#whys there so many diff variations

[spenglerstwinkie]

Morioh would’ve been way more bizarre if they had Kendrick Lamar

Insp + background vv😭😭

Literally only this photo of Kendrick prompted me to make like a screencap of him if he was in the crazy noisy bizarre town op... Sorry if its mid its pretty rushed. Also i love Kendrick

the background was so fun to do omg😭😭 took me ages and i had to make the paint splatter brushes myself (i love procreate) (if you can tell they were low quality. No you cant.) Its a rip of the background in Okuyasu’s screencap but… shhh

Is it frowned upon to have insanely long captions plus a lot of tags… if so mb i dont use tumblr like at all and i love to yap

[writersdrug]

no thoughts just waitress!reader showing up for shifts like nothings wrong after the date situation

just keeping it calm and professional. working her shifts efficiently and no longer bantering/flirting with ghost, who would rather reader melt down and tear into him than putting up the walls around herself hehe

Ok I'm combining some asks here that had some different ideas - I got so many of you guys demanding reparation for making reader cry 😭 here's the comfort chapter! (Still a tad angsty at the beginning)

Ghost had finished your tips for you that night. He had half a mind to slide a hundred in your payout folder as an apology for ruining your date... but what good would that do? That would make you quit for good, if you hadn't already.

He lays in his bed, eyes stuck to the ceiling, still in his jeans and black shirt. He wishes he could snuff out the guilt that sits heavily in his gut. He wonders what you're doing - probably crying, possibly making a half-assed voodoo doll of himself and stabbing his chest with a dull steak knife, because that's all he feels right now.

He gets up early the next day after a rough three hours of sleep. He lumbers down the stairs to the office - Price is there, sorting out cash and working on the next supply order. He looks at Simon, who's rubbing his eyes and looking worse for wear.

"Mornin'." Price says, turning back to the monitor. Ghost grunts in response, dropping himself onto the couch behind Price. His head aches from the lack of sleep, thoughts circling in his mind about how to apologize to you. He can imagine you won't want to talk to him - or, if you do, it'll most likely be profanities wedged between insults. He'd love for you to berate him right now, and make him feel like he got what he deserved.

Price sighs. "You sleep alright?"

"I've had better."

"Nightmare?"

"... yea, somethin' like that."

Price huffs. "I'm workin' front of house today." He says, grabbing the bag of tips and standing up. "Goin' down to drop these in the safe, then I'll help you stock up."

Simon opens his eyes, looking at Price with confusion. "You?"

Price nods. "Dove called out sick. Sounded like she's got the lurgy."

That delivers the final blow to Simon. He knows you're not sick - you're avoiding him now. All plans to apologize are now out the window, and the more time passes, the harder it'll be to do it.

"You've only got yourself to blame, Simon." Price says, heading down to the restaurant floor.

He curses under his breath as Price leaves. How he heard about what happened - he could only assume it had been from Soap. He drops his arm over his face and groans. He wants to call out himself, but then they might as well shut down the entire pub for the day.

Should he try phoning you? Would you answer, let alone allow him to get more than five words out? What would he say? "Sorry I ruined your date, I was jealous tha' ya got a life outside of the pub." There is no variation of an apology that feels like it would be enough. He made you cry, for fucks sake. That was a punishment in and of itself, but he still had to own up to what he'd done.

He sighs loudly; his body feels heavy as he drags himself off the couch, trudging down the stairs. He still has a bar to run.

It had to have been the longest shift of Simon's life, and he even wrapped things up a bit earlier than usual. He didn't have the gift of your incessant chatting or being able to tease you to make the time pass. Price was a solid companion in front of house, but there was hardly a conversation to be held - even with the usual bar crowd. The patrons had a look of confusion for the majority of the night, wondering why Soap wasn't popping his head out of the kitchen to chat every once in a while - and why the hell the owner was serving tables, and not the chipper, spunky waitress.

When Simon had locked up for the night, he noticed your bike was no longer in the alley. Johnny must have dropped it off on the way back to his place.

Today isn't much different - at least, not for Simon. He's still suffering from a lack of sleep, he's irritable (he had a spat with Johnny in the morning, over something he can't even remember), and his work ethic is suffering. He's not worried about slicing bar fruit; it'll give him something to do later, when he needs it. Maybe the rush will kick him back into shape.

He stares at the dishes on the edge of the bar - they're all in need of a good polish, but he finds himself stuck on staring at the bar fridge. There's nothing else he needs to stock up on - it's packed completely full with wine, champagne, and cans of beer. He gently kicks the side of it with his boot. He should be checking the to-go boxes, helping Soap with setting up the condiments and soups, making sure the tables all had full salt and pepper shakers. That's what you would be doing. But, you're not here, and neither is Price. He can only hope tonight isn't as busy as the previous night, otherwise he'll have to close some tables. Which would make customers mad. Which would make Price mad. Which would-

Suddenly, he hears three loud bangs against the back door. He freezes, the sound triggering a Pavlovian response. He immediately looks up to the kitchen window - Soap opens the door, and you come jogging inside. You greet him with a smile. He asks how you're feeling, and you say "much better".

He doesn't know what to do with himself, but he just stands there like an idiot as you hang your bag and jacket on a hook. Stands there as you push your way into the restaurant, barely sparing him a glance as you scurry by him. Stands there as you run up the stairs, two at a time, diving nose-first into your chores so you can avoid Simon.

He can't speak. Should he? What can he say? "I'm sorry," for starters, but it isn't that simple. He thought you might have quit, and was preparing his heart for the worst. But now, here you are, running back and forth through the pub and setting up your tables - and it feels like you've never been farther away from him.

In all honesty, you can't bring yourself to talk to him either. You're feeling just as ashamed with your behavior two nights ago as he is about his own. Why the fuck would you expect someone - let alone your boss - to do your chores so that you could run off and have fun on a date? Not only that, but you'd made a scene; you felt like you had half-assed the ice bins in your scramble to get them cleaned, and then you sobbed in the middle of the restaurant. The cherry on top, however, was when you called Price yesterday and told him you had a cold, calling out of your shift. It was a cowardly thing to do, and you could tell he wasn't buying your story.

But: bills need to be paid, rent is due, and you can't lose this job. So you sucked it up and came in today - Simon is easy enough to ignore, separated from you by the bar.

At first, the quiet bartender was relieved that you had showed up for your shift - he wouldn't have searched for a new waitress if you had quit, instead choosing to deal with the consequences of his actions. But he's quickly getting more and more irritated with the silent treatment you're serving. You only talk to him when necessary: a simple "thanks" when you grab your drinks and run them to your tables. You busy yourself between rolling silverware, (over)stocking napkins and condiments, and even going so far as to spray the menus down and scrub them with a rag. You spend more time in the kitchen with Soap; each peal of laughter shared between the two of you is another arrow in Simon's chest. He's stuck behind the bar, listening to woes spilling from drunken lips, forced to watch you flit around and pretend he doesn't exist.

You can't keep this up forever.

Still, you do for most of the night. Even when your shift is coming to an end, the kitchen closed while you close the tabs for your remaining tables, you don't cave and sit at the bar with Simon. You sit at the farthest table from him, the farthest chair, in fact, skimming over your tip receipts - and talking to Soap (who was only able to sit with you since you had helped him knock out his tasks).

Simon's never been as angry with Soap as he is now - and the worst part is he knows it's not justified. He's watching from behind the bar, polishing glasses so hard they might wane into cups. He wants to talk to you. He will talk to you before the night is over. He doesn't expect forgiveness, but he expects that you'll at least let him offer an apology.

One of the regulars at the bar looks to whatever Simon is glaring at, chuckling quietly when he sees you. "Trouble in paradise?"

"Stuff it, Mike." Simon grumbles.

Meanwhile, you walk back from closing out your last table, plopping back in the booth with Soap. "What are you doing after this?"

"Sleepin'." he replies instantly, tossing back an onion ring. "Been dealin' with a grumpy bawbag since early this mornin', and I'm beat."

You glance over at the bar; Simon's back is facing you as he organizes the beer glasses. You really should apologize to him... you just couldn't figure out when the right time would be. He'd still be working by the time your shift ends, and you don't even know if he wants to speak to you at this point.

"Is he mad at me?" you ask, tapping your pen on the table.

Soap sighs. "I'm not goin' t' be the middle man, Bonnie." he says, looking at you intently. "If ye feel like somethin' needs to be said, go talk to 'im."

You groan, leaning back against the seat. "It's not that simple."

"Why not?"

"It just isn't! He's already pissed at me, and he probably thinks I'm a slacker. What good is an apology?"

"Ye won't know 'til ye talk to 'im, hmm?"

"What if he fires me?"

Johnny barks with laughter, and you frown. "I'm being serious."

"He'd never fire ye." he says, getting up out of the booth. He stretches both arms above his head and lets out a grunt. "In fact, he was throwin' a fit yesterday n' today 'fore ye came in. Bitch took it out on me."

You winced. "I'm sorry-"

"Save it fer 'im." Soap interjected. He left you at the booth with the onion rings and your tips, disappearing into the kitchen. You huff, hunching back over your tips and scribbling through them.

