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meichenxi · 3 years

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Hey! I hope you feel better soon

We haven't had a good long linguistics rant from you in a while!! How about you tell us about your favourite lingustical feature or occurrence in a language? Something like a weird grammatical feature or how a language changed

If this doesn't trigger any rant you have stored feel free to educate on any topic you can spontaneously think of, I'd love to hear it :D

ALRIGHT KARO, let's go!! This is a continuation of the other ask I answered recently, and is the second part in a series about linguistic complexity. I suggest you check that one out first for this to properly make sense! (I don't know how to link but uh. it's the post behind this on my blog)

Summary of previous points: the complexity of a language has nothing to do with the 'complexity' of the people that speak it; complexity is really bloody hard to measure; some linguists in an attempt to be not racist argue that 'all languages are equally complex', but this doesn't really seem to be the case, and also still equates cognitive ability with complexity of language which is just...not how things work; arguing languages have different amounts of complexity has literally nothing to do with the cognitive abilities of those who speak it.

Ok. Chinese.

Normally when we look at complexity we like to look at things like number of verb classes, noun classes, and so on. But Chinese doesn't really do any of this.

So what do Chinese and languages like Chinese do that is so challenging to the equicomplexity hypothesis, the idea that all languages are equally complex? I’ll start by talking about some of the common properties of isolating languages - and these properties are often actually used as examples of why these languages are as complex, just in different ways. Oh Melissa, I hear you ask in wide-eyed admiration/curiousity. What are they? By isolating languages, I mean languages that tend to have monosyllabic words, little to no conjugation, particles instead of verb or noun endings, and so on: so languages like Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai and many others in East and South East Asia.

Here’s a list of funky things in isolating languages that may or may not make a language more complex than linguists don't really know what to do with:

Classifiers

Chengyu and 4-word expressions

Verb reduplication, serialisation and resultative verbs

'Lexical verbosity' = complex compounding and word forming strategies

Pragmatics

Syntax

I'll talk about the first two briefly, but I don't have space for all. For clarity of signposting my argument: many linguists use these as explanations of why languages like Chinese are as complex, but I'm going to demonstrate afterwards why the situation is a bit more complicated than that. You could even say it's...complex.

1) Classifiers

You know about classifiers in Chinese, but what you may be interested to learn is that almost all isolating languages in South East Asia use them, and many in fact borrow from each other. The tonal, isolating languages in South East Asia have historically had a lot of contact through intense trade and migration, and as such share a lot of properties. Some classifiers just have to go with the noun: 一只狗，一条河 etc. First of all, if we're defining complexity as 'the added stuff you have to remember when you learn it' (my professors hate me), it's clear that these are added complexity in exactly the same way gender is. Why is it X, and not Y? Well, you can give vague answers ('it's sort of...ribbony' or 'it's kinda...flat'), but more often than not you choose the classifier based on the vibe. Which is something you just have to remember.

Secondly, many classifiers actually have the added ability to modify the type of noun they're describing. These are familiar too in languages like English: a herd of cattle versus a head of cattle. So we have 一枝花 which is a flower but on a stem ('a stem of flower'), but also 一朵花 which is a flower but without the stem (think like...'a blob of flower'). Similarly with clouds - you could have a 一朵云 'blob of cloud' (like a nice, fluffy cloud in a children's book), but you could also have 一片云 which is like a huge, straight flat cloud like the sea...and so on. These 'measure words' do more than measure: they add additional information that the noun itself does not give.

Already we're beginning to see the outline of the problem. Grammatical complexity is...well, grammatical. We count the stuff which languages require you to express, not the optional stuff - and that's grammar. The difference between better and best is clearly grammatical, as is go and went. But what about between 'a blob of cloud' versus 'a plain of cloud'? Is that grammatical? Well, maybe: you do have to include a measure word when you say there's one of it, and in many Chinese languages that are not Mandarin you have to include them every single time you use a possessive: my pair of shoes, my blob of flower etc. But you don't always have to include one specific classifier - there are multiple options, all of which are grammatical. So should we include classifiers as part of the grammar? Or part of the vocabulary (the 'lexicon')?

Err. Next?

2) Chengyu and 4-character expressions + 4) Lexical verbosity

This might seem a bit weird: these are obviously parts of the vocab! What's weirder, though, is that many isolating languages have chengyu, not just Chinese. And if you don't use them, many native speakers surveys suggest you don't sound native. This links to point number 4, which is lexical verbosity. 'Lexical verbosity' means a language has the ability to express things creativity, in many different manners, all of which may have a slightly different nuance. The kind of thing you love to read and analyse and hate to translate.

But it is important. If we look at the systems that make up the grand total of a language, vocabulary is obviously one of them: a language with 1 million root forms is clearly more 'complex', if all else is exactly the same, than a language with 500,000. Without even getting into the whole debacle about 'what even is a word', a language that has multiple registers (dialect, regional, literary, official etc) that all interact is always going to be more complex than one that doesn't, just because there's more of it. More rules, more words, more stuff.

Similarly, something that is the backbone of modern Chinese 'grammar' and yet you may never have thought of as such is is compound words. We don't tend to traditionally teach this as grammar, and I don't have time to give a masterclass on it now, but let me assure you that compounding - across the world's language - is hugely varied. Some languages let you make anything a compound; some only allow noun+noun compounds (so no 'blackbird', as black is an adjective); some only allow head+head compound (so no 'sabretooth', because a sabretooth is a type of tiger, not tooth); some only allow compounds one way ('ring finger' but not 'finger ring': though English does allow the other way around in some other words), and so on.

You'll have heard time and time again that 'Chinese is an isolating language, and isolating languages like monosyllabic words'. Well. Sort of. You will also have noticed yourself that actually most modern Chinese words are disyllabic: 学习，工作，休息，吃饭 and so on. This is radically different to Classical Chinese, where the majority were genuinely one syllable. But many Chinese speakers still have access to the words in the compounds, and so they can be manipulated on a character-by-character basis: most adults will be able to look at 学习 and understand that 学 and 习 both exist as separate words: 开学，学生，复习，练习 and so on.

I'm going to sort of have to ask you to take my word on it as I don't have time to prove how unique it is, but the ability that Chinese has to turn literally anything into a compound is staggering. It's insane. It's...oh god I'm tearing up slightly it's just a LOT guys ok. It's a lot. There are 20000000 synonyms for anything you could ever want, all with slightly different nuances, because unlike many other languages, Chinese allows compounds where the two bits of the compound mean, largely speaking, very similar things. So yes, you have compounds like 开学 which is the shortened version of 开始学习, or ones with an object like 吃饭 or 睡觉, but you also have compounds like 工作 where both 工 and 作 kind of...mean 'to work'...and 休息 where both 休 and 息 mean 'to rest'...and so on. So you can have 感 and 情 and 爱 and 心 but also 感情 and 情感 and 爱情 and 情爱 and 心情 and 心爱 and 爱心 and so on, and they all mean different things. And don't even get me started on resultative verbs: 学到，学会，学好，学完， and so on...

What is all of this, if not complex? It's not grammatical - except that the process of compound forming, that allows for so many different compounds, is grammatical. We can't make the difference between学会，学好 and 学完 anywhere near as easily in English, and in Chinese you do sort of have to add the end bit. So...do we count this under complexity? And if not, we should probably count it elsewhere? Because it's kind of insane. And learners have to use it, much like the example I gave of English prepositions, and it takes them a bloody long time. But then where?

Ok. I haven't had a chance to talk about everything, but you get the picture: there are things in Chinese that, unlike European languages, do not neatly fit into the 'grammar' versus 'vocabulary' boxes we have built for ourselves, because as a language it just works very differently to the ones we've used as models. (Though some of the problems, in fact, are similar: German is also very adept at compounding.) But as interesting as that difference is, the goal of typology as a sub-discipline of linguistics is to talk about and research the types of linguistic diversity around the world, so we can't stop there by acknowledging our models don't fit. We have to go further. We have to stop, and think: What does this mean for the models that we have built?

This is where we get into theoretically rather boggy ground. We weren't before?? No, like marsh of the dead boggy. Linguists don't know it...they go round, for miles and miles and miles....

Because unfortunately there isn't a clear answer. If we dismiss these things as 'lexical' and therefore irrelevant to the grammar, that is a) ignoring their grammatical function, b) ignoring the fact that the lexicon is also a system that needs to be learnt, and has often very clear rules on word-building that are also 'grammatical', and c) essentially playing a game of theoretical pass-the-parcel. It's your problem, not mine: it's in the lexicon, not the grammar. Blah blah blah. Because whoever's problem it is, we still have to account for this complexity somehow when we want to compare literally any languages that are substantially different at all.

On the other side of things, however, if we argue that 'Chinese is as complex as Abkhaz, because it makes up for a lack of complexity in Y by all this complexity in X' (and therefore all languages = equally complex), this ignores the fact that compounding and irregular verbs belong to two very different systems. The kind of mistake you make when you use the wrong classifier intuitively seems to be on another level of 'wrongness' to the kind where you conjugate a verb in the wrong way. One is 'wrong'. The other is just 'not what we say'. It's the same as the use of prepositions in English: some are obviously wrong (I don't sleep 'at my bed') but some are just weird, and for many there are multiple options ('at the weekend', 'on the weekend'). Is saying 'I am on the town' the same level of wrongness as saying 'I goed to the shops'? Intuitively we might want to say the second is a 'worse' mistake. In which case, what are they exactly? They're both 'grammar', but totally different systems. And where do you draw the line?

Here's the thing about the equicomplexity argument. As established, it stems from a nice ideological background that nevertheless conflates cognition and linguistic complexity. Once you realise that no, the two are completely separate, you're under no theoretical or ideological compulsion to have languages be equally complex at all. Why should they be at all? Some languages just have more stuff in them: some have loads of vowels, and loads of consonants, and some have loads of grammar. Others have less. They all do basically the same job. Why is that a big deal?

Where the argument comes into its biggest problem, though, is that if a language like Chinese is already as complex as a language like Abkhaz...what happens when we meet Classical Chinese?

Classical Chinese. An eldritch behemoth lurking with tendrils of grass-style calligraphy belching perfect prose just behind the horizon.

Let's look at Modern Chinese for a moment. It has some particles: six or so, depending on how you count them. You could include these as being critical to the grammar, and they are.

A common dictionary of Classical Chinese particles lists 694.

To be fair, a lot of these survive as verbs, nouns and so on. Classical Chinese was very verb-schmerb when it came to functional categories, and most nouns can be verbs, and vice versa. It's all just about the vibe. But still. Six hundred and ninety four.

Some of these are optional - they're the nice 'omggg' equivalent of the modern tone particles at the end of a sentence. Some of them are smushed versions of two different particles, like 啦. Some of these, however, really do seem to have very grammatical features. Of these 694, 17 are listed as meaning ‘subsequent to and later than X’, and 8 indicate imposition of a stress upon the word they precede or follow. Some are syntactic: there are, for instance, 8 different particles solely for the purpose of fronting information: 'the man saw he'. That is very much a grammatical role, in every sense of the word.

The copula system ('to be') is also huuuuuuugely complex. I could write a whole other post about this, but I'll just say for now that the copula in Classical Chinese could be specific to degrees of logical preciseness that would make the biggest Lojban-loving computer programmer weep into his Star Trek blanket. As in, the system of positive copulas distinguishes between 6 different polar-positive copulas (A is B), 2 insistent positive (A is B), 19 restricted positive (A is only B), and 15 of common inclusion (A is like B). Some other copulas can make such distinctions as ‘A becomes or acts as B’, ‘A would be B’, ‘may A not be B?’ and so on. Copulas may also be used in a sort of causal way (not 'casual'), creating very specific relationships like ‘A does not merely because of B’ or ‘A is not Y such that B is X’.

WHEW. And all we have in modern Chinese is 是。

I think we can see that this is a little more complex. So saying 'Modern Chinese is as complex as Abkhaz, just in a different way' leaves no space for Classical Chinese to be even more complex...so....where does that leave us?

Uhhhhhh. Errrrrr.

(Don't worry, that's basically where the entire linguistics community is at too.)

The thing is, all these weird and wacky things that Classical Chinese is able to do are all optional. This is where the problem is. Our understanding of complexity, if you hark back to my last post so many moons ago, is that it's the description of what a language requires you to do. We equate that with grammar because in most of the languages we're familiar with, you can't just pick and choose whether to conjugate a verb or use a tense. If you are talking in third person, the verb has to change. It just...does. You can't not do it if you feel like it. There's not such thing as 'poetic license' - except in languages like Classical Chinese, well. There sort of is.

The problem both modern Chinese and Classical Chinese shows us to a different extent is that some languages are capable of highly grammatical things, but with a degree of optionality we would not expect. Classical Chinese can accurately stipulate to the Nth degree what, exactly, the grammatical relationship between two agents are in a way that is undoubtedly and even aggressively logical. But...it doesn't have to. As anybody who has tried anything with Classical Chinese knows, reading things without context is an absolute fucking nightmare. As a language it has the ability to also say something like 臣臣 which in context means 'when a minister acts as a minister'...but literally just means...minister minister. Go figure. It doesn't have to do any of these myriad complex things it's capable of at all.

So...what does this mean? What does all of this mean, for the question of whether all languages are equally complex?

Whilst I agree that the situation with Classical Chinese is fully batshit insane, the fact is most isolating languages are more like Modern Chinese: they don't do all of this stuff. And whilst classifiers and compounds are challenging, they're not quite the same as the strict binary correct/incorrect of many systems. I'm also just not convinced that languages need to be equally complex. However.

