#this is as bad as when I put french words in English sentences and am like “yeah that’s good

[yallthemwitches]

I wrote a 4 page scene of first year baby James helping a begrudging Lily in her first flying lesson and I want to make it part of a bigger ‘through the years,’ fic but all my ideas have no real through line.

Am I going crazy for caring about that? Or should I just write all the bits and string it together later?

[cloudyyoimiya]

Hiiii :)

First of all, it's nice that you are back. I hope you had fun with your friend!

Secondly, I saw your post about wanting more Verlaine requests, so could I please request something for him? Maybe reader comforting him when he gets homesick for France? Headcannons or a scenario prehaps? You can choose if yandere or not.

Take your time and make sure to stay hydrated (it's scorching hot where I am 🥵) and have a great day/night!

i’m sorry i got to this late!! it’s been hot where i live too… i hate the weather here. its horrendous. anyways, thank you for requesting! i had fun writing this <3

A Taste of Home; Paul Verlaine

Format; Headcanons and scenario

Genre; Fluff

Possible warnings; None

Word count; 1123

Little note; Translations are at the bottom :)

Unedited.

Verlaine never thought that he was one to miss France. So many bad things had happened to him in that country, an example of it being his creation. But sometimes when he did think about his somewhat good memories, he would miss the culture of his homeland. He also missed speaking French because learning English was hard enough, but Japanese? He was too proud of admit that he struggled speaking in both languages.

One time you brought up purchasing an expensive bottle of wine from France to Verlaine, but his facial expression alone showed you that he was longing to go back to his homeland. You felt bad that he was unable to travel back to France due to his current situation in the Port Mafia’s basement, so you thought that you’d try to bring his culture back to him.

You looked up how to make French cuisine and French pastries. It was hard at first, but after enough practice while Verlaine wasn’t around, you eventually got the hang of it. Hopefully a taste of home would do him some good.

You also started to learn a little bit of French. Sometimes you could see how he struggled to form sentences that weren’t in his native tongue, so you thought that it would be a pleasant surprise for him to be able to speak comfortably in French.

Though you would have to admit, learning French was hard. The grammar is much different than how it is in English, and the way you pronounce certain letters gave you a little bit of trouble. Honestly, it’s surprising how your boyfriend didn’t hear you cursing late at night because you couldn’t figure out how to say certain words.  

By the time you set up your little surprise, you didn’t know how to speak French fluently, but you knew enough to hold up a small conversation.

…

You couldn’t help but be nervous as you finished up the final meal preparations. Recently, Verlaine has been showing signs of missing his homeland, France. For anyone else it would be hard to pick up on these signs because your boyfriend was rather stoic, but for you, it was quite clear to you.

You felt bad that he was unable to travel back to France due to his current situation with the mafia, but there wasn’t much you could do besides having him leave the mafia’s basement for a day or so.

As you were setting up the dinner table, you heard a knock on the door to your apartment. You quickly finished putting down the dining utensils and rushed to the door, straightening out your outfit as you did so. You then opened the door and looked up at Verlaine, offering him a small smile.

“Hello, my dear,” you said as you opened your door fully. “Come in, come in!”

Verlaine gave you a small smile of his own and entered your apartment. He then took out of the bouquet of roses that he was hiding behind his back and offered them to you. “Here, I got these for you.”

“Oh! They’re beautiful!” You exclaimed as you took the bouquet from his hands. You then took a small sniff of the roses and chuckled. “And they smell good too. Thank you, Paul.”

Verlaine simply nodded and he took off his coat. He placed it onto your coat rack then looked down at you, an awkward smile adorned his features. Despite all of the times he had bought you flowers, he was always scared of accidently messing up and getting you flowers you didn’t like.

Your boyfriend cleared his throat then started to speak gently. “I’m glad you like them. Anyways, you said you called me over for a date, right? What exactly will we be doing, chérie?”

“Ah, I just prepared some dinner is all,” you spoke as you went into the kitchen. You set down the roses onto your counter, then pulled out a vase from one of your many cabinets. “I think you’ll like it! I tried pretty hard to make it perfect.”

Verlaine walked behind you and wrapped his arms around your waist, resting his chin onto your shoulder. He silently watched as you prepared the roses of the vase. He was happy that you put so much care into the flowers, oddly enough.

“When was the last time you had coq au vin?” You suddenly asked as you put water into the vase.

Verlaine paused for a little bit, thinking. When he answered, he seemed a little bit unsure. “I’d have to say a few years ago. Why do you ask?”

“I made it for our dinner tonight,” you stated while putting the roses into the vase. You then gently took Verlaine’s arms off of you and walked over to the dining table. “I hope you like it! It took a little bit of trial and error, but I think it tastes good.”

Verlaine followed you and watched as you placed the vase of roses in the center of the dining room table. “You made coq au vin?”

“I did indeed. I noticed how you were starting to miss France, so that was the least I could do since I can’t physically bring you back to France.”

Your boyfriend let out a small chuckle and wrapped his arms around you once more, nuzzling into your neck. He was never one to show affection first, so this act was a pleasant surprise to you. You smiled as you hugged him back, content with the affection that Verlaine was showing.

“Je t'aime,” Verlaine murmured into your neck.

“Je t'aime aussi,” you said before you giggled.

Verlaine looked at you and quirked an eyebrow. “Tu parle Français?”

“Oui, mais seulement un peu,” you said with a smile. “Is my pronunciation okay?”

“It’s good for a beginner,” Verlaine chuckled. “Did you really do all of this for me? I find that hard to believe, chérie.”

“I really did do this all for you… I knew it’s not all that much, but it’s the thought that counts, right?”

“The thought very much counts,” Verlaine spoke as he kissed your cheek. “You’re adorable, chérie. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Just think of it as showing you how much I love you.”

Verlaine nodded and stopped hugging you with a genuine smile on his face. “Then I shall think of it that way.”

“Good! Now, the food might be getting cold. C’mon, let’s go eat before I have to go throw it in the microwave to reheat it,” you giggled.

“Alright, alright. Let’s go eat then.” Verlaine gave you another kiss, but this time on your lips. “I love you, my dear. Thank you again for doing all of this for me.”

Translations;

Chérie—Dear

Je t’aime (aussi)—I love you (too)

Tu parle Français?—You speak French?

Oui, mais seulement un peu—Yes, but only a little

[junelover505]

I have stitches in my mouth; I yearn to be heard

TRIGGER WARNING!!

existential dread, but it's not too bad! This is part of a series that's for mature audiences however, and the chapters will progressively get darker and darker.

So as always: Minors DNI!! And read with caution!! 

            A little something to set the mood :)

Between blacking out and coming to; transportation:

Juniper bears an indiscernable hollowness in her heart. The lonely soul found itself in emptiness as terrifying as it was familiar. 

Is the void a mirror or a window?

What constitutes your existence? 

Is it just your belief? Your perception of your own self? The very act of thought?

Cogito ergo sum. 

Juniper always believed that when a tree falls down and no one is around to hear it's echo, then it is mute.

Why think when you can be seen.

Juniper is always seen.

Where is June?

  CHAPTER 1: Cogitare; cogitare; the only thing you can do as it begins. 

"Je pense ,donc je suis."

"I am thinking, therefore i am."

June always thought it was just: "i think, therefore i am."

The memory was something she recalled from when the teacher brought up some other philosopher's interpretation of the sentence, and upon discussing the belief of a mistranslation, everyone turned to the only student fluent in french for confirmation.

It very well could have been; as the french present tense is rather vague ,and capable of being used in the absolute; whereas the English simple present is much more restricted, and not necessarily indicative of an active continuous action.

That class started with the teacher's attempt to establish a scenario of consistent doubting of all that you know.

--Passed down information, folklore stories, word of mouth anything without tangible scientific proof.--

Discarding all that had a chance of doubt, until all that you had left was certainty. 

--Anything that you simply couldn't prove yourself, all that you can't see or experience through your own perception.--

As long as it had even the most minute chance of being false; it is then factually not real, or wrong ;so that what is left is what we can know beyond the shadow of a doubt.A

And as all can be cause for doubt, it also includes your very own senses and your very self.

June moved on to daydreaming by that point of the class, because how can you have doubt in so much? What would even be left for you to doubt? you'll have nothing. might as well be nothing, as nothing will be left.

How can you even doubt all your senses simultaneously for that long, all that you've known and what's been ingrained in you. Something so fundamental is literally 70% of what built you, your perception, and how you process the world that you just simply decided was not real.

You cannot look at fire, put your hand in and feel the burning in your palm, then deny the fact that it simply is a flame before you ,crying deception while blisters form at your skin.

Well ,the strawberry Blonde understood such train of thought when she saw a moving tree that turned out to be a man from the woods, outside a rundown motel window.

She doubted her sense of sight ,when she saw the 'man' turn out to be a live mannequin as tall as if not taller then the highest branches, in a black suit and bright red tie.

She doubted her sense of smell ,when the scent of copper mingled in with that of pine trees after running to look for it. 

She doubted her sense of touch, when she stepped on a dying, beaten body in the woods.

She doubted her very judgement when she didn't try fighting harder when the killer grabbed at her like she was some type of stress plush and he was but a scared child.

Now, at this moment where time seemed to stand still and she lost all reference that she's long relied on; she doubted her very existence after blacking out without a second's notice; upon standing before that creature, the moment that blood covered man had let go of her and she failed to run away in time; leading June to find herself in endless darkness for a reason that she has yet to come to understand.

Empty black; an all consuming nothingness. A void. An abyss.

Did she die? Maybe a heart attack. 

no. 

Those hurt, her diet is good, she had no genetic heart issues from either side of her family.

Did she pass out? 

Shouldn't she then be unconscious? Unaware of even where she was and safe from knowing that such a void existed.

What was she supposed to do if she suddenly stopped existing? Was this it? 

Without her sense of perception; without that man covered in blood and soot, what other proof did she have of still being alive; of being real?

He was least lucky enough to ask her to confirm they saw the same thing when they faced the tall mannequin; she had no one to tell her if she herself could be seen.

She was alone; without the perception of herself or that of others to rely on.

Can she truly remain when she had no way of grounding herself with her self despite having no body an no way to impact what is around her corporally?

If there wasn't a world for her to interact with any longer, and be perceived in ;then she could only conclude that she was simply taken away from reality itself; akin to a grey hair plucked out from a scalp filled in black.

That is how she felt at least. One moment, she was awake and afraid, doubting all her senses and all that she'd known, facing a one in a million scenario that seemed to have come straight out of a block buster shelf, and like a snap everything went to an all consuming black.

She was no longer real. She could not have been.

She had just ceased to exist, she is now nothing. As nothing is all that is left and the only thing she could conceive.

So she was simply nothing? That's all it could be.

A conscious concept doomed to roam about in a forever nothingness with no one but the empty shell she's never bothered to know until now. Except there was no shell of flesh; just a dull obsidian.

Wasn't that who she was before?

An empty nothing, the lack of a person.

Was that all she'd ever been? How shed been seen? Just the silhouette of a a void, a nothingness cut out from the fabric of reality and ever moving in stopmotion-like gestures ;only craving to prove she was made of tangible matter upon her interactions with all that is in smooth sultry gestures; but pathetically failing each attempt and creating a show of pitiful submission to whatever creator willfully made her believe she was made in the image of meat to be ferociously consumed? 

Desperate and hungry in her own right, but never allowed satiation.

She could not feel the air entering her lungs no matter how hard she tried to breathe.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

Over and over, she tried to take in a desperate breath but felt nothing fill the area she assumed her lungs should have been in.

Where were her organs supposed to be in? The rest of her.

There was no way to tell up from down ,the left from right ,the north from east, the front from the back.

Her lungs, her shoulders her feet her stomach, the ever growing source of her aching.

There was no use in trying to hug herself as she felt nothing.

She saw nothing and felt nothing, knew nothing and so she might as well be nothing.

She'd been stuck like this for so long.o

How long?

She never will she know a reality beyond this one, where a lack of existence will forever be her mirror as a nothing; a less then nought.

She was doomed. How much time had passed? It felt like hours ,days, ages without any stimuli other then her own physically unfelt terror and an all consuming famishment for a corplorality she'd lost, bordering onto manic obsession.

Ages of trying to create sound through cries and screams without a voice box to speak of, no throat to go sore ,and no ears to deafen let alone hear.

All encompassing carnal anguish and restless terror of a nothing, a horror that is not to be anatomically felt.

She had no heart, to feel its breakneck unrhythmic thundering in her ribcage, creating rapid thought clouding pulsations in her ear; no blood to feel its rapid pumping through her system; no vision to cloud over and blur and tunnel into everything and nothing at once.

She had no mind left to loose, but endless time to mourn the flesh she's once took for granted and had the audacity to despise in the past, thinking of it as a curse that will ruin her until she would have no consciousness left to realize it was gone ,when she's 6 feet under.

This was hell itself. 

Her hell was her very own all consuming emptiness she'd long felt within personified. Her filthy all blackened soul laid bare before her and she had eternity to make peace with such a fate.

Eternity; days ,weeks ,months. Time was not real and she had no way to count it, but her thoughts were so disgustingly clouded as she ruminated on her lack of existing.

Her new normal.

So much began to blur and mush together before separating back with only the sheer desperate carnal thirst her mind had for stimulation that made her take the time to rearrange her dusted memory closet.

And over whatever chunk of uncountable time had passed ,as her very mind felt like it was dissipating and fizzling out; she realized that her new curse of lucidity was the only thing she had left in this dark abyss, was slowly giving out on her as well.

She did have a mind, awareness, at least she had thought. And that might be all she would ever have.

What if that could just as easily be lost as her body and all else?

Wouldn't having a mind mean she was at least something within it's own right? She must at least exist in some form as her consciousness was concrete.

The very fact that she thought she simply ceased to exist was proof she did . And that despite feeling like time no longer existed beyond her vaguely guessed perceptions of its passing, it still technically should have still been passing.

