#i can't believe that last sentence is something i would write about anything canon lol | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

netherfeildren · 6 months

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People might have asked you before, but do you work or have studied in writing? How you write is beautiful and so engaging! I love it! Just a few sentences are enough to hook me up. I've just read ''Greener Memories of Better Men'', and you wrecked me. I'm not prone to cry, but with just over 10k words, you did it. I felt Joel's pain and mourning. How you describe it was painfully beautiful and heartbreaking.

The way you introduced Ellie was masterful. I liked that she still aids Joel in his healing journey with her sweet speech and puns. And the reader! I'm on the small size, and how you describe the size difference between the reader and Joel really gets me. She seems sweet and younger. Around what age did you think when you wrote her? The connection they share, be it by previous attraction or the pain (on different levels) of losing Sarah, feels strong and unstoppable. They do the deed in the car, lol! I don't know if you plan to write more about them, but may I ask, do you have a picture of their future? If they marry and have more kids?

Don't start me on ''Pink''. There's only one chapter left! This story is a treasure. I love a good forbidden/taboo relationship story, and this is mind-blowing! The way you describe the feelings and thoughts is captivating. Their first kiss in the bathroom gave me goosebumps. Their obsession with each other might not be healthy, but it's so good to read it. Joel's words about not being allowed to fall in love sound like a failed attempt to convince himself of what to do as if he knows he has already lost the battle, but he's not yet ready to accept it. Or it's what I'm hoping for. And she's bound to the same thing. All her life, she's been hiding who she really is from everyone (even her husband), but she cannot hide anything from Joel. He sees her. I wonder if Joel's son will appear in the last chapter.

Thanks for sharing these stories!♥️♥️♥️

Hi! thank you so much for such a kind message! one of my degrees is in literature so I did quite a bit of writing during school, but no, my current job doesn't have me writing in a professional capacity at all. Ellie is probably hands down my favorite tlou character to write and I don't do it enough. which if I think about it is probably because I'm always so worried about getting her voice right / having her remain in character. and you're so right her part in greener memories was entirely meant to help Joel on his journey to self healing just like she serves in canon. they're a team those two, no matter what universe we stick them in, I think. I didn't have a specific age in mind for the MC in that one, only that she was younger than him, something like a fresh set of eyes taking in the world in comparison to Joel's older more jaded ones. I've not given much thought to what their future would have been like honestly, but like it said at the end of the story, she saved his life in all the ways that counted, and I can't believe I'm saying this because it's SO unlike me in terms of the way my stories usually go, but even though I do think they stayed together for sure, I'm not sure if they had children. I'm not sure it really matters, or better said, I don't think the important thing, in my mind, in terms of that specific Joel, is like moving on, as much as being okay with himself at the end of it all. he was so afraid of turning into someone Sarah wouldn't be able to recognize that I think the real lesson is having something like that happen and being able to hold on to yourself, the rest is ancillary for me, and I'll leave it up to the readers discretion and interpretation :)

and pink... yeah, Joel's warning at the end is definitely falling on two sets of deaf ears. There was already too much of a build up of something that shouldn't have been between them, even before they'd gotten involved with each other, to be able to control it now. will sam appear in the last chapter? who knows, not I! we'll just have to wait and see what happens, I suppose! thank you so much for reading and again, for such a kind message 💗

#vic replies #pink fic

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writing-by-mimi · 2 years

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Angst? *cracks knuckles* take some ideas from my writers blocked brain B) hopefully one of these will inspire a lil sumthin sumthin in you 😏

Heres a classic. MC has a terminal illness they didn't tell Levi about. And him hurting them just ruined their chances of being together until their death. OR they develops hanahaki disease because its now clear that Levi doesn't actually "love them" 😏

Ooorrrr.... Levi has to watch as a character of your choice steals MC away right infront of him.... maybe eventually he goes to knock on their door with a peace offering but then is subjected to listen to them getting their brains fucked out ;)

OR maybe MC and Levi "make up"... with MC saying its fine, they understand, they're over it.... but the next time they fuck, MC cries out a character's (or one of the brother's!) name as *they* cum.... and Levi can't really say anything because this was exactly what he did to them and now *he* gets to suffer while thinking he deserves this 😏

Brain doesn't wanna write a whole thing, so here is this Lil piece anon! XD

Fr, if you guys have a second chapter other than this one (which ain't a Canon chp 2 but just a lol piece) then send em in or tag me.

