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orangeoctopi7 · 3 years

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A Negligible Price

I guess it’s becoming a tradition for me to add another chapter to A Minor Inconvenience every year for @stanuary . I swear I didn’t mean for this to happen. It’s just that the prompt “Sacrifice” got me thinking about this story and where I thought it could go, and then I got writing and I started coming up with ideas for how I could actually put a finish to this story. So yeah, hopefully it won’t be another year before I post chapter 4, but not promises!

Also, first time I’ve had to do this, but:

CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSION OF SUICIDE/MARTYR COMPLEX AND SUIDICE ADJACENT THEMES.

* * *

Bill rushes to gather himself together again. Now that Sixer and his idiot brother have caught on, he knows they’ll probably be making a move against him soon. The time for lying in wait and keeping a low profile has passed. He’s been getting faster, better at finding the tiny flecks of gold scattered into the dark abyss below.

Unfortunately that also means that he’s noticed that some missing pieces just never turn up. As an interdimensional being who’s existed in countless dimensions across innumerable timelines, Bill likes to think he knows himself pretty well now. What he’s made of, how much power he’s accumulated, what he’s capable of. And if he had to estimate now, which he does, he’d say he’s been reduced to maybe a third of his power. Roughly two thirds of him are missing.

What happened to those missing pieces? Were they simply deleted by that memory eraser? Did he leave some of himself behind in that physical form he left to enter Stan’s mind in the Fearamid? Bill can only guess, but really, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter. What matters is getting out of this moron’s brain and starting again on his path to a universe free of rules.

* * *

Stan recovered from his latest memory lapse quickly, despite the fact that it was the worst one he’d experienced since he sacrificed himself to the memory gun last summer. The experience had clearly put Ford on edge, and as much as he tried to bottle up his emotions and remain calm, Stan could practically feel the panic coming off him in waves.

They were both relieved when they reached Spitsbergen. There was a hospital in Longyearbyen, where Ford insisted they stop to give Stan a check-up. Stan felt fine, but if it helped ease Ford’s nerves, then he could sit through a check-up.

Explaining Stan’s condition to the doctor was a struggle, considering English was not his strongest language. They definitely got across that Stan was experiencing memory problems, but the doctor seemed to be under the impression it had been caused by an injury to the head in an accident, rather than a purposeful exposure to a memory-erasing device.

Eventually, Ford had lost his patience and just asked if they could use the CT or MRI machine themselves. The doctor spoke enough English to tell them that the nearest CT or MRI machine was in either Iceland or Russia.

The elder Pines twins left the hospital in low spirits. Ford kicked at little pebbles as they walked down the street.

“There’s a research facility in Ny-Ålesund. Perhaps we could sail up there and commandeer some equipment to rig up our own CT scan…”

“I think it’d be easier to just hop on a plane back to the States at this point.” Stan suggested.

“If we’re going to hop on a plane somewhere, it’ll be to Reykjavik, where we won’t have to pay an arm and a leg for any treatments.”

“Yeah, we’ll just have to wait half a year.” Stan rolled his eyes. “I don’t think they’re gonna take ‘revived demon in my head’ as an urgent need.”

“Probably not…” Ford admitted.

“And you’re sure you didn’t figure anything else out the last time you were pokin’ around in my head?”

Ford grit his teeth. The truth was, he was afraid what would happen if he tried to revisit that memory. The cold flames of the memory eraser had felt so real, even just revisiting it in Stan’s mind, and they seemed to be the trigger of his latest memory lapse. Would they have a similar effect within Ford’s own memory?

“Nothing I’ve been able to make sense of.”

Stan grit his teeth. “So what now? Just leave that jerk in my head?”

Ford sighed. “I want to do some more research into what we’ve learned so far. Perhaps a trip to the library will help me find some insight. But truthfully… I may have been too hasty with punching out Bill, when I encountered him. He’s a liar who can’t be trusted, but he’s also a braggart. If I’d just let him run his mouth a little longer, we may have learned something about what he’s up to.”

* * *

Longyearbyen’s library wasn’t any bigger than the public library in Gravity Falls, and had significantly fewer books relating to Bill and mind magic, but it did at least have access to several library databases that Ford couldn’t typically log into from the Stan’O’War II. (According to Fiddleford, these databases could be hacked into quite easily, but Ford didn’t have the time or the wherewithal to learn how) It would have to do for now. Ford took a seat at a computer, and with a little help from a librarian, he was soon scrolling through peer-reviewed articles from different archeologists and anthropologists and folklore experts and descendants of the Aztecs and Mayans debating who Xolotl was, what his role was in the Aztec religion, how much his lore changed from Pre- and Post- Colombian invasion, and so forth.

What he’d learned so far was interesting, to say the least. The things that most people agreed upon was that Xolotl was a god of death, fire, and lightning. What caught Ford’s attention was the fact that they were also the god of twins and deformities. He glanced down at his twelve fingers, which rested awkwardly on the small keyboard meant for people with just ten. It seemed odd that Bill would call on this particular death god, when they seemed far more likely to be a patron to Stan and Ford.

While Ford puzzled over this new information, Stan browsed the library, looking for something to entertain himself while he waited. Unsurprisingly, there weren’t a whole lot of English books in this Norwegian library. Luckily, it wasn’t long before he stumbled upon an extensive comics section. Even though he still couldn’t read most of them, the pictures were at least enough that he got the gist of what was going on.

European comics were very different from American comics. They featured a lot less costumed superheroes punching bad guys and a lot more weird, quirky characters setting out on adventures and exploring the world. They also seemed to lean more heavily on comedy rather than drama. Stan decided he liked them.

He’d been looking at a story about some rich duck when he noticed he felt odd. He didn’t know how else to explain it other than to say that his brain felt itchy. The more he concentrated on it, the more it faded away, but when he went back to looking at the comic and got absorbed back into the story, it came back.

After almost an hour of the feeling coming and going, Stan decided he was not imagining the sensation. He stuffed a tissue into the comic as a bookmark and got up to see what Ford would have to say about it. Almost as soon as he laid eyes on his brother, a wave of anger washed over him. Just like the itchy brain feeling, it went away almost as soon as he stopped and thought about it, but it had been so strong, that he couldn’t deny it had happened.

“Hey.” Stan tapped his brother on the shoulder as the old researcher skimmed an article about why the Aztecs associated lightning with twins.

“Hmm?” Ford acknowledged him without looking away from the screen.

“Am I forgettin’ to be mad at you about somethin’?”

That got Ford to turn and look at him. “Are you having a memory lapse!?”

“I don’t think so, but just a second ago I looked over at you and I felt really mad all of a sudden. Can’t really think of a reason why, though. I’m just wondering if maybe the other day, when I had the big blank-out, maybe we missed somethin’?”

The old researcher’s face contorted with guilt. “You have ample reason to be mad at me. I didn’t stand up for you when dad kicked you out. I never reached out to you for over ten years. I expected you to drop everything and help me with my problems without any explanation. I refused to thank you for saving my life--”

“Yeah, no, none of that stuff.” Stan shook his head. “I remember all that stuff, and I’ve already forgiven you and junk. Mmmm… did you try to enchant the mop again and not let me remember it?” But even as he joked that the underlying reason must be the latest chapter in a minor argument, he knew that couldn’t be right. The sudden bloom of anger had been much more deep-seated and horrible than that. It had felt like… it had felt like Ford had ruined everything.

To be fair, there had been a long period of Stan’s life when he had felt like Ford had ruined everything. But Stan was over that now, and this brief brush with anger had felt even more heated than that.

Ford gave him an appraising look. “Were there any other memories or emotions associated with this feeling?”

“Oh yeah, my brain was feelin’ itchy right before that.”

“Have… you been using shampoo?” Ford asked, unsure of what to do with this information.

“Not my scalp, genius, like the actual thinking part of my brain!”

“... I can’t even begin to guess what that means.”

“Ugh, I don’t know how else to describe it, ok? It’s like somethin’ was squirmin’ around in my mind!”

The brothers wore twin expressions of realization as the words left Stan’s mouth.

“We need to get back to the boat.” Ford stood from the computer desk abruptly.

“Yep.” Stan set the comic he’d been reading down on the desk, not even bothering to remove his improvised bookmark.

* * *

Bill throws his hands up and roars in frustration. He can’t seem to take control, even when the moron’s mind is zoning out, losing himself in some stupid comic book. He’s already in the mind! He’s been here for months! He knows his way around here. So why isn’t it working? Is it because he never made a deal with this guy? That shouldn’t matter! The last thing they did before the whole memory gun thing was shake hands!

There's no time to waste complaining, though. Sixer will be poking around here any minute. Bill needs a plan. Before, he'd spent millions of years in the Nightmare Realm planning. Now he's making everything up as he goes.

It's clear that Bill can't just take control of Stan like he'd been counting on. But do the other two know that? He might still be able to use that to his advantage.

If Bill is going to trick these losers and get out of here, he needs to play his opponents right. Luckily, he's got years of experience fighting against Sixer. It's the Big Mackerel that he worries about.

Before, Bill hadn't paid much attention to Stan. He thought he understood what made the simple con man tick. But then, in the end, he found he didn't understand at all. Even after months of being trapped in his mindscape, Stan is very much still a mystery to Bill.

But there is one thing about Stan that Bill does understand.

He’s willing to sacrifice himself for his family.

* * *

Once they were back aboard the Stan’O’War II, Stan allowed himself to relax, just a little. At least here his surroundings were familiar, and the only person he had to worry about was his own brother.

Under normal circumstances, “the only person he had to worry about” meant he didn’t have to look over his shoulder for law enforcement or old criminals who might recognize Stan from his drifter days.

Today “the only person he had to worry about” meant the only person he could possibly endanger if Bill was able to take control of him. Ford was the last person Stan wanted to put in danger, but he also had to admit, his brother knew more about the demon than any other living being on the planet.

