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marlynnofmany · 4 months

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Playing Translation Telephone

“Hi,” I said as the door slid open. “Captain Sunlight wants to know how your translations are going.”

Coals sighed. “They’re going. This one’s a mess.” He shook his lizardy head, brick-red scales dull in the light by the doorway. That part of the translation suite was always dim because Trrili liked looming in the shadows there.

But today she was at the workstation in the back, surrounded by glowing screens and a cloud of irritated hisses. “I think we missed a language,” she announced, snapping her pincher arms and angling her antennae into a scowl.

“What, really?” Coals asked. He ran a hand over his head, scales clicking quietly. “How many is that now?”

“Sixssss,” Trrili hissed.

Coals grumbled something I didn’t catch, and walked back over to the workstation.

Curious, I followed and let the door shut behind me. “What kind of project is this one?”

“Old records of a multi-species colonizing effort,” Coals said from his floating chair with the tail hole. “The originals are lost, and all that’s left is this jumble that’s been translated through a succession of languages, none of which they bothered to write down. And they want us to figure out what the originals actually meant.”

“Sounds tricky,” I said. Each of the screens held writing, most in languages I didn’t recognize. Some were notes in the trade language we all spoke, and I was amused to see how much swearing was in Trrili’s notes.

“It is very tricky,” Trrili agreed, jabbing a little wrist finger at the screen in the middle. “The grammar doesn’t match the words, and the idioms are an utter tar hole. It’s anyone’s guess what culture came up with some of these details.”

“I’m pretty sure the bit about rocks is a Strongarm saying,” Coals said. “It makes more sense than a Frillian interpretation.”

“Yes, fine, probably,” Trrili said with an irritated wave of her pinchers. “I’m stuck at this part that goes off on a tangent about the family arrangements of the wildlife. It’s clearly significant, and at least one layer of translation wanted to make sure the full interpretation was spelled out, but that just makes it more confusing.”

“How so?” I asked. I’d gotten the job on this ship because of my animal-care knowledge, so maybe I could offer some insights. I peered at the screen.

“This part,” Trrili said, “Is a recounting of a colonist’s experience in retrieving goods from a shuttle that crashed in a lake. The water creatures seem to have complex social arrangements, and somehow that relates to their behavior toward this particular colonist.” She folded her pinchers and leaned back, glaring at the ancient diary. “Of course this had to be written by someone disinclined to speaking clearly.”

“What kind of behavior is it?” I asked. “Are we talking mating advances, or aggressively protecting the young, or—?”

“Aggressive,” Trrili said immediately. “This word means mouth, possibly teeth specifically, and in the grammatical arrangement that it’s currently configured into, it has to be saying that the thing bit the colonist.”

Coals flipped through documents on another screen. “Do we know what the official name for the creature is?”

Trrili hissed. “Not even close. That’s what this whole tangent is: an attempt at describing it. I’d love to know if it was the original colonist or someone later who decided it would be helpful to tell us that this creature’s ancestors rejected social bonds.”

“Rejected how?” I asked.

Coals brought up another document. “I’ve got something on the legal system of the original colony. Sounds like there were multiple types of family arrangements at play. Possibly this colonist was just musing on a similarity to their own life.”

Trrili hissed. “How does that help us? I don’t see any accounts of this person’s family life, or even their species. We have no way to know if their own parents performed the socially-accepted rituals or not.”

“Wait,” I said. “Is this about the animal’s parents not doing a certain ritual? Like marriage? Is the colonist calling the fish a bastard?”

Both of my alien coworkers looked at me. Coals asked slowly, “That’s an insult in human circles, isn’t it?”

“Yes!”

Trrili threw her pinchers skyward and stalked away from the workstation. “Of course it is. You people are sentimental about everything, including reproduction. This would have been so much simpler if we’d known from the start that there was a human layer to this.”

“So what does it say?” I asked. “The colonist went into the lake to help with the crash, and got bitten by a bastard fish?”

Trrili was walking in circles hissing, so Coals scooted in front of the center screen. “Going by what we’ve figured out so far,” he said, “The colonist was trying to move salvage from the shuttle. Walking through shallow water. The water creatures were of many bright colors — it goes into detail about that, comparing them to refractive prisms and seaspray — but they kept their distance as long as the colonist kept moving. Pretty sure this part says one came in for a bite as soon as the colonist stood still. And that’s where we go off on an elaborate description of the creature’s family arrangements.”

