Aqworlds how to raise vampire fast
**e**
2016.07.17 12:13 **e**
/EmboldenTheE: The original home of the 'Embolden The E' movement.
2013.09.22 18:12 Musicmantobes Everything about lorises!
Everything about lorises!
2018.03.21 20:28 TedBear72 Home of the Whopper
Nothing here please move along
2024.06.01 15:45 Wbbms Bill Maher just made a new rule out of my post from last week XD
I made a post last week about how gender apartheid is the biggest issue of our generation and how young people are overlooking it, choosing instead to protest the "evil" West and Israel. I get it, those issues are important too, but come on, we're talking about systemic oppression of women that affects millions of people worldwide. This isn't just some regional problem; it's a global crisis that needs more attention.
Fast forward to this week, and Bill Maher just made a new rule segment on this exact topic. He nailed it, talking about how gender apartheid is a huge human rights issue that we should all be more concerned about. It was pretty satisfying to see this getting some mainstream attention, especially since it's something I've been passionate about for a while. I mean, I was kinda joking about wanting credit, but it does feel good to see a big name like Maher highlighting it. Bill Maher is one of the few people who sees this problem for its true magnitude and urgency. He doesn't cave in to the calls of of guilt-trapping attempts of silencing.
The thing is, when influential people talk about these issues, it can really help to raise awareness and get more people involved. We need more of this. Gender apartheid is a fight for justice and equality for everyone, regardless of where they live or what culture they're from. It's about making sure everyone has the chance to live without fear of discrimination or violence.
So, yeah, let’s keep this conversation going and push for some real change. Every voice matters, and if we all speak up, we can make a difference. Let’s not let this issue get overshadowed.
submitted by Wbbms to IsraelPalestine [link] [comments]
Fast forward to this week, and Bill Maher just made a new rule segment on this exact topic. He nailed it, talking about how gender apartheid is a huge human rights issue that we should all be more concerned about. It was pretty satisfying to see this getting some mainstream attention, especially since it's something I've been passionate about for a while. I mean, I was kinda joking about wanting credit, but it does feel good to see a big name like Maher highlighting it. Bill Maher is one of the few people who sees this problem for its true magnitude and urgency. He doesn't cave in to the calls of of guilt-trapping attempts of silencing.
The thing is, when influential people talk about these issues, it can really help to raise awareness and get more people involved. We need more of this. Gender apartheid is a fight for justice and equality for everyone, regardless of where they live or what culture they're from. It's about making sure everyone has the chance to live without fear of discrimination or violence.
So, yeah, let’s keep this conversation going and push for some real change. Every voice matters, and if we all speak up, we can make a difference. Let’s not let this issue get overshadowed.
2024.06.01 15:36 kenUdigitt Novel Chapter 427
Disclaimer: I do not speak Korean. This is purely translated by machine with a lot of cleanup afterward. With that in mind, I am open to criticism to improve these translations. Enjoy!
Chapter 427
On a December night, as winter's chill deepened, an unexpected snowstorm swept through the streets.
The snow fell thick and fast, confounding those who had expected clear skies based on the latest weather forecasts. Confusion reigned among pedestrians hurrying home, and even the meteorological agency was caught off guard.
"What’s going on? Where did this come from?"
"We’re analyzing it now. There shouldn’t be an issue like this."
"With snow as thick as hail pouring down, how can you say there shouldn’t be an issue? Stop the nonsense and bring the data. You must have real-time observations!"
"I’m looking into it right now... Oh, it seems there's been a surge in mana in the Sichuan region of China causing these abnormal conditions. The expected snowfall is no joke."
"Sichuan? Damn it. Is that bastard Arch Lich now controlling the weather too?"
Ever since the Great Cataclysm, the agency's forecasts had become near prophetic, enhanced by the integration of magical insights.
However, this unexpected storm suggested something far more sinister.
Within an hour, after frantic recalibrations and re-observations, a national heavy snow warning was declared. The agency predicted a historic blizzard, the likes of which hadn't been seen in decades.
But as people stopped to take shelter, their attention was captured by an announcement on the large public screens across the city centers.
- On this day, I am thrilled to bring you this news.
The screen showed an elderly Asian man.
Sitting behind him were leaders from countries that are members of the UN Security Council, and the President of the People's Republic of China, with reddened eyes and a shaky voice, parted his lips towards the numerous microphones.
- The Arch Lich has been extinguished. We ... have won.
Victory.
That one word was enough. For 34 days, an unprecedented monster wave had continued.
The news that the great war, which had troubled the world beyond Sichuan Province, had finally ended left people gaping, and soon after, they let out a massive cheer.
"Wowwwww!"
"Wait! Hold on. I didn’t catch that. What did you just say?"
"It's over!"
"What?"
"Look at the subtitles!"
"The extinction of the Arch Lich... oh, it's true! Wowwww! I thought I was going to be fucking drafted!"
The joyous uproar drowned out the subsequent thirty-minute address by President Shao Yang and further explanations from the UN spokesperson.
With the Arch Lich's fall, his undead legions crumbled, extinguishing the looming threat and ushering in the long-awaited peace.
"Mom, it's me. Uh, did you see the news? No? Watch it now. Yeah, yeah!"
"That's it. Mr. Kim, let's go for a third round!"
"A third round? There's a server update tomorrow. Manager Noh is going to freak out."
"Manager Noh is also coming. He's bringing the corporate card."
"Ugh, I really don't want to see that guy's face. Alright, let's go."
"Reporting. Yes, Commander. This is Lieutenant Lee Jun-Beom. I would like to extend my leave for just one more day... No, I apologize."
Despite some initial reservations, the jubilant energy in the streets proved infectious. People who had cautiously stayed indoors, fearing another calamity akin to the Great Cataclysm, now flooded out to join the revelry.
Pubs filled to the brim with celebrants, and the cheers continued unabated even as the night turned into the early hours of the morning.
The next day, and for several days thereafter, the atmosphere remained electric.
The monumental victory announcement had the world buzzing with excitement, like a cauldron set ablaze on an open flame.
Each day brought a flood of new articles in countless languages, discussing the events more than even the unusual weather patterns that had seen snow cover Korea for three consecutive days.
And there was one name that appeared in every single one of those articles.
[The New York Times, 'A Momentous Victory Introduces a New Hero to the World'] [Note: USA]
[The Times, 'Eastern Promise: A New Hero Rises, With Connections to Prince Felix?'] [Note: UK]
[The Asahi Shimbun, 'Jin Tae-Kyung: Asia's Beacon of Hope, But Japan's Elite Hunters Could Surpass Him!'] [Note: Japan]
[People's Daily, 'A Young Korean Hero's Bravery Celebrated Amidst National Tragedy, Death of Wu Hei-Xing'] [Note: China]
[China Youth Newsletter, 'Jin Tae-Kyung, A Descendant of the Ming Dynasty General Chen Lin - Soon to Be a Chinese Citizen?']
[Korea Goryeo Daily, 'Uncertainty Shadows Ares Guild as Vice Guild Leader Lee Jeong-Ryong Goes Missing']
[DAS Patch Korea Official, 'We've been investigating Jin Tae-Kyung for months but couldn't find out anything. His relationships with women were surprisingly clean.' When asked by a reporter whether his past relationships had all ended amicably, he replied "No, that's not it. I've been single since birth."]
For the various media outlets, the existence of Jin Tae-Kyung was nothing short of a Christmas present.
All spotlights were focused on him, and stories about him flowed endlessly.
The material was inexhaustible. Not to mention the so-called 'Winter War,' this recent monster wave, his past actions, and even minor personal details became fodder for the news.
Typically, such sensationalist articles would have been scorned and cursed at, but now they captured interest.
Such was the global attention drawn to this new hero who had led this great victory.
But not all of that attention was positive.
From the tight internal security, little bits of leaked information had begun to raise doubts.
[Revealed: What Lies Hidden Behind the War's Great Victory? Growing Suspicions Cast Shadow on Jin Tae-Kyung]
[Mystery Deepens: Tragic Deaths of S-rank Hunters Lee Jeong-Ryong and Wu Hei-Xing Raise Questions as New Hero Emerges]
[Top Military Officials Question Battle's Intensity: Lack of Injuries on Jin Tae-Kyung Sparks Potion Use Probe; Clarity Expected Upon His Awakening]
Though these conspiracy theories were few and often dismissed, they managed to sow seeds of doubt among some, igniting fervent online debates.
