapuche would receive cultural and political rights, and perhaps their own regional government, within the Chilean state. Some of their lands would be returned to them, though ownership would still be formulated according to the existing capitalist laws. An increasing number of Mapuche are beginning to think that the time has come to openly propose independence, restoring the pre-1880 borders, as guaranteed by multiple treaties with the Spanish crown and the Chilean state, and restoring a sovereign Wallmapu, self-organized according to its own cultural traditions, circular, ecocentric, decentralized, and nonhierarchical.

We talk with Daniel and Miriam about all the similarities between the struggles in Wallmapu and in Euskal Herria, the Basque country. The Basques have won an autonomous government within the Spanish state, and some cultural rights for the preservation of their language, coupled with an even stronger repression that applies the antiterrorist law, torture, and long prison sentences against anyone who fights by any means for the full independence of the Basque people. If that’s autonomy, “then we won’t fight for autonomy,” laughs Miriam.

As the Mapuche struggle strengthens, the repression also becomes more effective. In the past, the police would come into Mapuche communities and get lost, but now they know where everything is. Now there are also police experts who know Mapudungun, the language, and there are more infiltrators, like one university student from Concepcion whose testimony led to several arrests, and who is currently working in Mexico, they say. “Bachelet,” the Socialist president who preceded Piñera, “had two faces. She showed a nice face, and then sent in the repression. There was more repression with her than there is now.”

In fact, a number of young Mapuche were killed by police during the previous government. Three cases are best known, and their names grace the walls of many towns and cities around the Mapuche territories. Alex Lemun, shot in the head near Angol. Matias Cachileo, shot in the back in January 2008 on the estate of a big landlord, his body fell into a canal and had to be fished out. Mendoza Colliu, shot in the back in August 2009. “All of them were shot from behind, none in the front,” Daniel explains gravely. “They were all running!” Miriam adds, and they start to laugh.

They talk about how the struggle is growing beyond the exhausting cycle of action, arrest, and support, and how they need to develop a legal aid organization, as a shield, to function alongside the more militant parts of the struggle.

The Mapuche are by no means victims. These confrontations have taken place during a forceful struggle for the recovery of their lands. At Ranquilhue, there used to be some trailers where timber employees lived, watching over the usurped lands. Around the 2004, the houses were set on fire, and the workers and their families were burned out. Then the state set up a makeshift command center where a number of police lived, to guard the timber plantation. Chile’s strategy of control is highly legalistic, so instead of hiring mercenaries or paramilitaries as they might in other countries, the timber corporations rely directly on police protection.

Around 2006, it was time for the police to go. This time, the community members didn’t come in the night, but in the daytime, in their hundreds, and forced out the police. Since then, that particular pine plantation has been unprotected, and the community has begun clearing it so they can plant fields. Up until then, the forestry company wanted to rent out land right on the banks of the lake, the Lleu Lleu, to build a tourist hotel. The local Mapuche would receive employment, Daniel relates with disgust, working at the hotel for the tourists, selling them vegetables, cleaning their toilets. After the police were forced out, the hotel project was put on hold. Some tourist cabins owned by outsiders were also torched around this time. Around Ranquilhue there are a few vacation cabins owned by Mapuche and rented out in the summers to generate some income, but they are low key and exist on the terms of the community members themselves.

There is, however, a problem with indigenous capitalism. Daniel and Miriam relate one story of a community member who used his lands for small-scale agribusiness, and others who kicked out the logging companies only to continue to harvest and sell exotic trees on that land. But the only companies able to buy the lumber were the very same logging companies, so in the end they didn’t care who controlled or managed the land as long as it continued producing under a capitalist logic. Recreating capitalism within their struggle is a recognized danger.

And then there are Mapuche politicians. There are those who work with the government, and those who try to form political parties to co-opt the struggle, “but there is no Mapuche political party, it doesn’t exist, because we closed the door and they’re left on the outside.”

