#whether they were making a given sentence more 'English' or not

[hippo-pot]

frustrated b/c i'm having to learn basic grammar/syntax stuff outside of class when like. you would think. a class. would be the place to go. to learn grammar/syntax stuff

[weenwrites]

*Crawls out of the sewers to make a request*

Yoo! Hope you're having a good day, make sure to drink lots of water!

As for the request, would do you mind doing a romance pining headcanons Transformers Prime Bumbleee and Optimus Prime (separately, of course) for a human charge? The bots would develop a crush on the reader, and how would they're pining be-? Most of their time pining, he human charge would be oblivious to their advances (if there are any) and would just brush it off as them being friendly? Despote the human charge having mutual feelings for the bot as well.

Apologies for my bad english, and I'm not really good at describing stuff, so pardon if it seemed weird or something-

Anyways, thank you for your time!

A/N: Your english is great! I think you were able to communicate your idea just fine.

[ Please do not repost, plagiarize, or use my writing for AI! Translating my work with proper credit is acceptable, but please ask first! ]

Optimus

It's not that he's afraid of expressing his true feelings to you, it's that he's hesitant on whether he should. You already have such a massive target painted on your back just by being under his watch, to start dating you would raise the stakes higher than you'd ever know. Of course that isn't to mention whether he'd have the time and energy to be your partner.

Yes, he sees you every day because you're his charge, but if you were to make your relationship romantic, he would need to be present and available in your life outside of decepticon-related issues. He is uncertain whether he has the time to, though he understands that he has a capable team who are well willing to break their own backs just to give him some time off, he doesn't want them to go to such lengths.

So while there's no verbal confession right away, or for any time soon, he's much more talkative with you and attentive to your every need—not overly so, but enough that it's noticeable. And however you spend patrols with him—whether it be listening to music as you drive, or just sitting in silence—words are what fill the silence as you meander down the road.

At times he'd dream about life with you, and in those dreams the war is the least of his concerns. In those dreams he thinks about how he could make his schedule align with yours, he thinks about how you might enjoy this one activity, or this one place on Cybertron. And at times he finds bits of his dreams even seeping into his waking thoughts as he finds himself wondering about your well-being on a day you're elsewhere.

Bumblebee

Surprisingly it's rather difficult to tell that he likes you because he's already so friendly towards you, but it's not inherently impossible if you can read the signs. Firstly, he's a lot more expressive around you—and while that may be surprising to hear given the fact he's already a very expressive person, I mean "more expressive" as in he seems even more enthusiastic and happy around you (even more than either of you knew was possible).

You can see it in the way he tries to keep you around, and the way that he admires stares at you for a bit longer than is considered acceptable by your societal norms. Especially whenever you go out on patrol with him, it almost feels like the seat belt around you is hugging you in a way, but you could also pass that off as he's just trying to make sure you're nice and secure.

His confession is very shy, yet there's something so endearing when it comes to seeing him offer you a hand-made Valentine's day card. The cover of the card is simple, yet the inside is what really stands out to you the most. The inside details his feelings for you—not in any showy or verbose way, but in a few straightforward and simple sentences. Yet each word is teeming with his unexpressed adoration for you, and his hesitance barely conceals the fear of your rejection, and yet he's still brave enough to look at you as if to ask "well, what do you say?"

[m-joys]

Bay!Donnie: crush dates someone else

@thequeenofcupps :Hi! I was wondering if I can request bayverse Donatello where he finally manages to have enough courage to ask out reader but because he took to long reader is already dating someone? I want the angstiest angst that you can make 😇 also can it be hc’s?

A/n: saw this rn and had to write it. Lord give me angst♡ this also isn't proof read and English isn't my first language so sorry🙏

Even tho your first interaction with the turtles was quite...harsh to say the least, you just had to accept the four mutants as a new occurrence in your life. Simply knowing of their existence and having the chance to endanger them in any way by them letting you go without a care was too dangerous.

You quickly adapted to them being in your presence, simply seeing them as your friends rather than some mutants. Though in case with Donnie, you seemed to like him a lot more than the rest and not in a friendly way. The same could've been said vice versa, but the purple masked turtle didn't seem to be as sure in his feelings as you are.

It was no secret that you two were particularly close with each other, most of the time when you would come over majority of your time was spent with him in his lab. Talking about random things, him showing you his latest finds and relaxing together were probably your favorite moments of the day and each day the bigger spark between you two was forming.

The thing being, you could never truly figure out his feelings about you. You knew he didn't hate you, that's for sure, but you couldn't help but wonder whether the feelings were mutual or you were just imagining things. With that said, you decided not confess as to not harm the friendship between you two.

Time passed by and you came to the conclusion more and more that he didn't feel the same way about you. Deciding that It's the best to just move on and look for love elsewhere, you cut your time with Donnie short. Still visiting the lair and his lab, but the visits became more infrequent as you have now focused on meeting new people and trying out your luck in dating.

Donnie, of course, notices your sudden change in behavior. How couldn't he? The thing he thinked about the most was you after all, anyone in his vicinity could surely confirm that given that he managed to always bring you up in conversations no matter the topic. To say he was infatuated would be an understatement. This being the first time he ever felt something like this, he wasn't really sure how to act or what to do. He's a teenager after all.

Your visits became less and less frequent, which deeply hurt him even though he wasn't expressing it directly. He couldn't help but think that he was somehow the cause of this and that you started despising him for some reason. Yet, he couldn't just sit still and wonder knowing that that way he would never get the answer he deeply craved and would have to live with his feelings for you never being confessed to, well, you.

Mustering up the courage, he picked the time when he knew you were most likely to be home and visit you to finally let his heart out. The burden of his most beloved person drifting away was too much for him to handle and the only way he could possibly fix it is to talk to you.

Leaping from roof to roof, in his head Donnie was only thinking and connecting sentences to find the best way to say everything he's been thinking about since you two first shared glances. Replaying in his memory some of the times you shared together, only then did he manage to figure out that you probably had a crush on him too. All of the little smiles, discrete touches and obvious favorisem only seemed to make themselves clear right now.

Taking one final jump onto your fire escape and carefully looking around so no one sees him, he wa ready to knock on your window and call out for you.

At first, he thought you weren't home as your bedroom was dark with doors shut and you weren't in there, but he notices the light beams that peeked on the bottom of the door from the living room. Deciding to change position and move from one windows to another, Donnie made a quick way towards the other side of the building.

The urge to knock immediately and call out for you quickly went away when he noticed the commotion in your living room. At first he couldn't exactly tell who was there with you or why, but it seemed to quickly make sense to him once the stranger grabbed you by the waist and left a kiss on your forehead whilst sitting on the couch.

Seeing another person with you didn't hurt him as much as seeing you so happy, the way you were happy when you were with him. At least it used to be him.

A tear couldn't help but fall down his cheek as he realized that all of this could've been prevented if he had thought about confessing sooner. He was the smart one, how couldn't he have figured out long ago that you were in love with him? The same way he still is with you? Right now he couldnt tell if he was sad, disappointed in himself, hopeless or all three of those.

Turning around to make his way back home, he couldnt help but ask himself what if's. If he was a little sooner? If he notices earlier? If he had the courage to tell you right away?

He quickly stopped, realizing that there is no point. You could never be his, and he could never be yours. Maybe thats just the way it's meant to be.

[soapflavoredtea]

Standards — Yuji Itadori (1)

Chapter One: Failed First Impressions

Pairing: Yuji Itadori x Black Female Reader

Word Count: 1.6k

Series Summary: After being scouted from abroad by the esteemed Yuuta Okkotsu, your once normal life takes many new turns as you learn to navigate the numerous issues that come with not only being a rookie sorcerer, but a Black girl in Japan.

Chapter Summary: Your first day in Japan is nothing short of eventful.

Content Warnings: Not beta read, so probably some typos

Series Masterlist

There were a plethora of ways you had expected your first day in Japan to go. Having spent fourteen hours on a plane that left you with nothing better to do than conjure up a list of everything that could go wrong, you were more than positive you had mapped out every scenario possible. Getting organ trafficked certainly wasn’t one of them but somehow ending up lost was–so the overlook canceled out.

The initial instructions given had been very straightforward. Exit the plane, find some guy named Ijichi, and the rest would be taken care of for you. So simple it was too good to be true. And it was.

When you had finally made it to the greeting area the said man was indeed there. Clad in a suit and tie holding a white sign that had your name neatly written in sharpie. He had been nice enough. Carrying your luggage to the vehicle and making small talk with you in English for the duration of the ride. However the problems started to arise when you had gotten to the destination. Prior to coming, you had never seen what Jujutsu High was supposed to look like, but you highly doubted it was the place you arrived at.

“We’re here,” Ijichi said, his thick Japanese accent lacing the words.

Your lips pursed.“This is the place?” There was nothing around safe from an abandoned looking building. If not for the cursed energy seeping out of it, the mucky green a big contrast from the light blue sky, you would’ve thought it was haunted. “And you’re sure?”

He nodded in response while he got out to open the car for you. Looking suspiciously apologetic as he did so. You made the mistake of putting your back to him while you gave the building another inspection. “So is this supposed to be the school or–”

The slamming of the car door followed up by the engine revving interrupted your sentence. It had taken you longer than a couple seconds to process what had just happened. And by the time you finally did the driver was long gone.

There was a nice bench that you deemed as a perfect spot to wallow in your shame and misery so you did. And now here you are, deserted somewhere in Japan with not even a dollar to your name and a dead phone in your pocket.

After a couple of moments you came to the conclusion that this had all been one huge organ trafficking scheme that you had fallen victim to. If you were to be knocked out in one moment and woken up in an ice bath the next–you wouldn’t even be that mad. Whatever crime syndicate that had been in charge of this operation deserved your kidneys as kudos. It was all so convincing. Like heck, they had even given you a whole uniform.

You just stared at the ground. Contemplating whether to curse Yuuta when you died, for putting you in this situation or Ijichi for getting you there. 

“Ah, there she is!”

The headlines were already forming in your head. Foreign high schooler goes missing because she was too dumb to realize she was getting scammed. You just hoped that the photo they used for your missing poster wouldn’t have you looking busted. Multiple pairs of footsteps were starting to draw closer and closer. This was really it for you.

You were too tired for any sense of panic to hit you so you sunk your head in defeat. Contemplating whether to curse Yuuta when you died, for putting you in this situation or Ijichi for getting you there. 

“—Helloo. Is anyone home?”

Your head slowly rose to the man who would be the culprit of your soon to be kidnapping slash murder. The guy was tall. It took quite a bit for your neck to crane to the point where you could get a full view of him. A blindfold and spiked snow white hair. Gojo. You had never met the man but basing off Yuuta’s many stories of him, there was no mistaking it. Next to him stood three teenagers, who all bore the same uniform as you. “She’s alive!”

Gojo gestured to you with jazz hands. “This is the last first year. [Last Name] [Name]. Per Yuuta’s recommendation she will be joining us. Isn’t that right, [Name]-chan~.”

The shock of today not being your last on Earth finally wore off. With a newfound appreciation of life you shot up to your feet. “Oh..um…yes,” you huffed out, the words for some reason coming out breathlessly which you accredited to the adrenaline. Yuuta and old faithful (Google) always told you that bowing was a common custom in Japan, so now would probably be a better time than any to do it. “Please…please take care of me?”

You could feel the trio staring down at you. Their silence to your introduction only proving your gut feeling right and that you had probably done something wrong. If it wasn’t for the fact you were Black your face would’ve been the deepest shade of red of all time. The cramping in your back was growing by the second.

“[Last Name]...you can get up now,” a stoic voice spoke.

“Right,” you coughed out, straightening up. A ‘pft’ broke through the silence. The source being from the salmon haired boy that was miserably failing to hold in a laugh. Hoping you left a better impression on the one other girl in your group, your attention shifted to her—who’s expression more or less mirrored his. The last first year wasn’t looking at you. You were unsure of how to take that but chances were it wasn’t good.

Well shit.

A pair of hands found a home on their shoulders and shook you back and forth with a gentle playfulness. “What are you guys waiting for,” Gojo asked, “introduce yourselves to your new classmate!”

“Fushiguro Megumi,” the stoic voice from earlier said. Still barely giving you a glance.

The one with a red hood pointed to himself, “I’m Itadori Yuji.”

"Kugisaki Nobara,” the sole girl started, “glad to see this group won't be too unfortunate now that there's another woman."

Whatever was said by your teacher after you didn’t catch, only something about a curse, before Kugisaki and Itadori started making their way into the worn-down building. You were about to (reluctantly) follow suit before Gojo teacher called out to you.

 "Kugisaki Nobara, glad to see this group won't be too unfortunate now that there's another woman," she proudly declared.  

"Oh, [Name] you're fine you don't have to go in," Gojo assured, beckoning you over to where he and Fushiguro were sitting, which was the bench you had previously been at.

It didn't take long before you started zoning out again during another one of your teacher's rambles. The jet lag was finally starting to hit you and you couldn't even be bothered to translate his little lecture on jujutsu sorcery. 

"-me] is plenty crazy, well at least from what Yuuta has told me. Though I do eventually want to test it out for myself I know you're tired from the flight so I'll give you a pass today." He said gleefully, giving you a thumbs up.

“Thank you?”

At the mention of your name you perked up quickly replying with a nod, "Speaking of Okkotsu-senpai, how is he?" The first year asked.  