I grinned. “‘Dear diary, today I waded through a lake and got bit by a rainbow bastard fish. Terrible experience; wouldn’t recommend.’”

Coals looked closer. “It does actually say something like that afterward,” he admitted. “There’s a suggestion that the next person to enter the water wear protective clothing.”

Over Trrili’s aggravated hissing, I said, “That colonist might have been a human.”

“Might indeed,” Coals said. He scrolled up through a page of notes. “That could actually shed some light on a couple other spots, now that you mention it.”

Trrili appeared beside us. “Bring up the part about the colony leader mating with someone’s mother.”

I laughed. “I can tell you right now that that’s an insult. The colonist is likely complaining about the boss, not describing something that actually happened.”

Coals looked at Trrili. “Told you we need an insult chart.”

Trrili tilted her head dramatically. “That’s so much work!”

“So’s this,” Coals pointed out. “How about you take another look at what we’ve got so far here, and I’ll start a list of common human insults.”

Trrili took a position in front of the screens, hissing quietly.

“I’ll be happy to help,” I said to Coals. “My people are very creative on that front.”

“So I gather,” Coals said. He scooted over to me, digital notepad at the ready. “And not one of those insults revolves around eggs. Mindblowing.”

“Well,” I said with a tip of my head. “There is the thing about teaching your grandmother to suck eggs. That’s kind of an insult.”