“The Mapuche can have their independence, but if they lack the spiritual side of things it’s nothing. A Mapuche without newen is not Mapuche.” Newen, they explain, means strength, but it is also the strength of nature, or the energy one receives from the natural world. “The time when the sky goes from dark to light is when you receive all your strength.” Accordingly, there is a specific Mapuche ritual that one undertakes in times of difficulty, getting up before dawn to ask for strength and draw on the power of the world.

[mackeralsauce]

*asks you about your fics boy*

ohohoo you've unleashed the pharoah's curse by asking this, boy... /silly

there's gonna be a lot so i'm gonna put this under a read more label, prepare for way too much worldbuilding and way too much autism >:D

so as the summary suggests, The Ruse Theory series of Cuttletavio fics is my interpretation of the ship. Not an attempt at an AU or canon divergence, but what my personal theories are regarding what REALLY went down with the Great Turf War, the ship/character dynamics, and the cultures of the two factions. While the fic IS about Cuttletavio (Cap'n Craig Cuttlefish x Shogun/DJ Octavio Takowasa), there is also a wider focus on the worldbuilding of Pre-War Inkadia.

There's a lot of choices sprinkled throughout that are actually based on small lore tid-bits and other such notes. For instance, the inklings' faction is named Haven because the inkling territory on the Inkadia map is labelled as a "haven" while the octarian territory is labelled as a "wasteland". On the topic of Haven/Inkadia's faction of inklings, I feel their culture was always somewhat similar to American culture; that in which it is heavily consumeristic. Looks great on paper, but when you really visit it, it's a horrible mess for everyone but the rich. It isn't entirely the same of course (they do not have three branches of government nor a real 'government' to begin with, they are ruled by their military), but there are key comparisons to be made.

Since the inkfish (both sides, inkling and octoling) are a different species than us humans, I feel their cultures may have grown and innovated at a different pace. Thus, instead of focusing on one specific human 'decade' of culture, there is an intermingling of different things from different decades. Haven has a mixture of things from the 20s all the way to the 70s. As an example, Craig is meant to have a certain 70s style to him in design, but his speech is more akin to the 20s-40s, a little of the 50s as well.

The Octarian Shogunate's culture is definitely more akin to Japanese culture. However, while Haven's similarities to America are pure coincidence, the Shogunate's are moreso of a result of left-over relics being discovered. As they knew the locations of human bunkers, its not too farfetched to infer that perhaps some historical relics and documents were brought to these bunkers, and thus during exploration the octarians would find these and learn from them. It would not be entirely the same- especially due to the language barrier of not understanding their texts entirely/completely and deciphering human languages could take ages- but they would perhaps find influence from old illustrations and pictures of architecture, culture, and other signifigant things. It would also make sense as they have a habit of recycling.

Despite the Shogunate appearing to be more tradtional and old-fashioned, their technology would actually be leagues ahead of Haven. While Haven has to rely on black-and-white films and simple vinyl records for music, it is very likely that the octarians have developed color photography- although bearing a preference for art/paintings instead- as well as more advanced music storage. Perhaps even digital means! Whose to say? Regardless, I think they definitely developed the musical synthesizer.

SORRY FOR INFODUMP... there will be more to learn and come in the coming chapters of the fic.... yahoo!

[rexcaliburechoes]

“fight by your side” vs “i will lay my life down for you” // the diamant-sertation series

my partner (@asylumdream) said, “so, you’re writing a diamant-sertation“ when i said i was “writing another diamant dissertation“ since talking about engage localisation funnies triggered this conversation.

@successeurdiamant i’m gonna move the convo over here since this might be a long post and i’d rather not clog a post with character dissertations, lmao (any other ppl in the diamant tumblr zone do feel free to add onto this post too, though! the more the merrier!)