“From last I saw he’s doing well. His eye bags have probably gotten worse since then.”

Shattering glass rang out and a curse was escaping out one of the windows.

"I'll exorcise it," Fushiguro said, standing up ready to fight. 

Gojo waved him off, "Wait." At his words the once flying curse was hit by a few nails before incinerating into thin air. "Nice, she's crazy all right." 

“Um Gojo…sensei. Not to be rude but when are we heading back to the dorms?” You asked.

“Soon,” he replied with a smirk. You hoped he meant actually soon and not your parent’s version that would be three hours later. Seeing the two first years finally exit the building with a little boy a couple moments after, it was good to see he was talking in a literal sense. While your classmates took the elementary schooler back to his house you moved to a set of stairs so you wouldn’t be too far from them. It’d be a lie to say that you weren’t still a bit on edge about being in a new country. 

"Did you know that I get into a foul mood when I'm hungry?" You jumped at the sudden voice not even noticing when Kugisaki and Itadori joined you at your space on the steps. 

"Well we made sure the kid got home so let’s grab some food!” Gojo said. 

"Steak!"

"Sushi!" 

"Leave it all to me! And you [Name]? Megumi?" Fushiguro ignored him, too busy scrolling through his phone to acknowledge his teacher. 

"As long as I don’t have to pay, I’m fine with whatever," you yawned. 

"Okay, let's go!"

After another one of Itadori and Kugisaki's arguments the four of you happily agreed on steak joint, much to Fushiguro's dismay, and were now heading to it. All the boys were walking in the front leaving you with the brunette in the back. It was painfully silent between the two of you. Neither bothering to take the first step in killing the awkward moment.

"So-" 

"[Last Name], right? I like your," she made a gesture at her own bob," hair. It's really pretty."

At the unexpected compliment you grinned,"Thanks, yours too." 

"How tacky do you think the dorms are gonna be?"

[yuurei20]

Hello! I'm sorry if this question already been asked and answered but have any character mentioned about going to elementary before coming to the NRC?

Also, have they ever explained about whether there is elementary, middle and high school in twisted wonderland?

Thank you!

Hello hello! Thank you for this question!

There are references to Riddle, Trey, Deuce, Jack, Jade, Floyd, Azul and Epel all attending elementary school!

There is a mistranslation on EN about Kalim and Jamil attending elementary school together when they did not: Jamil went to school while Kalim was homeschooled until NRC.

(EN does not have the best track record with subject pronouns. Jamil does not technically say "I" in his sentence, but as he was sharing a story about himself, we know he is the subject.)

We also have lines about Riddle, Ace, Deuce, Jade, Floyd, Azul, Jamil, Epel and Sebek all attending middle school.

I have not been able to find a line from Jack about attending middle school, but he does say that his younger brother is.

I was not able to find any reference to what schools Vil attended before NRC. Interestingly we are given the labels of "child-Jade" and "middle-school Jade" for Azul's overblot flashback in order to track how long Jade, Floyd and Azul have known each other, but during Vil's flashback there are no such hints about what ages or grade levels Jack and Vil were at when they first met.

Jack says that they went to school together for "a year a two," but does not mention what level of schooling.

Cater mentions changing schools often before NRC, but might not reference elementary- or middle-schools directly.

Malleus says that he received teaching from tutors.

Like Kalim, Leona says he was also taught by tutors at home, while neither Ruggie nor Silver had any official schooling at all prior to NRC, with Silver studying at home (often alone) and Ruggie's education being limited to "practical life skills."

What is fascinating is that the game does not use the Japanese-language words for elementary/middle/high school, using English-language words instead!

It is established in the novel that the language being spoken in the universe is not Japanese, and the game may be using the English language as if it were a fantasy-world language like Elvish (re: why all the countries have two names, and why the in-game map is not available in Japanese).

In the prologue, for example, Ace uses the Japanese-language word for kindergarten, but in the novel this was updated to the English-language word, "elementary school."

The English-word "kindergarten" is not as ubiquitous amongst native Japanese-language speakers as "elementary school."

This meant that the writer had to choose what was more important: staying faithful to the game, or upholding the continuity of "only English-language-words are used for pre-NRC educational institutions." And they chose the latter!

The English word "high school" is used to describe NRC itself.

(Words like "high school students" are kept in Japanese but grammar differences mean that we cannot just drop "high school students" into a Japanese-language sentence and have it make sense, so it is possible that this was a compromise for the sake of comprehension.)

And this might all come back to Twst's unique school system!

It is not 100% Japanese, English or American, taking inspiration from all three without recreating anything literally (which is often also true of the characters themselves).

The game seems to have combined the UK's two-year, pre-university "college" system with American four-year high schools, used the English-language title "Night Raven College," and then had the characters refer to it in-game as a "high school," using English to establish it as a foreign system!

[viric-dreams]

Now I've finally gotten around to the speech pattern post (jumping off of @the-dye-stained-socialite and @neathyingenue)

-Ockham has a fairly strong accent, nearly unintelligible, but possibly recognisable if you've spent enough time around the docks. Ockham's speech has a prominent trochaic rhythm, and a softer cadence than the that of the Dutch zailors.

-Ockham doesn't have particularly much tonal variation in hishertheir speech, and doesn't project very much. Hishertheir words don't travel far and often get lost if you're not standing next to himherthem.

-Ockham's English is fairly poor, though marginally better in writing compared to speaking. Flemish word order and prepositions get directly transferred over into English, and Ockham will often drop Flemish words into speech when missing the English one.

-In writing, Ockham has a poor grasp on English orthography and will spell things as makes sense to himherthem given the languages Ockham does know.

-Ockham's English is a combination of very basic vocabulary, mixed with very specific sailing terms, given how it was acquired.

-Ockham will call you by however you introduce yourself.

-Ockham's French and German both register as more polite in register. Ockham very rarely uses the informal you.

-Ockham's sentences tend to be short and direct (often coming across as rude, though it's rarely meant that way). Heshethey doesn't elaborate on things unless asked.

-Ockham's swearing tends to be in interjections and usually in Flemish, unless speaking French. Heshethey does not intrinsically shy away from profanity at all.

-Ockham's sense of humour is fairly dry (and morbid), and tone of voice is not a good indicator for whether or not something is meant as a joke. Tone of voice is generally not a good indicator as to Ockham's mood since hishertheir speech tends to be so unexpressive.

-If Ockham's voice were an instrument it would be a hurdy gurdy. Relatively mid-toned, but with some sort of tonal buzz happening and the echo of a drone string.

[anon-karasu]

The Fourth-Born

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Summary: Asmo isn’t happy with the designations given to the brothers by the Demon King.

Category: Gen

Rating: General Audiences

Language: English

Characters: Lucifer, Mammon, Leviathan, Satan, Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Belphegor

Additional Tags: first part set just after the Celestial War, second part set in the present, angry Satan, does this count as Asmo being jealous?, Asmo was so understanding… at first, no MC, no beta

AO3

FFN

The Fourth-Born

The six brothers heaved a collective sigh of relief as Satan was finally restrained and bound to a chair with chains.

“Dammit, Satan!” Mammon hissed under his breath as he stretched and rolled his shoulder to ease the pain where the unruly demon had struck him earlier during a fit of rage.

“Be thankful that you didn’t take the full brunt of his hit,” Levi murmured as he cast a sideways glance towards a chest of drawers that had been seemingly cleaved in half.

“The damage is getting a bit extensive,” Lucifer sighed wearily, crossing his arms to give Satan a reproachful stare while the wrathful demon glared straight back at him.

“A bit extensive?” Belphie gave Lucifer an incredulous stare. “That’s putting it lightly! Just this morning he tore everything in the attic to shreds! And now look at the state of the dining room!”

Belphie motioned towards the splintered remains of the wooden dining table, the broken glass from the windows, and the chunks of stone that had been blown away from the walls, all of which were now scattered across the floor as a result of Satan’s most recent rampage.

“And when he’s not on a destructive rampage, he just glares at us or distances himself from us,” Beel shook his head with a frown as he glanced towards Satan who could now be heard muttering curses at his brothers under his breath with a threatening aura.

“We can’t really keep him retrained all the time either,” Levi sighed.

“What else are we s’posed to do?” Mammon asked as he surveyed the wrathful demon. “He’s too dangerous, it’s only a matter of time before he seriously hurts someone.”

“… couldn’t we just open the front door and… you know…” Belphie let his sentence trail off with a sweeping motion of his hands.

“You mean just let him go?” Levi frowned. “Can we even do that?”

“He might be happier if we did,” Beel frowned with a thoughtful hum as he looked back over at Satan, “he must be miserable to be restrained almost all of the time.”

“Wouldn’t someone just bring him back anyway?” Mammon pointed out.

“No one is going to be opening any doors and letting Satan go,” Lucifer shook his head with another sigh, “whether you all like it or not, Satan is our brother and therefore our responsibility.”

“Lucifer’s right.” Asmo finally chimed in with a nod of his head as he offered Satan a warm smile. “Besides, Satan is probably having just as hard a time as we are going in adjusting to life in the Devildom. Maybe even more so seeing as he doesn’t share the same closeness that the rest of us do.”

“Maybe he would if he wasn’t so distant and aggressive,” Belphie muttered under his breath.

“Well, maybe we should try to make things a little easier on him.” Asmo pointed out. “We should be more mindful of how he’s feeling too so that he can see that we’re open to start a meaningful connection with him.”

A brief silence fell over the brothers as they stood around Satan and watched him struggle and writhe against his restraints in a fit of rage.

“… I’m sure that would’ve been more meaningful if Satan had actually listened to you…” Levi broke the silence first.

“Maybe you should try saying it again once he’s calmed down a little, Asmo.” Beel suggested.

“I think the moment has already passed,” Mammon said with a frown.

Asmo heaved a small sigh before he spoke up again, “well regardless of whether he heard what I said or not, I think that after everything that’s happened to us, we should all be glad that we’ve gained a younger brother.”

Lucifer stiffened slightly at Asmo’s words before he slowly turned away from Satan to look at his other brothers.

“About that…” Lucifer paused for a moment before he took a deep breath and spoke again, choosing his words carefully. “The designation given to Satan by the Demon King is as the fourth-born, not the seventh-born.”

Silence fell over the brothers.

Asmo stared at Lucifer in disbelief as the information that Lucifer had just given the brothers slowly sunk in before Asmo finally spoke up again.

“You mean to say that he’s my older brother?” Asmo burst angrily as he pointed towards Satan. “Him?”

Lucifer heaved a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes wearily while he mentally prepared himself for the imminent headache that the conversation would bring, “yes, that is the official designation given to Satan. In order of oldest to youngest, it’s myself, Mammon, Levi, Satan, then you, Beel, and finally Belphie as the youngest brother.”

“But I was here first!” Asmo argued back. “How is that fair? Shouldn’t Satan be the youngest?”

“Asmo.” Lucifer gave Asmo a stern look as he spoke in a warning tone.

“You guys agree with me, right?” Asmo ignored Lucifer’s warning as he turned towards the twins instead.

He then watched as Beel and Belphie shared a glance with each other before they both then shrugged in unison.

“I’m not bothered,” Beel said in an indifferent voice.

“I don’t mind being the youngest,” Belphie mused aloud, “the youngest siblings are typically spoiled by their older brothers anyway, so I can live with that.”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to admit that part out loud,” Levi frowned as he shook his head at Belphie.

“No! We were all here first!” Asmo pouted as he crossed his arms over his chest with an irritable huff and turned his back on his brothers. “It only makes sense that Satan should be the younest!”

“What happened to that ‘I’m glad to have another brother’ attitude you had just a moment ago, huh?” Mammon teased Asmo with a smirk as he ruffled Asmo’s hair while Asmo glowered up at him and pushed his hand away.

“It’s what the Demon King has decided, so there’s no point in arguing over it now.” Lucifer spoke with a tone of finality.

“Actually, Asmo does kind of have a point.” Levi said with a thoughtful hum, earning himself a warning glare from Lucifer. “Why did the Demon King decide to designate Satan as the fourth-born? It doesn’t really make sense.”

Asmo quickly rounded on Lucifer again, “right! Exactly! Levi’s right, it doesn’t make sense! So why did the Demon King choose to make Satan the fourth-born?”

Lucifer stiffened for a moment, bracing himself for another outburst from Asmo before he spoke again.

“Because our age designations have been given to us in ranks of our power.”

Another silence fell over the brothers, broken once again by Asmo.

“Are you kidding me?” Asmo stomped his foot angrily. “How is he stronger than any of us? Beel was the one who restrained him just now! Doesn’t that make Beel the stronger brother? And what about my charm? No one can resist that, not even you, Lucifer!”

“Oh for the love of—” Lucifer shook his head with a weary sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose again. Lucifer then took on his stern demeanour again. “That’s it. This is the decision made by the Demon King. End of discussion!”

“No!” Asmo protested. “I'm reopening the discussion! Why does this little brat get to outrank any of us after being here for just five minutes?”

“Who are you calling a ‘little brat’?” Satan spoke in a quiet but venomous voice, having finally stopped struggling against his binds to fix Asmo with a furious glare.

“You!” Asmo retorted just as angrily as he rounded on Satan.

Satan struggled against his chains with renewed vigour.

“Let me go! Let me go so I can tear this moron limb from limb!”

“Not unless I tear you limb from limb first! Then we’ll see who outranks who in terms of power!”