“What?” Coals said. “Never mind. I can tell this is going to be a long list.”

~~~

The ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book. More to come! And I am currently drafting a sequel!

#my writing #The Token Human #humans are weird #haso #hfy #eiad #humans are space orcs #translations #in spaaace #thanks to the random person who commented on a previous story #with a mention of their encounter #with what they named the #Caribbean Bastardfish #'oh hey' says I #'what a very human thing to name it. hmmm...'

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agentc0rn · 3 months

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"That is indeed the earth's observer, the keeper of order. Since days bygone, it has kept the whole region under its surveillance, monitoring everywhere through the cells by which serve as its eyes. Zygarde is its name."

The creature observed you steadily.

I know there's still a year ahead and many more yet to be revealed, but let me dream. I enjoy filling in the unknown with my imagination. Just imagine...if AZ helps us or at least accompanies us in some parts of the journey 👀 I initially wanted to depict Zygarde hostile but I made it look a bit more neutral here.

#pokemon #pokemon fanart #my art #Pokemon xy #zygarde #legendary pokemon #pokemon legends ZA #Pokemon legends z-a #pokemon legends z #pokemon az #az pokemon #pokemon x and y #This may have been probably mentioned before but...where was Zygarde during the war?#Just imagine when it sees AZ who was the one that wrought utter destruction upon the land at the time...surely it would have been upset?#Or did it know that AZ was already living the consequences of his actions? Would love to see this encounter...

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rdr2gifs · 5 months

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One of my favorite aspects of Arthur’s character is his curiosity and his non-judgmental nature. Even if they are people who are totally different from him he doesn’t judge and he is always intrigued by the unknown.

For example Jamie, having joined a cult and behaving quite foolishly, gave Arthur a lot of trouble. Despite this, Arthur chose not to ridicule him and instead comforted him and said that he cannot judge him because he doesn’t know how his life has been.

Even though Arthur hates big cities, civilisation etc. he is not judgmental towards a woman who comes from a wealthy family, who doesn’t know a thing about survival, who probably never had to work for a single thing in her life. Instead, he is encouraging and helps her be more confident in herself.

Albert Mason, who is totally helpless and who probably couldn’t survive 2 days in the wild couldn’t be more different from Arthur, yet Arthur respects him and likes helping him.

Some of my favorite wholesome encounters include Algernon Wasp, who wants to sell Arthur a corset and make him try on extravagant hats, which aren’t Arthur’s style at all. Arthur could be mean to him but instead he makes excuses to not disrespect his work and even lets him put on the hat after little persuasion!

Arthur is intrigued by the flamboyant Charles Châtenay and his mischiefs and helps him/spends time with him even if there’s no reward for him.

He helps a crazy scientist obsessed with creating his robot son, a crazy palaeontologist..he is obviously drawn to new/unfamiliar things. Even though he might find them weird at first he doesn’t mind and wants to know more about them.

Arthur also doesn’t seem to like physical affection much but I can remember at least 4 instances where he lets people hug him to comfort them even though it might be uncomfortable for him.

I genuinely think that for anyone to say that Arthur wouldn’t be accepting of people different from him, would be homophobic, transphobic, would kill you if you were near him, would be mean to you etc. have no understanding of him at all. Arthur treats people like they treat him and he doesn’t think he is in any position to judge how others live.

.𖥔 ݁ ˖

Bonus: if you manage to find “Bigfoot” and visit him for the second time he asks Arthur if he has missed him and Arthur is really awkward and doesn’t really know what to say so he says he also missed him haha

#Arthur always likes to act all mean and grumpy and then gives in after 10 seconds 😆#obviously experience can vary based on players decision but most of these aren’t even based on honor #arthur morgan #rdr2 #red dead redemption 2 #and there’s more encounters I didn’t even mention!

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gummi-ships · 10 months

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Kingdom Hearts - Dive to the Heart

#kingdom hearts #kh1 #dive to the heart #station of awakening #scenery #my gif #time to gif the worlds of this game :]#starting with this place of course #ahh what a way to start a game #i'll always be intrigued by how sora does not have a voice until he wakes up on the beach #he doesn't make any verbal sound when fighting; taking damage; or when he silently screams after encountering the darkside #''a place where your voice can't reach'' is something all too relevant in the latest title #not to mention how he questions reality with ''is any of this for real or not?''#it all comes full circle

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arthursfuckinghat · 26 days

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Arthur has had a lot of bad close encounters, like Sonny, but sometimes I think we don't talk enough about the whole Edmund Lowry Jr thing.

Arthur was stalked by an absolutely terrifying sadistic serial killer and led to his hideout via multiple mutilated bodies and cryptic clues placed across high traffic areas on the map.

If you choose to find Lowry in his hideout, you will see a gruesome display of many body parts and carcasses strung up like christmas decorations all over the place. Arthur will get knocked out by Lowry after venturing in further and tied to the ground, he will then threaten and taunt Arthur with a knife once he wakes up.

This all happens in the span of like five minutes, and how did Arthur escape? He had to throw a severed head that was on the ground next to him at Lowry. And if being stalked, knocked out, kidnapped, threatened, exposed to a gross display of mutilated bodies, tied up and examined like a piece of meat wasn't enough, Arthur had to save Sheriff Malloy from getting his face bitten off by that sick freak too.

I mean, holy fuck right?

The only justice was being able to shoot Lowry, but he had killed so many people and he took pride in that, shooting wasn't enough. Sadistic is honestly an understatement, it's shown through newspaper clippings in the hideout that he enjoyed toying with his victims for long periods of time before murdering them. An article by the missing poster for a woman named Eliza Bloom in his basement stated that he enjoys his victims like 'trophies' - And Arthur was scarily close to becoming another one of them.