HOWEVER. In this essay/rant/lecture (?), I've raised more questions than I've answered. That's deliberate. I both think that a) the type of complexity Chinese shows is not 'enough' to work as a 'trade off' compared to languages like Abkhaz, and b) that this 'grammatical verbosity' and optionality of grammatical structures is something we don't know how to deal with at all. These are two beliefs that can co-exist. Classical Chinese especially is a huge challenge to current understandings of complexity, whichever side of the equicomplexity argument you stand on.

Because where do you place optionality in all of this? Choice? If a certain structure can express something grammatical, but you don't have to include it - is that more complex, or less so? Where do we rank optional features in our understanding of grammar? It's a totally new dimension, and adds a richness to our understanding that we simply wouldn't have got if we hadn't looked at isolating languages. This, right here, is the point of typology: to inform theory, and challenge it.

What do we do with this sort of complexity at all?

I don't know. And I don't think many professional linguists do either.

- meichenxi out

#and that my friends is why I love Classical Chinese so much #askies #meichenxi manages #thank you karo that was very very very interesting!!#it's late now so I'll check over it again tomorrow but I don't imagine I'll be inundated with reblogs lmao #linguistics #lingblr #langblr #classical chinese #chinese #modern chinese

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the-modern-typewriter · 3 years

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Helloo. Not a request.

I had this question: If a writer doesn't have a big and complex vocabulary, does it matter? Like if a person writes really well yet needs words? Does it mean they are a good writer?

Short answer: yes vocabulary absolutely matters, but vocabulary isn’t what defines if you are a good writer or not.

Long answer:

Point 1 - Vocab as icing

To me at least, one way to think about it is that vocabulary is the decorations on a cake. Excellent vocabulary can make your writing more appealing because it sounds beautiful, or allows you to communicate what you mean in a more specific and sometimes more effective way.

E.g: house, home and residence all mean more or less the same thing, but ‘home’ is the word that has connotations of cosiness and safety. Therefore, if you want to make it clear that a character likes where they reside, and feel like they belong there, ‘home’ would be a good word choice.

E.g: asexual. The word for someone who does not experience sexual attraction.

Both examples illustrate the way that having a vocabulary matters. The first because the subtle nuances of how we use language does matter and does have an impact on readers. It is why you study word choice etc. in English classes etc. The second because it is a really good example of it can be difficult and even stressful to try and express something if there is a specific word for something that you are trying to explain, but you don’t know the word. Words and definitions, and so vocabulary to discuss things, have power that should not be dismissed. This is what powers our ability to persuade and convince other people effectively, which is what powers things like politics and so the world.

On a purely creative writing level, having having a good vocabulary can mean you make word decisions faster, because they are at the tip of your brain rather than something that you need to look up.

However, as I said, vocab is decoration. If I buy a cake and it’s all icing and the actual cake beneath it is just not that great, I’m going to be personally very disappointed by that failure of a cake. The cake of writing is skills like characterisation, coming up with an engaging plot, being able to pace the story well, or come up with interesting ideas or world building. They all matter just as much, if not more to me, than vocabulary.

I could describe both home and asexual in different ways and still get my point across without using the specific word. Hence, decoration.

Point 2 - It’s always better to be understood

To me, at least, it is more important to be understood than anything else.

The whole point of communicating is so that the other person can understand you - there has been debate in this over different time periods and writers, but that is something I feel strongly about. If I have to swallow a thesaurus to know what someone’s story is actually trying to say I’m not going to bother. It pulls me out of the story.

That is not to say that writing should never stretch the reader, because that is how we learn new words, but if the whole thing is so thick with jargon or complex words that it gets in the way I’m not going to be overly impressed.

Leading to...

Point 3 - Complex does noes not mean better

The thing about writing and vocabulary, as partially highlighted by the example in point 1, is picking the right word for what you want to tell the reader.

Just because a word is more complicated or more obscure doesn’t mean it does the job better. The example I always fall on is ‘said’. I use words other than ‘said’ as a dialogue tag, but you will notice I use ‘said’ a lot even if it’s the most basic dialogue tag ever. Why? Because we are so used to ‘said’ that our brains do not fully register it. It allows the reader to track who is speaking without actually interrupting the story.

Contrast to:

“I don’t care!” the villain screamed.

“Yes you do!” the hero uttered. “You care so much that it kills you.”

“Shut up!” the villain wailed. “Just shut up!”

It’s clunky!

Simple doesn’t mean ugly or worse.

Point 4 - Everything starts with a first draft

Unless you need to spit out a piece of writing in the next five minutes without time to draft, edit or consider, it doesn’t matter what you have at your immediate disposal. Like touch typing, vocab can make it easier to grab at what you mean, but beyond that...

We save numbers on our phone so we don’t have to memorise them.

You can type something and [roughly want I want here, come back later after I looked up the word] before continuing.

That’s editing. And editing is at least 50% of writing as a craft.

Conclusion

Vocabulary has its impact, and I’m not going to dismiss it because writing is made up of language so having a good grasp, knowledge and understanding of language does help.

However, it is not the end all of writing. You can absolutely be a good writer without a big, complex vocabulary.

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kyidyl · 3 years

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Kyidyl Explains Bones - Part 3

Well, I had this halfway done and then TUMBLR ATE IT, so let me start again. UGH.

(These posts are collected under the KyidylBones tag. Do with that information what you will, lol.)

So what are we getting into today? Sex determination!

Ethical Note: I’m adding this bc not everyone who sees this post saw my post yesterday and this is important info, especially on Tumblr. Anthropologists of all stripes are well aware that sex and gender are extremely complicated. Trust me, we know. But we still do sex determination for a few reasons. First, because missing persons databases are arranged on a male/female binary, and if we’re comparing a set of remains to that database to identify the remains then we need that info. Second, demographic info for populations that have disappeared is important, even if those populations are historical. This might shock you (<--sarcasm), but written records are usually either lacking or inaccurate. Third, if we know the sex of the skeleton we can compare that to the grave goods and learn some interesting cultural things, including possibly being trans, because none of the signs of being trans survive physically in the skeleton. So I am going to be using male/female binary language, but it isn’t to exclude the wide variety of sexes and genders that don’t exist on that binary, it’s because it’s what I’ve got to work with. And if you have questions about this, feel free to ask, but please be respectful.

Alright, so there are some vocab words for today’s post and I had them all nicely written out in an easy to read paragraph, but it got eaten, so I’m just gonna present them in list fashion this time:

Characteristic - All physical markers of human variation exist on a spectrum because humans are varied and we invented the categories to begin with. If something is characteristic of, say, a male? It means that it is very, very distinctly male. It matches the stereotypical expectation of what you’d see in a male. It’s a standard for an obvious example of a given thing.

Landmark - A landmark on your bones is a feature of the bones that is always in the same place. We use this to help us identify a bone and to help us know what side it is on. IE, your lesser trochanter is a bump on your femur (thigh bone) that is on the inside towards the back. It’s always in that spot, so we know which direction it should face and ergo which side it would be on. Landmarks are unique to the bone in question.

Foramen - A hole on a bone. The big one in your skull that your spinal cord goes through is the foramen magnum and it literally means big hole. But there are a lot of little ones all over your skeleton so your nerves and blood vessels can do to your skeleton what the weirwood did to Bryden Rivers. I said what I said. ;)

Bilateral - Both sides. Humans have bilateral symmetry and so one side is symmetrical (externally and WRT your skeleton, but not always your organs.) to the other. You can split us down the middle and the two sides are basically the same.

Ok, so there’s another set of terms that you need to know, but I’m going to be copying and pasting this into every post going forward so I’m making it separate. Anyone who works with any kind of anatomy uses these terms to be very specific about the location of something on the body. They are:

Anterior/Posterior - Front and back respectively. I remember them because my mom used to say posterior when she didn’t want to say butt, and because A comes before P the way front comes before back. Sometimes people say dorsal and ventral, and I remember that because a dorsal fin is on a whale’s back.

Proximal/Distal - Near and far vertically in relationship to the center of your body. I remember it because one end of the bone is in close proximity to me and the other one is distant.

Medial/Lateral - Near and far horizontally in relationship to the center of your body. I remember it because medial is closer to the middle of my body, and lateral isn’t medial. Also, if you are reading left to right L comes before M and you’d get to a lateral body part before a medial one.

So, where to begin? How do we know what sex people were assigned at birth from just their skeleton? Let’s start with what everyone is most familiar with:

The Pelvis

The pelvis of an adult human is a really common thing for an archaeologist to find. And by the time we find it, it’s usually in three pieces (excluding your tailbone aka last vertebra). Your left and right hip bones, called the innominates, and your sacrum. Mind you, the pelvis is made up of a number of bones, but they all fuse in adulthood except these three (fun fact: I’m so used to using the individual names for them that I had to *google* the word innominate.), so this is what we usually find. If it’s a kid, they still survive well because they’re thick, heavy bones, but they aren’t fused. Another fun fact, the bumps of bone that you feel under your ass are called your ischium and I’m only telling you that because I think it’s a fun word to say. Your hop bones, like the actual entirety of the flat bladed part at the top, that’s called the Illium. I like that word too. Aaanyway, here’s a human pelvis:

(Source)

These are actual bone specimens in the top down view, both are women, but they are of different ethnic origin.

(Source)

This is a cast (IE, plastic), front view of a male pelvis.

You can see those 3 pieces I’m talking about. The only joint there that remains unfused is the sacroiliac joint, IE, where the two halves of the pelvis join the sacrum. However! You sacrum is technically a series of fused vertebrae and your spinal cord runs almost all the way to the very tip. There are some conditions which cause these not to fuse, or to not fuse properly, or to not properly encase the spinal cord and it causes all KINDS of issues. But anyway, yeah, your sacrum is a really tough hunk of bone because it carries a lot of weight. The bit in the front is called the pubic symphysis and, despite what certain tumblr posts would have you believe, having children does NOT leave a notch on the inner side of it from the muscle tearing away tiny chunks of the bone. In fact, it is hotly debated whether or not pregnancy leaves behind any skeletal evidence at all.

Alright, so basically speaking, females make da babies and males don’t, so the different equipment is differently shaped......

.....wait, no, that’s not right. Let’s back up. Male and female humans are differently proportioned and their center of gravity is, on average, different. This is the whole thing about men having upper body strength and women having thighs that can crush watermelons. This is on *average* (I will be saying a lot about averages in these posts.) true. And so the physics of the forces exerted on your bones is different. Males are top-heavy, and so their pelvis is shaped in response to their gate and muscle structure because the pelvis supports and distributes the weight of your entire body. And bipedalism means that the shape of the pelvis is very, very different depending on the weight distribution. These changes to the pelvis are really obvious, which is why we can tell from just a few bones whether or not a hominin was bipedal. It changes the *entire* body.

It is true though that the pelvis of a female is different than a male, because a female pelvis has to be able to support the weight of a developing child while still allowing the individual to walk. So the interaction of average size, a uterus, and the bipedal gate means that male and female pelvises are a different shape.

Here is a comparison:

(Source)

So firstly, that angle is called the sub-public angle, and because a females pelvis is wider and flatter than a male’s (when viewed from the front) it’s wider in the front. This also gives any babies more room. Secondly, you can see the difference in the tilt of the sacrum - in the female you can’t see the tailbone. This, again, is due to the confluence of weight distribution and the necessity of passing a baby’s head through that space. It would be a lot harder to push it out if you had a tailbone in the way. Lastly, you can see that the shape of the circle when you look top down and bottom up are different - wider on the woman because of the same reasons I’ve already mentioned. There is one more major difference between the male and female pelvis, and that’s the sciatic notch:

(Source)

Characteristic of male on the left, intermediate in the middle, and female on the right (and dang, she was young, too.). Thinner is male, wider is female. Usually you can fit your thumb in a female’s notch but barely or not at all in a male. I personally find the subpubic arch and the sciatic notch the easiest to use because, fun fact #2, those 3 sections are a bitch to hold together with your hands and that makes it hard to see the other shapes. The amount of sacrums and pelvic bones I’ve accidentally dropped while trying to determine sex....it’s a lot, ok? It’s a lot. I only have two hands and pelvises are big.

There are also several less obvious ways of determining sex from a skeleton, so you guys should definitely visit the source for the above image because they go into it deeper and there are several excellent images of public bones.

So how else do we determine sex? The next easiest way is from the skull, because the features are distinct and skulls survive well.

The Skull

In my opinion the easiest landmark to use on a skull for sex determination is the jaw. There are several features of the jaw that can be used here - and, mind you, when determining sex we measure every small and large sex-linked feature according to a scale and then average it all out. We never look at any single thing (although sometimes the individual has something so characteristic that you can’t help it. The individual in my position has a brow like a neanderthal, so it was pretty obvious.). Anyway, there are several features here but the easiest is to look at the shape of the lateral distal posterior portion of the jaw. It’s called the masseteric tuberosity. Basically, it’s a little bit of bone that sticks out of the back of your jaw. It’s one of the attachment points of the masseter aka chewing muscles attach. Because males have stronger muscles pulling on that part of the jaw and exerting more force, it flares out further for them when you look at it from the front, like this:

(Source)

It’s that sticky-outy thing thing that I circled in red. Here is an example of the same thing on females:

(Source)

Female jaws are rounder, and so that bit is less defined, flares out less, and is not as sharp as it is on males. And this is a reminder that these measures aren’t absolutes - humans have a lot of variance in them. The female asian and the male on the right both have somewhat atypical structures, while the female european and the two other males have a very characteristic structure.

The two other easiest to identify are the shape of the brown line and the shape of the chin (the mental protuberance). Here is an image of the comparison:

(Source: Pinterest, but this images are from the Human Bone Manual text that I use and I used this image so I wouldn’t have to make my own. :P)

You can see in the profile that the female skull has a higher, more vertical forehead with less pronounced brow ridges. If you look, you can also see that her chin protrudes less in profile, and is softer and less pronounced in the frontal view. The angle under her teeth is less severe.