“fight by your side“ and “i will lay my life down for you“ both have two distinct feelings and i love them both because of both of the feelings they convey and how they both relate to diamant’s character.

to my personal taste, i really love “i will lay my life down for you“ mainly because it plays on his sense of devotion and how he’s hellbent on giving all of himself to his country, to ending the way, to alear... because he would, and he does. i wouldn’t know about how his character behaves specifically in the jp version (since i don’t speak japanese, and from what it sounds like is that he’s still relatively the same, if not tonally different because of line changes), but we know that he is a perfectionist and holds a lot of guilt based on if you let him or alcryst kill morion.

what kind of brother is he to let his brother fill in for his weakness? what kind of son kills his father? alcryst outright says that it’s a burden that is too heavy for him to bear (so he shall do it instead), but imagine how heavy the other burden is, to be helpless in helping the ones you hold most dear? he’s still his brother’s brother, after all. alcryst also states in ch15 that he’s worried for diamant’s mental state because he keep bottling his emotions.

diamant... there’s some (a lot of) brodian stubbornness in there. it’s the sheer devotion, come hell or high water, in sickness and in heath, and all of that- it’s his need to see everything through. what kind of king is he is he does not? he wants peace, and he’ll devote himself to that peace. he wants the one he loves to be safe, so he’ll devote himself to that, too. (this kind of devotion is actually what’s all over alear and marth’s dynamic. there is so much subtextual devotion from one to the other, it hurts. marth was, in fact, the one watching over alear the entire time, after all. but i digress; this is a diamant/dialear post, not a marth/alear post)

the thing is, though, it’s not exactly his life to give, now is it? his life, first and foremost, must prioritise his people above all. he has to be the the pillar of strength and the perfect, flawless diamond that everyone perceives him as. there’s his relationship with ivy and how brodia has hurt elusia over, and over, and over again and how elusians are taught to be scared of brodian armour. he’s the one only one that can make it right. that’s his job as king, after all. his life for his people. always.

in fact, perhaps giving his life to one person, the person he loves most, is a reclamation of his life. he cannot give his life to one person, for his kingdom mandates him to give himself wholly to the greater good. but perhaps, in another life, he could do so without fear of flaw or failure.

as an aside: now’s the perfect time to plug in and propose “shinunoga e-wa“ for diamant and alear’s relationship (i’d talked about it a little here but nothing in depth) because doesn’t “i want you to be my end. if it meant saying goodbye to you, i’d rather die“. fujii kaze has also said that the lyrics are on the old fashioned side, and historically, when “i love you“ gets translated from other languages into japanese, some equivalent similar to “i could die for you“ or “the moon is beautiful because of you“ is used because of the cultural context behind it. (i cannot believe this has come back to grace me with its presence.)

now... after some mulling it over, “i’ll fight by your side“ also carries a similar sort of intimacy... but different. it doesn’t have the same gravity that “i would lay my life on the line for you“ has, but it’s sweeter. softer. understanding that his life is not his to give and thus, he has no right to give it to someone whom of which it does not belong to (ironically, however, he gives his life to the state, but that’s out of duty and not out of emotional intimacy).

but this doesn’t make it bad. no, far from it, actually.

you see... “i’ll fight by your side“ very strongly reminds me of this confession:

“you are the wind at my back, and the sword at my side. together, my love, we shall build a peaceful world, just you and me.“

sound familiar? it’s chrom’s s-support cg dialogue, and i think it conveys the same exact thing that diamant tries to convey in his english s support. chrom has always viewed robin as his equal, and in terns of feh canon, his “other half“ (no, i’m not lying about that. chrobin is practically canon confirmed, especially with its inclusion of chrom and robin as the emblem of bonds). he loves robin- platonically, romantically, or even a secret third thing. friends are not lesser than romantic partners, after all.

but diamant... diamant views alear as close, just as close. maybe not as an equal like chrom and robin (who is he to consider the divine one an equal? he’s just the king of brodia, and alear is the monarch dragon of lythos. they’re god, effectively. to be equal to a god... or to drag a god down to his standing... it doesn’t sit well with him), but definitely with the level of understanding that goes beyond a commander and a subordinate, or a king and a god. they’re friends. they love each other, romantically, platonically, or even a secret third thing.