Asmo clenched his fists as he lunged forward towards Satan, only to be immediately stopped by Beel who swiftly stepped behind Asmo and linked his arms under Asmo’s to hold the Avatar of Lust firmly in place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Satan let out a content hum, settled back against the headboard of his bed and smiled to himself as he turned the page of his book and let his eyes scan over each word with rapt attention.

His focus was only broken by the sound of his bedroom door opening, causing a flicker of annoyance to cross his face before he heard the sound of Amo’s chipper hum.

“Satan~!” Asmo called out as he walked across the room towards the fourth-born. “How much do you love your little brother?”

The pang of annoyance that Satan had felt earlier immediately evaporated as he slowly looked up at Asmo with an arched eyebrow.

“That depends. What are you after?”

Asmo grinned as he replied, “I bought some new outfits and I want to take the most Devilgramable photo, a selfie won’t cut it this time! So I need a certain smart demon to help me get the right angles and right lighting. What do you say, Satan? Will you help me out?”

Satan remained silent for a moment as he surveyed Asmo with a contemplative expression before he finally closed the book in his lap with a small chuckle.

“Sure, I’ll help you, but only because I’m your older brother.”

[aidenknow]

Aiden’s Response towards the Grooming Allegations

There have been posts going around in the OFF game tag and its variants by a user named @diehardpizzer (AKA @molochzmeat (formerly @diehardpizzer)/@molochsden (formerly @doodlefortress)), who started spreading posts of accusations toward me (and my other friends) of allegations such as stalking, harassment, grooming, lying etc. For this post, I am going to make a response to the case regarding the grooming accusations. The reasons I focus on this specific allegation first is because 1.) Fort often uses this accusation to deflect their offence after they were exposed for lesbiphobia, transphobia, racism, talking over minorities, ableism, and also grooming, stalking, harassment and mocking of someone’s suicide and there are instances that they still keep doing with that behaviour even after being criticized, 2.) some of the information on the accusations are taken out of context or given with improper or no explanation. This leads to more harm than good not only to me but also to other people, both directly and indirectly

First and foremost, the reason I do not want to resolve with Fortress is because of their behaviour. They have repeatedly been shown to be aggressive and manipulative towards anyone who is not aligned with their ideals or anyone who goes against them. They also twist other people’s words and situations, whether it’s in situations they were involved in or not, through accusations without proper evidence or evidence that has been taken out of context. They would also throw people under the bus with hypocritical accusations towards people who disagree with them. They aren’t a good person to make proper arguments or reasoning with, let alone the fact that this person is a blatant liar that makes poorly written arguments.

I was recently getting stalked and harrassed by Fort (and they still do along with stalking and putting unnecessary accusations towards a minor) after I vented regarding the misinformation and the negligence in Fort’s part of accusing me and my friends, especially with the mentions of my late friend’s suicide and disrespecting his death. Many people have advised me to not interact and instead block them, which I did especially due to the rise of their stalking and hostile behaviour from them. And with that, I will block them immediately if they ever interact with my posts including their multiple alt accounts. No hesitation. They have already disrespected my boundaries despite the fact they are included in my DNI list, and they are doing this out of malice and spite as they admitted to it.

Secondly, please read this post thoroughly and take this information I provided based on your judgement once you finish reading the whole post. Necessary questions that need clarifications are appreciated. Unwanted comments of insult and harassment will be NOT be tolerated.

Lastly, I am not fluent in English, so expect some grammatical errors and poorly worded sentences. However, I will keep my words formally and professionally to ensure credibility while trying to keep my words clear and concise. Additionally, I asked a few people to proofread this response, specifically people who were either witnesses or aware of what happened during the incident.

There are two allegations that I am going to clarify and debunk which will be explained under the cut

TW for mentions of grooming and suicide

Allegation #1: Sending NSFW art to a minor

I had already talked and debunked this allegation last year from this post. However, I am going to bring it back as I am planning to further explain the situation based on this allegation while also criticizing the person who originally accused me with this allegation.

Before this happened, I was planning to share art (that my friend shared with me in DMs) with the server and I was unsure whether or not it was appropriate to share it (the art in question is 2 men making out on the floor with one being clothed while the other is in boxer pants, because that character is Boxxer) since the server had become strict in terms of sharing artwork. I deemed it as suggestive but leaned towards SFW only because of the sounds they made while making out (breathing and giggling only, no moaning). I mentioned it in the server regarding the art and 2 adults asked me to send the art that I hesitated to send in the server to their DMs to check. The 15-year-old was present at the time to ask me for the art too. However, I nodded a yes only to the 2 adults who wanted to see it, the minor’s request on the other hand was ignored.

The image that is being shown is the evidence that had been spread around publicly. The one being spread around did not do the name censoring properly so I did the name censoring via colour coding. The user in white is a 15-year-old while the users in purple and red one are the adults

The two images shown above are cropped to clarify who were the people I was referring to when I accepted the request to send it to their DMs

These screenshots were taken by a friend who still remains in the server even after it was closed down. To the people wondering who are the people uncensored here, EitoFZ is Eito, who was the person marked in red, Ms. Know-It-All is me (AidenKnow), and 🥞 is Brass who is marked in purple. The only user that remains censored is the 15-year-old. The reason I left the others uncensored will be explained later

When I said “Alrighty” to the 15-year-old, I only agreed on the idea of sending the art to the DMs and spoiling the picture. It does not mean that I am accepting to share the art with the minor. I said this because I suspect that there was a possibility that someone untrustworthy (who is still in the server since the server is closed and inactive but not deleted) will screenshot some of the messages and take some of it out of context without proof

Let’s compare the DMs I had with the 15-year-old VS the DMs I had with the 2 adults (Eito and Brass). Focus on the dates of the DMs in the screenshots taken by me

Here are the screenshots of the DMs between me and the 15-year-old to prove that I did not send the art to them. The context of the DMs is not significant for this allegation, however I may or may not talk about it regarding the context in the future posts

No message deletion took place in the DMs since me and the 15-year-old rarely talked in the DMs and were only active in the servers we were in. The only dates shown in the DMs were 16th March and 16th May which were the only dates that were between the incident where they took place. If there is proof where message deletion took place, there should have been responses from her, yet this is not the case as it never happened

And here are the screenshots of the DMs between me and the 2 adults (Eito and Brass respectively)

Yes, this was the art that people were calling “NSFW”, when in actuality it is not NSFW at all, thus the being reason I did not censor the art when I sent it to the 2 adults

Also note that the date from these 2 screenshots that I provided are marked as “2nd May” (02/05/2023) while the messages in the server are marked as “1st May” (05/01/2023). The dates shown are also formatted differently. This is because I live in Asia when taking these screenshots while the screenshots taken by my friend is from the opposite side of the Earth

You might be wondering why I did not censor 2 of the people's names (Eito and Brass); EitoFZ is the person who runs @CoolExposingAcc (formerly @EitoFZ) on Twitter, while Brass is our late friend who died from suicide last year. Brass will be relevant in the next allegation that I am about to explain later (and possibly, in a future post regarding Brass’ suicide)

Eito was the person who accused me of sending “NSFW” artwork to minor that being the 15-year-old. He did see what the “NSFW” art in question looked like, but he ruled it out as NSFW anyway, when that was not the case. Nevertheless, he did not interrogate or question the “victim” to confirm whether the “NSFW” artwork that was sent was true or false. This is one of the accuser’s proofs of negligence when it came to compiling and providing proof to confirm the accusations.

This is the same person who accused my friends and I for fetishizing Nazis despite the fact that he did not provide evidence to back up the accusation, let alone the fact that we never had conversations related to Nazi or the Axis powers. The only conversations we had that is close to that topic was us talking about history of World Wars in general and soldiers of Allied Powers, because military and war history are our interests. There is no point of accusing us with baseless accusations where there could be harmful consequences when they themselves have already failed to provide sufficient evidence to support it, let alone the fact that they provided none. On top of that, the accusers are irresponsible for not interrogating the people involved in the incident especially the person in focus that being the 15-year-old.

To conclude this case, was the art that I was hesitant to share ever posted in the server? No, because I never got answers from either of the 2 adults. Thus, I did not post it.

Allegation #2: April Fools Birthday Art

The 2nd allegation took place in a different server where I sent art for someone’s birthday. This can be shown by the colour of my server display name and the lack of icons next to the display name (unlike the previous allegation where the icon can be seen)

Before I debunk this allegation, let me put in the definitions of grooming from reliable sources in terms of actions related to this context:

Grooming (Noun) - 3. The action of attempting to form a relationship with a child or young person, with the intention of sexually assaulting them or inducing them to commit an illegal act such as selling drugs or joining a terrorist organization. (Google’s English dictionary)

Groom (Verb) - 3. Form a relationship with (a child or young person) with the intention of sexually assaulting them or inducing them to commit an illegal act such as selling drugs or joining a terrorist organization. (Google’s English Dictionary)

Grooming (Noun) - 4. An act or instance of engaging in behaviours or practices intended to gradually condition or emotionally manipulate a victim over time, as through friendship, gifts, flattery, etc., in order to entrap the person in a sexually abusive or predatory relationship (Dictionary.com)

Grooming is when someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them. Children and young people who are groomed can be sexually abused, exploited or trafficked. (NPSCC)

Grooming describes the preparatory stage of child sexual abuse and exploitation, often undertaken to gain the trust and/or compliance of the child or young person and to establish secrecy and silence to avoid disclosure. A child or young person’s parents/carers or other significant adults (including organisations) may also be groomed by someone intending to harm a child. (Bravehearts)

Based on the original accuser (Eito) who provided the screenshot, both he and Fortress included, claimed that this was considered to be grooming due to my response to a 15-year-old, a different person from the previous allegation. However, whether or not that it is true, I will speak out my side of the story based on the screenshot being shown.

When the incident took place, I only uploaded the art there and left it at that. I did this to most of the servers I was in and I rarely talked in that server shown in the screenshot. That was when I got pinged a few minutes later, which was a reply to a caption of the meme. The only response I provided was with a crying emoji and then gibberish keysmash. If it was grooming, there would be signs of establishing trust towards the minor in question and coercion or manipulation that must taken place to be considered as grooming. However, as I said, I rarely talked in that server & just uploaded the art there just like in other servers I’m not really active in, and when someone replied, all I could do was react with an emoji, give a gibberish comment and that was it.

If the staff found this art inappropriate, they should have taken action sooner by contacting me privately or pinging me about the art instead of doing the latter and accusing me of grooming. I do not know if there was a continuation from this since this took place from a different server and my friend cannot access it, but since they focused on the part that is being specifically cropped, I could only explain what is being shown instead.

Fort referred the one on the cupcake as “cum”, despite the fact I did not mention anything that it is, nor have visible implication that it is. The only thing I could say is that yes, it was inspired by the meme, however I used pictures of actual Visco’s cakes instead as reference. Actual semen would look cloudy with white patches and yellowish hue. The one I rendered in the art has a bluish hue almost like water, which led to me personally commented that it looks like hard water when I finished rendering it. For your information, the way that I rendered semen is not how I did for the art that was being shown. Because if it was cum, I wouldn’t be posting it publicly in the first place. At the same time, I do not like drawing unsanitary things such as putting actual semen with food in the mix. Additionally, if Fort said that the one on the cake is semen, then the one on his face would be considered as semen to him, which is not. That is actually sweat. The whole thing is poorly rendered and coloured in on purpose because it was also for April Fools.

However, I already stopped making this kind of art for April Fools to the courtesy of Brass’ passing, because I consider this as something disrespectful to him and it did not age well with the unexpected news of his suicide received from his friends who are witnesses. With that, I stopped making it out of respect for his death and apologize to the people who were close friends or associated with Brass.

——

I really do not like tagging this post with OFF related tags because it will clog it up with content that is unrelated to the tag but since Fort is using the tags to get reach within the OFF fandom, I have no choice but to do it too, along with tagging their user handles of their alt account (@diehardpizzer/@diehardp1zzer), their main account (@molochzmeat, formerly @diehardpizzer) and their art account (@molochsden, formerly @doodlefortress).

As I said from the 2nd point of my opening, please base your judgement from the information I presented here. Do not take into account with haste. Questions for clarification are appreciated. Insults and harassment are not tolerated and will be blocked immediately.

Edit: Already removed those unrelated tags and again, I will begin to block accounts if they don’t have the benefit of following according to what is being said at the beginning and the end of the post

[neimlise]

Wishes Upon Wishes

Joshua Rosfield x Reader

(This work is also posted on ao3)

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Joshua maybe OCC here, only because I skipped through the playthroughs XD. Also, be warned that there are wrong grammars as for English is not my mother tongue. Enjoy the story!

(Slight spoilers, be warned.)

SUMMARY

After Ultima’s defeat, Clive, Joshua, and Dion returned safely. Upon hearing the news, everyone gathered around to celebrate. It’s currently late at night and people were starting to get tired. With the celebration still going on, some chose to retire to their chambers while others stayed and celebrated. Clive and Jill were somewhere else doing God-knows-what (we all know what they're doing), Dion is nowhere to be seen, Cid were celebrating with Gav and others, and Torgal, the Goodest Boi of all times, were munching on a bone as a reward for his hard work. As for Joshua, who is alone, he was wandering around in search of (Name). A few minutes later, he finally found them. He found them to be by themselves, admiring the luminous moon and their shining companions called the stars.