Deep down, you know Soap is right. If anything, you could just apologize to Simon. If he chooses to be grumpy about it, so be it. You've got tough skin... still, you can't stand the thought of him being upset with you - not because of your work ethic, but because you liked him. A lot. And you wanted him to like you back, even if it was in the most platonic way.

But that didn't change anything. An apology was due, and you were going to give him one before you left tonight.

You grabbed an onion ring and popped it in your mouth, grimacing when you realized they were cold. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Simon making his was across the floor to your booth.

Great. Guess the apology is coming now.

He stops at the edge of the table, wiping his hands in a rag. You pretend to punch numbers into your phone's calculator, but they're all random - you just want to look like you're busy.

"May I sit?" he asks, tucking the rag into his back pocket.

You mumble out a "sure", still not looking at him. You hear his large frame slide into the seat across from you, polyester squeaking underneath his weight. You continue to do random equations on your calculator, letting a thick blanket of tension settle between the two of you. You can feel his stare burning into your head, his arms folded over his chest... and you notice that his mask is in his hand. You finally look up at him.

It's not the first time you've seen his face - you've caught glimpses of it when he smokes in the alley, or when he eats whatever Soap throws under the warmer for you and Simon. But this time, he's not taking it off to be convenient. And, dear god, you're just now paying attention to how scarred, rugged, and handsome he is - but now's not the time for those kinds of thoughts. You feel like he's reaching out an olive branch, showing a possible vulnerable side to himself. So, you place your pen on the table and lean back.

He stays quiet for a moment longer, trying to figure out how to start this. He wants to make sure that you know he's here to apologize, not to ask for forgiveness. From his silence, you assume he's waiting for you to go first.

"I'm sorry about Tuesday night." you say, eyes dropping to the table. Simon's astounded that you're the one apologizing, but you continue. "I shouldn't have reacted the way I did, and I'm sorry for trying to dump my job on you."

He feels worse, now. Was that even possible? He was expecting anger, insults - a detailed, frustrated explanation of what you did last night since you did not go on that date. But you're the one saying sorry? You think you're to blame for all of this unspoken aggression? Oh, you really do confuse him, sometimes...

"You don't need t' be sorry, luv." he says, gazing at you with a softness you'd never seen before, not in his brown eyes, at least.

"No, I do." you say, nearly pleading with him to let you be apologetic. "I was being a brat, and whether you usually do the ice bins or not, I shouldn't have expected you would do them without asking." You push your pen on the table, doing your best to convey your feelings. "And yeah, I was late for my date, but... well, he sounded like a dick, anyways."

Simon chuckles, watching you stare at the table. "Well, I owe you an apology, too. I jus'..." he sighed heavily, running a hand down his jaw. "I don' even know. Guess I was bein' lazy, or... I got jealous tha' you've got a life outside of this pub. Feels like you belong here."

He immediately regrets saying that - it sounds way too possessive and... just straight up weird. But you smile, taking comfort in the fact that he still wants you here. That this was the whole reason behind the mess.

"Soap called you a bitch. Said you were an asshole all day."

Simon scoffs. "Yea... 'm pretty sure Price would tell ya the same. And he wants ya back, too. Couldn't stand waitin' on tables, he was tryin' t' trade places with me all night."

You laugh. The world seems alright again - not perfect, but good enough. It might take a night of sleeping the tension away before you're fully back to your normal self, but this is a leap in the right direction. You look at Simon, into his brown, steady eyes, as they stare right back at you.

He breaks the silence. "I really am sorry for ruinin' your date."

You smile softly. "Thank you, Simon. I forgive you."

And just like that, the weight of his guilt is lifted away. The lingering sourness remains, a reminder that he had made you cry. But you had forgiven him, which was more than he was hoping to get tonight.

"Are we better?" you ask timidly.

He nods once. "Better."

You smile - you slowly slide your stack of receipts to him, biting your lip. "Cool - can I have my money?"

Just like that, his smirk drops - but you know it's all in good humor. He huffs, snatching the stack from the table and scoots his way out of the booth. "Always got money on the mind, eh?"

"I've always got rent on my mind." you retort, following after him with the bowl of onion rings. You plant yourself at your usual spot on the end of the bar, right near the POS where Simon cashes out your tips. He tries to hurry up, assuming you want to dip and go home after such an intense conversation. He slides the mask back over his face and punches his code in, trying to edit your tips into the system as quickly as he can.

"Simon?"

"Hm?" his response is instant, turning around to look back at you. You've got your phone on the bartop, and your back and jacket on the unoccupied seat next to you.

"Can I stay for a drink?"

He's melting on the inside, only held together by his own skin. He sets your receipts down and opts to do them later, right before whenever you decide to leave. He won't miss on an opportunity to have you stay longer.

"Course, luv. What's it gonna be?"

"You know how to make a cosmo?"

He chuckles, grabbing a glass from the shelf behind him. "Sure do."

[faultlessheart]

Dating Strahm HCs, please? ♡

𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒉𝒎 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒐𝒏𝒔

was literally kicking my feet & giggling waiting for someone to request something w strahm

(idk if you want nsfw…..so i’m just gonna throw some in at the end)

pairing: peter strahm x gn!reader

warnings: not much?? spanking and sex

☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆ .　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆ .　 . • ☆ . °☆

idk i hc him as like super jealous

i mean everyone literally refers to him as a hothead so i can imagine him getting riled up if he even thought someone was looking at you

he brings his work home with him a LOT. it’s very frustrating for you, but you know he’s probably even more frustrated with the cases he’s working on (maybe there’s a way you can help his frustration……)

he honestly always has to be in control, no matter the situation. cuddling? he’s the big spoon, he needs to hold you and protect you from everything the terrible world has to offer. getting out of the car and walking somewhere? he’s holding your hand tighter than ever and making sure you don’t end up behind him, out of his line of sight

as focused as he is on work, i can see him being the biggest mushball when it comes to dates.

like…if he has downtime at work (well…he’s actually supposed to be doing paperwork) he’s looking up different restaurants and places you might like so he can plan his next date with you

speaking of, while they are few and far between, when he does plan a date, it’s SO romantic

im talking him wearing a tux, candles (whether it be at dinner or in a bath afterwards…..) and him just being the utmost gentleman

whenever he cooks dinner for you guys, his specialty is any sort of casserole

like idk they’re not super hard to make and there’s so many variations of them so i feel like this and diff pasta dishes would be his go to’s for when he wants to cook for you

CONSTANTLY talking about you to perez. you and her have grabbed coffee before and she told you that whenever he has the chance it’s “that reminds of me of when y/n and i-” or “y/n did this yesterday, she’s so great” or “you guys went on a date last night? aw! did i tell you about y/n and i’s date where we-”

she loves it tho. bc she does care about strahm a lot. so seeing him happy with someone who’s good for him makes her so excited

(i feel like this about literally every man in saw….) but mans is SASSY

always has a smartass remark to anything you have to say to him

AND always rolling his eyes omg. they’re gonna roll out of his mf head if he doesn’t chill

“peter, will it really make a difference if you leave work at 10 tonight instead of staying until 3?”

you can literally hear his eyes roll over the phone

you get frustrated and hang up (half jokingly)

he calls you back 15 seconds later and you can hear him getting in the car and shutting the door in the background

“happy now, sweetheart?”

(onto the smutty parts….)

everyone says this but i do agree that peter is a soft dom (most of the time….)

is the type to lay you across his lap and make you count how many times he spanks you

“keep counting, darling.”

constantly has his arms wrapped around you while he’s deep inside you

uses his tie to tie your hands together

he’s never super rough, which you don’t mind, he’s loverboy who just wants to make you feel good

his pleasure comes second

which is why he would literally go down on you for days if he could

(he’s came in his pants multiple times solely from pleasuring you)

like i said, he’s so romantic. his hands are constantly roaming your body, telling you how beautiful and perfect you are

doesn’t have many kinks, but i feel like he’d be willing to try a lot of different stuff

[celestie0]

book recs? if you read. biology books are fine as well.

hiii my dear LOL yes i do read but not that often haha. not sure what genres speak to you but i tried to give a bit of a range!!

i just finished reading "pachinko" by author min jin lee n thought it was really wonderful. it's a story that spans multiple generations from a war era to modern era so it was really interesting seeing the cultural developments, i can tell the author put a lot of research into it. i mean i was already bawling by end of the first chapter and i very rarely actually cry when i'm reading books. the minimalistic style of the writing is so lovely i think this book has most influenced my own writing style. it's a hefty n lengthy book though, but so worth the ride

this one is really popular but def worth the hype "the seven husbands of evelyn hugo"! it's about sort of a marilyn monroe type character named evelyn hugo who was a famous actress (it's all fictional though) and all of her love affairs. i love the unique voice that she has throughout the book, she keeps it super real and so those moments of vulnerability from her end up hitting hard. i so very enjoy the way taylor jenkins reid writes aaa i'm reading another one of her books rn called "one true loves" (although tbh it's not that great so far haha)

a romance i read sort of recently was "before we were strangers" by renee carlino and i liked it!! the angsttt ugh. it's a second chance romance ab two characters who met in uni and then went their separate ways and didn't reunite again until they were in their thirties i believe. i love those types of romances where ppl have had a lot of time away from one another, exploring all the growth inbetween is sm fun. tbh there were so many times i wanted to slap the shit outta both the main characters for their horrendously poor decision making lmfao but i appreciate stories like that bc they feel raw and real. def recommend!

since you mentioned bio books i'll shout out my two faves LOL:

"who we are and how we got here" by david reich. i love this book, it's a really amazing collection of geneticists research to account for all the variations in humans across the world and throughout hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. it touches on why diff demographics are more susceptible to certain illness/disease, w explanations ranging from things such as colonization & racism, social isolation and even early language development!!