You cannot doubt the active moving concept that you are as you'd need to exist to deny it.

Therefore she herself as an active, conscious concept , is simply incapable of denying her own existence, as the ladder act was paradoxically the antonym of the concept she was denying.

Therefore ,she had to be real, this new normal still had something of her old normal within it, there might be more to dig out.

Maybe her consciousness ,and therefore existence was just temporary? 

After all, you'd never know if you are simply dreaming, you just wake up.

So maybe there was a way out of this nightmare that was beyond accommodating to it, or trying to look for traces of her body through recreating the basic functions with no flesh to function ,or raking through her blurred and unreliable memories for concrete examples of her existence ?

 It would explain the eternal aspect of her reality and the rapid fizzling of the small traces left of her that were not linked to her corporal 

She didn't know how long shed been stuck in this abstract state but it was far longer then she could bother keeping track of all at once ,despite her mind's hunger for entertainment that was not its own self.

She was still real; right? She wasn't completely faded yet as she could still think. 

She had just concluded that she was.

But maybe she remembered wrong. 

This state felt timeless, but the proof of her existence was not a timeless final fact. 

It's only a certainty if she was actively thinking of it, reflecting upon it; doubting it; desperately holding onto her fastly fleeting identity as it slipped like sand through her fingers. 

God what she couldn't give to feel sand in her fingers ,under the nail bed that she would later scrub off with cooling water and lathered soap.

The more she tried to guesstimate her time spent in the abstract ; the worse it got, in the form of an ever heavy sense of despair, pushing her to stop halfway through trying to count passing mississippies before starting over again in some type of sick self inflicted torture.

It's s not like she had anything left but her consciousness in this dark and unfeeling , all encompassing void.

She just had to make sure she was real; that she wasn't fading. Focus on your existence, that you are in fact real.

It's the only thing she's yet to try, and she could at least feel it was slowing down the dissipation of the fastly fleeting "I" that she was.

She had to stick to the basics and keep her mind in one easy and discernable track.

"cogito ergo sum"

She was real. Real and not a nothing.

She was June.

"i think , there for i am"

She was june. And she was real. Even if she was stuck here for centuries more. At least she was real. She was; 

And she will keep telling herself and make sure it remained as such.

"I am thinking, therefore I am"

She was Juniper Eve Laine. And she was real. She still existed. She was actively existing. And by whatever cruel god that created her, she will keep existing if she has a hand in it.

"I am."

"I am."

"I. AM."

But did certainty equate the truth?

If she was so sure she existed, did that make it fact?

A gasp finally filled her lungs.

[flashprotectionsquad]

I don't post a lot of my life here but things are a bit stressful right now, and so I thought I could try to get it off my chest over here

So I live in france, as I (almost) always have since birth lmao. But, yeah, I'm moving to Japan next month for a long time (for ever, even, i hope)

We already signed for our apartment, we have the plane tickets, I'm almost done packing everything, our cats have passed the health and vaccines check-up and requirement for Japan... Not much could go wrong now in term of moving

I'm still so scared and anxious lol

oh and I have a promise of employment from a Japanese company as a customer support in an export japanese company

I am absolutely terrified

The big part of the job is in english, I'm part of the customer support english team, but still, japanese is used a lot in the company, one of the recruiter even commented on it during my interview. I couldn't speak properly during the interview (in japanese) and like, I think they think it was due to stress????? it WASN'T, I don't know how to speak japanese lol

like, I understand most of the things I hear and read in japanese, it's quite ok, but I cannot, for the love of god, SPEAK IT???? I don't know why, the words don't come, my grammar is bad, it's a nightmare????? I'm still waiting for the result of my JLPT N2, but honestly I think I didn't pass, so yeah, fuck me.

I'm supposed to start next month (9/18), it's going to be my first office job also (I only worked in customer service before) so it's really a lot

I lived in Japan for a year(2022-2023) for my studies, but I was in a pretty small/mid city, and now I'm moving to Tokyo??? And I have an office job??? It's really not the same. Uni in japan was a bit chill (except the exams, some where hell-ish) but office jobs? I am so scared I can't even put words on it lmao

It's really like a dream coming true. I worked my ass off for 4 years to get the best grades, I got selected by the Japanese ministry of education to got to my Japanese Uni with a scholarship. Only 6 french students got that scholarship that year and I was one of them. I felt so much pride, and recognition, but my japanese level didn't really move? Even tho all my classes were in japanese, and almost no one in my city spoke english, I went to the hospital, the dentist, the doctors, the movies, everything in japanese, and I still can't align 3 sentences without hesitation about grammar, and not finding the right words??? I sound like a kid when I speak japanese, that's not appropriate in an office....

The anxiety and stress is killing it for me, i'm really sad and don't feel too good. My husband is trying to be supportive, but he doesn't know japanese, so he will rely on me in the beginning for administrations and shit, and he still hasn't really begun job hunting, so I still feel so much responsabilities on my shoulders.

He have money on the side (I don't) so he's telling that I don't need to stress too much, that if the job doesn't work out we still have some months to get back on our feet, but I don't want us to be in that situation? It's bad enough one of them will be unemployed for some time, we can't really afford to take our time? like-

I can't afford to lose this job, and I honestly doesn't want to. I want to do this job. I'm just scared i'm going to be bad at it, or not as good as my employer thought I'd be.

I don't want them to regret hiring me. It's scary.

But yeah. Tokyo. Here I come. In 24 days.

[moinsbienquekaworu]

Salut ma bien-aimèe! I wanted to thank you again for the fic recs, and also let you know that your compliment of my frenglish has been living rent free in my head since you sent it and just thank you so much <3

But I did take your suggestion of sorting by word count, and found some drabbles that were translations, and I shouldn't be this surprised but the parallel reading between the English and French actually helped a lot! So I think I'm gonna go off the deep end and read Cambiare Podents >:)

In the meantime, I'm def gonna be getting ahold of the French editions of HP, but you mentioned having some regular book recs too? Whenever you have the time, I'd love to see those 👀���� I don't want to use you as a free resource, but I really massively appreciate the time you've been putting into this for me and I super appreciate your patience with my very limited vocabulary!

That's all, have a lovely evening and sleep well!! Love you!!!

MON AMOUR!!!! You're welcome I loove talking about what I read especially to people who are interested. Honestly the frenglish took me out I had to comment on it like it's wild. I talked about you to my family (yeah I don't have classes to complain about at diner anymore and your message was sweet) and your word order wasn't usual when you said 'j'aimerais les bons mots utiliser' (you'd put the utiliser before that, j'aimerais utiliser les bons mots) but my dad thought it was charming and it sounded like Yoda. So. That's a compliment obviously. (talking more about my online friends so that when I have the money to take a plane to come see y'all my parents don't go 'who are you going to see??' also)

Hehe Cambiare Podentes was SO important to me honestly! I started with the french translation but there were only a few chapters translated and it stopped right as it was about to get more interesting, and since the chapters are all the size of a novella the translator was updating like once a month/every few months. I didn't want to wait thought so I said well surely I can read it in english! And now here I am. So I hope you have fun with it too!!!

You're not using me as a free ressource you're giving me enrichment!! I love love love talking way too much about things that interest me but usually people aren't on the same wavelength so they listen politely but they don't really care that much. Which is fine but it's so cool when you know your recs actually have a chance of being read! I'll find you a little list of books + try to get a clean epub/pdf because I just know a lot of the stuff I like isn't going to be available outside of France and I'd feel bad for giving you recs you can't get your hands on. There's also a few visual children's books I'm thinking of (like the Claude Ponti books) that I have at home that I could probably take pics of/scan if you want, once again because I have no idea of the availability outside of France and potentially neighbouring countries/Québec. You'll have to tell me if Cambiare Podentes is the right level or if you want some simpler stuff because I can also do children's books with smaller vocabularies and easier sentences, I just have to know haha.

Also if you want me to speak french at you/with you I have a lot of free time now so 👀👀 text/voice, whatever you want, I'm free a fair amount is all I'm saying.

Thank yoouu you too! I think you said you were going to a concert so I hope you had fun! (and I didn't know if I should say it in the replies but you looked really good in that pic you posted)

[neverhangd]

The shark starts a-circling with nary an introduction to be had. He must smell the metaphorical blood in the water; her time in the Villa had cut her up and left her bleeding out after all that had happened. The choice was to stay and drown in it all or flee and fight another day—meaning she had no choice. Waiting might’ve only dragged her back into the yawning maw of those terracotta arches. Stowaways aren’t dealt with kindly, but anything was better than the Hell she’d just escaped.

Still. She’d expected a bit of grandstanding. It’s the prerogative of the captain to monologue and gloat, isn’t it?, the same way it’s the quartermaster’s prerogative to administer discipline in whatever way he saw fit.

When the captain apparent finally does deign to speak, it’s…not at all what Anne expected. It’s in English for one, which certainly makes an arse of her for assuming a language barrier. (And to think, she could have called him a bloated whale scrotum this whole time!) For another, it’s quiet. Unsettlingly so. And these two things are only registered after a sentence that stopped her heart.

I knew you would come to me eventually.

Who in their right fucking mind says that to someone they’ve only just met?

He goes on, talks of shitholes and hypothetical anger; though she keeps the mask of her snarl on—her face can be read as easily as map when she leaves it naked—unease drops like an anchor into her belly. There are too many plausible roles he could be filling in this drama: a rival of Jack’s come looking for revenge who never noticed the stupid fuck had left her there to rot, a privateer looking to make English (or perhaps Spanish or French) coin off of her capture, an obsessed stalker, somebody else’s obsessed stalker who’d mistaken her for them, some fucking halfwit James had accused her of selling out back in the day, a psychopath, and on and on and on and on.

It’s the faint brush of his lips (breath?) upon the shell of her ear that drags Anne out of the pit her thoughts had opened. Is it better to be a rat or a bitch? She’s evidently been both, and so far, neither experience has lived up to her standards.

Anne swallows and licks the front of her teeth, bracing herself for what’s to come: on the next breath, she bashes her head back into him, aiming for approximately where he’d been whispering from, but slightly higher. If this strange shark wanted blood so badly, he could have a taste of his own! Her teeth knocked together in the collision, but her expression never shifted in the slightest, wrathful as a harpy. Forget beating, Anne bites at the hand that so much as touches.

This is no fly in the spider’s web: this is a bee. Equally helpless in a spider’s web, perhaps, but not half so useless in a fight, and twice as determined to break free.

“Do I know who the fuck you are,” she scoffs, “do you know who the fuck I AM?! I am Anne FUCKING Bonny,” she’s half-shouting it now, “and I will NOT be FUCKED WITH!”

Christ Almighty, but it felt good to unload that on someone who could understand what she was saying! She’d been seven, eight months ashore locked in her gilded cage if she’d been there a day, and not one of Jack’s fucking so-called friends knew a word in any language but their own. Much like Anne. Figures the first person she’d meet outside the Villa who spoke English would use it to fucking threaten her. Bad luck yet abounds. Had she broken a mirror?

Anne comes down panting and chastens herself, puts her other mask on: inscrutably. A distant, disinterested demeanor. Her voice is much more level, much quieter when she speaks again.

“Hate t’break yer heart, Captain, but I picked this heap based solely on its departure time. I don’t know the first thing about ye.”

@hatigave gave me permission to be a menace

There’s been no shortage of bad luck in Anne’s life over the past almost-year. She’d managed to fall pregnant, be entrusted to the care of strangers interested only in what was in her belly, lose the baby, miss Jack’s last visit to port, and now she’s been found out mid-afternoon the day after she’d stowed aboard another ship. If she didn’t know any better, she might’ve started thinking she was cursed.

She isn’t surprised that the men who’ve found her only speak in Spanish. (She’d stowed aboard in fucking Havana, in the heart of Spanish Cuba: English is less common than wealth in these waters.) What surprised her was how quickly she was found. They had been less than a full day at sea and she in particular had been wedged behind an assortment of crates in the bowels of the hold. If that was a regular check, this is the tightest ship Anne’s ever been aboard, the fucking navy’s included. If that wasn’t a regular check, though, there’s more to fear than well-trained sailors on this ship.

For the time being, the sailors—pirates or merchants to guess by their clothes—have made the halfway fatal error of leaving her alone. Tied to a chair in the locked captain’s quarters, perhaps, but alone. And halfway to making a break for it; as soon as she gets this coil around her thumb and down, she’ll have a free hand and then, oh!, then she’ll be dangerous. Able to get free and get armed, maybe even get into a position from which to surprise them. Anne presses through the screaming pain her body’s in—the birth hadn’t gone well for anyone, truth be told—by imagining the look on the louder one’s face when she gets her hands on him.

Attempts to escape and fantasies of revenge alike shrivel up and die in the sudden light flooding the doorway. Anne sets her face into a snarl and prepares to bark like the mad bitch she is at the best opportunity. Even sweating and pale, even with dark bags beneath her eyes and fever hues in her cheeks, Anne knows how she looks: striking. The one word she’s heard everyone use for her. Striking, with her long auburn hair and unnervingly pale green eyes. Striking, taller even than most men she met and twice as mean. Striking, with her hand balled into a fist and slamming into the first person within arm’s length. And that’s even without her signature hat and long coat, both of which sit in front of her on the desk, alongside her rapier, along with two of her four smaller blades. (Her pistols, alas, had been a casualty of escape from the Villa.)

Stripped of hat and pistol, there’s clearly truth to what Anne’s said since the first day she saw it: the woodcarving accompanying her wanted poster could be any redhead with a hat and pistol. How the artist had avoided any other identifying measure should be a complete mystery—but answers for itself an inch below the face, where an equally generic-looking bosom is presented naked to the viewer.