So these three things, the chin, the brow, and the jaw, are the easiest to identify the most likely to be characteristic of the sex of the individual. But, if you compare the images I’ve used here you’ll also notice that there are other differences in the skull. Females have more of a slope to the bottom of their jaw, the bump on the back of their heads (the occipital protuberance) tends to be far less pronounced; and this is the case for all muscle attachments generally speaking. On average, males are more easily able to build muscle mass and are larger, and so their muscles pull harder on their skeletons and create larger muscle attachments. The round, blunt thing to the right of the back of the jaw that sticks out from the skull (the mastoid process), is also at a different angle and is larger in males. This is another case of the muscles being bigger and stronger - the mastoid process is where several of your jaw and neck muscles attach.

There you have it, then. The easiest ways to tell the sex of a skeleton. :)

This post has been approved by Gage the science doggo:

#science #anthropology #skeletons #human remains #human skeletons #education #KyidylBones #archaeology #bioarchaeology #humans #bones #human bones

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acommonrose · 2 years

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What in your estimation makes a crossword puzzle good or bad? I just don't know enough about them to be able to tell at all.

So there's a lot of ways puzzles can be good or bad, and it mostly comes down to how much fun solvers have, but here's a few things I think about when solving. Wall of text incoming--I'm sorry.

Theme

So from what I can tell, NYT editors care a lot about how clever/novel/interesting your theme is, which in some ways is fair--they see a lot of puzzles, and when I started out, I cared a lot more about themes. Personally, I love a good themeless (of any difficulty level, not just the NYT Friday/Saturday level), as well as a well-made puzzle with a boring/overused theme type (like most USA Today puzzles, my own included), so themes are not the be all and end all, but they do matter.

What makes most (though not all) good themes is really just a set of a few fun words or phrases that either all have something interesting in common or have all had the same wordplay gimmick applied to them. The theme suffers if the gimmick/commonality is inconsistently applied or if one of the theme entries just is a mediocre entry to begin with. So, for example, I thought the Thursday puzzle this week had a theme that was bad for a Thursday (since Thursday puzzles usually use complicated wordplay or rebuses) but good overall--it added ING to the end of movie titles to get things like JURASSIC PARKING and LA LA LANDING, which was fun. On the other hand, the Wednesday puzzle had a revealer of IT'S A WRAP, and had entries that were bookended by the letters I, T, S, and A in some combination, which is fine (though not a super exciting gimmick or revealer), but was really brought down by two of the three entries being TSAR NICHOLAS I and SARGENT PORTRAIT, both of which I think are pretty uninspiring.

Beyond that, there's also some constructors that do really interesting and creative themes, which are outside of the scope of this (already long) post--I'll just link Will Nediger's recent puzzle with two themes, as well as Cracking the Cryptic's solve of Brooke Husic's Lollapuzzoola puzzle. (If you're an experienced solver, do try the Brooke puzzle on your own--it's beautiful but extremely hard.)

Fill

Okay, after all that, this is usually what actually makes a bad puzzle bad. Good puzzles have fun and interesting entries--modern phrases/phenomena, interesting people, or just fun turns of phrase, particularly (but not exclusively) in longer slots. Some I've used or tried to use recently (not all of which would fly in a newspaper, probably) include URSULA K LE GUIN, HADESTOWN, BRIDGERS, SPOOKY SEASON, HUMBLEBRAG, and EXTREMELY ONLINE. Along with "fun" words and phrases, you want to fill the rest of grid as much as possible with things that are real, reasonably well-known words, phrases, or names, ideally things that can be clued in a variety of interesting ways and that are real standalone phrases. (There's lots of things that are in puzzles that are not "real standalone phrases", and I can get into which ones bug me most, but that's a separate post.)

Constructors who are new or just trying to fill a constrained grid, may fall into the trap of putting random words and especially random short abbreviations into a puzzle because they see them in a wordlist or see that they've been in other puzzles. Unless they're extremely bad entries, one of these won't kill a puzzle, but they pile up fast, and once you get more than one or two, it will make the puzzle a slog for a solver. This applies particularly to crossing entries. The rule of thumb I've heard is that proper names shouldn't cross, but I don't think that's actually be best rule. What really matters is that there should be no uninferrable squares--so if I had ELIZABETH crossing some name I'd never heard of, I could probably figure out the last letter even if the Elizabeth in the clue was someone I'd never heard of. On the other hand, obscure abbreviations/vocab crossing can also be deadly. For example, yesterday's puzzle had ANA (clued as a Japanese airline I'd never heard of) crossing ACC (clued as a sports league whose first letter could have been literally anything), so I just had to guess random letters. Today's puzzle had LOTHAR (a comic strip character I'd never heard of) and MALAR (a word I didn't know), so again, I just had to guess letters.

Clues

Unlike with themes or especially fill, it's hard to have actively bad clues if you follow cluing conventions (e.g. having clues agree with entries in terms of parts of speech), unless you're trying so hard to be clever that your clues don't actually make sense. However, it's easy to have lackluster clues if you're just giving short definitions for most clues, which is fine in an easy puzzle with a good theme but boring in something like a themeless.

There's a lot of ways to write good clues--which is not to say that they're easy to write. The most famous type are puns or clever misdirects--for example, I recently clued HAND SIGNALS as [Digital means of communication?]. Beyond that, I'm also quite fond of clues that show off the constructor's voice and personality, as well as those that have fun trivia (though the line between cool fun trivia and annoying obscure trivia that no one should be expected to know can be thin). Overall, it's more an art than a science (and it's hard to save a lackluster grid with good clues--though it can be done), so I don't have too much to say, but Kate Schmate is a great constructor to look at if you want to read some good clues.

#crossword tag #i have no idea if i answered your question but i did write a lot

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academian-rhapsody · 3 years

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Mikuyami’s Giant Guide to Self-Studying Japanese

If you’re like me, you’ve always wanted to be able to switch tabs while you’re watching anime and still be able to understand what they’re saying. Chances are you’ve watched enough anime to know a few words here and there and even understand a sentence once in a while, but you’re still not anywhere close to fluent. To get fluent, you’re going to have to do a lot more than watch anime. This is what this guide is for. Japanese isn’t an easy language to learn, and knowing which resources are good is important if you want to learn it properly. While the resources are the focus of this guide, it’s very important to read the stuff I’ve written about them. I know the walls of text look scary, but just trust me.

Note: all resources listed are completely free unless otherwise stated.

And yes, all the links in this guide will open in a new tab when you click on them. You’re welcome.

For now, let’s start with the basics - Hiragana. Hiragana is the first thing you should learn and teaches you Japanese pronounciation, reading, and later on, grammar. Here are a few good resources for learning it:

Websites:

Really, the only website I’d recommend (that’s completely free) is Memrise. Memrise is great for learning Hiragana/Katakana and vocab. It’s used for other school subjects like math and science, but I’d say it’s the best for learning languages. You’ll learn words and characters quickly, but it’s important to do it for 10-20 minutes each day. HOWEVER: While Memrise is an amazing vocab resource, it isn’t optimal for grammar at all. It’s also important to know which courses are good and which ones aren’t.*

Phone apps:

Kana Mind - This is by far my favorite resource for learning Hiragana (and Katakana!). When I decided to start learning Japanese, I wasn’t sure where to start, so I just downloaded some simple phone apps. I’m glad I did - this app is extremely easy to use and I quickly learned Hiragana. Just like Memrise, though, you should review the characters for 10-20 minutes fairly often.

TenguGo Kana - A lot more information is covered in this app. While Kana Mind is good for learning the characters, TenguGo is good for learning about the characters. It also includes Hiragana and Katakana charts for quick reference.

Memrise - Yes, Memrise also has a phone app! It works just as well as the website (in my opinion).

Kana Draw - Learning the stroke order for Hiragana is important, and this app teaches you just that. It’s very simple, but again, you should practice consistently.

Very important: You should also practice writing Hiragana! With correct stroke order, of course. All that’s needed to do this is a pen and paper. This chart shows the stroke order for all the Hiragana, but you shouldn’t look at it constantly - it’s more of a quick reference thing, and you won’t learn as well if you rely on it too much.

Really, you don’t need any fancy resources to learn Hiragana! You shouldn’t be spending any money to learn it, either. What I’ve listed should suffice. Hiragana is straightforward and you don’t need to do anything but memorize what sound each character makes. Most of these resources also cover Katakana, which is what you should be learning next.

*In Japanese, there’s a formal way of speaking and causal way of speaking. Some Memrise courses only teach formal, and while that’s important to learn, so is casual! There isn’t really a good way to tell you how to distinguish formal courses from casual ones, so for now I’ll just say… trust your instinct. That’s terrible advice, I know, but just focus on learning vocab and be aware that you still have to learn either causal or formal.

Because most of the Hiragana resources I listed also include Katakana, it’s time to move onto the more scary stuff - grammar. No, we don’t need to start learning Kanji quite yet, as the Kanji can be read with the Hiragana sounds (that’s why Hiragana is so important to learn). You’ll need more resources to learn grammar, but the go-to man for this is…

Tae Kim.

This guy has a special place in my heart. His Japanese grammar guide, guidetojapanese.org, is arguably the best free Japanese guide out there. I’ve gotten more out of this one site (it can be purchased as a book too) than out of every other resource I’ve used. He provides videos as well as explanations and examples. However, it helps a lot to take notes and copy examples down for future reference. To give you an idea of what I mean, here’s a page of notes I took in a simple composition notebook: Of course, there’s no format you have to follow while taking notes - just do whatever makes sense to you and what helps you. Taking notes also gives you practice with writing characters. The great thing about Tae Kim’s guide is that it gives polite examples as well as casual examples (as you can see from my notes). Also, throughout the guide, you learn plenty of vocab and even Kanji. While this guide covers Japanese grammar really well and could be the only resource you’ll need, sometimes you need more examples or explanations.

This website is kind of like a wiki for Japanese grammar. I haven’t had much experience with it so I can’t say much about it, but it provides plenty of examples and explanations, and is broken into different levels so the easy grammar stuff is separate from the more complicated grammar. The content is contributed by other people (which is why it’s like a wiki), so there’s lots of stuff to look through.

Now comes the wall in the Japanese language: Kanji. This is where a lot of people stop learning Japanese because they get scared off by it. Yes, Kanji is scary and you’ll have to learn a lot of Kanji to become fluent in Japanese, but now that you’ve come this far you might as well keep going. Since there’s so much to learn with Kanji, you’re gonna need fancier resources and sometimes - sorry to say - ones that you have to pay for.

iKnow! is overall a great resource for learning Japanese. It provides a tutorial on how to use it, and helps with Kanji, listening, etc. I gave it a try and really liked it - it’s very organized and spends extra time reviewing the words/Kanji you have trouble with. The one downside to it is that you have to pay to use it. There’s a free trial, which you can actually learn a lot from, but if you really wanna learn vocab/Kanji then you’re gonna wanna get the membership.

Anki is available as a phone app and downloadable program as well as online (but the program should be the first and most used). It’s like flashcards - you’re shown a Kanji, and you have to know what that Kanji means. You then “flip” the card to see the correct answer. I’m calling them flashcards, but they’re just called cards and sets of cards are called decks. You can make your own cards, but decks can be downloaded from Ankiweb. Anki is completely free and I’ve heard lots of good things about it.

Tofugu is a site dedicated to learning Japanese and Japanese culture. It has plenty of information about Kanji readings, Kanji stroke order, etc., and even provides other resources for learning Kanji. While it doesn’t provide vocab, it’s good for learning about Kanji.

EDIT: I’ve recently discovered a phone app called KanjiSenpai and it has quickly become my most favorite resource for learning Kanji. You can learn tons of Kanji using this app, and it even teaches you the stroke order of each one (tips for guessing a Kanji’s stroke order can be found on Tofugu). In addition, it keeps track of how long you studied each day. I’d highly recommend this app for learning Kanji.

Other Resources

Sometimes you need to look up a Kanji’s stroke order, or maybe you just wanna learn more about Japanese culture. This part of the guide is for random resources that help with Japanese or provide information about it.

Jisho.org Basically a Kanji dictionary. You simply search for a Kanji, and the meaning, pronunciations, and stroke order for it can be found. I refer to it a lot, sometimes when reading Tae Kim’s guide and other times when I’m just curious about a Kanji.

Maggie Sensei This website has information about Japanese culture, manners, mini Japanese lessons, and more. I’d say it’s more for intermediate Japanese learners, but there’s still a lot to be learned regardless of how much Japanese you know.

Youtubers There’s quite a few people that track their lives in Japan through vlogs. These videos provide tons of information about Japanese culture, and sometimes there’s videos about learning Japanese. My favorite person that makes these sorts of videos is kanadajin3. She has lots of videos about Japanese culture and provides tips about learning Japanese for all levels of learners. Another Youtuber I’d recommend is jyuusankaidan. She basically does the same thing as kanadajin3, but also includes vocab from her videos in the description. Finally, Medama Sensei makes videos mainly about Japanese society. Though his channel doesn’t seem to be active anymore, his videos were very interesting to watch.

Anime Yeah, okay, I said anime isn’t good for learning Japanese, but that’s only if you want to become fluent in it. There’s still a lot you can learn from watching anime - that is, if you listen carefully and pay attention to what the characters are saying, how they say it, and when they say it. If you really wanna test out how much you’ve learned, try watching a non-dubbed version of the anime and see if you can understand what everyone’s saying. This can also help you learn faster and get used to how Japanese sounds.

Japanese Songs Something I’ve only started doing recently is taking a few lines of lyrics from a Japanese song and learning them thoroughly. This means learning the meaning of all the Kanji in those lyrics, learning how to write them (thank you Jisho.org), and learning how to pronounce everything (find the Romaji lyrics). This obviously helps with learning multiple aspects of Japanese.

