#two languages/one community

[michaelwarr-creativework]

Join Chun Yu and Michael Warr at Bird & Beckett Books this Thursday, July 6, at 7 pm as we share our poetry including work from our collaborative bilingual project Two Languages / One Community. An open mic follows our featured reading. Hope to see you there. Details follow here:

[softichill]

A 1 design I cooked up!

[giratina-and-the-skys-bouquet]

[itty-bitty-sunshine]

First night — 1,7k words

Two for one deal au

-

Moon entered his and his brother's room through the window balcony with the cable, as soon as he landed heading quietly with rushed steps to the small secret area where they had left the children sleeping soundly.

To be fair, he did finish his patrols in record time. He couldn't leave them for too long, after all. It'd be not only irresponsible, but dangerous as well.

Peaking his head through the entrance with a soft smile, he gazed over to where they had improvised a bed to the two little lambs; and in doing so, he froze. There was only one children on the bed, the boy.

" where— "

It couldn't have been abduction, they would have taken both the kids. Then, maybe she woke up and wandered around on her on. But there's only one door, which is heavily locked, and the only other entrance is a literal free-fall from the goddamn balcony—

He looked around the small room, Sun screaming on their shared head to find her, and his eyes very quickly spotted something weird. The little girl, awake, sitting on top of the arcade machine while hugging tightly the Sun plushie given to her for her to sleep, curled up on herself with her braided hair covering most of her face, the scrunchie that had been holding it back long lost and forgotten somewhere, while she stared ever so intensely at him, unblinking. Relief washed over their servos, together with confusion, and his code acting up on the fact she should be very much sleeping at this moment.

" ...starlight, " he whispered softly, ever so carefully making his way to her, "what are you doing up? What are you doing there? Naughty Naughty." How did you even get up there, he kept the last comment to himself.

The only response he got was her prolonged stare.

Right, she's mute.

Goddammit.

He sighed internally, not letting it reach his voice box, "Sun. Are there paper, pen? Board, maybe?"

"I think so, but can she write? It's so dark here."

"I'll find a way,"  he lifted his arms to her, "c'here, Sunshine, down we go," she just glared at him for a long moment, then at the entrance, and then at him again, hesitating for a second longer before going down the arcade and into his arms.

"It's late" he mused, "go to sleep."

There was not even the slight movement in her tiny frame, but he took the lack of any expression along the carefully watching eyes as a decline to that.

The was a click on his endo, "nightmare?", to that, she shook her head.

He put her down and started looking through the piles of materials, managing to find a tiny whiteboard she could use to talk. The leds in his eyes gave a dim illumination to the room, which should be enough. Handing her the item, he asked again "what are you doing up?"

He crouched, tilting his faceplate, while she slowly turned and used the wall as a base to write on.

"Watching so monsters dont get us", the phrase surprisingly clear considering how hard to see it is, and how little this kid seems to know how to write.

"Monsters?" A nod.

"There's no monsters here."

"So she woke up scared. Be nice."

"I heard. I know."

She frowned, making a line under the text to emphasize there are, and after the night those two had, who could blame her.

He slouched forward as to get close to her height, but didn't make any movement to get any closer, "there are not. I was out, i scared them away. I keep watch, you sleep," the kid sighed, shaking her head.

"You friend with monsters and bad guys"

"Why do you think that?"

"they here with you, everyone here. The grown ups, the robots"

"I'll never be friends with anyone who disturbs a good kid like you", he insisted, while slowly stretching his hand towards her, when she didn't pull away despite glaring at it, he put in on the top of her head, stroking gently.

"Can't sleep."

He refrained a tsc to erupt from his voice box, thinking for a moment, before tilting his faceplate, "let's play a game", he suppressed a chuckle as the kid's attention picked up, "if you win, I'll stay awake. I'll scare aaaaall the other little monsters away, forever. But you have to defeat me."

The little girl didn't answer, but her eyes frantically scanned his face for any sort of malice, and the room, for what he guessed would be any way to defend herself. Her unsure gaze stopped on the asleep boy, who turned uncomfortably but overall  rested deeply unaware of the unfounding conflict, before going back at the animatronic, an anxious stance, but decided. He was about to question her again, before something came flying to his face at full force: the plush of his brother she had been holding a moment ago.

The attack knocked his faceplate aback. Taking advantage of it, he made a glitchy, surprised squeal emit from his voice box, then promptly and dramatically falling back, as if he had been fatality wounded. He could feel her anxious gaze on him as he simply laid there for a few moments, tiny hands reaching for a nearby colored block ready to attack again. Slowly, he sat back up, equally emptily staring at the child, before making a theatrical bow with the most dumb and fantasy-like voice he could manage, "Knight Moon at your service~!"