"the body" by bill bryson. this one is simple n kind of functions as a lil encyclopedia for the body, including famous discoveries and tips on how to take care of yourself. i think it's both a leisure read and also really educational so i loved it. there's stuff like women's anatomy, history of insulin production and there's even a section on food/metabolism which was my fave. it's all in layman's terms so it's suitable for anyone to pick up

i got kinda carried away w this haha but i hope you enjoy reading if you do read any of them! it's overcast where i live and now i wanna curl up with a book :'')

thank you lovely for the ask <3

[catsrightnow]

we need to study the phenomena of cats being called in diff languages and responding to them more. ljke . how are all the spanish speaking cats doing in america el gatos.

OOOH smth rlly interesting abt cats n languages is that since theu have more sensitive hearing than humans, they notice pitch and tone changes more than humans do. So likeee. As an example Korean is generally spoken slightly higher than English (Not like anime girl high I mean like a different of ~40-60 Hz). Often when u see videos of ppl calling to cats in multiple languages, they might use the native language of the area first and then switch to others, and the cat will only look over upon hearing a language with a distincly different tone

ex. if the native language is english and the person talks in english n then spanish, they have similar tones that the cat has learned to ignore. If they then switch to Korean, with a mutch higher tone, or Dutch, with a lower tone, that'll often be sure surprising to the cat who will then look over.

Since people often talk to cats in higher voices, it tends to have more of an effevt with languages that have a lower tone than the native one- ex if the native one is english, then stuff like Hungarian or Dutch will get their attention. However in isolation higher sounds register more importance, which is why long ee sounds are good for cat names !!

Words w/ many syllables or tone changes can also be noticable if theyre not used to it, for example tonal languages like Chinese or polysynthetic languages like German, since those will bave more variation in the sound as well

[softsnzstuff]

I bring questions 🍊

Favorite fictional world?

What’s a food you want to try?

What was the last book you read?

What’s a movie you wish you could see for the first time again?

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

Favorite ice cream flavor and toppings (if any)?

Do you collect anything?

Favorite candy bar?

What’s your phone case?

What’s your favorite condiment?

(I have a google doc full of questions that I use for daily polls in a server I run lmao 😭)

Hello bestie! Don’t think I forgot about you. I’ve just been pondering my answers to these amazing questions!

•Favorite Fictional world?

Okay THIS is the question I’ve been hung up on for an hour because damn.

I thought the answer was easy - wizarding world - because who doesn’t want to be a wizard?? But there’s like. So many good options here.

SO my official answer is actually Doctor Who. Which is kinda silly bc it takes place legit on earth?? But I’d just have the ability to be the companion and travel? Like the 11th Doctor IS my comfort character. He makes me feel safe. He makes me feel special and loved and that’s so silly to say out loud lmfao rip but he’s all I had when I was having a rough time like ages 13-17 and so yeah. That’s my final answer. Doctor Who reality.

•A food you want to try?

I have never tried a macaron??? And they look so good but I have no idea what to expect!? So I really want to try one I’m just scared it’ll disappoint lol.

•Last book you read?

“All This Time” by Mikki Daughtry and Rachael Lippincott

I finished it in like three hours. Ending was….something.

•A movie you wish you could see again for the first time?

Damn this is a good one. For the very first time????

“Wet, Hot, American Summer” is a contender because it’s funny as shit always, but it hit different that first time. I was on the floor laughing my ass off. Like that film? Peak comedy for real.

But if I’m going for a more serious option… maybe “Rent” (2005) or “Harry Potter”.

•What superpower would I have and why?

Listen I’ve thought about this for YEARS. Because at first it was flying and then it was invisibility and then it was telekinesis.

But like in terms of cool shit - maybe something like Wanda Maximoff where I can dream walk and make people see things or let myself see things?

•Favorite Ice Cream Flavor?

I’m usually a milkshake gal. Either classic cookies n cream with the hot fudge drizzle OR peanut butter chocolate ((but only if I’m at Baskin Robbins)).

HOWEVER if we’re talking exclusive ice cream only - it’s a tie between “Circus animal cookie” from this local shop by my house OR “chocolate malted crunch” from the Thrifty’s inside RiteAid lol

•Do you collect anything?

Too many things. I collect certain coins - mostly diff variations of the quarters. I have a display book that has all of the 50 states series. Then I have a second display book with 49/50 state national parks ((looking for that last one god dammit)) and now I’m collecting the new series of historical women!! And it’s so cool bc the George Washington on the front is a different one than the other quarters! I also have like a silver penny and some other random rare ones from the past that were gifts.

I also collect Featherly Friends birds from Target ☠️ they have me in a chokehold, what can I say?

•Fave candy bar?

Chocolate candy bar? Twix. Hands down. But candy in general I actually go for strawberry or cherry sour punch straws. 🤤

•Phone case?

Okay so this do be my mental illness but I can never ever decide on one theme or pattern for a phone case and most of the decorative ones seem flimsy?? So deadass mine is a two-toned pink otterbox case 🤣

And before this it was a two toned purple otter box case. And even before that. A two toned blue otter box case 🤡 I’m just very clumsy okay

•Fave condiment?

It’s gotta be a tie between Ketchup and Ranch - however I think ketchup is more versatile? Idk it’s pretty even but I’m usually satisfied with one of those

(Pls note. Get out of here with that Fuckin Kranch shit I don’t want that here 🤣🤣))

[eremiie]

LMFAOO no bc that’s so true tho they all got like six names n i’ve seen yeager spelt diff so many times 😭😭

i swear like why can’t we as a community agree on one spelling so i don’t have to damn tag the same fucking character 86 times????? eren is not that special to have several variations of his name. i say we jump him. and grisha for being complicated smh

[merrysithmas]

With that post talking about same gender attraction being what gay and bi are… i gotta ask… given genders are culture … do you think it is cultural to be gay or bi or straight … or do you think orientation evolved and gender is evolved too? If so does that mean sex stereotypes evolved as real…? Does it mean “homosexuality” in other nonhuman species isn’t actually homosexuality because we are just going off of sex and not gender…? Or is there cultural orientation (gender based) AND innate orientation (sex based) in humans? And then other animals with sexes just have the sex based ones.

hm i'm a little confused by this wording and not sure what post you are referring to?

but in my opinion gender and sex are both spectrums.

gender is one's internal sense of self, sex is one part of this. both of these things are a fixed identity that simply interact with how any specific society defines its roles and who in that society enforces these standards. and sex is a very complicated concept and not at all binary.

sex is an amalgamation of hormone levels, phenotypes (first and secondary sex traits), physiology (corpus collosum shape/size/branches etc), cell chimerism (certain organs with more of one parents genes expressed and others with the other parent), possible inclusion of DNA from absorbed twins in utero, chromosomes (many variations possible), crossing over in meiosis effecting receptor site gene expression (SRY gene can be muted during crossing over in gamede creation aka sperm/egg. a muted SRY gene for example will make an XY person not develop testosterone-based features in utero, but still have XY chromosomes etc). this combined with natural personality, etc this is all what sex entails plus much more. and all these traits are different levels inside EVERYONE therefore:

sex is INFINITE. my guess as a queer scientist is that there is likely a bell curve of various sex expressions which can be grouped as "cis" or "trans" or "other" in any give societal space. and that this bell curve of infinitely complex sex expressions in any given society has an influence on (but its important to note this is not the only influence in one's life) who is perceived as "cis" or "trans" within that society.

and of course this is regarding gender (who we are) not gender expression which can vary widly regardless of being cis or trans. for example, a cishet man can just like make up and pink and dresses and want to express himself that way. and why not? perfectly great. a trans woman can want to dress in a masc way and that's great. a lesbian can want to be high femme. whatever. that is merely aesthetic perference. you can't judge a persons sex or gender on their clothing, hair, or what have you.

gender (who you are), sex (what your body is doing), gender expression (how you choose to look), and sexual/romantic attraction (who you want/love) are four entirely diff categories and can be put together in infinite ways.

basically, as the Vulcans say, the world is full of infinite diversity in infinite combinations

and whoever someone says they are: they are.

so when i say i am nonbinary i know my internal body, my physical and mental brain, and my abstract soul are not describable by Western /society's limited categories of Man & Woman. i as an entire human body and soul dont fit in those categories as defined, often erroneously & with political/religious agenda, by Western Society. my internal physical identity i believe is different than what a "cis" woman or man would be.

for example, there have been numerous studies which suggest nonbinary people have different shaped corpus collosums than binary trans people or cis people. the corpus collosum is the structure which connects the two halves of one's brain. in cis people women have a web, men have columns (indicating women are better multitaskers and interpersonal communicators), binary trans people's CCs fit with their cis counterpart - so a trans woman will have a web/trans man will have columns, and nonbinary people have a mix of webs and columns. this is just one example.

plus i genuinely believe souls/energies/essences are genderless and we have access to all forms of energy in our physical forms via my buddhist beliefs. to me, the shape and form of our bodies are irrelevant.

as for sexual attraction yes people are gay, straight, bi, pan, ace, omni, etc etc etc! sexual attraction is complicated because sex is a spectrum! our language is just catching up to it which is why i think Queer is becoming a big great term meaning an identity or relationship: not cishet, not status quo (rejecting both sex binarism and gender binarism as per current society).

it is up to the individual how they view their personal sexuality. all those identities absolutely exist. some ppl may be attracted to bodies, others dont care, some are attracted to certain things and not others.

that is up to the individual how they wish to define themselves, but all those identities very much exist naturally in all forms of nature.

the over all lesson is all queer people are valid and their identities are true and who we say we are. and society just needs to catch up to us and let go of such rigid rules about every facet being run by its defintion of binarism and straightness. inclusivity of all will bring freedom to all.