The controversial articles were swiftly overwhelmed by waves of criticism and reports, but the questions they raised lingered in the public consciousness.
Now, all eyes were on Jin Tae-Kyung, waiting for him to step forward and address the swirling rumors.
When would he appear?
* * *
Beep. Beep.
The room, reserved for a select few, was filled with the mechanical hum of the latest medical devices.
Concerned faces looked down at Jin Tae-Kyung, who lay unconscious, an oxygen mask covering his face.
「How is Mr. Jin's condition?」
Choi Min-Woo responded to President Shao Yang's question.
「It's always the same. Everything seems perfectly normal, yet strangely, he can't regain consciousness.」
「Did both of them say the same thing?」
「Yes. They can't determine the cause.」
「Hmm. If that's the case, it must be certain... But why can't he regain consciousness?」
President Shao Yang sighed.
The two experts he referred to were leaders in their fields.
One was a civilian doctor revered as a modern Hua Tuo, and the other was a world-renowned healer. [Note: Hua Tuo was a famous ancient Chinese physician. He is reportedly the first person in China to use anasthesia during surgery.]
If both specialists they had brought in to treat Jin Tae-Kyung had said so, it must be true.
「I heard his family has come.」
「Our Peace Guild is taking good care of them. Fortunately, they are getting some rest at the moment.」
「That’s good to hear. Might I be able to see them, even for a moment?」
「Hmm... I will ask, but the family's wishes are most important...」
「I understand. Who wouldn't feel the same, seeing their blood relative unable to wake up? I’d be grateful if you'd think of it as nothing more than an old man's foolish worry.」
「Not at all, Mr. President. We appreciate you thinking so.」
「Appreciate it? No need for such words. If it weren't for Mr. Jin, a much greater disaster would have occurred. Though I am an old man and may not have much time left, I will take this gratitude to my grave.」
President Shao's words were sincere.
Four days had passed since then, and a global team of experts investigating the Arch Lich's last stronghold uncovered traces of a Gate.
The remnants of its immense magical power indicated a potential catastrophe.
「If Mr. Jin hadn't stopped the Arch Lich that day, not only our country but all of Asia, perhaps even the entire world, might have become a battlefield.」
「It's a very real possibility.」
Although the statement was slightly exaggerated, it held substantial truth.
Choi Min-Woo therefore acknowledged it with a nod.
He saw no reason to shy away from the praise or to downplay the deep gratitude expressed by a leader of over a billion people.
Indeed, gratitude, once extended, often yields rich dividends.
「By the way, Mr. President, recently there have been some unfavorable rumors circulating about Mr. Jin Tae-Kyung... Are you aware of them?」
「Are these internal issues, or external?」
「They are internal. It would be more accurate to say they involve the upper echelons of the Communist Party, or rather, the Princelings.」
President Shao Yang nodded knowingly.
「I am well aware of those matters.」
The matter concerned the death of Wu Hei-Xing.
The investigation had uncovered his severely damaged body, fueling conspiracy theories both domestically and internationally.
「There are those who suspect Mr. Jin Tae-Kyung. They point to a slight argument he had with Wu Hei-Xing at their first meeting and the fact that there were no significant injuries on Mr. Jin when he was first found.」
There were two main theories circulating among these rumors.
The first suggested that Jin Tae-Kyung, harboring resentment towards Wu Hei-Xing, had orchestrated his death and attributed it to the Arch Lich.
The second theory proposed that Jin Tae-Kyung used Wu Hei-Xing as a scapegoat, potentially alongside Lee Jeong-Ryong, who is missing or presumed dead, to eliminate the Arch Lich.
President Shao Yang, well aware of these narratives, had already formed his own judgement.
With a stern voice, he assured Choi Min-Woo.
「These are nothing but groundless slanders and conspiracy theories.」
「Thank you for your trust, but...」
It was a good response, but it was not enough.
Choi Min-Woo hesitated, then added thoughtfully.
「It seems the leader of the Princelings has a different view from yours, Mr. President.」
Within China, these theories, seen by many as national disgraces, resonated with a father mourning his son.
Wu Hei-Xing's father, the head of the Princelings and a figure wielding immense power within the Communist Party, was propelling these rumors forward.
He didn't stop at just speculation; he had initiated an independent probe to investigate further.
「If Mr. Jin Tae-Kyung regains consciousness, the truth will come to light. But for such high-ranking politicians to lead the spread of these absurd conspiracy theories...」
As Choi Min-Woo's words tapered off, President Shao Yang's lips curled into a subtle smile.
'No hesitation, I see.'
Despite the young man's impressive feats, his circumstances differed markedly from those of President Shao Yang.
Yet, here he was, confidently voicing his views, adeptly balancing his tone and stance.
'Was that story true?'
Recalling some personal details about Choi Min-Woo, President Shao Yang tapped the armrest of his chair thoughtfully.
「Alright. It seems my explanation was insufficient, so I'll say it again.」
「I'm listening.」
「My comrades and I already know everything about it and have made all the necessary preparations.」
「All the necessary preparations...?」
「He will be put on trial before he appeals for his son's death.」
The Arch Lich's fall wasn't the only outcome of this conflict.
Widespread corruption and fraud have come to light, necessitating the dismantling of the Princelings.
Choi Min-Woo's expression softened into a calm smile.
「Is that answer sufficient?」
「It is enough.」
That concluded their discussion for the day.
After a few more exchanges, President Shao Yang exited the room, leaving Choi Min-Woo alone. He murmured to himself thoughtfully.
"So, it is done."
Suddenly, someone's eyes snapped open.
"Ah, fuck. I thought I was going to die from frustration."
Previous Table of Contents
submitted by kenUdigitt to u/kenUdigitt [link] [comments]
Chapter 427
On a December night, as winter's chill deepened, an unexpected snowstorm swept through the streets.
The snow fell thick and fast, confounding those who had expected clear skies based on the latest weather forecasts. Confusion reigned among pedestrians hurrying home, and even the meteorological agency was caught off guard.
"What’s going on? Where did this come from?"
"We’re analyzing it now. There shouldn’t be an issue like this."
"With snow as thick as hail pouring down, how can you say there shouldn’t be an issue? Stop the nonsense and bring the data. You must have real-time observations!"
"I’m looking into it right now... Oh, it seems there's been a surge in mana in the Sichuan region of China causing these abnormal conditions. The expected snowfall is no joke."
"Sichuan? Damn it. Is that bastard Arch Lich now controlling the weather too?"
Ever since the Great Cataclysm, the agency's forecasts had become near prophetic, enhanced by the integration of magical insights.
However, this unexpected storm suggested something far more sinister.
Within an hour, after frantic recalibrations and re-observations, a national heavy snow warning was declared. The agency predicted a historic blizzard, the likes of which hadn't been seen in decades.
But as people stopped to take shelter, their attention was captured by an announcement on the large public screens across the city centers.
- On this day, I am thrilled to bring you this news.
The screen showed an elderly Asian man.
Sitting behind him were leaders from countries that are members of the UN Security Council, and the President of the People's Republic of China, with reddened eyes and a shaky voice, parted his lips towards the numerous microphones.
- The Arch Lich has been extinguished. We ... have won.
Victory.
That one word was enough. For 34 days, an unprecedented monster wave had continued.
The news that the great war, which had troubled the world beyond Sichuan Province, had finally ended left people gaping, and soon after, they let out a massive cheer.
"Wowwwww!"
"Wait! Hold on. I didn’t catch that. What did you just say?"
"It's over!"
"What?"
"Look at the subtitles!"
"The extinction of the Arch Lich... oh, it's true! Wowwww! I thought I was going to be fucking drafted!"
The joyous uproar drowned out the subsequent thirty-minute address by President Shao Yang and further explanations from the UN spokesperson.
With the Arch Lich's fall, his undead legions crumbled, extinguishing the looming threat and ushering in the long-awaited peace.