He almost chuckled at the surprised welp that escaped the child, that she managed to keep low.

She frowned, still not completely fooled, but still asked anyway, which was an improvement. "on our side?"

"Yes, yes" His smile grew, "quite the strong one, aren't you", a full spin of the faceplate as his position straightened while sitting, shoulders high with his hands clutching to the end of his leg, "i lost, yes, so i shall protect you."

He noticed the way she eyed the plushie, now laying abandoned and defeated on the ground behind him. He handed the toy back to her, which she held way too tightly. Opening to her his arms, movement that made her freeze for a long instant, feet glued to the ground in wariness, but eventually giving in when he didn't budge, keeping always a soft, amazed smile on his face plate.

Moon cradled her carefully on his arms, making sure she was as comfortable as possible as the little kid laid on him while he moved closer to the makeshift bed, sitting right next to it and leaning on the wall. He shifted his attention for a moment at the sleeping boy: his rest had not been disturbed at all at his theatrics, barely moved from where he laid with a steady breathing and low, resting heartbeat. Good. He must have been exhausted.

Again started the music box, but Sunshine gripped the edge of the ruffles on Moon's neck, shaking her head.

"Don't she trusts us?"

"She does, she came to us."

"Then why does she refuses?"

"Maybe a moondrop would help,"  he stared down at her, faceplate clicking once, twice. She did not have the board nor a pen anymore.

"Protect you," the little girl mouthed ever so slowly, not a single sound leaving her throat. It gave the attendant a pause.

"Protect us?", he repeated in a whispery tone, receiving a nod, so he did read it right.

"So the monsters can't—" she yawned, "can't get you. Or him."

Well, that was adorable. And frustrating, since she refused to sleep. And incredibly silly, since he's the boogeyman. He's the one who gets people.

Moon tapped his faceplate a few times, before raising his finger as an idea struck him, "what if," he bopped her nose, "I block this little area, and make little trap— would you sleep then?"

He was not disappointed (rather, relieved, because finally) when she nodded her head in affirmation, though she did nuzzle a little further in him as if ashamed.

Moon carefully laid her down on the improvised bed she should never have left, and started to wander around, picking up a few loose colored blocks and stuffing it up the entrance of the secret room, blocking any possibility to walk in or out without knocking over everything. He took off one of his bells and hanged it on top so that it'd make noise in case anything fell. While he worked, he could feel tiny eyes burning on his back.

He turned back to the little star, only to see her putting her pillow to the side, where moon was previously sitting, and patting it as she eyed him. He couldn't help but to chuckle as he made his way back to her.

Moon picked it up, and put it back under her head as he guided the child to lay back down and covered her up with the blanket, sitting back next to her.

"There," he smiled, "now sleep, stubborn little lamb," he covered her eyes with one hand. She moved her tiny little fingers up and patted his hand a few times, as if wishing goodnight.

Moon lifted his hand one he was sure she had succumbed to Morpheus' embrace, which was unsurprisingly quickly. A child her age should never be up so late to begin with. This sure was lot of unnecessary trouble just to get one kid to bed.

Who the hell made a child so wary and scared of 'monsters', anyway? And able to believe in them still.

It didn't matter, he was there now. And the children were resting, as they should be. The music box kept on playing as he hummed, lost in thought, unmoving from where he sat next to them.

He'd bother with charging later.

Those two were staying here now. How to take care of them?

"We will figure it out."

"We are caretakers, anyway."

The children did not wake up after this, specially not when the Attendant growly warned off an welcome guest that stopped by on the middle of the night. They need to sleep. There's not a soul who's to wake them. It's their job to make sure of it.

[everypanelofizuku]

Chapter 42 - Final-Match Time

[buttercup-barf]

Back at it again with posting crossovers of things I like, because I just get possessed like that sometimes. <3

This time as a rushed sketchbook doodle.