As a final little note, I’d say that the most important thing to do in order to learn Japanese is to just keep at it. When I started learning Kanji, I was overwhelmed by the fact that each Kanji had multiple pronounciations, but as you learn more, things start making more sense. I’ve definitely noticed a lot of improvement in my understanding of Japanese. So, always try to stay motivated in your studying!

Well, that just about does it for this guide. If you know of any other good resources that I didn’t list, feel free to add them onto this post. Also, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send me an ask! I’d be more than happy to answer your question. I’m no expert and I’m still far from being fluent in Japanese, but I’ll do my best to help you.

Thank you for reading and happy studying!

#the reason I copy-pasted is bc I couldnt hardly read on the saved version #mikuyami #not mine #japanese #langauge #language learning

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carlatsukinamistolemyhamsandwich · 4 years

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9, 12, 14, 25, 28, 30, 31, 34, 37, 40, 41, 42 and 50 for the Diabolik Lovers Ask Game please! By the way, I love your blog SO MUCH. ♡♡♡

From this ask game.

Thank you for the ask anon, I’m really glad you like my blog :)

This got kind of long so I’ve put my answers below the cut.

9. Do you hate anyone in DL?

Hate is a very strong word, but if you saw my recent post on Shuu’s CL route then you’ll know that I am not the biggest Karlheinz fan. Richter and Cordelia are also fairly awful but I can’t help but feel some sort of pity for Richter as it seems he had a pretty miserable life and while some of the things Cordelia did are just horrible, my negative feelings towards her have somewhat lessened since we got a bit more of a glimpse at her backstory in DF. Menae must have died before Cordelia could really remember her, and we have to remember that she was heavily manipulated by Karl. Like yes, Cordelia is dreadful, but I still think Karl is the big bad of the series. He does so so many awful things and no matter which game you look at, I can’t help but feel that his reasoning is always pretty bleh (even if that probably is just due to not great writing).

Also after that Subaru LE ending Seiji Komori can eat dirt.

12. What do you think of the fandom?

Hmm... While I know some people hold negative views of the DL fandom at large, I don’t think any fandom is entirely unproblematic. My personal experience has generally been pretty good but I will admit I have seen some fairly terrible behavior in the 3 and a half years I’ve been seriously into DL. Then again I also haven’t been this deep in any other fandom and, sadly, I think that is just the nature of the internet.

Still, there are some amazing and very talented people in this fandom, and I feel extraordinarily lucky to have been able to interact with them, so I prefer to focus on that over anything else.

14. Sub or dub?

Sub all the way. When I first started watching anime, I initially just watched dubs, but after I started learning Japanese, I switched to subs to try and pick up some more vocab and now I can’t go back. Also I really like a lot of the Japanese voice actors in DL ^^

25. What do you think of DL haters?

I generally hold the attitude of “live and let live”. If someone doesn’t like DL because of the triggering content (and the way it deals with it) or the sometimes questionable plot then fair enough, it’s not like I think the series is without its problems. The only time I will have any issue at all is if they actively attack fans of the show. If someone is just minding their own business and not hurting anyone then under no circumstances is it okay to blindly attack them over a work of fiction. So yeah, you do you as long as you’re not being a twit about it.

28. Would you ever show your parents DL why/why not?

For anyone who remembers some of the random stuff I post, you’ll know that my mother is indeed aware of Shin’s existence (and Carla’s) which perhaps would have been difficult to avoid given that he’s plastered all over my bedroom wall and I talk about him A LOT (I am just as bad irl folks), but I’ve never gone into the details of the series with her as I feel like she’d be fairly disturbed at some of the content (and it’s for this reason that I would never show her the anime).

You will understand then, why I was slightly horrified when she told me she’d read the wiki because she wanted to know more about the characters I loved so much (like bless her, but also O.o). Apparently Carla is “a baddie” but she thinks Shin is okay.

My parents are also aware of the existence of this blog but, fortunately for me, have no interest in reading it.

30. What do you think of Yui?

I like Yui (I mean what is there to dislike?), she’s a lovely character and has a really good impact on the boys. I’m not as invested in her as perhaps some of the fandom but that’s because I am unapologetically here for the dumpster fire that is the boys.

I prefer writing reader inserts over Yui x diaboy fanfics, simply because it’s fun to see the boys in a slightly different relationship dynamic to that we get in the games (like if you look at my most recent Shin drabble, Yui would never tease Shin like that but I would so reader insert it is).

31. What is your favourite Dialover song and why?

What do you mean I have to pick just one??? Gahhh I love love love Kessen no Dies irae, because it features the Tsukinami bros and it’s just my sort of music but I think my favorite might actually be I.M.I.T.A.T.I.O.N.G.A.M.E. I’m not the biggest Kino fan but Maeno’s singing voice is phenomenal and it also brings back happy memories of when I finished Shin’s LE route for the first time.

34. Tell us your top three routes! Why are they your favourites?

Hooo boy, this is a tricky one because we all know my bias at this point ^^;; I’ve limited myself to one Shin route because otherwise this list would just be me waxing on about Shin and goodness knows I do that enough already.

1) Shin’s Lost Eden Route

While I like his DF route, I love that Shin’s LE route pays a bit more attention to his feelings towards Yui than his complicated relationship with Carla. I love that it really stretches him as a character and we get to see him relying on Yui, like I don’t know who came up with that plot but BLESS. I think the pacing is very good and the bad endings are just so tragic (and I love really angsty bad endings). And some of the scenario chapters from this route just make me melt.

I also love this route for personal reasons. I’d only just fallen into Shinhell when LE was released and I remember seeing the CGs for his route but there was no information on the plot in the English speaking side of the fandom and it was driving me nuts because I just wanted to know that he was okay. It was at this same time that I had a bit of spare money so I... bought a PSVita and a copy of Lost Eden so I could find out what happened (I was planning on getting a Vita anyway just maybe not THAT soon). I’d only been learning Japanese for 6 months (I am nothing if not horribly ambitious) but I didn’t let that stop me and played through the route. And I loved it (even if I struggled a little with the language) and I was so happy to find out what happened to him. So yeah, I just have warm memories of it.

2) Carla’s Dark Fate Route

While I like Carla’s LE route, I think the pacing and plot of his DF is just a bit better. I love that it gives us the best glimpse at the backstory of the founders (I will take any and all Krone and Giesbach tidbits I can) and I think the progression of Carla and Yui’s relationship is really well handled (even if he is dreadful towards her at times). Also I like Carla, I think of all of the diaboys, he’s one of the ones I’m most similar to so I find it easy to empathize with him.

3) Subaru’s Dark Fate Route

It’s been a while since I played this route but I remember having a really good time when I did. The Vampire Ending is incredibly sweet, as are some of the scenario chapters and I thought the plot was fairly well structured. Plus Carla and Shin are in it so bonus points there.

37. If you could change one thing in your favourite Diaboy what would it be?

I never want to answer questions like this because I love Shin as he is, I don’t want to change him.

I mean I would like for him to see more value in who he is than just his bloodline and get it into his skull that he is not inferior to Carla but only as gradual changes based on environment (or just idk talking to Carla but goodness only knows that won’t happen unless Carla’s on his deathbed again).

40. Your thoughts on Karlheinz?

See above. But yeah, not a fan, would not be sad if he became the victim of a bizarre fishing accident and never again appeared in the DL franchise but I think that’s a bit too much to hope for. Sorry Karl fans but I can’t get over the stuff he’s done (and also I have had enough of “and it was Karl’s fault all along” coming up in the games).

41. Would you buy the games if they were released in English?

I’m a little torn on this one because I love supporting Rejet and otome game localisations but I own all of the games aside from VC already so there wouldn’t really be any point. I think if I had a LOT of money to spare then I would, but as my finances stand at the moment then it’s a no.

42. If you got to design the 14th Diaboy what would he be like?

Oh this is a difficult one, ideally I’d like to see someone who was a member of one of the other demon races but I don’t think you can really have a diaboy without the blood-sucking, so I guess I’d make them half vampire half adler (as I think they’re the race we know the least about). As for personality... It’s tricky because I feel like the diaboys already cover a pretty wide spectrum. I’d probably make him a cocky jerk because I love cocky jerks and I’d make him fairly witty too but more logic than feelings orientated. I’d have him kidnap Yui because he wants to use her as a pawn against the diaboys in some nefarious plot (that I’m not going to think too much about because this post is not meant to be an OC planning session) and not because he has any interest in her or plans for her himself. I guess he’d sort of be a cross between Kino and Carla?

I’d give him a vendetta against Karlheinz too because I can :D

I had to cut this short because I started coming up with a backstory an everything but I think that’s too much ^^;;

50. Do you think Richter should have a route of his own?

Honestly? No. It’s not that I wouldn’t be interested to see the story of Richter with someone who is not Cordelia (even if he is not my favorite dude from the franchise) but more that I can’t see Rejet dropping Yui as a heroine and RichterxYui? No thank you. After all the stuff he’s done in the games and his obsession with Cordelia? I just don’t feel comfortable with that pairing, sorry.

#reply #ask game #I'm always super happy/surprised when people say they like my blog #because I feel like it's kind of chaotic but if you guys like it then I must be doing something right #character hate #?#I feel like I've been relatively polite but just to be safe #I have half tried to proofread this but it's so long #bless you if you made it to the end

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nattsunoyume · 4 years

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Something that always bothered me about All For The Game is the lack of verisimilitude in its portrayal of languages and bi/multilinguals. So, because I’m a firm believer that critiques are useful (especially to other writers who might not be familiar with this reality) and because I want to give you a more realistic portrayal of our favorite characters, I’ll be analyzing where Nora Sakavic went wrong and what would be more truthful to each of our beloved characters (I’ll be focusing mainly on Kevin and Neil, but also the Minyard twins – no Nicky because his fluency is pretty believable).

SO, stick around if you’re a) interested in multilingualism b) are a writer who could benefit from reading this/use the critiques I’ll make as a reference c) are interested in deeper dynamics of your favorite characters

First of all, I want to make sure you all know that I’m not saying that this lack of depth in Nora’s work is in any way detrimental to the story. But, with a narrative that utilizes foreign languages use as a plot point, I have to say that Sakavic’s portrayal just fell flat. Being bi/multilingual is very nuanced and has very interesting and complicated dynamics that can shape and give character to a narration/story. Knowing how to speak multiple languages is not just a feat that you can use like a superpower every now and then and then forget about it (*cof cof* that’s exactly what Neil does *cof cof*). Also, disclaimer: I don’t know whether Sakavic speaks any language other than English, but from her portrayal of foreign language speakers I’ll assume that she does not. Disclaimer number two: I’m writing this as a multilingual (I speak four languages), a linguist (I study linguistic mediation) and writer myself, so I feel like I’m qualified enough. I’d love to have other bi/multilinguals add their thoughts though!

To begin our analysis, let’s go over the three things that Nora got /very/ wrong:

Time: the length of time that it takes any character to become proficient in a language is incredibly off. e.g. from what we see with the Minyards I’d say that they are portrayed to have a B2/C1 level* in German, this just from studying the language as an off-course for three-ish years. As much as I’d love that to be true, you can’t become that fluent in that small of a time frame (unless you dedicate each of your living, breathing moments to said language; and we can all agree that the twins did not, in fact, do that). Neil is also another concerning example: he is portrayed to have – once again – B2/C1 levels (I’m deducing this from the way he is said to be speaking – never struggles to find words, speaks fluently without having to stop, is very witty and confident in the languages he uses). We’ll go over some quotes in the following part, for now just know that, given the context in which he learnt these languages, his fluency is completely unrealistic.

Vocabulary: the characters are shown to use vocabulary that is not, in fact, that easy to use when speaking a foreign language. You don’t need to speak multiple language to know that, when learning, you focus on more common words and phrases (the specific language comes much later-on: I’d say C1-C2). But the foxes use very specific language (e.g. the Minyards all understand the word “dashboard lighter”, “gopher” – those are not words that you learn in high-school-level German. They’re words that you learn with extensive use of the language/extensive reading). There are better ways to include a character’s not-that-high-proficiency rather than just make them all-knowing: how do you portray a certain lack in vocabulary without hindering the narrative? Gesturing (Character A doesn’t remember word X so they trail off and mimic it) or roundabout ways to say a certain word (i.e. You don’t remember the word vase so you use “the thing to hold flowers”) are great alternatives to get a point across!!

Sentence Structure: this is probably the thing that bothered me the most, because it shows laziness in writing. When speaking in a different language, the sentence structure remains unvaried!!! If Sakavic didn’t mention that a certain sentence/exchange happened in X language, you wouldn’t be able to tell at all. But, when speaking in a foreign language you’ll use easier syntax – it’s a small change but it truly goes a long way. You also won’t use complicated tenses or long, overly difficult sentences. That’s because, when speaking in a foreign language, your major aim is to get a message across. Your job as a writer is to show this change. Writing what you want your characters to say and then slapping a “X said in X language” isn’t enough, it’s lazy.

* I’m using CEFRL levels all throughout this analysis, it’s the abbreviation of Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Its levels go from A1 to C2. Where A1 is very early beginner, A2 is elementary stage. B1 is intermediate, B2 is upper intermediate (where you basically can have normal, every-day life conversations without any hindrance – you can also read books with only some inconvenience). Finally, C1 is almost fluent, in this level you can approach Specific Vocabulary and Specific Speech (for example, you could – if you were interested in it – talk about deeper topics, ie. Philosophy, Science etc. with little to no difficulty) and C2 is deep proficiency, where you’re basically fluent. If you need to read more about it click here

I’ll now analyze Neil and Kevin’s respective use of the language. Neil is supposed to be a self-taught learner, whereas Kevin grew up with native speakers so their approaches and fluency are going to be very different and diverse.