"Mom, it's me. Uh, did you see the news? No? Watch it now. Yeah, yeah!"
"That's it. Mr. Kim, let's go for a third round!"
"A third round? There's a server update tomorrow. Manager Noh is going to freak out."
"Manager Noh is also coming. He's bringing the corporate card."
"Ugh, I really don't want to see that guy's face. Alright, let's go."
"Reporting. Yes, Commander. This is Lieutenant Lee Jun-Beom. I would like to extend my leave for just one more day... No, I apologize."
Despite some initial reservations, the jubilant energy in the streets proved infectious. People who had cautiously stayed indoors, fearing another calamity akin to the Great Cataclysm, now flooded out to join the revelry.
Pubs filled to the brim with celebrants, and the cheers continued unabated even as the night turned into the early hours of the morning.
The next day, and for several days thereafter, the atmosphere remained electric.
The monumental victory announcement had the world buzzing with excitement, like a cauldron set ablaze on an open flame.
Each day brought a flood of new articles in countless languages, discussing the events more than even the unusual weather patterns that had seen snow cover Korea for three consecutive days.
And there was one name that appeared in every single one of those articles.
[The New York Times, 'A Momentous Victory Introduces a New Hero to the World'] [Note: USA]
[The Times, 'Eastern Promise: A New Hero Rises, With Connections to Prince Felix?'] [Note: UK]
[The Asahi Shimbun, 'Jin Tae-Kyung: Asia's Beacon of Hope, But Japan's Elite Hunters Could Surpass Him!'] [Note: Japan]
[People's Daily, 'A Young Korean Hero's Bravery Celebrated Amidst National Tragedy, Death of Wu Hei-Xing'] [Note: China]
[China Youth Newsletter, 'Jin Tae-Kyung, A Descendant of the Ming Dynasty General Chen Lin - Soon to Be a Chinese Citizen?']
[Korea Goryeo Daily, 'Uncertainty Shadows Ares Guild as Vice Guild Leader Lee Jeong-Ryong Goes Missing']
[DAS Patch Korea Official, 'We've been investigating Jin Tae-Kyung for months but couldn't find out anything. His relationships with women were surprisingly clean.' When asked by a reporter whether his past relationships had all ended amicably, he replied "No, that's not it. I've been single since birth."]
For the various media outlets, the existence of Jin Tae-Kyung was nothing short of a Christmas present.
All spotlights were focused on him, and stories about him flowed endlessly.
The material was inexhaustible. Not to mention the so-called 'Winter War,' this recent monster wave, his past actions, and even minor personal details became fodder for the news.
Typically, such sensationalist articles would have been scorned and cursed at, but now they captured interest.
Such was the global attention drawn to this new hero who had led this great victory.
But not all of that attention was positive.
From the tight internal security, little bits of leaked information had begun to raise doubts.
[Revealed: What Lies Hidden Behind the War's Great Victory? Growing Suspicions Cast Shadow on Jin Tae-Kyung]
[Mystery Deepens: Tragic Deaths of S-rank Hunters Lee Jeong-Ryong and Wu Hei-Xing Raise Questions as New Hero Emerges]
[Top Military Officials Question Battle's Intensity: Lack of Injuries on Jin Tae-Kyung Sparks Potion Use Probe; Clarity Expected Upon His Awakening]
Though these conspiracy theories were few and often dismissed, they managed to sow seeds of doubt among some, igniting fervent online debates.
The controversial articles were swiftly overwhelmed by waves of criticism and reports, but the questions they raised lingered in the public consciousness.
Now, all eyes were on Jin Tae-Kyung, waiting for him to step forward and address the swirling rumors.
When would he appear?
* * *
Beep. Beep.
The room, reserved for a select few, was filled with the mechanical hum of the latest medical devices.
Concerned faces looked down at Jin Tae-Kyung, who lay unconscious, an oxygen mask covering his face.
「How is Mr. Jin's condition?」
Choi Min-Woo responded to President Shao Yang's question.
「It's always the same. Everything seems perfectly normal, yet strangely, he can't regain consciousness.」
「Did both of them say the same thing?」
「Yes. They can't determine the cause.」
「Hmm. If that's the case, it must be certain... But why can't he regain consciousness?」
President Shao Yang sighed.
The two experts he referred to were leaders in their fields.
One was a civilian doctor revered as a modern Hua Tuo, and the other was a world-renowned healer. [Note: Hua Tuo was a famous ancient Chinese physician. He is reportedly the first person in China to use anasthesia during surgery.]
If both specialists they had brought in to treat Jin Tae-Kyung had said so, it must be true.
「I heard his family has come.」
「Our Peace Guild is taking good care of them. Fortunately, they are getting some rest at the moment.」
「That’s good to hear. Might I be able to see them, even for a moment?」
「Hmm... I will ask, but the family's wishes are most important...」
「I understand. Who wouldn't feel the same, seeing their blood relative unable to wake up? I’d be grateful if you'd think of it as nothing more than an old man's foolish worry.」
「Not at all, Mr. President. We appreciate you thinking so.」
「Appreciate it? No need for such words. If it weren't for Mr. Jin, a much greater disaster would have occurred. Though I am an old man and may not have much time left, I will take this gratitude to my grave.」
President Shao's words were sincere.
Four days had passed since then, and a global team of experts investigating the Arch Lich's last stronghold uncovered traces of a Gate.
The remnants of its immense magical power indicated a potential catastrophe.
「If Mr. Jin hadn't stopped the Arch Lich that day, not only our country but all of Asia, perhaps even the entire world, might have become a battlefield.」
「It's a very real possibility.」
Although the statement was slightly exaggerated, it held substantial truth.
Choi Min-Woo therefore acknowledged it with a nod.
He saw no reason to shy away from the praise or to downplay the deep gratitude expressed by a leader of over a billion people.
Indeed, gratitude, once extended, often yields rich dividends.
「By the way, Mr. President, recently there have been some unfavorable rumors circulating about Mr. Jin Tae-Kyung... Are you aware of them?」
「Are these internal issues, or external?」
「They are internal. It would be more accurate to say they involve the upper echelons of the Communist Party, or rather, the Princelings.」
President Shao Yang nodded knowingly.
「I am well aware of those matters.」
The matter concerned the death of Wu Hei-Xing.
The investigation had uncovered his severely damaged body, fueling conspiracy theories both domestically and internationally.
「There are those who suspect Mr. Jin Tae-Kyung. They point to a slight argument he had with Wu Hei-Xing at their first meeting and the fact that there were no significant injuries on Mr. Jin when he was first found.」
There were two main theories circulating among these rumors.
The first suggested that Jin Tae-Kyung, harboring resentment towards Wu Hei-Xing, had orchestrated his death and attributed it to the Arch Lich.
The second theory proposed that Jin Tae-Kyung used Wu Hei-Xing as a scapegoat, potentially alongside Lee Jeong-Ryong, who is missing or presumed dead, to eliminate the Arch Lich.
President Shao Yang, well aware of these narratives, had already formed his own judgement.
With a stern voice, he assured Choi Min-Woo.
「These are nothing but groundless slanders and conspiracy theories.」
「Thank you for your trust, but...」
It was a good response, but it was not enough.
Choi Min-Woo hesitated, then added thoughtfully.
「It seems the leader of the Princelings has a different view from yours, Mr. President.」
Within China, these theories, seen by many as national disgraces, resonated with a father mourning his son.
Wu Hei-Xing's father, the head of the Princelings and a figure wielding immense power within the Communist Party, was propelling these rumors forward.
He didn't stop at just speculation; he had initiated an independent probe to investigate further.
「If Mr. Jin Tae-Kyung regains consciousness, the truth will come to light. But for such high-ranking politicians to lead the spread of these absurd conspiracy theories...」
As Choi Min-Woo's words tapered off, President Shao Yang's lips curled into a subtle smile.
'No hesitation, I see.'
Despite the young man's impressive feats, his circumstances differed markedly from those of President Shao Yang.
Yet, here he was, confidently voicing his views, adeptly balancing his tone and stance.
'Was that story true?'
Recalling some personal details about Choi Min-Woo, President Shao Yang tapped the armrest of his chair thoughtfully.
