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nekoannie-chan · 5 months

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Languages

Pairing: Steve Rogers X Bilingual!Reader.

Word count: 286 words.

Summary: Steve can’t read a book a foreign language.

Warnings: Fluff.

A/N: This is my entry to @natashxromanovf’s 1K Followers Writing Challenge with the prompt:

" Hold on… you’re bilingual?"

"Yes?."

You can read it on Wattpad and Ao3 too.

@saiyanprincessswanie

My native language is Spanish so I wanna improve my writing skills in English if you notice any mistakes, please let me know and I will correct them.

I don’t give any kind of permission for my fics to be posted on other platforms or languages (I translate myself my work) or the use of my graphics (my dividers are included in this), I did them exclusively for my fics, please respect my work and don't steal it. There are some people here who make dividers that anyone can use, mine is not this type, please look for the other people. The only exception is the ones I gifted 'cuz now belong to someone else. If you find any of my works on a different platform and are not one of my accounts, please let me know. Reblogs and comments are always welcome.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Marvel's characters (unfortunately), except for the original characters and the story.

Add yourself to my taglist here.

My other media where I publish: Ao3, Wattpad, ffnet, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter.

If you like it, please vote, comment, and give me feedback to improve my skills and reblog.

Tags: @sinceimetyou @unnuevosoltransformalarealidad @navybrat817 @angrythingstarlight @shield-agent78 @charmed-asylum @pandaxnienke @real-fbi @smokeandnailz @white-wolf1940 @tenaciousperfectionunknown @xoxonotme @bluemusickid @leyannrae @harrysthiccthighsss @marvelatthisonee @caplanbuckybarness @sapphire-rogerss @lizzieolseniskinda @notyourtypicalrose @hallecarey1 @nana1000night @talia-rumlow @writingshae @alexxavicry @azulatodoryuga @daemonslittlebitch @chaoticcollectivenightmare @endlesstwanted @chemtrails-club @marigoldreamer @whiskeytangofoxtrot5555 @here4thefanfics @theestorm @patzammit @kmc1989 @somegirlfromasgard

Steve was exploring an old library when, among the dusty shelves, he found a peculiar book. It had worn covers and yellowed pages, but what really caught Steve's attention was that the title and all the contents were in a language he couldn't understand.

Intrigued, Steve took the book in his hands and began to flip through its pages with a confused expression. The words were incomprehensible to him. It was then that you entered the library. Your eyes lit up when you saw Steve holding the book in his hands. You had been looking for such a book for a long time.

"Oh, that's a rare copy!" you exclaimed, approaching with a friendly smile. "Did you find it interesting?" you asked curiously.

Steve nodded, but his expression revealed his confusion.

"Yes, but I don't understand a word of it. And I wouldn't want to get in trouble; I've got enough of it."

You laughed softly and took the book from Steve's hands. "Of course, I can read it! This is one of my favorite languages."

Steve looked at you with surprise. “Hold on… you’re bilingual?”

You nodded as you flipped through the book. "Yes? Yes, I speak several languages; do you want me to read it to you in English, or do you prefer a specific language?"

Steve smiled in relief.

"English is fine, please."

You began to read aloud, translating each word fluently. As you progressed through the story, Steve became immersed in the plot and began to enjoy the content of the book.

After a while, Steve couldn't contain his amazement. "You're amazing! How many languages do you speak?"

"Well, some more than others, but I love learning new languages." You replied modestly.

#tajas1kfollowerswritingchallenge #tajas 1k followers writing challenge #steve rogers x reader

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snowysobsessions · 1 month

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Queer Resources!

This is by no means a complete list and it's something I will keep adding to and improving. If you have any helpful links not listed here, please send them my way!

Please reblog this post, as you never know who may desperately need one of these resources. Feel free to share individual links with friends/family as well. Knowledge is power, after all!

General:

Online safety guide for queer people This guide is extremely thorough, having sections for being online while queer in general, dating online, navigating the workplace, advice for queer people under 18, and more. If you grew up online and think you don't need to read any of this, I am begging you to read it. There's always something you don't know, something you won't think to do in a stressful situation. Please, please read through it all. Safety first!

Coming out handbook by The Trevor Project (PDF) A downloadable PDF walking you through the coming out process. It's a bit long, but well worth reading even if you have come out already to friends and/or family. It is very supportive of you, the reader, so it is wonderful if you feel unsure or nervous about your identity.

Quick guide for coming out (nonbinary focused) This is a briefer guide for if you or someone else just needs an overview of the process. It doesn't focus as much on the emotional support part and more on the logistics of coming out. So this one is good if you're very confident in your identity and just need to come out.

Pronouns and names:

Pronoun Dressing Room This site lets you try different pronouns AND names for yourself. You can fill the text fields with literally anything you want. It also has lots of neopronoun presets, organized alphabetically and by theme. To "try on" pronouns and names it uses a simple example paragraph where someone talks to their friend about meeting you. But there is also sections of public domain books where your name and pronouns replace the main characters'.

Pronouns Page This site allows you to make a "card" that lists all your names, flags/identities, pronouns, and terms you want used for you, as well as your preferences for/feelings about of them. It is highly customizable, you can add neopronouns, nounself pronouns, and emoji pronouns. You can even make separate cards for other languages. These cards can be easily shared with others and linked in profiles. It is also a huge resource for terminology, definitions and descriptions of identities, and how pronouns have been and are used in culture and fiction. There's also a full calendar of awareness days/week, appreciation days/weeks, and days of remembrance.

List of nonbinary names These are organized into separate pages by first letter. It includes non-English names, gives origin and meaning for each name, and, perhaps most helpfully, includes how often that name is used as a feminine or masculine name. Even if you are not nonbinary, this can still be helpful in choosing a new name. Personally I found this page infinitely more helpful than going to baby name lists, which are often split by gender and don't have as much for gender neutral names.

Gender:

The Nonbinary Wiki home page This wiki is an invaluable resource, I'm not exaggerating. It has almost everything you would want to know about gender, sexuality, and romantic attraction. It has who made the flags, their meanings, when terms were coined, archived posts, the history of identities, sub identities and micro labels... everything. I will note that understandably, the info for binary gender experiences on this wiki is limited.

List of (common) nonbinary identities This list gives descriptions, history, and more for every common gender identity that isn't strictly the binary female/woman or male/man. Almost every one of these identities has its own dedicated page which goes into further detail. And this list includes nonbinary identities that have existed in non-European and non-American cultures for centuries, or even thousands of years.

List of uncommon nonbinary identities This is a huge and detailed compilation of identities that have as little as one person known to use that label. It also has links to the original or archived posts where the term was coined, if available. This page can be used as something to help you figure out what you like and what you don't like in terms of gender identity. And you never know, the perfect label for you could be in here.

Legal recognition of transgender and nonbinary people by country This page details how inclusive, or exclusive, countries are to trans and nonbinary people. Such as if they allow "X" for gender/sex on ID and passports, what is required to have it changed, and how easy or difficult it is to change your legal name. Canada, the UK, and the USA have dedicated pages for this that go into further detail and provide more resources.

Romance and sexuality:

List of romantic and sexual orientations (nonbinary focused) This list does include common ones like lesbian, but also includes rare identities such as Aquian, being attracted only to people who's gender changes. As I said this is focused on orientations that do not assume you are a binary gender, the people you are attracted to are a binary gender, or that your gender is connected to your sexuality.

AUREA (The Aromantic-spectrum Union for Recognition, Advocacy, and Education) AUREA is not very large right now, but what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality. It has a large glossary of romantic, aromantic, queerplatonic, and other related terms. Which includes rare terms and identities under the aromantic umbrella. They have downloadable PDFs with basic info on aromanticism, as well as links to research that has been done on aromanticism.

Guide to Aromanticism This contains basic info about aromanticism, and "Am I Aro?" questioning section, and links to aro creators. Reading through the whole thing shouldn't take more than half an hour.

Allosexual Aromantic resources This site links to a wide variety of resources by, for, and information on allo-aros. There's terminology guides, how to write allo-aro characters, how to be a good ally towards allo-aros, essays, and fiction featuring allo-aro characters.

AVEN (The Asexual Visibility and Education Network) This is a wonderful resource for information on asexuality. It has a thorough FAQ section for both people questioning and friends/family who have questions and concerns about asexualism.

Asexual Perspectives This is a community blog where people can write about their experiences as asexuals. These posts are incredibly validating and eye-opening and I strongly recommend you read them.

The Gray Area This is a quick FAQ about greysexualism and demisexualism that is for questioning, allies, and people unfamiliar with greysexualism.