Let’s talk about Neil, first.

Here’s the thing: his fluency is more believable than that of the twins, and that’s because he actually lived in the places where those languages are spoken (that accelerates learning rates because you’re fully immersed in the language). But the thing is 1) He lived there for a too short period of time: 18 months in French speaking locations does not grant you the fluency that he demonstrates in French. 2) Yes, he lived there, but he was HIDING: I’ll assume he didn’t attend school or even have lengthy conversations with native speakers, so, apart from essential conversations, he probably didn’t interact that much with native speakers 3) He is said to be reading as much as he can, but I can assure you that reading and speaking are two completely different ordeals. He should not be so fluent in speaking. From what we know of Neil (very smart, quick witted and has a deeper reasoning for being fluent in those languages) I’d say that it would be much more believable to have him be a B2 (AT BEST) in German and a B1 (again, AT BEST) in French. So, let’s see how a B2 conversation in German would work shall we?

As you can see, it’s still perfectly legible, except it uses simpler words (seriously? Skimming? Gopher?) and less-fancy sentences. Of course, how Sakavic wrote it sounds cooler , but if we want to showcase a stark difference this is the way to go. The key to writing a foreign language speaker (that’s not a C1-C2) when you’re not a foreign language speaker is to ask yourself: would I have been able to come up with a word like this in middle school? If the answer is no, then don’t use it. Another tip is to ask yourself, is this word that I’m using the most common synonym? Or is there a easier, more approachable word? Go for the basic vocab first.

Let’s now talk about Kevin. Ironically enough, he is the character that – alongside Nicky – is the most believable in having the highest fluency and yet, he’s the one that showcases his fluency the least out of all the foxes *sigh*. Also, ironically enough, he’s the character that should showcase this fluency the most and here’s why: this guy grew up in a highly multilingual context!!! He’s a native English speaker who grew up speaking Japanese and, later on, French! From what we know of Kevin’s upbringing I’d venture to say that he speaks fluent Japanese (C1-C2 levels) because he was exposed to it from a very early age (and kids learn languages at an easier and faster rate than teenagers and adults alike). Similarly to Japanese, we can assume that he came in contact with Jean at 10-13 years old, still in the perfect prime for learning languages with ease. Because he spent so much of his life in a multilingual environment, I’d imagine he employed a heavy use of code mixing/code switching. What is code-mixing/code-switching? I’m Glad you asked!! It’s the mixing of words, phrases, clauses or even complete sentences of two (or more) languages. Code-mixing happens within the same sentence (this is INCREDIBLY common between multilinguals; I cannot stress this enough. If I’m with someone that speaks my same languages there won’t be a sentence that I utter that will be only in one language and that’s because code-switching is faster: instead of having to scramble for words in a certain language I can just use the first one that comes to mind.), whereas code-switching happens in a conversation (so one sentence will be in a language and the following in another one). So, Kevin’s problem in his realistic portrayal is the opposite of Neil: where Neil sounds too much of a multilingual when he shouldn’t (he speaks multiple languages, which is arguably different from being multilingual), Kevin sounds too little like one. You can’t look me in the eyes and tell me that someone that spent his entire life surrounded by two different languages doesn’t struggle with self-expression when that environment is taken away. Think about it: the closest people to him were Riko (Japanese-speaker) and Jean (French-speaker, who is said to speak with a thick French-accent: that means that when he came to the Nest he probably wasn’t fluent in English), Kevin must have spent the better part of his life submerged in those languages and then he leaves. And you mean to tell me he doesn’t struggle with using ONLY English to express himself? Bullshit. Arguably Kevin is the character that, throughout the series, struggles with his identity the most, his multilingualism is part of that!! Address it you cowards!!!!! Multilinguals showcase slightly different personalities with each change of language! What’s he like in French! What’s he like in Japanese! Plus never, in the series does he forget a word. It’s so unrealistic I could cry.

Lastly, I’d like to tackle a big issue in Sakavic’s lack of awareness of LSPs. LSP (language for specific purposes) indicates a subset of a specific language. LSPs vary from the common everyday use of a language, it concerns those branches of language that aren’t the vocabulary or sentence structure you would need on a day-to-day basis (e.g. the language used in the medical field, language used in business settings etc.). To make a long story short: every foreign language learner knows/will eventually know all common vocabulary, but not every learner will know certain LSPs. As an author writing about bi/multilinguals it’s important to make the distinction between Common Language and LSP. This is an issue in Nora’s work because every character uses words that are related to certain fields with an ease that’s unrealistic – once again, I know I’m being nit-picky but these things are important. Why is Andrew able to understand gang-related language in a language that he learned from high school and from his cousin who is very much not a gang member? Whilst Neil is perfectly able to understand words like the french for “withdrawal” without batting an eye. And I know, I know, that I should suspend my disbelief and just go with it, but I don’t want to. These are the things that, as an author that wants to use speaking multiple languages as a plot device, are essential to the building of the narrative-world. You don’t get to use language-speaking as a deus ex machina to then not acknowledge it entirely when it’s not useful. Have your characters forget words! Have them stop to think about the sentence structure! Have them pronounce things weird! Have them speak in easier patterns! Have them say things wrong! Have them flail their arms about trying to mimic what they mean! Have them ask people what a certain word means! Or have them understand said word from its context! Speaking languages has nuances, so please keep them in mind!!! You can include these touches and still make a story entertaining, please don’t forgo them just because it’s easier to ignore them.

Finally, I’d like to offer an example of a GOOD portrayal of bilingualism and, specifically, of LSP awareness. It’s an excerpt from C.S. Pacat’s Captive Prince Series. Pacat speaks multiple languages herself and this deeper understanding is reflected in her work. You can’t begin to understand how happy reading this paragraph made me. It’s a simple addition, but it made the entire story feel much more realistic and relatable to me. The excerpt is from Prince’s Gambit and it holds not spoilers (if you haven’t read the book don’t worry, this is just for comparison-purposes).

It’s not even a page’s worth, it doesn’t delay or obstruct the narration. Instead, it makes it feel all the more real. Imagine what All For The Game could’ve been with similar assessments on Neil’s part.

Anyway, I’d have so many headcanons concerning a deeper assessment of the foxes’ language skills (mainly concerning Kevin because I speak all the languages that he speaks so I might be a bit biased) but I’ve written too much already. If you’ve reached this further down thank you! Please let me know what you think or, if you need any further insights/questions, please don’t shy away and come ask them to me! If you need help with references, analysis of this sort or anything really, I’d love to help!

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ckret2 · 4 years

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how tf do u write sir pen and alastor

Step one: rewatch this and this a million times specifically to focus on how they talk—the way they emphasize words, the cadence and flow of their sentences, pace, sound effects, mood, pitch, tone, etc.

Step two: reread their lines here or here (each one handles the transcript a little bit different—the first one is more comprehensive, the second one more objective, and they disagree on a few words) so that you can more fully absorb things like their vocabulary, length and complexity of sentences, etc.

Step three: keep those pages open constantly so that every couple paragraphs you can refer back to those pages to refresh their voices in your head when you get nervous about drifting too far off the accurate voice of a character who's got less than three total minutes of footage, which will be often.

Now you have their voices in your head.

Step four: Go write their voices!! Here are their voices:

Sir Pentious is pretentious. Alastor sounds like a radio host.

I know, I know, that sounds super obvious.

Sir Pentious will occasionally use vocab & sentence structure that makes him sound old-fashioned and dramatic on par with a parody of a Shakespeare villain. He uses phrases like "[they] dare not hinder [me]" or "the likes of I" or pronouncing "striped" as "stripéd." His vocab isn't wildly complicated—you shouldn't be sending readers running to the dictionary—but nevertheless he sounds intelligent.

Pretend that in his heart he's constantly on the verge of giving a villainous monologue about how his evil plan will let him effortlessly conquer the world, and anything else he's doing—whether it's trying to impress a crush or ordering lunch at a fast food restaurant—is either a practice run for that villainous monologue or a distraction from being able to give it. His casual conversations will have that hint of grandiosity. He's going to be mildly irritated at anything that undercuts his grandiosity—it doesn't have enough style, doesn't have enough class. He'll jump on opportunities to gloat, to talk about his goals & plans, to talk down his enemies—to try to make himself sound good, basically.

And—this is super important—remember that he thinks he's evil and is proud of it. He's not one of those villains who believes he has a just or justifiable cause. He's also not one of those villains who is villainous out of spite/anger/vengeance. He says that he is evil and he is gleeful about it. Don't feel the need to give him sympathetic/understandable/justifiable motives for his actions, because he doesn't think he has any and he doesn't care. He's power-hungry and he's bad and he's having fun. He embraces it. Embrace it when you write him.

Alastor is 100% performative at all times. Imagine that at every moment he's speaking he sees himself as a radio talk show host sitting behind his desk with a packed studio audience and the knowledge that thousands more people are listening live. He's animated and exuberant because he's trying his damnedest at all times to be an entertaining host for that imaginary audience. That's his job: put on a good show for the audience.

So every comment is snappy and interesting, he always sounds upbeat and energetic. When he talks about himself and his own emotions, it never sounds confessional, intimate, or sincere; even if he's talking about something that's genuinely been a heavy psychological weight on him, he doesn't present it like that. He presents it like a guest on a talk show telling the host a funny anecdote about his life, or a comedian telling a story to the audience: even if the anecdote is about something miserable, it's presented as an interesting/entertaining story for the consumption of the audience.

(See: the jokey way he says, "Hahaha, why does anyone do anything? Sheer! Absolute! BOREDOM!" The woe-is-me faux drama when he says "My work became mundane, lacking focus, aimless!" Those straight up sound like two depression symptoms. His voice does not sound depressed.)

So he speaks in anecdotes, one-liners, punchy comments. There's going to be very little "uh-huh" or "mm-hmm" or grunts or sighs or other such wordless sounds—everything he says is going to sound crisp and carefully enunciated for the audience at home trying to listen in over the radio.

(And you can play with that as appropriate: I have his performativeness go down when he's having an actual intimate sincere moment, and I have it crank up wildly when he's uncomfortable, secretive, feeling vulnerable, etc., and he wants to hide that.)

Step five: remember their weird speech quirks!

Hiss! Sir Pentious has got his hiss. Now, listen to me very carefully: if choossse to write Sssir Pentiousss'sss ssspeech ssso that every sssingle sssibilant isss emphasssized jussst like ssso, I ssshall sssneak into your houssse in the middle of the night with a Sssharpie and ssscribble an angry faccce on your forehead.

This is the best essay I have ever read on writing accents. And one of the most important points in it is: don't misspell every word to phonetically match how the character sounds, because it's incomprehensible, silly, and gives readers headaches. That applies to Sir Pentious's hiss.

Now, I feel like you can give him SOME hissing. If there's a word or phrase HE's trying to emphasize—if he's talking Extra Fancy, or if he's spitting an insult at someone, or if he's just being more pretentious than usual. Example: if a hero sneaks into a villain's lair and the villain captures them, the villain might sarcastically say "so nice of you to join us!" When I hear Sir Pentious giving that line I hear his voice jump up on the first word, "so nice of you to join us!" So I could write that as "ssso nice of you to join us!" for that extra emphasis. I wouldn't write it as "ssso niccce of you to join usss!"

Also: you can just not write his hiss at all. That's valid, we'll still hear it in our heads. I don't write his hiss when I'm writing inside of his perspective because he doesn't hear himself doing it.

If you DO write his hiss though, remember that it's not just on the S's. Sometimes he over-emphasizes his H's as well or inserts them where they don't belong. ("hhell will be mine, h'and everyone will know the name of Sir—") That's harder to naturally write into dialogue than the S's, but if you're looking out for opportunities you might naturally stumble across one or two. At least remember to carry the hissed H's in your head.

Radio sounds! Alastor's dialogue is loaded down with radio sound effects—studio audience applause (and different kinds of applause for "applauding a stellar performance" versus "welcoming a guest onto the show"), studio audience laughter, little trumpet sounds, snatches of music, xylophone scales, telegram beeps, drum rolls, the screams of the damned—you know, normal things you might hear on the radio. And less clear things too: a thousand different static sounds, muffled voices like you might hear when passing through stations and getting near but not actually on the right station, garbled humming, little second-long clips of songs he heard earlier.

You don't want to CONSTANTLY talk about the sound effects he's making; but like, also, constantly talk about the sound effects he's making. Strike a balance. Good luck.

Get familiar with sound effects—listen to the radio and pay attention to the sound effects used in bumper messages, listen to the sounds in old game shows, listen to radio dramas, find guides by people who work on sound effects for radio and see what they do, browse sound effect sites to see what kind of categories are listed and that people look for. Alastor shouldn't sound like a radio drama, but you can steal sounds from that. If you can hear a sound but aren't sure what to call it, try looking up lists of similar sound effects for sale and just look at what terms they use in the file names to describe the sounds. (Obviously you don't want to buy a $50 folder containing 500 radio sound effects, but oftentimes you can still see the names of the files.)

And—again, from that essay I linked earlier—the characters don't complain about each other's voices in canon. If someone's going to comment on Alastor's radio noises, there has to be a good reason for it, because it's a divergence from the norm. (Like, I have Sir Pentious commenting on and asking questions about Alastor's radio sounds to show he's curious about/interested in Alastor and how his abilities work on a deeper level than just "oh yeah of course the radio demon makes radio sounds" and to show that he's absolutely not too intimidated by him to risk annoying him—and that's intended as a deliberate exception from the norm, to the extent that Alastor comments on it once.)

Musical numbers! Occasionally Alastor will burst into song. Unless you're desperate to try your hand as a lyricist, I recommend against actually writing full songs for him, for this reason: when we see Alastor's full song in the pilot, it sounds like he's singing, because he is and we can hear it. When we see a full song in a book or a fic, it sounds like somebody's reciting poetry, because we don't know the tune and we can't hear the song in our heads. And "giving a poetry recital" is a very different vibe from "singing a song."