Stan may have been able to relax a tiny fraction once they were back aboard their boat, but not Ford. Ford was in full-blown panic mode.

He frantically searched around the storage room for something, anything, that could help protect his brother from Bill. Unfortunately, they hadn’t thought to bring unicorn hair or moonstones on their voyage. He did have titanium, but he wasn’t confident enough in his emergency medical knowledge to perform cranial surgery on his own, and he doubted they’d be able to find a doctor crooked enough to do it for them. Currently, his best idea was to build an updated version of Project Mentem, but that would take time. Time he wasn’t sure Stan had.

“I can re-enter your mindscape and shatter him again.” Ford decided, pulling out the candles again. “That should at least buy you a few days.”

“Ok.” Stan nodded. He’d definitely prefer to know Bill was shattered again, and not moving around in his brain. “But it’s not like he’s doing anything right now.”

“He’s probably trying to get us to lower our guard.” Ford assumed. “I’ll need to tie you up. He usually makes his move while his victim is asleep.”

“If I need to fall asleep for your spell while tied up, we’re gonna be waitin’ a long time.” Stan warned. “I dunno if I could even fall asleep right now if I had the world’s most comfortable bed.”

“Fair point.” Ford nodded. “I may have to drug you.”

“You gotta be kidding me!” It was abundantly clear that Ford was not kidding in the slightest.

“Would you rather be used as his puppet!?” The old researcher shouted. The outburst rang in the air for a few seconds while Ford tried to steady his breathing. “Stan I… I’m sorry, I just--”

“It’s ok.” Stan pulled him into a hug and tried his best to calm his brother down. “I know you’re just scared.”

“I’m not scared for myself.” Ford explained in a small voice. “I’m scared for you. Waking up to find that you’ve hurt someone, it’s-- I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, least of all you--”

“Stanford, look at me. We’re not gonna let that happen. What if we do it while I’m awake, like we did with the memory before?”

Ford nodded meekly. “That… that could work.”

“You can still tie me up if that makes you feel better.”

The old researcher bit his lip. “...It shouldn't be necessary...”

“Ford.”

“...But it probably would ease some of my fears, yes.” he admitted.

“That’s what I thought. I’ll go get the rope.”

Still unwilling to let his brother out of his sight, Ford followed Stan up to the deck while he retrieved said rope. Once they were back below deck, he wrapped Stan tightly in a large blanket before sitting him down on a chair and tying him up, to ensure he was as comfortable as possible while still restricting his movement.

“How do you feel?” Ford asked as he lit the candles.

“Like I’m about to be shipped back to Oregon in the mail.”

“And Bill…?”

“I haven’t felt anything else from him since we left the library.”

The lack of activity should have reassured Ford, but instead it just added to his general unease. At least he was able to compose himself enough to perform the incantation.

Just as last time, after a flash of light, he found himself on the deck of Stan’s mindscape, with Stan himself standing beside him. This time, though, Bill was floating there, waiting for them.

“I KNEW YOU’D BE BACK HERE AFTER I GOT YOUR ATTENTION IN THE LIBRARY!” The demon taunted. “OH, AND LOOK. STANO HERE EVEN MADE A MENTAL CONSTRUCT OF HIMSELF WITHIN HIS OWN MIND JUST SO YOU WOULDN’T HAVE TO FACE ME ALONE! HOW CUTE!” He prodded Stan in the stomach like he was the Pillsbury Doughboy.

“Back off, bucko!” Stan threatened. “We’re here to break your whole face!”

“WHAT, YOU COULDN’T WAIT UNTIL TONIGHT TO DO IT IN YOUR DREAMS LIKE YOU ALWAYS DO?” Bill asked, voice dripping with false innocence.

“We’re not able to risk the chance of you parading about in Stanley’s body.” Ford growled.

“HA! YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER THAN ANYONE, FORDSY, I ONLY DO THAT TO STUBBORN KNOW-IT-ALLS WHO WON’T WORK WITH ME WILLINGLY.”

“If you think I’m gonna work with you willingly, then you’re an even bigger idiot than I thought.” Stan grunted.

“HEAR ME OUT, MAC! WE BOTH WANT THE SAME THING HERE! ME, OUT OF YOUR SAD PATHETIC MIND!”

“You can’t leave!?” Ford asked in surprise.

“WHAT, YOU THINK I ENJOY SPENDING TIME IN THIS BOZO’S MIND? YOU THINK I WAS PLOTTING MY REVENGE?”

“Honestly, yes.”

Bill gave a long, mocking laugh. “AHAHAHAHAHA! YOU REALLY THINK I CARE ABOUT A COUPLE OF INSIGNIFICANT FLESH SACKS LIKE YOU?”

“We’re the insignificant flesh sacks who killed you!” Stan reminded him.

“WELL, YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY. THE BEST REVENGE IS LIVING WELL.”

The brothers exchanged a suspicious glance. They highly doubted Bill actually believed that adage.

“BUT I CAN’T EXACTLY LIVE WELL TRAPPED IN YOUR MINDSCAPE. I MIGHT GET BORED AND DECIDE THE BEST REVENGE IS KILLING YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY WITH YOUR OWN HANDS.”

Ah yes, that was more along the lines of what they expected from Bill.

“So you’re saying you’ll just let bygones be bygones if I cooperate with you?” Stan asked skeptically.

“WE’LL GO OUR SEPARATE WAYS, NEVER TO MEET AGAIN!”

“And what are you planning on doing once you’re free?” Ford asked coldly.

“NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, SIXER.” The demon waved him off. “NOW ARE YOU GONNA HELP ME OUT OF HERE OR NOT? THE SOONER THE BETTER. YOU TWO AREN’T GETTING ANY FURTHER AWAY FROM THE AVERAGE LIFE EXPECTANCY OF A HUMAN MALE, AND FISH FACE HERE DOESN'T EXACTLY TAKE GOOD CARE OF HIS BODY.”

“Hey!” Stan shouted indignantly.

“Why should Stan’s life expectancy factor into this?” Ford asked.

“HMMM? OH, NO REASON.” Bill said evasively. “I’M JUST, Y’KNOW, IN A HURRY.”

“You’re an immortal, extradimensional being. You’ve been trying to find a way out of the nightmare realm since before multicellular life developed on this planet. If you’re so sure we’re close to the end of our lives, why not wait until we’re out of the way? You must realize we’ll try and stop you from starting Weirdmaggedon again!” Ford reasoned.

“WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT STARTING WEIRDMAGGEDON AGAIN?” Bill denied. “AND MAYBE AFTER A BILLION YEARS, I’M TIRED OF WAITING!”

“Unless you aren’t immortal any more.” the old researcher concluded.

“YOU’VE SEEN FOR YOURSELF, FORDSY, EVERY TIME YOU OR YOUR IDIOT BROTHER SHATTER ME, I PULL MYSELF BACK TOGETHER.”

“Immortal in the mind, perhaps. But what happens when the mind you’re occupying finally dies?”

“ALRIGHT, YOU FIGURED IT OUT!” Bill sneered. “I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN A GENIUS LIKE YOU WOULD. YEAH, MY LIFE’S TIED TO THE BIG MACKEREL’S NOW. SO WHAT? YOU GONNA KILL YOUR BROTHER JUST TO GET RID OF ME?”

“Of course not!” Ford barked.

“Hey, I’d be more than happy to take you down with me if it meant making sure you never hurt anyone else ever again!” Stan challenged the demon.

Ford stared at his brother with wide eyes. “Stanley, no!”

“Hey, relax, I’m not talkin’ suicide or anything.” Stan assured him. “But he’s right about one thing. I’m not gonna live forever.”

I’ll only do it if I have to. A stray thought cawed overhead.

Stan cussed under his breath as Ford gaped at him with a mix of alarm and pity.

“I’m not gonna take it back.” Stan insisted after a moment. “If that’s what it comes down to, to keep him from hurtin’ you or the kids, then I’m taking him down with me.”

Ford placed his hands firmly on Stan’s shoulders and looked him straight in the eye with all the intensity he could muster. “We won’t let that happen!”

Bill laughed at them cruelly. “RIGHT, CUZ YOU’VE HAD SO MUCH SUCCESS STOPPING ME IN THE PAST.”

“I’ll find some other way!” Ford insisted.

“I’M SURE YOU COULD, WITH TIME.” Bill agreed. “BUT I’M GONNA STRANGLE YOU IN YOUR SLEEP BEFORE THEN!”

Not if I strangle myself first! Another one of Stan’s stray thoughts called.

Ford gave his brother a frustrated shake. “No! Stanley, I swear to you, that won’t be necessary!”

“Alright, that’s it. We’re not havin’ this conversation in my brain, where you can hear all my unprocessed thoughts.” Stan decided.

Suddenly, Ford’s form and everything around them flickered and began to fade to white. Stan and Bill were the only ones who remained solid and whole. Stan was waking up? But he’d never been asleep before the spell in the first place!

“Don’t you try any funny business!” Stan pointed an accusing finger at Bill. “I’m coming back to shatter you into a million smaller pieces as soon as I fall asleep tonight!”

#Gravity Falls #Fanfiction #Stanley Pines #Stanford Pines #Stanuary 2021 #This jerk

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maticide666 · 3 years

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my eurovision top 39 songs (finally)

anyway i finally got my top 39 completed. under a read more because it can get kinda long with the commentary i added klfdja;sflk (and by that i mean VERY long, maybe a wall of text if i have a lot to say about the song.)

none of this takes rehearsals into account.

basically, 39-37 i don't like, 36-35 are meh, 34-25 are decent, 24-18 are good, 17-12 i enjoy listening to a lot, 11-4 i love, and I would pay for votes for top 3 if i could.