「Alright. It seems my explanation was insufficient, so I'll say it again.」
「I'm listening.」
「My comrades and I already know everything about it and have made all the necessary preparations.」
「All the necessary preparations...?」
「He will be put on trial before he appeals for his son's death.」
The Arch Lich's fall wasn't the only outcome of this conflict.
Widespread corruption and fraud have come to light, necessitating the dismantling of the Princelings.
Choi Min-Woo's expression softened into a calm smile.
「Is that answer sufficient?」
「It is enough.」
That concluded their discussion for the day.
After a few more exchanges, President Shao Yang exited the room, leaving Choi Min-Woo alone. He murmured to himself thoughtfully.
"So, it is done."
Suddenly, someone's eyes snapped open.
"Ah, fuck. I thought I was going to die from frustration."
Previous Table of Contents
2024.06.01 14:46 Chai_Ky The Case of Kate Blackwell: The Unknown Part 3 (Finale)
11/20/2017
Log book of Det. Ryan Snow
Case #2798: The Appalachian Murders
When I woke up, I was in such a haze that I couldn’t make out where I was at first. My vision was a blur and all I could hear was the sounds of rushing water. I tried to move my limbs, but each muscle down to my little finger felt like lead weighing down on me, making it hard to breathe.
It felt like forever before the ringing in my ear was slowly swallowed out by a voice crying out from what sounded like a distance only to grow louder as it seemed to approach me from the void I had woken up in. It wasn’t until I heard my name that I recognized it was Kate’s voice, pleading and filled with tears.
I blinked away the blur, finding myself staring up at a water damaged ceiling, a single yellow light brightening the room. My head was pounding and my body still felt heavy, but I moved my head enough to turn and see where Kate was calling from. It took a moment, but I soon realized that she was lying on her back, strapped by her arms and legs to a metal table, looking to me with wide terrified eyes.
“Detective, please help!” She cried out. “Please don’t be dead! Please help me!”
“Bl-Black…Well…” I groaned out as I tried, painfully, to pick myself up off the stone floor, “Black…Well… Ah… Shit… Shit! Ms. Blackwell-“ I was gaining consciousness minute by minute as I finally took in the situation and got to my feet. However, the moment I had gotten to my feet and began running to Kate only to immediately fall back to the floor once again, my ankle getting caught by something heavy. I turned to see my ankle had been shackled to the floor by a cuff and chains. I searched my person to find my coat, along with my Glock had been taken, blood decorating my pants and sleeves. I placed a palm to my forehead to find blood when I lowered it down to look at the warm liquid slithering down from my scalp.
“Ms. Blackwell,” I returned my attention to her, examining what I could from my place on the floor, “are you alright, are you hurt?”
“I… I… I don’t… Don’t think so…” she managed to whine out.
“Where’s Mr. Raines?”
To this question, Kate looked away from me, sobbing being her only verbal response.
I went back to the shackles on my ankle and began trying to yank the chains off from the floor, but they had been well maintained and were too strong for me to simply yank out of the stone. I then quickly looked around the room to find we were in a different basement from the one in Cabin #3, though it had the same kind of layout, the table the only major difference. I also took note of the blood stains that trailed from the sides of the table and the dried pools below.
“I want my mom!” Kate cried out, her voice echoing in the empty room.
“I’ll get you to her, I will, I promise,” I assured her, trying to find something, anything to get us out of this, “do you remember how we got down here?”
“I… I… I just re-remember… Remember you g-getting knocked out… Knocked out by someone and them… Them putting a rag over me… Then everything went black… Then I woke… Woke up… H-Here…” Kate answered, trying to breathe with each sob she let out. “I… I th-thought… y-you… You were d-d-… Dead!”
“I’m not, I’m very much alive and I’m going to get you out of here and back to your parents,” I vowed as I continued looking for a way out of this situation, “we’re going to get you out of here, get you home, and we’ll make sure no one ever gets hurt here ever-“
The sound of the basement door from the splintered wooden steps cut me off. I listened as feet descended down the steps to the basement below, Kate’s ragged breaths the only other sound. The person who came down was a woman. The same exact woman from the photo I had found in her house. She looked as if she had not aged since that photo was taken, despite how long ago it seemed the photo was taken. She had the same exact long, white hair, same tired looking eyes, and same disgustingly pale skin as in that photo and on her profile picture. It was Mrs. Larson.
“Deeeeeetectiiiiiiive,” she spoke in a hoarse voice mixed with what I assumed was her own and several others, both male and female, adult and child, “youuuuuuu shouuuullld haaaaaaaaave juuuuuuusssssst giiiiiven herrrrrrr toooooo meeeeee… Youuuuuuuu diiiiiiiiid nooooooot haaaaaave toooooooo ssssssseeeee thiiiiiissssss…”
“Fuck you!” I shouted, beginning to charge at the elderly woman only to be yanked back by my shackles. “Let us go, right now!”
“Nnnnooooo,” Mrs. Larson replied harshly as she stepped over to loom over Kate.
“Stay away from her!” I barked, trying desperately to break free of my shackles.
She ignored me as she ran a shaky hand down along Kate’s trembling face. “Ooooooooohhhhh, Kaaaaaate… Sweeeeet, sweeeeeeeet, Kaaaaaaaaaate…” Mrs. Larson cooed as she went on stroking Kate’s wet cheek. “Doooooo noooooooot crrrrrrryyyyyyy, dooooooonnnnnn’t thiiiiiiiiiinnnnk oooooofff iiiiiiiit aaaaaaaassssss dyyyyyyyyiiiiinnnnng, thiiiiiiiiinnnk ooooooooffff iiiiiiit aaaaaassssss ssssssssaaaaaaaaaviiiiiiinnng aaaaaannnnoooootherrrrrrrrr liiiiiiiiife.”
“I-I… I d-don’t… Don’t under-understand… w-what th-that… That m-means…” Kate cried, her hands gripping the sides of the metal table beneath her, “P-Please, d-don’t… Don’t kill me… L-Let… Let us-us go!”
“Nnnnnoooooo,” Mrs. Larson answered in the same harshness she used on me, “IIIIIIIII neeeeeeeed youuuuuuuuuu,” she then shot a death glare my way through tired, silver eyes, “aaaaaaaannnnnnd heeeeeeeeee’ssssssss beeeeeeeeeennnnnn nnnnnnnoooooooothiiiiiiiiinnnnnng buuuuut aaaaaa thooooooorrrrrrnnnn iiiiiiinnnnn myyyyyyyyy ssssssssiiiiiiiide siiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnccccccce youuuuuu eeeeeessssssscaaaaaaped meeeeeeee.” She then looked back to Kate with a softer look. “Aaaaaaaassssss fffffoooooorrrrr whaaaaaaaat youuuuuuu caaaaaannnn’t uuuuuunnnnnnderrrrrrssssssstaaaaaaannnnnnd, IIIIIIIIII nnnnnneeeeeeed yourrrrrrrrrr heaaaaaaaarrrrrt tooooooo ssssssssaaaaaavvvvvvve myyyyyyy ssssssiiiiiiiisssssssterrrrrrrr.”
“The fuck does that mean?” I demanded, still trying to vain to pull my ankle from the chains. “How the hell will Kate’s heart save your sister?”
“Diiiiiiiiidnnnnnn’t nnnnnnneeeeeeed toooooo beeeee Kaaaaaaate’sssssss,” admitted Mrs. Larson, “buuuuuuuut sssshhhhhheeeeee hiiiiiiiiid theeeeee ooooooootherrrrr giiiiirrrrrrllllll ffffffrrrrroooooommmmm mmmmmeeeeee.”
“S-Son… Sonja…” Kate sniffed, the tears still streaming down her face.
“IIIIIIII oooooooonnnnnlllllyyyyy neeeeed fffffffeeeeeemmmmmaaaaallllle,” Mrs. Larson dismissed Ms. Greymoore’s name, “ffffffeeeeeeemmmmmaaaaaallllle heaaaaaaaarrrrrrrtsssss toooooo rrrrrrreeeeeetuuuuurrrrrrnnnnn mmmmmmyyyyy ssssiiiiissssssterrrrrrrrr toooooo theeeeeeee giiiiirrrrrllllll ssssshhhhhheeeee uuuuuuuusssssed tooooo beeeeeee.”