What I do to get around this is, when I think Alastor oughta be singing, I just take a song that actually exists and have him sing that one, and then I can fling the link at readers. Go get familiar with pre-1933 popular songs. I recommend vaudeville and musical theater as easy sources to draw from because it more often tends to be snappy, energetic, and oftentimes humorous, which fits Alastor's vibe. I also don't quote the entire song, just a couple of relevant lines—so that within the fic itself it comes across like dialogue rather than like a poetry recital. If you HAVE to include the whole song, mix it in with actions, description, narration, etc, so that it can still be read as dialogue rather than like a solid block of poetry. He's not just standing in one spot unmoving while he sings, is he? No of course not, he's Alastor. Have him dance and do dumb stuff.

Step six: remember their weird accessories, mention them from time to time.

One of the streams that I don't feel like digging up says that Sir Pentious's hat's facial expressions mirror whatever Sir Pent is currently feeling, even if Sir Pent's own expression is less honest to his true feelings. Personally, I go with that—his hat is always showing his genuine emotions—unless it's off his head, in which case it can have its own separate emotions for a moment (such as: reacting to the fact that it's fallen off its owners head). It's completely psychically connected to him and so it's never going to have a separate/independent reaction to what's goin on, just mirror Sir Pent's. There are other ways to headcanon his hat and so other ways to write his hat but that's the way I do it.

Alastor's microphone cane occasionally talk. In the show we see it do that when Alastor specifically prompts it. We don't know if the cane is its own person or if it's more like a magic ventriloquist doll Alastor talks through in order to banter with himself. I treat it as like, 1/2 a person: it's a direct extension of Alastor, and it's got some low-level intelligence, but like intelligence on the level of a chat bot programmed to try to have conversations with people but that doesn't really think for itself. Since it's an extension of Alastor it doesn't really have any thoughts/knowledge that he doesn't, but it's got a slightly snippier/crankier personality, and it might on very rare occasions say things that Alastor like, knows on a subconscious/instinctive level but is consciously denying. Its primary function is to give Alastor the reply he's looking for when he says something he wants a reply to, or to set him up for a snappy one-liner he wants to make but is unable to make unless someone else says JUST the right thing first. Again, there are other ways to headcanon/write his cane, but that's the way I do it.

Also Alastor has living shadows, one of which might be his own shadow, but like, I always forget about them so I don't do anything with them. It's fine it's cool it only shows up during musical numbers anyway.

Step seven: remember their body language.

Sir Pentious's overall body language is, unsurprisingly, pretty serpentine—he's got some wiggles, he's got some dramatic bends that show off his flexibility—and also rather elegant, or at least making a show of looking elegant. At least when he's busy posing in between doing actual work. And he likes playing with his bow tie.

Alastor's gestures are big and theatrical and his arms are always going everywhere.

However, that's not the part of their body language I want to talk about! That's the normal stuff! I'm here for the weird stuff!

Hood! Sir Pentious's hood is basically always flaring out and flattening down and flaring out and flattening down. (And I do headcanon it as a hood—just fraying along the bottom—not as hair. Every time I see fanart that treats it as hair and they braid it or put it up in a bun or whatever I have a moment where I picture his hood shredded up the length into strips and go "OH GOD, OH GOD.") Like, do not constantly describe every single time his hood flares, because it's every five seconds. But don't leave it out by any means. Pick important moments. Make sure it actually adds to the scene.

Eyes! In canon there's a few shots where we can see that Sir Pent's many many eyes move and blink, and they ten to look toward whatever Sir Pent is focused on. It seems likely that they work. If you want to say they work you totally can. I say they work. If you're gonna say they work, keep in mind what kind of field of view that gives him, and keep in mind what you can do with that knowledge. Like, if he's sitting at a dinner table with someone to discuss some kind of skeevy underground business deal and the other person slowly pulls out a gun under the table and points it at him, he's going to see that gun with his knee-height eyes and be able to kick that dude's whole chair over with his tail.

Smile! Alastor's single most defining character trait is the fact that he's always smiling. The terrified sinners that named him the Radio Demon should've named him Smiley McSmiles. Therefore, there is no need to tell readers that he's smiling. They'll be like, "of course he's smiling. He's Alastor. We're not stupid." However, it's a good idea to mention from time to time that he's smiling, because like, Alastor's single most defining character trait is the fact that he's always smiling. And when it's that constant, it helps to occasionally bring it up to like, maintain that continuity, maintain that sense of the fact that his smile is always there. So you've gotta strike that balance between "don't just keep telling the readers that Alastor is still smiling because you don't need to tell them that" and "mention his smile from time to time." The way I do that is like, mentioning his smile in conjunction with other things, usually as an indication of his mood. Whereas with other characters you'd show changes in their expression by going "he smiled," "he frowned," "he grimaced in disgust," with Alastor you'd say like "his perpetual smile stretched wider into a more genuine one" or "he pressed his lips together as his smile thinned" or "he fought to keep smiling through the disgust"—that way, you're not telling readers that Alastor is smiling, it's something you're mentioning in the process of telling readers something different and more important about his mood.

Step seven: remember this ain't TV. Keep in mind the difference between how they sound when they’re talking out loud on screen and how they’ll sound when they’re just text in a fic.

To get their voice across, you might have to exaggerate some things in written dialogue that you wouldn’t in spoken dialogue. For instance, Sir Pentious doesn’t always have vocab that makes him sound like a pretentious, sophisticated supervillain. Sometimes he says “No other demon can compare to the likes of I!” but then sometimes he says “You wanna go, missy?” When he says that the latter line in the show, he still sounds pretentious, because his VA is still using his pretentious-sounding voice. In writing, there is no voice. Most readers KNOW what his voice sounds like, and if you’re writing close enough to his voice they’ll be able to hear it; but it’s going to be harder for them to hear it if you have him saying words that go against what his voice sounds like and they aren’t actually simultaneously hearing his voice IRL saying those words.

So, while “You wanna go, missy?” works on screen when we can hear the contrast between his voice and the dialogue, if that scene was written instead, it’d be easier to get his voice across with “Do you want to go, missy?” because it still has the unexpected/humorous casualness of “missy” in there but making the rest of the sentence very formal preserves Sir Pent’s pretentious speaking style.

Step eight: keep in mind that the question I'm answering is "how do you write sir pent and alastor," not "how should sir pent and alastor be written," so feel free to toss out anything that doesn't work for you.

#hazbin hotel #sir pentious #alastor #about my writing #anonymous #ask

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raavenb2619 · 4 years

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I identify as aro ace and both romance/sex repulsed. When it comes to romance though, I enjoy it in theory but not if it were to actually happen. The best way I can describe it is like lithromantic but with no attraction at all. Like “I guess I would be ok with a relationship and sometimes want one but I don’t have crushes” and then getting freaked out when it’s a real possibility. Do you know any terms to describe this?

Hm, it depends. The favorable/indifferent/repulsed framework is a good starting point, but it can be a little reductive. For example, I’m generally romance repulsed but I sometimes enjoy wholesome romance in media, so with regards to that I guess you could say that I’m romance indifferent or maybe even romance favorable depending on the context.

There’s also room to make a distinction between romance and relationships. If you haven’t done so, I’d suggest you read up on queerplatonic relationships (QPRs) and see if they’re more up your alley. You might find that even a QPR feels sort-of uncomfortable or suffocating, and polyamory might be a way to reduce that strain. On the other hand, it’s also possible that relationships just aren’t for you, but you might be able to have some of your emotional needs met via friendships. I’m not aware of any words that sufficiently describes my i-enjoy-being-close-with-my-friends-and-i-care-about-them-a-lot-but-even-polyamory-would-probably-end-up-suffocating-me-in-the-long-run, so I can’t really help you on that front. Our experiences is that they aren’t talked about that often, so unfortunately there isn’t that much vocab that can quickly express how complicated our feelings about attraction and behavior and relationships can be.

Followers/rebloggers, feel free to write suggestions in the notes.

Follow up: I sent you the ask about lithromantic without romantic attraction. I think I found a word (lithplatonic) that works for me! If you have any others I’d totally be interested but something around those lines is definitely how I feel.

Part three (I am totally overfilling your box so sorry) I just realized that wasn’t what I had been talking about I mixed up what u had said, sorry if I confused you

I’m glad you found a word that works for you. I wrote my above response before I saw these follow ups (and then got busy which is why it took me so long to post this), and I’m still including it since it might help other people or start a discussion.

#ask #anon #original #romance #qpr #queerplatonic relationship #relationship #lith #lithplatonic #lithromantic #Anonymous

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rainbow-sides · 5 years

Text

A Hand to Hold: Chapter Seven

Summary: Patton befriends an isolated boy at his high school and soon develops feelings for him that aren’t just friendship. Navigating a relationship of any kind with Logan Barry isn’t easy, but it sure is worth it!

Pairings: romantic Logicality, possible background Prinxiety but I haven’t decided yet

Word Count: 1,739

Warnings: talk about bullying, ableism from a parent, very brief mention of Deceit, mentions of abusive therapy (implied ABA), food mention, mild spoilers for Doctor Who, anxiety, school stress,

Notes: ATTENTION I am no longer using a taglist. Instead, please follow and click notifications for the blog @rainbow-sides-fics. I’ll be reblogging all of my old fics there as well as any new ones I’ll be posting. Alternatively, A Hand to Hold is now available on AO3. Love you guys! <3 ~Martin

Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six

___________________________________

“GCAT PUPY PUPY,” Virgil chanted, his palms pressed to his temples. “Guanine and adenine are purines, cytosine and thymine are pyrimidines. Right?”

Logan nodded. “Correct. Well remembered.”

“Thank God for mnemonics.” Virgil popped a chip into his mouth. “Okay. Okay. What else is on the study guide?”

“It says to understand 5’ and 3’ directionality, decoding amino acid sequencing, and be able to explain the process of DNA replication as well as translation from DNA to proteins,” Logan said, summarizing the study guide for what was probably the fourth or fifth time. Although he knew that Virgil obviously knew the material, he got anxious during tests. He had asked Logan to help study with him so he felt more prepared.

“I feel like I know all of that, but there's got to be a catch, right? I'm gonna fail. I'm gonna fail.” He started to breathe too quickly.

Chex, who had been resting on the floor next to Virgil's chair, sat up. She nudged Virgil's leg with her nose and let out a soft whine.

Virgil buried his hand in the fur on the back of the dog's neck and took a deep breath. “No, I'm probably not going to fail. I've never failed a test in this class before, and I've been doing all the work.”

“I don't believe that you will fail,” Logan agreed. He twisted the ring on his finger, not sure what else to say.

He wanted to help Virgil, but anxiety was complicated and Logan wasn't great at complicated emotions. Logan figured it was probably best to leave that to Patton. And Chex, of course. The sweet black lab was so in tune with Virgil's anxiety that she could tell even before he started to have an attack and would remind him to redirect his energy into more productive avenues.

“Would you like to keep studying?” asked Logan. “I have vocabulary cards for the whole unit, and there is always a vocabulary section on the test.”

Virgil nodded. “Sure, vocab practice sounds good. Hey, um, thanks again for coming over to study with me. It's nice to have a friend in that class now, I'm less stressed about it.”

Logan thought that Virgil still seemed very stressed. He didn't voice that opinion. “Codon,” he said, holding up the first vocabulary card.

“Uhh, uh, it's any series of three nitrogen bases that code for a specific amino acid, right?”

“Correct. Peptide bond.”

Virgil looked up at the ceiling. “It's...uh, well, peptide is referring to proteins, so...bonds between proteins?”

“Bonds between amino acids,” Logan corrected. “Okasaki fragments.”

“Oh shit,” Virgil muttered. “Um, something about the leading strand?”

“Lagging strand. Okazaki fragments are the stretches of DNA that are copied piece by piece on the lagging strand,” said Logan. He spun the ring on his finger again. He hoped that Virgil wouldn't get worried that he wasn't getting all of the vocabulary right.

“Right! I remember now.”

“Operon.”

“Oh, hey, I know this one. A group of genes that are functionally related,” Virgil said.

“Correct. Intron.”

They kept going until all of the vocabulary cards had been discussed. Logan put aside the ones that Virgil had struggled on so he could keep looking at them later.

“Seriously, thank you so much for coming and helping me out,” Virgil said. “I feel much better about the test on Thursday.”

Logan flicked his hand up near the side of his face. “You're welcome,” he said.

“I don't think I'm going to be able to cram much more into my brain right now, I need a break. Hey, how's the Doctor Who marathon with Patton going?” Virgil wondered.

With a slight bounce in his seat, Logan replied, “We watched Boom Town this weekend! On Wednesday afternoon, he is coming to my house to watch Bad Wolf and The Parting of Ways!”

Virgil leaned forward. “Oh, man, you're already almost to Nine's regeneration? Does Patton know it's coming?”

“Yes, and he says that he will miss Eccleston, but that he's seen David Tennant in other things and is looking forward to meeting Ten,” Logan said happily. He hummed to himself for a second before adding, “I am looking forward to reaching Ten's episodes, he is my favorite modern Doctor.”

“I gotta say, I like Capaldi. He's grumpier. More my style. Though Tennant at the end of his run is cool, he gets dark and edgy.” Virgil grinned. “The new season with Jodie Whittaker was freaking fantastic, too.”

“Much agreed,” Logan said. “I appreciate having a larger group of companions again, and the diversity has improved recently.”

Virgil scratched Chex behind the ears. “Yeah, big team TARDIS's are fun. One of my favorites was at the end of Journey's End was when they were all flying the TARDIS like she's supposed to be flown.”

Logan nodded. “May I ask you a question?” he said suddenly.