39. Azerbaijan - Efendi - Mata Hari - Honestly, I kinda want to like this song. The instrumentation is nice, especially with the Azeri instruments. Efendi's vocals are ok during the verses. However, her vocals during the MA-MA-MA-MATA HARI part makes this song utterly unlistenable for me. It is just so distracting and ear-grating. Not great for my sensitive ears. And that is without taking anything else into account.

38. Estonia - Uku Suviste - The Lucky One - For some reason reminds me of a boring modern country song. Bland af. At least the melody of the chorus is nice.

37. Cyprus - Elena Tsagrinou - El Diablo - Discount Lady Gaga at the best points of this song. Feels like three songs at once. Also, the lyrics seem like they just went all "What Spanish-sounding words sound spicy? Taco? Tamale? Mamacita?" As a Spanish speaker and as someone of Mexican descent who enjoys those foods, this annoys the living shit out of me. At least I can make El Diablo/Fallen Angel memes out of this. (Honestly, I don't mind the gratuitous Spanish with the words El Diablo.) Also, this song got real old real quick.

36. Slovenia - Ana Soklič - Amen - The gospel vibe is nice, but there is just too much Christianity in it for me to enjoy this song. Sorry, Ana.

35. Moldova - Natalia Gordienko - Sugar - Sounds like a sugary version of Siren Song by MARUV. Kinda boring, but enjoyable in the right circumstances.

34. Georgia - Tornike Kipiani - You - Good to listen to when mind feels blank. At first I kinda liked this song, but nowadays this song has lost its charm. This won't sound out of place alongside boring 70s slow classic rock songs.

33. Austria - Vincent Bueno - Amen - Not something I would listen to regularly, but still nice. For me, easily the biggest downgrade from 2020.

32. Greece - Stefania - Last Dance - Pleasant to listen to, not much else.

31. Portugal - The Black Mamba - Love Is On My Side - Good song, but not my cup of tea. Unfortunately, some great songs have to be near the bottom of my ranking.

30. Germany - Jendrik - I Don't Feel Hate - A fun song to listen to. The novelty wears off after a while. The feel good vibes and ukulele are nice.

29. Israel - Eden Alene - Set Me Free - the song release version was bland and boring, but the revamp. Now THAT is good stuff. The song doesn't seem so empty anymore. I miss the key change from the original, though.

28. Spain - Blas Cantó - Voy A Quedarme - A very emotional and beautiful song from Spain. Again, not usually my cup of tea. However, the melody somehow gives me a nostalgic vibe.

27. North Macedonia - Vasil - Here I Stand - DAMN Vasil has a lovely voice. Nice that he's showing it off here. Too slow of a song for me to enjoy regularly, though.

26. Albania - Anxhela Peristeri - Karma - I don't have much to say other than this song is nice.

25. Bulgaria - VICTORIA - Growing Up Is Getting Old - Pleasant to listen to, but depending on my mood I think this is a beautiful song but not my cup of tea or a complete snoozefest.

24. Serbia - Hurricane - Loco Loco - Fun song, but it feels like something is lacking, and I can't quite put my finger on it.

23. San Marino - Senhit - Adrenalina - Once the initial hype from Flo Rida being on the song died down, this became another typical Eurovision bop.

22. Sweden - Tusse - Voices - At first I thought the song was completely unremarkable and couldn't understand how this won Melodifestivalen. Nowadays it's a nice song to chill to. I gotta respect a perfect televote score from the national final.

21. Ireland - Lesley Roy - MAPS - nice.

20. Croatia - Albina - Tick Tock - Grew on me slightly. Shoutout for including a verse in Croatian.

19. Switzerland - Gjon's Tears - Tout l'Univers - Another grower for me. Doesn't hit as hard as his song from last year, but I dig it.

18. France - Barbara Pravi - Voilà - Lovely chanson right here. I wish it didn't take forever to pick up, though. I was about to completely give up on this song in the middle of my first listen. I'm glad I didn't.

17. Belgium - Hooverphonic - The Wrong Place - Classy. Not much else to say.

16. Ukraine - Go-A - Shum - I'd definitely go rave to this song. I kept finding this song hard to rank due to the white voice. I couldn't decide if I absolutely adored it or if I found it grating. Maybe I just wasn't feeling well when I first thought about it.

15. Lithuania - The Roop - Discoteque - Lots of fun, doesn't have the charm that On Fire had last year. I would dance to this song.

14. Poland - RAFAŁ - The Ride - I actually kinda like this song???? Even with Rafal's vocals??? I know he has political controversies, but I can't help but think this song is nice. A better, less controversial singer would benefit this song, though. I'm not counting the revamp just yet since it was released too recently.

13. Latvia - Samanta Tīna - The Moon Is Rising - This song gives me nostalgic mid to late 2000s hip hop vibes. The guitars in this song are lovely.

12. Romania - ROXEN - Amnesia - Definitely something that can put me in a trance if I'm in the right mood.

11. Czechia - Benny Cristo - omaga - Nice, catchy, I would dance to this.

10. Malta - Destiny - Je Me Casse - Damn, Destiny has a lovely voice! And the song itself is wonderful. I'm not a fan of the amount of Swedish talent being used instead of Maltese talent, but I really do enjoy listening to this.

9. Denmark - Fyr og Flamme - Øve Os På Hinanden - another really fun song! This really grew on me. Nowadays if I want to listen to a Eurovision song, this is one of the first songs I think of.

8. The Netherlands - Jeangu Macrooy - Birth of a New Age - I can vibe with this. You can hear the passion in this song. I wish I could let my body do the talking right now, but y'all can't see that with just a tumblr text post.

7. Russia - Manizha - Russian Woman - I was NOT expecting this to come out of Russia when it won the national final. I wasn't expecting to like this either. The message is great, the instrumental is great, everything about this is brilliant.

6. United Kingdom - James Newman - Embers - A funky song. I LOVE James's voice. Massive upgrade from last year in my opinion. I'm a sucker for brass in an upbeat song. Unfortunately, I have had the staging kinda spoiled and I am VERY skeptical about this coming out of bottom five. I'm done with the BBC.

5. Australia - Montaigne - Technicolour - There is a Lot happening in this song and I am all in for it. I'm kinda terrible at parsing lyrics, but it's a non-issue when I can follow Montaigne's voice and forget about the lyrics. Ironically enough, it's Montaigne's voice that also worries me this Eurovision season - mostly whether she was able to pull off her live on tape performance off.

4. Iceland - Daði og Gagnamagnið - 10 Years - I didn't think Daði could pull it off against this year, but he did it. I like this just a little more than Think About Things, which was my favorite song last year. I'm still a little gutted that this pandemic robbed him of a probable victory, but I've made peace with it. I still need to learn the dance moves, though.

3. Italy - Måneskin - Zitti E Buoni - FUCK YEAH A KICKASS ROCK SONG IN EUROVISION! This song gave me massive rock en español vibes on my fist listen, and honestly this is something I would bang my head to if I had the same body I did when I was 15.

2. Norway - TIX - Fallen Angel - I was not expecting to like this song much, let alone becoming THIS obsessed with TIX. In fact, he wasn't even on my radar for winning MGP. I listened to Ut Av Mørket for the first time and thought something like 'this is boring af, but at least it's in Norwegian'. And then he changed it to English, which I wasn't a fan of at first. And then one day the lyrics clicked - especially with my own struggles with mental illness. To this day this is one of only two Eurovision songs to actually make me cry. Even now he still isn't my MGP winner (that honor goes to JORN), but he has definitely won my heart.

1. Finland - Blind Channel - Dark Side - To say that this song kicks ass would be an understatement for me. This song has just the right mix of rock, pop, and even metal. Ever since I found out that this song would be in the national final, I knew that it would be my favorite this whole Eurovision season regardless of who won UMK. Yes, my jaw dropped when I saw the lead Blind Channel had in UMK. I literally cancelled my plans to watch the MGP final live because of these guys. I am not disappointed. Even Måneskin couldn't bring these guys down in my ranking. And while the lyrics might be a bit iffy, they did get me through rough times. I hope these guys are able to bring rock music back like they want to. But for now, I will give them my (useless tbh) douze points.

#eurovision #esc #this post took me two days #and even longer to actually rank everything #mostly because half the time i couldn't decide which song i liked more #so something gerbear's sorter couldn't help with #i'm tired rn #of course my top 3 is predictable

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yeahidontgohere · 4 years

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Too many thoughts on SPN 15x17, “Unity”

Welp, I don’t usually do this, but this episode was so great and packed with so many good parallels and callbacks I couldn’t help it! Meredith Glynn is such a great writer. So, let’s begin. Lots of spoilers under the cut.

The first scene opens up to Amara living life to the fullest in an Icelandic hot spring (I’ve been to some in Iceland and would 10/10 recommend – don’t bother with the Blue Lagoon, though). My eyes were immediately drawn to the super recognizable cover of Murakami’s “Norwegian Wood”. Now, I haven’t read this book since, like, high school (now realizing that was a DECADE ago), but I do remember the general plot and themes of the story (I should really reread that again, it’s a good book). Basically, the story is recalled by our narrator and protagonist Watanabe at a later point in his life as he is reminded of a time of life when the Beatles’ song “Norwegian Wood” plays. I don’t want to spoil the whole book, but basically it is a coming of age story that is steeped in themes of regret, sex, love, and death (among others, it really is a literary treasure trove!). Skip the next paragraph if you don’t want “Norwegian Wood” spoilers.

In short: Watanabe’s best friend from high school commits suicide which haunts him and his friend’s girlfriend, Naoki, for the rest of their lives. Watanabe and Naoki become close and romantically involved, but she leaves for a sanitorium. Watanabe wants to be with Naoki despite her telling him that she doesn’t think she can love anymore (she described herself and her high school boyfriend as soulmates). Watanabe later meets Naoki’s opposite, Midori, a lively girl who Watanabe grows close to and is also interested in. Watanabe essentially doesn’t move forward as he is waiting on Naoki while having Midori waiting on him. At the end of the story, it is revealed that it has always been Midori and he realizes he wants to be with her.