———————————————————————————

(Name) was humming a tune as they were admiring the luminous moon and the shining stars. They started to count the clusters on the night sky, chuckling to themselves as they kept on loosing count.

Unknowingly to them, as they kept on counting the stars, Joshua walked over to them, curious as the stargazer were counting the stars. He looked at them from afar, studying them quietly as if admiring a painting. After a few seconds, he finally went up to them.

“A bit hard to count, isn’t it?” he chuckled.

Startled, (Name) glanced at him before becoming at ease once they realized it was just him. (Name) laughed inconsolably and peered down the balcony.

“Of course,” (Name) laugh, looking at the night sky, “there’s so many of them.”

Joshua chuckled as he leaned against the balcony’s wall, nodding in agreement.

“They’re wonderful to look at, even if they’re just lights in the sky to others” Joshua smiled warmly.

“You wouldn’t happen to know what to wish for if one were to see a shooting star, would you?” he chuckled, feeling a bit silly.

(Name) smiled and looked at him.

"I wouldn't," (Name) started off, "we all have different kinds of wishes to make, after all."

“Very true," Joshua nodded, "everyone has something different, that they want in their lives."

Joshua then looked at (Name), tilting his head towards them.

"What of you?" He asked, "if given one opportunity for a wish, what would you wish for?” Joshua looked at the sky for a moment, then back at (Name) as he finished his sentence.

"Well," (Name) smirked at him, "my wish wouldn't fulfill itself if I were to tell you."

Joshua chuckled as he listened to them but were confused to what they had told him.

“Really? I trust that I could keep it to myself, if you’d trust me on that." He smiled softly as he tried to reassure (Name), before looking back at the starry sky, seeming to gaze at it deeply.

Joshua was a man who liked to listen more than talk, and it showed in the gentle smile as he listened to them, and he didn’t interrupt them in the slightest.

(Name) hid their face in their crossed arms as they turned away from him.

"Well," (Name) trailed off, "It matters no more. One of my wishes came true."

(Name) then smiled at Joshua.

"And that's all it really matters."

Joshua tilted his head curiously with a puzzled smile.

Soon, that puzzled smile soon gave way to a warm and comforting one, and Joshua looked at (Name) with a soft look.

“And what was your wish that came true, if I may ask?”

“I’m genuinely curious what it was” he muttered, leaning against the balcony and listening to them intently as they were deciding to answer his question.

(Name) was silent, debating whether they should tell him their wish or not. Pressing their lips into a thin line, (Name) gathered the courage to look at him. Words were caught in their throat, their eyes glistened ever so slightly.

“I...” (Name) stopped, “Well...” (Name) went silent again.

It was silence for a short while. Joshua was patiently waiting while (Name) was still debating.

The uneasy silence was finally broken by (Name), making a final decision.

They sighed and looked at him.

"I wished to meet you once more... Years after the tragedy in Phoenix Gate...And the event that took place in Rosaria… After years of believing you were gone." (Name) trailed off, fidgeting their hands. "But, to my surprise, you're in front of me, speaking to me."

"It's like," (Name) continued, "I feel as though I am dreaming."

Joshua looked at them in shock and surprise, before gently putting his hand on their shoulder. A gentle and warm smile filled his face as he did and he was left speechless, not knowing what to say as he looked at (Name).

“Is that why you’ve always looked away from me? Because you thought I was a ghost?” he asked with a chuckle, before shaking his head and laughing a bit in nervousness “I believe that we both have seen plenty of ghost through all the years, haven’t we?” he said with a warm smile.

(Name) rolled their eyes, smiling.

"Oh, ha-ha." A hand was extended to gently shove Joshua back as they sarcastically laughed.

(Name) then leaned on the balcony and looked glumly up at the sky

Joshua got closer to them, a light smile on his face as he raised a hand gently and brushed their hair. Joshua looked at them with a soft look, his other hand resting upon the wall.

The sky was beautiful, with stars dancing in the night’s sky. It was calming to look at it. But he prefers to look at (Name). As he continued to look at (Name) with the same gentle smile, one that showed that he wanted to care for them, to protect and never hurt them, just let them enjoy the beauty around themselves, and him himself.

(Name)'s pout changed into a smile, which they tried to hide by clearing their throat and angling their body away from his touch.

(Name) could feel the heat rising up to their face.

Joshua lowered his hand and nodded in acknowledgement. He stepped back a bit to give them space and just looked at the stars, his face showing no sign of emotion. Joshua just wanted them to be happy, and he wasn’t sure if they were. That’s why he remained quiet as he let them think for a moment. The quietness of the night allowed them to take a moment of peace, which was a rarity these days.

Unknowingly to him, (Name) was watching him at the corner of their eyes. Their stomach churned as Joshua was not showing any signs of emotions. They rubbed their arms, in a attempt to calm their beating heart, and leaned themselves to him. Their shoulders touching his. (Name)'s heart accelerated more; palm started to sweat.

Joshua tilted his head lightly when he felt them leaning onto him, and a smile flashed upon his face when they were closer to each other than ever before. The silence remained as he looked down at them for a moment, and after a moment he spoke quietly, his voice soft and calm and his expression full of kindness.

“May I ask you something?” Joshua whispered, his voice soft as velvet as it washed over them, his tone full of care and concern.

Surprised by the sudden question, (Name) turned to face him. They then nodded, allowing him to proceed.

Joshua took another step closer to them as he looked at them with that same care, that same kindness that had filled his eyes. His heart was pounding in his ears, and he held his breath as he got ready to speak.

“W-would you like to dance with me?” he finally whispered; his voice trembled as if he was scared to have asked in the first place, but his kindness remained despite it. He still had the same soft, warm, and gentle look in his eyes as he raised his hand towards (Name).

As he made such a request, (Name) was taken aback and shocked. (Name) chuckled, placed a hand on his and made a playful bow. They addressed him directly, saying, "Yes, I would like to dance with you."

Joshua smiled gently as he reached out a hand to lift them up, their beauty shining in the moonlight once again, as if they were a divine. There was something in their eyes, a kind of brightness in them, as if they had a kind heart, and a good soul. Joshua looked at (Name) with that same kindness in his eyes and as they stood up together. With his voice remaining calm as he held their hand.

“You look stunning tonight” Joshua whispered, his tone full of admiration, as he gently led them towards the dance floor.

"And you, my lord," (Name) whispered back, "look ravishingly handsome tonight."

Joshua chuckled at their comment. As they got to the dance floor, he placed his other hand on (Name)'s hip. He looked to them, the kindness and concern in his eyes never faded as he looked into their eyes.

“What dance shall we begin with first?” he asked politely, though his tone was full of concern, as if he was worried about messing up. Joshua was definitely new to all this dance thing, and it showed in the way he carefully and gently leaned towards them, holding their hand and trying to give them some confidence.

"Any dance you would like." (Name) answered, putting their hand on his shoulder.

Joshua looked at then for a moment in thought, before a thought came to his mind and he smiled, a hint of excitement in his eyes. He looked at (Name) once again, his expression full of kindness and love still as he whispered too them.

"How about a waltz? I've always wanted to try one" he whispered, a bit of a confidence in his voice as the excitement rose in his chest.

(Name) chuckled, smiling at him, "If that's what you choose, then I have no right to refuse it."

Joshua smiled as well at (Name), and together they began to dance. Joshua was not the best dancer, but he was a willing learner, and did his best to keep the step correct. After some brief moments of practicing the steps together, Joshua eventually got a hold of the steps, and began to be confident with his moves. As the music flowed through them, Joshua looked at them with that same loving, kind smile. The kindness and love in his eyes only grew, and he felt so happy to be with them.

Like Joshua, (Name) eventually got hold of the steps, beginning to feel confident with him. They looked at him as well, the corner of their mouth went from ears to ears. The look in his eyes when he looks at (Name) caused their heart to beat faster. No one have ever looked at them like that, no one but him. Before They lost themselves into his eyes, they let out a sighed and closed their eyes, avoiding making eye contact with him. Still smiling and following his moves, (Name) whispered out.

"I must admit that another wishes of mine was granted."

Joshua’s smile got bigger, one that almost made him look like a kid. It was contagious, how kind and pure his smile was, the way in which that smile gave way to a look of admiration and care and protectiveness for (Name), the way in which he wanted to protect them and their smile. He still wanted to know more about their wishes and the reason for it, but he knew to take his time with it. However, as curiosity got the best of him, he continued to lead them around the dance floor as they danced and enjoyed their time together.

“And which wish would that be?” he whispered to them

"The wish I had was for you to ask if I could have danced with you." (Name) returned the whisper, resting their cheek on his shoulder, and kept their smile hidden.

Joshua’s smile grew even bigger as (Name) said that, and as he looked at them, he was in awe once again of how pure their smile was. They were so astonishing, that even the moon and stars must feel jealous of them. Joshua’s heart nearly stopped in this moment, as he was completely mesmerized. He looked at them, in complete awe of their allurement, and a warm and comforting feeling grew within him as he looked at them “Well, you have a very kind heart, you know that?” he whispered in an affectionate tone.

(Name) grinned and looked at him with affection as they laughed. "Not as kind as your heart, I'm sure Clive, Jill, or Jote will agree with me."

Joshua blushed slightly at (Name)'s words, as his heart skipped a beat before a warm and comforting feeling grew within him once again. The thought of him being that kind in their eyes made him feel so happy, and he had his reasons to try and show that more and more as they spent time together. Joshua’s expression softens as he smiled at them, one of kindness and love and care, he could even consider that look a look of devotion, as he looked at them “You’re too kind to say that” he whispered back.

"Well," (Name) whispered back again, eyes trailing down to his lips, "I guess we're going to have to change that."

"Can I be selfish with you?" (Name) then requested, "can I make a third wish and have it granted?"

Joshua’s heart skipped a beat when (Name) looked down at his lips, and when they proposed their other wish to come true his face grew completely red. He swallowed, before speaking back in a soft and nervous voice, his tone full of concern for them.

“And what would your other wish be?” he whispered, his expression full of concern and love, his heart fluttering a bit.

"My wish..." (Name) trailed off, leaning forward and encircling his neck with their arms before hovering their lips over his. "Your kiss," they confessed, "may I have it?"

Joshua was taken aback, not sure what to do or how to respond to their request. The thought of kissing them sent his heart into overdrive, as his heartbeat faster and a warm and comforting feeling grew within him. A smile made its way onto his face, and he looked at (Name) with kindness and care, whispering to them “I would love to let you have my kiss...” His voice soft and gentle and sweet as he did so, leaning in and kissing lightly and softly on their lips.

As they smiled against his lips, (Name) closed their eyes. Their heart synchronized with his as they tighten their arms around his neck.

Joshua kept the kiss going for as long as (Name) wanted. His heart was hammering against his chest as the kiss lasted for even longer than he was expecting. As they held each other tight, Joshua’s hand rested on their hips as he held them close. His lips were soft and gentle, and he put a lot of affection and care into this kiss.

Joshua and (Name) didn’t want to break the kiss yet, as their heart fluttered and a warm feeling grew within them, as if they were together alone in the whole world, as if nothing else matter but the two of them now.

[happilyhertale]

Long Last Love - Aemond Targaryen x female!reader, Part 4

Summary: You are finally engaged to Aemond Targaryen. As the daughter of Daemon and Rhaenyra, you will now live in King's Landing and no longer on Dragonstone. Your marriage to Aemond is imminent, as is your life together. The relationship between Aemond and your family has never been particularly easy, but the future will show whether your love will withstand this and subsequent tensions.

Pairing: Aemond Targaryen x fem!reader

Warnings: In some parts Smut (uncle/niece) as well as violence

Author’s note: Hey you (:

This is the follow-up story to "Long Lost Love".

The story starts just before the wedding of Aemond and y/n and goes over the events of the first season hotd. However, the events are not quite similar to those in the series. English is my second language, please forgive me if I made any mistakes (: For this part I had to translate a few sentences into High Valyrian. I used a website for this, if it's not correct, sorry!

Word count: 4k

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

The sun is high in the sky, only small, light clouds adorn the blue sky beside it. You let your gaze wander as you stand on your balcony. The sun's rays lightly warm your face while you are lost in thought.

You are pulled out of your thoughts when you feel arms wrap around you. Or at least they try to. Your big belly is in the way, but the hands gently wrap around your belly and caress it tenderly.

Gently Aemond lets his nose wander over the side of your face, "My Queen..." you hear him whisper. You smile.

You are expecting your first child. It will be the third child to walk through these walls. Helaena and Aegon have already had twins, Jaehaera and Jaehaerys. You love the little ones. They're sweet and reserved, like Helaena. And especially now that you're heavily pregnant and happy to sit anywhere, you sit with Helaena for hours while the little ones play around you. And the little ones have also become so used to your presence that they are almost tearful when you don't sit with them. Little Jaehaera likes to sit by your side and show you different flowers that she has collected in the gardens with Helaena's help. She likes to put the flowers on your belly, making sure that the flowers are ordered by colour and size. As she does this, she tells the baby, as best she can, what the flowers look like that are currently on your belly. She is a clever little girl and it makes you smile every time you watch her.