[andthespidersfrommars]

you might not think it’s hard to be a soc fan artist on tumblr, but let me tell you about the time I called someone out for drawing inej with light skin, so they blocked me and then wrote a long post about me that I couldn’t see, along with colour samples taken from my art as examples of how inej is “too dark” in them, and then they end the post with “I’m disappointed in you” 💀

[lovesickeros]

ive been thinking about what characters would know sign language, bc despite never being mentioned i can't imagine teyvat wouldn't have an equivalent version.

alhaitham (partially deaf/goes nonverbal) obviously and by extension kaveh (kinda hard to chew out your roommate when they cant understand you), but also collei (goes nonverbal when triggered) would have been taught by tighnari (who knows it bc its useful for communicating silently w other rangers)

[flamestar126]

Game Night with Douglas

Click for better quality

What happens after Douglas leaves for a second

rambling about their outfit in tags

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Do you think Home and Bardaby would end up- if not friends than at least allies eventually in your fantasy au? I think it would be a real shame if Wally's best friend & his patron couldn't find some common ground. Maybe they could both keep an eye on Wally for each other? I know Home is literally Always There with him, but there are some human(puppet?) issues that an elder god just wouldn't really get. idk, I just think it's a bit of a shame that they don't get along, since Barnaby's the only other person besides Wally to actually interact with home in the original ARG.

oh no yeah! they do Eventually! it just takes a while and some work. Home in this au is pretty protective of Wally for Reasons, and it takes a lot to make them go "hey, you're chill. i like you". unfortunately Barn is also protective (not nearly to Home's extent but yk) so they naturally clash where they should get along

i have the full process In My Mind but essentially: Home, if given express permission, can "possess" Wally (put in quotes bc technically Wally is already possessed by them). this happens either when Wally wants a fucking break / is overwhelmed and wants Home to take the wheel (Wally's consciousness is kinda 'turned off' - it falls into a deep sleep!), or if Home does Wally a favor - they trade the favor for a set amount of possession time. because Home would like to have a body & make the decisions from time to time <3

during one of these "Home has the wheel" periods, i imagine that some shit goes down that forces Barnaby & Home to work together w/o a mediator. and during this time they're trying to get through this while keeping Wally's body relatively unharmed - Barnaby experiences a nice disconnect of "this is Wally but its also not Wally & its also a being i don't like very much bc its a dick-". but through the power for Forced Interaction, they realize that yeah, they have common ground, but they're also not too bad :]. catch Wally taking the wheel and being perplexed at how Barnaby is all "hey say hi to Home for me!" or asking for Home's opinion on things.

[michaelwarr-creativework]

Chun Yu and I read a few of our Two Languages / One Community poems in Chinese and English to close the 70th Anniversary of City Lights Bookstore on Sunday, August 20th, in Jack Kerouac Alley. The list of stellar poets and musicians follows below.

From City Lights:

Thank you to all the poets and attendees who turned out to help us celebrate our 70th anniversary with a live poetry reading in Kerouac Alley!

This star-studded event featured readings by Micah Ballard, Chris Carosi, Garrett Caples, Neeli Cherkovski, Norma Cole, Gillian Conoley, Sophia Dahlin, Tiff Dressen, Nadia Elbgal, Agneta Falk Hirschman, erica lewis, Randall Mann, Alexandra Mattraw, Alejandro Murguía, Achy Obejas, Julien Poirier, Sam Sax, Janaka Stucky, Tate Swindell, Sunnylyn Thibodeaux, Preeti Vangani, Michael Warr, and Chun Yu.

City Lights is celebrating our 70th anniversary all year long with historic talks, poetry readings, online panels and discussions, and much more!

Details: https://citylights.com/city-lights-70th-anniversary.../

[idontwantrobyntodie]

i have this one fantasy wip that i WANT TO START SO BADLY but there is one (1) aspect of the language worldbuilding that doesn’t make a lot of sense and i don’t know how to fix it and i can’t actually write until i do ://

[vampiromano]

frankly human meat is probably the only meat I'd eat. it's the only meat that can be consensually given up in a way i understand and also the only meat I wouldn't feel disgusted about eating w/o consent and violently if I disliked the person enough. I mean cmon would you say no to dead president meat. to dead policeman meat. it'd be like the final humiliation for them. it'd be great

[francesderwent]

sometimes the tumblr therapy-speak crowd makes it seem like in a real-life healthy relationship, you can never, ever expect anyone to anticipate your needs because that would require them to read your mind and people can’t do that, so you’ll have to talk explicitly about every single issue every single time for the rest of your life. and I don’t know, I just don’t think that’s true.

[teja-has-puppet-autism]

y'know sometimes I go to make a post on this here webbed site, and I almost always end up deletin it cause I measure it through the "how widely applicable is this" + "how horribly can people twist this" metrics and it just stops my little fingies from typin

(this turned into me typing an essay in the tags cause I very much did need to process some shit lmao)

[birdietrait]

i’m having so much fun working on this horror story EEE