AVEN Forms AVEN hosts a form where asexuals, and people who once identified as asexual, can talk about their experiences.

An Asexual's Guide To... This is a brief sex ed taught from an asexual perspective. Which is to say it does not automatically assume you are interested in sexual activities and have some experience feeling sexual attraction. Even if you aren't asexual, it can be quite helpful in understanding the experience. It does not teach you much about the actual having sex part, though. It focuses more on being comfortable with yourself and your body. It is also inclusive to intersex people. (This guide has no pictures, if you were worried about that.)

Setting sexual boundaries with a partner list This is not queer specific but still helpful as it does not assume the sexual relationship is between the two binary sexes/genders and still works if you are intersex. To cut down the paragraphs at the beginning, this is a list of sexual and romantic actions and behaviours. You are supposed to assign a yes, maybe, no, or not applicable to everything on this list to indicate if you are willing, unsure, or will not do those things. It is suggested you go through it with your partner, but you can fill it out alone to figure out your preferences. This list/guide can be useful if you have sexual trauma and/or have had an abusive partner in the past and need to communicate what may trigger you.

#queer resources #queer #queer community #lgbtqia #lgbtq #lgbtq community #transgender #nonbinary #asexual #aromantic #allo aro #pronouns

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nokkiart · 8 months

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I’m so glad that you had a lovely time in Tokyo!! Bring me in your suitcase next time? /j <3

What’s your advice for travelling on your own???

This is probably going to be a long one, so I apologize in advance 😅 Here's some advice that has helped me on my solo trips to Korea and Japan:

• Do research on where you're going. See what's allowed in the country (especially if you're bringing medications). Read up on other people's travel experiences in that country. Know what kind of transportation you'll need to use there and how to access it (trains, buses, taxis, rental cars). Make sure you have a bit of an idea of what to expect when you get there, so culture shock won't hit you hard.

• Have foreign currency *before* you leave. Chances are you'll need it as soon as you land at your destination.

• Make sure you have a power adapter/wall charger in case they have different outlets. A back up phone charger and pocket wifi is also a must!

• Find points of interest that you might enjoy visiting and make a private Google map with all those places marked. Then if you're in an area that happens to have a lot of your interests in it, you can tackle them all at once. This was my map for Tokyo! I made two separate lists; one for places I wanted to visit, and one for restaurants I wanted to try.

Unfortunately I didn't get to visit all of these because my trip was only 5 days. But it gave me a good idea of areas I could go to hit multiple points of interest!

• Make sure all your legal documents are valid. Passports, visas, licenses, etc. Make sure you know what documents you need to enter that country. Also bring a photocopy of those documents just in case something happens to the original.

• Get travel insurance. It's cheap and easy to get. And if something goes wrong, you'll be completely covered to be flown back home.

• Do what you can to keep yourself safe. You can buy personal safety items or read up on self defensive measures to take while traveling. I have this little siren doorstop, so if anyone tries to come into my hotel room, it not only blocks the door from opening but also emits a 120db siren to scare anyone off.

And it works *very well*. I nearly deafened myself when testing it XD

• Always be alert and aware of your surroundings. Tourists are easy targets for pickpockets because we're so distracted by everything (especially in big, tourist heavy cities).

• Never tell anyone that you're traveling alone. Book your hotel room for 2 people (its the same price as single rooms anyway). And give your hotel info to someone back home that you trust so they can know where you'll be.

• Trust your gut instinct too. If you're getting bad vibes off someone, just walk away and distance yourself from them.

• Don't be afraid to try new things! New foods, music, dancing, shows, festivals, etc. Just get out there and see things you've never seen before!

• This is kinda a personal preference one, but *avoid* tourist spots. So many people line up to take the same pics in the same tourist trap locations, waiting hours just for nothing. Instead, speak to locals and do things they recommend! Or just wander around and see what you stumble across. Touristy areas tend to have more expensive prices for everything anyway, so you'll save money going elsewhere! XD

• Allow your plans to change based on what you personally feel like doing in that moment. Don't force yourself to stick to a travel itinerary.

• Bring snacks just in case your tum craves something familiar. I usually stick to granola bars or Biscoffs since they last a while.

• If you're going somewhere that has a different language, learn the basics in that language. Knowing how to say "hello", "yes", "no", and "thank you" will help you so much! And locals tend to love seeing tourists put an effort into trying to communicate with them in their language.

• Also be patient. There will be times when there will be confusion between you and other people. That's just what happens when two different cultures meet. But don't get mad. Try calmly working thru the confusion and see if you can figure something out.

• On that same note, BE KIND. You are a guest in someone else's home. You have no right to demand things to be a specific way. Respect their rules, even if it doesn't make sense to you. Be grateful that you have this amazing opportunity that so many others may never have.

Solo traveling can be pretty intimidating. But if you plan and prepare everything well before you leave, your trip will be so much more enjoyable!

Let me know if you have any other questions about solo traveling! I want you guys to have safe and fun trips too!! ^^

#ama #nokki natter #ask #sorry for the long write up but I put a lot of effort into my solo trips XD #travel tips

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fangsandfeels · 6 months

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While Jerra is my comfort animal, I do have some other Tavs whose story became much clearer after the full game.

For instance, this is Calliper, a half-drow Great Old Ones warlock/artisan from Baldur's Gate.

Born in the Underdark, in one of the drow cities, a byproduct of a loveless (and fucked up in every way you can imagine if you know how half-drow babies happen to be born in drow society) union between a female human slave, and a male drow slave. Needless to say, both parents wanted nothing to do with her, and the reason why she was even allowed to exist was the shortage of new slaves.

Never got a name during her existence in the Underdark - other drow made it clear that she was a mistake, a disgusting dirt-blood, and the only way for her to atone for that original sin of existing was to do what she is told and pray she is useful.

She managed to escape after involuntarily making contact with a Great Old One (strongly implied to be Atropus) through her feverish and nightmare-filled dreams and siphoning its power.

Calliper doesn't exactly know what her patron is and what it wants with her. All she gets are occasional whispers and horrible visions...and she would rather keep it that way. She is terrified of what will happen if that entity actually starts paying attention to her. For that reason, she actively avoids fighting and resorting to using her powers, preferring to lie, negotiate and bullshit her way through. She doesn't need to remind her patron of her existence more than it's already aware. And yet, she is deadly with her magic when provoked.

After making it to the surface and tagging along with the very first group that didn't instantly reject her, Calliper started making herself useful by actively applying her skills at making jewelry and fine crafts (something she got very good at while serving in the Underdark as the servant of a local craftsmaker. She wasn't allowed to touch the masterpieces, of course, but she watched her work and secretly tried her hand with whatever scraps she managed to collect. Surface dwellers turned out to be much easier to impress than drow, finding great interest in what she herself would call mediocre work. As she adjusted, she chose a name for herself based on one of the first Common language words she learned.

Her life wasn't easy, but she ended up as a guild artisan in Baldur's Gate, happy to work in her studio for the guild, surrounded by pretty magical things she made as well as fixing and restoring jewelry (she particularly enjoyed working with magical trinkets, they were always fascinating). The power of her pact kept competition at bay and provided her with some protection - and this was more than she could possibly want. Or so she thought.

Calliper is...not exactly a hero/leader material or a problem-solver. At least, not initially. She goes back into her survival mode quickly because she hasn't really found a community or support to overcome her issues. Staying huddled up in her workshop, reading books, and occasionally speaking to colleagues and guild members wasn't exactly therapeutic. Being snatched from her safe place made her withdrawn, avoidant, and dodging any situations that are too risky or can end with violence. Whatever problem you have, she is not the one you need. But if you have a fancy trinket or artifact to fix, she...might take a look. It soothes her nerves, y'know.

She is well aware of the drow prejudice, and she doesn't blame people for that because she is the biggest drow hater in the room. She doesn't trust drow. She doesn't like drow. She doesn't want to see any drow near her ever again. She would end up saving the Grove just because she sees Minthara, watches her sneer at her, and call her all the words she heard in the Underdark, and it's on. She has issues with her own self-esteem and would often use Disguise Self when having to leave her home, just to avoid people staring at her.

So, being far away from home with a tadpole in her head, Calliper's only priority will be to get that thing out of her oh this can't be happening (she lived in the Underdark, she knows what mindflayers are), and she would have no clue how she is supposed to help anyone if she doesn't know how to help herself? So, as soon as she meets Wyll, she basically goes "Finally! A hero! Please, Mr. Blade of Frontiers, come with us!" and follows his advice and decisions. Well, aside from killing Karlach because Karlach's flashback just hits way too close to home.