It was the plausibility of the woman before them being anybody but Anne Bonny that had sent her captors scrambling back to their captain, shouting about a redheaded stowaway armed to the teeth. It was the possibility of her being nobody but Anne Bonny that had lured their captain here. And it was the likelihood that none of them spoke a lick of English that kept Anne Bonny from loudly comparing them to disease-ridden ballsacks.

[cutelanguagestuff]

My Favourite Youtube Channels for Studying Languages 🌷

 - innerFrench -

innerFrench is a channel ran by Hugo Cotton, a French teacher situated in Poland. Hugo is a native French speaker and speaks only in this language on his channel - you will never hear a word of English! Even when he explains the meanings of more obscure French words, he still uses French to both convey the word’s meaning, and enable his viewers to continue practicing their comprehension skills. The French Hugo uses is slow, clear and easy to understand for intermediate speakers. Begginners will also find this channel useful as a way to immerse themselves in the language. Hugo focuses on explaining different aspects of French culture in his videos, with a foreign target audience in mind. Since he is both a French teacher, and has had to learn Polish, it’s fair to say that Hugo understands the struggles of learning a foreign language and so is able to help his viewers improve their French skills in a suitable way. This is by far my favourite channel for learning French and I truly believe it has helped me a lot over the years!

- The Purple Palace -

The Purple Palace is a channel ran by Shayna Klee, an artist from the US who moved to Paris for art school. She makes videos in both English and French, often combining the two. When she speaks in French, she always includes English subtitles so that beginners don’t feel lost. Most of Shayna’s videos are vlogs in which she talks about art (which is incredible btw), fashion, French lifestyle / culture and her own personal life. She is quite open about her personal life which definitely makes her viewers feel more close to her as a person. What makes Shayna’s channel so unique is her artwork. I have never seen anything like it before! Seeing her creations makes learning French so much more enjoyable. If you love art or French culture you must explore this channel!

- Easy German -

This is my favourite channel to use for learning German. The hosts of Easy German just seem so sweet and every video puts me in such a positive mood. The Easy Languages network make videos on a range of languages (German, Spanish, French, Italian, Catalan, Polish, Greek, English, Russian, Turkish and many more) and the main premise of their videos is to “learn from the streets”. Most of their videos consist of street interviews with native speakers on various topics. This, of course, is a great way of learning because you get to hear conversational phrases, different accents and see different parts of the world. What makes Easy German so special is definetely the hosts. The channel has several hosts but the two main ones seem to be Cari and Janusz who just seem so lovely. Idk why but it seems like everyone they interview is always so friendly and sweet. It definetly breaks the stereotype that Germans are cold and distant. Easy German also make videos about grammar, vocab and any other things about German which they feel are important to point out. Another thing about this channel is that they don’t just focus on Germany - they also have videos situated in Austria and videos that talk about Swiss German and Austrian German.

- Spanish After Hours -

This channel reminds me of innerFrench as the host (Laura) speaks only in Spanish. Like Hugo from innerFrench, Laura uses a clear, slow register that makes it very easy for intermediate speakers to comprehend. Laura is a native Spanish speaker from Spain and so, if you are looking to speak Castilian Spanish, her accent is perfect to take inspiration from. Her videos are usually shorter than those at innerFrench which might help viewers who find it hard to concentrate for long periods of time. Laura’s videos are very diverse. In some she reads Spanish children’s stories, in others she does ASMR and sometimes she focuses on vocabulary. Nevertheless, her videos are always enjoyable and have definetly helped me with my Spanish listening skills recently.

- Parpalhon Blau -

This channel focuses on the Occitan language which is definetly a language which has very few learning resources. Occitan is a minority language, referring to several dialects spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Northern Spain and Western Italy. It is a romance language which has very close ties to Catalan. On Parpalhon Blau (which means blue butterfly), Gabrièu teaches his viewers how to pronounce Occitan words and helps them to improve their listening skills, catering for both beginners and intermediate learners. Before finding this channel, I had never even heard of Occitan but after hearing how beautiful it sounds, I just had to subscribe. Often with smaller languages like Occitan, the learning resources are very limited and the ones that do exist aren’t really the best quality. Parpalhon Blau however, is a great channel and the perfect introduction to the language.

- Langfocus -

On Langfocus, Paul makes videos surrounding an incredible range of languages. He has videos on almost every language I can think of! the chances are, if you are studying a language, Paul will have made a video about it. I genuinely cannot understand how one person can know so much about so many languages. Most of his videos focus on individual languages or dialects, however, he also has some very interesting ones in where he compares two languages together, highlighting the differences and similarities between them, whilst also explaining the reasons behind this. In each video, Paul aims to give a good overview of the language, discussing it’s origins, pronounciation, alphabet and grammar. Sometimes these videos can be a bit overwhelming if you don’t know anything at all about the language so I mostly use his videos to learn more about languages I am already studying or as an introduction to a language I want to study in the future. 

- JuLingo -

This channel is quite similar to Langfocus in the way that Julie mostly focuses on a different language per video, offering a general overview of it. Julie tends to focus on smaller languages, like Ainu and Basque that people may not know a lot about rather than more popular languages like Spanish and French. Julie’s channel is a great way of exploring new languages that you may have never thought to learn before. Like Paul from Langfocus, she doesn’t just talk about grammar and sentence structure, she also includes information on the language’s origins, which I personally find fascinating. 

- Ecolinguist -

On Ecolinguist, Norbert challenges native speakers of different languages to try and understand a language foreign to them. Through these experiments, he reveals how similar and how different languages are to one another. Usually, he chooses speakers of the same language family as the language which they are listening to and, being a viewer, you are invited to test yourself too. As a native English speaker, I particularly enjoyed discovering how much Old English I could decipher but also since I speak intermediate French and Spanish, I was able to test myself against Latin, Italian, Romanian and Lombard too. Since Norbert is Polish, he also makes videos focused on learning Polish, mostly regarding speaking and listening. Another series Norbet has is his guess the language challenge, in which a guest is presented with audios of language from anywhere in the world and has to guess it. Although I am very bad at these theyre always fun to watch. Its incredible how skilled his guests are!

[marauders-venting]

Pardon My French

pairing: wolfstar (sirius x remus)

genre: fluff

warnings: none

words: 3556

note: thank you to @ probably_wizardingworld_artist on instagram for helping me translate things into french. also i got some of the lines that sirius says from this website https://www.fluentu.com/blog/french/french-pick-up-lines/

a/n: if you dont speak french (like me) dont look up a translation! everything will be clear by the end of the fic and its more fun if you find out along with remus. i mean, i cant really stop you if you want to translate the sentences but thats just my advice :)

Remus was sitting in the library, a French to English dictionary open on his lap, sighing in frustration as he flipped through the pages. For the past couple of weeks, Sirius had taken to murmuring things in French under his breath and it drove Remus crazy that he didn’t know what they meant. He had asked Sirius on several occasions but Sirius always refused to tell him. But the fact that he didn’t understand the words wasn’t the only reason it drove him crazy when Sirius spoke French. It’s not Remus’ fault that Sirius sounds really hot when his lips curve around the words in “the language of love”.

Remus tries not to think about it but it’s becoming increasingly more difficult because every time they’re alone together Sirius seems to find something to say in French (if only to piss Remus off).

The last time Sirius had said something in French to him had been last weekend. It was the first sunny weekend since the winter and Marlene had suggested that they all go down to the lake for a swim.

Remus’ brain could barely form a single coherent thought from the moment Sirius took off his shirt; he was too busy trying not to stare. He remembered jumping into the lake and trying to get warm by swimming to the far side, away from all his friends. Sirius had followed him to make sure he was okay.

“I’m fine,” he had said, smiling slightly at Sirius. “Just cold.”

“Oh okay,” Sirius said, looking relieved. He had glanced back at their friends before whispering, “On devrait t’arrêter pour excès de beauté sur la voie publique” and submerging his head in the water and swimming back to James, Peter, Lily, Marlene, Dorcas, Mary and Alice. Remus had felt a shiver down his spine that had nothing to do with the cold.

Then there was the time that Sirius had skipped Quidditch practice to visit Remus in the hospital wing after a particularly bad full moon. James, being the captain, had been able to delay the practice so that he and Peter could come to visit as well but they had to practice for the game the following day. James had to be at the practice because he was the captain and Peter had to be there because they didn’t have another Keeper to fill in. But James had given Sirius permission to stay with Remus (which showed just how terrible he felt that he couldn’t stay as well). They watched a bit of the practice from the hospital wing but Remus was getting frustrated, having to stay in a hospital bed for so long. So, after clearing it with Madam Pomfrey, Sirius helped Remus climb all the way to the Astronomy Tower. They sat up there watching the sunset when Sirius said, “Il y a tellement de soleil dans tes yeux que je bronze quand tu me regardes.”

“Ugh, do you make it your life goal to patronize me?” Remus had said.

“Of course, Moony, what else would I live for?”

“Are you ever going to stop doing that?” he asked.

“Probably not,” Sirius had replied, grinning at him. “It’s too much fun.”

“Why do you even bother?” Remus said. “You know I don’t understand a single word of what you’re saying. Why don’t you go talk to someone who speaks French?”

“Because then they’d know what I was saying,” Sirius replied simply. He had refused to answer any more of his questions.

Remus had needed to spend that night in the hospital wing again. All night, Sirius’ voice rang through his head but every time he tried to make something coherent of it, actually words or letters or even sounds, he couldn’t. He could never remember what Sirius had said long enough to actually look it up or ask anyone.

But lately, Remus had noticed that Sirius had been repeating the same sentence in French practically every day. He recognises the sound of the words in Sirius’ mouth.

So today, Remus waited until he was alone with Sirius, waited for Sirius to say what Remus knew he would. And when he did Remus repeated the words in his head a million times until he remembered them. And now Remus was in the library and looking up the words in a dictionary. 

He knew that he could’ve gone to Lily and asked her to translate it for him but he didn’t want to. He knows it’s stupid but he feels like this is something that Sirius is saying to him and only to him. Remus had never heard Sirius whisper in French to anyone else. And as much as Remus pretended to be annoyed by it, he actually liked that he had this with Sirius. He liked that they had something that was just their own. And even though it was probably nothing, he didn’t want to share it with Lily right now.

Chaque jour je tombe plus amoureux de toi. That was the sentence. Remus looked up each word individually and came to the conclusion that he must have heard wrong or maybe the words were spelt differently to how they were pronounced. Because there was no way in hell that Sirius had said these words to him. It was impossible. Right? Remus didn’t know. And he knew that the only way he could be sure was by asking Lily. He had asked Sirius a million times to no avail. And he needs to know what Sirius has been saying to him, especially now that there’s a chance… No, Remus tells himself, you just translated wrong. Don’t get your hopes up. So Remus gives in. He’d rather ask Lily and find out what Sirius has been saying to him every day for the last month than keep this to himself without even understanding it.

“Hey Lily,” he started, getting her attention. Remus had waited until the two of them were alone, just in case he had translated right. Which he hadn’t. He knows he translated it wrong. But he’d still rather nobody knew about it. “What does ‘chaque jour je tombe plus amoureux de toi’ mean?” He fumbled across the words a bit, hearing how terrible his pronunciation was. Lily looked at him, her eyebrows raised.

“Where on earth did you hear that sentence?” she asked.

“I read it somewhere,” Remus lied easily. “So what does it mean?”

“It means ‘every day, I fall more in love with you.’” Remus’ jaw dropped open. “Remus, who told you they’re in love with you?”

“What? Nobody! What makes you think someone said that to me?”

“You said that you read that sentence somewhere but if you had read it, you would have no idea how to pronounce it. Besides the look on your face when I told you what it means is more than enough. So who was it?”

“None of your business,” he said. “But y–you’re kidding, right? That’s not actually what it means. Right?”

“No, I’m not kidding, Rem. That’s what it means,” she replied, laughing at the look on his face. “Come on, tell me who it was.”

“No fucking way,” Remus said. “Besides, they’re probably joking. I mean… no, they’re definitely joking.” Lily shrugged.

“Just ask them,” she said. “And then you have to tell me who your secret admirer is.” She poked him in the side.

“Stooooop,” he said, jumping away from her and laughing against his will. “I’m going.” He got up and started walking away.

“Have fun with your mystery lover,” she called after him without looking back. Remus rolled his eyes but his mind was racing. So apparently he hadn’t been wrong. That was what Sirius had said to him. What does this even mean? He’s teasing you, said a voice in his head, like always. Sirius doesn’t love you. Not like that. But he said he does. Don’t be stupid. Sirius isn’t in love with you. He’s joking. Like always.

The next time Sirius said it, they were in the Room of Requirement. Sirius had ambushed Remus in the middle of his prefect rounds with Lily levitating a cardboard box in midair. Typical. He had practically given Remus a heart attack by interrupting his conversation with Lily, leaving Remus to wonder just how much of the conversation he had overheard.

“So have you talked to your mystery French lover yet?” Lily had teased. Remus groaned.

“No, I haven’t,” he said. “And I probably won’t.”

“Why not?” Lily demanded. “They’re being very romantic, Remus, you should at least appreciate their effort.”

“I’d appreciate it more if they’d just tell me what the fuck they want instead of sending me coded messages that they know I don’t understand,” Remus grumbled.

“Moonyyyyy,” Sirius said, coming up from behind him. Remus jumped, turning around, heart racing in his chest.

“Sirius? What are you doing here?” he asked. “You know it’s after hours, right?” Sirius snorted.

“Yes, Remus, I am fully aware of the fact that I’m breaking a school rule,” he said, smirking.

“Are you aware that technically Remus and I have to turn you in?” Lily said.

“Ah, but do you really plan on doing that, Evans?” Sirius asked.

“That depends,” she replied. “Why are you here?”

“Right,” Sirius remembered, then he turned to Remus. “James forgot to put this box with the rest of the stuff for tomorrow so I said I’d take it. And you’re coming with me.”

“Remind me why again?” Remus said.

“Moony, come on, don’t make me go alone. I’ll be lonely,” Sirius pouted.