[vriskabot]

oh my god WHY are there so many ship tags for the ship of dave and vriska theres at LEAST 15, not counting variations of a few like. i went in the tags bc im making a bundle on xkit for when i post art bc im not about to remember FIFTEEN DIFF TAGS EVERY TIME but like. look at this mess. d8 knight, dave x vriska, daveska, davevris, davevriska, davris, davrisk, davriska, ironies in the fire, spider cider, spinning webs spinning records, strider8ite, vrisdave, vriska x dave, we8comic WHY???????? im literally making the executive decision as current sitting ceo of this ship that davris is the official tag (the top two alternatives being we8comic and  ironies in the fire in that order)

[hakunoluvr]

YOU'RE PROVIDING ME SO MUCH GOOD FOOD CHARLIE OH MY GODDD TYSM!!!!!!!

❔ PERHAPS ?? 😳✨️

okay well first of all i need to say kaeya and hakuno bc i am so invested and also diluc!!

but also how about:

AL-HAITHAM; he's gonna be curious about her amnesia maybe he'll make a project out of learning about it.

ROBIN HOOD: I'm pretty sure I've mentioned him before but yes pls gimme i love the concept

ACHILLES: let him encourage hakuno into doing things. but also if hakuno wants to see past the guise I'm game

GILGAMESH: he'll be terrible but she can deal with him.

MAKOMO: would hakuno like a spirit friend who likes flowers and sounds far wiser than she should

EIJIROU: listen he's birthday boy tomorrow so he deserves to be thrown at people. plus he'll be the nicest person to hakuno

SHINSOU: quiet friends / people who can appreciate peace together

NAOMI MISORA: either a detective-y kind of thread or i could see naomi being a master hakuno teams up with

TANJIRO: tanjiro has a fate verse im throwing it at u

[gaijinhunter]

MHRise Music Interview

I am sure an official English one will be made available soon, but Capcom released an interview with the Sound Director and Lead Composer for MHRise that I wanted to share. Here is some fan translations of it for now:

Ref: https://www.facebook.com/MHRiseJP/posts/212575780589186

Recap from sound/music interview.

Kosuke Tanaka (Sound Director)

Satoshi Hori (Lead Composer)

Introduce your job:

Tanaka: I am in charge of sound direction, review, and schedule management. I create sounds as well, like the Wirebug movement sounds, title logo sound effect, etc.

Hori: I am the lead composer, in charge of overall music direction, musical concepts for each monster’s themes (instruments, scope, etc.) and work with the other composers on the game.

What was the direction for the sound design?

Tanaka: Something catchy and easy to understand. The design for iceborne was nuanced and layered, but for Rise we wanted it to be something that felt familiar at first listen. We make a huge effort to respect the roots of the franchise sound and we have a lot of old sounds mixed in with the new ones as well.

The sounds in the TGS trailer featured stuff like bird cries in the distance. How did you do those?

Tanaka: We did a lot of field recordings to make it sound realistic. Stuff like wild birds, ambient noise in caves, old temple bells, etc. We recorded a lot.

We heard a lot of diff. Instruments in the music in the trailer.How did you go about recording it?

Hori: We used a ton of diverse instruments, from shakuhachi to shamisen, shinobue, and of course koto, biwa and hichiriki, ryuteki, taiko, kagura suzu, conch shells, etc. so a lot of familiar but also exotic sounds as well. We didn't just use Japanese instruments, we also use orchestra which really nails that monster hunter feel and lets us greatness of the monsters. We recorded in various locations like Japan, LA, and London. The large scale monster orchestrations were done mainly at Abbey Road Studios in London. In this game we have more than just instrumental music, we have different types of songs as well.

How did you add chorus/singers to the special MHRise ver. Of Proof of a Hero?

Hori: We used a 24-person chorus. Combined with Japanese instruments, and orchestra, it makes for a very unique version of the song. The song is meant to bring inspiration and drive to the hunter as they work to protect the people of Kamura from the Rampages. There are places in the song with the theme of both Kamura Village and the Rampage play, so see if you can spot that.

How did you handle monster theme songs?

Hori: We didn’t do anything massively different as this should stay true to the series, but we did arrange them to be quite catchy and unique.

Ichinose: We decided to add “voice” to each song so even monster themes from past games have been arranged in a way that has some sort of vocal element.

The hunters talk in this game. How many variations of voice can you choose from?

Tanaka: I won’t go into specific numbers so you’ll have to look forward to the finished game for that, but there are plenty of choices, enough to make you stop and think. We have more than just reaction voices, we have actual lines of dialogue, so we tried to express different personalities with each variation we recorded. The scenario writer came up with a script with many different lines and we think it turned out great and the voices really make you feel the hunter is a real character with their own way of life and approach to things. 

On top of that, we did Japanese, English, and Monster Hunter language for them so it’s really hard to decide the voice for your hunter!

Why did you decide to have hunters talk?

Tanaka: We wanted hunter dialogue to be part of a way hunters communicate together. With the portable games up until now, everyone got together and could talk to each other, and we wanted to capture that busy and energetic social atmosphere in this game. We feel hunter voices will produce a similar effect. This also removes the need for voice chat or other companion apps so it lowers the communication hurdle for many hunters.

For online, how will that work with the different players around the world communicating together?

Tanaka: The dialogue will play in the language the player has selected even if the other players are not set to the same language. This will help players from all over the world communicate and play together. You can turn the voices on/off if you like of course.

Hope you liked that!

-Gaijinhunter

[birb-tangleblog]

I'm curious on your thoughts about Moon Cassandra. Many people seem to find the character unsympathetic in season 3, and maybe a way this could've been avoided is if the moon stone went into cass's mind, found her insecurities, and amplified them so she would take the moon stone (essentially twisting her into a person of only anger and hurt)? The king hinted that it could play mind tricks. Just have her (or rather the moonstone) be the main villian, no gothel or zhan tiri. What do you think?

Ty for such a thoughtful ask, this was fun to consider! I'm kinda having a hard time organizing my thoughts and making everything flow together tonight, so bear w/ me:

I really like Moon Cassandra as a concept! It's unique, character-driven, was genuinely surprising, and I like the themes it plays into. But I also agree w/ the sentiment that the plot with her wasn't executed well, mostly re. her motivations and redemption. (And there's also this... general confusion/dissonance in the writing between what the showrunners seem to have intended vs. what they actually ended up implying.)  

Imo Cass had a great setup for her villain arc, a solid reason to take the moonstone, and she was already a sympathetic character in S2- but the Gothel twist really hamstringed that.

Her arm being withered by someone so close to her, feeling overshadowed, bitterness and resentment, with some justified unhappiness over how her friends had been treating her is a really solid internal motivation, and it’s easy for me to feel for and even relate to her struggle. How many princess shows focus on the main char's best friend struggling w/ insecurity and self-worth, and make overtures at examining and deconstructing privilege and chosen one destiny narratives?? That's good stuff!

But then S3 revealed her surprise parentage, and we get massively downgraded from a strong internal motivation to a weak external one. It isn’t a natural conclusion to the previous build-up and it’s far less compelling. The wonkiness of this choice has been talked about and criticized extensively, but tl;dr I think it's hard to feel sympathy for Cass when her feelings are hard to understand, and her reasons for lashing out don’t make sense.  

Compare/contrast Varian’s more straightforward char progression and motives in S1; it’s easy to see why he feels and acts the way he does, and it's easy to feel bad for his circumstances.

(As an aside, she also has little agency in her redemption, and how it plays out makes any remorse/guilt seem insincere. That def doesn't help put her in the audience's good graces... but I feel like that's a diff issue.)

(And yeah, the twist works a little better wrt Cass’ villain arc if you view it with a ton of personal interpretation/analysis/subtext- e.g. seeing Gothel choose Raps over her was a tipping point, symbolic of all her other struggles, etc. etc.- but that's still not what's emphasized in the show itself. The cracks that started to show in S2 never come back up, but Gothel being her mother does, repeatedly- and it's a bad look.)

I've seen a lot of reenvisionings of S3 and Cass' villain arc w/o the Gothel twist, but idk if I've seen the idea of a ZT-less S3 w/ more emphasis on the moonstone as a semi-sentient entity. It's an interesting variation and I like it!