Of course, Calliper gets swept away by the warlock rizz. She looks up to Wyll as the "only-guy-who-looks-like-he-knows-what-he-is-doing" and then, when his secret is revealed, his ordeal is so familiar on so many levels that it hurts. She sees Mizora and instantly remembers how matriarchs and their associates treated male slaves. She hears the word "pact" - and it reminds her of her patron and what it might want from her. And seeing Wyll still having the strength to continue, to smile and stay calm all this time...she is bewildered by that man and falling for him. Hard.

Even though it's been years since she left Underdark, Calliper still wrestles with the feeling that everything is wrong about her - how can't it be? She wasn't born from love. She was told her blood was filthy. That she was a mistake. She has no real place neither on the surface nor beneath it - even if she was complimented, it was always about how exotic she looked as if she was a rare trinket to pocket. Meanwhile, Wyll, makes her feel as if she is absolutely and entirely fine as she is. Her heritage doesn't make her any less worthy of those charming gestures usually described in romance novels. Wyll gives her a fairytale, except that he means every word. In turn, she grows determined to give this man his happy ending, even if it means tapping into her own powers and making hard decisions. As soon as Calliper starts seeing Wyll as more than "the hero" and realizes that this man believes in her (thanks her even for stopping him when he was wrong), she gradually starts leaving her comfort zone and pushing her limits. She is still terrified of her patron and the uncertainty, but she can no longer put the weight of facing problems on Wyll's shoulders.

#cw: abuse #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 oc ramblings #bg3 oc: calliper #wyll ravengard #bg3 wyll #wyll x tav #calliper whenever she has to feed gale an artifact: *crying cat meme*#and then calliper finds out that atropus hates clowns

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perpetualexistence · 3 months

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Sea Monster AU: Poor Unfortunate Soul (1/2)

'What's with the 1/2 in the title, that's new' you might be asking yourself. You see, this part right here was actually originally supposed to be just one Then, I realized I'd need to split it into two, 'Poor Unfortunate Soul', and the next part I'm not spoiling the title of yet.

Then I started going into this, looked at the time, looked at the word count, and realized it's for the best if I just split this up once more. Future Perp might end up renaming this chapter as the title definitely fits more for the second part than it does this one. Time will tell.

Either way, before we get to the post proper: Warnings! Oh boy have we got them for this part and the next!

Content warnings: Non-suicidal self harm, Body horror

Since the content warnings happen as part of a scene like rather than a brief mention, I've separated the more gruesome bits with asterisks. You can look all the way down at the bottom for a safer summary.

<- Prev | First | Next ->

Now that Noah has a book on magic, he has to deal with the problem that Chris could never get past: actually reading it. It's not in any language that Noah can recognize. Still, he's smart and can recognize patterns in text thanks to his poetry phase. He manages to work out the basic alphabet. Now that he's got that, his next step is simple. Create a program that will translate the text as he scans it. He'll get to save so much time, and might even be able to get what he wants faster as he can just search for whatever seems most promising.

The book snaps shut the first time. Noah can't excuse it as the wind when it happens again. After a few attempts, he finally manages to get a good scan of one of the pages.

One waterlogged phone later he realizes why there weren't any references for how to actually use magic on the sea monster database.

Magic really doesn't like cheaters.

So instead he has to translate everything himself using the alphabet he figured out. It gets easier as he keeps doing it, and eventually he no longer needs to look at his reference sheet in order to read it.

Before that can happen, he needs a new phone. Both because he's a young adult addicted to having a screen with him at all times, and because without one he won't be able to talk to Owen, who is currently one of the few things reminding him that there's some good in humanity, and that all of this pain is going to be worth it.

He doesn't have any disposable income. Yes, he has some of the treasures that Alejandro gave him from the ships they hunted. But the problem is actually selling those. Now that people are noticing the disappearances (thanks Alejandro), he can't exactly sell anything identifiable from those very ships that have 'gone missing'. His lazy ass had just sat on them assuming that he could sell them whenever he pleased.

Present Noah would slap Past Noah if he could.

So he goes to his mother to ask for a new phone. Which is a task in itself given her multiple jobs. He'd text her, but that's part of the problem. He'd also prefer not to get his older siblings involved because they'd just ask questions. The one good thing about having an overworked mother is that she rarely questions why you want things, and as the baby you can exploit this to its maximum potential!

Noah's a terrible son.

He'll make it up to her when he actually does manage to sell off his stolen goods. Like a criminal. Which he is. As an accessory to murder. Multiple counts.

He can either think about this too hard or he can have a new phone.

So he manages to track her down and asks her for a new phone. He doesn't ask for anything fancy, just something that works. She looked at him, gave him an all too familiar rueful smile, and told him they don't have the money right now, though he can try using one of his siblings' older phones.

Noah's not too surprised by this answer. Living as they are, it's always a gamble for when they do have spare cash. What does concern him is the look in her eyes of someone who doesn't want to burden others. Not just the burden of saying no.

The burden of hiding something. And there's only one things he's ever tried to hide from him. The loan shark's back.

He does this every once in a while. Usually when they're getting too close to fully paying him off. He'll hike up the interest rate or make up some bullshit fee. He'll expect a big immediate payment, and then lay off for a while until he's ready to wring them by the neck again.

He'd have pushed the bastard directly into Alejandro's mouth himself if he wasn't so good at covering where he was. The fact that he's in town means he's going to stay a while. There's no telling when he'll move out, or if he'll even do it by boat.

That's a problem for another time, as much as he loathes to leave it hanging. He's got to get more money from somewhere else. Not just for the phone now, but to get the loan shark off his family's back again.

Noah remembers Duncan. The guy made his reputation as a delinquent known just from the five seconds he got to know him, and spoke about going to juvie. It'd be a risk, but Noah's running low on options. He's not about to watch his mom work herself ragged again.

He gets in touch with him Duncan via Owen. After assuring Owen that no, he's not dead because it's been two full days since he texted, no he's not mad at him either, he just dropped his phone in some water. Luckily for him, Owen's willing to help the two meet without asking too many questions.

Duncan, meanwhile, has plenty of questions. First of all, who Noah thinks he is just asking for Duncan to fence stolen goods for him. Second of all where someone like Noah would even GET stolen goods. Noah lets him know that he can either have answers to those questions, or he can get a profitable cut. Duncan begrudgingly agrees (which has nothing to do with the fact that Noah accidentally lets slip why he needs the money, and Duncan's still got a bleeding heart).

Noah starts with just enough money for a new phone. He can't just dump everything onto Duncan, because then his curiosity/suspicion would definitely outweigh his willingness to help Noah.

Now that all of that is settled, he can finally get back to translating and studying magic.

He learns that in order to use magic, he needs proper tools to do so. And he can't simply buy these tools. No, for the magic to work properly, Noah needs to make these tools. The making imbues them with his essence and makes it so the tools will only ever work for him. Since he's working with sea magic, he's got to use it from materials he finds underwater.

The only place underwater he can safely look without Alejandro catching on is an underground cove he found connected to Chef and Chris's place. Which limits his options severely. So he decides to keep on reading for the actual spells to see what he'd actually need before figuring out how much of a migraine he's going to have.

One thing he notices rather quickly is that all of these spells must be prepared and performed underwater. This part wouldn't be a problem if not for the fact that unlike merfolk, Noah does need oxygen. So solving that problem takes priority.

He finds that solution in a ritual that will give him gills. However, it presents him with a choice. For there's two different branches of magic: the slower, safer process and the faster, more painful process. In this case, Noah can either take the time and effort needed to gather ingredients for a potion that will give him gills that he can open and close at will...or he can make himself a permanent set of gills.

Noah would love to pick the first one. But the longer he takes, the more Alejandro will eat, and the longer he stays a threat. So the second option it is. He starts wearing a scarf and uses the perpetually cold lie. Mostly for Alejandro's sake. Which is good because Alejandro does 'playfully' remove the scarf to see what's underneath the first time he sees it, and once satisfied that there's nothing, doesn't mess with it like that again.

Now Noah needs a knife of coral. Noah's lucky that the new cove he's in has agatized coral. With it being fossilized, it's old and has more of a connection with nature, making it a perfect magic implement. Noah's able to get pieces out, but now he has to make a knife out of it.

Who better to ask but the resident knife expert?

Noah does need a more reasonable excuse for this one, so he pretends that he only needs to learn how to make a knife due to self defense because he's getting paranoid with all the disappearances. Duncan points out that that's bullshit because Noah could just buy a knife then. Why the hell does he need to learn how to make one?