I thought that this was an EXCELLENT pick for Amara to be reading. It really sums of a lot of surface and not-so-surface level themes in Supernatural. Wondering if there is a parallel between Dean and Watanabe about sort of idealizing a life (with someone) that isn’t meant to be while ignoring love in front of you? Would love to hear all of your thoughts.

Moving on (I’m skipping through parts of the episode to just focus on some key observations)! Amara tries to convince Chuck to fight on behalf of this world and wants to show him some of his creations. So, she brings him to Heaven to see his ‘first children’ (i.e., angels). She also refers to angels as having prefect angelic devotion which immediately made me laugh because our fave angel Cas is really devoted to Dean humanity and not Chuck. Ahh! This whole episode just kept pointing out how special Cas is.

And then, callback after callback began. Amara brings Chuck to the bunker so Chuck says, “Is this a trap?” which made me think of episode 9 (“The Trap” by Berens). This was almost immediately followed by another callback when Chuck says, “You can’t hold me here forever,” to which Amara replies, “I can hold you long enough.” Um, Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets (12x10, Yockey), anyone?

Ishim: “You can’t hold me here forever.” … Lily’s powers are wearing off as Ishim approaches her until Cas stabs Ishim in the back with his angel blade. Cas: “You held him for long enough.”

Like, COME ON! Almost verbatim.

Skipping forward to Dean and Jack’s adventure to visit my favorite hippies, Adam and Serafina (like seriously, they were fantastic characters!). Adam refers to himself as, “…first dude off of the assembly line,” which is similar language that has been used to referring to angels in the past (again, invoking Castiel?)

Then Dean assumes the woman is Eve but they both just shake their heads and chuckle, “I’m Serafina,” I’m definitely not the first one to point this out but… the First Man being in a near-lifelong romantic relationship with an angel named Seraph Serafina?! Uh, yeah, ‘nuff said.

Serafina also mentions that she saw Jack when she and Adam were, “…sipping mushroom tea on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon,” which made me wonder if there was some sort of connection with Glynn’s season 14 episode, “Byzantium” (14x08), which is the episode Cas makes his deal with the Empty. Babylon was a fortress of the Byzantine empire (not going to lie, my historical knowledge about the Byzantine empire is preeeeetty limited).

I also loved the whole speech by Serafina to Dean: “I mean, just think of everything that has had to happen to get Jack to this place, to this moment. Baby, it was meant to be,” Dean, of course, is upset by this because he is probably thinking that this was all basically predestined, and he has had no free will. However, he just needs to wait a little while longer until Chuck tells him to his face that he has never been able to control Cas since he laid his hand on Dean saving him from Hell.

Serafina also heals Adam’s wound and it is, of course, super reminiscent of Cas healing Dean (although, even Serafina doesn’t directly touch Adam when healing him – it’s, once again, unique to Castiel). Obligatory hand squeal: HANDS!!!! Wow, they are not even trying to be subtle about the whole hands thing. It is so IN YOUR FACE begging for the audience to notice it.

Adam then mentions how much power is in his rib: “But this puppy? Is packing enough punch to create LIFE. Or, in your case, destroy God.” Well, at this point I think we can all be pretty certain that in the end it will NOT be used to destroy God, so will it instead be used for creation? Excited to see how they defuse Jack’s supernova bomb next episode.

Rounding off Dean’s vignette is a heartbreaking scene with him and Jack in the Impala. Dean says, “I don’t know how to explain it. When I learned about Chuck, it was like – it’s like I wasn’t alive. Not really. You know, like, my whole life I’ve never been free. But like, really free. But now, me and Sam, we got a shot at living a life…But now we have a chance. And that’s because of you.” Again, this is before Dean learns that Cas’ actions were made of his own free will, and from the sounds of it, Dean’s connection to Amara as well. I also immediately wondered if Jack bringing Dean some sense of freedom was what Cas saw when Jack showed him “paradise”.

Moving on to Sam’s vignette: Sam remembers that Sergei mentioned the Key of Death was in the bunker (how did he remember this, wasn’t he unconscious at the time? A little disappointed Cas didn’t get to provide that little fact but I’m also glad that Sam actually served a purpose this episode and was a bit more front and center). They find the Key of Death and there is an inscription in Latin on the box:

Viator mortalis, cave, quoniam scias Clavem Mortis pensare graviter. Il tamen desideres ut introeas illum abyssum obscurissimum artis opus est tibi porta.

Okay, fair warning: I took Latin for 4 years but it has been awhile so my translation is super not perfect, but I figured I would take a stab at it because the subtitles were wrong at times and Google translate is not perfect. I translated it as something like this:

Mortal traveler, beware, because you know the Key of Death should be considered seriously. However, if you want to enter the darkest abyss, this work of art is the gate/door.

Honestly, there were a few words that I couldn’t find the right conjugations to and I know this isn’t 100% accurate, but it gives you the gist.

Sam then visits Death’s library and finds the Empty there, killing people (?) to get in touch with Death, whom they hasn’t been trusting as of late. We learn that Death’s plan is to assume the role of New God and restore the world back to order, bring back rules. The Empty is wary because they don’t know if they can trust the promise of being able to go back to sleep. Trust issues, the Empty says, because of “your busted-ass friend in the trench coat,” another subtle-not-so-subtle mention of Cas. But why, exactly, did Cas give the Empty ‘trust issues’? Was it because he woke up in the first place? Because he has ‘traipsed in and out’ of the Empty without dying?

We also learn that only Billie can read Chuck’s Death book, and, this may be a crack idea but… maybe Cas should be able to read the book because he was the one that killed Billie and made her Death in the first place? Seems like Cas might have a connection to Billie. It would be cool if Cas were the one to read Chuck’s book.

Finally, we learn a bit more about the Empty, and how they can’t go to Earth unless summoned. Hmm…

Flash forward to Amara and Chuck in the bunker. Amara tells Chuck, “It’s not too late, brother,” and, if you’re like me, you finished that sentence with “it’s never too late (to start all over again)”. So many great Destiel songs out there, but “Never Too Late” takes the cake for me.

Amara and Chuck decide to become one, become ultimate balance. Chuck extends his hand and Amara grasps it as she is absorbed into Chuck. I don’t even know if I really need to say this, but… HANDS! (Destiel is already canon to me but if the show is going to make it more explicitly canon for the audience, it’s going to be through hands as I know people have been shouting about for several seasons now).

To finish, let’s talk about that kick-ass scene with TFW 2.0 at the end of the episode. We find out that Chuck’s real ending is to have Dean regress and give in to rage and kill everything he loves, probably ultimately leading to his own death. Woof, what a tragic ending (tragedy ≠ good ending). So, we’ve got to subvert that which Dean does after a heartfelt plea from Sam (“You would trade me?”). I enjoyed how much Dean looked back at Cas during this exchange, especially after Sam tells Dean that Eileen will die again. The parallels, the connection.

Honestly, I’m not sure why Cas and Jack were in that scene other than to have some meaningful glances exchanged between Cas and Dean and because TFW2.0 is together in the next scene. But… whatever, more Cas so I liked it.

And finally, the scene that had me shaking with VINDICATION.

Cas to Chuck: “What, you consumed your sister?” Chuck: “We came to an understanding, so spare me your contempt Castiel, the self-hating angel of Thursday. You know what every other version of you did after ‘gripping him tight and raising him from perdition’? They did what they were told. But not you. Not the ‘one off the line with a crack in his chassis’” (Cas looks back at Dean after a moment)

Okay, so let’s break this exchange down. So much satisfaction with just a few sentences. Bravo, Ms. Glynn.

“We came to an understanding.” Didn’t Michael and Adam say the same thing after they decided to share equally in their bond and vessel? Callback #1.

“…self-hating angel of Thursday.” Ahh, it’s been so long since we got mention that Cas is the angel of Thursday. The last time was, what, when Crowley says it to Cas back in season 6? By the way, it was totally meant to be that Supernatural will finish off the series on a Thursday. Callback #2 (ish).

“You know what every other version of you did after ‘gripping him tight and raising him from perdition’?” This is the second time the show has repeated Cas’ first line to Dean near-verbatim in two seasons. You know, just in case the audience forgot Dean and Cas’ infamous first meeting (which I am like 99% sure we are going to get hella callbacks to next episode). Callback #3.

“They did what they were told. But not you. Not the ‘one off the line with a crack in his chassis.’” Again, Chuck is closely paraphrasing what Naomi said about Cas in season 8:

8x21 “The Great Escapist” – Naomi: “You're the famous spanner in the works. Honestly, I think you came off the line with a crack in your chassis. You have never done what you were told. Not completely. You don't even die right, do you?”

Callback #4. Seriously, Glynn packed four callbacks into such a short time period. Wizard.

My only *criticism* of this final scene is that Dean and Cas didn’t seem to react too much to Chuck’s news about Cas always having free will (although, I think Cas already knew this, but it is news and confirmation to Dean!). I highly suspect that will come next week, though. I’m SO excited (and also terrified) for next week. We are definitely going to be getting a lot of Cas next episode. Misha, in an interview, mentioned that we would get Cas’ ‘chapter’ in 18, and I’m wondering if this will be the true Cas-centric episode? I don’t know, maybe the Cas-centric episode was “Gimme Shelter” but I was expecting more of a “The Man Who Would Be King” kind of Cas-centric episode.

All in all, 10/10. I keep reading and seeing things that are galaxy braining me, so it has been super fun reading all the meta and reactions to this episode.