[bookoramaenderteeth]

Eithet songs or genders for the top 5 thing. I couldnt choose which one to ask you

(In retrospect I don't know why I did the ask game, I'm so bad at picking favorites) If I HAVE to choose five songs, and specifically selecting them so each fits a different niche/genre/space in my brain: 5. Rainbow Connection, by Kermit the Frog. I'm a big fan of the Muppets in general, and this song specifically is partially why. It's sincere, it's deep, and it feels like I can't listen to it without being filled with a sense of wonder, at the world and all its contents. When I listen to this song, the Muppets make perfect sense, with all the frogs and bears and chickens and whatever. They're part of the rainbow connection.

4. Talk About Bones, by Seeming. My boyfriend got me into Seeming. The first time I listened to their album Sol with him was the first time we met in person. We lay in the dark, listening to the whole thing together without speaking, ending with this. The whole album could honestly be on this list, I can't think of one song without thinking about how it flows perfectly from the rest. I can't recommend this album highly enough. It's not music - it's an experience. Dim the lights, listen closely, and open yourself to being banished.

3. Hopes and Dreams, by Toby Fox. Look, anyone who's known me for a while would know there was going to be an Undertale song on this list. Hopes and Dreams is the climax of one of the best storytelling experiences of my life. It ties it all up in a neat little bow, motifs bringing back character moments long forgotten in what feels like both a deadly boss battle and a tear jerking farewell to a world you invested your thoughts and emotions into. Or in my case, less a 'farewell' and more an 'Au revoir', since I will inevitably get sucked back into the game or fandom at some point (over 100 hours of it played on Steam, and at least five Youtube playthroughs watched in full).

2. Natsuki vs. Raven, by Freshy Kanal. Look. I know. This is not what most people would think of when asked to list their favorite songs. But I have a theory, as an English Literature student, that rap battles are the epitome of literature and stories in general:

Stories are based on conflict, and a rap battle is conflict distilled. Two or more characters enter the story, fight for the audience's amusement, and then the story ends, leaving the audience to determine the victor.

All literature and storytelling function based on the context it's in; to maximize the effectiveness of a story you need to understand the allusions and references of the time and make proper use of them. Rap battles are full of references, to pop culture, history, character backgrounds, etc.

Storytelling is all about language. Rap battles make incredible use of language, with intricate wordplay and double or triple meanings.

Also this one just has really good lyrics and an absolute boppin' beat.

Honorable Mentions: - Songs from the Hatchetfield musicals. Extremely good music, very good plays. - Homestuck music. Fell under the same umbrella as the Undertale song, so didn't look for specific ones. - This one song I made up as a kid called Hot Green Bananas. It is terrible. I'm using it for the theme song of the show I dream of making someday. 1. I'm Me, by Vanessa Doofenshmirtz. I dare you to listen to this song and tell me it doesn't deserve the number 1 spot. Pure self-actualization, distilled into a series of metaphors. I still listen to this one if I need a pick-me-up in the confidence department.

[struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor]

pretty much just echoing what other anons are saying about the absolute lack of nuance that armys have fostered where anyone who has a negative opinion about anything the members do is just an uncultured hater who wants the entire wrath of stan twitter to fall on x member.

while i do think black armies are absolutely correct about the virtue signaling and pearl clutching that white armies tend to do when it comes to sexual references in hip hop/rap outside of bts and agree that it is largely based in racist stereotypes. i think the “bora glasses” are causing them to miss the point of a lot of the uproar. its not about lyrics being sexual bc this (for the most part) did not happen with latto’s verse. in addition, a lot of them hate to admit they find this language attractive bc its the kind of stuff we have been socialized to expect from men since we are little girls. i am latina and grew up around reggaeton (heavily influenced by rap and hip hop) where a min. 80% of the music is extremely degrading and objectifying of women. even as a queer adult woman in her late 20s while i acknowledge this issue with the genre (and have heard much more explicit things) a lot of that music is extremely nostalgic to me. so i understand the cognitive dissonance but i cannot accept that from men i expect better from (not JH obviously lol).

and yes, i do think this is a bad look for JK even if he didn’t sing or write that part bc either he’s aware of the meaning and has no problem with it or is that oblivious to not even know what someone is saying on his own damn song. the fact that an alternate version even exists with this collab tells me that the check cleared before someone in a board room went “actually maybe not”.