I think what you describe is actually kind of what happened- just with ZT actively manipulating and pushing Cass in that direction instead of the moonstone. Which, iirc, jives w/ how the creators thought of ZT in her ghostly form as a manifestation of intrusive thoughts and bad impulses- but that ended up putting ZT in an awk place herself, and made for some other issues with her characterization/motivation seeming underdeveloped. I could totes see the moonstone playing the same role without those complications. It might also allow for ZT to enter the story in a diff way.

I think having Cass be overtly influenced by the moonstone would run the risk of decreasing her agency as a char, so I’d say that it could work well w/ the caveat that the underlying choices would still have to be all Cass. The moonstone making her evil wouldn't work for me- for the same reason that Cass being a doppelganger or being possessed after coming out of the door weren’t my fav theories pre-S3.

Possessing the stone could negatively affect her mental state, make her more destructive b/c that's the stone's nature, or increase her willingness to go to extremes by lowering her inhibitions- but the anger, hurt, and insecurity getting amplified are all old emotional wounds that had been there for a long time before then, y’know? (And that might’ve actually been a cool parallel with Catalina’s werewolf curse, actually.)

(On the flipside, very deliberately giving Cass less agency would prob have made it easier for many fans to forgive her actions. And maybe that'd have better suited how the writers wanted Cass to come off by the end of the season?) 

That line about the moonstone whispering really seemed like it'd be more significant, and I wish they'd done something w/ it too. I'm not sure if it was a red herring or if they just dropped the ball there (like with so many other threads that got forgotten lmao). I guess we're left to conclude that Edmund is hearing voices from being isolated for so long? Though if he was to have a throwaway line about mental instability, you think they wouldn't have namedropped the extremely important magical artifact...

I hope this is coherent and I'm not just rambling, I think the main point of this post is just, any take on S3 and Cass' villain arc that is more character-driven and builds on what S1-2 established is going to appeal to me. The Gothel twist goes in the opposite direction, so I have an extremely hard time with it and it’s frustrating. Giving more personality and lore to the drops is also always gonna be interesting! I enjoy headcanons that give the sundrop/moonstone added quirks. 

Honestly, something I enjoy about Moon Cass as a char is just how many directions I can see her going in as an antagonist that feel believable.

[jockrightsnow]

omg I would love to hear you talk more about your tags on that last post—how you research syntax/speech patterns for non-native English speakers’ dialogue. this is something I struggle with a lot in writing fic (esp writing Russian players!) and I’d love some advice on how to get better at it.

god this got long! i just care about this! i will put under a cut for the 99% who will be like u little pedantic bitch.

so my answer is probably not AS helpful for Russian players because i have not written at any length with Russian characters and their language is SO different, so i find it is trickier! but the process is likely the same. i am not an expert at this by any means (only know/have taught spanish <--> english), but i do think it gives you more believable voices and also tends to help you understand the perspective. some people are better at english than others! some are less good! some have been in english classes for a while, some haven’t! there’s variation! you don’t have to do this to write well, but i think about it.

some things i think about:

1. sentence structure/syntax--more than vocabulary, sentence structure is the thing that gives most english language learners trouble and tends to give them away. in order to figure out common mistakes along these lines, it is helpful to look up how sentences are typically structured in someone’s native language. very often, people learning english will rely on those structures. this is actually why swedish is very easy to learn for english speakers--the sentence structure is most often subj, verb, object. but there are tricks: in complex declarative sentences, the verb will always be second, even if there is an adverb or object in the first position instead of the subject, in sentences with subordinate clauses, the independent clause inverts verb and subject. stuff like that does tend to give a sentence a different feel, and it absolutely very commonly almost-always sticks with someone. it’s foundational to how people construct their thoughts, it can be hard to change.

2. pronunciation--i don’t love to see heavy dialect written phonetically and i think many people don’t, but there are ways to consider it and certain ways to write it well. certain languages have different stresses or tone ranges or pitches, which can give off a certain Vibe if you’re used to english, which is on the more expressive end of the scale in tone and pitch (obviously i don’t think that’s better, but it is different and it does affect how people hear a speaker’s voice). certain sounds straight-up do not exist in other languages, certain letters are always pronounced a different way. it leads to predictable mispronunciation. for this, resources like this are very interesting.

3. actual cultural language differences! this is in part about what turns of phrase are common, what’s the cultural (or often, can be regional) “cat who got the cream”-type idioms, what is colloquial that you don’t realize is colloquial, etc, but it can also be about how you talk about concepts on a larger scale. 

the recent sidney crosby engaged fiasco is a good example of this--in russian, “girlfriend/boyfriend” has a very casual connotation, so for longer-term relationships, a russian person might say “fiancee” instead. there are certain languages where you talk about love using different words if a relationship is more casual. these are fun, i think, because i do think that kind of thing can be meaningful. 

there was some book or study i read about how maybe the way we learn language impacts how we think. i think parts of it were debunked (eg not having a word for something like ‘crush’ doesn’t mean you don’t feel it, that’s silly), but parts of it are certainly true, right? like, if you have a different way of talking about spatial awareness or time, your ability to translate those concepts will be affected because your thoughts are often structured along those lines. 

4. vocabulary--less important than you’d think, but still interesting to think about what words someone would have learned. i expect hockey players to know virtually every hockey-related word in english, and even in the KHL, there is some coaching done in english because plenty of non-russian players play there and never learn the language (it is very hard). pretty much everywhere, you’re going to know the english words for many hockey-related terms. but you might not know other complex words, because you might not ever have a reason to or a context where you would’ve learned it or been corrected on it.

i often have to examine or cross-examine spanish speakers, and you actually don’t want to correct every single thing they say--you only want to correct things which might lead to a misunderstanding, because you don’t want to seem pedantic to a judge or condescending to a witness. 

this is also true in a lot of social settings. so i do see some things which tend to go uncorrected because they don’t lead to any wrongness. for example, videoS plural in Swedish is video klipp. it’s the same, it’s really the same. but i notice sometimes that plural S is dropped by Swedish speakers or a word like “klipp” that’s so similar in meaning and context to the english word will come it. there’s one video where petey says ‘eller’ instead of ‘or’--it’s close, it’s a word that doesn’t matter, you wouldn’t correct it, it’s normal, you get the point. there are plenty of words that are so similar they might just have a different inflection, or which are entirely the same in different languages. these will not get corrected in daily conversation for the most part.

but there are also false cognates which you DO need to correct (eg in spanish embarazada = pregnant, i do need to correct it every single time because it has a huge impact on proceedings if someone’s pregnant) and being aware of those is also helpful! 

there are also some crutch words which differ from person to person (this is also true for native english speakers). when people use those and in what way can be important. there are certain things a specific person gets wrong only when nervous or not thinking or whatever (i personally find the “person realizes they’ve been speaking in a different language while having sex because it was so good” trope. exhausting, to say the least. but it is true that in higher-stress moments, someone might not have the capacity or desire to do internal translation, or might feel frustrated by it.)

i really do think all of this is Very interesting, and mostly my advice on doing it for languages you don’t know is:

1) be thoughtful about stuff, be believable. contrary to what it seems like from this whole dissertation, not every sentence needs to have errors in it, especially for people who are Growing/Learning/Actually Very Good at english. don’t be condescending about it. being at an intermediate stage in english learning might make someone choose a simpler sentence that’s still correct. it might lead to an actual relevant misunderstanding or tonal shift. it might not. it might enhance someone’s understanding of a situation! it’s not all about just fucking shit up--it’s a hard thing to learn another language. you gotta respect people who are doing it!

2) hear people talk, preferably the people in question if available but doesn’t have to be (for characters i care about less, i will often wholesale map a sentence and then copy the structure exactly. i did this for pasta because i didn’t care about actually figuring out so much about him emotionally--i just listened to his ep of sp*ttin ch*clets as i wrote and copied several sentence structures exactly with my own Content and then, as you may be able to tell, gave up on that venture to movie-montage the rest because i am Lazy.) 

it’s interesting to hear someone talk both in their native language and in english--you get a feel for the tone and pitch differences, and also i love to see native language interviews because i tend to think they’re more reflective of someone’s actual thought processes when they’re not trying to come up with words or modifying their sentences to be simpler. petey’s swedish interviews, for ex, are far more reflective and eloquent and funny. but again, he is getting better very quickly, in part because swedish and english are more similar than they appear. progress is often slower for russians, because there’s a lot more ground between the two languages and a whole diff alphabet and also strong cultural affinity to where a good number of russians living in america almost exclusively hang out with other russians living in america. (see ex alex ovechkin, nikita zadorov--both have very russian-heavy social circles if Instant Gram is to be believed)

3) actually look up stuff like “common english mistakes for [x group]”--there are plenty of good language learning resources which will show you the mistakes people tend to make, the pronunciation errors, things like that. these are invaluable.

4) google translate stuff if you’re going to have a touching language-teaching moment. once read something where someone was contemplating how to say something, which they wouldn’t have done in reality, because how you say it was Exactly the same in the person’s native language. i also think it’s fun to read google-translated articles and see which things jump out at me as Weirdly translated, because those are often things which are going to be different! but that’s not gospel, it’s something you can look into. sometimes google translate is just bad.