Three episodes left. Get your tissues ready for Cas’ death (oops, is this even a spoiler at this point?) next episode. And remember, “Nothing ever really ends,” and “The end has no end,”

#spn #spn 15 #spn spoilers #spn 15 spoilers #spn 15x17 #15x17 #Unity #Meredith Glynn #Destiel #Deancas #hands #meta #maybe?#spn meta #meta or just random thoughts and reactions #awesome episode #profound bond #castiel is key #supernatural

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nordic-language-love · 4 years

Photo

Norwegian

Wrote sketch story Hjemsøkt

Watched 1x Norsklærer Karense video

Watched 3x episodes Side Om Side

Listened to the radio

Speaking practice: talked about my house and my friend

Duolingo: repaired various skills, improved skill Nature to level 3, improved skills Museum, Children, Verb Review, Passive 2 and Celebrations to level 2

Finnish

4x FinnishPod101 lessons

uTalk: practised skill Likes and Dislikes

Duolingo: took placement test (tested out 5 skills), reached level 1 of skill The North. Family, Home 1 and Phrases

Icelandic

uTalk: practised skill Calendar

Grammar book exercise 4

Made notes on noun gender

Watched 1x Viltu Læra Íslensku? video

Listened to the radio (passive listening)

Norwegian

It’s been ages since I did Duolingo, but with Finnish being available I decided to go back to it. Last time I had every skill at level 2 or higher, but coming back some were at level 1 or not even completed, so I’m guessing they updated the tree again. I’ve got everything up to level 2 now, so I might try to get all skills to level 3 (mostly bc I get a trophy if I do, and I like trophies), but we’ll see how it goes. There are definitely some skills I don’t need to practise lol but the later ones have actually been good to revisit, as 99% of the words are in my passive vocabulary but not everything is in my active vocabulary.

I guess this week’s big achievement was doing some sort of creative writing in Norwegian. I’ve made a few attempts before, but 300 words in a day is normally my maximum, so writing about 800 words in a day (and then ending up with about 1000 words overall) felt pretty good. I described it as a first draft of something, but it’s not even that really; it’s more a sketch of an idea. I did use a dictionary for a number of words, so it’s not like I wrote it all just off the top of my head with no help, and I’m not at a point where I can be particularly stylistic with it, but I still wrote 800 words of creative writing in a day, and it didn’t feel horribly difficult or like I was having to constantly look things up (although I did feel frustratingly limited, which is to be expected). I’ll keep working on it.

I also watched Side Om Side without subtitles this week. I’ve tried before and just felt like I was missing too much so I turned them back on, but this time I kept them off. I can follow it fine and understand what’s going on, but there are times when I only get the general gist of the conversation rather than fully understanding what’s being said. Hopefully that’ll improve over time though.

Some goals for this week: ??? Honestly I’m not sure at this point, I’ll come back to this lol. Maybe some textbook work? I should start reading Harry Potter again.

Finnish

So, Finnish is finally on Duolingo! I’ve been waiting for this day since forever lol. The course seems quite short, but given I’m not very far into my Finnish studies that isn’t a problem for me. Honestly, I’m just grateful to finally have a course at all (especially given the release date wasn’t supposed to be until December), and hopefully they’ll update it in the future.

I’ve not done as much Finnish as I’d hoped I would this week. I did do some Duo, but I wanted to do more grammar really, and I just never sat down with my notebook. Oh well, it happens - there’s always this coming week! I did finish the Absolute Beginners series on FinnishPod101, although I’ve not ticked off all the lessons yet as I still need to make some notes practise the grammar. So that’s my goal for this week.

Some goals for this week: Make notes/work with grammar from FinnishPod101 lessons, reach 2nd checkpoint on Duolingo

Icelandic

No Icelandic on Duo, obviously, so I’ve been continuing with uTalk and my grammar book. I tried watching the first Viltu læra íslensku video too... it was very challenging! With subtitles I understood bits and pieces (plus when they were pointing out certain objects) but it was difficult. I’ll definitely need to watch it a few more times and note down common/important vocab.

I continued with grammar this week, focusing on the definite article. It’s nothing difficult - the concept is the same as in Norwegian, only feminine nouns can’t also be masculine. Next up is adjective declension. I’m still only working with the nominative case for the moment, but that suits me fine.

Some goals for this week: Learn adjective declension in the nominative, continue with grammar book exercises

Productivity grid:

I meant to do more this week for all my languages (and stretching/training in general etc), but my boyfriend’s had the week off for his birthday and I’m rarely productive when he’s off work (I feel guilty for not spending all my time with him, even though we usually just do our own thing anyway lol). Oh well. This week will be better.

#progress report #langblr #learning languages #language blog #languages #langblr norwegian #langblr finnish #langblr icelandic

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lisinfleur · 5 years

Text

Murphy’s Law

It was raining outside; your high heels broke against a stone of your garden; the fall ruined your clothes and hair, forcing you to go back inside to change; you got late to the most important meeting of your year and only when the presentation began, you discovered you brought the wrong pen-drive to the office and instead of the presentation you spent hours of your night composing, pictures of your last family dinner in your mother's house started to show on the screen.

You lost the client and with it, your job.

The day couldn't be worse! Your life couldn't be worse! You were sure of this.

Until your eyes found a man, dressed in a strangely perfect Viking costume, laid in the middle of an enormous burned circle on your grass.

"GREAT!" you cursed.

Without a job, you would NEVER have enough money to fix that shit and your garden would have a horrible black circle, causing your neighborhood to think you were some kind of a witch or anything like that.

"Because cursed I am already! I'm sure!" you growled, coming near the man, trying to push that blond GIANT away from your garden. "Ok, the nap is good and I don't know from which Monday fantasy party you came, but get... The fuck... Outta my grass!"

The man growled in pain and you noticed a stain in the grass that caused you to raise your hands, stained in his blood.

He was wounded and bleeding.

ON-YOUR-GRASS!

And to complete the strange picture, the enormous creature looked at you completely lost, as if you were a ghost, and started speaking some kind of strange language that you could barely understand.

Even speaking five different languages!

"Wait, wait, wait, what??" you tried to stop him "Stop. STOP!"

He seemed to recognize the word, stopping the uninterrupted babbling and fixating his eyes on yours.

"Ok. Slow down... I can't understand you. Can't... understand..." you tried to gesticulate explaining you couldn't hear him properly and insisting for him to keep calm "Let us try... Great... You don't speak English... Habla Español?"

He frowned, not understanding. You sighed, moving your hands for him to keep the silence.

"Deutsch? Sprichst du Deutsch?"

His face was becoming more and more frowned.

Shit...

"Fine... Let me see..." Your mind tried to figure out what to do and then, it clicked in your head.

He was dressed as a Viking... Well, you knew nothing of Icelandic yet, but why not to try?

“Kan du Norsk?”

Something on your sentence seemed to make some sense for him - which was the best you could do until now.

"Ok... Norwegian so..." you sighed, thanking God you tried those classes everyone was saying were useless.

Well, you would like to rub in your sister's face the situation where you were needing the damn Norwegian language she was criticizing you so bad for learning. But your brain instantly refused the idea of calling your sister to see your Norwegian Classes were being useful to interact with a drunken strange, wounded, and dirty man laid on your grass...

Yeah.

It wasn't the best way to prove a point.

You tried to focus, speaking in Norwegian with that strange man, trying to speak slowly since something in your Norwegian was appearing to be strange for him.

Was it your accent? It should be your accent. Surely.

"Look, you're bleeding. You need some help. Do you have your documents with you? What is your name?" you tried.

Your eyes trying to find any visible pocket in his (ABSOLUTELY STRANGE) clothes to look for a wallet, some ID, anything.

But he seemed to misunderstand great part of your sentences, trying to attach to what he could really understand.

"Björn. I'm Björn, son of Ragnar. And who are you, woman?"

Woman?

What a bad educated dude!

He had a pretty dragged Norwegian, with a strong pronounce. You could even say he was Norwegian by his way to talk. However, there was something strange...

It wasn't the tone you were used to hearing.

It was something you were used to reading. On poetry and old historian books, to be honest.

Was that man this drunk to keep the character even in a situation like that?

"Look... Björn, right? I don't know how you ended up in my garden, but you need to get up and leave. This is my property and... Is this a cut? Mother of God! How did you cut yourself like that?" you questioned, shocked when he tried to use your support to get up, not resisting to your suggestions, but showing a long cut from his shoulder through his chest, opening the strange clothes he was wearing, crossing his body until the middle of his belly.

A deeper cut and you would have a Norwegian body in your garden to explain!

You couldn't leave him like that...

"Shit!" you cursed, passing one of his hands over your shoulder to guide him towards your door and stopping in the middle of the way: he was ridiculously taller than you and try to support him was stupid - Björn would have to lower himself to find any kind of support in your shoulders.

"Can you walk?" you asked.

And he nodded, standing perfectly as if his chest wasn't opened from one side to another. His eyes looking around, confused.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"On my garden," you mumbled, walking towards your door and opening it with your key Björn took from your hand as soon as you finished using.

For a second, you thought the game was over and now he would try to push you inside, steal something, anything like that... But he just started looking at your keylocker, messing with it as if he never saw a keylocker in his life!

He fucking smelled your keys! And before he could touch your house keys with his tongue, you took it from his hand.

"What are you doing?!"

"What is this, woman?" Björn asked, looking at you confused once again.

Whether that man was a huge actor or he was really questioning what was a key!

"These are my keys... Come in at once," you said, pushing him inside "I don't want my neighbors to see you coming in."

He got into your house and then, his face frowned even more. Everything seemed strange to his eyes and for a moment, he didn't touch anything, as if all the things in your house could potentially kill him.

But Björn heard the sound of your keys once again and it caught his attention. So, he turned back to see you using the keys to lock your home, impressed.

"What do these tiny “keys” serve for?" he asked, pointing the keylocker in your hand and you sighed.