despite my deep respect for BTS throughout the years, at the end of the day I will always acknowledge that they are men. they are not some sexless unicorns raised in a place with no misogyny or gender roles, they are men and like most other men they engage in behavior that often betrays the respect of most women whether consciously or subconsciously. we simply may not see it bc they are celebrities with pretty curated online personalities. now, that doesn’t mean i think they’re secretly chauvinistic pigs but despite my respect for them i always keep a degree of distance bc they *could* be.

i will add that the “bora glasses” are a hell of a drug. the double standards when it comes to the members vs other celebrities is insane (and i dont even like most celebrities lol). i know not a single one of these armies would think twice about talking shit about a song like this if it were from anyone else and that’s what really disappoints me about what our spaces have turned into.

I really appreciate your perspective on what the previous anon said , given your own personal experiences and culture. I'm obviously not the best person to speak on this subject.

I agree that the "bora glasses" are a real thing. It seems to me that even "normal" Armys are complaining a bit about the song, however, which is good. But I don't know that the solo version exists simply because Hybe foresaw the original would upset people. They likely wanted to recreate with 3D what they did for Seven - two versions counting as one, or at least another version to boost streams apart from the instrumental. Since it didn't make sense to have a clean and explicit versions again, and because maybe they knew some fans hadn't liked Latto's verses or Seven being a feature, they used the same strategy they applied to TXT's Back For More recently, and recorded a solo version.

I also agree that BTS are men, so, like all men, they're probably a lot more insensitive and ignorant to sexism than we imagine, and say or do a lot of things that would disappoint us (though I don't believe they're secretly chauvinistic pigs at all).

Anyway, thanks for your fresh take!

[conceptalbummultiverse]

Character Timelines: Ziggy Stardust

Here's the second in my series of concept album character timelines. This one is going to be a little different, since Ziggy is not from Planet Earth and I'm hopeless at math, so calculating what years his planet's timeline corresponds to on Earth is too much effort for me at the moment. I'm also going to weave in some of the history of his planet and species, for a better sense of background.

In the beginning, there are the Venusians. Although the Venusians are called such by humans because when the humans meet them, they're based on what they call the planet Venus, no one actually knows what the Venusians are really called and where they actually came from. Some speculate that they've been around for longer than Earth's solar system has. The Venusians are the masters of interplanetary travel, and can even travel easily to other galaxies. They roam the outskirts of space in their magnificent crafts, which somewhat resemble human tall ships.

The Venusians don't make contact with any living beings in Earth's solar system, until they become aware of a dire situation on Mercury. The planet is becoming unsustainable for life, and its residents are suffering. The Mercurians reach out to the Venusians for help, and the Venusians agree to help them. They bring several Mercurian officials to a new planet to determine if it will sustain life, and to work out an agreement with the natives of that planet (who call themselves the People). The Mercurians reach an agreement with the People, and the Venusians therefore transport all survivors to the People's planet, where they settle in and begin to live in harmony with the People. Given that the Mercurians live underneath the surface of the planet, and the People live on it, they don't get in each other's way too much, and all works out well.

Years pass, and the story of how the Venusians rescued the Mercurians has become legend within Earth's solar system. Mainly on Mars, who are the next to make contact with the Venusians.

Ziggy Cygnet is born on Mars (or Ares, as its residents call it- I'm going to use the name Ares from here on out) to Sommie and Denyl Cygnet, two high-ranking officials within the government of his country. He's the second-youngest of four, his siblings being Dione, Pia, and Katee. Aside from a character who I'll discuss later, and calling his parents his "mother" and "father" for convenience's sake when on Earth, Ziggy doesn't assign any of these characters a gender during his time on Earth because he never talks about them, so I'm going to use the Aresian personal pronoun in Ziggy's language to refer to them all- ey/em/eir. Said language is similar to English, in the way that A Clockwork Orange's nadsat-talk is similar to Russian (which, btw, is not just a random reference, but that becomes a plot point MUCH later and won't be mentioned here), but the culture in which Ziggy is raised is VERY different from that of England. The culture of those in power, however, is unfortunately not all that different from how it's like on Earth.