Unsurprisingly, he didn't write about the encounter in much detail.

"Found the murderer, man named Edmund Lowry. Took him into the sheriff in Valentine after he nearly killed me. He jumped the sheriff. I killed him. Nasty bastard he was."

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canisalbus · 3 months

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Different Italian anon, but the thing with Tuscan C is that it's pronounced like a very strong H sound, which is extra weird cuz the letter H makes no sound in Italian, normally. It sounds the way Spanish pronounce the J. We say it's "aspirato". So then people from there will say things like Hoha Hola (coca cola), and it's funny. It's also extremely contagious, I got family in Florence, you spend 3 days with them you start doing it too before you even realize.

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#that sounds really endearing actually #answered #anonymous #this is entirely beside the point but I still feel sort of bamboozled by languages that have silent letters #or when letters have multiple pronunciations that vary wildly from word to word #and when the sound and the letter don't seem to match like how J sounds very close to H in Spanish like you mentioned #I'm generalizing a little but none of these are really a thing in Finnish #in Finnish words are pretty much always pronounced the way they are written if that makes sense #I don't know the language terminology but I think phonetic spelling is what you call it #each letter represents a specific sound and you string those together #when you hear a word you can always tell how it's written and when you read a word you know how to pronounce it #even if you're encountering the word for the first time and have no idea what it means #it's comparatively direct and predictable there's practically no need for guessing or memorizing #also the stress is always on the first syllabe and it's so subtle it might as well not be there at all #which sometimes makes spoken Finnish and Finnish accent sound kind of monotonous there isn't a lot of intonation #I was extremely confused by the concept of spelling bees as a kid #anyway long tag ramble but this stuff is just interesting to me

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phoenixcatch7 · 9 months

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In love with the idea of captain marvel being Billy's imaginary friend. Like, it'd be so easy. Early depictions had them as almost fully separate people sometimes, like one soul with two minds, rather than just two filters like we mostly see now.

But imagine a Billy down on his luck, hurt and hiding from police and criminals alike, daydreaming the hours away as children do, taking inspiration from all the superheroes rising to fame, making little stories to play out his dreams of saving the world with a generic action doll he found while dumpster diving once. Most of the paint's rubbed off.

Red's his favourite colour, his comfiest jumper is a bright ruby even after all the grime and washes. Gold, too, it's shiny and warmer than silver! A hero cape is a must, big and eye catching! And he can fly, of course, like superman, and in his daydreams, when he's sore and frustrated after a long day's grind, his superhero is smart enough and knows all the right words to get the bullies to stop without resorting to fighting.

His superhero fantasy is one he spends a lot of time on, the first one he goes for when struggling to sleep at night, and he can picture it so clearly. Captain marvel is big and bright and kind, strong enough to lift the boxes for the old lady up the road who's moving all by himself, fast enough to catch Jamie who fell out of the tree on Saturday and broke his leg and couldn't come to class for weeks. He appears at the entrance to alleys when Billy is cornered, he steps up behind to cover for him when he gets caught shoplifting, he sits at the bus stop with him when it's pouring rain and the right bus doesn't seem to be coming.

And then the wizard comes, or rather whisks him away, and like a magician from a fairytale breathes life into his imaginary friend until Billy feels thrice his size and a million times more invincible.

From then on, captain marvel is a real hero, just like Billy is a real boy, and as one they save the whole city, and then the whole world, and get cats down from trees and help Mrs Victoria move the last of her boxes and she gives them a pinch in the cheek and cookies for the road and sometimes it hurts but it's so much better than he imagined.

#dc comics #captain marvel #dc captain marvel #shazam #billy batson #imaginary friend #imaginary friend au #Billy's great because you can give him the most buck wild adventures with the most self indulgent plots and it makes perfect sense #Batman and superman are out here having mental health crisis no.528 and marvels away having dance offs with gnomes #Billy would fit perfectly into gravity falls he really would #Anyway imaginary friend au is near and dear because it encapsulates that sort of safe fantasy for change and companion ship #And a protective imaginary friend brought to life is going to be just a fascinating character no matter what #And it's the perfect cover for non imaginary cap anyway. Why does he prioritise this kid over everything despite having never mentioned him #Imaginary friends always have to care for their creator! But you can't expect an imaginary friend to do your taxes!#Why is cap so eternally kind and bubbly and a bit childish? That's because his creator is a kid! Duh!#This particular imaginary friend just so happens to have encountered magic and is now real enough to play basketball with asteroids.#He's strong enough to match superman but it's fine he's got a child's heart and an unending protectiveness for humanity.#Just don't try anything with the kid or you're toast.#I love the jl needing to save/help Billy in some way and cap; who's practically the jls puppy mascot at this point #Is just shamelessly and unrepentantly possessive of Billy while being openly wrapped around his finger. Number one fan #Like 'he's the specialist boy and if you don't clap for him I'm going to blow this whole building up' type #Have you read Split on ao3 it's like that. Cap is the most unaffiliated person on the team and then bam Billy is number 1 priority 100%#Go read split if you haven't 10/10 #Like it never crosses caps mind to hinder or harm Billy he is Devoted. Platonic God/worshipper except the deity in question is an 11yo #And the worshipper is the closest thing to a deity without being one you can get in dc.#But like a healthy relationship lmao.#It's a soul deep claim with total freedom on both sides and they teach each other love and they're the same person #AUGH