#######

You woke up feeling nauseous. Of course you've been this way ever since Levi screamed out her name instead of yours yesterday. So it was no wonder you felt terrible. The need to vomit hit you again. Willing fresh air into your lungs and letting out deep breaths you managed to will it away for the moment.

Your phone going off loudly from your desk made you sigh. Time to get up for R.A.D.. ugh... if there was one thing you didn't want to do, it was sit next to Leviathan during your third class of the day. The teacher was a stickler for seating charts though.

Getting ready for the day, it caught you off gaurd... vomiting suddenly. Clawing at your own throat you began to panic. It felt choking. Like something trying to crawl out of you. Shoving your fingers in your mouth you felt it. Something blocking the back of your throat. Grabbing it firmly you pulled it out quickly to regain your breathe.

In your hand was a crumpled, slimy, flower.

Peculiar... to say the least... but not the strangest thing to happen to you since arriving to the Devildom.

----------------------------

"Solomon texted me. You'll never fucking believe what's happening!" Asmodeus ran over to Satan, who was putting his book down with a sigh.

"He painted his fingers nails?" Satan guessed tone rough. He wasn't very happy, his book just started to get interesting.

"No! He just gave Mc a potion for Hanahaki disease. So I'm freaking out! Who do you think did it too them? Oh‐ do you think Lucifer curbed Mc? Like he is alw-"

"No. As funny as it would be to watch Lucifer squirm if he caused this, he did not."

"Well...WHO?" He motioned excitedly.

"You didn't hear it from me... but I over heard Mc, Lucifer and Mammon talking last night about why Levi summoned Lotan. He got jealous. Mc was faking having sex with Mammon to make Levi furious. Which worked. Hence Lotan-"

"Mc knows they could ask any of us to really, actually fuck them though... right?" Asmo interrupted.

"I don't think any of us have a chance now..." The Avatar of Wrath huffed. "Levi said Ruris name while he was cumming inside of Mc."

"Oh my..." Asmos sentence trailed off. "So Mc's Hanahaki is from him, because of what he did."

"You mean, the ultimate rejection? The worst way possible to find out who you care for doesn't care as much as you do? Then yes......Doesn't really matter now though, you said Solomon gave them a potion, right?"

"Yes! It should stop it, right?"

"Oh, it'll stop it alright. Mc won't die or continue to vomit flowers." Satan's eyes drifted off in thought.

"Well... how does it work?" The Avatar of Lust asked in a sassy tone. He was way to far behind in the gossip, and he was not happy to be behind any longer.

"Mc is gonna spend the next few hours throwing up everything. All the flowers and all their romantic love for Leviathan."

"Ew, but can you really throw up an emotion?"

"The potion gathers the feeling and expels them. Mc will never romantically love Leviathan again. The receptors for it and connectio-"

The sound of something hitting the floor drew their eyes to no one other than Leviathan who was struck dumb in the doorway.

"Th-they'll... they won't... ever...l-love me again?" Tears began to stream down his face. Of course. Of course a silly Otaku like him would mess it all up. He messed up so bad that Mcs only option was death or... or this...

Asmodeus let out a deep breath he hadn't known he was holding. "I don't know if they'll ever love anyone again, Levi. You betrayed them on a level that even I, the Avatar of Lust, who fucks a different person every night, haven't even done."

"Asmodeus!" The fourth born scolded sharply.

"Well, it's the truth. I won't lie to him"

"It's called having some tact." Satan sighed.