Ziggy grows up in an insular environment, rarely traveling outside of his home unless he's accompanying his parents to some social function or political meeting. He honestly doesn't mind it much at first, though, since he has everything he could ever want within the walls of his home. His siblings are his closest companions, and he also gets to play/hang out with his parents' friends' offspring when they come to visit. He is educated in his home with a series of tutors.

When Ziggy is twelve years old (or the equivalent of a human twelve year old), one of his tutors begins to teach him how to play an instrument that's very similar to a guitar on Planet Earth. Ziggy takes to the instrument immediately and quickly excels at it. His parents encourage him to play to entertain their guests, and Ziggy enjoys the attention. However, he enjoys it most when he's just playing for himself, on his own time and his own terms. Music becomes his number one love in life. Other hobbies that Ziggy takes up during his teen years are gardening (or rather, admiring the plant life as he takes strolls around the grounds of his home, while a gardener does all the work) and flying several of his family's small crafts, one of which is designed to break free of the atmosphere and travel between planets in the solar system.

Sometime early in the year that Ziggy turns the human equivalent of twenty, Sommie and Denyl and several other government officials around the world discover that a catastrophe is about to befall their planet. People are running out of resources, particularly water, and the environment is turning bad. In desperation to save themselves, it's Sommie who comes up with the idea of reaching out to the Venusians (or as the Aresians call them, the Aphroditans). Since the Venusians saved the Mercurians, surely they could do the same for the Aresians. Ey appoint someone to undertake the mission of traveling to Venus and explaining the situation. Once contacted, the Venusians agree to travel to Ares to discuss arrangements. To welcome them and prove their worth as a species to the Venusians, all the countries' governments across Ares collaborate on a festival, sending all sorts of creative delegates to Ziggy's country to perform. Since their country is hosting it, Sommie and Denyl naturally set Ziggy up as the piece de resistance, the showstopper performer who headlines the festival.

Ziggy is not aware of any of the ulterior motives behind the free festival, as are very few of the people who are scheduled to perform in it. Nor is the festival marketed as "the show to save our skins"- those attending it just think that it's something flashy to welcome the first-ever visitors from another planet. They don't know why those people from another planet are visiting, but some begin to question it.

At the festival, Ziggy becomes enraptured with another performer on the bill, who plays visi-sonor (an instrument I stole from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, although this is a much fancier and more elaborate version of what the Mule plays). After her performance, he introduces himself. The performer is named Serafina, and Ziggy is instantly smitten. Fortunately, the feeling is mutual. They spend the entire day together, talking and getting to know each other and taking in the performances, to the point where Ziggy is almost late to take the stage because he doesn't want to stop hanging out with Sera. The festival concludes with a celebration of sexuality... basically an orgy, as Aresian culture (and especially the culture of Ziggy's country) is very unrestrained on sexual matters... and afterwards, Ziggy and Serafina decide that they want to keep seeing each other.

The relationship continues without interruption for six Aresian months. As often as he can, Ziggy sneaks out to meet Serafina at her family's home. He's not sure why she can't ever come over to his, or why Serafina insists that he needs to be discreet regarding the relationship (especially when it comes to discussing the relationship with his parents), but he's happy to obey what she wants. The more frequently they see each other, the more things Ziggy observes in Sera's part of town that strike him as strange. He has everything he could ever want at his disposal back at home. Why is Serafina's family struggling so hard to get food and water, let alone other goods? Why does it seem like others in Serafina's part of town are dealing with the same problems?

Eventually, once Ziggy returns home after an outing to find that several protestors have lined up at the gates of his home, he decides to bring his questions to his parents, regardless of what Sera wants. Instead of answering his questions, Denyl and Sommie forbid him from ever seeing Serafina again, and enforce that by having a guard keep an eye on him at all times. Three months pass without Ziggy seeing Sera, which he finds intolerable.