“You are insufferable, did you know that?”

“And yet, you’ve tolerated me for 6 years now.”

“Yeah, the keyword there is ‘tolerated’,” Remus said, rolling his eyes. “Lils…” he started, turning to her.

“Nope,” she said before he could even ask. “No way. You are not leaving me to do these rounds alone because then I’ll die of boredom. So unless you want me to tell McGonagall that your planning something for tomorrow, you’re going to finish this floor with me and then I’ll go back to the common room and you can do whatever the fuck you want.”

“Evans…” Sirius pouted.

“Nope, that’s non-negotiable, Black. Also, do I want to ask?” She gestured to the hovering box.

“The less you know, the better,” he said. “Although, I would avoid the classrooms near the dungeons tomorrow if I were you.” She nodded and Remus thought he saw her smile slightly for a second.

“You go on, I’ll catch up,” he said to Sirius, knowing that Lily’s mind would not be changed. He couldn’t blame her. He wouldn’t have let her leave him to finish this chore alone either. She was right, it was painstakingly boring. Which is why he would much rather be with Sirius. But it was only fair that he finished tonight’s rounds with her; she did cover for him around the full moon, after all.

Sirius pouted but knew better than to argue and turned to go to the Room of Requirement. Remus watched him and he disappeared up a flight of stairs. Only then did he notice Lily was smirking at him.

“What?” he asked, sounding a bit defensive.

“So Sirius is your secret French admirer?” she said.

“W–What?” he spluttered. “What makes you think that?”

“Well, for one, the look on your face when he showed up right behind us while we were talking about your mystery lover,” Lily said. “It was the look people make when you’ve just been talking about someone and then they show up and you’re worried that they may have overheard you.”

“That… is a very specific look,” Remus said, avoiding the question she was asking.

“Then you smiled at him when you called him insufferable,” she said.

“So?”

“So it was one of those I’m-smiling-at-you-while-I’m-teasing-you-cause-I’m-secretly-in-love-with-you smiles.”

“Again, that's a very specific expression,” he said.

“Look, I know you like him, so will you just admit it already?”

“Why? What good would that information do you? It’s for me to worry about and for Sirius to never discover, ever.”

“Remus, you’re kidding, right?” she said. “Sirius literally told you that he loves you, in French no less.”

“Exactly, Lily. In French. If he actually meant it, why would he say it in a language that he knows I don’t understand? He just knew that I would look it up and he wanted to make some joke.”

“I really don’t think so, Remus,” Lily said, shaking her head. “I think he really loves you.”

“He doesn’t,” Remus said. “He can’t. Not like that.”

“Remus, do you love him?” she asked. Remus closed his eyes.

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I love him.”

“So why are you doing this to yourself? Just ask him what he meant when he said it. You don’t even have to tell him anything, just ask him what he meant.”

“But… what if he says it was a joke?”

“First of all, I don’t think he will,” Lily said. “But if he does, that’s what you’re expecting, isn’t it? It won’t be a surprise or anything.”

“I know, I know, I just…” Remus sighed and looked away from her. “I don’t think I’m ready to hear him say it. To be properly rejected.”

“Oh, Rem,” she said. They had reached the end of the corridor and Lily stopped to hug him. “Obviously I’m not going to make you do anything. You know what I think. Go find Sirius now, he’ll be waiting for you. Do what you think is right.”

“Yeah,” Remus said, hugging her back. “Yeah, okay.” So Lily went in the direction of the common room and Remus went to the Room of Requirement.

He found Sirius sitting with his back against the wall, the box beside him.

“You’re an idiot,” Remus told him, trying to put the conversation with Lily out of his mind. “You’re practically begging to get caught.” Sirius shrugged.

“I was waiting for you,” he said. “Come on, let’s go in.” They paced back and forth in front of the wall three times. We need a place to hide our things, Remus thought. A door appeared and Sirius opened it, leading the box in with his wand. They had been here before to hide loads of things. The room was pretty cluttered from years of students dumping their things in it but they knew where exactly to hide the box so that they’d be able to find it tomorrow when they needed it. Remus followed Sirius through aisles upon aisles of junk, looking at all the broken, discarded things people threw in here.

They found the corner where they’d left everything else and Sirius added the box to the rest of the pile.

“Are we done here?” Remus asked.

“Yep, we can leave now,” Sirius said. They had started walking back towards the door when Remus heard Sirius say it from behind him.

“Chaque jour je tombe plus amoureux de toi.” Remus turns to him and stops him in his tracks.

“Pads, why do you keep saying that? Who are you talking to?”

“Remus, you are aware that you’re the only one here right? I’m talking to you.”

“Then why… why are you—?”

“I know, I know, you don’t understand French,” Sirius says. “That’s why it's fun. It’s amusing to know something that you don’t, for once.”

“Sirius… I know what that sentence means,” Remus says quietly. Sirius’ neck snaps up.

“What?”

“I know what that sentence means,” Remus repeats.

“No, you don’t,” Sirius says, shaking his head.

“Yeah, I do. I asked Lily after the last time you said it. She translated for me.”

“Fuck, I didn’t know Lily could speak French,” Sirius says, rubbing a hand over his face. “So… so this whole time you’ve known what I’m saying? So you know that I… you know that I… oh god, Remus I’m sorry. I didn’t mean… I didn’t want to… I was just…” Sirius starts to back away, shaking his head and looking anywhere but at Remus. Remus reaches out and grabs his hand.

“Don’t go,” Remus says. “Sirius. Is it a joke? Are you making a joke? Actually, no, don’t tell me. Cause if it’s a joke I’d rather you bury me under all the crap in this room and spare me the pain.”

“What?”

“It’s not a joke, is it?” Remus asked, a pleading look in his eyes.

“No,” Sirius said, softly. “It’s not a joke. I’m sorry, Remus, I didn’t mean to—”

“Shh,” Remus said, pressing a finger to Sirius’ lips. “Sirius,” Remus tucked Sirius’ hair behind his ear. Remus was vaguely aware of Sirius stepping towards him, towards his touch. “I love you, too.” Sirius gapes at him

“Really?” he whispers.

“Yeah,” Remus says. He’s still holding Sirius’ hand. He pulls Sirius closer and lets his other hand graze Sirius’ cheek.

“Puis-je t'embrasser?” Sirius whispers.

“Pads, I… I don’t know what that means.” Sirius lets out a small laugh and looks down at the floor. Then he looks back up at Remus, his grey eyes glistening in the last sliver of sunlight. He’s biting his lip.

“Can I kiss you?”

“Please,” Remus says, without thinking. He feels the blush blooming on his cheeks but Sirius is already kissing him, rising on his tip-toes to make his lips reach Remus’. Remus feels electric currents dancing around his body, unable to contain the excitement. He’s kissing Sirius. Sirius is kissing him back. Sirius loves him. Sirius loves him in the same way that he loves Sirius. Sirius is snaking his hands around Remus’ waist pulling him closer. Sirius’ hair is soft, tangled between his fingers. Sirius is here, in his arms, and it’s everything Remus has been wanting and more.

“Wait, so now can you tell me everything you’ve been saying in French the whole time?” They’re sitting in the same large armchair, hands still linked together, legs tucked against their chests, knees and thighs and hips pressed together. Remus is very aware of every point where his skin is making contact with Sirius’. He’s counting them.

They found the armchair in the Room of Requirement; it’s unclear to them whether the chair is something that’s been dumped in the room by somebody else or if the room conjured it up because they were looking for it. 

Neither one of them wants to go back to the common room yet. Remus doesn’t want to see Lily’s smirk and to have to admit she was right at the moment. He’ll do that tomorrow. Right now, all he wants is to be with Sirius. To press little kisses to his nose, his cheeks, his jaw, his lips just because he can.

“Oh god,” Sirius says, burying his face in between Remus’ shoulder and the back of the armchair. “It’s like you want me to embarrass myself.”

“This surprises you?” Remus kisses the corner of his mouth. Then his jaw. Then his neck. Just because he can. “Please.”

“Ah fine,” Sirius gives in. “Um, what do you want to know?”

“What did you say that day at the lake?” Remus asks.

“Oh that. I said, ‘on devrait t’arrêter pour excès de beauté sur la voie publique’. It means uh… ugh, you’re going to laugh at me for this. It means ‘you should be arrested for excessive beauty in public’,” Sirius said, blushing. Remus rolled his eyes but he felt his cheeks heat too. He smiles a little.

“What about that day on the Astronomy Tower?” he continues.

“Ugh,” Sirius buries his face in his hands. “You’re trying to kill me. I said, ‘il y a tellement de soleil dans tes yeux que je bronze quand tu me regardes’. Which means, uh… ‘there’s so much sun in your eyes that I get a tan when you look at me.’”

“You’re quite the poet, aren’t you?” Remus smiles. “And what about tonight?”

“I thought you said you knew what that meant,” Sirius says. “Or were you bluffing the whole time?”

“No, I know what it means,” Remus says. “I just want to hear you say it. In English this time, please.”

“So demanding,” Sirius teases. “I’ve said it in French a million times already and you want me to say it in English? What difference does it make?”

“Well, none to you, you speak both languages.”

“Oh, alright,” Sirius says. It’s the first time Remus has seen his face really go red. He decides he likes it. “Every day I fall more in love with you.” Remus can’t hide his smile, nor does he want to, as he leans in to kiss Sirius. He brushes his lips against Sirius’ timidly before connecting them, his hand caressing Sirius’ cheek. Remus loses count of the points of contact between him and Sirius as their bodies melt together and Remus worries that he’s about to wake up from a dream. But when he feels Sirius’ hand gently tracing the scars on his hand he knows that this is real, that Sirius can really love him. Sirius does love him.

People come to the Room of Requirement to throw things away, to hide things that they don’t want anybody else to know about, to leave things they never want to see again. But that night, Remus didn’t just leave something in the Room of Requirement. He found something, too.

[nimblermortal]

The Old Guard and Languages

Disclaimer: I am deliberately working with only what we see in the films, so the featurette has no bearing; and also, my languages are English/German/Russian/BR-Portuguese, so, rather a lot of European bias there.

Andy: Does not know all the languages, but looks like she does because she knows a) so many of them and b) so many root languages. You know how once you know a Romance language the second one is easier and the third is just weird slang (I say, as if I had experience with this)? She’s not working with a Romance language, she’s working with Proto-Indo-European. Also, just generally having enough grammar background and learning-languages experience that she can cobble together something that sounds almost right (”Are you from Poland? You speak Quechua like you’re Polish”) in very little time. Mainly struggles with figuring out which language someone is speaking in the first place. Extremely utilitarian about her language enthusiasm, she Keeps Up To Date.

Quynh: Not really very far behind Andy. The main thing she struggles with, at this point, is the degree to which languages have changed since she was put in the box. Her English is stilted - it’s Modern English - and she laughs in weird places (like every time someone asks what she’s doing she says “Nothing!” and pokes Andy in the ribs). She’s like that in everything. Adores pictographic alphabets, they keep her entertained for longer, and is going to have a field day working out scientific terms in written, modern Chinese. No dictionaries, that’s cheating.

Yusuf: Not at the wizard level of the first two, but a bit above the sort of person who’s just like, “Oh, I’ve never heard that language... but I know Serbian and Arabic, so... he’s talking about the garbage truck schedule, and he’s wrong, let me just let him know.” (I’m told these people exist. See point abut Andy.) He enjoys language the most of them, in terms of what it can do poetically, and geeks out about metaphors, idioms, and translations in a way only Booker is prepared to follow him on.

Nicoló: Please not another language. Oh, please, no. He picks up lingua francas as they come, but language is just not his thing. On the other hand, the pidgin he has with Yusuf is ornately weird. Like when I was in Germany and studying quantum mechanics with another expat and we’d just remember the word in one language half way through a sentence and change languages to follow it up, but then with German verb kickers every so often the sentence would end *pause* ...können. Add to that the fact that Nicoló loves slang the most. They have an agreement, as a group, that slang doesn’t count until it’s survived for fifty years; Nicoló uses, and abuses, slang way before then, and he’ll translate it half way through too. His language is a mess.

Booker: Closest to Nicoló in terms of learning the currently-relevant languages and going from there. So he’s got French/English/Spanish/Portuguese, plus Occitan and Ligurian for personal reasons, and then he added Romansh and Romanian because he’d collected one from every other category of Romance languages and I guess - and then Latin, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese... but if you asked he’d tell you Spanish, Arabic, French, English. SAFE. He wants them purely for reading purposes, but he’s also the go-to guy for sign languages.

Nile: English, high school French and Spanish, the beginnings of Pashto. She’s not bad with languages, she’ll probably wind up around Yusuf’s level. She’s motivated by communicating with people (I cannot relate), but given the American school system her French and Spanish are both pretty rudimentary and also decaying. Booker’s bringing her up to speed, which means her French is going to also be a bit weird, because he’s very Académie française about his French and passionately disagrees with the académie on several fronts. (Yusuf has an almost inverse relationship with Arabic, I can’t remember the terms I’d need to explain that idea.) Nile is the one who delights the most in linguistic puns, and bilingual or worse puns. She does not consider herself capable in a language until she has punned in it.

Nicoló is trying to decide whether to bake Nile Happy New Language cakes, or if he really does not want to encourage this behavior. He’s not sure he has a leg to stand on given the slang thing, but what she’s doing is abominable. Booker approves, because he’s French, and is considering suggesting Japanese as her next language, which has Quynh’s support because she doesn’t know he’s only in it for the puns.

[descendantofthesparrow]

Regained Passion - Harry Hook x Reader - Part 2 - proper meeting

=

Harry let out a slow breath as he stared into the void in his history class, it had been a full week since he started the dance classes, and almost every day Bert mentioned putting him into a higher experienced class due to his flexibility and the fact that Harry was already a good dancer. But again, Harry wasn’t into the dance class that much, he liked dancing, it's just he didn't like being forced to dance.