#obey me #obey me!#obey me leviathan #obey me! leviathan #obey me! levi #obey me levi #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me asmo #obey me! satan #obey me! asmodeus #obey me! asmo

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pumpkinpaix · 3 years

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hello there, hope you're having a nice day <3

so i've been reading a lot of fics lately, uk for sanity's sake, and i've noticed that in most of them, lwj doesn't use contractions (eg., says do not instead of don't)?? and i think he doesn't in the novel either but i don't remember lol so i can't be sure but anyway that made me curious - does chinese have contractions as well? does he not use it bc it's informal?

hello there! I’m doing all right, i started to answer this ask while waiting for a jingyeast loaf to come out of the oven 😊 many thanks to @bookofstars for helping me look over/edit/correct this post!! :D

anyways! the answer to your questions are complicated (of course it is when is anything simple with me), so let’s see if I can break it down--you’re asking a) whether chinese has contractions, b) if it does, how does they change the tone of the sentence--is it similar to english or no?, and c) how does this all end up with lan wangji pretty much never using contractions in english fic/translation?

I’m gonna start by talking about how formality is (generally) expressed in each language, and hopefully, by the end of this post, all the questions will have been answered in one way or another. so: chinese and english express variations in formality/register differently, oftentimes in ways that run contrary to one another. I am, as always, neither a linguist nor an expert in chinese and english uhhh sociological grammar? for lack of a better word. I’m speaking from my own experience and knowledge :D

so with a character like lan wangji, it makes perfect sense in english to write his dialogue without contractions, as contractions are considered informal or colloquial. I don’t know if this has changed in recent years, but I was always taught in school to never use contractions in my academic papers.

However! not using contractions necessarily extends the length of the sentence: “do not” takes longer to say than “don’t”, “cannot” is longer than “can’t” etc. in english, formality is often correlated with sentence length: the longest way you can say something ends up sounding the most formal. for a very simplified example, take this progression from least formal to absurdly formal:

whatcha doin’?

what’re you doing?

what are you doing? [standard colloquial]

may I ask what you are doing?

might I inquire as to what you are doing?

excuse me, but might I inquire as to what you are doing?

pardon my intrusion, but might I inquire as to what you are doing?

please pardon my intrusion, but might inquire as to the nature of your current actions?

this is obviously a somewhat overwrought example, but you get the point. oftentimes, the longer, more complex, more indirect sentence constructions indicate a greater formality, often because there is a simultaneous decreasing of certainty. downplaying the speaker’s certainty can show deference (or weakness) in english, while certainty tends to show authority/confidence (or aggression/rudeness).

different words also carry different implications of formality—in the example, I switched “excuse me” to “pardon me” during one of the step ups. pardon (to me at least) feels like a more formal word than “excuse”. Similarly, “inquire” is more formal than “ask” etc. I suspect that at least some of what makes one word seem more formal than one of its synonyms has to do with etymology. many of english’s most formal/academic words come from latin (which also tends to have longer words generally!), while our personal/colloquial words tend to have germanic origins (inquire [latin] vs ask [germanic]).

you’ll also notice that changing a more direct sentence structure (“may I ask what”) to a more indirect one (“might I inquire as to”) also jumps a register. a lot of english is like this — you can complicate simple direct sentences by switching the way you use the verbs/how many auxiliaries you use etc.

THE POINT IS: with regards to english, more formal sentence structures are often (not always) longer and more indirect than informal ones. this leads us to a problem with a character like lan wangji.

lan wangji is canonically very taciturn. if he can express his meaning in two words rather than three, then he will. and chinese allows for this—in extreme ways. if you haven’t already read @hunxi-guilai’s post on linguistic register (in CQL only, but it’s applicable across the board), I would start there because haha! I certainly do Not have a degree in Classical Chinese lit and she does a great job. :D

you can see from the examples that hunxi chose that often, longer sentences tend to be more informal in chinese (not always, which I’ll circle back to at the end lol). Colloquial chinese makes use of helping particles to indicate tone and meaning, as is shown in wei wuxian’s dialogue. and, as hunxi explained, those particles are largely absent from lan wangji’s speech pattern. chinese isn’t built of “words” in the way English is—each character is less a word and more a morpheme—and the language allows for a lot of information to be encoded in one character. a single character can often stand for a phrase within a sentence without sacrificing either meaning or formality. lan wangji makes ample use of this in order to express himself in the fewest syllables possible.