It actually took you a while to get pregnant. The talk among the servants was already getting loud. At first they said you didn't find Aemond attractive enough to sleep with him. When Aemond tried to counter that, he made you moan so much at night that his name echoed throughout the Red Keep. But then they needed another explanation. Soon after, you heard talk about not being fertile.... When you heard this, you could only shake your head, but Aemond became angry. In his anger you stopped him, because after all, according to the servants, you were always to blame and it would not have made any difference if he had given free rein to his anger.

But what they didn't know was that you didn't want to get pregnant right away, but wanted to enjoy some more time with Aemond. And thank the gods, Aemond is very well-read, even when it comes to female nature. And so he also got hold of scriptures about how and when a woman can become pregnant. Therefore, at times when you desired him more than you otherwise would have, you took special care that he did not pour his seed into you. To your surprise, this worked for a while, but when you realised you were pregnant, you were overcome with a joy you had never felt before.

Immediately you noticed that something was not normal. At first you thought you had just eaten something bad because you were overcome by a persistent nausea. But Aemond also drew your attention to the fact that your breasts had become larger. When the second moon passed and you still didn't bleed, it was clear to you. You were pregnant.

But you didn't want to just tell Aemond, you wanted it to be special. So you made your way to the kitchen. You let the servants know that you were going to have your dinner in your chambers and that you had special requests for it.

Everything you eat for the evening must be small in size. So baby vegetables, like small carrots, small broccoli florets, small corn on the cob and so on. Also, there should only be small fillets and small breads.

That got you a few funny looks, but they fulfilled your wishes.

Then at noon you intercepted Aemond, gave him many kisses on the lips and told him that in the evening you would like to have dinner with him alone in your chambers. He just smirked at you and was delighted, of course, because he had something naughty in mind.

When Aemond came to your chambers in the evening, it was not long before dinner arrived. But at first Aemond did not notice the effort you had made. He was sitting next to you at the table, had just come from the training ground and was hungry. He filled his plate with various vegetables and pieces of fillet. Lively conversations filled your rooms until at some point he looked at his plate, "Did we actually only get leftovers to eat today? Why is the food so small... Don't they know that I train every day?"

You had to stifle a grin and bit your lips to help yourself.

He looked at you, "What? What's so funny?"

You let your gaze wander to his plate, "Look again closely"

His gaze slowly wandered down, "Small carrots.... Baby corncobs, small broccoli.... Even the meat is small! Just like for babies... But I doubt even a baby could get full of it..."

He slowly looked up at you and saw you grinning, "Are you with child...?" he whispers. You nodded and tears came to your eyes. Aemond jumped up and hugged you hastily.

You hadn't expected that and so you both slide off the chair. He let you fall on top of him and kissed you continuously, you started laughing, "Aemond! Stop it!" you giggled.

"My dear wife... My Love! Now I won't leave your side for a second.... You produce new life... our child..." He continued to kiss you.

Aemond spent the rest of the evening with you in your shared chambers. He was supposed to attend a council meeting to be introduced to the assumption of royal duties. But when the servant came to tell him that the council was waiting for him, he simply sent him away. Instead, he caressed you for hours, which led to you finally making passionate love to each other.

A soft "mmmhm", which sounds next to your ear, brings you back to reality. You turn your head to Aemond, he smiles.

"A penny for your thoughts," rings in your ears. You just chuckle softly.

Then you hear him whisper, "A girl would be nice".

You giggle softly, "You don't want a boy?"

He presses his nose further into the crook of your neck, "I am satisfied with everything... Whether it's a boy or a girl... But the thought that I could father something as tender as you... that would be lovely... "

Again you giggle, "I don't know if that's so tender in me.... it kicks all the time"

He kisses your neck, "Our girl has the temperament of a dragon... I feel we're having a girl"

You shake your head slightly, "Mhmm I don't think so.... something so restless can't be a delicate little girl."

He chuckles.

During your entire pregnancy, Aemond took care of you and hardly let you out of his sight. But you have a guilty conscience about it. You didn't want him to struggle with his royal duties and then feel obliged to be by your side all the time. You wanted to give him a few quiet hours when he didn't have to be by your side all the time. Another reason why you like to sit with Helaena and the little ones.

In doing so, he would not tell you that he likes to be by your side and literally watch your belly grow. He still likes it best when you are in your shared chambers.

His favourite thing is to caress your belly while you are surrounded by a mountain of pillows. He lies next to you and talks to your belly. Sometimes he brings in a book to do this. It lies on his lap while he reads to you and the child. But sometimes he just makes up stories about dragons and battles, and makes you laugh with elaborate and illogical endings.

But it also happens that when the baby seems restless in the evening and is constantly kicking, he talks to the baby in High Valyrian. You point out to him that it is not relevant whether he talks to the baby in High Valyrian or not. But he justifies himself by saying that he feels it makes the baby calmer and he wants it to get used to the sound. And even when he speaks softly, you can hear him whispering to your belly that there is no reason for all the kicking and that it shouldn't stress his pretty mother so much. Then, even more quietly, he whispers that he can hardly wait for it to come into the world, it seems as if you are not supposed to hear that. But of course you hear all of it and you just smile and lovingly stroke his soft hair as you listen to his murmurings.

However, your pregnancy does not only bring such pleasant moments. Aemond is always by your side and tries to keep every possible unpleasantness away from you, but that doesn't change the fact that you are now fat and ugly. Once called the most beautiful princess in the entire realm, you now feel like some fat lord who would only drink and eat. Only the missing beard on your face would make the difference visible. At least that's how you feel. Since a few moons have passed and you have already gone through most of your pregnancy, you are convinced that your belly has a life of its own. Judging by the size and movements inside.

You never saw it as necessary to have a lady-in-waiting by your side. You have always been able to take care of yourself. But now you have to admit to yourself that you need help. Your belly is the size of a dragon's head. Of Balerion, to be precise.

Alicent immediately had new dresses made for you when your dress suddenly tore at the seam on the side of the dress at dinner. You were startled and could only look at Aemond in panic.

Aemond didn't hesitate for a second and immediately put his leather waistcoat on you. Still shocked, you sat there, unable to move at first. Aemond, however, carefully helped you up and was about to lead you to your chambers when Aegon's voice rang out, "Brother... now let us at least see something beautiful at this dreary dinner".

Alicent immediately hissed Aegon's name angrily. You only tightened your grip on Aemond's arm, unable to return a sentence or at least an insult to Aegon.

"Brother, avert your gaze from my wife. I have already warned you once and I will not repeat it," Aemond replied dryly. You just hear Aegon giggle at that.

Of course, you burst into tears when you were in your shared chambers. That was proof to you that you had become fat. But Aemond, of course, was there to convince you otherwise. That a wonderful new life was growing inside you. Yet that was little consolation for you. Nevertheless, Aemond held you all night and assured you that you were not fat and that you were getting beautiful new clothes. And that was the moment you realised you needed help. The next morning you went to Alicent and asked for a lady-in-waiting to help you dress for the duration of your pregnancy, so that your belly was warm and safe. She must have guessed how hard this was for you, because she just smiled warmly and hugged you tightly.

But for Aemond you were not fat, his child was growing inside you, and every inch your belly grew was proof of your love. He desires you more every day, and it costs him great effort to keep his hands off you. Whether it is to make your aching body parts more bearable by gently massaging your neck, your back or your swollen feet, or to let his fingers do other soothing work.

But even though he's constantly trying to make you feel good, your hormones are unstoppable and this often ends in outbursts of anger, which Aemond feels most often because he's usually by your side. However, you often burst into tears shortly afterwards and apologise to him incessantly while the tears still run down your cheek.

No one has told you how exhausting pregnancy is, both physically and mentally.

But Aemond bears it bravely. He endures every tantrum stoically, only to take you in his arms afterwards, caress you and assure you that he won't leave you for a less fat or more sociable lady who doesn't go into hysterics all the time. He admires the way you put up with the discomfort of pregnancy and sees it as a small thing to put up with your tantrums. Probably also because he knows that everything that passes your lips during these tantrums is rarely meant that way.

He is just happy when you lie in bed with him in the evening and he can caress you for hours.  This has become your little ritual. Aemond no longer has any obligations in the evenings, the evenings are your time together.

Then he puts several pillows in your bed so that you can lie comfortably. He massages your feet, because they usually always hurt, or he goes in search of something edible in the Red Keep that you crave. He is doing all this so that you can at least find a few hours of sleep, because at the moment it is hard for you to find any sleep.

This time it is a knock that brings you back to reality. A soft but hurried knock, followed by a "Ñuha dārilaros? Ñuha dārilaros?" (My princess? My prince?) echoes through your chambers.

Aemond sighs, "Māzigon isse!" (Come in!)

You turn to the door and see a dragonkeeper enter, he bows his head briefly, "Ñuha dārilaros, issa nūmāzma Meraxes." (My princess, it is about Meraxes)

You stiffen, Aemond holds you in his arms, "Skoros nūmāzma zirȳla?" (What about her?)

"Issa... issa acting strangely. Ēza issare syt tubissa. Issa daor eating properly se kessa daor ivestragī anyone va zirȳla" (She… She is acting strangely. She has been for days. She's not eating properly and she won't let anyone near her.)

Aemond answers for you, "Syt tubissa sir? Se ao sagon sepār māzis bē lēda bisa sir?" (For days now? And you're just coming up with this now?)

The servant nods, "Ñuha dārilaros.... īlon... īlon gōntan daor jaelagon naejot jenigon ao lēda bisa. Yn issa becoming tolī se tolī aggressive se iksis nūmāzma naejot pykagon perzys" (My prince... we... we did not want to bother you with this.... But she is becoming more and more aggressive and is about to spit fire)

Aemond always manages to make the dragonkeepers stutter with nervousness. You lightly press your elbow into his side.

"Kirimvose syt letting nyke gīmigon. Kesan sagon va ñuha ñuhoso" (Thank you for letting me know. I will be on my way.)

Aemond looks at you incredulously. He turns to the servant, "Kostā jikagon" (You may go.)

He just bows his head and hastily leaves your chambers.

"You can't really want to go to the Dragonpit"

You look at him, he looks worried, "Why not? My dragon is in a bad way. Of course I will be by her side"

"You're heavily pregnant. You shouldn't be around a dragon who is behaving irrationally. Let me go."

"I am aware of my pregnancy. But I am not terminally ill. So I will be by her side. Because you won't be able to go near her any more than the dragonkeepers."

You kiss Aemond gently on the cheek and head for the door.

"Then at least let me come with you," you hear Aemond say.

"So you can protect me from the dragon fire?" you smile at him.

"That's not even a little bit funny," Aemond looks at you seriously. You accept his raised arm and you make your way to the Dragonpit.

It worries you that Meraxes is behaving like this. She's not aggressive, not one bit. Except she has to be, and she has to protect those she loves. But this unprovoked aggressiveness worries you. As quickly as you can, you go to the Dragonpit. The way is more strenuous than you thought and so you cling a little to Aemond's arm.

When you arrive at the Dragonpit, Meraxes notices you immediately. She is standing in a corner, alone, and that is unusual. She is a social dragon and at least always near Vhagar. But Vhagar is crouched in the opposite corner, asleep. At least that's how it seems. Meraxes looks towards you and wants to come towards you, but she suddenly falters in mid-motion. A rumbling makes itself felt in her chest and she cries out. She stops and looks at you. Aemond holds you tightly by the arm and stands half in front of you. You think it's sweet that he wants to keep you safe. He seems to really want to shield you from the dragon's flames. Not that his body could protect you from a dragon's flames. Nor would he need to protect you from Meraxes. But it's the thought that counts.

Meraxes lets her head wander, keeping an eye on everything and observing every living thing in the Dragonpit, while her tail slides back and forth menacingly. Out of the corner of your eye you see Vhagar raise his head briefly and also let out a growl. Aemond looks in Vhagar's direction and raises his hand reassuringly. Meraxes takes a few steps back and sits down, as if Vhagar has told her to calm down. Her nervousness worries you and you cautiously walk in her direction, but before you can step out from behind Aemond he holds you back, "Ȳdra daor sesīr pendagon nūmāzma ziry." (Don't even think about it)

But you shake off his arm and walk carefully towards Meraxes. She is still watching everything closely, but you are now close to her. The closer you come to her side, the calmer she becomes, until you stand at her side and gently stroke her neck. "Skoros iksis pirta ñuha riña?" (What is wrong my girl?), you say calmly to her.

She snorts, you have to smile a little and continue stroking her, letting the warmth of her body flood through you. "Gaomagon ao feel mērī?" (Do you feel alone?)

Slowly she turns her head towards you, you take a step towards her head and she gently presses it into your side.

At the same moment, her rear end moves to the side, and as you look to the side, seeing what her rear end has exposed, you gasp out, "Aemond!"

Aemond, startled by your silent scream, immediately wants to rush to you, but Meraxes moves her head menacingly in his direction and again a rumble sounds in her chest. He does not see you, for there is a huge dragon skull between you. "Y/n!" leaves his lips in near panic.

Still standing in the same spot, you whisper to her, "Sagon iā sȳz riña. Ivestragī zirȳla māzigon naejot nyke, ēza naejot jurnegon tolī se babies tolī mirre..." (Be a good girl. Let him come to me, he has to take care of the babies after all)

Her head moves in your direction again and Aemond takes a step forward. This time her head stays at your side and Aemond hurries to you. As he steps closer to you, you hear him, "Skoros iksis ziry??" (What is it??)

You smile at him, "Jurnegon.... Meraxes ēza ilagontan drōma", (Look... Meraxes has laid eggs) your hand is still gently on Meraxes.