His counselor had tried to ask about his first week but Harry was stubborn as usual, even glaring at her during it. She had sighed and rubbed her nose “I can't help you if you don’t open up to me Mr. Hook” Harry had only glared again, he didn’t want or need her help, yeah, he was a little fucked up in the head but if he wanted therapy or a consular, he would get it, not something FG forced on him.

After history finally ended, Harry grabbed his backpack and walked out of the room, sighing in relief as he realized he only had one class left, and it was his favorite, history of sailors and the seven seas. It talked all about pirates and sailors, particularly one of his favorite pirates, Jack Sparrow. One of the few pirates that had escaped isle imprisonment, due to him being pardoned of his crimes after it was discovered that his branding of a pirate had been connected to his freeing of hundreds of slaves.

Harry froze as a now very familiar face stepped into the hall he was walking in, she was looking down at her book, her black backpack hanging off her shoulder, bringing her denim jacket down with it off her shoulder, revealing her gray t-shirt. She suddenly looked up, her sparking (e/c) eyes once again locking with his.

Harry felt the butterflies flood his body again and he ducked into the next hall, away from his class, and pressed himself against the wall, sliding down as he closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands ‘what am I doing?’ he thought, gritting his teeth ‘hiding from a pretty girl? What the hell?’

“Are you hiding from me?” Harry jumped and slammed his head against the locker behind him, looking up to see the girl, who had covered her mouth in shock from Harry's sudden motion “Are you okay?”

“Me? Hiding? No-no I don’- I don’t hide” Harry laughed off his embarrassment, standing from the floor and rubbing the back of his head, wincing slightly “I don’ hide from anyone” the girl smirked and rose her brow as she tilted her head.

“I looked up and as soon as I made eye contact you leaped behind the wall, and then stayed there until I came around the corner, I think that classifies as hiding.” Harry pouted at her, his heart going crazy as she laughed. “Now why would you hide from me? Im, not my brother mind you” Harry rose his brow at that.

“Who’s yer brother?” Harry asked, smirking as she made a sour face.

“Chad” Harry grimaced, relaxing a bit as she laughed again.

“I’m so sorry” her eyes widened a bit and she laughed even harder.

“I accept your condolences, he’s not a fun person to be related to, it took me a month to convince half the school that Chad and I are very different even though we're twins” Harry looked at her up at down, she didn’t look like Chad? “I know, fraternal twins though”

Harry hummed, nodding along, he remembered a couple of sets of twins on the isle, and even when they were “identical” twins, they didn’t look exactly like each other sometimes. “You’re Harry Hook, right?” Harry nodded again, ignoring the flutter of his heart as she said his name “I’m (y/n), (y/n) Charming” (y/n) held out her hand, giving Harry a warm smile.

“Dinne think yeh would even say hi ta me, considering wha’ yer brother has probably told yeh ‘bout meh” he took her hand, stilling for a moment as he felt a small shock ran up his arm and through his body. Shit what the hell was going on with him!?

“Well,” (y/n) laughed, once again sending butterflies through his gut “after almost 18 years of dealing with his dumbass, I've learned to not trust his word, if he says you’re a ‘filthy pirate’ then you aren’t all that bad” Harry smirked and shook his head, not seeing (y/n) freeze for a moment and stare at his lips.

“Yer somethin’ else I’ll tell yeh tha’” he laughed, biting the inside of his cheek as (y/n) looked away from him and fixed her backpack strap. “What’s yer next class?”

“Um-“ (y/n) started, pursing her lips a bit as she thought “Oh! History of sailors and the seven seas!” Harry couldn’t help the smile that grew on his lips.

“Same ‘ere, shall I escort yeh yer highness?” (y/n) gave him a look, then smiled.

“You may” (y/n) laughed, taking his arm as he offered it and they chatted quietly as Harry walked them both to class.

-

Harry threw his pencil on his table as he finished his English homework, leaning back in his chair and sighing. “Hey, Harry?” Uma started, looking up from her magic homework (a new class that FG had made for the magic endowed vks that needed to learn how to control their magic safely)  “You made goody-goody with Chad's sister right?” Harry looked over his shoulder to her, raising his brow.

“Aye? Why?” a devious look overcame Uma’s face, and Harry sat up “Uma” Harry started, a warning tone to his voice, they had just gotten to Auradon two months ago, at the start of the school year, and he loved Uma with all his heart but if she was trying to plan to overtake Auradon by using (y/n) he would have to put his foot down (which he didn’t know why he would defend the girl so eagerly, even turning against his oldest friend like that)Auradon was a lot nicer than they thought and he’d rather not lose the comfy bed and fresh food he had just gotten.

“Oh chill!” Uma scoffed, waving her hand and rolling her eyes “I’m not planning any takeovers or whatever, I wanted to know if she gets along with her brother or not” Harry mentally sighed in relief and leaned back in his chair again.

“Um, no, I said sorry to her that she was his sister and she accepted my condolences, called him a dumbass too” Uma smirked again, a glint in her eye…he knew that glint, it was the glint of pranks “Oh! Do yeh want me ta-“

“Yes,” Uma interrupted him, rubbing her arms together as he saw a plan forming in her mind “ask her if she wants to help us prank Chad, fucker decided to ‘accidentally” Uma used finger quotes “spill grape juice all over my new jacket, and we all know that shit stains, didn’t even apologize either” Harry grit his teeth. Chad, one of the very few teens at Auradon prep that still harassed the vks, he was a bully and a thief, something Harry could respect on the isle but even on the isle you didn’t bully Uma without getting Harry’s hook to your face.

“I’ll ask ‘er when next time I see ‘er, we don’ have a lot of classes together, and her dance class ends after mine” Uma smirked at that, leaning into her hand.

“How are those going by the way?” Harry just let out a raspberry, and Uma fell back on Gil’s bed, laughing away.

-

The next day, after Harry's dance class, he waited outside (y/n)s room, standing awkwardly and out of place as others passed by him, some looking at him oddly while others ignored him or simply glanced at him.

There were one or two flirtatious looks but Harry ignored those, continuing to wait for (y/n). about fifteen minutes of waiting, the class finally ended, and as (y/n)s fellow dancers exited the room, many of them stared at him, whispering amongst themselves for a moment before one turned to him. “(y/n)s talking to Esmerelda, she’ll be in there for a moment” She had a strong French accent and Harry nodded in thanks, the group finally moving on as the girl who had spoken up pushed them away from the room.

After a couple more moments of waiting Harry got impatient, walking up to the door and peeking in, seeing (y/n) standing in front of Esmerelda, looking down at her feet “(y/n) your posture is perfect, your leg is always perfectly straight during the Penché, everything you do during practice is perfect but…there's just no…passion (y/n), where is it? You are only doing the steps, you aren’t feeling the music, where is the love, the sorrow, the yearning? This is a dance to convey two people falling in love (y/n), and I don’t see any of it coming from you” Harry felt his chest hurt as Esmerelda sighed, looking away from (y/n) who stayed silent. “(y/n) if you can't find the passion I need for the piece…I’m going to have to switch you out, I’m sorry” (y/n) looked up at that, and Harry couldn’t see her face but he could tell there were tears in her eyes “You are one of my best dancers (y/n), but without passion, you are doing nothing but following the steps.” (y/n) nodded slowly. Esmerelda smiled and took her chin “You just have to find your spark again, I know you can do it…I’ll see you tomorrow” (y/n) nodded again, turning to grab her bag.

Harry ducked out of the doorframe and went back to lean against the wall, looking down at his converse as he waited for (y/n). “Harry?” he looked up, (y/n) walking toward him from the door and tilting her head “What are you doing here?”

Harry smirked, it turning to a smile as (y/n) smiled back. Good, that meant she wasn’t super down from her talk with Esmerelda. “I was wonderin’ if yeh wanted ta help Uma n’ I prank Chad~” Harry had hardly finished his sentence before (y/n) grinned, stepping even close to him.

“Hell yes!” Harry shared her grin and offered his arm again, walking her out of the building and back to the dorms to Uma’s room, where Uma would tell them her plan.

-

Two days later, Chad’s hair was puke green. And he didn’t suspect a damn thing, even as (y/n) held her laughter as she stood next to him, sharing a sly thumbs up with Harry and Uma as they cackled at him.

“You’re definitely cut from a different fabric princess” Uma chuckled, Harry moving to the side of the bench he and Uma were sitting on as you walked over to them when Chad bolted off screaming after realizing his hair was green (for someone who stared at himself almost all day it took him a while to notice his hair) (y/n) grinned in thanks and plopped down next to Harry, not noticing Uma’s smirk as Harry scooted closer to (y/n).

“I’ll take that as a compliment” (y/n) laughed, leaning against the table and looking towards the door “How long do you think it’ll be before Chad suspects us?”

“Three days” Gil decided, suddenly appearing and sitting down next to Uma. And as usual, holding a bowl of grapes “I give it three days”

(y/n) hummed at that, tapping her fingers on the table “Well Chad is smart,” (y/n) laughed a bit at Uma and Harry's look of ‘really?!’ “I know shocking…well less smart more cunning, but I say he’ll either figure it out by the end of the day or he’ll bolt up in the middle of the night and then figure it out, can't say which or when, but it’s one of those”

“By the way,” Gil interrupted (y/n), pointing his finger right at her “who are you?” Gil had been out of the room every time (y/n) came over to Uma or Harry and Gil's room to plan for the plank, so oddly enough he had yet to meet (y/n) before today.

“Gil!” Harry hissed through his teeth, Uma smirking once more at his reaction. (y/n) laughed and held out her hand.

“I’m (y/n), (y/n) Charming, Chad’s sister” Gil took her hand and shook it, giving her a sympathetic look.

“I’m so sorry” (y/n) laughed again, unknowingly sending a flurry of butterflies through Harry again.

“Harry said the same thing a couple days ago, I accept your condolences” Gil released (y/n)s hand and went back to his grapes as Uma intertwined her hands and looked at (y/n)

“So you and Harry go to the same dance school, right? Do you ever dance together?” Harry felt his cheeks turn red at the question and he pouted at Uma, not really wanting to bring up the topic of the classes he hated so much.

“I guess? Different classes but same building, I’m a ballet dancer, been one since I was a kid. Harry, I think is still in the beginner class but Harry?” He glanced at (y/n) with a raised bro and a hum “You said Bert’s thinking of upgrading your placement?” Harry huffed and leaned on his hand.

“Aye, somethin’ bout me being a higher level than beginner, I dinne kae I din’ listen more than tha’” both Uma and (y/n) hummed at that. “I din’ even wan’ ta do the damn classes in the first place so I don’t see why I should level up or whatever” Harry grumbled, pouting at nothing.

Uma forced the grin off her face. Harry, ever since he had made friends with (y/n), started to be more…enthusiastic when going to the studio, no longer dragging his feet. And after the first time he picked up (y/n) from her class he did it the next day, and the next. Uma knew Harry and she knew he was catching feelings for the princess, even if he himself didn’t realize it yet.

Harry had only known the princess for about a month now, but Uma could tell when Harry liked someone, and he really-really liked (y/n), he wouldn’t admit it until he knew what words to connect his feelings yet but, Uma could wait.

Now, Uma wouldn’t do anything to push Harry and (y/n) together yet, she didn’t know if (y/n) shared any feelings about Harry, but once Uma did find out? Oooh, it was going to be fun.

But for now? Uma watched (y/n) and Harry talk, smiling behind her hand at the sparkle within Harry's eye, she would sit and watch their relationship bloom.

-end of part 2-

part 2~ hope yall enjoyed and like (y/n) so far, and i do want to put a *sprinkle* of angst in this so it'll come with (y/n)s struggle to show feeling in her dance and maybe some Chad shenanigan's anyway~ yeah i think this will be a 10 part series at most, and im liking where its going atm.

anyway im gonna draw a blue ballgown now because i don't like any of the designs i found on google or Pinterest

Permtaglist

@queer-cosette​ @sephiralorange​ @lunanight2012​

@daughter-of-the-stars11​ @musicarose​ @random-thoughts-003​

@remembered-license​ @thecaptainsgingersnap​ @rintheemolion​

@imtryingthisout​ @verboetoperee​ @jatp-rules-my-life​

[ptitelidio]

“Black and White Contrast” a rivetra theory

Hi Rivetra fans, actually this is my first post on tumblr and I hope you will like it. Just to say a few words before beginning my rivetra theory, I ship Rivetra sooo hard but I like and respect other ships. Please if you get to see this post and like or share my opinion, an answer would be so cool! 

PS. Sorry for my English, I’m not a fluent speaker, but I try my best :) enjoy!

First, basically I called this post ‘Black and White contrast’ because I found out that the relationship between Levi and Petra is like this, a contrast, in many fields.

To show this I will use photos of manga panels, of the anime and Petra’s song, the light of two wings.

Let’s begin with the song. The first opposition we can see is in Levi personality; Petra describes Levi like that “Your sterness always stems from gentleness And I felt a warm light behind those harsh words“, basically she sees his true nature, behind the darkness, there is a light, that’s what she says. 

Now the other contrast is between the painful and the happy moments she went through:          “ I recall plentry of painful things.. But I made it to where I am , Free of doubts.. Sharing smiles and laughter along the way “

Now she says: “ Tiny feathers gather one by one Forming a white wing Fragile lives are lost one by one Leaving behind a black wing “

That’s when we get to read something with ‘black’ and ‘white’, here she talks about two wings, a black and a white. The white being composed of feathers (analogy with soldiers lives lost one by one), and apparently she talks about a black wing left behind... we’ll get to see more info about it further on. But it seems to be ralted with death, isn’t it?