Duncan's asking too many questions, so Noah throws his hail mary. If Duncan can stop asking questions about pretty much any of Noah reasons and helps him out with learning how to make a knife and maybe a few other things, he'll use his hacking abilities to get rid of Duncan's criminal record. That's an offer Duncan simply can't refuse. So Duncan agrees to teach him, and over time, Noah crafts his knife of coral. He adds the runes that he needs to enchant it by himself. Both because that's meant to be a private affair, and so Duncan doesn't say anything despite his bought silence.

Now to actually do this.

***

Noah gets all the underwater runes and preparations done one dive at a time. He also makes sure to get makeshift medical supplies for himself. He's doing this as close to the surface as he can in case everything goes to shit. He'd prefer not to bleed out.

He stares at the knife in his hands. He's actually going through with this, isn't he? No going back. There will be permanent evidence that he's taking a stand against Alejandro if he finds it. The whole 'sea monster vs. sea witch' conflict he'd read about doesn't promise anything good when Alejandro realizes he's using magic.

He could seriously screw himself up. He's a genius, but he's no medical expert. One wrong cut and it's lights out forever. One wrong move and he's fish food either way. He's come so far, he can't afford to let himself get choked up now.

He slices the right side of his neck before he can let himself doubt any more. He's unable to stifle a yell of pain. He loses precious oxygen when he's just started. He has to finish or else this won't work.

He slices the left side of his neck to keep it balanced. More oxygen lost. Now that he's cut both sides of his neck, he can feel the cuts throbbing. It feels like the cuts are burrowing themselves deeper than he made them. They are creating new passageways into his lungs and they burn.

His instincts kick in and he begins to swim for the surface. The runes he set forth earlier start to glow and he finds himself unable to move far from the spot he started in. He's holding his breath in for as long as he can. There are more cuts to be made but he wants to pass out now. But he can't. He has to keep going.

It's when he starts making the second cut on the right side of his neck that he feels his first set of gills go from a burrowing sensation to a throbbing one. He's about to pass out, but it should be safe now. He just needs to breathe.

It's a battle of sheer will over his instincts to force himself to breathe in while underwater. He feels water go in through his gills yet not through his throat like an injection. It is shoddy and feels like when Noah is so congested he can only breathe through one nostril. That would likely be why he needs three pairs of gills total.

***

With at least enough air not to die, he forces himself to finish the ritual. By the end, he's underwater, breathing in and out. It's no longer panicked as he forces himself to take nice deep breaths. He has to pinch his nose shut to stop himself from instinctively breathing through it when underwater. He'll either stay here or keep coming down until breathing underwater comes more nautrally.

He still can't believe he's even thinking that. He's actually breathing underwater. He did magic. It can be done. This crazy, stupid plan of his might actually be doable.

It's a start.

[Safe for work summary: Through a lot of pain, Noah manages to make himself a working set of gills.]

#sea monster au #total drama #total drama noah #td noah #total drama au #giant/tiny #horror au #total drama horror au #cw self harm #tw self harm #cw nonsuicidal self harm #tw nonsuicidal self harm #tw body horror #cw body horror #td alejandro #total drama alejandro #alenoah #td alenoah #td horror au

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evegwood · 8 months

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NOOOO i am too late to the party, can I still submit my ask? If the inhibit cast could speak any other language other than English, which one would it be?

Haha don't worry, I'm always happy to answer questions and this is a fun one!

A few of the characters already know another language - David knows British Sign Language fairly fluently, though he definitely has a hearing "accent" (less fluid signing, tendency to use English constructions rather than the way a fluent BSL user would phrase something, difficulty reading fast fingerspelling). He also understands Urdu because his mum is Pakistani but isn't as good at speaking it.

Like a lot of kids in the UK, the Earl kids were taught some German but wouldn't be able to say anything other than like "Ich lebe im Vereinigten Königreich" and "Scheisse" because language education is here is terrible and even worse at Earl.

Masha speaks textbook French because she's a swot and would learn Russian if she could because her adoptive family is originally from Russia.

Nate is Chinese-American (born in San Francisco, moved to the UK when he was really young) so he'd be like oh yeah one day I'm totally going to learn Chinese. And you'd ask if he would learn Cantonese or Mandarin and he'd be like what.

Paulina's family is Polish but she wouldn't be much interested in learning it. She doesn't plan on going to Poland any time soon. Same with Julia, she'd have no interest in learning Scottish Gaelic, it's too hard and stumbling through German articles has put her off language-learning.

If Vic had to learn a language he'd probably prefer to study BSL properly - his signing is pretty poor comparatively and he wouldn't be able to hold any sort of conversation with another BSL user beyond the basics, it's like a cobbled-together sign language based on library books and what David has taught him. Otherwise he'd be much more interested in learning the history of another country than its language.

#asks #anonymous

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handweavers · 1 year

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what is it like learning sanskrit!! i want to learn but i don’t know where to start

it's slow going but it's really rewarding. there aren't as many resources on it in english compared to other classical languages but the ones that exist are really fantastic. i prefer learning through physical books and i've found that with sanskrit that's really the only way to get a full in depth understanding unless you have the ability/access to take a class or course in the language.

i've been using a variety of (used) books to teach myself, but in particular i've been using "sanskrit: a complete course for beginners" by michael coulson as my Main reference and it really is an incredible resource and one that i highly recommend getting your hands on if you're interested in the language. he encourages not only learning to read sanskrit but to be able to write/read in the nāgāri script (which is incredibly helpful if you also want to learn hindi or any other language that uses a brahmic script. there are SO many languages in the brahmic family across south and southeast asia so being able to read one would make it easier to learn others - in my case, it's a path to being able to understand punjabi and the gurmukhi script) and to be able to pronounce/speak in sanskrit, which many other resources don't emphasize. so the book touches a lot on things like phonetics as well as methods of writing nāgāri for right handed vs left handed people - which matters actually, and its important to me bc i'm left handed! - and uses not only english sounds but french and other european languages as comparisons when discussing pronunciation which is really helpful. it's both very thorough and easy to follow which is a difficult line to tread but the author does it really successfully.

the other books i have that i've been referencing are "introduction to sanskrit (part one)" by thomas egenes and "sanskrit grammar" by william dwight whitney. i also use learnsanskrit.org which has a ton of free information available on both nāgāri and sanskrit. the goal for me is to be able to read and translate original texts in sanskrit, which will be valuable in my historical studies as well as aid in eventually learning punjabi. there are fewer resources for punjabi esp in gurmukhi (and ones i've found so far are not so great in quality imho but i'm always looking for better options) so i figure it would be easier if i already have a background knowledge in its ancestor language, kind of like how understanding latin would make learning a modern romance language more intuitive. i really want to truly understand sanskrit and punjabi the way that i am able to fully understand the nuances and depths of english, to have that intuitive grasp of it's inner workings and internal logic systems and genuinely know these languages, so i think this route is the best approach for me unless i can find in-person language classes.

#id also love to learn middle persian/pahlavi or parsik because punjabi is essentially if sanskrit and persian had a baby

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the-sleepy-archivist · 4 months

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Backing Up Fanfictions with Calibre + FanFicFare (with screenshots!)

If you've been reading fanfiction for any significant length of time, you've probably had the horrifying realization that a fic or series that you absolutely loved was deleted. Maybe the author was harassed or stalked, maybe they didn't want an abandoned WIP lying around, or maybe they just didn't like the fandom any more. Whatever the reason, it is so important to back up your favorite fanfictions.

Calibre is one of the most popular ebook management softwares available, primarily because:

It is full-featured and fairly easy to use

It has a large plugin ecosystem (like Firefox's addons)

It's available for most operating systems

It's completely free

By "ebook management", I mean it can do things like indexing and searching a library of your books, downloading covers and metadata for them, etc. I originally got Calibre for backing up ebooks I had purchased from various online stores in case they ever shut down (like Microsoft Books) or decided they wanted to take a book back (like Amazon has done), and so I could read in whatever app I wanted.

BUT, remember that plugin ecosystem I mentioned? JimmXinu took advantage of that to create FanFicFare, a plugin that allows Calibre to download stories from over 100 creative writing sites (primarily fanfiction archives, but also erotic writing sites among others).

Just paste in the URL to an AO3 fic, for example, and it will:

Download the fic in your preferred format (EPUB, MOBI, TXT, HTML, others)

Fill in all the metadata for you (story name, author + AO3 pseuds, the fic's order in a series, if the fic is complete or not, word count, all tags, etc.)

Generate an ebook cover from scratch OR using art that was embedded in the fic

From here you can just click on a tag to find all other fics in your library with the same tag; you can also click into the author or the series. It's almost like having a mini-AO3 on your computer, one that is always available and where fics never get deleted.