“That’s a fucking joke right?” I asked. “The hell makes you think eating a female heart will turn your sister back into a human woman? Have you seen what’s happened to your sister?”
“IIIIIIIII knnnnnnnooooooow beeeeeeecaaaauuuuusssssse iiiiiiiiiiit wooooooorrrrrked ooooooonnnnn mmmmmeeeeee,” Mrs. Larson explained, “IIIIIIIIIII waaaaaasssss aaaaaaablllllllle toooooo reeeeeeetaaaaiiiiiinnnnnn thiiiiiiiiiisssssss huuuuuummmmmmaaaaaannnnn fffffffooooorrrrrrmmmm ffffffrrrrrooooommmm eeeeeaaaaatiiiiiinnnnnng theeeeeeee heaaaaaaaaarrrrrtsssss, sssssspecifffffficaaaaaaallllllyyyyyy fffffffeeeeeemmmmmaaaaallllleeee sssssssooooooo IIIIIIIIII mmmmmmaaaaaayyyyyy rrrrrreeeeetuuuurrrrrnnnnn toooo beeeeeiiiiinnnng theeeeeeee giiiiiirrrrrrrllllll IIIIIII uuuuuuusssssed toooooooo beeeeeee.”
“You were dead,” I pointed out, “they found your body up here, you were buried.”
“Theeeeeessssssse sssshhhhheeeeeellllllsssss arrrrrrre mmmmmeeeeeerrreeeellllyyy veeeeeessssssellllllssssss ffffffoooooorrrrrr theeeeeeee sssssspiiiiirrrrriiiiiitsssss weeeee hiiiiiiiiiiide beeeeeneeeeaaaaattthhhh,” Mrs. Larson responded, finally turning her gaze to me, “IIIIIIII haaaaaaad tooooooo maaaake peeeopllllle beeeelieevvvve IIIIIII haaaaaad diiiiiiied tooooo keeeeeep frrrrroooommm theeeee poooooollllliiiiicccce ffffrrrrrrooooommmm pooookiiiiiinnnng aaaaarrrrouuuuuunnnnd aaaaannnnnd rrrrruuuiiinnnnniiinnnng eeeevvvveeerrrrryyythiiiiinnnng.”
“So, let me just get this whole thing straight,” I began as I started rubbing my temples, "when you and your sister starting into… Whatever the hell that thing you call your sister is-“
“Ooooouuuurrrrr sssssspiiiiiirrrrrriiiiiit,” Mrs. Larson corrected.
“Whatever!” I shot. “You found out that eating female hearts turns you two back into human women and to keep police from suspecting you, you pretended to be dead and… What? Just hope a shitty real estate agency would buy your property and you could just… Kill people, people with lives and families outside the mountains?”
“Thaaaaaaaat iiiiiiisssss cooooorrrrrreeeeect…” Mrs. Larson admitted, narrowing her eyes at me.
That’s when I began laughing hysterically, holding my sides that hurt with each harsh breath of a laugh I took. Both Mrs. Larson and Kate looked to me as if I had lost my mind and at this point I was starting to believe I had. Everything I had seen and heard about this entire case would put anyone in the looney bin. And I’m the damn fool who dug too deep into something he had nothing to do with.
“Whaaaaaat’s ssssoooo ffffuuunnnny?” Growled Mrs. Larson, stepping around Kate to stand between us.
“I don’t know what’s fucking funnier, honestly,” I chuckled, running a hand through my hair, “the fact that you thing people won’t be poking around even more when they discover not only is Blackwell missing, but so is a detective and escaped convict all of whom now have ties to these fucking mountains and those cabins, or that you thing I’m more afraid of what you plan on doing with me more than I am when her father finds out I got her in this situation in the first place!”
“Heeeeeee wooooonnnnn’t beeeee aaaaabllllle toooooo doooo aaaaaannnnnyyyyythiiiiiinnnng aaaaaaafffffterrrrrrr IIIIIIIII’mmmmm dooooooonnnne wiiiiiiiith booooooth ooooooooffffff youuuuuuuuu,” Mrs. Larson hissed as she inched closer, “fffffffiiiiiiirrrrrrssssst, IIIIIIIII waaaaaannnnnt youuuuuuuu toooo waaaaaatch mmmmmeeeee kiiiiiiillllll herrrrrrr,” she turned her head to look to Kate who was now just shaking, her eyes seemingly gone dry from the crying, Mrs. Larson then looked back to me, “sssssseeeeecooooonnnnd, IIIIIIII wiiiiillllll ssssssaaaaave youuuuu fffffooooorrrr mmmmmmyyyyy sssssiiiiiisssssterrrrr, oooooonnnnne heeeeaaaaart wiiiiilllll nnnnoooot ssssssaaaaaatissssfffffyyyy herrrr huuuuuunnnnnger.” She took another step. “Uuuuuuuunnnnnllllliiiiiike sssssssoooooommmme ssssssiiiiiibllllliiiiiiinnnnnngsssss, IIIIIIIII caaaaaarrrre aaaaaaboooouuuuut mmmmmmyyyyy ffffffaaaammmmiiiiilllllyyyyyy.”
She stared into my eyes, expecting a reaction and while my blood did somewhat boil at the accusatory statement, I didn’t fully understand what she was getting at. Not until she used that voice. Not until she relived that day with those two familiar child-like voices.
“Screw you, Liam!” She cried out in a voice I remember from my childhood. “I hope you drop dead!”
“Stop.” I demanded.
“Piss off, Ryan!” She shot back in a second boy’s voice.
“I said stop!” I began shouting.
“Help me, Ryan! Please, help me! I’m sorry! Please, Lucky Dime, help me!”
I then lunged toward her, reaching my hands out toward her neck only to be stopped by the shackles as she swiftly, almost without even moving, stepped just out of my reach.
“Fucking bitch!” I screamed out.
“If only you really cared about me, Lucky Dime,” sighed Mrs. Larson as she turned and began making her way to the side of the room where a cart stood in the shadows. She pulled it over to Kate’s side, the cart covered in rusted medical tools.
“P-Please,” Kate wheezed, “p-p-please… I… I d-d-don’t w-want… Want t-to d-d… D-Die, I… I w-w-want m-m-m… My m-mom!”
“Dooooonnn’t woooorrrrryyyyy,” Mrs. Larson soothed, using that mix of different voices, “mmmmmmaaaayyyyybeeee sheeee wiiiillll cooooommmme loooookinnnng ffffooooorrrr yooouuuuu aaaaannnnnd sheeeeeee caaaaannnnn joooooiiiiiinnnn youuuuuuu.”
Kate began to sob, begging and pleading for Mrs. Larson to let her go, thrashing around in her restraints. Telling the older woman that there was no saving her sister and that she was too far gone for this sick ritual to work anymore. I tried to yank at the chains once more, trying to loosen it at least enough to break free and grab at Mrs. Larson.
“Rrrrrrreeeeellllllaaaaax,” Mrs. Larson ordered as she began filling a syringe with some kind of clear liquid from a small bottle, “yoooouuuuuu woooooonnnn’t eeeeeveeennn fffffeeeellll iiiiiiit, thiiiissssss wiiiiiillllll puuuuuut youuuuu toooo ssssssllllllleeeeeep aaaaaannnnnnd wheeeeeennnnnn youuuuuu waaaaaake uuuuuuuup, youuuuuuu’lllllll beeee iiiiiinnnnnn heeeeeaaaaaaveeeennnnn… Uuuuuunnnnnnnllllllessssss youuuuuuu weeeerrrrrrre aaaaaa haaaaaarrrrrlllllooooooot, iiiiiiinnnnnn whiiiiiiiich caaaaaassssssseeeee, mmmmmaaaayyyy Goooooood haaaaaaaave mmmmmmmmerrrrrrrcccccyyyyy ooooonnnnn youuuuuur ssssssoooouuuuullllll… Aaaaannnnnd baaaaaaasssssed ooooonnnn hoooooow youuuuuu drrrrressss aaaaannnnnd theeeee coooommmmpaaaannnnyyyy youuuuuu keeeeeep,” She added as she eyed me, “IIIIIII ssssssaaaaaayyyy youuuuu haaaaaave aaaaa lllllloooooot ooooooffff fooooooorrrrgiiiiiviiiiinnnnng tooooo dooooo.”