Aemond starts to smile, his hand moves down your arm. You slowly walk towards the eggs and stroke your hand along Meraxe's body. You kneel down carefully and look at the eggs. Three eggs in the colours gold, blue and green lie there. Each egg shell shimmers in a different colour. Carefully you take the eggs, "Ñuha riña, mazeminna care hen zirȳ, okay?" (My girl, I will take care of them, okay?). Again you hear a sigh from her.

When you reach Aemond, he takes the eggs from you. You walk towards the dragonkeepers, "Ziry should sagon arlī naejot normal.  Ēza ilagontan drōma." (She should be back to normal. She has laid eggs.) you grin and present three eggs.

"Emā naejot gūrogon care hen drōma, kostilus. Skori ñuha riña iksis āzma, jaelan se kasta drōmon naejot sagon placed isse se riña's cradle" (You have to take care of the eggs, please. When my child is born, I want the blue egg to be placed in the child's cradle.)

The dragonkeepers bow their heads briefly, "Hen rhinka ñuha dārilaros" (Of course my princess). Aemond carefully hands over the eggs to the dragonkeepers.

Amond's arm is around your waist as you make your way back to your chambers. Again and again he kisses your cheek, "The blue egg for our daughter?" he asks you.

You smile at him, "Yes... I thought our son would be pleased that his father always has a Sapphir with him.... And he has a blue dragon by his side."

Aemond looks at you lovingly and gently kisses your lips.

A few weeks later, Aemond tells you at dinner in the evening that your family is coming to King's Landing. You are initially delighted until he tells you the reason for the visit. Luke's claim as heir to Driftmark is challenged by Vaemond Velaryon. Your gaze darkens and your anger is clearly visible. But just as you are about to get upset, Aegon speaks up, "Niece, what did you expect? With such a strong appearance and rather few features that scream Velaryon.... it was bound to happen." Your eyes shoot sparks in his direction and Alicent hisses "Aegon!"

Aemond squeezes your hand, knowing how hard it is for you to hold back at the moment.

You just throw your napkin on your plates and wordlessly leave the table. Aemond comes after you, having given Aegon a warning look.

As quickly as you can, you make your way to your chambers.

"My Love," you hear Aemond behind you.

He holds your arm as he reaches you, "My Love… Surely you haven't eaten enough. Let me get you some more food."

But you're too angry to even think about eating for a moment, "I can't be in the same room with Aegon for a second longer! Otherwise there's a danger that I'll sit on his face with my fat ass to suffocate him!!!"

Aemond has to suppress a smirk, "We shouldn't try that.... In the end, it could be a fetish of his..."

You give him a warning look. He just embraces you and presses you against him as far as he can, and lightly kisses the tip of your nose. "Try to see it that way... You haven't been able to see your family since our wedding... which I'm not necessarily sad about.... but they will be here again and you can spend time with them. And try not to pay attention to Aegon... as I do most of the time."

You nod slowly, "Do you know when they will arrive?"

"In about a week"

"How do you actually know they're going to come here?"

Aemond gently strokes your cheek, "My mother told me this afternoon and I asked her to let me tell you". You nod slowly and begin to smile, "Will you behave?" you ask him.

He grins slightly, "I'll do my best".

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

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[cabinofimagines]

A Graveyard Smash

and here is the last one of the year! Hope you guys enjoyed our shorter but still there Halloween fics :) Pairing: Platonic the seven + a bunch of other ones x reader Word count: 2k Warnings: none! -Asnyox < prev.

You didn’t know what to expect from the grove as a party destination, yet you were slightly blown away. You noticed how most of the decorations were themed around the destruction of nature- pollution was replicated by snack stashes for the satyrs (and perhaps some fauns from Camp Jupiter, you were certain you saw Don somewhere sneaking around), there were red and yellow lights all around, simulating fire and there were many skeletons (which, given how Nico had immediately left after the group call two days ago, probably was courtesy of him). You didn’t know how to feel about the possible real skeletons laying around, so you opted to ignore the possibility of Nico summoning them. 

However, you also saw that Meg and her siblings had deemed that to be a rather serious theme to decorate in, so here and there you found some more, handcrafted of reusable materials, generic halloween decorations. Except for carved pumpkins. There were so many pumpkins, but they were all uncarved. You guessed they didn’t want to show actual body horror to the dryads. There was some old-timey Halloween music playing, although you were unable to find any speakers. Guess the trees to really speak to you if you listen.  

As you saw Leo and Jason’s costumes you just knew that Leo had bribed Meg to know what the theme of the party would be like. He must have, why else would he think of these costumes? You had to admit, you didn’t know Leo owned a hat this tall, but you didn’t put it above him to have crafted it himself. 

“I don’t think the Onceler’s hat was that big?”  You walked up to the duo, “Or the Lorax’s mustache that big.”  

“I am lucky to not have to deal with the orange paint,”. Jason grimaced. Leo elbowed him. 

“Say the line Jason!”  Leo whispered, loudly. Jason sighed and deadpanned. 

“I am the Lorax! I speak for the trees!”  Jason tried to make a more spooky sound at the end of the sentence, after which Leo jumped forward, borderline belting.

“How ba-a-a-ad can I be?” Leo’s ‘be’ ended, somehow, on a S-tone so it rhymed with Jason’s phrase. He was grinning proudly. Jason tried to hide it, but he did seem to get amusement out of his friends' behavior. You laughed. 

“Jace, I have to be honest with you,” you looked at your friend, “I had a bet with Nico that you would be a tree. Will won though, he guessed the Lorax.”  

“You had a bet?”  Jason shook his head, “Let me guess, you do have a spare tree costume and want me to put it on so you win?”  You laughed again. 

“I wish,” you turned to Leo, “How is your hat staying up when it’s this tall?”  

“Support beams made out of metal rods and foam!”  Leo’s eyes sparkled, “carton in between, I can show you after the party, I swear it’s so structurally sound. Annabeth would love to know the skeleton of. this hat.”  Leo pouted,“ It’s too bad she has been so busy with school lately, she would have loved to work on this thing together.”   

“Everyone was suffering under me indeed,” you sighed dramatically, intentionally showing off your outfit. 

“Wait, you’re-“ Jason got up real close to one of your sleeves, “That’s my English essay! How the fuck did you get your hands on that!” Jason shivered, “I still haven’t heard back from it, I sure hope I passed.”  

“I shalt not say, dear Grace, whether you passed or not,”. You smiled, “However, I have my sources and thankfully an amazing artist who hand copied all of your work.” 

“Luckily I do not have anything on here,” Leo laughed, “Dying was the best decision for that.”

  —- 

You found two sheet ghosts with cowboy hats a bit further out, talking to each other. 

“But you’re so cute though!” Hazel exclaimed, “I’m sure Nico meant no harm.”  

“I know it was just weird seeing that.”  Frank sighed, “Hedge seemed really happy though.”  

“Boo!”  You yelled and the pair jumped up. After a second Frank leaned back. You couldn’t see his face underneath the sheet, but you figured he looked upset. 

“That’s our line (Y/n)!”  He faked exasperation. 

“Yeah! We’re the cow-boos after all!”  Hazel snickered while saying her phrase. 

“Cow-boo? Oh- I get it,”. You smiled, “Yeah that is funny.” 

“It doesn’t seem like that when you say that,”. Hazel sighed, “Well, what are you then?” 

“Oh, for you I have my left leg,”. You smiled deviously, “Praetor's have a lot of paperwork after all.” You held out your leg. Frank and Hazel moved their eye holes to see more clearly as they bowed down to take a look.

“Uh Frank,” Hazel hesitated, “I think we forgot something.” Hazel pointed at your knee, “I did not fill out this document which we had to hand in yesterday.” 

“I did uh, I did not either.”  

“Fuck” they said in unision. 

“Also how did you get these?” Hazel sounded panicked, “These are classified documents!” You laughed.

“Look, most of my costume is deadlines,” you added a spooky ‘ooooooohhhhhh’ to the last word, “but for you two I also choose to be a security breach. I can give you the name of the one who gave Calypso the files.” 

“That would be great.” Frank said, “Uh, Hazel, maybe we should quickly IM someone at Camp Jupiter about the deadlines we missed.”  

“Yeah, also (Y/n) you better hide your legs or we will steal your pants.” Hazel glared at you. You slowly backed away. 

“How about dinner first?” You joked, as you ran for it. 

——

You quickly weaved around the crowd, trying your best to get away from Hazel and Frank. You stumbled into what seemed to be the heart of a gathering. On one side of the circle you had Rock, Paper and Scissors. On the other side you had The Argo II, together with the seven demigod heroes who defeated Gaea. 

Except that Will was just standing on the side. You joined him quietly. 

“This was Nico’s plan?” You asked him and he sighed, 

“Yes and he stood on me being Percy.”  Will looked at you, “As if he wanted to rub in that Percy was his first crush.” 

“You look nothing like Percy though,” You laughed, “You’re blonde.”  

“Nico wanted to force me to wear a wig,” Will shook his head, “I opposed him, wigs are itchy.” Will smiled softly, “Although the Cocoa Puffs are adorable, and it warms my heart to see Hedge in his element like this.” 

“I look nothing like Will!” Percy’s voice sounded loudly. He seemed offended, “At least Frank looks really cute.”  Percy pouted. One particular Cocoa Puff puffed out their chest in pride. Nico stood in the middle of it all, dressed at what you assumed to be a Reyna costume, as Reyna stood next to him, dressed in Nico’s clothes. Nico could hardly stop smiling at the reactions to the Cocoa Puffs. You were about to ask Will something when

 “BAM!” Hege yelled as he hit you from behind with a blow-up bat, “YOU JUST GOT ARGO’ED!” 

“Amazing,” you looked Hedge up and down. He was wearing a boat around his middle, and on his head was a … Festus Hat? Hedge looked like an excited child. 

“Whatcha think, huh? Valdez even delivered on the hat!” Hedge let out an excited bleat, “Although it was all the kids idea,” he pointed at Nico, “I’m really happy to be included though! It’s been a while since all my cupcakes were in the same spot with me! And now I even got two batches! OH! I see Zhang over there, gotta hit him too!” And Hedge ran off. 

After a moment of silence Will and you locked eyes, and both started laughing. 

“He’s having a blast,” Will smiled, “Nico was right to get Hedge involved. How’s the scaring going?” Will turned to you. 

“Hazel and Frank are panicking about some forms they forgot and the security breach,” You grinned devilishly, “Jason is just mostly disappointed, and I still have to show the Rock, Paper Scissors trio my outfit.” 

—

Annabeth hated your outfit. Whether it was the fact that you got her only failing grade paper on the back, or the fact that she did not want to think about the last minute mistakes she made in two of the other papers she would not tell you. However, she did say she would find Leo to, and you quote, ‘definitely not set fire to your costume and ruin Calypso’s hard work’. Percy held in his laughter until Annabeth was out of earshot. 

“So where’s my work?” Percy eagerly looked around your jacket, and you pointed him towards  the sleeve. 

“Sally was eager to give it to me, she seems proud of your grades, even if they aren’t that high.” you said, and Percy had a bit of an embarrassed blush on his face. 

“Whenever I get a passing grade she keeps it,” Percy explained, “to remind me what I am capable of.” He was still inspecting your arm, but suddenly stopped, “Wait, is this- I wrote this when I was 7!” he was now a mess, “Please don’t tell me you read it.”

“I did, Percy.” you cackled crazily for a moment, “Percy Jackson or should I say Aqualad!  I am your embarrassing past!” Percy glared at you. 

“Just because I wrote a Aquaman and Little Mermaid crossover does not mean I wanted to BE aqualad (Y/n).” 

“I think it does,” Piper spoke up, “Also I appreciate the effort but I will not be looking for my work, thanks.”

“Aw, Pipes, come on,” you begged her but she shook her head. 

“Deadlines cannot be scary unless you face them, so I am procrastinating.”

“Unfair!” you glared at her, “Piper Mclean I will come for you! You can run, but deadlines always catch up to you!” 

After a moment of silence all three of you laughed. 

Your moment was interrupted by Meg calling for attention. She was dressed as Gollum, while Apollo stood next to her in a Frodo outfit. A bit further in the back stood who you guessed to be Grover from the satyr legs, dressed as Gandalf. 

“It is time to announce the winners of tonight's costume contest!” she yelled, and everyone cheered, “We have seen many amazing costumes, but one duo certainly blew us away.”

Percy, who still stood next to you, breathed out a soft ‘dam’.

“What? You really thought you would win with ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’?” you whispered and he just looked at you.

“I could dream okay?”

“Please come forth!” Meg paused, “Gideon Nav and Harrowhark Nonagesimus!” After a moment, filled with cheers, Calypso and Thalia took the stage looking absolutely stunning and creepy. Calypso was dressed as Harrowhark, with intricate face paint and basically wearing a skeleton around herself. Thalia was Gideon, with more shabby facepaint, the iconic sunglasses and with a six feet claymore on her back. They both bowed, looking up smiling. 

“By my rules,” Meg continued after a moment, “You get to decide where to host next year, so where will it be?” 

Thalia and Calypso looked at each other and Thalia shrugged, “I don’t know where I will be with the hunt, so it’s up to you Calypso.” Calypso looked a bit panicked, before taking a deep breath. 