[thewritershelpers]

Improving Your Writing when English Isn’t Your First Language (mega-ask)

As you can see above, we've gotten more than one question about writing, improving your writing, and even publishing in English when it's not your native language. First off: that's awesome. To anyone writing or even consuming in a language that's not your first, kudos to you.

You can google any variation of this question and get different articles with a ton of the same advice, and some with conflicting advice. Not only have I compiled the most commonly repeated information, but I've also reached out to people on our Discord server and others for their personal experiences.

I'll start off by listing concise versions of the advice and then expound on them further on in the article. Remember that we are not experts on your writing and that everyone learns in different ways and at different paces. These are in no particular order.

-be patient

-practice

-get feedback from native sources

-don't undermine yourself to your audience

-Grammarly

-research

-don't get discouraged

Be patient

That's first because, well, duh. Patience is so important for both yourself and your writing. Writing is hard enough of a passion without the added difficulty of doing it in a language that doesn't come naturally. In the world of literature, writing/publishing in your non-native language isn't just a matter of translating words. It requires translating of ideas, concepts, and even cultural norms, which is why just slapping it into Google translate won't work.

Part of the reason for the advice of having patience, too, is that writing in your native language needs to take time. It doesn't really matter how fast you can whip out 20 pages of a first draft--it'll still be a simple first draft. Writing is a craft that requires not just love and passion but time. So what if you need a little bit of extra time--or a lot of extra time--because you're accomplishing a feat most don't even think about attempting?

Next is to practice.

That goes hand in hand with what I said about being patient. Again, writing in and of itself is all about practice and doing it daily (not that I'm an expert on getting that done, but you know). But when it comes to practice another language, there are different ways you can do that. You can reach out to native speakers (for English, there are going to be so many people willing to help, even just in our community! you just need to ask) and practice having conversations or ask them to look over your work. Practice by turning on your favorite movie or TV show in English with subtitles in your native language. Watch videos on YouTube, find a Spotify playlist/podcast, in your target language. There's also plenty of people who have done what you're trying to do who have shared their experiences and what helped them on those same platforms.

Get feedback from native speakers

This is a bit of an expansion on what I mentioned in the previous paragraph. In my experience, and from what others have shared, writing in a non-native language can be pretty clinical. Writing with figurative language or in metaphors won't be as easy or come as naturally as it does in your own language. Things like idioms and even pop cultures reference aren't always going to translate even if you have the exact words. That's where native speakers come into play. If they're willing to look over your work, whether as a friend or in an editorial position, they can give you advice about whether the wording in one spot sounds clunky or if a phrase doesn't make sense or if there're synonyms for what you already used to help convey your message even stronger.

Don't undermine yourself

This is something that I personally am saying. It's not mentioned on any of the linked sites, and no one I talked to said it. But as someone who is a native English speaker (and even has a degree in it) I think this is super important. This point goes towards native English speakers/writers, too. Don't undersell yourself and undermine your work to the audience before they have even picked it up. Disclaimers are different, and it all comes down to the words you use and how you use them. Let your readers know, whether it's people on AO3 or a literary agent, that English isn't your first language. Let them know concisely that they may find some basic errors--but stop there. Don't grovel. You have nothing to apologize for, especially once you've given that warning (those is it really a warning? what's so dangerous or scary about a few mistakes?). You're writing is not going to be any less of an accomplishment for a few grammatical errors, or mistranslated phrases, or even typos. I've seen so many mistakes in published works that it's kind of ridiculous. But if you put something out there for someone to read and in the same breath say "I don't know that this is worth reading" I'm going to need extra convincing to pick it up. *kicks soapbox away*

Grammarly

*NOT sponsored*

Grammarly is a wonderful tool that you can use, for FREE. It not only (with the free version) helps correct spelling and grammar, but can also help point out the tone you're writing with. For example, right now, Grammarly is telling me that this writing sounds mostly informative--which it's meant to be--and a little appreciative and friendly. When sending emails I've had it tell me that it sounds formal (which I was going for), and I've also had it not say anything because the text was a different kind of writing (like when I'm proof-reading something being posting it on AO3...). I honestly don't know what else it helps with once you've paid because I've been happily using the free version for about 3 years now.

Research

Don't be afraid to pick up a book, or head to the library, or pull up Google. Research is paramount to writing anyway, let alone once you're doing it in another language. Your research options are limitless and can include your mutuals on social media as well as those dictionaries that translate from one language into another. Research can also include (in my humble opinion) binge-watching/reading your favorite things...in English. In four years of university, one of the most frequently said things was to improve your writing 1) write every day and 2) read every day. You're never going to learn from worrying or overthinking, and you're also never going to learn from just doing DuoLingo (that's more conversational than literary anyway).

Something a member of Discord specifically said in relation to research was to look at morphology, at the roots of words (and root words). Morphology is, in linguistics, looking at how words are formed. For example, let's look at "biology". There are parts to this word that each has a different meaning, that formed together created a new/elevated meaning. "ology" means the study of something, and bio means life. So biology is, simply, the study of life. Once you've got those basics of things like "ology" under your belt it'll become easier to not just translate words but the concepts (if this works with your learning style).

Last but not least, don't get discouraged.

Writers of all kinds get discouraged when writing in their native language. Even those of us who speak English as our first language make mistakes worth discouragement (you will never know how many typos were corrected by Grammarly as I wrote this all out the first time). English is not an easy language. It's not the hardest, but it's far from easy (learning another language isn't easy regardless of what languages are involved). This is a post from someone who is a non-native English speaker but you would never know unless they told us.

While researching for this, I found some articles/blog posts that said mostly the same thing, and are where I got some of the information

This one is from a native English speaker giving advice

This one is for writing for non-native English readers, but still has good advice

And finally this one is a blog post (I think) from someone who is a non-native English speaker!

In specific response to some of the asks:

English, like any other language, changes. It's a very dynamic language, actually, and from region to region, there will not only be different accents but different frames of reference. 1950 isn't so far back in time for the English to be drastically different from what is spoken today, but I'm in the USA and you're asking about Oxford. English in England has very different nuances, even more so than you would get between California and Texas and New York. This is a link to the Oxford English Dictionary list of words that became more common in the 50s. However, this is a generalized list, not specific to any English-speaking country let alone region or city. If you're wanting to look at how to convey the accent of people from/in Oxford, there are videos on YouTube of people speaking in different accents so that you can have an idea, a comparison, at least in your own mind. With the 50s it's going to be more just thinking really of what words and lifestyles and things weren't around yet; cell phones didn't exist yet. Here's another link to some stock images of Oxford in the 50s. Remember, this time was very close to WWII so there'll be lingering effects of that, especially in England.

About fight scenes and curses, there's a ton of resources on that. If you just search "fight" on our page, you'll get a ton of posts answering that question. Also, here's a link to a superb and excellent source on writing fight scenes. When it comes to curses...just watch Rage Quit on YouTube, or spend a while on TikTok. If you want to dive right in just Google "English curses" and there'll be YouTube videos, entries on Urban Dictionary, you name it.

When it comes to publishing, once you've gotten your manuscript is a perfect time to have a native-speaking friend look it over. Whether editing is their thing or not, they'll be able to help with the things that are really obvious. I don't have any experience publishing in a different language, though, so there might be other resources along the different stages to help you. Some general publishing advice I've gotten: when wanting to publish fiction, literature, start small. Start with short stories in literary journals, online and in print. You really can't make much headway with large publishing houses without a literary agent and it'll be easier to attract one if you have evidence that you can write, and write well enough people want to read it. When it comes to poetry, just start submitting. Get familiar with the process, and educate yourself on things like simultaneous submissions and a good rejection. Publishing is an ever-changing game that isn't cut and dry in any language or country. We can't tell you what's best, but my advice is to go with your gut and try your best. Don't be afraid to try again, too.

Everyone overthinks their writing. Or at least, everyone I know who writes does. Honestly, in my opinion, if you're not overthinking at least a little bit, you're not worried enough. You will never be able to fully know whether you've explained or described enough. A good chunk of the experience is up to the readers, so you have to leave them some wiggle room for imagination. But that doesn't mean you have to cheapen your story or short-change your characters. You mention specifically that you're POC, which I'm gonna guess also means that your characters will be POC. It's never too much to specify the race/ethnicity of your characters, even in a fantasy work. How you go about writing those descriptions might need to change but it's kind of like chocolate chips, in my mind: you decide those things with your soul.

So, there you have it. A ridiculously long way to say: you're awesome, you do you, practice, love yourself and your writing, and don't be afraid to put yourself out there (in any way).

(images read:

Anonymous said: Im writing a book based in Oxford in 1950s. how was the language different from now. I am not from an English speaking country at all. Never been outside my country either. And Im going to write a book based in England in English

Anonymous said: Hi there, I’m a writer for almost 3 years now but since English isn’t my first language I get discouraged easily if things I write come off strange to myself. Do you maybe have any advice for me, on how to motivate myself and not comparing myself with native English speakers? Thank you in advance!

Anonymous said: Hello! I starting to work on this shortfic but it’s been really hard. It’s like I’m trying to building a house alone and with my bare hands. Even though I’m already used to write in mother tongue. Any advice for non-english speaker trying to write their first story in English?