Kate continued to cry as Mrs. Larson pushed the needle of the syringe into her arm, pushing down on the plunger as it pierced the flesh. Kate’s loud screams soon turned quieter and her red eyes began to glaze over, but she continued to stay awake, tightening her grip on the table and still begging to be let go.
“IIIIII waaaaannnnt youuuuu toooo waaaaatch, Detective,” Mrs. Larson spat out my title in Mr. Blackwell’s voice, “IIIII waaaaannnnnt youuuuu toooo waaaaatch herrrrrr fffffaaaaaade aaaaaannnnnnd mmmmmeeeee rrrrreeeemmmmooooove heerr heeeaaaarrrrrt toooooo ffffffeeeeeed tooooo mmmmmmyyyyyy ssssssiiiiiiiissssssterrrrrr,” she then pulled out a recorder, “theeeeennnnnn wheeeeeennnnn IIIIIII ssssssuuuuummmmoooooonnnnn herrrrrrr aaannnnd sheeeee fffffiiiinnnniiiishessssss oooooofffffff heeeerrrrr heeeaaaaarrrrrt, youuuuuuu’llllllll beeeeee neeeeeext.”
“Fuck you,” I snarled, “I hope you and your sister burn.”
“IIIIIIIII’mmmmm gooooonnnnnaaaaa gooooo aaaaallllllerrrrrrt mmmmmyyyyy ssssssiiiiiiissssterrrrrr,” Mrs. Larson turned and began making her way to the basement steps, “ssssseeee youuuuu boooooth ffffffoooooorrrr diiiiiinnnnnnerrrrrrr.”
She then pressed the play button on her recorder and a small, little girl’s voice echoed in the room before Mrs. Larson vanished up the steps.
“I’m here… I’m here… I’m here…”
Then the door slammed shut.
“De… Tec… Tive…” Kate squeaked out, her breathing slowing.
“Stay awake, Blackwell,” I ordered her gently, looking around frantically for anything to get us both out of this alive, “I’ll get us out of this, I promise, just stay awake, we’ll get out of here, I just need-“
“I’m… S… Sorry…” she breathed out. “I’m… So… Sorry… For… Get… Getting… You… In… To.. This…”
“No, no, this is not your fault!” I assured her. “That psychotic bitch got us both into this shit and I won’t stop until I get us out and put her and her fucking sister are six feet under!”
“W…Wha… What… H… Hap… Happened… To… To L… Liam…?”
I stopped struggling with the chains and turned to look to Kate. Her head was turned to me, her face wet, hands clenching as hard as they could to the table beneath her, the light in her eyes slowly fading second by second. She was trying desperately to stay awake. The medication Mrs. Larson taking hold of her as the minutes ticked by.
I dropped the chains that were in my hands, looking away from her, wanting to stare at anything other than another person I had failed.
“He was killed,” I answered, “we were fishing at a lake nearby… Lake Gaagige… We got into a really stupid ass fucking fight about how which fishing pole we were going to use. I wanted to use our dad’s, but Liam was older and said only men could use dad’s fishing pole… I told him… To drop dead and stormed off… When I got home, my parents dragged me back to the lake and scolded me for leaving him…” I trailed off, swallowing all the tears and screams I’d bottled up since that day. “When… We found… Him… The autopsy… Said he was mauled by a bear… I’ve blamed myself for leaving him there alone… For letting him die and getting killed like that… The last thing I ever told him was to drop dead… I was a shitty brother and now I’m a shitty detective…”
“Is… Is he… Why… You became… A… Detective…?”
I took a deep breath and swallowed the tears again. “No, Blackwell,” I answered, “he’s not why I became a detective… I already knew what had killed him… It was my fault… If I hadn’t been such a brat and stormed off… He might still be alive… And now… What that bitch said…” I replayed Liam’s screams that escaped Mrs. Larson’s mouth. “I’m starting to think I’m getting what I deserve. Karma’s back to kick my ass…”
“H… How… Old…?”
“I was six… Liam was eight…”
“N… N… Not your… F… Fault…”
I turned to look to Kate, her eyes on mine, however faded.
“Y… You were… Only… A k… Kid…”
I took another intake of what little air there was down in that basement. I had spent years trying to convince myself of the same thing, but those moments never got easier for me when those thoughts returned.
“I think you’re just being nice,” I laughed painfully, “but I’m afraid I- and my folks- don’t share the same sentiment.”
I was staring down at where the chains were coming from in the ground, Kate not saying a word for over a couple of minutes. I spun to see if she had fallen asleep and immediately tried to find out how to wake her up again. However, once I our eyes met, I saw that she was still fighting sleep, the last of her tears rolling down across the bridge of her nose and into her hair.
“I… I… I had… Had a c… Crush… O… On… J… Jasper…” she confessed, her voice getting quieter and higher. “P… Paul and… And Son… Sonja knew… I never… Never c… Cared f… For Luke… But I’m… Sure… S… Sonja t… Told him…” she looked like she was going to sob again. “I… I never g… Got the… Ch… Chance… T… To tell J… Jasper… I… Was… Scared… He… He and… P… Paul were friends… And I… I kn… Knew… How P… Paul f… Felt… A… About m… Me… I… I did… Didn’t wa… Want to… R… Ruin… Anyth… Anything…” She took a gulp of air. “I… I ha… Hated L… Luke… I… A… Always… Kn… Knew… He… He was a… Player… B… But Sonja… Said… Said she was hap… Happy… So… So I did… Didn’t wa… Want to g… Get in… H… Her way… B… But Luke d… Didn’t l… Like h… How cl… Close… We… Were… I d… Didn’t w… Want him to make… Make her th… Think I… I was l… Leading her o… On… T… To get them… To b… Break up… Th… Then… That n… Night… Sh… She w… Wanted to… To leave…” She let out two pained gasps of breath. “I… I let them down… I let them all down… Luke pro… Probably thought… Thought I w… Was the one who… Who f… Filled Sonja’s mind… With thoughts of… Of him ch… Cheating… Th… Then I… I got them… All killed…
I… I didn’t deserve them, d… Detective…” she went on, looking away from me to stare up at the water damaged ceiling, “I… I… I was a… Terrible… Terrible friend…”
“Did you read their guest book entries?” I asked.
“N… No… D… Didn’t w… Want to… To r… Read any… Anything p… Private…” Kate answered.
“Jasper didn’t blame you,” I assured her, remembering what he had written in his entry during his time watching Mrs. Larson just outside the cabin, “even when he heard the voices- when he heard Mrs. Larson- telling him to, he didn’t. I don’t think the others blamed you either. You didn’t do anything wrong, Ms. Blackwell, there’s no way you could have known any of this would happen.”
“K… Kate…”
“What?”
“C… Call… Call me… Kate…”
“Aright, Kate,” I let out what little laughter I had left inside me, “so long as we’re the last people we’ll be chatting with, call me Ryan.”
“R… Ryan…”
“If we at all live through this, I’m going to need a long vacation after this,” I said as I turned to look at my shackles again, looking around myself to try finding anything to Get free since a vacation sounded like something to die for at that moment, “do you know any good vacation spots I can book for the fall?”
“Y… You’re… You’re a… Dick…” Kate struggled to laugh.
“I also enjoy pineapple on pizza,” I winked as I reached down to my ankle, ready to break it just to taste that sweet combination of tomato sauce and fruit.
“G… God… I… I c… Can’t… Believe… I th… Thought y… You w… Were c… Cute…”
I sat down on the floor, grabbing my ankle with both my hands. Needing to hype myself up enough to do what I was going to do, I began removing my shoe and sock from the foot, rubbing and squeezing my way up and down the ankle to my toes. I had never broken a bone in my life before this and I definitely never thought I’d do it of my own volition, but this was a desperate time and it definitely called for desperate…
“Wait what?” I turned to look to Kate, finally registering what she had said.