“Yeah, course.”

“What does it feel like to you when you are excited about something? Such as when you are talking about or watching Doctor Who, or listening to the music you like?” Logan asked.

There was a long pause as Virgil thought about that. “It makes me happy, I guess.”

“How does it physically feel?” Logan pressed.

“Oh, jeez, I'm not sure. It almost makes me feel peaceful? Like, um, listening to my music makes my mind slow down for just a little while. My body feels more relaxed afterwards. Same with watching something I like. It's a comfort, almost.” Virgil tapped his fingers against the table. “This is a tough question, dude.”

Logan leaned back in his chair. “I apologize.”

“No, it's okay. Really, I just need to think for a minute. Um...it feels warm in my chest sometimes. I guess that's about it. Well, starting a new episode almost feels like anxiety for me. But then again, most emotions turn into anxiety for me. That's just how anxiety works,” Virgil said. Then he asked, “What does it feel like for you?”

Putting his hands on his chest, Logan says, “I'm not sure. I have alexithymia, so I have a difficult time labeling emotions. I can sometimes describe it in physical sensations, though. And my excitement about my special interests feels like my heart and my lungs and my stomach are all on fire, if being on fire felt good and didn't hurt.”

“Sounds intense.”

“It is.” Logan looked down as Chex put her head against his leg. Her sweet brown eyes blinked up at him, and a soft warmth spread through his chest. “Hello,” he said. “Hello, Chex. Your ears are very soft.” He stroked her head.

“She wants to make sure that you're okay,” Virgil said. “She...she can hear changes in people's voices and checks up on them, even if it isn't me.”

“I'm alright. I don't have excellent volume control, or tone control. I never know what I sound like, exactly.” He couldn't tear his eyes away from the beautiful dog. “But I suppose that talking about my experiences with emotion do cause me some distress, which could have emerged in my voice without my noticing.”

Virgil stood up and walked over to the living room. “Want to come sit over here, Lo?” he offered.

“Um, alright.” Logan went over to join him. Chex followed him, and all three of them sat down on the ground. “Why?”

“Why does talking about your emotions distress you?” Virgil asked.

Logan froze up. “Because they are difficult,” he said slowly. “And I do not understand them. I do not like talking to people about things I do not understand.”

“Are you worried that someone might tell you that your emotions are wrong?”

A confused, bad feeling swirled around inside him. Chex laid her head and front paws in his lap, and he felt calmer. “Perhaps, but I'm not sure that I understand the question,” Logan admitted, running his hands down the dog's fur. It was almost as soothing as a full-body stim, and the pressure of her weight against his legs added to that effect.

“I mean, do you think that someone will come along and tell you that the way you are labeling your emotions is wrong? That the words you use to describe your experiences are incorrect?” Virgil tried to clarify.

“Yes, that is what happens.” It had happened many times before. The way he tried to describe what he was feeling to his mother or to his therapists had often been misinterpreted or simply ignored because it didn't make sense. Logan had learned to keep quiet about what he was feeling.

“But you're talking to me about it, even though it...scares you?” Virgil checked. “Is that right?”

Logan shifted. “Yes.”

Virgil smiled. “I think that means you trust me. Thank you.”

“I do trust you,” Logan said. “And I have learned that you and Patton and Roman are worthy of my trust. You've never once tried to make me act normally, or made fun of me.”

“It sucks that the bar is so low,” sighed Virgil.

Logan kept petting Chex. “I don't know that that means, exactly, in this context.”

“Um, it means that I don't think that somebody not laughing at you or trying to change you into something you're not should be the bar, the threshold or limit, for whether or not you can trust them. I mean...I guess what I really mean is that it sucks that you don't get that from everyone. In a perfect world, nobody would make fun of anyone or try to change them,” Virgil explained.

“But we do not live in a perfect world,” Logan reminded him.

“Yeah. Yeah, I know. I know that very well.”

Chex whined softly and raised her head to look at Virgil. Her tail thumped a few times against the floor, and he scooted closer to put his hand on her back. He closed his eyes. Logan didn't say anything. They sat there petting Chex in silence for a while, and it was a soothing silence. Logan felt much calmer and less bad by the time his mother arrived to pick him up and take him home.

He sat in the living room and watched Ian flutter around his plants as the afternoon trailed on. His mother chatted to him as she cleaned and prepared dinner, but he wasn't listening. He was off in his own head, trying to imagine a perfect world.

___________________________________

Sorry for the long wait and the fairly short chapter! I’m working on the next one. But also I’m going back to work next week, and school starts a couple weeks after that, so who knows when I’m going to have time to write? Ah, well. I’ll do what I can.

And hey, check out Time and Time’s Turning if you like my writing! It’s a fairy AU with eventual Royality and Analogical. Also, it has art!!!!! <3 ~Martin

#a hand to hold #my writing #logicality #romantic logicality #platonic analogical #logicality fic #autistic logan

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kinetic-elaboration · 4 years

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July 9: Star Trek 1x05 The Enemy Within

Today’s ep: The Enemy Within. Overall this is a good ep, but I don’t know that I entirely agree with its thesis, and some parts of it are so uncomfortable that they mess with my general enjoyment.

Kirk, being encouraging of his crew: “That will make a good specimen.” I like how it’s just one line but there’s such confidence about him. They have to remind you of his normal self fast because he’s split for 99% of the episode.

Sulu: “That’s nippy.” I love Sulu.

So they just find an alien dog on the planet and decide to steal it? Lol your fav is problematic Enterprise crew.

(Like how they just never explained why they sent the dog up by itself later lol.)

I forgot that it was the ore that messed with the transporter. That’s a cool idea; makes sense. Alien ore gets in your system now weird stuff happens.

Evil Kirk appears and no one sees him--that’s why you don’t leave the transporter room unattended like Kirk said!!

Honestly imagine how wild seeing this when it first aired and not knowing much about Star Trek would be. Weird new sci fi show’s been on for a month and suddenly there are two Captains!! What!?!?

Even the way Evil!Kirk touches the ship is lascivious.

Bones is a good doctor. He really does have a good bedside manner; I don’t feel like people remember this about him enough.

He also keeps brandy in sickbay lol.

This scene with gratuitously shirtless Kirk and distracted Spock... it doesn’t look anything less like a porno in context honestly. I know Spock is supposed to be distracted because he’s hearing information that doesn’t make sense but Kirk is just so obviously turning on the flirt face (aka his usual face with Spock) and he’s shirtless so... the distraction is real and multi-faceted.

Ooh, Janice is an artist! I love her little rotating mirror thing.

This scene is so terrible. Really upsets me. Surely they could have found some way to portray ‘pure selfish id’ without going immediately to sexual assault.

Evil!Kirk wears so much eye makeup.

It’s interesting to me that Good!Kirk is so obviously not the real Kirk either, right from the moment he steps off the transporter. (Not to be that person again but Shatner is a better actor than people give him credit for being.)

Spock will save the day! I know that Rand calls for him because he’s First Officer but it’s still interesting that she goes for that name over, like, security.

Evil!Kirk is also where Kirk keeps all his dramatic tendencies.

I feel so bad for Janice in this scene. “What was I supposed to do? He’s the Captain.” Anyway this is why this is still a problem.

That dog omg.

“Set phasers to stun.”

“The search party is to capture you.” Yeah, that’s hard to explain. “Hey, crew, we’re going to play a little game of hide and seek. I’ll hide first.”

Man this conversation between Kirk and Spock. Leadership is one of my favorite themes in ST and Kirk is probably my favorite fictional leader of all time okay so this means a lot to me. “You don’t have the right to be vulnerable in the eyes of the crew.”

Spock is honestly just so on Kirk’s side, at every single moment. He believes him, trusts him, knows who he is, is loyal to him, is honest with him, knows how to handle him, how to care for him.

Spock likes the dog. He likes animals, in general.

The phaser vocab is so different this early on. “Base cycle.”

Good thing Kirk has makeup readily available to cover up his scratches.

My mom suggested transporting some blankets to the planet. But what if they split into evil blankets!! (Interesting that inanimate objects DO split too though.)

I feel like Kirk tried to do a Vulcan nerve pinch there lol.

“If I’m to be the Captain, I’ve got to act like one.” Immediately goes to a shot of his evil self climbing on equipment.

Spock: I always have a point.”

Spock listing out Kirk’s good qualities: his intellect, compassion, love, tenderness. Telling, lol. A lot of synonyms for how much he loves and admires Kirk. Kirk appreciation hour.

“If I seem insensitive to what you’re going through, Captain, understand: it’s the way I am.” I love this line, it’s perfect, because it has two meanings: how I am is unemotional, which causes me to seem insensitive; but also: I go through what you’re going through all the time, it’s how I am.

“Lower us down a pot of hot coffee or some rice wine.”

Poor Kirk, so many struggles, not enough snuggles.

There’s no way people could live through those temperatures in those clothes and not die. Sulu calling for room service. I love him. (Why did they drop his sense of humor in the movies???)

“A thoughtless, brutal animal... yet it’s me.”

I have a lot of mixed feelings about the main thesis of this ep. But. I do love that Kirk’s courage is in his good side.

And so much compassion....”Don’t hurt him. Don’t hurt my evil side.”

Poor animal. Goes through such a confusing experience. Then dies.

Second Officer Spock. I’ve seen people make a big deal out of this but it’s pretty obvious to me this is supposed to mean “Second in command.” As in Kirk is the “First Officer” as the Captain and Spock is second. He behaves in all ways as the second in command, right down to making that log entry at all.

The AOS verse should have rebooted this ep instead of Space Seed (I say every single episode). I mean, STID had as a theme “Kirk learning what it means to command.” That could be tied in! Also can you imagine, two CPines? Two??

Half alien Spock.

Jim’s compassion is paralyzing him.

Aaaand we’re back on the creepy train with Evil!Kirk.

Evil!Kirk doesn’t care about the crew at all. He can make decisions fast because he only cares about himself, so there’s always an easy answer.

Of course he and everyone else looks to Spock as the authority on Kirks.

Evil!Kirk knows he’s not the dominant one here, that re-combining with Good!Kirk means a certain ‘death’ or at least... being sent back to the depths.

Spock at the transporter as if this were even his department lol.

“I’ve seen a part of myself no man should ever see.”

That flirty face he gives Spock though oml. Get a room.

Ugh Spock’s last comment was so ragingly inappropriate. Hate it. But also, read it as an expression of his own extreme jealousy because he’s definitely a jealous person. Just put through the ‘sexist 60s man’ dialogue-writer translator.

So again, I like the idea of this ep and a lot of the details but the details I don’t like are......hard to ignore.

I liked that the bad side was dramatic, selfish, confused, entitled, and it made sense that he was violent and even lustful. And I liked that Kirk had such a hard time seeing that part of himself and acknowledging it. And I do think it's a good lesson/message that we need to understand our own worst impulses and that those impulses are part of us and maybe even tied to parts of us that we need. But the implication that everyone's a little rapey and that the events of this episode necessarily mean Janice has to work for someone she knows is inappropriately lustful toward her just... are really hard for me to entirely get over.

Honestly her reaction just really makes me so sad. And it annoys me that no one stands up for her, no one says that the Captain was wrong and she didn’t deserve that treatment, “imposter” or no. I guess that's what bothers me more than that Evil!Kirk went immediately to assault, b/c the idea IS that he is lustful, violent, and completely selfish. He cares about himself, his survival, his ship, what he owns, what he deserves. Maybe it is natural he would let the power go to his head and seek out someone who he knows he could manipulate easily into giving him something he wants. Maybe it's no different in a way from stranding the crew on the planet. But no one says "hey, that's wrong what he did. You're entitled to respect from the Captain." And I wish someone had.

I recognize this was made in 1966 and I do generally give ST credit within the context within which it was made, but I am a 2020 viewer and the ep certainly hits home given, you know, everything, so... just some thoughts.

Anyway, another thing I was thinking about during the ep was that I feel like I forget that Spock has two "warring halves" b/c he's half human. Because before he put it that way, I was thinking about how the war in him is between his natural Vulcan emotions and his Vulcan teachings. But now I wonder if the whole "Vulcans are super emotional" thing might actually be quite late in the canon, and initially they were intended to be naturally "emotionless.” But basically I don’t actually know how I headcanon the human and Vulcan halves of him interacting... You’d think I would lol but my take in haicg was really... pretty focused on the Vulcanness of him. I guess I thought of the human half as more of a cultural thing because physically, emotionally, psychologically, and physiologically he appears to be primarily Vulcan.

Talking about this more with my mom, it’s making more sense to me... it is cultural and it’s about expectations. He wants to “honor his father’s teachings” and be Vulcan. But he has a whole half, a whole side of his family, with different teachings and beliefs--what to do with them? When he’s around Vulcans, they are obsessed with his human side. When he’s around humans, they see him as fully Vulcan--which is much easier for him and why he seeks them out imo--but it also is a constant ignoring of part of him he feels guilty for ignoring. When McCoy tells him to be more emotional, does a part of him wonder if he should? For his mom? But then... Vulcans don’t choose to be logical for fun. It’s for safety, it’s for survival. So how can he do anything else but follow his father? Who he also doesn’t speak to for 20 years and has a super complicated relationship with! So it’s difficult.

Anyway. That was an emotionally intense experience for this human person. The next ep is Mudd’s Women, one of the weaker S1 offerings, but still a classic as per usual.

#the year 2020 #2020: star trek #2020: fandom thoughts #star trek tos

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ambersky0319 · 4 years

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My Babies I love to hurt-

@whatschooldoesntteachyou you wanted info on my OCs so I shall provide! But in exchange of you have any OCs please tell me about them!! I'd really love to hear about them! Also @tacochippy this applies to you as well! And anyone else interested- I just really wanna hear about y'alls characters!