“ Though a bird may be born to soar across the skies I’m sure it won’t be able to fly well with only one wing But you will shoulder the determination of all that is white and black And guide everyone to great distances beyond the walls “

She says that a bird can’t fly without two wings, so the black and the white ones. And he will ‘shoulder the determination of all that is white and black’, in other words the determination to fight of the deads and the living is something he has to carry on. She is talking to Levi, and says that he is the one to guide everyone beyond the walls, 

Then, she finally says before dying: 

“Don’t forget that you have the light of dual wings sprouting from your back                                                             And if I were to give a name to the light I felt…yes.. it would be… Hope..“

So once again that the light of dual wings (black and white) shows that he carry the spirit of the deads and the living, I repeat this on purpose because you will see that the symbolism of the contrast has not been chosen by chance, but on purpose. 

The second other point is that she perceives that light as hope, obviously we understand why, Levi is considered as the humanity’s greatest, so he’s the most expected to save the Eldian people. 

Now.. let’s show the black and white contrast elsewhere. 

Do a black and a white wings ring a bell?

Yup... exactly. And I’ll prove that they can symbolise Levi and Petra relationship. They can also show many other relationships in the SC but here, and with the song, it takes a different dimension, like thir relationship was like a black and white wing = black -> death, sadness... and white -> light, hope, or life

Petra is dead and Levi is alive,

Petra sees light inside Levi, whereas he grew up on a dark place (underground) and frequented bad people everyday (criminels etc...)

Now let’s focus on the anime...

What do you notice in this passage? This was when they were going to the former Survey Corps HQ with Eren. 

Petra’s horse is WHITE and Levi’s is BLACK, here Levi’s one does not seems so black but you can check on other photos in the Internet and you’ll see that he’s actually black, but now because of light and shadow it’s a bit light but whatever.

So, you probably notice that nearly every horse is colored in brown but not Levi’s, Petra’s and Erwin’s. Some other horses are colored in light brown but it’s not like them three, the colors are strikely different. And in the manga the horses were all brown basically, so why this change of color? Not for nothing obviously, the great messages remain in little details..

This photos shows that the horse are basically all brown.

Another contrast is Levi and Petra’s physical appearance, they are obviously different. He is black-haired, she is blond (ginger in the anime but the contrast stays with light color and dark color..) even their eyes in the anime are different but that’s not the essence of the theory, that was just a remark.

Now look at the Petra’s and Levi’s scene when she died and he looked down at her:

Isayama pictured the contrast in dark and light, notice how Levi appears in the light part of the grass and Petra in the dark one, she is dead and he’is alive. And bigger than that, there is also Levi’s Wings of Freedom emblem on his cloack, a double contrast where the white one is in the right and the black one on the left. Petra is on the ground, Levi in the air. They complete each other every time.

The contrast is even more striking in this panel:

The position of the panels for comparison, the position of the heads and eyes, Levi looking down and Petra looking up. The contrast in their hair is also emphcised here. Don’t you notice something else? If no, look at the Wings of Freedom emblem I put...

Yes... Levi is at the left (black wing) and Petra is at the right (black wing)... the analogy is here for those who searched for it.

And once again, their life status, one alive but painfully sad and the other dead but with an unfulfilled dream and she didn’t get the chance to confess to Levi, I quote:

“ And so.. I will die.. believing that.. Oh….how i wish this would last… But…it seems like my time is up… I have…one last thing…..I would like to tell you..                                            No… Nevermind…It’s Nothing….  “ (Petra’s song)

Let’s continue. 

Remember, we said that Petra tought Levi was the hope of humanity’s survival (she says it in her song). Now, did you know that Levi thought exactly the same of her? I will show it to you, and that was basically implied on Petra’s last scene. 

We all know how Petra put trust over all other things, work team was very important to her. The sentence that we remember the most of her is “trust us”, in her last scene -- when she and her team were riding horses and the Female Titan was hunting them -- she said that exact sentence to Eren. 

PS: It is written in French, but you can check it in English on your own if you want.

And everybody knows that Levi didn’t know if it was the good choice whether to put his trust on his comrades or to just rely on his own strengh. Well, on that day, Levi had a strong proof that he should believe in his comrades. 

Here: Petra: “Captain?!”, 

Levi: “He’s a real monster, I know that very well, not only because he has Titan abilities... no matter how strong he force with which it is immobilized, no matter how resistant is the cage in whic he is held. Nobody will ever be able to bend his will” 

-> So what does Levi say? He considers that Eren will to fight titans can’t be bend, in other words he is like a monster, ready to do anything to kill his enemies. But basically, Levi’s stance is that NOBODY can’t change his mind. He was sure of that.

And guess what happens? Eren hearing that from Levi wanted to prove that he was not a monster, he had enough. 

Eren “ I had enough. I don’t want to be treated like a monster...”

And the phrase that Petra told him definitely convinced him to do the choice to trust his new squad.

Now look at Levi’s face... he’s startled by Eren’s decision. Yes, he who was so sure that Eren will transform, Petra’s insistence to trust his team proved Levi wrong. That’s why he was so surprised. That scene and Levi’s expression is even on the anime, if you want to check it out.

Well, nobody before succeeded to do this: make Eren change his mind, he’s usually the one to ignore Mikasa’s advices even if he cares a lot for her. Petra, even if she was not so close to him, actually succeeded this task. This startled Levi. Who could change a monster’s mind? Yes, the one to carry hope for humanity. Actually in the anime, EVERY soldier carries that hope obviously, but in that precise moment, Petra was the hope Levi wanted for humanity. 

This reminds us of the song, when she says that she though Levi’s light was hope, actually she was also hope, like every one of her comrades. Now, Petra had that same light, hope. 

Oh and remember that panel from Chapter 112:

Yes. “Hope for Humanity’s survival” and beside what character? Petra. Everything is linked lmao, Isayama is a pure genius.

And now that I read this panel alone, it’s like Petra could have said these lines ‘I did it... because I believed he was the hope for humanity’s survival...” in other words, I sacrificed my life for Levi because I thought he was the hope for humanity’s survival. It could fit VERY WELL, I don’t think this is a coincidence because she said the exact same thing in her song...

PS: The Wings of Freedom can represent many pairs in AOT like Erwin and Levi for example, but Petra and Levi formed the wings of freedom too. That’s not a coincidence if Erwin’s horse was also white like Petra’s one, and we know that Erwin convinced Levi to joined the SC the day Ferlan and Isabel died. That day, Levi developed the Ackerbond with Erwin when the latter stated, with his federator charisma, that we can’t get to know the future etc. So Levi had the Ackerbond with Erwin so that’s quite obvious to justify why they can represent the wings of freedom, but what was Petra for Levi apart of a squad member?

Yes, she was special for him whereas he didn’t have the Ackerbond with her, and that’s why she’s even more significant, his blood didn’t play a role in his relationship with her. The only answer I find is, simply, love.

[eirenical]

OK!  So, as I mentioned in this post, I’m going to be taking a stab at doing an edited MTL of Granting You a Dreamlike Life (许你浮生若梦).

The GOOD news is that I think I found a viable digital copy! :D  I am... not sure if it is an official one or a bootleg, because it was on an unfamiliar site, but it was only 3 yuan, so I figured what the hey, right?  But here’s the really interesting thing... I found an entire half-paragraph in the prologue already that was just... missing from the hard copy edition?   (Given the content of the missing lines, I have a feeling that the answer to why they’re missing is censorship, but even so...  Interesting.)  Anyway, I thought you’d all get a kick out of this, so I thought I would share.  ;D

The version of the paragraph from the hard copy of the book:

出餐口很小,她只能看到厨师服在里面晃动。这个大厨应该身量极高,因为快到她胸口高度的出餐口,居然只在他的小腹位置。

The opening was small, and all she [Lin Jingyun] could see was the chef’s uniform moving around inside. The chef must have been extremely tall, because the opening, which was nearly as high as her chest, only showed his lower abdomen.

That’s it.  That’s the whole paragraph.  I checked it MULTIPLE TIMES.

Here’s the version from the digital edition I found:

出餐口很小，她只能看到他一部分的厨师服在里面晃动。这个大厨应该身量极高，因为快到她胸口高度的出窗口，居然只在他的小腹位置。而且这个大厨非常骚包，连件厨师服都是定制的，衣扣上的LOGO是她最喜欢的一个法国品牌。她即刻脑补出一个GAY里GAY气的大个头。

Which, as near as I’ve been able to translate (and I worked on this one for a WHILE, RIP ME) is...

The opening was small, and all she could see was the chef’s uniform moving around inside. The chef must have been extremely tall, because the opening, which was nearly as high as her chest, only showed his lower abdomen.  And the chef was very flashy*, even pieces of his uniform were customized.  The logo on the buttons was from one of her favorite French brands. She immediately conjured up the mental image of a big, gay man.

* 骚包 (sāo bāo): I went on a JOURNEY with this word, LET ME TELL YOU.  Alternate possible translations were: alluring, showy, sassy, flamboyant, Google didn’t even want to TRY and just gave me “Sāo bāo,” but baiduinenglish absolutely took the cake, because when I isolated 骚包 from the rest of the sentence, it gave me “Hey, Bitch” which I thought was AMAZING. XD

(And for the record, as difficult as 骚包 (sāo bāo) was to deal with, that last line in particular gave me FITS.  Thank you, baiduinenglish.com for coming to my rescue on that one. O_o;;;)

But just... WHAT??   XD  Where did THAT come from?  Those last lines aren’t in the hard copy at ALL.  All I can think of is that this must have been an earlier version?  Maybe it was a web version that got taken down and cleaned up for censorship reasons before it was actually printed?  IDEK, but I am intensely glad that it’s there.  Because basically, Lin Jingyun is sitting in the restaurant having paroxysms of delight over Cheng Musheng’s cooking (from an earlier paragraph: she literally jumps up and yells “Bravo!” because a dish that got delivered to another table smelled so good. WHAT A DORK, I LOVE HER. XD) and his fashion sense and seems to have half decided he will become her new gay best friend and if none of that is true... I don’t want to know.  XD

*coughs*  Anyway.  Back to technical stuff...  ^_^

The BAD news is that I’ve now spent the last three hours screwing around with the prologue instead of GRADING MY PAPERS.  OTZ  I’m working with four translation sites (BaiduinEnglish, Yandexx, Systran, and Google) + two dictionaries (Yabla and LINE -- and for the record, LINE was a GODSEND when I was missing characters on my scans) when I’m really not sure what any of them are telling me, so THAT’S taking a while, but hopefully between the multiple sources, I’m getting close to the actual meaning?  I’m finding myself having to take a few liberties with the text in places when the literal translation isn’t quite hitting right in English, though.  Like there are places when the translation comes across a bit... choppy?  Because Mandarin is a much more economical and succinct language than English and that just doesn’t always really translate well.

Which brings me to a humble query...

If there is anyone out there who speaks more Mandarin than I do (I’m working on it, but I know about... 5-10 words, so far, so that is NOT a high bar to jump ;D) and might be interested in just... casting a weather-eye over any of the finished bits when I have them to see if there is anything that I’ve gotten glaringly wrong, that would be absolutely amazing.  If not, I will absolutely push forward on my own!   But I figured it couldn’t hurt to put the query out there.  ^_^

[rigelmejo]

notes to myself basically, on how i study languages (so far, there’s always gonna be better ways i don’t know of yet lol):

learn 500-1000 common words asap, read a grammar guide that provides overview asap - like the first 3 months. If a full grammar guide doesn’t exist that’s concise (hi japanese ;-;) find a basics grammar guide at least and read that (pimsleur, websites, genki, tae kim, youtube). Specifically within the common words, at least look at the ‘300 common word tumblr to say things’ language vocab list. That list is good for me starting some kind of active vocab/expressing ideas.

if its got a different writing system, look up the alphabet in 1st month (kana for japanese, cyrillic alphabet for russian etc, pinyin for chinese). listen to pronunciation guides, and write and/or mnemonics to learn those asap.

if its got characters (like chinese, japanese), learn 300-500 super common characters ASAP (first 5 months). 

After month 3, learn up to 2000 common words (hi srs flashcard programs like anki and memrise, common word lists, graded readers), and up to 2000 characters. Not all these need to be done with srs flashcards/focused study, but get TO recognizing this many as soon as u can. Goal is get to this by month 8-10. But depending on how much i can overall understand without doing this, i may not learn All of these words by then (but ideally i should).

By 500-1000 words (and 500+ characters if needed), so after 3-5 months, start trying to immerse in what I WANT to do - so reading, watching (maybe listening, maybe games). I don’t have to do it much, but do it a bit to remember what I learned and also motivate myself to study more.

Months 5-8 somewhere between 1000-2000 words, start trying to write/say basic things to myself or on apps with others. Probably will be a mess, don’t have to do it much. Do it enough to have motivation to study more - see where I’m lacking skills. I may need more grammar explanation, or more vocab, or notice a big issue in my pronunciation etc.

Around month 8-10, around 2000+ words studied (although it may be less or more depending on what I’m comfortable with), ramp up immersion a lot. As soon as its mildly tolerable, ramp it up a LOT. Look up words when immersing as often or not often as desired, goal is to always follow at least the bare minimum main idea (and more details if possible/if I wanna put in the effort to look more up). Now I can start learning new words primarily from this. 

Reading skills - during immersion do intensive reading to learn more vocabulary quicker, extensive reading to improve overall comprehension. Do SRS flashcards/focused graded readers/word-list prep for stuff I read as needed, to speed up how much vocab I learn (if I’m learning too slow for my preference lol). Ways to make extensive reading easier: read graded readers, read show subtitles in target language while watching show, textbooks built to increase info taught in context, read stuff I’ve read translations of first, read stuff I have prior context for (I saw the show/heard already with english transcript etc), Listening reading method, read extensively what I’ve read intensively before etc.