However, just before I could be sure of what I heard, the sound of a hunting rifle going off just above our heads right before we heard the door to the basement swing open and immediately be slammed shut. Both Kate and I turned to see someone stumble down the wooden steps, his clothes torn and body scratched and cut to a nearly deadly degree. I was even shocked he was still breathing.
“M… Mr… R… Raines…?” Kate gasped out.
“What’s left of me at least,” Mr. Raines grumbled as he limped over to Kate and quickly began undoing her straps to the table, “damn thing almost ripped my head off, but one swing of the barrel to its eye and I was able to get away… Can’t say it didn’t do its damage though… I’m… Getting really fucking hungry…”
He shook his head violently before limping over to me. He then raised an eyebrow at me when he saw how I was positioned still on the floor with a bare foot in my hands shackled to the floor.
“I… I was… I… I thought you were-“ I stammered.
“I am,” Mr. Raines interrupted, “at least, I’m on my way there anyway.” He then retrieved my Glock from his back pocket. “I don’t know what that thing did to me, but I’m not gonna make it out of this alive, or the way I came in. It’s a massacre out there by the way. Lot of men in blue bodies out there… Very… Hard to ignore… Sure more will be on their way. So.”
With that, Mr. Raines pointed at my chains and pulled the trigger on my clock, barely giving me time to cover my ears as the sound rung out loudly in the basement. I shook my head, trying to undo the blurry and ringing side effects of the sound of a gun going off near your head. I gave the older man a glare before standing and snatching my Glock from his hands. That’s when I saw Kate shifting herself to the side of the metal table she was no longer tied to, trying to get her limbs to comply with her to help her off and on to the floor.
I ran over and grabbed her just as she nearly stumbled face first to the floor and lifted her up to her feet, her body heavy with lack of keeping herself up.
“Do you think you can walk?” I asked, trying to keep her on her feet.
“I… I don’t… I…” Kate stammered as she tried to push herself off of me while also using using me as a crutch until she could stand on her own. However, she didn’t seem to be able to put any kind of pressure on her legs without falling down.
“Kate?” A girl’s voice called out from above us.
Feeling Kate shudder, I realized that it must have been the sound of Sonja’s voice and Mrs. Larson was using her to keep Kate from running. I quickly swung my arm down behind her knees, pressing the other down on her back as I lifted her up off the floor, my Glock at the ready as I kept it pointed in front of me while my arm held up Kate’s knees.
“She must have heard the gunshots,” I pointed out, “how’d you get past her in the first place?”
“I set the other cabins on fire,” Mr. Raines answered as if it were the simplest of answers, “I had to distract her somehow and give those bodies she’d been eating a better fate than becoming her shit.”
“Are you planning on setting this place on fire too?” I asked.
“‘Course I am!” Mr. Raines exclaimed, seemingly offended I’d even ask. “I already doused it in gasoline, I ain’t wasting all that time!”
“Kate!” Sonja’s voice cried out, getting closer to the basement door. “Are you seriously leaving me here to die alone again!”
“Please… Make it… Stop…” Kate sniffed as she gripped my shirt and burying her face into the fabric.
“Let’s get you two out of here.” Mr. Raines began leading the way to the basement stairs, cocking his rifle as he did so.
“What about you?” I asked, immediately following after him.
Mr. Raines didn’t answer as he stomped up the stairs and kicked the door open to the first floor of the cabin. The stench of the gasoline he had spilled hitting me harshly in my face.
“Kate!” Sonja’s voice, along with a different crescendo of male voices shrieked out as Mrs. Larson appeared from the corner of the hallway where the basement was located.
“Leighton?” A different woman’s voice asked the moment the old woman’s eyes spotted Mr. Raines. I then watched in both shock and confusion as it almost looked like the very skin on the woman melted off to reveal a much younger woman. The woman I recognized as Bonnie Collins. “Leighton… Love is that you?”
Mr. Raines kept his rifle on the vision of the woman he once loved before her murder, but didn’t move or speak.
“Darling, I’ve missed you so much!” The fake Bonnie cried out as she began making her way to Mr. Raines with arms open wide to hug him.
Mr. Raines then lifted his gun up higher, placing his finger on the trigger which caused the vision to stop in her place.
“Leighton?” The fake Bonnie asked. “Baby, it’s me… Bun-Bun… Don’t you recognize me…?” She began to tear up.
“You’re not my Bunny,” Mr. Raines growled before he shot once at the woman.
The fake Bonnie swiftly dodged the bullet, an inhuman hiss coming from an unhinged mouth, revealing a row of long, sharp teeth. The skin of Bonnie then melted off to reveal another woman, a lot younger than the first one it intimidated. The face of one of the victims upon being brought on this case.
“Kate,” the fake Sonja called out, “Kate, what are you doing? Who are these men? Why are they trying to hurt me?”
Kate let out a sobbing gasp, her nails digging into my shoulder with her arm wrapped around my neck.
“Didn’t I suffer enough?” The fake Sonja asked. “First my boyfriend and now you? Why don’t you want to be with me anymore?”
“Shut up!” Kate demanded. “You’re not Sonja! You killed her, you killed all of them! I don’t care what happens to me, but I’m not letting their memories end with you!”
Kate then snatched my Glock from my hand under her legs and shot directly at the fake Sonja’s head. Again the shot missed as the fake vision of the girl slithered out of the way, a frustrated growl of a dog and human escaping it’s mouth. It then zipped to the side, cowering with its back to us on the floor.
“Lucky dime…” A child’s voice then took over. The vision’s skin melting now to a much smaller figure. “Is this what you want? To kill me all over again?” He turned to look up at me, Liam’s face forever eight-years-old staring up at me. “It’s no wonder mommy and daddy hate you now… You were always a shitty brother… Now, I’m gonna starve to death because you’d rather help a couple of strangers.”
“I’m sorry, Liam,” I replied, everyone, including the fake Liam looking to me in surprise, “I left you alone out here and that’s what got you killed by that thing out there and I’m sorry. But, if I’d stayed it may have been both of us and then mom and dad would have no one left to blame but each other. If you had left and I was the one killed, you’d probably be in my shoes instead. I’m sorry for letting you get killed, but I’m gonna make up for it now.”
I then took my Glock back from Kate and pointed it to the vision of Liam.
“Good bye, Liam.”
I shot the gun once again, missing the creature again, however, this time I just kept shooting, Mr. Raines following after. Our different bullets just kept firing, the thing dodging and trying to get closer to us. The creature screeched out at us in a myriad of different voices both familiar and unknown. It wasn’t until one shot from my Glock struck the creatures shoulder and Mr. Raines’ rifle struck its head when the skins of everyone it was trying to turn into all melted off, revealing Mrs. Larson once again.
However, this time, she looked shriveled, older than she looked before. Her face looked deformed, beginning to grow furry, her eyes growing nothing but red, no irises, no pupils, just red. Her hair grew longer, branches like antlers growing painfully out from her skull, breaking the skin as they grew larger. The lower half of her face grew elongated, turning into that of a muzzle of fangs and a drooling mouth.
“You… All… Have no rrrrrrriiiiiight!” A different, unknown voice snarled out from what used to be Mrs. Larson. “People liiiiiike you all… Abandoned me and myyyyyyyyy sister!” The fur growing around this thing grew out short and shaggy, the cloths it was using melting off with the skin and flesh it was wearing. It now didn’t look anything like a human woman. It now took the form of a large wolf mixed with that of a deer, it’s body dog-like with hooves, antlers, and a long, scraggly tail. “You lot abandoned us here! You left us all here to diiiiiiiie!”
Guilt was weighing down on me with each syllable it was growling. Kate looked away from it, burying her face in my neck as Mr. Raines lowered his rifle.
“Nooooow, you’re bringing more here to just leave and let die out here!” It went on, it’s horrifying, broken body shuddering. “Why let them just vanish and die up here when they can bring people like my sister and I back? Give me Kate’s heart and fix what you threeeeeeeeee failed!”
Mr. Raines then handed over his rifle to Kate, placing it down on her stomach as her hands were still wrapped around my neck. The older man made his way over to stand over the thing, its neck creaking like a rusted door as it turned its wolf-like head to look up at him.