Yaelburstine said: Hi. Do you have any tips about how to write a good fight scene and curses that people speak English get cus’ it’s not my first language

gyger said: I am not a native english speaker, but most of the books I read are in english and I generally prefer writing in english as well. However, I am worried about making mistakes that I can’t recognize myself. I have no idea how good my english is to a native english speaker, plus some things are easier to write in my native tongue (such as dialogue). I’m also worried about publishing, since that definitely would be easier in my country than abroad. How do I decide what language to choose?

Anonymous said: As a POC writer and English as their second language, I overthink all the writing I do. I feel like I don’t describe my ideas thoroughly or my character descriptions are vague or not good enough. I’m currently working on a YA novel but I plan on writing a YA fantasy novel but I feel like my lack of vocabulary and grammar structure makes me give up on finishing my book. Is this normal for native English speaking authors or is this considered a language barrier thing? Thanks! Love your blog!

Thank you for your questions, and for your patience as we do our best to answer them.

-S

[prettylittlebrownskingyal]

Anime recs (some of my personal faves, not the public opinion, obviously):

About sports:

-Haikyuu (I am caught all the way up to season 4 and I have never been more passionate about volleyball in my life, not even when I played it)

-Run the Wind (it's about running but also...friendship? and motivation to follow your dreams?? I mostly just recall relating to some of the lazier characters and sensing the brotherhood vibes. It feels slow at first, but if you get invested you realize that you've binged the whole thing.)

-Free! & Free! Eternal Summer (you wanna get emotional attached to a bunch of teenage swimmers? I don't know why all these sports animes are about guy groups, but here's one about some divas -I mean swimmers. Quite the lil quaint group of nuggets, I gotta tell ya.)

About magic/supernatural

-Sailor Moon (need I say more? She's our queen and we are never too old to watch her steadily turn from crybaby to warrior of the people. If you know, you know. FIGHTING EVEIL BY MOONLIGHT-!!)

-Avatar: the Last Airbender (technically counts as an anime. Holds my entire childhood, every personality trait I have...for sure came from characters in this show. Iconic. Never loses its charms. Lots of magical realism that is centered on the natural elements of the planet, some spiritualism too. Appa is reason enough to watch this show.)

-Legend of Korra (technically a sequel storyline to Avatar: the Last Airbender, but...it's SO DIFFE R E NT. I was at first put off by my lack of OG characters, but there are so many references embedded in there, and you get to meet everybody's kids and grandkids. Also Korra? The embodiment of female pride and power, nothing will forsake her for long. Kinda STRESSFUL how many obstacles the writers create in a single season...let alone 4.)

-Inuyasha (on oldie but a goodie. Technically the first anime I ever saw...*sigh* ah youth...Anyway, it'sset in feudal Japan, but there's time travel so you won't feel too out of place. There are of course demons and magical priestesses and demon hunters and cranky, frankly exhausted, old women. Has a quality plot line and great characters. There is a new sequel show airing about the future of the characters and their bloodlines, I've only seen an episode or two but the nostalgia alone made me want to weep.)

-Fairy Tail (a CLASSIC. It has magic and dragons and FAERIES and found family and is so loveably chaotic, also: hype af fight scenes)

-Soul Eater (another chaotic group of teens that fight impossible battles, the intro music always hits hard for nO rEASON, a little more blood and angst but not like not enough to cancel out the immense joy/annoyance that is Excalibur)

-Noragami (a new take on the concept of how gods are created, sad boi hours have started, wholesome main characters, the graphics are beautiful, some of the monsters can be a tad creepy - but I'm a wimp so it could just be me)

-Bungou Stray Dogs (I HAVE ADOPTED ATSUSHI. HE IS MY SON NOW, THANK YOU FOR COMING. The art style is one I enjoy, very crisp lines and a good variation in character designs. The protagonist is named Atsushi and he is a golden child who must be protected yet allowed to flourish at all times. There is detective work, some great fights, lots of random character flaws, OH and honey the story line is TWISTY!!)

-My Hero Academia/Boko no Hero Academia (this is the show where my broccoli son goes THROUGH IT literally the WHOLE TIME. A great story of the underdog, and the variety of characters and powers are...*chef's kiss*, makes me want to lowkey live in this universe but the amount of villians... gurl it'stoo much for my weak heart smh)

- Cannon Busters (okay, so I know people have mixed opinions on this one. Lemme say this: the intro and outro SLAP, point blank periodtt. The characters are diverse in color and abilities, it's like wild west meets technofuture meets medieval magic war times. The plotline is very all over the place, but hey it's the journey right. If you don't love SAM and Casey by the end of episode 1 you're doing it wrong.)

-BNA: Brand New Animal (the art style is so freaking cool yet cute we luv to see it. The world building is pretty good, basically it'slike Zootopia, but there are way more issues with this island o animals that have a human form half the time. Our main character is determined and just a tad naive, there is a wolf man with a pet crow and we're all okay with that)

-Sirius the Jaegar (straight up, I have no idea how my sister and I binged the whole show in like 2 days, but we did. Great fight scenes, the is blood but... that's because there are vampire-esque creatures also. The main character's childhood got done dirty, but go off on your origin story I guess.)

About slice of life:

- My Little Monster/Tonari no Kaibustu-kun (a wholesome high school romance with oddballs left and right, but you just wanna root for 'em y'know? A good wind down show. There's a chicken in it.)

- (Kaichou wa) Maid-Sama (an unconventional and lowkey erratic main heroine, the love interest seems weird but you'll adore him by the end, just simple high school shenanigans with ridiculously dramatic conflicts)

Phew, that was kinda long 😓 but those are just some animes that I have watched thoroughly off the top off my head to give you a good variety of options. Let me know if you already have seem any of these. Hope this helps you fight off boredom and repetition. Please tell me your faves, I love hearing about new shows!! 🤩 (And btw, my sleep patterns wrecked, I've been going to sleep at like 3AM 😅 Hahaha, send help.)

love love LOVE THIS!! Thank you for sharing babe ❤️❤️❤️ i actually haven’t watched that much anime so i’m glad to get a rundown on some good recs!

also!! i feel u!! team no sleep ftw

[lakhwanabhishek]

A Guide In Firefox to New And Creative CSS DevTools

Over the last few years, our team at

Firefox

has been operating on new CSS gear that address both cutting-edge strategies and age-old frustrations. We’re the Layout Tools team, a subset of Firefox Developer Tools, and our quest is to improve the modern-day internet layout workflow.

The internet has seen an first-rate evolution inside the final decade: new HTML/CSS functions, browser improvements, and design strategies. Our crew is dedicated to constructing gear that fit that innovation so that designers and developers can harness extra of the performance and creativity that’s now possible.

In this guide, we’ll proportion a top level view of our seven new equipment, with memories from the design system and realistic steps for trying out each tool.

1. Grid Inspector

It all started out three years in the past while our CSS format expert and dev advocate, Jen Simmons, labored with members of Firefox

DevTools

to construct a device that would aid customers in examining CSS Grid layouts.

As one of the most powerful new functions of the cutting-edge internet, CSS Grid had quick gained decent browser adoption, but it still had low internet site adoption. There’s a steep studying curve, and you nevertheless need fallbacks for sure browsers. Thus, part of our purpose turned into to help popularize Grid by way of giving developers a more hands-on manner to research it.

The middle of the device is a grid outline, overlaid at the page, which facilitates devs visualize how the grid is positioning their elements, and the way the layout modifications once they tweak their styles. We introduced numbered labels to identify each grid line, the capability to view up to 3 grids at once, and colour customization for the overlays. Recently, we also introduced support for subgrid, a modern day CSS specification implemented in Firefox and hopefully in extra browsers soon.

Grid Inspector changed into an idea for all of the tools that followed. It was even an notion for a brand new team: Layout Tools! Formed in late 2017, we’re unfold across 4 time zones and collaborate with many others in Mozilla, like our rendering engine builders and the best parents at MDN.

TRY OUT THE GRID INSPECTOR

In Firefox, go to our Grid example site.

Open the Inspector with Cmd + Shift + C.

Turn on Grid overlay through one of 3 ways:

Layout Panel:

In the Grid section, check the checkbox subsequent to .Content.Grid-content;

Markup View:

Toggle the “grid” badge next to ;

Rules View:

Click the button next to display:grid; inside

#page

-intro .Grid-content;

Experiment with the Grid Inspector:

Change the crimson overlay coloration to red;

Toggle “Line numbers” or “Extend strains infinitely”;

Turn on greater grid overlays;

See what takes place while you disable grid-gap: 15px in Rules.

2. The Editor of Form Path

The next project we have been working on has been the Shape Path Editor: our first visual editing tool.

CSS Shapes permits you to define shapes for textual content to drift around: a circle, a triangle, or a many-sided polygon. It can be used with the clip-path assets which permits you to trim elements to any of those equal shapes. These two techniques collectively open the opportunity for a few very specific graphic design-stimulated layouts.

However, creating these sometimes complicated shapes can be difficult. Typing all the coordinates manually and the use of the right CSS units is error-inclined and some distance eliminated from the creative mind-set that Shapes allows. Therefore, we made a device that allows you to edit your code through at once clicking and dragging shapes on the web page.