“I guess it will be at the Waystation then!” she announced, and there were loud cheers from the crowd. 

As the party resumed, you hoped Calypso would be earlier with the invitations than Meg had been. After all, working with deadlines was pretty scary.

[samueldays]

Plagiarist's Cant, and Plagiarists Can't.

"This was merely a single skirmish in a broader war to unravel public faith in pillars of American society."

-Claudine Gay, NYT, 2024.

That's four metaphors combined in one sentence: military, fabric, religion, architecture.

"The Ogre does what ogres can, Deeds quite impossible for Man, But one prize is beyond his reach, The Ogre cannot master Speech. About a subjugated plain, Among its desperate and slain, The Ogre stalks with hands on hips While drivel gushes from his lips."

-W.H. Auden, 1968, originally about Soviet cant.

The Gay affair (thank you English phraseology) has gotten headlines with Claudine Gay, plagiarism and antisemitism, but my interest in it is more about the entire class of people eagerly telling lies and talking cant. Lying is wrong. Cant is ogrish.

Gay lied, and the Harvard board lied to back her up, and an entire class of allegedly truth-seeking, fact-checking journalists lied some more. Several "professional" people who are well paid to be well informed were revealed as aggressively ignorant and less informed than I was after an hour with Sci-Hub and Google Scholar. I already felt cynical and jaded beforehand, and I nonetheless kept being disappointed by the sheer torrent of lies in the Gay affair.

I say "lies" because the alternative is that they are delusional imbeciles who genuinely believe that this canting midwit is a groundbreaking scholar. Look at her. Look at her and laugh.

Given a NYT column and a last word of sorts, she delivers neither competent workmanlike prose, nor literary excellence, but instead a grab bag of cant and overused metaphor and pompous self-importance.

My hope is that by stepping down I will deny demagogues the opportunity to further weaponize my presidency in their campaign to undermine the ideals animating Harvard since its founding: excellence, openness, independence, truth.

She did not bring excellence, nor openness, nor truth, and I'm skeptical about the independence. She is at best spouting cant, at worst lying again. She communicates in emotive connotations, unfitting of a Harvard scholar.

It is not lost on me that I make an ideal canvas for projecting every anxiety about the generational and demographic changes unfolding on American campuses: a Black woman selected to lead a storied institution. Someone who views diversity as a source of institutional strength and dynamism. Someone who has advocated a modern curriculum that spans from the frontier of quantum science to the long-neglected history of Asian Americans. Someone who believes that a daughter of Haitian immigrants has something to offer to the nation’s oldest university.

What a lot of blather. "Diversity" in particular is a bait-and-switch word that changes between meaning "More black people" and "Variety of opinions" depending on whether the speaker is engaged in rhetorical attack or defense. The four sentences of this paragraph could be reduced with little loss to the four words "Black. Race. Asian. Black." and in the process constitute evidence that the anxiety about changes on American campus is justified - the campus is becoming race-obsessed to the detriment of everything else. It's race-cant, similar in spirit to plagiarism, and to Orwell's complaint: "his brain is not involved as it would be if he were choosing his words for himself."

The plagiarism is not the only problem. Even the broader issue that she writes and talks sloppily is not the only problem. Her papers were bad as scientific papers. Her p-values were absurd, her statistical analysis was confounded, she dropped an inconvenient data point, she failed to distinguish correlation with causation, she asserted overly strong conclusions from tiny sample sizes processed through interpolative models, et cetera. I've got Tumblr mutuals who write better and more factful analysis.

There is nothing inherently wrong with plagiarism as such: for example engineering approaches to the same problem, studies of the same object, or entertainment in the same genre ought to be similar to one another with good reason.

Much like Van Halen's famous "remove the brown M&Ms from the bowl" contract, though, a ban on close plagiarism can serve as a simple and visible test of someone's ability to follow correct procedure. Hence the pun: plagiarists can't. Claudine Gay is a serial plagiarist who sucks at expressing herself, so she copies, and she cants.

[shoukiko]

Hi, you can keep this unanswered and not post it, but I want to help you understand the thought behind some of the points in your criticism post. Before I start I want to apologise if I come off as blunt and rude, that's not my intention and I'll try my best to show my tone as unthreatening but I'm autistic and not a native English speaker, which complicates things lol

*general you used throughout the ask

First, I want to start with this: they all are part of the army. You don't need to dig much to see you'll rarely see a "morally upstanding" person in the army, be it because they're cheaters, abusers, compliant with all that or they're (insert -ist/-phobe category here). UK military spouses are 3 times more likely to experience intimate partner violence (IPV). I'm not saying the COD characters need to be written like that, but it wouldn't be "unrealistic" if we take real life statistics into account.

Second, and maybe the most important thing, everyone writes COD characters OOC. The majority of the active fandom on Tumblr and tiktok have seen gifs and 10min out of context clips from the game at best. It's to be expected to not frequently find something actually in character for a lot of the guys. Especially with characters that are just operators like König, Nikto and Krueger. In their case everything is and isn't OOC at the same time because we just... Don't know these characters. We lack characterisation past maybe 1-3 traits about them. I'd argue that's why the fandom liked König so much, other than being masked, he's the perfect paper doll! You can dress him up in whatever characterisation you want and it probably won't contradict his canon (because he barely has one and what he has is quickly misinterpreted (anxiety disorder turning into shyness for example)).

Now specifically on your "How are you going to hc a victim as the abuser?" - simple, whether you like to accept it or not is up to you, but it's not far fetched for victims to become abusers later in life. Just look at serial killers statistics - 74% of US serial killers were psychologically abused and 42% were physically abused as children and later in life followed a similar pattern brought to an extreme. Or on the other hand, a tamer example would be generational trauma because that's how we get that (grandparent was abused and because that's all they know, they implement it in bringing up their child who, for the same reason, implements it in bringing up the grandchild and so on).

The final thing I want to say is, it's good to block people who you don't vibe with. Doesn't matter if it's because they wrote something that personally disturbed you or you simply don't like their blog theme or you see them too often in the tag. Personally curating your experience is key in fandom, utilise the tools Tumblr has given us. Of course as you and others have mentioned that's impossible without some assistance from the other side. Tagging is extremely important (tagging with the correct words without censoring!!! Or the filter won't catch! Rape, noncon, incest ✅; r@pe, n*nc*n, 1nc*st ✖️✖️).

I hope this isn't too messy or long aaaa

I really appreciate you taking the time to type this up and actually speak to me about this, your input is very appreciated. /gen

I do think I could've done better on that post since I wrote it in the heat of the moment, all characters are written OOC and it was ignorant of me to say

"Maybe read the characters backstories and actually take their past into consideration because you guys kinda look dumb for making these characters so OOC."

I hope ya'll can really take the time to see my POV, I did not mean. any harm, I've come across some gross things, but blocking and filtering tags so much as begun to be tiring.

My main issue is tagging, without tagging I am left with getting triggered by random posts because the first few sentences may include something on my trigger list.

That's all I want and also what a lot of other people want.

Writing is meant for anyone and everyone, a form of art and perhaps a for of therapy.

Please tag your work, you are not the only person on the internet.

Thank you for reading!

[duckprintspress]

Round Table Discussion: Grammar Pet Peeves

Today, March 4th, is National Grammar Day! Last year, we celebrated with six of our favorite grammar quirks. This year, we’re going to the other end of the spectrum: we had a conversation with our editors and blog contributors about grammar things we hate. They may be technically correct, but that doesn’t mean they don’t make us crazy. Eighteen people, many anonymous, contributed to this discussion.

Dangling Modifiers

boneturtle: Dangling modifiers, hands down. Even when I can decipher what the writer meant based on context, it viscerally hurts me every time. When I am editing I have to stand up and take a lap around my apartment when I hit a dangling modifier. Remind myself that I am here to help. Learn more about dangling modifiers.

Commas

anonymous: Commas are not difficult! Commas end phrases. Full stop. That’s all they do. Is a phrase necessary to the grammatical coherence of the sentence? if the answer is yes, no commas because that phrase hasn’t ended. If the answer is no, commas! comma hug that bish if it’s the middle of a sentence. The difference between grammatical and informational is whether or not the sentence makes sense without the phrase. 

Examples: 

The man who ordered the six double anchovy pizzas claims to have a dolphin in his pool. 

You need “who ordered the six double anchovy pizzas” because you need to identify which man you’re talking about. The world is full of many men. 

The ancient Buick, which Madeleine purchased via Craigslist, belched black smoke whenever she pressed the accelerator. 

We don’t need to know how Madeleine purchased the car for the sentence to make sense. You don’t even meed “Madeleine” for the grammar to make sense. Therefore, hug that phrase! 

(a comma on each side of the phrase) or give it a dramatic send off with a comma and an end punctuation. (i could go into conjunctions, too, but those are a little more complex, and if you were taught them properly, i understand not getting the comma use 😂 ) 

Prepositions at the End of Sentences

Tris Lawrence: There was a dictionary (Merriam-Webster? Oxford? idek) that posted recently on social media about how the rule about not ending a sentence with a preposition came from English scholars trying to make English line up with Latin, and that it’s totally okay to do it… and I’m just wanting to point to it to yell THIS because uhhh trying to rework sentences to not end in a preposition often creates clunky awkward things (my opinion, I recognize this).

D. V. Morse: Ending sentences/clauses with a preposition. Well, not doing that is supposed to be the rule, but depending on the sentence, it can be a convoluted mess to try and avoid it. Winston Churchill famously told someone off after they “caught” him breaking that rule, saying, “This is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put.” (Yes, I had to look that up.)

Pronoun Confusion

anonymous: I hate playing the pronoun game when reading. I hate it in life when someone comes up to me and tells me a story involving 2 people of the same pronouns and stops using names halfway through, and I hate it while reading too. Nothing makes me fall out of scene more if I don’t know who just did/said what. Use names. That’s why we have them.

Nina Waters: epithets. If I know the characters name…why? Also, when people use “you” in third person writing. There are times I’ll allow it as an editor/times when I do think it’s at least acceptable but not gonna lie, I absolutely hate it.

anonymous: My pet peeve … I read hundreds of essays in a given month for work, plus a whole lot of fanfic for fun. A rising issue that I have noticed in both places is incomplete sentences (lacking subjects, typically). I think it’s because people rely on Google’s grammar checker to tell them if something is wrong and…Google doesn’t check for that apparently. I’m increasingly convinced that my high schoolers simply weren’t taught sentence structure, because when I ask them to fix it they almost universally say some variant of “I don’t understand what you’re asking me to do.” Therefore, it might be punching down a little to complain about it. I’m not sure. It does drive me nuts though. Lol

“Would Of”

Neo Scarlett: Not quite sure if that falls under grammar, but I hate hate hate when people use “should of” instead of should’ve. Or “would of.” It just makes my toe nails curl up because it may sound right, but it looks wrong and is wrong.

Semi-Colons

Shea Sullivan: I saw a list punctuated by semicolons recently and that made me froth at the mouth a bit.

anonymous: I think any editor who’s worked with me knows that I have a pet peeve about using colons or semi-colons in dialogue. Or really, any punctuation mark that I don’t think people can actually pronounce. Semicolons can live anywhere that I don’t have to imagine a character actually pronouncing them.

English isn’t Dumb!

theirprofoundbond: As a former linguistics student, it bugs me a lot when people say that English is a dumb or stupid language because it has borrowed from so many languages. What people mean when they say this is, “English can be really difficult (even for native speakers).” But I wish people would say that, instead of “it’s dumb/stupid.” Languages are living things. Like other living things, they adapt and evolve. English is basically a beautiful, delightful platypus. Let it be a platypus.

Dei Walker: I remember seeing somewhere that English has four types of rules (I’m trying to find the citation today) and everyone conflates them. And I guess my pet peeve is that everyone treats them equally when they’re NOT. There are rules but not all of them are the same – there’s a difference between “adjectives precede nouns” (big truck, not *truck big) and “don’t split infinitives” (which is arbitrary).

And, because we couldn’t resist, here are some of our favorite things, because when we asked for pet peeves…some people still shared things they loved instead of things they hated.

Oxford Comma

Terra P. Waters: I really really love the Oxford comma.

boneturtle: me: [in kindergarten, using oxford comma]

teacher: no, we don’t add a comma between the last two objects in a list.

me: that’s illogical and incorrect.

anonymous: I will forever appreciate my second grade teacher’s explanation of Oxford comma use: Some sentences are harder to understand if you don’t use it, but no sentence will ever be harder to understand because you do use it. Preach, Mrs. D

anonymous: I am definitely Team Oxford Comma. I even have a bumper sticker which says so

Other Favorites

Shea Sullivan: I adore the emdash, to every editor’s chagrin.

Shadaras: zeugmas! I think they’re super cool!

Shea Sullivan and Hermit: I use sentence fragments a lot. Fragments my beloved.

English Grammar vs. Grammar in Other Languages

anonymous: so in English my favourite thing is the parallel Latin and Saxon registers because of how that affects grammar, but in Japanese my favourite grammatical thing is the use of an actual sound at the end of the sentence to denote a question, as opposed to how in English we use intonation? Also how in Japanese the sentence structure requires reasoning first and action second in terms of clauses. So rather than go “let’s go to the cinema because it’s raining and I’m cold,” you’d go “because it’s raining and I’m cold, let’s go to the cinema.” (My least favourite thing is the lack of spaces between words in the written form but that’s purely because I find that level of continuous letters intimidating to translate.)