Eventually, Ziggy wakes one night to a noise outside his window. It's Serafina, who has come to him to reveal the news that's just broken out, news which she doubts that Ziggy is privy to despite the fact that his parents surely know all about it. Ares is in a state of decline, explains Sera, and will be uninhabitable within five years. A plan has been uncovered, which reveals that when the Venusians visited for the free festival, the government officials all across Ares made a deal with them to save all of the elite, and leave the rest of the Aresians to die on their planet. It sounds ludicrous to Ziggy. How could his parents ever condemn so many people to a slow death? However, as he thinks about Sera's family and the way his parents reacted to his questions, it starts to become more plausible. He tells Serafina that he'll try to get help for her family and for all the other Aresians, but Sera is concerned that he won't be discreet enough, especially because she sees that he's still very much in love with her. So she breaks his heart by telling him that in the time they spent apart, she met someone else and moved on. It's not true, but Ziggy doesn't know that. Despite his heartbreak, he wants to do right by Serafina in whatever way he can.

The next day, Ziggy snoops around his parents' offices and finds out that everything that Serafina told him is true. Now he just has to figure out what to do. Should he try to convince his parents? Would they listen? Maybe not... but the Venusians might listen. Maybe if Ziggy can go to Venus, he can command enough authority to convince the Venusians to save the rest of the Aresians. Within a few days, he's packed up everything that he thinks he'll need on his family's spacecraft. Then he steals it, flying out in the dead of night. He programs the coordinates to Venus and seals himself in one of its life-sustaining chambers, so he can remain unconscious but basically on life support in order to not use up his limited resources during the six-month journey through outer space.

Except there's one problem. In his haste to leave, Ziggy didn't program himself to remain unconscious for six months. He programmed himself to remain unconscious for six years.

During those six years, the Venusian evacuation of Ares goes according to the original plan. They take the Aresian elite to the same planet that they took the Mercurians, as the People are agreeable to hosting another form of life on their planet, given how well they've gotten along with the Mercurians. The Aresians, however, turn out to be another situation entirely. Despite having made certain agreements with the People, they soon begin to infringe upon those agreements, expanding outward from the city that the Venusians have built for them into the territory that belongs to the People. The People fight back, and war is declared. Almost all of the Aresians end up dying in this war, including Ziggy's family (except MAYBE for one of his siblings- I'm still not sure if I want to go down this route eventually, but as I've said before, that's literally another story and I don't have to think too hard about this until I finish SF: ALS and have to get the sequel in shape to be posted).

Meanwhile, after his allotted time spent unconscious, Ziggy awakes to find that he's fallen into the Earth's orbit. He makes a crash-landing and ends up in the English countryside, surviving due to the healing agent in his blood. His spacecraft, however, is another matter- it’s damaged beyond the ability for Ziggy to use it, and he has no idea how to repair it. When Ziggy reaches civilization, he finds out that fortunately, he’s ended up in a country that speaks a language similar to his own. Unfortunately, the culture is completely different, and no one is aware that there are people living on Ares (or Mars, as they call it). The situation soon becomes clear- Ziggy realizes he has to fix his spacecraft in order to continue on to Venus, and to do that, he must raise money to either get the supplies to fix it himself, or hire someone who can fix it.

Ziggy ends up in London, looking for work, and soon discovers an ad looking for an intern in engineering. Engineering! That sounds like a trade through which Ziggy can learn how to repair his craft! However, when Ziggy shows up at the location, it turns out that the ad was looking for would-be sound engineers. As far as Ziggy's concerned, this is a blessing in disguise, as his musical know-how is sure to get him somewhere. He spends the rest of 1978 interning with Bobby Toft, who works at Abbey Road Studios, and he's so quick to pick up on it (thanks to his excellent memory, which is a trait that all Aresians possess) that Bobby allows him to work in exchange for free studio time, which Ziggy uses to record an album. Bobby also invites him to stay with him and his partner Janine at their flat indefinitely, both of them having a soft spot for Ziggy. Janine even agrees to manage Ziggy in his career. Things are maybe starting to look up?