so this obviously leads to an incongruity when trying to translate his dialogue or capture his voice in English: shorter sentences are usually more direct by nature, and directness/certainty is often construed as rudeness -- but it might seem strange to see lan wangji’s dialogue full of longer sentences while the narration explicitly says that he uses very short sentences. so what happens is that many english fic writers extrapolated this into creating an english speech pattern for lan wangji that reads oddly. they’ll have lan wangji speak in grammatically incoherent fragments that distill his intended thought because they’re trying to recreate his succinctness. unfortunately, English doesn’t have as much freedom as Chinese does in this way, and it results in lan wangji sounding as if he has some kind of linguistic impediment and/or as if he’s being unspeakably rude in certain situations. In reality, lan wangji’s speech is perfectly polite for a young member of the gentry (though he’s still terribly rude in other ways lol). he speaks in full, and honestly, quite eloquent sentences.

hunxi’s post already has a lot of examples, but I figure I’ll do one as well focused on the specifics of this post.

I’m going to use this exchange from chapter 63 between the twin jades because I think it’s a pretty simple way to illustrate what I’m talking about:

蓝曦臣道：“你亲眼所见？”

蓝忘机道：“他亲眼所见。”

蓝曦臣道：“你相信他？”

蓝忘机道：“信。”

[...] 蓝曦臣道：“那么金光瑶呢？”

蓝忘机道：“不可信。”

my translation:

Lan Xichen said, “You saw it with your own eyes?”

Lan Wangji said, “He saw it with his own eyes.”

Lan Xichen said, “You believe him?”

Lan Wangji said, “I believe him.”

[...] Lan Xichen said, “Then what about Jin Guangyao?”

Lan Wangji said, “He cannot be believed.”

you can see how much longer the (pretty literal) english translations are! every single line of dialogue is expanded because things that can be omitted in chinese cannot be omitted in english without losing grammatical coherency. i‘ll break a few of them down:

Lan Xichen’s first line:

你 (you) 亲眼 (with one’s own eyes) 所 (literary auxiliary) 见 (met/saw)？

idk but i love this line a lot lmao. it just has such an elegant feel to me, probably because I am an uncultured rube. anyways, you see here that he expressed his full thought in five characters.

if I were to rewrite this sentence into something much less formal/much more modern, I might have it become something like this:

你是自己看见的吗？

你 (you) 是 (to be) 自己 (oneself) 看见 (see) 的 (auxiliary) 吗 (interrogative particle)？

i suspect that this construction might even be somewhat childish? I’ve replaced every single formal part of the sentence with a more colloquial one. instead of 亲眼 i’ve used 自己, instead of 所见 i’ve used 看见的 and then also added an interrogative particle at the end for good measure (吗). To translate this, I would probably go with “Did you see it yourself?”

contained in this is also an example of how one character can represent a whole concept that can also be represented with two characters: 见 vs 看见. in this example, both mean “to see”. we’ll see it again in the next example as well:

in response to lan xichen’s, “you believe him?” --> 你 (you) 相信 (believe) 他 (him)? lan wangji answers with, “信” (believe).

chinese does not do yes or no questions in the same way that english does. there is no catch-all for yes or no, though there are general affirmative (是／有) and negative (不／没) characters. there are other affirmative/negative characters, but these are the ones that I believe are the most common and also the ones that you may see in response to yes or no questions on their own. (don’t quote me on that lol)

regardless, the way you respond to a yes or no question is often by repeating the verb phrase either in affirmative or negative. so here, when lan xichen asks if lan wangji believes wei wuxian, lan wangji responds “believe”. once again, you can see that one character can stand in for a concept that may also be expressed in two characters: 信 takes the place of 相信. lan wangji could have responded with “相信” just as well, but, true to his character, he didn’t because he didn’t need to. this is still a complete sentence. lan wangji has discarded the subject (I), the object (him), and also half the verb (相), and lost no meaning whatsoever. you can’t do this in english!