Kay! Onto my kiddos! This is also really unorganized and probably just the tip of the iceberg-

Evanna

She was the first OC I ever made and lemme just say,,,, she's come a long way. I'm really attached to her and I just love my royal gal. She's Aro/Ace and had a pretty shitty mom but she's making due. Her best friend is her guard and she had actually encouraged him to ask out his (not at the time) wife!

Also like, she fights on the front lines bc she knows her abilities are stronger than some of her own soldiers, and ends up reducing the death rate among her people(not by much, but it does slowly go down). Evanna has a problem with her own safety- great for angst with her relationships!!

Nezu

Nezu is a brand new character I made at the last moment, but I absolutely love them. They're pretty young, about 14-15 years old, and identify as agender(it's a miracle they even knew about the term since Dali don't really have vocab for this stuff, they just kinda accept different things). Nezu is a really strong healer despite their age and lack of training, and they really adore history

Oh also Nezu can't fly like most Dali, their wings being too small to support their weight. No one dares mention it though cause you do NOT disrespect a healer in Tongyi, especially if they're a quiet child healer that will ruin your entire reputation cause they just became the queen's favorite being in the entire kingdom

Erin

Evanna's guard and best friend, Erin has known Evanna for y e a r s. He's probably the most loyal Dali in Tongyi and thinks of Evanna as a sister. He loves his wife so much and she's probably the only person he'd prioritize over Evanna. Her name's Azzy and he will bring her up in any conversation that he can

He loves kids and it breaks his heart most of the soldiers are teenagers-young adults cause anyone older has already died. So he fights on the front lines with Evanna, even though he's really only average with his abilities. He does have outstanding strategy though, and sometimes the plans become so complicated that he and a select few can actually follow through

Marie

Onto the humans! Marie has a pretty chill childhood, it's not as dark as some of my other kids. She's a waitress at a restaurant called Silver Dream Café, a restaurant that doubles as a safe place for the employees. And that's no joke. You can be any age above 14 to work there, and they hire those that haven't had the very best life. Something happens to Marie that's really fucked up and so someone suggested she applies there, and Marie's found a new family there pretty much Her brother gets married and has a baby, and then Marie adopts a Nigerian teenage girl.

Marie's pretty stubborn, and very persuasive. If she really wanted to, she could have become a lawyer, but she really distrusts the judicial system and thinks it's unfair, especially after the thing that happens to her. She's compassionate and can oftentimes see through people's lies. The reason? Marie's outstandingly observational, and has an ability to imitate anyone she sees and hears. It's easy for her to pick up on surface-level habits.

Oh yeah and she's really Bi, her brother doesn't approve for awhile but he eventually comes around

Leona

A trained assassin, Leona's very deceiving, having multiple other identities(Abyss - Assassin name, Mariah Peters - news reporter). She does this to protect her actual identity, as well as maybe repress some past events. Her parents are very homophobic and kicked her out around 16 after someone outed Leona as a lesbian.

She turned to a life of crime to sustain herself and somehow got roped into a government organization(experiment) called Tempest. It wasn't long until she was being forced to kill, and she became very apathetic to do her job more efficiently. After all, Tempest payed her well. So she wasn't keen on betraying them anytime soon.

Not until she's given a target by the name Marie Sydney.

Jeremiah

Jeremiah is a ftm assassin, but instead of working on the field like most in Tempest, he was placed in the engineer sector, creating weapons and occasionally leaving the compound to help on missions. He's only known as "Pup" among the other Tempest Members because he's really young and small.

He's very intelligent and cunning, and suffers from constant guilt. He's... Working on it.

Oh and he has part of a soul of another one of my OCs in him(1/3 of the soul)

Taylor

Taylor, often called "Aunty Tay" by her cousin(Neva said it once and it just kinda stuck) and most small children, is the girl that Marie adopted. She's strong and really closed off, often not trusting anyone right away. She really loves her family that Marie brought her into, and will protect them at any cost. Much like Evanna, she's really selfless and is perfectly fine with sacrificing her safety in exchange for the safety of others.

She also has part of the soul within her(2/3) and seems to have the strongest spiritual connection to Cinomeds in general.

Dani

Introduced first as a spoiled and then orphaned prince, he's adopted by Evanna much later in the series once he's older and helps support the Tongyian kingdom. He's adaptable in many situations, but deals with emotion very poorly(especially very strong negative emotions). Despite making a lot of mistakes he eventually learns and tries to fix the mistakes.

He's the third part of the soul.

Oh and did I mention Dani, Taylor, and Jeremiah all start dating? Yeah, they're in a healthy poly relationship and care for one another deeply(after a rough introduction at least)

Aki

CINOMED KIDS! We're nearing the end. Aki is pretty much a mad scientist, with a disregard for the actual life of creatures. He sees a lot of things as test subjects, and loves to play with the biology of said creatures. He's Aro/Ace and the other Cinomeds are like his family. Although he's introduced as a villain he has a sorta redemption arc thing? Idk I know I just love him-

Is the first and only Cinomed to really be redeemed(ish)

Angel

Also a Cinoned, their personality varies greatly because their soul was split into parts(originally two- trio earlier are the first to have Angel's soul split into thirds) and the same goes for their appearance. Before the soul splitting though, Angel was rebellious and often didn't see eye-to-eye with the other Cinomeds

*cough*partofaplottwistihaveinmind*cough*

Serranidae

Goes by Serra by the other Cinomeds, she takes rejection horribly. Her and Angel were a thing at one point, before there was a huge fallout and then Angel was torn apart. Serra was crushed, and vowed to protect Aki at all costs cause she was not gonna lose another part of her family

She fails in the end but it's not really her fault?

Oh Serra is also extremely brutal in fights

Rikki

He's not really that fleshed out... He's the main baddie of my kiddos. Think Aaravos from TDP. Except as a shadow thing. He's the creator of Fahndali and literally every creature there, as well as the other Cinomeds. He split Angel's soul apart before being sucked to the core of the planet where he remained trapped for over a millennia. He's also an asshole, confident in his abilities and not afraid to manipulate those until he feels no need for them.

If people wanna know more just dm me or send an ask and I can probably guarantee more ramblings

#ambersky #ambersky ocs #ambersky oc #original character #original characters #ocs #oc #cinomed chronicles #rambling #i have way more ocs but these are the ones i talk about/use the most #this is just like #completely original ocs too #i didnt include ocs like res or any of my other fandom ocs #anYWHO

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she-who-fights-and-writes · 5 years

Note

Hey! Non-native english speaker here! Thanks for answering my ask! I'll use the tips! They can be very helpful! However, I'm bilingual and use English all the time! I read in English and I have most of my study courses in English, so my question wasn't much about grammar or punctuation but mostly about how to use the language in a way that seems natural! Like figures of speech etc and how to expand my vocabulary ? But thank you very much for your answer! Sending you love and good vibes!

Oh, okay, sorry!! And thank you!

How to Expand Your Vocabulary

Vocabulary is important. The more expanded your vocabulary, the better the flow of the story and the more professional you will sound.

1. Make Use of the Thesaurus

This only really helps if you write in Microsoft Word.

If you think you need to make a word stronger, you can right-click it and select the “Synonym” option, which will bring you to a whole list of words that can be used as substitute.

Just by seeing the other options, your brain is storing the words away for later.

2. Take Notes While You Read

Many people utilize expanded vocabulary in their writing, so whenever you stumble across a word that you like, is interesting, or just plain sounds cool, jot it down and look up the definition! It can only help.

If you’re willing for a challenge, pick up some of the old writers like Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde. Their books are very, very challenging, and even though the vocabulary is a bit dated, there are a few gem words that I’ve found that have stuck with me through all of my writing to this day.

3. Use A Vocabulary Website

Not to sound like I’m promoting anything, but the way that I personally expand my vocabulary is this amazing website that I’ve been obsessed with ever since I was forced to use it to study for vocab quizzes in tenth grade.

It’s called Vocabulary.com (brilliant and original name, I know) and it helps you learn vocab in quiz-format.

The more questions you get right and words you learn, the more points you get! The more points you get, the more badges you earn!

It’s really fun, and it feels more like a game than research!

How to Use Figures of Speech

Figures of speech in idioms can also be called “idioms” and they’re basically phrases that no one else from other cultures understands but make perfect sense to native speakers. Every culture has them, but English has a ton, to the point where I could never write down all of them/

Here are a few common idioms (in English) that everyone should know:

A blessing in disguise: a good thing that seemed bad at first.

A dime a dozen: Something common

Beat around the bush: Avoid saying what you mean, usually because it is uncomfortable

Better late than never: Better to arrive late than not to come at all.

Bite the bullet: To get something over with because it is inevitable

Break a leg: Good luck

Call it a day: Stop working on something

Cut somebody some slack: Don’t be so critical

Cutting corners: Doing something poorly in order to save time or money

Easy does it: Slow down

Get out of hand: Get out of control

Get something out of your system: Do the thing you’ve been wanting to do so you can move on

Get your act together: Work better or leave

Give someone the benefit of the doubt: Trust what someone says

Go back to the drawing board: Start over

Hang in there: Don’t give up

Hit the sack: Go to sleep

It’s not rocket science: It’s not complicated

Let someone off the hook: To not hold someone responsible for something

Make a long story short: Tell something briefly

No pain, no gain: You have to work for what you want

On the ball: Doing a good job

Pull someone’s leg: To joke with someone

Pull yourself together: Calm down

So far so good: Things are going well so far

Speak of the devil: The person we were just talking about showed up!

That’s the last straw: My patience has run out

The best of both worlds: An ideal situation

Time flies when you’re having fun: You don’t notice how long something lasts when it’s fun by itself

To get bent out of shape: To get upset

To make matters worse: Make a problem worse

Under the weather: Sick

We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it: Let’s not talk about that problem right now

Wrap your head around something: Understand something complicated

You can say that again: That’s true, I agree

Your guess is as good as mine: I have no idea

There’s more here.

Good Luck and Happy Writing!

#writing #writing tips #writing advice #writing help #vocabulary #idioms #expanding vocabulary #writing english #writing in english

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bertiebrocki · 5 years

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What makes a good presentation 30/10/19

At the end of this project I will have to express in a presentation the work I have done to achieve the brief . If I was working in an animation job at some point I would have to pitch my idea or character for the show and if you get that wrong you don’t get paid. In class I learnt the key principles of what makes a good presentation and what doesn’t.

The first principle I need to get right is body language. When your talking to someone you can often get an understanding of how they feel through the way they look and act. For example if I was frowning people are going to think I am fed up or sad.

Gestures

Sometimes when your getting your point across gestures can really help with that. By moving your arms you can visually show someone what your trying to say. If I wanted to say the room was big I might move my arms apart to represent that. When you are being watched by people It can often be boring watching someone just talk moving your arms around makes you seem more relaxed and interesting to look at. Although it may seem good any skill needs the correct balance. Waving your arms to much might make you look over exaggerated and quite weird so only use it when necessary.

Posture

This goes into the theory that your body language can tell people something about you. Standing straight is definitely better than hunching your body. Hunching makes you seem quite shy or scared as you are almost concealing yourself away from everyone. When standing straight you seem confident and quite open to talk too.

Facial expression

If I am trying to sell my idea in a pitch my main goal is to get everyone to like it. If I look bored or un enthusiastic well they are not going to want to use it. If I don’t like the idea why should they. Smiling and being positive always gives a good impression and also makes you seem confident that your ideas are good.

Eye contact

We give eye contact all the time when we are talking to people. It’s good manners and shows that they are part of the conversation. If I give people eye contact during my presentation I am engaging with them and they feel important as it’s personal to them.

Structure is the way we organise something such as the way our power point is laid out. Too many slides can be boring and too few slides can be quick and not give people time to absorb the information given. Bellow is a sequence which I think works.

Slide 1 Introduction

Firstly I will be introducing who I am and what was the brief that I was given as well as what I’m going to be showing the audience. By this point they might have already seen a couple of presentations so to keep their attention I might add a bit of humour. Not too much humour as that can make me seem like i'm not taking this seriously.

Slide 2 development

Now that they understand my brief and who I am I can show my process. How I created these characters and why I used certain features in my design.

Slide 3 context and model sheets

This is showing my final design what makes it better than the other designs I produced. During this I will display my model sheets and give the people around me an understanding of who they are and what their characteristics are.

Slide 3 conclusion

Clarity of ideas

This is about making sure the people who are watching understand what you are saying and the point you are trying to give to them.

Vocab

If you want people to understand you the easiest thing is to make you use the correct spellings of words. Not everyone understands when you don’t spell a word properly and this can really miss communicate your ideas. Words aren't just about spelling it also about using a variety of different words. If the audience are reading the same thing over and over again it becomes boring repetitive. I often don’t have a huge amount of words per slide as they are more likely to remember one word instead of a dosen. You want to choose a word that has a lot of meaning to it and is memorable.

Enunciation

A greater part of your presentation will be you speaking it takes the most time and is one of the vital things you get right. Making sure you say your words clearly is very effective. If people are taking their time trying to understand what you are saying then they won’t be memorising any of your key points. I like to have a good pace while speaking if your too fast people won’t understand you if it’s too slow it becomes boring and unenthusiastic. You need to be somewhere in the middle.

Breathing and taking pauses

Personally I feel this ties in with the enunciation part. When speaking you need to make sure you stop at the end of what you say. It gives time for people to take in what you said and get an understanding. If your too fast with no pauses you might sound like your in a rush and want to get your presentation over with. Once again everything needs to be balanced out if your pausing too much it might seem like your minds gone blank.

Think simple and not complicated

When created and laying out your slides it’s good to think less is more. People think its good to have loads of writing on there slides. It prompts them and helps them remember their lines. But it also overwhelms the person looking at it and makes you seem like you don’t know what you are talking about.

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