In 1979, Ziggy releases his first album, Ziggy Stardust. He adopts the stage name because it fits with the image presented in his first single, "A Space Oddity" (named after a film that Bobby shows him, 2001: A Space Odyssey). Janine works hard flogging the single and booking spots for Ziggy to appear live and on the radio/TV, but outside of that single, the rest of the album doesn't go much of anywhere. Nonetheless, Ziggy is astonished by the money that he receives from the single's success. He begins a writing frenzy that lasts much of the rest of the year, trying to get as many people to record his songs as he can and working hard on a follow-up. The musicians who played on Ziggy's first album were all studio musicians, but some are agreeable to backing him up in a live setting, so Ziggy begins to play shows with a live band. During this year, Ziggy also explores human culture as much as he can in order to blend in, and finds it both fascinating and terrifying. After living in such a quiet place for most of his life, he can't get over the hustle and bustle of London living. He has a few fleeting love affairs that never get serious due to him not being over Serafina, and discovers that he has a charming effect on people, who are drawn to his otherworldliness. He begins to use this to his advantage.

In February 1980, Ziggy returns to Abbey Road Studios to record his new songs. During the recording session for what he hopes to be his next single, "Moonage Daydream," another musician walks in who introduces himself as Pink Floyd. And so Strange Fascination: A Love Story begins...

[klaeusd]

i'm interested. which variants of the languages you listed does klaus speak? does he speak archaic, classical, vulgar, medieval, renaissance, ecclesiastical or contemporary latin? which italian dialects does he understand and speak? how did he learn bulgarian? did katherine teach him? would he understand contemporary bulgarian? does he speak the standard form or would he understand the street language? is he still fluent in old norse or has he forgotten some of it? how often has he used old norse throughout the centuries? where and when did he learn aramaic?

overall: he speaks all these languages because he's spent centuries ( or millennia in my main verse ) travelling the world to run from mikael, so it's pretty much necessary that he knows a wide swath of languages — that's how and why he picked up the vast majority of them. plus he has an uber powerful mind ( meaning he learns and memorizes things quickly ) and a potential eternity before him, so why not learn as many languages as possible? he enjoys learning about cultures from all over the world, and no better way to do that than to visit one and be able to speak their mother tongue. now to address all your questions, i guess i'll just separate these by language, and alphabetically lmao:

for aramaic, it's canon that he speaks it. how and where he learned it is never explained ( at least, not that i recall ), but for my personal portrayal, it really just makes sense that he knows it. the language dates back to the 3rd millennium bc, so it would've come around in his lifetime and he would've just picked it up naturally. he continues to speak and write it now really just to say he can, given how complex it is and how few people know it as a result.

for bulgarian, it's also canon that he speaks it. he knew it before meeting katerina, as he spoke it and impressed her upon their first meeting. i can't think of any reason in particular he'd know this one, apart from simply learning it upon his travels. he probably knows old and modern bulgarian, given that he was likely in bulgaria in both the 11th and 16th centuries. i don't see him having gone back since the failed sacrifice that took place there, so he wouldn't know any version that was born between now and then.

for latin, he's fluent in them all, helped largely by how much time he's spent in europe ( he had much fun with the roman empire and its exploits ) over the millennia. given how many other languages he speaks that are derived from latin, it only makes sense he's fluent in the original in all its forms. again, still being fluent in archic latin is mainly just for bragging rights, tbh — though he does also feel rather ... wistful or sorrowful at the thought of losing a language to history, and wishes to hold onto it as a result.

for italian, he lived in italy ( and fell in love with stef there hehe ), so he of course learned their language. he knows the main five well ( neapolitan, sicilian, friulian, catalan, sardinian ), but would definitely be rusty to ignorant to the rest. italy holds a lot of memories that are oft difficult to relive, and he's sort of avoided the country ever since.

for old norse, the reasoning for this is more canon based, and that would be that mikael was a viking — and while i don't recall it ever being stated, it seems obvious to me that they would've spoken old norse as mikael and esther came to america from norway and likely used the language around their children. he hasn't really used it much, given how it eventually diverged into numerous other languages and is no longer spoken as a living language. he's still fluent despite this, given that he practices to himself sometimes and again, thanks to his basically photographic memory.