and onto the last exchange:

lan xichen: 那么 (then) 金光瑶 (jin guangyao) 呢 (what about)？

lan wangji: 不可 (cannot) 信 (believe)

you can actually see the contrast between the two brothers’ speech patterns even in this. lan xichen’s question is not quite as pared down as it could be. if it were wangji’s line instead, I would expect it to read simply “金光瑶呢？” which would just be “what about jin guangyao?” 那么 isn’t necessary to convey the core thought -- it’s just as how “then what about” is different than “what about”, but “then” is not necessary to the central question. if we wanted to keep the “then” aspect, you could still cut out 么 and it would be the same meaning as well.

a FINAL example of how something can be cut down just because I think examples are helpful:

“I don’t know” is usually given as 我不知道. (this is what nie huaisang says lol) It contains subject (我) and full verb (知道). you can pare this straight down to just 不知 and it would mean the same thing in the correct context. i think most of the characters do this at least once? it sounds more literary -- i don’t know that i would ever use it in everyday speech, but the fact remains that it’s a possibility. both could be translated as “I do not know” and it would be accurate.

ANYWAYS, getting all the way back to one of your original questions: does chinese have contractions? and the answer is like... kind of...?? but not really. there’s certainly slang/dialect variants that can be used in ways that are reminiscent of english contractions. the example I’m thinking of is the character 啥 (sha2) which can be used as slang in place of 什么 (shen2 me). (which means “what”)

so for a standard sentence of, 你在做什么? (what are you doing), you could shorten down to just 做啥? and the second construction is less formal than the first, but they mean the same thing.

other slang i can think of off the top of my head: 干嘛 (gan4 ma2) is also informal slang for “what are you doing”. and i think this is a regional thing, but you can also use 搞 (gao3) and 整 (zheng3) to mean “do” as well.

so in the same way that you can replace 什么 with 啥, you can replace 做 as well to get constructions like 搞啥 (gao3 sha2) and 整啥 (zheng3 sha2).

these are all different ways to say “what are you doing” lmao, and in this case, shorter is not, in fact, more formal.

woo! we made it to the end! I hope it was informative and helpful to you anon. :D

this is where I would normally throw my ko-fi, but instead, I’m actually going to link you to this fundraising post for an old fandom friend of mine. her house burned down mid-september and they could still use help if anyone can spare it! if this post would have moved you to buy me a ko-fi, please send that money to her family instead. :) rbs are also appreciated on the post itself. (* ´▽` *)

anyways, here’s the loaf jingyeast made :3 it was very tasty.

#mdzs #mdzs meta #the untamed #the untamed meta #lan wangji #lan wangji meta #mine #mymeta #linguistics #chinese #english #cyan chinese school #cyan help desk #languages #contractions #register #look man idk how am i gonna tag this #*yeets into the void*

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tossertozier · 6 years

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What are your thoughts on fics that make Richie gay and Eddie a homophobe? I find these bother me on a visceral level and I can't place why. Probably because I see Eddie as the one who's closeted and Richie as decisively straight, particularly for their book counterparts? But yeah, I'd like to know your thoughts on homophobic! Eddie in general. I see it more times than I'd like to

okay well i’m gonna rephrase ur question here nonny because i do appreciate the sentiment but i just want to reiterate that i fully believe all writers have their right to tackle these characters from the angle they see fit (with certain exceptions of course) & just because i might not necessarily see a view point via my own deduction of canon doesn’t make it any less valid to me than the way i write the characters. this got long so it’s going under a cut.

so, what would i think about writing richie as explicitly gay and eddie as homophobic in one of my fics?