Installing Calibre

Download Calibre from here, choosing the appropriate copy for your operating system

Run the Calibre installer and click through the wizard. For most people the default options work well.

Open Calibre; the Welcome Wizard should appear and walk you through initial setup

Choose your language, and the place on your computer where you want Calibre to store the fics/ebooks that it downloads, then click Next.

Select the device you use most often to read fanfiction on. This helps Calibre decide what format ebooks should be stored in (but you can override it with FanFicFare later)

You should now have Calibre open with an empty library. NOW we want to install several plugins to teach it how to handle fanfics.

Installing Calibre Plugins

First up is Count Pages. This plugin counts the words and pages in a fanfiction and shows it in Calibre so you know whether the fic you're looking at is a oneshot or a behemoth.

Look for an icon like the one below and click it to open Calibre preferences.

2. Under the "Advanced" section, click "Plugins"

3. At the bottom of the Plugins dialog, click "Get New Plugins"

4. Type "Count Pages" into the "Filter by name" search box at the top right. Once the plugin is visible in the list, click it, then click "Install". It will bring up a prompt about the security risks, but we are only installing well-known plugins today (ex. ZimmXinu has been developing FanFicFare for over a decade). Click Yes to install the plugin.

5. It will then prompt you to restart Calibre in order to begin using the plugin, but just click "Ok" because we're going to install a couple more plugins first.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for three more plugins: "Generate Covers", "EpubMerge", and "FanFicFare"; once all 4 plugins are installed, close Calibre completely and open it again. You should now have several new buttons on your Calibre menu bar:

FanFicFare is now installed! But we still have a little bit of work to do to unlock its full capabilities.

Configuring FanFicFare for Your Fanfic Site of Choice

So FanFicFare is now installed, but right now if you tell it to look at a fic on AO3, it will be browsing AO3 as a new, anonymous user without an account. This means that:

It won't be able to see explicit fics because it hasn't accepted the "See adult works" prompt

It won't be able to see locked fics (ones you can only read if you are logged in to AO3; these are very common nowadays as authors try to prevent AI engines from scraping their fics and flooding them with spam comments).

So we need to configure FanFicFare to accept the adult prompt (if you'd like to download anything rated higher than T), and we also need to give it our AO3 username and password so it can download locked fics on our behalf.

Click the dropdown arrow to the right of the FanFicFare button in the Calibre toolbar. A dropdown menu will appear. Click "Configure FanFicFare"

2. At the top of the "Basic" tab, select your prefered download format (if you prefer a format not listed, like PDF, don't worry, Calibre can convert it for you later).

3. Click the "Personal" tab in the FanFicFare settings dialog, then click "Edit personal.ini"

4. It will open a very basic text editor where you can type your personal fanfic site details for FanFicFare to use. If the box is small and text is cut off or hard to read, resize the editor window by hovering over the edge of the window until your cursor changes into an arrow with two heads, then click and drag to expand the window.

5. Type "is_adult" (without the quotes) into the Find bar, then click Find. The first result should be this a line that looks like "# is _adult:true". Delete the "#" and the space after it to uncomment the line; the text color of that line should change from yellow to green and light purple.

6. Type "archiveofourown" (without quotes) into the Find bar, then click Find until you see a section that looks like the one below (it should be the first or second result):

7. Type your AO3 login details after the "username" and "password" text. Do not put any spaces between the colons and your username or password. Note that your password is stored in plaintext in this file, so don't let anyone else get a hold of it.

8. Skip this step if the only site you're interested in downloading from is AO3. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for each fanfiction or erotic writing website you use. There are only a few sites in personal.ini out of the box, so you may have to copy a specific site's configuration section from defaults.ini, which has example sections for all 100+ supported sites.

9. Click "OK" to close the personal.ini text editor, then click "OK" again to close the Customize FanFicFare box.

Whew! Lots of clicking but you're done now! Time to download some fanfic.

Downloading or Updating Fanfic(s)

Copy the URL of the fic (I'm using one from AO3 for this example).

Click the FanFicFare button on the Calibre toolbar. It should automatically detect that you have a URL from a supported site in your clipboard and paste it into the dialog

If you want to download multiple fanfics in a batch, you can hit enter and paste more URLs into the box, one per line. NOTE: please do not try to download like 30 fanfictions at once; a bunch of people doing that can strain AO3's servers, and your account might have its download capability temporarily throttled to prevent that.

5. Click OK. Calibre may look like it's frozen for a few seconds, but this is normal during the metadata fetching process. Once it figures out which of the fics you pasted actually need to be downloaded, it will unfreeze and begin downloading them

6. Once Calibre has begun downloading your fics, it will display "Jobs: 1" with a spinning icon in the bottom right corner of the Calibre window. If you click that, you'll get a progress bar of what it's doing

7. Once Calibre has finished downloading your fics, it will display a summary of the job in the bottom right corner of the Calibre window. In this summary, "good" updates meant that a fic had to be downloaded, while "bad" updates indicate fics that didn't need to be updated (because you already had them on your computer) or that could NOT be downloaded due to an error (usually a fic that was deleted or hidden in a private collection). You can click "View Log" if you're curious about which fics were downloaded and which were skipped. In this example, 2 fics were missing from my library and were downloaded, while "Where the Sand Meets the Sea" was not downloaded because it was already on my computer and up to date.

8. Exit the FanFicFare log if you clicked into it, then click "Yes" to accept the results and add the downloaded/updated fics to your library. The fics should appear in Calibre almost immediately. Then FanFicFare will kick off a second job by calling the Count Pages plugin to grab a word count for the new/updated fics. Once that job completes, just click "Yes" in the job summary window that appears in the bottom right of Calibre to store the word counts in your library.

And you're done! You just backed up your first fanfictions :)

Downloading a Series

FanFicFare can actually pull all of the URLs for individual fics in a series for you automatically!

Copy the AO3 series URL (not to an individual fic in the series)

In Calibre, click the dropdown arrow to the right of the FanFicFare button on the menu bar, then click "Get Story URLs from Web Page"

3. FanFicFare should automatically detect that you have a supported web page in your clipboard and paste it into the text field. Choose the download option you prefer: downloading each fic in the series as a separate ebook, OR combining every fic in the series into a single ebook, commonly called an anthology. Note: anthology ebooks can get rather large in file size if they have embedded fanart in them.

4. Once you pick an option, FanFicFare will grab the URL of every fic in the series and automatically paste them into the FanFicFare fic download window. From there on out just follow the normal steps for downloading those fics (this will start at step 3 in the "Downloading Fic(s)" section above).

Updating Fanfictions

Just wanted to note that you can update fanfictions in multiple ways. You can either:

Select ebooks in your Calibre library, then click the dropdown arrow next to the FanFicFare toolbar icon and click "Update Existing Fanfiction Books" OR

Take the URLs and just download them like you would a new fic. FanFicFare will automatically replace your existing copy with the updated one. This way you can just paste in the URL from an AO3 subscription email alert instead of having to hunt down the fic in your library first.

For Advanced Users

FanFicFare can actually pull the URLs off of any page of multiple fics - this includes pages of bookmarks. For example, if you want to download fics that you have bookmarked and tagged with "favorite", just filter your bookmarks for that tag and then use the resulting URL in the steps for "Downloading a Series". Note that FanFicFare doesn't handle pagination, so if you have multiple pages of results for that bookmark search, you'll have to paste in each paginated URL separately.

Summary

Well this got WAY longer than I meant it to. I think my background in technical writing is showing - this is probably more detailed than the average tumblr user wants or needs. But whatever, at least it's thorough. If you found this guide useful, please reblog it! The more people who back up fics, the better the chances that those fics will be available if you want them later. And if you end up using Calibre extensively, consider donating to the one-person developer team to keep the project going :)

#ao3 #archive of our own #calibre #fanficfare #calibre plugins #backup #backing up fanfiction #long post #archival #back up the things that make you happy folks #mine

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ancestorlegacy · 2 months

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HELLO. About those tags on my Frankenstein post..

What do I think about it?

Book? Second favorite book ever, plan to reread it soon and I adore it. The only book I prefer over Frankenstein is the count of Monte Cristo, which is another can of worms entirely.

I think Frankenstein is good and a must read for everyone. Obviously yes the story is good but the sheer amount of misinformation about it pisses me off so very much and that would be fixed if reading the book was mandatory for living /lh. There's two (main (don't worry about the rest)) versions, 1818 and 1831. 1831 is the more famous one, basically Shelley just made some minor edits to things she didn't like. Best (and biggest edit) is that she removed the incest.