"You put it here and swirls it like this and then, tharan!" you said, opening your door "Is open. Then you do it again, swirl it to the other side and then, bang!" you showed him the door was closed and he tried to open it by himself, impressed that tiny little fragile thing was really a key.

"No one can cross this door without the key... what's wrong with you?" you asked.

Seeing how his fingers slid through your door and he knocked on some points before looking at you.

"A simple battering ram could cross this easily... Too thin!"

A BATTERING RAM? What in the actual fuck?

"You're strange!" you said, leaving the keylocker on your table and leaving towards the bathroom. "Do not touch anything! I'll pick up something for helping you with this cut and then you will leave!"

It took some time for you to find the medical box in your bathroom. You weren't used to getting yourself wounded, so you didn't even remember where it was.

When you came back to the living room, Björn was messing up with your fake fruits. Curious, he took a fake apple to his mouth and before you could tell him to stop, he bit it, spitting the piece of Styrofoam and frowning again that strange shocked way.

"What kind of apple is this?"

"Is not an apple, you moron!" you said pulling the pieces from his hands, guiding him to the couch where he sat, looking surprised by the softness of your furniture. "Where are you from?"

"Kattegat," he answered, moving his ass against your couch, causing his body to bounce over the soft movable. "This is comfortable... Is made of furs?"

"No," you twisted your face.

You knew that city, Kattegat. But he didn't look like someone from a civilized place. Who in the damn Earth doesn't know what is a couch made from?

"When did you arrive?" you asked, trying to remove his strange leather coverage from his chest.

There was still that cotton... Thing... Over his body. Because you couldn't call that strange thing a shirt.

It was thick and looked like something handmade.

Looking closely the cut in his chest wasn't really deep. And the dude had some pretty nice tattoos, to be honest.

"I don't know," he answered your question, picking up one of the gauzes you used to clean his wound, smelling and almost sneezing with the smell of the alcohol. "I was messing with the necklace I found in the back of my cell when it opened a dark hole and then I saw you... What's this terrible smell?"

You looked at him shocked.

"This is alcohol... aren't you feeling anything?"

You were cleaning his wound with pure alcohol and he wasn't even showing a reaction...

You would be yelling like a goat being slaughtered with a drop of alcohol in a cut of paper. But that man was feeling nothing against that enormous cut?

"It burns a little... Why is this place so different? I never saw a place like this," he insisted, rubbing your couch, looking all over your place while you were still trying to process all the few information he gave you.

"You said... You were in a cell?" you tried to assemble the puzzle his words were.

"Those bastards... My younger brother's men invaded my camp and took me a prisoner. But not before a good fight!" Björn justified, clenching his fist before relaxing a little again "I was thinking about how I could flee from Ivar and I found that necklace on the ground of my cell. Probably some woman he locked there to die..." he sighed " I messed with the pendant and thought about how I wanted to be far away from there... And then everything became too fast for me to describe. In the following second, you were there, waking me up. You didn't tell me... where am I?"

Ok... Now how do you tell a crazy Norwegian he's somewhere in the south of England?

"Let us say your wish was... realized." you said, getting up "Lay down and take some rest. I think you tried to ate my apple because you're hungry so... I'll bring you some food. Try to rest a little..."

"You didn't tell me your name," he pointed, with reason.

"I"m Y/N," you answered.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Y/N. I'll remember to ask my men for your weight in gold to pay for your generosity," he said, laying down in your couch, still impressed with how soft it was.

You almost cracked with his words.

Your weight... in... gold? From when this man was?

You had already heard about Björn before, but well, many Scandinavian men and women would name their children after the Viking heroes like Björn Ironside and the fact he said he was a son of a Ragnar could be exactly the reason why his father named him after the historical figure - to make a joke with the fact his name would be Björn Ragnarsson as well. Right?

The curiosity took you and you took your computer to your bedroom, starting to search for his name around, trying to have any kind of clue of the story he was telling you.

Surprisingly, the iconic Ironside had vanished after being captured by his younger brother Ivar - an event that generated the execution of dozens of slave women since the only thing that remained in Björn's cell was a female necklace with inscriptions in Old Norse that some scientists translated as saying "Make a wish" behind its pendant. The young women were executed for Ivar believed one of them helped his brother to flee.

Björn was never found again in history, but the remains of the necklace could still be seen, preserved, in a museum at the city of Kattegat, Norway...

"Birthplace of the legend... Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me," you giggled, continuing the article to find something that really shocked you.

Some lines down, a picture of a drawing of what would be Björn Ironside, supposedly made some few time before his disappearance, was looking like a painted portrait of the man in your living room.

Your mind took a turn and you giggled, disbelieving yourself. But before you could figure out if you were insane or the man in your house was a living fossil from the Viking Age, the sound of something breaking called you back to where Björn was supposed to be sleeping.

Instead, he was standing in front of your table's secret drawer - that somehow the curious bastard found and opened WITH YOUR KEYS! - completely shocked, seeing that shitty thing your sister gave you in your last anniversary as a joke about your loneliness, lying exposed over your carpet.

"What are you doing messing with my..." you froze when he pulled a short sword from the leg of his trousers, pointing it on you, straight to your throat, in a precise movement.

"What kind of a witch are you, woman? Is this what you plan to do to me? To cut my manhood while I sleep in your soft bed of furs?"

"What??" you giggled, not knowing exactly if you were laughing of his idea or just for the nervousness with that terrible day. "It's not real! This shit is a vibrator! My sister gave me!"

"Your sister gifts you with men's cocks? What kind of place did I fell into?"

"Is fake!" you tried, looking at him "It's a... a damn toy. Is a joke, Björn! Just like the apple you bit, is fake, ok? She was trying to make a joke on me. Now put this shit down!"

Definitely, that wasn't a fake sword!

And definitely, that man couldn't be a common drunken.

"Don't come any closer..." Björn said, pulling down the sword to touch the vibrator on the ground with its tip, almost burning your face in red.

"For the God's sake, stop it," you mumbled, seeing as he was poking the thing with his sword until it started vibrating on the ground, causing the situation to become even more embarrassing. "Holy fuck..."

"What, in the nine realms, is this shit?" he said, shocked.

And it was the last drop you needed.

Your day was shitty, your life was a mess and now you had to deal with a living fossil in your house. Enough!

"Ok. I'm done. You wanna kill me, then kill me, is a favor you do to me, but this is going too far!" you said, walking towards him, picking up the vibrating THING in your floor, turning it off and hiding it into the drawer again, locking it with your key and sitting on your couch "What a freaking insane day!"

"Why do women have things like that?" Björn asked.

His face totally frowned, looking around.

"Did the men cease existing? Is that it?" he asked, not seeing any male creature around, trying to deduce what was clearly confusing him.

"You are a living Viking, aren't you?" you asked, looking at him.

"Of course, I'm a Viking! What do you mean? What is going on, woman? Explain yourself!" he demanded, as the prince you knew he was.

"Sit down, your highness... This is gonna be a long history," you said, pointing him a chair "And for the love of God, do not touch anything anymore, ok?"

You slid your hands through your hair, trying to prepare for the long speech. But first, you got up, pouring yourself some whiskey.

Pure. No ice.

This would be a really long night.

Do you like my work? Support me!

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#imagine vikings #history vikings #bjorn #bjorn ironside #bjorn imagine #bjorn x reader #bjorn ragnarsson #bjorn’s baby bears #sister wives #5CW #5CW Event #5CWBjorn #short fiction #shoot

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autismus-obscurus · 6 years

Text

Let’s talk about Finnish

(aka let’s talk about wth I am doing instead of studying)

@stimmyabby (for some weird reason I can not tag you I hope you see this) asked me to do a little infodump about Finnish as a language. Some info about me: I’m a German native, speak English fluently and just started my B1 class for Swedish (although according to online tests I’m more B2 by now.) So, basically, I’m well-versed in Germanic langauges. I started learning FInnish only two months ago, so please bear in mind that I don’t have a full scope of grammar yet. I won’t write anything that I am unsure of if it's true, but tehre may be mistakes anyway. Enjoy, I guess:

Finnish is different from other European languages. The majority of European languages belong to these groups: - Romance languages: most notably Spanish, French, Portugese, Italian and Romanian - Germanic languages: this includes German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic and English - Slavic languages: among them Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Croatian and a shitton more Those are the three major families, but there’s of course a gazillion smaller languages that don’t belong in those three and in every family there is tons of smaller independent languages.

Finnish is one of those independent languages. Finnish is one of the biggest languages (i.e. has the most speakers) in a group called the FInno-Ugric language family. This family probably came into being when the Ugric language family split into the two branches of obguric languages (which later became Finnish) and the branch that became modern Hungarian. (So, yes Finnish and Hungarian are actually distantly related, odd as it seems.)

(Source)

FInnish has a lot of dialects and related smaller languages, some of which have actually died out. Of the FInno-Ugric languages, the most well-known (with the most native speakers) are FInnish and Estonian.

Finnish uses a very different grammar system than most Germanic languages. I am fluent in German and English and B2 in Swedish, so Finnish was really confusing at first. It declines verbs for every personal pronoun, which is also found in German (it’s annoying tbh but doable.) FInnish doesn’t use a whole lot of prepositions. Instead, this role is taken over by suffixes. For example, if you want to say “in the car” you say “auto” (car) and slap on a suffix, in this case “ssa” = autossa. “from” somewhere, e.g. “from Brazil” would be Brasilia + sta (Brazil + suffix for “from”. (And if the word ends in a consonant, you have to put an i at the end. Finnish is a very harmonic language which is part of the reason I’m learning it.)

It’s odd if you’re not used to it, but totally doable once you get a hang of it. (Being German I’m used to compound words anyway lol)

But that’s not the end! What I found extremely confusing was that consonants are dropped or change when the word is declined.