i could understand the viewpoint for eddie. eddie, by and large, has the most inherent shame of all of the losers. internalizing those things can lead to homophobic tendencies. however, book!eddie (and this was actually one of my favorite shake ups about the 2017 movie but we’re sticking to the book right now lol) is truly just not an outwardly offensive person. not in the offends way, but like…when it comes to taking action. all of the times eddie acts truly violent in the book are strongly reactionary. (battery acid you slime happens when he thinks IT is going to kill bill, he kills bowers out of self defense, he loses his arm because he thinks richie is going to die.) it is honestly more difficult for me to picture eddie as outwardly violent towards…anything that has not directly threatened him. ((maybe, i could see a questioning eddie getting upsetting if he was getting taunted and acting out??)) also, often depictions of homophobia get wrapped up with some sort of religious imagery which again, i wouldn’t write eddie as. eddie isn’t really given a religion in the books, so far as i can remember. (he asks richie a question about Catholicism, obviously not jewish.) i don’t believe with the faith in medicine that she has, that sonia would be at all outwardly religious. i don’t think she’s stable enough to regularly attend service. she’s very rarely described as leaving the house in the books, which is tough in it’s own way.

everyone is entitled to their own view point of loser sexuality. for the sake of sharing here, i am going to say that my personal view point is: i think richie is bisexual canonically, with a preference for more effeminate figures. in the book, richie refers to bev as “one of the guys - but one hell of a good looking guy” which some might take as evidence for him having an overt preference for men. i actually take this the opposite way. i think a lot of the reason richie does not have complete feelings for beverly is because of her androgynous energy. & i don’t think his failed marriages are a signal of complete homosexuality. i think they’re a signal of perpetual immaturity. i can’t quote the entire thing here, but his story of one of his wives is honestly one of my absolute favorite pieces of the book - and one of the most important, defining characteristics of richie, to me. AGAIN i go back to that fucking bo burnham song that i literally call the Richie Tozier song in my head because i think its so true of … so many men in the entertainment industry “have you ever seen a birthday party for children, and one of the children won’t stop screaming? ‘cause he’s just a little attention attract-er, when he grows up to be a comic or actor, he’ll be rewarded for never maturing. for never understanding or learning that every day can’t be about him, there’s other people, you selfish asshole.” i don’t think richie ever really Fully emotionally matured and was continually rewarded for this throughout his career (as hollywood loves to do with white men) & he loses a woman for it because she can’t be his emotional punching bag and pay constant attention to his needs . and she calls him tf out for it & he’s not even angry because he knows she’s right - he laughed about it.

(i’d say if there’s a defining sentence for richie, it’s “Richie laughed.” he can’t take things seriously & that’s not a compliment or a good thing, it leads to him sobbing on bill’s shoulder outside of the house because he can’t handle the world anymore because he hasn’t been processing little by little.)

one of the biggest tools of contrast for eddie and richie and how their sexualities are presented, to me, is their relationship with bill denbrough. (granted i believe any member of the loser’s club would suck bill’s dick if he asked because he’s a self insert but i digress.) richie refers to bill as his best friend. while i can’t think of a quote off the top of my head that defines this, i think a lot of bill and richie’s arch in the book (which is QUITE lengthy. it amazes me how little fandom attention is paid to their relationship, because it takes up seriously massive portions of the book) is richie going from quite wanting to be bill to understanding he’s not bill and that not having two bills is a benefit to them all. a lot of it is learning to respect himself the way he respects bill - and he has his own contributions to the fight that are entirely without bill. (the smoke scene for example and their entire last fight with IT) i do not think richie ever has a crush on bill, or wants to be with him, he just considers bill better than himself- something to look up to. to me, more than anyone else in the book, bill and richie are written to be the MenT.M. i think if richie would have a crush on any ManT.M. it would be bill, and to me, he doesn’t. eddie has a crush on bill. like. it’s not written out like “oh hey, here’s eddie being gay and having a crush on bill.” but liek. dudes, my guys. it’s…yeah. like. i really don’t think this could go undetected by the modernly educated reader. when my best friend read it she just texted me “so…eddie’s big gay crush on bill?” & i could only respond with “yeah. i know.” this is alreadhy super long an i could write several essays on bill/eddie/richie and the differences in their relationship buUUUUT yeap.

#askj #meta #ooooof #go awf #me

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