Sorry I am going to talk about multiple versions of the story.

Musical? There's two, iirc. There's 'Frankenstein: a new musical' and 'young Frankenstein'. I have only listened to the former one because I am scared to learn what the latter is. All I know is that it uses a design for the monster that I hate, which is 97% of my reason for not listening to it.

The former is from 2008 and not very famous. The actors have absolutely AMAZING voices, like genuinely words cannot describe my love for Victor, the monster and Elizabeth's singing. The rest are good too, but it's those three that especially stick out to me.

It doesn't have a single bad song. Vibe wise, I'd say it's a bit like Jekyll and Hyde and Sweeney Todd. Lots of bangers but obviously only listen to it after reading the book. It's also a fairly faithful adaptation. There's only two major changes from the book and I like both of them.

Junji Ito manga adaptation? Ough. I'm only 50~ pages in so far but WOWZER it's amazing. Junjo Ito is the perfect mangaka for adapting Frankenstein. I was super excited to read it because I like some of Ito's other works so I'm very pleased that this one is good (so far (I've heard the entire thing is good though))

1931 movie? UGHH. I think it's good on its own. Completely divorced from the context of the book, it's good. Compared to the book though, absolutely dreadful.

Order you should consume them in?

1931 movie first so you can enjoy it properly, the actual book and then it doesn't matter if you do the musical or manga next. Also there's a 2004 two episode long mini series that I have not seen yet but supposedly it's a very good and faithful adaptation.

Would I recommend original language?

Idk. I've only read it in English but I'd imagine there's good French translations. It's one of the most famous books ever so there's absolutely a French fella who did an absolutely amazing and flawless translation. I'm sure there's also versions in English with updated more modern language but I think that classics should always be read in a version as close to the original as possible to preserve artistic intent.

I hope you enjoy it :3 it's so good :3

I'm glad to see how much you like it! I was planning on reading it sooner or later (and I'm doing an English licence, so I probably will have to), but you are selling it very well. Thanks for the order by the way!

#asks #pieadvisor #le comte de monte Cristo #it was written by Alexandre Dumas right? the guy who wrote the Three musketeers?

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manuscripts-dontburn · 3 months

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Julia and the Shark

Author: Kiran Millwood hargrave

First published: 2021

Rating: ★★★★★

One of the best middle-grade books I have ever read I think. Kiran Millwood Hargrave is a gorgeous writer and her use of language is simply masterful. She also chooses fascinating topics and it pains me that from time to time all that lacks a certain impact. But Julia does have it. The simplistic illustrations are captivating and perfectly enliven the story.

The Last Princess: The Devoted Life of Queen Victoria's Youngest Daughter

Author: Matthew Dennison

First published: 2007

Rating: ★★★☆☆

If you have a truly deep interest in Queen Victoria, her family, or a life of nobility in the 19th century, this is a book you should read. Princess Beatrice never held any important political posts, never made a grand marriage, never had to make any momentous decisions, and is largely forgotten today. But Mathew Dennison put together a gentle portrait of her existence and through her introduced yet another layer to other, more famous personages in Beatrice´s life. However, if you are after a book that would somehow shock you, or give you tremendous new information or gossip, pass on this one. It is slow and the author does repeat his main points at almost every turn, which sometimes could be tedious. Also, prepare yourself for lots of assumptions that fill up empty places we know nothing about.

The Infinity of Lists

Author: Umberto Eco

First published: 2009

Rating: ★★★☆☆

A gorgeous and richly illustrated list of lists. I was surprised at how many things actually are "lists", some of the points were fascinating, and some went over my head. A difficult book to read to be honest.

Visions of Beauty

Author: Kinuko Y. Craft

First published: 2022

Rating: ★★★★★

I was waiting to show the book also to my mum, who studied art at university and had never heard of Kinuko Y. Craft before. Today we spent over an hour going through the pages together and she said it was possibly the most beautiful thing she has ever seen. As for me, I have been aware of the artist because I came across her illustrations of fantasy book covers (Wildwood Dancing was a particular favourite of mine). When I, completely by chance, found the Visions of Beauty, I was greatly excited. What a stunning compilation of paintings and drawings! What I find particularly remarkable about them is that I can often clearly see the inspiration behind the picture (there is Da Vinci and my favourite Botticelli, there is some Mucha and Raffael, there are medieval altar paintings as well as portraits from the 19th century), but it is never a copy and always takes on the originality of its own. The pictures can be read, not just observed, with numerous tiny details incorporated into the portraits, so even when I think I have seen it all, I find more and more flowers, animals, symbols, and even human figures where before seemed to be just foliage. I cannot even choose my favourite painting, because there are way too many.

The Idiot

Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

First published: 1869

Rating: ★★★★☆

I don´t think there is much need to write yet another review of this book when so much has been said by more eloquent readers than I am. To me personally, it was particularly interesting after reading a biography of Dostoyevsky and I could easily see the roots and traces of many incidents and thoughts presented in this novel. But ultimately I did find the story a bit drowned by too much that was said in ways that were simply too dragged out. And yet I still think about that ending.

Imitation of Mary

Author: Alexander De Rouville

First published: 1977

Rating: ★★★★☆

Very comforting for anyone with Catholic leanings and devotion to Mary.

Demon in the Wood

Author: Leigh Bardugo

First published: 2022

Rating: ★★★★☆

I just really enjoy the stories Leigh Bardugo tells... this is a very nicely created graphic novel, but to be completely honest, I would have preferred it to be simply a written story.

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known

Author: Seanan McGuire

First published: 2023

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

I keep reading these because they are short and well-intentioned... but half of these books do not really have a story. This one is one of the storyless ones, not to mention I felt like it was by far the most filled with long speeches about points already made, conclusions already reached, dilemmas already introduced. Also, all the main characters seem to be the same.

Cleopatra: A Life

Author: Stacy Schiff

First published: 2011

Rating: ★★★★☆

Everybody knows the story of Cleopatra and yet, as this book lets you know in a very readable and convincing style, we actually know very little for certain. Stacy Shiff does for the Egyptian Queen what Robert K. Massie did for Catherine the Great: painting a vivid portrait of a woman in a position of power in an age when she was an anomaly. Her achievements have been tainted, her motivations misconstrued, her personality dragged through the mud. We arguably have a better grasp of the Russian empress than Cleopatra, but I imagine they both would have a lot to talk about.

Ruthless Vows

Author: Rebecca Ross

First published: 2023

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Much like I enjoyed the first installment, I enjoyed this second one as well. Everything is still in it, from a swoon-worthy romance to some truly excellent use of language and very evocative scenes of being trapped in a war. Nice.

The Poisonwood Bible

Author: Barbara Kingsolver

First published: 1998

Rating: ★★★★★

This is a story of a family, where every voice is their own and their feelings are communicated brilliantly to the reader. It is also a clear-eyed look at colonialism in the 20th century, human arrogance and prejudice as well as familial loyalty and love. It is a heartbreaking read, perhaps a bit too lengthy once the pinnacle of the story passes, but I found it both engaging and in some ways also enlightening.

The Testaments

Author: Margaret Atwood

First published: 2019

Rating: ★★★★☆

While it lacks the shock factor of its predecessor, The Testaments offers a satisfying conclusion in its stead. Was it necessary? Not really. But in the modern world the dystopia once imagined by Margaret Atwood needs to be remembered. Our reality seems to be striving towards it, sometimes with terrifying speed.

The Book of Magic

Author: Alice Hoffman

First published: 2021

Rating: ★★★★☆

More than magic itself, this whole series is about being loyal to your family and the unconditional love that binds that family. The Book of Magic reunites the reader with all of the characters that we already love and now we see the end of their journey. And truly I mean all of them. Alice Hoffman yet again writes in a way that makes you smell the lilacs and hear the bees in the trees. Lovely.