Listening skills - start extensive listening to audio (for overall comprehension improvement). Start intensive listening where I hear words and lookup definition and/or learn word pronunciation with explanations. So start listening to audio flashcards for building a base of learned words/phrases (chinese spoonfed audio files, japanese core 2k audio, japaneseaudiolessons.com, SRS flashcards if they have audio only ones too, Coffee Break French, audio for Francais par le methode nature etc). To make extensive listening easier: start with watching/listening to shows I’ve already seen subs for, shows in general (visual context helps), comprehensible input audio (like comprehensible input french youtube, Learn Korean in Korean youtube, Dreaming Spanish youtube etc), listen with a transcript then listen without, Listening reading method, listen to things I have prior context for like audiobook of something i read/audio drama of show i’ve seen. Do some shadowing (shadowing audio flashcard files is easy and reliable tbh). 

Production skills (I am not here yet) - in general I’ve found making myself write more, talk more, to myself (like journals and practice convos) and to others, tends to improve my active vocabulary. Especially when I try to communicate about topics i’m bad at (so making myself look up those words and write/say them to put them back into active vocab). At this point I’m guessing more explicit grammar drill practice might help, people correcting me, shadowing a lot. Maybe practicing translating to that language/from it, to practice building active vocab? I’m not sure what will help most here tbh as I’ve never gotten far in this area. (For chinese, studying pronunciation more in depth and doing more listening/shadowing, and pronunciation apps, helped a lot with pronunciation itself but not active production yet). 

---

i’m currently mostly just doing 8-9 for chinese right now - building reading skills, building listening skills. Varying what i do. For production skills i’m guessing there’s a ton of varied things i can do right now or later, i’m just not entirely sure what they’d be. i have not tried/troubleshooted those skills much before when studying. All i know for sure is the more i make myself use the language in Varied topics, the more i get an active vocabulary (aka writing journals, making self-convos, and doing language exchanges help in a basic way). No idea how to improve grammar though in ways that’d work well for me. so right now my skills lean heavier toward comprehension, less skill in any production. Studying chinese taught me a lot about how i learn listening skills though...which is valuable as i barely had practice learning HOW to study them when i studied french or japanese before.

troubleshooting wise - this is the rough trajectory i went through in chinese, that has worked okay for me. looking at it helps me see where i ‘slowed down’ my progress in other languages i studied.

for french - i did very LITTLE listening practice, and had few ideas of how to work on it at the time. Now I would probably do listen with transcript then without, and shadowing, to work on listening skills. And watching shows/videos with subtitles (if possible), then without subs. And very little speaking practice - same deal as listening, i did a little at some point realizing it was a weak area but not enough work on it. I also did very LITTLE production practice like language exchanges. i had few reasons to produce language, and so the few times i needed to i could mostly rely on super common words or look things up when writing. i know i’d need to do more to work on production. so i was very unbalanced - large reading comprehension, low pretty much every other skill.

for japanese... i did a lot in retrospect i wish i’d redone different. and i do it different now. i did not read/watch a grammar guide - and i still freaking need to (or at least get clear grammar exposure like nukemarine’s LLJ course’s tae kim portions). japanese has grammar i find very hard to figure-out through exposure so this holds me back a lot. and lack of immersion to both motivate me to study MORE and to practice reading/listening skills. ALSO lack of common words - i learned like 800 hanzi rough-meaning through RTK, and maybe 500 words in genki... and no wonder it wasn’t enough lol! i think nukemarine helped back years ago, because it forced me to study grammar and vocab, listening and reading, in a structured way (similar to how genki helped me in the very start before i quit using it). and japaneseaudiolessons.com helped because it made me practice listening and gave me comprehensible listening with definitions. that in combo with me really starting to immerse and TRY to read/listen at year 2+ is when i finally made some progress because i was doing things that work for me - finally. and now that i’m coming back to japanese, i’m starting to apply all those things again that were finally working. 

---

anyone have any tips on how to improve production skills? Both active vocabulary, and how to both practice speaking/writing broadly AND how to fix grammar errors. 

For active vocab and general writing/speaking I know just talking more/writing more helps. But I can only tend to catch grammar errors if I run it through a translator first to compare how the translator phrases it to how I did (which can create a LOT of errors if the translator is Wrong), or if someone corrects my grammar error (which relies on other people - and preferably a tutor since i dont want to bother people who aren’t paid to correct - so what can i do on my OWN?). 

The big thing is with grammar, I can only think to either go through beginner courses Again from the start and do the writing drills and copy the patterns to internalize them? So I could correct my basic writing/speaking but not necessarily when I start speaking/writing creatively, unless I find textbooks/workbooks that eventually go into intermediate material (and of course finding textbooks/online exercises that provide correct answers so i can compare my attempts to the correct ones). Aside from either a tutor, or trying to find well made free online courses with exercises with answers provided, i’m not sure how to improve grammar production. If I write out sentences i read, would that internalize being able to ‘copy their grammar correctly’ when i write? if i shadow correctly said speeches/videos, would that help drill ‘correct grammar’ when speaking? (And be less boring then doing FSI speech drills). Basically I’m trying to find some ways (creative or not) to improve grammar in production. Improving active vocabulary seems pretty straightforward to me (make myself use it, look up words until they come natural to me - but if u got any other fun ways to improve active vocab i’d love to hear!). But I don’t know how to improve grammar when you are NOT in a class structure, have no teacher/tutor, and already have a base level of comprehension. As in like? I can read fine, but when writing I can’t tell if what I produce is grammatically correct or not - and again I can run it through a translator sometimes to try and ‘check’ but since translators make errors, my ‘corrected example’ isn’t always reliable to use as something to emulate for ‘correct form.’

[mandobedu]

Cold night

Soooooo, First time I share my mind here. First, you got to know I’m French, working my ass off to learn how to write in English. So if it’s sounds weird sometimes you know why. Second, please be nice. Last, ❤️ or share they will be more.

Summary: It’s cold in the Slave I tonight and while we try to get warm, confession are made.

Pairing: Boba Fett x Reader

Warnings: a lot of kissing and sweet sex

Words: 1502 (can’t believe I did that)

Inside the slave I.

The night is icy cold. You shivering and Boba notice. He approaches you and gives you another blanket.

“Wait, this is your blanket.”

“Don’t worry about me. Use it.”

You were so cold you did not feel guilty about taking it. You put the blanket over yours and up to your nose. It smells like him. It makes you feel a little safer and your body relaxes. You look at Boba, he’s working on the machinery trying to fix the heater problem.

You wake up a couple of hours later. You see Boba sitting next to you, eyes close, arms cross on his chest. He does not have his armour, as the metal keep him cold. His head hiding in the hood of his black outfits. But still, he shivering a little. You stand up and moving close to him. Carefully, you put both blankets on you two. He wakes up and sees you so close to him. Boba’s looking at you, understanding what you are doing. He tells himself how beautiful you are and how awkward he feels being alone with you in the middle of a cold night.

You turn your head and realize he’s awake and looking at you. You smile. For a moment you just look at each other. You felt a strange energy. You don’t understand why you feel shy. Maybe you are closer to him than you usually are.

“I’m sorry,” you say quitting his gaze. “I know you’re cold too so let’s share the blankets and warm each other or we are not gonna survive this night. If’s ok with you?”

You try to read his regard. He nods.

“So don’t mind if I’m getting closer to you?” You ask, while you pressing your body next to him. you take his left arm, hold it on your chest like a pillow and you put your head on his shoulder.

Boba finally breaks his silence. “I always thought I made you uncomfortable.”

“Why would you say that?”

“I saw you watching my scares. I disgusted you.”

“You care about your appearance. Well, I’m learning something new about you every day”

Boba smirked and take back his arm from your pillow grip. Before you could say anything he pulling you completely next to him and wrap you with his strong arms. You exhale of relief, understanding he is not angry and you wrap him as well with your arms. Your head on his chest you can hear his heart beating fast. You hearth kinda start beating faster too. Maybe the intimate moment that you share. You always like Boba and he’s always been so nice and patient to you. The way he always looks right into your eyes when he is talking to you or when he is listening to you. You always feel special. And you don’t want him to think that he makes you uncomfortable.

“Your scars never bother me. You should know that. I never meant to stare I even think that it makes you look badass. And I like it.”

Boba chuckles softly.

You start to feel warm finally. Your two bodies finally produce heat.

“But I ask myself how someone could ever survive such a thing. I hope it doesn’t hurt you anymore”

“Only in my nightmare’, Boba said

That answer hurt you. Poor Boba. You could not imagine what he had to endure. How lonely he most felt all those years.

“I’m so sorry Boba. Such an unfair path you had” you said softly.

“Don’t be sorry for me. And since you’re around y/n, I had fewer of those bad dreams.”

You turn your head to face him. You are so close to his face that yours noses almost touch. His eyes again look through you. You try to understand the meaning of that last comment. You smile softly. Boba’s look was calm with a light smile but in his eyes, you detect a little panic. Very subtle but you start to know Boba, he never seems to not have control. You were both exhausted, cold and the last days were not easy. Maybe you looking too much for nothing. Indeed having someone around daily must-have changing his mind. You decide to say nothing. You put back your head on his chest. You feel him release a shaky exhale.

Now warmer, a feeling of safety going through your body. You notice that he is holding you tighter.

“Boba?”

“Y/N.” You smile. You love how he pronounces your name.

“You make me feel safe.”

“And you, y/n, you make me feel..”

You lift your head, wondering what’s the end of that sentence. You look at him.

“I mean..” he starts to say worried about your reaction to his half confession. He just wants to say to you that you make him feel alive. You lean to him and put a light kiss on his lips. You stay on his lips a second wondering if you did a mistake. Boba put his hand on the back of your neck to pull you in a more long intense kiss. His passionate kiss makes you feel a wave of warmth in your body. You kiss again and again till he stops and puts his forehead on yours, you both taking your breath back.

“I wish for that moment for a while y/n.” Saying that he started to kiss you again. While your lips and now your tongues learn to know each other you turn your all body to face him and get on him. You retreat from his kissing a small moment and you put your hand on his face. He closes his eyes. The feeling of your hands on his scars makes all the pain goes away. Boba put his hand on yours. Touching his face it's for him such a big deal. Nobody touches him since he gets out of the Sarlacc. The touch of your hand on him makes him realize how alone he's been all these years. He opens his eyes fill with water, a tear falling on one of his cheeks.

“You deserve so much Boba” you murmur at him.

“I just want you y/n,” says Boba in a little sob.

You give him a passionate kiss. Boba’s holding you so thigh, afraid that you would vanish.

“Boba I want you to. I want you so much.” While saying that your hand reaching the inside of his pant. The moment you touching his sex his heart skip a beat. He grabs your face.

-Y/N it’s been so long since I have…

You kiss him again

“So you’ll have to trust me. Do you want this Boba?”

Boba nods. You take off your pants. With his arms in your back, he lay you down while still kissing you. Over you now, he put his face in your neck breathing your smell and asking himself if he was dreaming. Your hands caress his neck and face. You realize how much you care for him. Nobody made you feel safe like he does. And nobody moved you as he does in this very moment. Boba starts to push himself in you. There are no words to explain how you both feel at this very moment. You both looking deeply into each other eyes feeling like you were just one.

Boba keeps a moderate pace as he doesn’t want to finish quickly. It’s been a while since he’s been so intimate with women. And the few last time did not involve any feelings.

Your body can’t keep from trembling as his sex keep penetrate you. It never felt so great with others. Your two bodies are made for each other. Boba feels that you are so close to coming. You have difficulty to say his name and your breath get short. You beg him not to stop. He knows he’s about to come to. His space is now more vigorous. Your legs are tight around him. He put his face back in the hollow of your neck. As you screaming your orgasm he felt an explosion in his body. Everything stopped for a moment. You both trying to take back your senses. He slowly put his head on your breast, listen to your heart racing.

Your body still trembling from that orgasm. You put your arm around Boba who rests on your chest. Your hand and fingers moving around his head and tracing some of the scars.

Boba, emotional, wondering why you let him share this moment.

“Am I dreaming?” he said turning his head toward you.

“I was asking myself the same.” you tease him.

Boba stretches his neck to reach your lips. You kiss him again like the first time. You felt him almost liquify under your kiss.

“You make me lose myself” he murmurs you.

Boba gets back next to you where he wraps you close to him with his arms while you pulling back the blanket on you both. You put back your head on him and close your eyes. You know that no dreams will be better than that moment.

[blackpoliglota]

Moi assistant une réunion qui aurait été un e-mail...

This is me in that scenario and now after having spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME looking for a GIF for this post... that doesn't even fit the space properly on the desktop version 😭😭😭

Ah well, much ado about nothing, I suppose... anyway, I'M BAAAAAAAAAACK!!! So sorry for the unannounced hiatus... which wasn't really much of a hiatus, as I was still reblogging things BUT STILL. I ended up getting super sidetracked with teaching and dealing with the biggest headache on the planet known as the Spanish Beaurocracy™️🤦🏾‍♀️ Seriously y'all, those people DO NOT know how to do their jobs! If you want to hear about the fun time of trying to get my papers in order so I could remain a legal foreign resident, lemme know! Well, even if you don't I may create a post solely dedicated to that anyway; I could use the opportunity to let out some steam.

Now without further ado, onto my first original post of 2021!!!

As you may have guessed, this is about emails, particularly those written in French. I have 2 recent-ish emails I sent off to a college French professor asking for a recommendation letter for a fellowship. Wanting to keep up my French skills (and not disappoint my former professor), I used that opportunity to practice French by setting aside several lovely hours of my life for each email... yep, you read it right, HOURS. If I wrote those emails in Spanish it would've only taken me a hour tops for each email, but since this is French we're talking about here I had to spend the majority of my email-writing time looking up virtually every other word/phrase, cringe over each eventual sentence(s) I'd create with said word/phrase, and ultimately convince myself to move onto the next sentence to repeat that same process. . . all of this with taking a break after every 3rd sentence due to being lowkey dissuaded from continuing. . . fuuuuuuuun🙃🙃🙃

Anyway, not all language learning sessions are great. BUT, ya gotta push through those annoying/bad times to achieve greatness, amirite? Right, so with that being said, ALLONS-Y!!!