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mimicmew · 1 year

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hey uh. if you see an ad like this for the love of god do not scroll down its extremely long and constant flashing colours, im pretty sure it could be seriously dangerous for epilepsy.

#I’ve only encountered it on desktop so idk if it appears on mobile as well like this #i would have thought it was an error but my friend also mentioned seeing something like it so #epilepsy #<tagging so people know

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ybetzarts · 2 months

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Just wondering, but what are your top five Sonic ships?

I uh--i only ship one pair :DD I do find other ships adorable, but it's mostly coz of how theyre drawn? XDD.. I dont think much about the other ships hehe... Thanks for the question!

#asks #knuckles the echidna #rouge the bat #knuxouge #ybetzarts #i should mention tho #sonic and amy are the first pairing i encountered in the fandom #i developed a soft spot for the two #i dont think much about them tho #theyre kinda like #a reminder of my first memory of the sonic fandom

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abhorsenkatiel · 6 days

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On today's edition of TLT references I can't believe I missed the first time:

#the locked tomb #htn #abhorsenkatiel reads htn #unsurprisingly doing live blogs of my htn reread quickly became odious enough to make me actually stop reading for months #but ianthe calling harrow lil brudder was too good not to share #honestly shocked that i havent encountered anyone mentioning it yet #fav tlt reference

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ghostampede · 9 months

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watching dimension 20 fantasy high season 2 and there is something that hurts so much about watching fantasy high season 2 and it’s genuinely criminal how brennan lee mulligan reveals that gorgug didn’t say goodbye to his fucking girlfriend by zelda texting gorgug “you left without saying goodbye?” and then gorgug being like “oh shit” and it just ending and leaving me knowing that bad shit is coming their way but then i am called to preform my Human Duties so im just left in the shitty feeling of Gorgug Fucked Up A Little Oh No. what the fuck. anyways this season is great i am living so far.

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hoss-bonaventure · 1 year

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john kramer is the most homophobic horror movie villian because if two bloodied old men started waxing sonnets to each other on a dirty bathroom floor i would let ‘em go.

#not to mention amanda is definitely a lesbian #and mark hoffman is definitely gay #he’s a complicated man first he’s torturing the gays then he’s trading murder tips with them #maybe the real saw trap was the gays we’ve encountered along the way #saw #john kramer #jigsaw #adam stanheight #lawrence gordon #bathroom trap #adam x lawrence #amanda young #mark hoffman #saw 3

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wave-nine · 10 months

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How they met 🪵🌶️ + 🐰🍯

#undertale au #spicyhoney #papcest #bunny!honey #w9 art #he was running from some Baddies that attacked him and his home and he falls off a cliff... :( THERE'S SNOW he's ok #and he encounters edge who is a very sexy and cool and awesome and manly lumberjack :)#did I mention he's sexy :))#after hearing honey's story he lets him stay at his place because he's kind and cool and se-#anyway he ends up staying there permanently >:)

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theotterpenguin · 3 months

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the way that (usually male) k//ataang shippers obsess over aang’s height… why are you so concerned about zutara shippers supposedly self-inserting like please the call is coming from inside the house

#today i encountered three different posts talking about how they can’t wait for aang’s actor to grow taller than katara 💀#zutara #anti kataang #atla fandom critical #“zk shippers would ship k/ataang if he was taller” I assure you none of us care about his height because he’s 12… which is the actual issue #my post #not to mention that all shipping involves some degree of self insertion since there’s something about the dynamic that you personally enjoy #so moralizing yourself as “above” self inserting while being a hardcore shipper yourself is just hypocritical

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shitpostingkats · 6 months

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5Ds did me such a favor by choosing to canonize that psychics are just. A Thing. A Known Entity. We should all take advantage of this more. Y'all, in this world being able to talk to ghosts is just Not An Uncommon Thing, there are support groups and organizations and some of them can summon monsters into the physical world and some of them can just talk to them and some of them can predict the future, you've got people like Luna who can astral project and Akiza who can conjure plants IN THE SAME show. Let's get funky with it. Post-canon Yuya attending a support group for fledgling psychics. Bakura and Sartorius and Carly are all friends through a tarot enthusiasts' message board. Yuma passing off talking to Astral by telling everyone he can just speak to ghosts. Yusaku taking a u-quiz to see if he's actually magic or just really, really autistic.

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everythingundertheskycomics · 1 month

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Hypno's Rings

3/4

Previous | Following

Mourning.

This one is very personal.

#everythingunderthesky comics #everything under the sky comics #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #unpause rottmnt #save rottmnt #rottmnt fanart #rottmnt #rise hypno #hypno potamus #leonardo hamato #rise leo #Hypno-Potamus #Hypno's Rings #Hypno's Rings comic #Future Leo #Mentioned!#Rottmnt movie #Colors!#My beloved <3 #Excerpt from text:#humanity received its Latin name “humanitas” from the Latin word “humare”#which means “to bury” -attributed to Giambattista Vico #The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying #Fun fact! If you recognize the cutout of post-apocalypse New York from my first “Warren's Stone” comic—it was part of this update first!#This part of the story has been a long time coming.#Hope it resonates!#Next week's update may need to be postponed #It needs more dedicated focus and during crunch time? That's awfully scarce.

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