#booklr #january 2024 #wrap up

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reficu1 · 1 year

Note

hello i was wondering if i could get matched up (harry potter, male character)

im a girl, my prefered pronouns are she/they, INTP 9w1. the house i would be in is ravenclaw.

im filipino and chinese. im 5’2 and my skin is like a medium-light tone. i have black hair with curtain bangs and it goes a bit past my shoulder. i have brown eyes, theyre not dark but not light either, and i wear glasses that tend to stay at the tip of my nose. for my style, i wear a lot of sweaters or jackets, cropped shirts, and jeans with either converse or docs. i prefer dark, muted, or neutral tones over brighter colors. my style is kinda like the downtown girl aesthetic.

things i enjoy are reading, listening to music, playing video games, watching movies, and studying. my favorite books are schoolgirl by dazai osamu and our happy time by gong jiyeong. i dont read as much as i did before, but i do it here and there. ive been really interested in japanese literature and also manga, though, and ive always loved the works of dazai osamu and junji ito. i listen to music almost all the time since it sort of blocks out everything when it gets too loud. i wear my headphones even if im not listening to music since simply having it there kind of comforts me (i also have really bad sensory issues since im autistic. its not only with hearing but all of my senses in general). i listen to a variety of artists, but my favorites are laufey, mitski, lamp, tyler the creator, and childish gambino. besides listening to music, i also play the piano. i play a lot of video games, but its mainly genshin and osu, but i love horror and mystery games. its similar with movies, i love horror and psychological horror, mystery, and action. studying is what i enjoy the most even if it sounds odd. i love learning new things especially if its something im interested in.

personality-wise, im a very quiet and calm person, but im also very observant. i dont talk to a lot of people, but when i find someone interesting, i’ll most likely talk to them first. it also takes me a while to grow comfortable towards people depending on how they are. but once i get comfortable with someone, i become more talkative. i go on and on about what i find interesting and my passions. im also a good listener and im willing to listen to people ramble to me as much as i do to them. im open with my friends venting to me and i tend to only listen since im not the best at comforting people, but if they need it, then id try my best to comfort them. i have a really difficult time expressing emotions. i wouldnt call myself emotionless, i feel a lot of emotions to the point where it can be overwhelming for me sometimes, but expressing them it very awkward for me. im intelligent and i love all kinds of science (its my hyperfixation), but i despise english and history. im not bad at either of them, i just dont find them at all interesting.

just random facts abt me: i have the worst memory its actually concerning, im the youngest in my family i have two older siblings (a sister who im extremely close with and a brother), i love animals especially cats, i love the sky and i always take pictures of it.

(also dont know if this was necessary but just wanted to add it: stargazing, cafe, museum, park/flower garden, or study/library (except we wouldnt get anything done and we’re just in our own world) dates are my fav and my love language is acts of service!)

SORRY IF THIS WAS TOO MUCH HAHA but thank you so so much if you actually respond to this! i hope you have a wonderful day/night!

I match up for you...

Ron Weasley. And I'm talking about Ron from the book, because in the film he is shown as a coward, stupid, weak and only likes to eat. But in the original, Ron is quite smart, he has a lot of "beyond expectations". Yes, he lacks perseverance. Ron has a strategic mind, if you remember his interest in chess. But damn, his game didn’t end with a checkmate, it was a check and the enemy could be blocked by a queen_._._ Your love of reading and studying didn’t bother him, he would probably sit next to you and listen to you if you want to discuss something, otherwise as he has many older siblings, he has a lot of experience that they passed on to him. But because of them, he would be less likely to express his thoughts or knowledge. Ron is very insecure, due to the fact that his mother always set only the older ones as an example, and Ron is the only younger one. But every year the guy learned from his mistakes and admitted them! This is a wonderful quality in people, it helps us to improve ourselves.

#harry potter x reader #harry potter match up #harry potter matchups #harry potter #ron weasley #ron weasly x reader #ron wealsey x y/n

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jcs-study · 10 months

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Hi again! I have a few questions to ask, but firstly, I’d like to thank you for introducing me to the 1992 Australian Cast! While some of the orchestrations haven’t aged well, I still think that their takes on the Temple and King Herod’s song are the best ones I’ve heard, and the cast is all around fantastic. I think Kate Ceberano’s interpretation of Mary Magdalene is now one of my favorites. Now, on to the questions:

1.) What’s your favorite interpretation/staging of Superstar (the song)? I’ve always loved the 1973 film version, with Judas and the Angels in the amphitheater. I think it made clear that the whole event was a hallucination, and I love how the exuberance of the Angels was contrasted by Judas’ frustration and general desperation.

2.) Are there any foreign language stagings/recordings of the musical that you like in particular? I’ve always really liked Camilo Sesto’s version. There’s also the Swedish version with Ola Salo, which a lot of people here like for its dynamic between Jesus and Judas (speaking of, have you seen the Swedish production yet)?

3.) You’ve talked in some posts about a hypothetical production of the musical, with a preference to more minimalistic staging. How would the staging and set/costume designs for that be like?

Holy crap, we can fit more in the ask box than we used to! Nice! Okay, so let's go through this point by point.

The Australian revival cast is easily a "best of the Nineties' Top 40" smorgasbord, musically speaking, for good or for ill. You've got an opening of "Everything's Alright" that calls to mind "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" from The Lion King, a "Simon Zealotes" that veers uneasily between C+C Music Factory and Right Said Fred, a "Pilate's Dream" that might as well be "Sadness" by Enigma, an "I Don't Know How to Love Him" that sounds like a softer version of what Luther Vandross was doing on "Power of Love," and a "Superstar" that stops just short of EMF's "Unbelievable." (If any reader doesn't recognize these references, a) man, do I feel old, and b) look 'em up; as cheesy as I make them sound, they are enjoyable, for the most part.) But for every moment like those, there's something like the imaginative use of percussion and sitar in "The Temple," which quite effectively conjures up the desired "sleazy Indiana Jones-esque bazaar" effect, and of course, the brilliant "arena rock" Herod. I especially like the chorus of "Oi"s toward the end when Herod gets fed up with Jesus' non-compliance. (That said, I do wish someone other than Angry Anderson had sung it.) Plus, when so many other productions of JCS were treading safe ground, the '92 Oz cast took risks, and that's what I tend to like in a JCS.

That's a question I've never been asked before, not that I haven't given the number some deep thought. (I've gone through times when I debated whether or not it made dramatic sense for Judas to be the one singing the song, never mind how it was staged.) On balance, I like the '73 film version the best of what we have, but I don't have a favorite staging of that song.

I have a ready answer to the foreign translation question as I work on the book's recommended listening/reading/viewing chapter. As recordings go, I'm fond of the original French, Spanish (here meaning Camilo Sesto), and 2001 Hungarian revival casts. Viewing-wise, I rank the 2014 Swedish arena tour highly. It's a bit dreary and dystopian-looking, but especially noteworthy for a) being fully staged (which can't be said for other popular arena versions of the show), b) offering a Mary in Gunilla Backman that proves older women can do the part justice, and c) exploring the Jesus/Judas/Mary triangle in-depth, with loving, gentle chemistry that makes what happens to them feel all the more personal. The acting is so clear and direct that the language barrier shouldn't be an issue, and the singing is impressive.

I have talked about that quite a bit; I've written about it at length before on my main non-Tumblr blog. I think I'll post those thoughts over here sometime and put them in the same place as all my other JCS scribbles. Thanks for planting the seed!

#show questions

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xviicprc · 2 years

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Which version of the count of monte cristo would you recommend for someone wanting to experience the most complete version of the story that the english language can provide?

HOO BOY.

There are a lot- and I mean a LOT of versions of TCOMC out there for literally every taste and every style.

Generally you must consider that each adaptation, while going under the same premise "Edmond Dantes is an innocent man who in the day of his wedding is unjustly imprisoned, years later he returns as the Count of Monte Cristo to enact his revenge on those who wronged him" is always the same line, the contents of the adaptations vary (such as the ending, what characters appear or what scenes are cut off from the book)

What I honestly would reccomend would be engaging with the story with the media that most caught your attention (for example: Many people who are curious about it engage with the musical as a first experience by being familiar with that medium)

In my case, I managed to snag the Robin Buss translation, which is the unabridged and the most accurate one to the original french release admist all translations out there, it comes with a really good essay in the beggining with insight on the translator about the nuances of the book and has specific cultural events explained at the end numbered by chapters (which is really good because TCOMC made many references to French politics not everyone will understand). If you can't buy it, you can always ask in your local library for it! Or dowload the PDF.

The book, in my opinion, is best enjoyed when taken in slow- and while this might be my Non-Native English side speaking, it can get quite wordy and use words that make you pause. I've found myself re-reading specific paragraphs to understand what certain characters meant to "get it".

If reading an unabridged version is not your thing, there are many youtube essays that can explain the contents of the book or its themes- from what I understand, many people in the US read TCOMC as part of their scholar program. Or you can always listen to an audiobook. Lit2Go has the entire book both in written and audioform.

IF you don't want to read, the Musical while not accurate to the book has really good songs that convey the emotions of the characters. Hell to your doorstep is a great song that applies to all versions of Edmond Dantes because it resonates with the core ideas he represents as a character.

I would reccomend watching Gankutsuou even if you have either knowledge of the story or no idea at all, it's a 24 episode anime reimagined in the far off future, focused on Albert as the protagonist and the Count as an enimagtic figure, but it was done so by people who clearly love the source material. It has a really good English Dub, althought I do lean more so on the Japanese because of preferences in the execution of some scenes.