(Source)

Some examples: Helsinki (self explanatory) + the suffix -ssä (“in”) becomes Helsingissä Afrikka + -sta “from” becomes Afrikasta

Me at first: What the hell Finland?! Me now: What the hell Finland?! *studies it anyway because it’s still a beautiful language*

One big advantage Finnish has in my eyes is that (as a German native) the pronunciation is relatively easy. (Especially compared to Swedish a.k.a. “oh you thought this word was pronounced like this because most others are that have the same structure? - Nah.”) Finnish pronunciation is mostly (as in I have not found exceptions in my limited experience yet) straightforward. If you have two vocals it’s long. If you have one vocal it’s short. Two consonants means the stress is on that, if not it’s short. Easy. Finnish is also very melodic. There’s this thing called “vocal harmony” which affects what consonants you use, specifically if you use “ä” or “a” in a suffix. Depending on which consonants appear in the last syllable of a word, you have to use the suffix that fits it. Example: the suffix “in” exists as “-ssa” and “-ssä”.

For the vocals a, o and u you have to use -ssa. For the vocals ä, ö and y (pronounced like German ü, I hope this helps a bit) you will use -ssä And for e and i both is okay I guess? (Please don’t quote me on that, the book only has a picture, I’m not sure if you can use both forms.) The point is that the words flow well together.

So, this has been my infodump about Finnish (Let’s count this as studying okay?). Finnish grammar is complicated, but not as hard as people have you believe, so if anyone wants to learn it, go! It’s a fascinating language and a lot of fun. I hope someone is interested, and if someone finds a mistake please let me know

PS. Oh and I forgot, like German has four cases, Finnish has 15, but I only know one so far so I can’t really say anything about that yet.

#infodump #not autism #finnish #langblr #languages #i guess

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cromulentbookreview · 4 years

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Definitely Not Chocolate Wine

Because life in late 19th century Paris was basically just Another Period but real.

To my fellow non-French speakers out there: vin de coca does NOT mean “chocolate wine.” It really doesn’t.

And by that, I mean: Sensational, sequel to Spectacle by Jodie Lynn Zdrok!

Paris! June, 1889! The same year as The Gilded Wolves! The year of the Exposition Universelle! It’s almost time for the 100th anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille! The Eiffel Tower makes it’s grand debut! Vincent Van Gogh paints The Starry Night! The Wall Street Journal is established! Seattle, in spite of the incessant rain, somehow manages to catch fire! Bustles are slowly on their way out, but weighty ornaments added to dresses is super in! Ribbons! Flounces! Lace! Bows! All that, plus corsets laced far tighter than they should be and no air conditioning! Sounds great!

Anyway: it’s been two years since the events of Spectacle, and our heroine Nathalie is now 18. Things are going pretty great: she no longer has to hide her identity writing her morgue column for Le Petit Journal, she has a steady boyfriend in her fellow insightful, Jules, and she’s even found a workaround for the memory loss caused by her visions: she keeps extremely detailed journals, keeping a record of everything she does in case she forgets later. With the support of her family and friends, Nathalie might just be able to pull of this whole “insightful who witnesses the deaths of murder victims from the perspective of the killer for some reason then reports those visions to the police but suffers memory loss as a side-effect” gig work.

Just so long as she ignores all the lingering looks she gives to her friend, the morgue’s police liaison Christophe. And her lingering guilt over the death of her friend Agnès at the hands of the Dark Artist serial killer. And her institutionalized aunt’s deteriorating mental health.

But besides all of that, Nathalie’s life is going pretty well. She’s 18 at the height of Belle Époque, routinely attending the Exposition Universelle with her boyfriend and her best friends. Life is good!

Until Nathalie and her friends stumble upon a severed head among the sculptures of the Galerie Rapp. Then, to make things worse, a spectator jostles the pillar on which the head is sitting, knocking it over. The head falls and, without thinking, Nathalie puts out her hands to catch it.

Much more than una catastrofia con una pelota de beisbol.

Anyway, this causes Nathalie to have a vision, and, faster than you can say “cocaine wine,” the whole of Paris is gripped by the both the spectacle (first book title drop!) of the Exposition, and the rampage of a new serial killer who dumps his victims on Exposition grounds. The killer is soon dubbed Le Rasoir by the press, as they behead their victims with a guillotine.

Fun fact: the last time France used the guillotine to execute someone was in 1977. That seems far too recent to me, but, I mean, I guess it works...?

So far as sequels go, Sensational gives us more of Nathalie’s story without being bogged down with exposition and questions. We get to jump into the action right away, but there are plenty of callbacks in case you may have forgotten a detail or two from Spectacle. My favorite part, of both Spectacle and Sensational is all the detail we get about what life is like in 19th century Paris. Paris is a fascinating place in general, but Paris during the late 1880s, early 1890s? During the era of the Third French Republic, Belle Époque and the birth of Cabaret? If time machines were a thing, I would definitely go and party in late 19th century Paris - hang around Montmantre, get wasted at Le Chat Noir...

Speaking of which: one of the things I will freely admit is that I don’t speak French. Like, at all. I know a few words here and there, but Deutsch ist immer noch eine wunderschöne Sprache. So, in Spectacle there’s a scene where Nathalie is hanging out with her friends Simone and Louis along with her boyfriend, Jules, at Simone’s apartment. Simone has managed to get her hands on a bottle of vin de coca. Now, for some reason, I immediately thought “oooh, chocolate wine!”

Yeah, vin de coca is not chocolate wine. That much became obvious as the scene progressed, and I felt like a total moron.

Vin de coca is wine with cocaine in it.

Because in the 19th century, that was just fine. I mean, just watch The Knick if you want to see just how much late-19th and early-20th century medicine relied on cocaine. (Seriously, watch The Knick - I’m still pissed that show got cancelled).

Still, whenever I see the word “coca” I think chocolate. Because chocolate is great. Even though I know a “pain au chocolat” literally translates to “chocolate bread” and coca refers to any of the four plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, but mostly Erythroxylum coca, which is where cocaine comes from. It’s where the “coca” in “coca cola” comes from. Seriously, how did I miss that?

Speaking of pain au chocolat: fun fact, the Japanese word for bread, pan (パン) is a word they lifted from the Portuguese after the Portuguese went to Japan in the 16th century. Pan means bread in Spanish, in Portuguese it’s Pão (I guess the Japanese had a hard time with the tilde and went with the Spanish version instead) and it’s barely a step away from the French word Pain and the Italian Pane.

Meanwhile, in Germany, we say Brot because the Romance languages are insane and we want nothing to do with them. Hurray for the Germanics! In Dutch, it’s brood, in Danish it’s brød, in Swedish it’s bröd, Norwegian? Brød (you’d think it’d be the Swedes to copy the Danes since they’re literally right next to each other but...nope). Icelandic? Brauð. English = bread! And in Afrikaans, Dutch’s weird, long-distance cousin? Brood. Yiddish? ברויט (broyt). Even the Welsh went with “bara” for bread.

And in Finland, bread is called leipä, because Finnish is it’s own special brand of insanity. Same with Hungarian (kenyér = bread).

Damn, I’m kind of hungry. Maybe I should go and get some bread. Mmm. Gluten.

Anyway, my point being before I got off onto a bread tangent, the word “coca” instead of “cacao” or “chocolat” should’ve been a pretty big clue that what Nathalie and her friends were enjoying was NOT chocolate wine. Also the fact that they started to get really high while drinking it should’ve been a tip-off.

Also, there’s a scene in season 1 of The Terror where the Goodest Sir, Harry D.S. Goodsir, offers the increasingly frantic Mr. Collins wine of coca as a treatment for his lead-poisoning-and-ice-diving-vision-induced crazies. Wine of coca is mostly, wait for it:

How that would’ve helped a man going absolutely insane, I have no idea. I mean, wouldn’t cocaine wine make him more agitated? I don’t know, don’t ask me how 19th century medicine worked. Frankly, it’s a miracle anyone lived past the age of thirty back in those days.

This whole tangent was an excuse for me to include some glorious gifs of the world’s Goodest Sir and King of all the Sideburns, Goodsir:

Watch season 1 of The Terror. Seriously, it’s amazing. How have you not watched it yet? Also, watch season 2 while you’re at it, both will hit you right in the feels but in different ways.

Anyway - the whole time I was reading Sensational, I was laboring under the delusion that this series would be a trilogy - I kept looking everywhere for the setup for book three, and finished the book fully believing that there would be another book.

Then I learned that this series was to be a duology. Not a trilogy. And that Sensational was to be the end of the story. Honestly? I was disappointed. I kind of wish I had looked that up going in, rather than blithely assuming that all YA serieses end up trilogies (or quartets. Or just, you know, never end at all).

So while this book does give our characters a nice ending, there are still so many unanswered questions that could very well be answered by a third book. We never did find out what exactly caused Nathalie two-days worth of memory loss that made up the cliffhanger at the end of the first book. Like, what about all the other people who were affected by Dr. Henard’s magical mystery blood transfusions? How many people out there who, like Nathalie, inherited powers from their parents who took part in the experiment? Acgh, there’s just so much out there that can’t be covered in two books! Bah. That and I just need more YA mysteries set in late 19th century Paris. More, I says!

RECOMMENDED FOR: Fans of YA Historical Fantasy Fiction, 19th century Paris, murder mysteries, and badass girl journalist protagonists.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone familiar with the term hemolysis, anyone thinking that this was going to be a three-book thing, Lillian and Beatrice Bellacourt.

RATING: 4/5

RELEASE DATE: February 11, 2020.

TERROR RATING:

KNICK RATING:

ANOTHER PERIOD RATING:

PARIS RATING:

ANTICIPATION LEVEL FOR THIRD BOOK THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN: Makalu.