This kind of feature—visible editing—became new for us and browser tools in general. It’s an instance of how we will go beyond inspecting and debugging and into the world of design.

TRY OUT THE SHAPE PATH EDITOR

In Firefox, go to this web page at the An Event Apart website.

Open the Inspector with Cmd + Shift + C and pick out the first circular image.

In Rules, click on the icon subsequent to the shape-outside property.

On the web page, click on the factors of the shape and notice what happens while you drag to make the shape massive or tiny. Change it to a size that appears exact to you.

3. Text Reader

We have had a Fonts panel in Firefox for years which displays an informative list of all the fonts used in a website. We decided to convert this into a Font Editor to fine-tune the properties of a font by continuing our trend of designing in the browser.

A driving force behind this assignment become our purpose to support Variable Fonts at the same time that the Firefox rendering engine team changed into adding support for it. Variable Fonts gives font designers a way to offer fine-grained variations alongside axes, like weight, within one font file. It also supports custom axes, which offer each font creators and web designers an exceptional amount of flexibility. Our device routinely detects these custom axes and offers you a manner to alter and visualize them. This would otherwise require specialized websites like Axis-Praxis. Additionally, we added a characteristic that gives the ability to hover over a font name to spotlight in which that particular font is being used at the page. This is helpful because the manner browsers select the font used to render a bit of text can be complex and depend upon one’s computer. Some characters may be abruptly swapped out for a special font due to font subsetting. TRY OUT THE FONTS EDITOR

In Firefox, go to this variable fonts demo site.

Open the Inspector with Cmd + Shift + C and pick out the word “variable” within the title (the element’s selector is .Title__variable-web__variable).

In the 1/3 pane of the Inspector, navigate to the Fonts panel:

Hover over the font name Output Sans Regular to look what receives highlighted;

Try out the load and slant sliders;

Take a take a look at the preset font versions within the Instances dropdown menu.

4. Flexbox Inspector

Our Grid, Shapes, and Variable Fonts equipment can together electricity some very advanced graphic layout at the internet, but they’re still somewhat present day based on browser support. (They’re nearly there, however still require fallbacks.) We didn’t need to work most effective on new features—we were drawn to the problems that maximum web builders face on a every day basis.

So we started work at the Flexbox Inspector. Design-wise, this has been our most ambitious assignment, and it sprouted some new consumer research strategies for our team.

Like Grid, CSS Flexbox has a fairly steep learning curve while you first get started. It takes time to truely recognize it, and a lot of us hotel to trial and error to gain the layouts we need. At the beginning of the assignment, our team wasn’t even sure if we understood Flexbox ourselves, and we didn’t recognize what the main challenges have been. So we leveled up our understanding, and we ran a survey to discover what human beings wanted the most when it got here to Flexbox.

The outcomes had a big effect on our plans, making the case for complicated visualizations like grow/decrease and min/max. We continued operating with the community at some point of the task by means of incorporating remarks into evolving visual prototypes and Nightly builds.

The tool consists of two main parts: a highlighter that works just like the Grid Inspector’s, and a detailed Flexbox device inside the Inspector. The middle of the tool is a flex item diagram with sizing info.

With help from Gecko format engineers, we have been able to show the step-by-step size choices of the rendering engine to offer users a full image of why and the way a flex object ended up with a positive size.

Note: Learn the full tale of our design manner in “Designing the Flexbox Inspector”.

TRY OUT THE FLEXBOX INSPECTOR

In Firefox, visit Mozilla’s Bugzilla.

Open the Inspector with Cmd + Shift + C and pick out the element div.Inner (simply inside the header bar).

Turn on the Flexbox overlay through one of 3 ways:

Layout Panel:

In the Flex Container section, turn on the switch;

Markup View:

Toggle the “flex” badge next to ;

Rules View:

Click the button next to display:flex.

Use the Flex Container panel to navigate to a Flex Item known as nav#header-nav.

Note the sizes shown within the diagram and length chart;

Increase and reduce your browser’s width and see how the diagram modifications.

Interlude: Doubling Down On Research

As a small team and not using a formal person research support, we’ve regularly resorted to design-by-dogfooding: basing our critiques on our personal stories in using the tools. But after our achievement with the Flexbox survey, we knew we wanted to be better at collecting statistics to guide us. We ran a new survey to assist tell our subsequent steps. We crowdsourced a list of the 20 largest demanding situations faced by internet devs and asked our community to rank them using a max-diff format. When we discovered that the huge winner of the demanding situations was CSS Layout Debugging, we ran a follow-up survey on unique CSS insects to discover the largest pain points. We supplemented these surveys with user interviews and user testing. We also asked folks to rank their frustrations with browser developer tools. The clear pinnacle difficulty became moving CSS modifications returned to the editor. This became our subsequent project.

5. Changes Panel

The difficulty in shifting one’s work from a browser developer device to the editor is one of those age-old issues that we all just got used to. We were excited to make a easy and straight away usable solution.

Edge and Chrome DevTools got here out with versions of this device first. Ours is centered on assisting a wide range of CSS workflows: Launch DevTools, trade any patterns you want, and then export your modifications by means of either copying the overall set of changes (for collaboration) or simply one changed rule (for pasting into code). This improves the robustness of the whole workflow, such as our other format tools. And this is just a start: We recognize accidental refreshing and navigation from the web page is a huge source of facts loss, so a manner to bring persistence to the tool may be an essential next step. TRY OUT THE CHANGES PANEL

In Firefox, navigate to any website.

Open the Inspector with Cmd + Shift + C and pick an element.

Make some adjustments to the CSS:

Modify patterns inside the Rules pane;

Adjust fonts within the Fonts pane.

In the right pane of the Inspector, navigate to the Changes tab and do the following:

Click Copy All Changes, then paste it in a text editor to view the output;

Hover over the selector name and click Copy Rule, then paste it to view the output.

6. Inactive CSS

Our Inactive CSS feature solves one of the top troubles from our layout debugging survey on precise CSS bugs: “Why is this CSS assets now not doing anything?”

Design-wise, this feature is very simple—it grays out CSS that doesn’t affect the page, and shows a tooltip to give an explanation for why the property doesn’t have an effect. But we understand this can enhance efficiency and cut down on frustration. We have been bolstered by research from Sarah Lim and her colleagues who constructed a similar device. In their studies, they observed that novice builders had been 50�ster at building with CSS when they used a device that allowed them to ignore beside the point code.

In a way, that is our favorite sort of feature: A low-placing UX fruit that barely registers as a feature, however improves the complete workflow without actually wanting to be determined or learned. Inactive CSS launches in Firefox 70 but may be used now in prerelease variations of Firefox, consisting of Developer Edition, Beta, and Nightly. TRY OUT INACTIVE CSS

Download Firefox Developer Edition;

Open Firefox and navigate to

wikipedia.Org;

Open the Inspector with Cmd + Shift + C and choose the center content material area, called central-featured;

Note the grayed out vertical-align declaration;

Hover over the data icon, and click on “Learn extra” if you’re interested.

7. Accessibility Panel

Along the way we’ve had accessibility functions developed by means of a separate group that’s typically one person — Yura Zenevich, this year together with his intern Maliha Islam.Together they’ve turned the brand new Accessibility panel in Firefox into a powerful inspection and auditing tool. Besides displaying the accessibility tree and properties, you could now run different varieties of checks on a page. So far the checks include shade contrast, textual content labels, and keyboard attention styling.

Now in Nightly, you can strive the new shade blindness simulator which harnesses our upcoming WebRender tech.

TRY OUT THE ACCESSIBILITY PANEL

Download Firefox Developer Edition;

Navigate to

meetup.Com;

In the developer tools, navigate to the Accessibility tab, and click the “Turn on Accessibility Features” button;

Click the drop-down menu subsequent to “Check for problems” and pick out “All Issues”;

Take a have a look at the diverse contrast, keyboard, and text label troubles, and click the “Learn greater” links if you’re interested.

Next Up

We’re currently hard at paintings on a browser compatibility tool that uses facts from MDN to expose browser-specific problems for a particular element. You can follow along on GitHub to learn extra. The Future

We’re committed to helping the modern-day web, and that means continuously converting and growing. New specs get implemented via browser vendors all of the time. Guidelines and nice practices around progressive enhancement, responsiveness, and accessibility evolve constantly. Us device makers need to hold evolving too.

And what of the long-lived, ever-present troubles in creating the web? What ordinary user interfaces need to be rethought? These are a number of the questions that preserve us going!

What approximately a better manner to navigate the DOM tree of a page? That a part of DevTools has gone essentially unchanged since the Firebug days.

We’ve been experimenting with functions like again and forward buttons that might ease navigation between lately visited elements. A extra dramatic trade we’re discussing is including a compact DOM view that makes use of a syntax much like HTML templating engines. The attention could be on the most common use case—navigating to CSS—as opposed to viewing/enhancing the source.

We’ve additionally been thinking about a higher element selector. We realize how it can be more effective to work inside the web page, with much less jumping backward and forward into DevTools. We should make the detail selector extra effective and greater persistent. Perhaps it could choose whitespace on a page and tell you what causes that space, or it can shed mild at the relationships between extraordinary elements.

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