I also love how Japanglish in the foreign communities in Japan starts to develop its own grammatical structure as a way of situating yourself in this space between the two languages. It’s used as a call-sign of belonging to that specific community, because in order to make some of the jokes and consciously break the rules of English or Japanese grammar and/or choose to obey one or the other, you’re basically displaying your control over both/knowledge of them. Like, the foreign community in Japan is often a disparate group of people with multiple different native languages who are relying on their knowledge of at least one non-native language but often two to signify their status in the group as Also An Outsider and I think that’s really interesting.

Nina Waters: Chinese and Japanese both drop subjects, and Chinese doesn’t have like… a/the… Japanese doesn’t have a future tense… Chinese kinda sorta doesn’t have tenses at all… (these are not pet peeves, btw, I love how learning a language with such different ways of approaching these things reshapes my brain). Chinese also doesn’t really have yes or no.

There’s a joke somewhere on Tumblr about that, though I actually think it’s about using “a” versus “the,” like, someone was giving a Russian speaker a hard time after they said “get in car” and they were like “only you English speakers are dumb enough to feel this is essential why would I be talking about getting into any random car of course I mean our car wtf.”

anonymous: on the subject of other languages, epithets are also something that happen differently in other languages. In French repeating a word (names included, and sometimes even pronouns) is considered bad writing. As in, way more than in English. Going by how grating the English translation of the Witcher books was to me when the French one was fine, I’d say it’s the same with Polish, at least. It’s also very interesting how brains adapt to writing styles in other languages.

What are some of your favorite and least favorite grammar quirks, in English or in the language of your choice?

[conkreetmonkey]

I have a weird, muddy opinion on how people on this site call The United States of America "USAmerica." Yeah, it works, and it removes any confusion about whether you're talking about the country or the landmass, but at the same time, it feels clunky? USAmerica just feels... idk, it's like you couldn't say it out loud without sounding goofy? You can say "the USA" out loud and it sounds good and makes sense, but at the same time the "the" makes it a bit awkward gramatically, and you can't just say "I'm from USA," but you can say, in text form, "I'm from USAmerica."

THEN there's the fact that people from that country are typically referred to as "Americans," and things from there as "American." When someone says "America," you don't think about the two connected continents the term could technically be referring to, you just think about the United States of America. It's an unusually "built" country within the region, made up of 51 smaller, unified nation-states that have combined into one very large, culturally and geographically disjointed country under one sprawling government, where every state, now functionally more of a province, retains the ability to have differing laws and economic policies, yet must answer to the grand government that controls them all as a whole, like if every country in Europe was ruled by one overseeing organization but were free to remain distinct as mini-nations rather than homogenized provinces. Two USAmerican states are far more different in legislation and culture than, say, two Canadian provinces are.

Given this, it makes sense for the country to simply be named "The United States of America." It's a bunch of states from America that are united into one big Voltron of a nation. Of course, though, you can't just say something like "this book is a great work of United States of America-ian literature," due to the way the English language works. Within the framework of English grammar, ideally, a country needs an adjective form of its name to concisely describe people and things from there, and while there are no hard rules as to how to go about that to my knowledge, there are a few different ways. You can apply a prefix to the country's name such as "ish" (British, Scottish, Turkish), "ian" (Brazillian, Russian, Indian), "ese" (Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese), "i" (Pakistani, Somali, Yemeni), or "an" (Guatemalan, German, Mexican), or if it sounds good you can just get funky with it and change a vowel or two (Norse, French, Dutch, Malagasy). And then there's Iceland with the "ic" (because they're special).

So BASICALLY, from THAT standpoint, using "American" as the USA's adjective makes sense. It flows well, does what it needs to. The problem, of course, is the overlap with the name of the landmasses. Technically, when one says "South American," they could be referring to either the continent of South America, or the south of the USA. Same with "North American." Now, nobody actually uses either of those terms to describe regions of the country, probably due to this overlap. A USAmerican could simply say "I'm from the north" or "I'm from a southern state," and you would understand given the context of them being a USAmerican. But then again, they couldn't just simply drop the country and compass-ional (whatever tf the term is) region in the same clause like people from any other country could without it sounding weird. "I'm from South France" makes sense as a sentence, as does "This plant grows in Northern Australia." "I was born in the South of the United States of America" is clunky and overly verbose, yet the lack of a proper country name without a "the" throws a wrench into that.

So what do we (typically) do? Just say "American" and let context do the work, clarifying if neccesary. "I'm from Southern America" obviously is not intended to apply to the continents, although it technically could. The reader, simply due to the context of knowing that South America is a continent and "America" usually refers to the USA unless otherwise stated, understands that the writer almost certainly means they're from a place like Texas or Louisiana, rather than Argentina or Chile. This way of writing/speaking is imprecise and requires unspoken context, but it gets the job done. America the country is a weird case in terms of its makeup, and that's reflected in its name. You're not referring to one country, you're referring to 51 micro-nations held together with one big fat federal government spread over them, like the thick plastic wrap holding a pallet of crates, boxes and sacks together as one shippable unit. And besides, nobody ever says "America" to refer to both continents, even though they technically could. They say "The Americas," because while technically one region, NA and SA are both very distinct and barely physically connected at all, held together by a single small landbridge (that has a canal though it now anyways, so you can't walk from one continent to the other without crossing water anymore).

So, in conclusion, idk, the term "USAmerica" removes the needless complexity of situational context, but it's somehow clunkier-feeling than the preexisting norm of just saying "America." I use and will continue to use the term USAmerica for brevity's sake since it's the norm on this site, but I'd certainly never use it anywhere else. America is an unusual country, and its name reflects that. A square peg in a language made of round holes, that can still fit if you turn it sideways a little. idk. I suppose the only real lesson here is that a) American exceptionalism is unintentionally portrayed in the language the country speaks, and b) English has a weird grammar system where things that are objectively correct within it sometimes don't "feel right" for no reason other than lacking succinctness.

[philologique]

perpetually fascinated by how the thai series i've watched tend to translate vulgar intensifiers,¹ and specifically thinking about โคตร,² which i'm just gonna write as "kho:t" for the rest of this post (pronounced with an aspirated k or the 'ch' in 'loch' and an unreleased t at the end; the colon just makes the o long)

heads up that i don't actually speak thai and i'm not any kind of translator! just an english speaker with a pretty good ear who spends approximately two-thirds of all waking hours thinking about language. footnotes and stream of consciousness thoughts on ongoing phonological change(!!) in footnotes under the cut.

anyway! kho:t literally means ancestry, clan, descent, or lineage,⁷ but is used an intensifier that wiktionary describes as "slang, sometimes considered vulgar." ⁸

i think about thai intensifiers—and specifically kho:t—all the time in the context of episode 5 of bad buddy. pat's "it was so depressingly lonely for me" is the last pin you can hear drop before the dam breaks, but what he says is แม่งโคตรเหงาเลยเว่ย, (maeng kho:t ngao loey woey). which is a bit rawer? cruder? three of those five words (แม่ง,โคตร,เว่ย) are sometimes are translated as "damn," including just a few sentences earlier when pat says "while you were away, my life was so damn happy."

when i first watched bad buddy i didn't know a single sentence in thai, and i have no idea how any other choice might have hit me in that moment. but at least twice a week i wonder whether and how that translation choice might have affected the english-language bad buddy fandom. damn, it was so lonely. so damn lonely. so freaking lonely. so desperately lonely. so depressingly lonely.

of course, it was all of those things.

¹ Shout out to Methawee Yuttapongtada for their article, "Intensifier as Changed from the Impolite Word in Thai," without which it would have taken last-year-me months longer to tell what pat was saying. i was playing the audio of this scene on a loop in my brain and assumed that the velar fricative was a /kʰ/, but there are so many spelling options for word initial /kʰ/ and word final /t/ that i gave up experimenting with spellings and looked for english-language linguistic literature on thai intensifiers.

² Theoretically pronounced /kʰôːt/ but often (usually?) realized by young speakers in contemporary thai as [xôːt] or [χôːt], which is a whole other thing (that is vastly more interesting to me personally).³ ⁴ i feel like (at least gen z) speakers use a velar or uvular fricative in more or less free variation with an aspirated k, but i haven't come across any literature on it other than in descriptive studies of northern thai.⁴ ⁵ Either way kʰôːt rhymes with the "tô:t" in the thai word for sorry, which you'll probably recognize if you've watched anything in thai!

³ I know this is rough IPA lol. the unreleased diacritic looked weird on tumblr and struck me as unnecessary for phonemic transcription given that all word-final stops are unreleased. also i'm fine with just using the most commonly used latin-script tone diacritics for standard central thai. to me IPA's value is in precision and facilitating common understanding; i don't feel like any of that's lost by not using IPA tones here.

⁴ PHONETICS THOUGHTS re /kʰ/

I kinda think [kʰ], [x], and [χ] are in more or less free variation phonologically among most speakers today in all environments except before close/high front vowels—คิด is pretty much always [kʰit], and from watching a bunch of cooking shows 'salty' (เค็ม) seems to be not-quite-invariably pronounced with a [kʰ].

...but then i think boom used a fricative (possibly [ç]) when saying คิดอะไร at one point in last weekend's hidden agenda?? and 'okay' (โอเค) seems to have a fricative at least half the time i hear it. i would hazard a guess that if you did several hours of (ideally) informal linguistic interviews with central thai speakers of different ages: (1) everyone would have some velar or uvular fricatives, (2) the fricative /kʰ/ would be more common among younger speakers (vs older speakers) in all (syllable-initial) phonetic environments, (3) individual speakers would be most likely to pronounce /kʰ/ as a fricative before more open/low and back vowels and in true consonant clusters, (4) individual speakers would be least likely to pronounce /kʰ/ as a fricative before closer/higher front vowels, particularly /i/, and (5) speakers would be more likely to pronounce /kʰ/ as [kʰ] when they're paying attention to their speech, e.g. reading off a list of words in isolation—which takes us to:

SOCIOLINGUISTICS-ish THOUGHTS re /kʰ/:

I know i just talked about the phonological constraints and possible ongoing sound change for the phoneme /kʰ/ but i think it's super NOT free variation in practice, even before a vowel like /a/. this is just based on observation from contemporary dramas/cooking shows/interviews/songs (which is another thing i have Thoughts about), but i feel like at the moment it's largely a register thing that maps imperfectly onto levels of formality (and also friendliness? one hyper-specific almost-baseless hypothesis i'd like to test is that you'll hear more fricative /kʰ/ in constructions with the particle 'na' (นะ)). i would also guess that if there are any attitudinal studies on the pronunciation, they would reveal that most speakers view an aspirated stop as the "proper" way to pronounce syllable-initial /kʰ/.

i would love to look at whether /kʰ/ is realized as a fricative more or less often in constructions with certain particles, as an easy proxy for certain kinds of register. (i would also want to look at this with different first- and second-person pronouns, although so many of them are roughly gendered or would correspond to the relative age of the speaker and listener that it would almost certainly skew the results and might just tell us more about the demographics that are leading this phonological change! which is also useful!) ANYWAY if i win the lottery maybe i'll go back to linguistics for real bc i miss it desperately and want an excuse to study this 😭

re attitudinal research, I would really want to poll and have linguistic interviews with thai speakers of central thai as well as bilingual speakers of central thai and northern thai, isan/lao, and other tai and non-tai minority languages in thailand. i'm interested in questions about possible interference from those languages vs the extent to which speakers might emphasize differences between their respective minority languages and central thai (even where they may not exist) for the sake of maintaining regional/cultural identity through language (or something?? this is really poorly articulated but as an example i'm thinking about how my dialect of swiss german uses the same construction as standard german for the verb "to hurt" (Weh tun/Weh tue), but swiss german speakers think of "Weh tue" as a uniquely alemannic construction and instead use the word "schmerzen" when speaking/writing swiss standard german, effectively inventing a "german" construction that the local language can be in opposition to. see also fn 5 and 6 on northern thai below.)

⁵ Those studies note (if i recall correctly, this is off the top of my head lmao) that kʰr- consonant clusters in northern thai effectively drop the r and realize the k as a fricative.⁶ which. i'm not convinced this is uniquely part of northern thai so much as a productive phenomenon across central and northern thai that's just highly register-dependent in the standard language. (i would argue that at least the dropping of 'r's and 'l's from consonant clusters absolutely is just part of central thai phonology at this point. if being able to pronounce a consonant cluster—or a rolled r, for that matter—is a sign of ~good education or ~elocution rather than something that any subset of speakers learns as part of the spoken language when acquiring the language as children (which is possible, i just have not observed it), then—apart from the extent to which it conveys social meaning—i don't really think of it as a fundamental part of the language itself. this is maybe kind of a hot take lmao)

⁶ There was also a clip i watched—i think it was from the 1000 stars bts of khaotung trying to speak northern thai—where someone basically articulated that same rule to him, like "for ครบ just say /xop/"

⁷ From sanskrit, hence the silent r in the thai script.

⁸ I don't know nearly enough abt thai language or culture to meaningfully analyze the implications of that etymology or how โคตร might best be translated with minimal context. i'm guessing "damn" might be at about the right level of intensity/vulgarity as an intensifier, but it carries such explicit religious implications that i'm hesitant to use it?? i'm happy to let the translators and subtitlers make the difficult decisions while i just ponder stuff about sound change