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kittoforos · 7 years

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10,12,13,14,20,21 for the linguasks :)

10: Have you ever tried to learn sign language?

not in a focused manner, but i think sign languages are really beautiful and interesting and i’d like to learn one so i could communicate with people who sign and maybe do poetry/music translations (the trouble is whenever i sit down to work on American Sign Language (which i do periodically when i get a burst of interest/energy), i keep wanting to check every new sign against Russian Sign Language. i’m intrigued that they’re in the same family (French Sign) when the written/spoken languages dominant in the same regions are so far apart— what does that say about the cultural perception of ASL and RSL signers vis a vis American English and Russian speakers? and translation between the four languages by natives of any of them? i wish there was more literature on this)

12: Choose a Scandinavian language you’d like to learn.

[i am answering this based on a 25 second googling spree of “Scandinavian languages” please be aware that i know next to nothing]

according to an article i just skimmed, if you learn Norwegian you have a good shot at understanding Danish and Swedish as well, so that seems like the best bet for sheer efficiency, even though it has the fewest speakers of the three. tbh i just want to understand Chess the musical in Swedish

(if Icelandic counts as Scandinavian though then maybe that, since in high school i got super into Norse mythology and used to read peoples’ name runes and shit and i’ve heard the Icelandic music scene kicks ass)

13. Choose a Slavic (eastern European) language you’d like to learn.

ah, this is one i think about a lot. i feel comfortable now saying i speak/am ““fluent”” in Russian, but i’ll never stop ‘learning’ it :)

[other than Russian, though… i think Czech is really pretty, sort of soft and… rainy? and i already listen to some Czech music. it doesn’t have many speakers though… of the Western Slavic languages, Polish is more widely spoken, but i don’t feel a lot of draw toward it, except for a few poets and composers (including my abiding love of Fryderyk Chopin: the first historical figure whose letters i ever desperately pored over looking for an alternative parent, some model to pattern myself on so i could become an adult and stay, if not myself, then someone like myself…). i do like the way it sounds also. snap crackle pop

i’ve been advised by multiple people (including several native speakers haha) to learn BCMS next, since it’s four for the price of one, it’s supposedly pretty quick to pick up for someone who’s studied Russian in some depth, and i suspect that it would be a bit smoother to go East-South-West as opposed to East-West-South, so that’s probably what i’ll do? and after that maybe… both Czech and Polish? maybe i’ll try both at once just to see what that’s like lmao

yeah basically those are the three i really realistically want to learn. i’m open to more, though, of course]

14. Choose an Asian language you’d like to learn.

something Turkic for sure. Kazakh, maybe, or Tatar.

Or Georgian, that’d be cool.

Or Arabic, if that counts.

okay you know what there are a Lot of “Asian languages” i can’t pick just one

20. What language is overrated?

hmm. difficult one. my first impulse is to say French, but that’s only because where i grew up in Central California a lot of people studied French (as opposed to Spanish, which was sort of the default because it’s widely spoken there) as like a weird status thing and it was kind of a bad vibe. actually French is cool and useful. so Latin, i guess…? Roman history is really interesting, don’t get me wrong, i love it, but it’s not as relatively important in the history of the world as it’s made out to be, imho. yeah i’m going with Latin. it’s such a good teaching tool though especially if you speak English and you want to be able to parse new words/understand how grammars work and it’s kind of nice practicing on a dead language where you can’t really hurt anyone

21. What language do you think is too intimidating to learn?

fear is the mind-killer. seriously, i don’t let myself think in these terms, and i would advise everyone reading this to try not to either. it can only hinder you. (also potentially the speakers of certain “intimidating” languages, since a lot of this ranking languages by difficulty thing is rooted in othering them/their cultures as “too different to wrap your head around”. not a great look)

i’m not saying that all languages are going to be equally easy/difficult for a given person (with a given mother tongue) to learn, but giving up before beginning certainly won’t help!

#smetanovarevoluce #thanks for the asks!!#languages #langblr #the adventures of me #talk to me?

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nightmaretyrantvantas · 7 years

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Ok guys so I've worked out and updated some stuff about Ada's character so I'm posting it!!

So first I, apparently, have to make something very clear about future posts about ada. Because someone(I'm not going to name who did it, just look at the reblog of Ada's head canons and facts post to see who I'm talking about and what they said) decided to take said outdated head canon and fact post about ada completely serious instead of for fun like I originally posted it for, and decided to take three fucking hours to do nothing but bash and hate on Ada's character then saying it was "advice", I'm going to say this very important fact: THIS IS MY AU THAT I CAME UP WITH THREE YEARS AGO. AND ON TOP OF THAT THIS IS MY GODDAMN FANFICTION THAT I AM WRITING MYSELF AND PUTTING A LOT OF HARD WORK AND EFFORT INTO. SO I CAN HAVE WHATEVER SHIPS IN THIS FANFICTION I WANT EVEN IF THEY ARENT CANON AND I CAN HAVE 2PS IN IT IF I WANT BECAUSE IT IS MY AU. SO DO NOT REBLOG AND RANT AND HATE ON ME OR MY OCS AND CALL THEM SHIT JUST BECAUSE I HAVE MY SHIPS AND 2PS IN IT. THANK YOU. ok....now that THAT mini rant is out of the way! I'm going to explain this little bit now so things make more sense in the future about this au! In this au fanfiction. I started 2ps and 1ps exist in the same universe, just on opposite sides of their countries. This is because in this au the 2ps represent all the dark, twisted, bad, etc. Of the country they represent. They exist in the same universe to balance out their 1ps,especially with their bosses. Ok! So. Here's the updates to Ada's character which are actually pretty important to her story(but I'm not finished so this isn't a complete list or bio or anything like that but I thought you guys might want to SSE the updates and changes) So her name is Ada Bondevik( I really don't care if people don't like that as her last name, I like it and I'm using it as Norway's last name as well.) She is the daughter of 2p! Norway and a human( being his daughter she's born with the capacity to use magic) She was born as the representation of Osla, the capital of Norway. Her mother died when she was three after a magic accident from her father. Her father asked 2p Denmark to help him raise her and reluctantly he agreed as long as she doesn't become too big of a bother to his work. When she was five she was kidnapped by some childnappers who, after traveling all the way to Denmark realize she wasn't the kid they were suppose to take, and dumped her in a danish city( I'm thinking maybe the capital) This happens during the winter just so you all know While being kidnapped one of the men hit her upside the head to keep her quiet, and this results in her memory loss There's something clearly....different and off about her that no human can bluntly place. Maybe its her pale blonde hair that curls at the bottom and seems to spike out across her forehead in bangs. Maybe its her bright violet blue eyes, maybe its the fact she always seems so cheerful she's hiding something. No human can place it but just looking at her they can tell she's different somehow. She lived in that city for a month, having been taken to an orphanage. Immediately the other kids notice that oddness about ada and outcast her, bullying her and beating on her because she can't defend herself. She runs away from the orphanage only to be brought to another, and the cycles repeats Eventually after a month she's learned to stay away from orphanages. She's dirty and bruised and wearing all ripped up clothes and shoes that would fall apart if she ran in them again. She looks so homeless and dirty that most humans ignore her and pass by her, leaving her to steal to survive On the day Denmark finds ada snowfall has started. Ada had successfully stolen some bread when a group of kids from the first orphanage find her. She runs, losing her shoes on the way, and in her panic to escape she ends up running into a alley, where they corner and attack her. Denmark hears the commotion and, old country or not, is not going to walk past like the humans around him when he sees a bunch of older children beating up a much smaller and younger girl. He scares them off before kneeling down to her. He asks her if she wants him to take her to the nearest orphanage and she breaks down crying and blubbering out really hoarse pained Norwegian before crying in broken danish that she doesn't want to go back to the bad place with all the bad words and pain, begging denmark not to take her, that she'll do anything to not go back At this point when she looks up at the Dane he can immediately tell she's too different to be human, and her resemblance to norway is too close, too similar to be chance. He's been around a long enough time to realize a possible new nation, or someone who clearly represents something in norway. So he gives her a smile and asks if she would like to join his family for dinner instead At the dinner all the other Nordics can tell she's not a normal human, and when she says she can't remember who her parents are, and how she wishes she had a nice family like the Nordics denmark blurts out that he and norway will be her parents Norway goes to protest but he looks at her and then make eye contact for the first time And it hits norway like a ton of bricks all at once, and immediately he realises that she represents his capital. And so he can't refuses, it would be like rejecting a part of himself, so he smiles a little at her and tells her that of course they'll be her parents It takes weeks of arguments between her and denmark when she asks--no demands to be trained how to fight, to be given viking training. After weeks norway finally cuts in " she deserves to know how to defend herself den, we won't always be here to protect her" and denmark gives in They both teach her how to speak danish and Norwegian Iceland decides to teach her Icelandic so that they can talk between themselves without den and nor understanding She calls iceland big brother instead of uncle ( like she would've since as Norway's little brother iceland is technically her uncle) because he played role of her big brother figure throughout her childhood When she's around ten norway notices her potential for magic, and happily agrees to teach her magic She can see magical creatures but she's terrified of nor rejecting her so she only tells iceland Norway gives her one of his hairpins as a way to reassure her he cares for her and won't cast her out like the humans had The cross necklace around her neck was a present from her birth father that he told her meant he was always with her, and told her to never take it off. So by habit she always wears it under her shirt. Even with memory lose the linger scent on the cross always comforts and relaxes her and she never takes it off. And that's all I've updated so far! Sorry its so long! I don't mind hearing what you guys think as long as it isn't just oc bashing. Also!! Before I forget I still need angst head canons for ada and the anko family But I'm tagging @askthenordickfamily and @2pswedens-googlehistory in this to ask if they can help me with the angst head canons because they're much better writers than me! And thanks for reading all this and I hope you like it!

#hetalia #oc #updated oc #i finished updating a big chunk of her character!!#nordics #denmark #norway #iceland #anko family

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