So I mentioned having spent the majority of my time looking up words and phrases for these 2 emails, meaning I now have a lovely list of vocabulary to get through! Check it out below:

Le premier e-mail

La Nouveauté - innovation / novelty / originality / freshness [In the email I mistakenly used it to mean "news", when I really should have used "nouvelles"]

À part - Aside from

La folie - madness / lunacy / insanity / chaos

Supporter - To put up with / to tolerate / to bear

Pour l'instant - For the moment

Falloir (qqch)- To have to do (sth) / must do (sth) [In the email I mistakenly used it to mean "should", when I really should have used "devoir"]

Déménager - To move (house)

L'essai (m.) - Try / attempt

Remettre - To turn in / to hand over [there are many more meanings for this verb, but in the email it's used to mean this]

Le formulaire - (Application) Form

Le faute - Fault / mistake / error

La date limite - Deadline

Faire face à - To deal with / to face

Opérer - To operate / to work / to function

Quoi qu'il en soit - Anyway / either way / be that as it may

Ce que - What [As an antecedent, not a question word]

Se rendre compte de (qqch) - To realize / to become aware of (sth)

La bourse - Scholarship / fellowship / grant / stock market

Requérir - to require / to call for

Le solliciteur / la solliciteuse - Petitioner / solicitor [In the email I mistakenly used it to mean "applicant", when I really should have used "demandeur / demandeuse" according to WordReference]

Le motif - Reason / motive / pattern / motif

Si longtemps - So long [As in "such a long time"]

Le thème - Topic / subject / theme

La déclaration personnelle - Personal statement

La déclaration d'intention - Statement of purpose

Payer le luxe - To have the luxury (to do sth) / to afford (to do sth)

Urger - To be urgent [In the email I mistakenly used it to mean "to oblige", when I really should have used "obliger"]

Amitiés - Best Wishes / All the Best [Letter sign-off]

And for the sake of breaking up these two lists so you won't be too overwhelmed at all the vocab I need to study, here's a picture of the first email below:

Now for the next one!

Le deuxième e-mail

Le tour - Turn

Désolée de. . . - Sorry for. . .

Tel (m.) / telle (f.) - Such (a)

À temps - On time

Lié (m.) / liée (f.) - Related / connected

L'affaire (f.) - Matter / issue / business

Le séjour - Stay / temporary residence / family room / living room

Donc - Therefore [Grammatical position is after the verb, after "pas" if negation is present]

Une fois encore - Once again

L'objet (m.) - (Email) Subject / object / purpose / target

La nouvelle normale - The New Normal [COVID-19 related]

Vécu - Lived [Past participle of the verb "vivre"]

Propre - (One's) Own / clean / tidy / neat

Lorsque - While / when / as soon as

S'étonner - To be surprised / to be astonished / to be amazed

Chacun de nous - Any one of us / each of us

Poursuivre - To continue / to pursue / to keep up

Presque - Almost

L'enseignement de l'anglais langue étrangère - Teaching English as a Foreign Language [abbrv. "TEFL"]

Instituteur (m.) / Institutrice (f.) - (Primary school) Teacher

Le déménagement - Move / moving

Devenu(e) - Became [Past participle of the verb "devenir"]

L'éducateur / l'éducatrice - Educator

Le retour - Return

Bien que - Although / even though

La carrière - Career

La demande - Application

Écrasant (m.) / écrasante (f.) - Overwhelming / crushing / heavy

En réalité - Actually / in fact / in reality

Le résultat - Result

La ronde des finalistes - Finalist round

Alors que - While / even though

Les études (f.) - Studies

Réviser - To review

La communauté - Community

À ce sujet - On that note / speaking of which

À l'avenir - In the future

Postuler à (qqch) - To apply for (sth)

Scolaire - Academic / scholastic

S'améliorer - To improve / to upgrade / to get better

La capacité - Ability / capability

Cela dit - That (being) said

Fou (m.) / folle (f.) - Crazy / insane / mad / wild

Être en bonne santé - To be healthy

Être en sécurité - To be safe

Jurer - To swear / to vow / to curse / to cuss

Le temps de réponse - Response time

Chaleureusement - With Warm Regards / Warmly [Letter sign-off]

And here is the second email itself:

As you can see, I blocked out the name of my professor because Consent Tings™️. Hopefully the email images help with putting the vocab into context! I plan to make quizlets for these vocab words soon and will post the link to it here for y'all if you're interested in studying them! Also, DISCLAIMER: if you didn't know this before, I am by no means an expert in the French language; I'm hardly at the B1 level. Cela dit (that being said. . . see that? heh heh😏), I'm sure there are a plethora of errors in both emails. If you're feeling extra critical when reading them, please please PLEASE point out those errors to me! I want to discuss them with you and learn from them so I can poursuivre m'améliorer (keep on improving. . . once again, hehee😂)!

Alrighty, that covers just about everything! Again, I am so sorry for not having created any original posts in such a long time; life carried me away🤷🏾‍♀️ Now that I finally have my first post of 2021, here's to more frequent content creating!

乾杯(Gān bēi)! 🥂

EDIT: Links to the quizlets below!

Le premier e-mail: https://quizlet.com/_9mktlv?x=1jqt&i=3dk8u9

Le deuxième e-mail: https://quizlet.com/_9ml1s4?x=1jqt&i=3dk8u9

[johnismyreason]

Gettin’ High // Tom Holland x Reader

It’s a request !

@potterhead2207 could you do a peter parker/tom holland x reader where they go to hawaii for their honeymoon and end up having sex on the plane ❤️

pairing: Tom Holland!husband x Reader

warnings: SMUTTY AF, handjob, fingering, penetration, finger sucking, language, fluff, bad English because I'm French.

YOU MUST BE 18+ TO READ IT.

Telle me here what you thought of it :)

“Tom, there is no way I’m coming to that toilet cabin with you !” you whisper yelled to your newly husband.

Tom and you got married a couple of months prior, but only got to do your honeymoon now due to Tom’s schedule. You have been in love with each other for seven years now, but every time you look at him it always feels like the first time. You both always dreamt to go to Hawaii and made a promise to spend your honeymoon there, in the most romantic and cozy resort. But right now you were stuck with a very excited Tom, who seemed like he couldn’t keep his hands to himself anymore.

“Why not ?” he chuckled “it’s gonna be fun” he said leaning closer to your neck. “you look – very – hot” he whispered between kisses on your sweet spot.

“I really don’t” You really didn’t. You were wearing large sweatpants, with one of his large hoodie – you had some of your own but somehow his were always better, more comfortable. Probably also because they all smelled like him – and the worst yet most artistic messy bun. It was a long flight, why bother with jeans and tight t-shirt ? Nevertheless, Tom thought you were the most gorgeous creature on the planet. That explains the slippery hands between your thighs.

Everybody was sleeping in the plane. No one would know, if you keep it quiet. If you keep it quiet.

“Please Y/N, love” he murmured, slowly caressing your hot core. “Trust me, you’ll love it” he looked at you in the eyes and waited for your approval.

“Can’t you just wait we arrive at the hotel, already ?” you responded trying to push his hand away. But Tom tightened his grip on your thigh and maybe you didn’t want him to let it go.

“I really don’t. Plus when we arrive at the hotel we’ll be exhausted because of the trip, we’ll immediately fall asleep. This is not how I want to spend our wedding night”

“Honey, our wedding night was two months ago and it happened exactly how you wanted” you chuckled.

“You know what I meant, Y/N” he sighed “Our first honeymoon night” he corrected. “C’mon” Tom kissed again your neck and caressed lightly in between your thighs, earning from you a sweet moan. Hearing it, Tom raised his head, his eyes sparkling with desire and hope that this whimper leads to you saying yes. “So ?” he asked with a grin and that cheeky look in his eyes, you can never resist.

You checked around you to make sure no one would see you two sneak in the toilet cabin, but everybody was dead asleep and the flight attendants were nowhere to be seen. That was your green light. You turned to Tom, exhaling to warn him “You better be good Holland.” The biggest grin appeared on his face before you got up from your seat to hide in the cabin. “I got you, Holland” he replied wiggling his eyebrows, bitting his lower lip.

On your way, Tom pressed his body against your back and you could feel his erection starts against your butt.

When you both entered Tom made sure to lock the door before attacking your lips fiercely. His kisses were passionate, loving and hungry. His hands that were around your face slipped to your breast and waist to finally rest on your ass after giving it a good squeeze. You let a surprised moan against his lips too loud for his liking.

“No, no, no sweetheart” he urged you in a whisper, covering your mouth with one finger “you gotta stay quiet if you don’t want us to be in trouble.” Trouble. I’m gonna show you how much in a trouble you are. You locked his wrist in your hand and wrapped your delicate lips around his finger and started playing with it with your tongue, never breaking eye contact. Tom was in awe, his lips parted in a small ‘o’, watching alternatively your devilish eyes and his finger disappearing into your warm mouth. “You vixen…” he chuckled. “Looks like you’re having fun in the end” You opened your mouth and licked tongue flat his long finger.

His mind was too distracted by this little show, he didn’t notice the movement of your other hand to reach for his dick. Tom hissed at the contact and let his head fall backwards, chanting lowly your name. You slipped your hand in his sweatpants and boxers to grab his now fully hard dick, sucking two of his fingers. Tom pushed his pants down so you can fully pleasure him. Unfortunately the cabin was too small for you to get on your knees. Your hands will only do the the job. You removed his fingers out of your mouth and presented him your own palm in front of his lips. He understood the message and wet with his flat tongue your hand so you can start the hand job. When he let go of your hand you immediately wrap it around his heavy cock doing up and down movements. You pushed him against the wall behind him, grabbed the back of his neck and kissed his neck, sucking on his sweet spots, leaving loving marks.

“Y/N, gosh…” Tom whimpered looking down at his dick worked by your soft hand. And here, sitting triumphantly on your annular, your wedding ring. It was a simple golden ring with two tiny diamonds representing you and him forever. Tom knew since your first date that one day he’ll be calling you his wife. You were perfect for him, and this moment confirmed it yet again. “Fuck-” Tom grunted between his teeth “You’re so good at this baby, ugh god” he started bucking his hips to help you while you still kiss neck, jaw and now lips. “Let me make you feel good too” Tom pushed in one swift motion your pants and panties and buried his fingers in your soaked pussy. Before you moaned too loud, Tom kissed hard and for a moment you stopped everything. But Tom encourage to get back to it by moving his hips. “That’s it princess, fuck- just a little more before I burry my dick inside that pretty pussy of yours” his hot breath against your ear gave you goosebumps all over your body.

“Tom… shit, your fingers-” you were too caught in your pleasure that you couldn’t finish your sentence.

“I know, I know, love” he chuckled never ceasing his back and forth in your clenching vagina. “I know you love my fingers, but- fuck- I know you prefer my cock” his words sent you shivers down your spine. “filling you up better, making you scream” his thumb pressed rapidly on your clit and you gripped his t-shirt. “So baby girl… mmh… do you want my cock ?” in response of his words and to manifest your excitement, your hand moved faster around his penis, giving Tom a hard time to think straight. “I take that as a ‘yes’” he scoffed. Tom removed his hand from your pussy and pushed delicately yours from his dick. You whimpered at the loss of his fingers but you were glad it gave you a mini break.

Tom folded down the toilet cover to seat on it and pulled you by the hand to settle you on his lap. You hold his sex in your hand and guide it into your entrance. The feeling washes you both over and you fight the sighs you want to free, but no one can hear. Tom hands grab your hips instinctively and help you moving up and down. “Your fucking pussy is divine, a fucking miracle, love, fuck !” you focus on all the sensations Tom’s cock was giving you and tried to stay as quiet as possible. It was almost impossible. The only way to make you silent is to stuff your mouth. So you reach for one of his hand on your hips, hold out two fingers and burry them between your lips. Tom eyes darken. You just lit a new spark in him.

“C’mon Y/N ride that dick. Ride it hard, fuck you’re so hot ! Hmm… Give me everything, babe, don’t hold back” his words of encouragement make you go faster. Tom twists his fingers in your mouth, playing with your tongue, feeling your wet lips. After a little while he asks you to get up. He turns you around in front of the little mirror of the cabin just above the sink. He bends you a little over before sliding back in your delicious cunt. His thrusts were not as fast as he usually does to make no noise, but they are oh so deep.

Watching his dick disappearing in you, he can’t believe all of that body is forever his and only his. He meets your eyes in the mirror and grabs your face plastered by pleasure, forcing you to look at it. He leans over so his lips are next to your ear. “Look at you Y/N. So fucking hot for me. Your pussy, your ass, your tits, your whole fucking body was made for me, wasn’t it ay ?” you don’t answer but he knows your response. “Fuck- I can’t believe your my wife, princess. My fucking wife” his words were even heavier and meaningful since he was looking directly in your eyes through the mirror. “Who am I, Y/N ?” he grunted.

“M-my husband, Tommy.” you whimpered “You’re my husband, forever” your answer satisfied him and put this dangerous smirk on his face. He accelerated his thrusts bringing you the edge of your orgasm. “Uh, Tom ! I’m gonna cum.. shit !” You try to keep your voice as low as possible but it becomes more and more difficult.

“Cum for me baby. Cum on your husband’s cock, I’ll cum with you” a few more thrusts and you clench around his penis which released his sperm in the same time your orgasm hits you.

You slowly calm down, catching back your breath and get dressed. “That was…” Tom began to say but couldn’t find the words.

“Yeah, I know” you chuckled. You kissed him languorously. He then open very cautiously the door, checked if anyone was here, grabbed your hand and led you two back to your seats. Once you’re settled, you take one last breath and smiled.

“Round two at the hotel ?” Tom grinned, kissing your cheek. You rolled your eyes amused by his goofiness.

“A life next to you is gonna be long…” you joked.

“You have no idea” he smirked.