If you end up engaging with TCOMC via Fate like I was, I say you have the basics down, his characterization in what he appears is very accurate to the book when adapted to the context of the Fate series and you end up covered to engage in with more of TCOMC.

And most importantly, you must be careful when threading the book because it IS a story released in 1840, a time where the values we uphold in current day society were wildly different. You'd be wise to look up a content warning if you happen to be sensitive to certain topics.

I hope this has helped you, but if you need any clarification, feel free to send me anothe ask!

#draft #tcomc #the count of monte cristo #ask #annonymous #finally i use the count of monte cristo tag in a useful manner and not to spam animeboy #guide #sort of #?#this is all propaganda go watch the count of monte cristo anime #i have no idea about the comics. the only comc comic i ever engaged with was the gankutsuou manga #and that was more so to see what the original ideas for the anime were since it worked as a of sorts #anyway! hi! I really like COMC ask me about the themes please #i swear im more than just the artist who spams anime boy in a literature tag i can think

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writers4all · 11 months

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Hey, so I saw your post about chatgpt and I was wondering, Can someone who has an expressive language delay and receptive language delay use chatgpt to help. I have those two language impairments plus autism (the kind of autism that gives me aphantasia and makes me struggle with writing) so is it okay that I am using chatgpt to help me write? I use it in a guide kind of way where I send in my writing then ask it to refine it and tell me what I did wrong. I also ask it things like 'how do I fix my imagination when I have none' and "how do I write dialoge/pacing/show and tell" is that fine? I would ask an actual human but the questions I have are so weird that they always get sick of me and they judge and condescend me so I prefer an ai like chatgpt who really helps. I write myself for the most part and chat gpt has helped me improve but I still lack so much clarity in my writing and so I struggle. Also I can't read other things sometimes so I have to send in that to help it explain it to me cuz its just really hard for my brain to understand.

Please help, I don't want to do the wrong thing but if my brain can't understand some writing then I kinda have to use a tool to help... Also audio books didn't help

Hello, anon!

That's an excellent question! I genuinely see nothing wrong with people using it due to impairments, disabilities, disorders, and whatnot. Let's take Stephen Hawking for example. He basically used an AI in order to speak. And let's not forget that the GPS is basically an AI that gives us map locations and the best routes to get from Point A to Point B. We also have voice-to-text as well and various programs that allow us to speak words into our documents and turn it into works of art.

Something else I recommend is going to your local bookstore or thrift shop to see if there are any textbooks or writing guides on how to improve your own writing. In fact, I plan on making posts in the future talking about various textbooks and writing guides that I own along with going into detail about my thoughts and opinions on them. They're rather neat. Now if, for whatever given reason, you're not able to afford said books I would just write down the Book Title + Author and then go to Library Genesis's website to see if you can download it for free.

AIs are great in practice and to genuinely help people. Heck, I don't even mind people using it to get some ideas for their fanfics or to have it give randomized prompts. It's just that I'm not too keen on the whole "I want ChatGPT to write out a 50,000 word fanfic or story for me so I can upload it, publish it, and claim it as my own originality." fiasco. Stating that you had an AI write the whole thing is one thing. But if you used the AI to help you get into the right direction because you genuinely need help? That's okay! There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, I promise. Why? Because we all need help. Not only that but socializing is hard.

I also want to say that I'm genuinely sorry that people find your questions annoying. As someone who struggles with properly wording and phrasing thing properly, myself, I feel your pain. One of the reasons for this is because vocabulary and definitions have never been my strong suit — it's always been spelling, ironically enough. I always feel like I'm going to confuse and/or annoy people with my questions because I'm a genuinely curious person who loves learning new things but am unable to properly phrase anything. So I can 100% sympathize and empathize with you on that!

There's also nothing wrong with audio books not helping. It's not for everyone. Some people do better reading in silence. Some people do better reading aloud. Some people do better reading with music. I'm sure you get the point by now. And the same is equally true for white noise and ASMRs. I often think people forget that it's never a "One Size Fits All" kind of scenario. The same can be said about clothes, medicine, makeup, programs, video games, languages and the whole nine yards. We're not made out of clay and made to be exactly the same. We're all uniquely different. Besides ... it's like one of my best friends says, "I don't want to be normal. Normal is a cycle on the washing machine."

With that being said, I definitely recommend you doing whatever helps you and makes you most comfortable. I can guarantee that there's no judgement coming from my end and the most I would ask is "Why?" Simple as that.

#anonymous #artificial intelligence #ai #ai chatbot #ai chatgpt #chatgpt #dall e ai #grammarly #notion #cleverbot #disabilities #disorders #impairments

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nicos-oc-hell · 1 year

Text

IDENTITY

Full name: Elisen Thundris (Thundris is the god of mountains) Chaeyra

Nicknames:

Thundris, prefers if you use it when he’s in his male form

Elly by the gang

Chae by Logan

Mischief by her father

Eli (E-lie) by Aris

Date of birth: May 7th 1881

Gender: Bigender (She/her/hers/He/him/his)

Sexuality: Bisexual

Blood status: muggleborn

Ethnicity/Race: Mermaid

Nationality: Atlantean

MAGIC & HOGWARTS

House: Gryffindor

Wand: oak wood, phoenix feather core and 10 ½ inches

Animagus: squirrel

Quidditch: seeker

Prefect: No

Clubs: not in any

Extra magical abilities: Shapeshifter (the humans say metamorphmagus), can breathe underwater, is faster underwater, has control over water

APPEARANCE AND VOICE

Faceclaim: Charlie Cox and Jennifer Lawrence

Height: 5’8

Weight: 138 lbs

Hair color: dark brown (naturally) then whatever color she feels like

Hair style:

Eye color: sea green

Skin tone: tan

Scars: a scar on his forehead because he was running around in the forest surrounding the marketplace

Modifications: everything if he’s in his male form and a tattoo that Haldir and Ayas made him get, they all have matching tattoos of a chameleon. His tattoo is on his left pec

Distinguishing marks: if you’ve happened to see him without a shirt on, you would’ve noticed the gills on his stomach and the scales coming up the side of his body from his leg

Clothing style:

Accessories: a pocket watch and a ring made by an elven-dwarf blacksmith in a minor city outside of Nytranthyr

What’s in their pockets?

Pocket knife

Quill

Candy

Money

What’s in their school bag?

Ink

More quills

Parchment paper

A pack of drinks

Voice claim: Jennifer Lawernce, Charlie Cox

Languages understood: English, Norse, Atlantean, Greek and Ancient Greek

Languages spoken: English, Norse, Atlantean, Greek and Ancient Greek

Speech and/or language disorder: No but she is dyslexic

PERSONALITY

Favorites:

Color: Blue

Food: Pizza

Weather: She loves storms

Books: Murder Mystery books

Hobbies: reading, swimming with Haldir, shapeshifting into random things, collecting stuffed animals of beasts from Eseria

Music: He loves listening to pianos and violins

Dislikes: Pretty much anyone from Malelin, the city in the skies, has a 600 year long beef with the city underwater

RELATIONSHIP

Father: Alun Chaeyra

Mother: Diondra Chaeyra

Little brother: Aris Chaeyra

Pet(s): A little pit bull that found its way into Eseria, Alun put a spell on the dog so it could breathe underwater and age at the same speed as Aris

S/O: tbd

Children: tbd

Friends:

The gang (Johnny, Elyon, Ayas, Haldir and Logan)

(hit me up if you would like your ocs to be friends with her)

Doormates:

This is tbd, as I have very poor planning

FACTS

Unlike the rest of the gang, Elisen is the only one who doesn’t have a human parent. Ayas is ¼ human seeing as one of his grandparents was a human.

While Haldir may also be a mermaid, since he is ½ human he doesn’t have to the full abilities of a mermaid for example; full mermaids can control water, Haldir can’t.

Elisen always has snacks on her, she could go days without leaving her dorm and her snack supply wouldn’t have a dent in it

Probably the sneakiest of out the gang

Will spend her afternoons sitting underwater like the original Percy Jackson she is

Makes a lot of bets and loses 2/3 of the time. That’s how she got her tattoo actually, losing a bet between Haldir and Ayas

Definitely makes bets on how long she can hold her breath underwater with people who don’t already know scheme

#elisen chaeyra #hphl oc #hphl mc #hphl #hphl profile #oc profile #hogwarts legacy mc #hogwarts legacy oc #hogwarts legacy #harry potter hogwarts legacy

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