“Leighton…” Bonnie’s voice came from the creature. “Give mmmmeeeee her heart aaaannnnd we can be togetherrrrr again… If you eat the deeeeeetective’s we can saaaaaave you tooooooo…”
“My Bunny’s dead,” Mr. Raines told it as he dug in his pocket and took out a carton of matches, “and so am I.”
“You’d burn your wife?” A mix of Bonnie and Mrs. Larson’s voices shrieked as it glared at the match he took from the match box.
“You’re not my wife,” Mr. Raines told it, “and I’ll never see her again.”
“Fooooooool,” Mr. Larson’s voice chuckled, “you’llllllll killllllll us both!”
“With the shit I’ve done in my life, I know you’re taking me to Hell with you,” Mr. Raines growled back as he struck the match on the box, “so I’m sure as fuck not afraid to burn here on Earth with you!”
Mr. Raines then dropped the match to the floor right before the creature and everything around the two of them immediately went up in flames, the fur of the creature catching quickly and engulfing it. An agonized shriek echoed out all around us, the creature thrashing in the fire it had gotten swallowed up in. Mr. Raines then grabbed it by it’s long, furry throat and swung it down back flat the floor, jumping to pin it down.
“Get out!” Mr. Raines cried out to me. “Leave here!”
Not needing to be told twice, I held onto Kate tightly and bolted past the two burning bodies, jumping over the fire as it began growing fast throughout the cabin. I quickly got to the front door and stopped to look back to see Mr. Raines fighting the creature and preventing it from coming after us, it begging for me to bring Kate back and that it would die without her.
“I’ll clear your name,” I called back, trying not to reel back in horror as I saw Mr. Raines skin begin to melt off, “I’ll let people know you didn’t kill Bonnie!”
“I’ll let people know you didn’t… Kill… Liam!” Mr. Raines’ voice called back, him thrashing around with Mrs. Larson as he said my brother’s name in my voice.
I turned back and kicked the front door open, rushing Kate out of the burning cabin. I ran until I got far enough from the smoke, turning back to see all three cabins now on fire, the area around them all ablaze. The only place untouched was Mrs. Larson’s house, all the evidence remaining. I could hear sirens in the distance coming closer. The sounds of shouts from the surviving officers sounding much closer.
“I’m here… I’m here… I’m here…”
I looked to the front porch of Mrs. Larson’s house where her recorder continued to call out for her sister. I set Kate down at the base of a nearby tree and ran to snatch the recorder, shutting it off. I searched around, looking for any signs of Prudence, but it appeared that the fire and the sounds of sirens and voices had scared her off. I ran back to Kate, her eyes closed and her not responding to me calling to her, but after checking her pulse and breathing, I found that the medication Mrs. Larson had given her had finally taken over and she was now fast asleep, the rifle Mr. Raines gave her still sitting on her rhythmically rising and falling stomach.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I leaned against the same tree I set Kate down on and slid down to the ground next to her. The first two cabins were already practically nothing but ash, the last still blazing as I heard the slowly fading screams of Mrs. Larson and Mr. Raines coming from inside.
When the screaming ended all together, the smoke turning blacker as it rose from the flames, I got to my feet and took out my pack of cigarettes as I approached the fires, staying far enough away not to get burned. I opened the pack up before stopping myself as I reached for one of the ten remaining cigarettes inside. I then flung the entire carton into the fires without taking one.
“Save one for me down there, you old bastard,” I told Mr. Raines before making my way back to Kate’s side.
It wasn’t long before the remaining officers found us, looking in confusion at the fires and to me with a sleeping victim in a homicide case on the ground. I told them we’d need to call an ambulance for Kate and that we needed to keep the flames from getting to Mrs. Larson’s house as it held evidence on the case. One officer retrieved his radio and called for an ambulance while a group ran to the house and another went to try controlling the fire as best they could by yanking out any bushes near by and throwing them away from the area around the house.
Luckily, the fire trucks were called long before the fire spread too far, residence noticing it practically the moment Mr. Raines set the first cabin on fire.
As I sat there, keeping Kate held up against the tree we sat under, I listened to the crackling of the fire, the sirens of fast approaching fire trucks and the ambulance, and the sounds of distance, coyote, almost human, howling.
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Log book of Det. Ryan Snow
Case #2798: The Appalachian Murders
When I woke up, I was in such a haze that I couldn’t make out where I was at first. My vision was a blur and all I could hear was the sounds of rushing water. I tried to move my limbs, but each muscle down to my little finger felt like lead weighing down on me, making it hard to breathe.
It felt like forever before the ringing in my ear was slowly swallowed out by a voice crying out from what sounded like a distance only to grow louder as it seemed to approach me from the void I had woken up in. It wasn’t until I heard my name that I recognized it was Kate’s voice, pleading and filled with tears.
I blinked away the blur, finding myself staring up at a water damaged ceiling, a single yellow light brightening the room. My head was pounding and my body still felt heavy, but I moved my head enough to turn and see where Kate was calling from. It took a moment, but I soon realized that she was lying on her back, strapped by her arms and legs to a metal table, looking to me with wide terrified eyes.
“Detective, please help!” She cried out. “Please don’t be dead! Please help me!”
“Bl-Black…Well…” I groaned out as I tried, painfully, to pick myself up off the stone floor, “Black…Well… Ah… Shit… Shit! Ms. Blackwell-“ I was gaining consciousness minute by minute as I finally took in the situation and got to my feet. However, the moment I had gotten to my feet and began running to Kate only to immediately fall back to the floor once again, my ankle getting caught by something heavy. I turned to see my ankle had been shackled to the floor by a cuff and chains. I searched my person to find my coat, along with my Glock had been taken, blood decorating my pants and sleeves. I placed a palm to my forehead to find blood when I lowered it down to look at the warm liquid slithering down from my scalp.
“Ms. Blackwell,” I returned my attention to her, examining what I could from my place on the floor, “are you alright, are you hurt?”
“I… I… I don’t… Don’t think so…” she managed to whine out.
“Where’s Mr. Raines?”
To this question, Kate looked away from me, sobbing being her only verbal response.
I went back to the shackles on my ankle and began trying to yank the chains off from the floor, but they had been well maintained and were too strong for me to simply yank out of the stone. I then quickly looked around the room to find we were in a different basement from the one in Cabin #3, though it had the same kind of layout, the table the only major difference. I also took note of the blood stains that trailed from the sides of the table and the dried pools below.
“I want my mom!” Kate cried out, her voice echoing in the empty room.
“I’ll get you to her, I will, I promise,” I assured her, trying to find something, anything to get us out of this, “do you remember how we got down here?”
“I… I… I just re-remember… Remember you g-getting knocked out… Knocked out by someone and them… Them putting a rag over me… Then everything went black… Then I woke… Woke up… H-Here…” Kate answered, trying to breathe with each sob she let out. “I… I th-thought… y-you… You were d-d-… Dead!”
“I’m not, I’m very much alive and I’m going to get you out of here and back to your parents,” I vowed as I continued looking for a way out of this situation, “we’re going to get you out of here, get you home, and we’ll make sure no one ever gets hurt here ever-“
The sound of the basement door from the splintered wooden steps cut me off. I listened as feet descended down the steps to the basement below, Kate’s ragged breaths the only other sound. The person who came down was a woman. The same exact woman from the photo I had found in her house. She looked as if she had not aged since that photo was taken, despite how long ago it seemed the photo was taken. She had the same exact long, white hair, same tired looking eyes, and same disgustingly pale skin as in that photo and on her profile picture. It was Mrs. Larson.
“Deeeeeetectiiiiiiive,” she spoke in a hoarse voice mixed with what I assumed was her own and several others, both male and female, adult and child, “youuuuuuu shouuuullld haaaaaaaaave juuuuuuusssssst giiiiiven herrrrrrr toooooo meeeeee… Youuuuuuuu diiiiiiiiid nooooooot haaaaaave toooooooo ssssssseeeee thiiiiiissssss…”
“Fuck you!” I shouted, beginning to charge at the elderly woman only to be yanked back by my shackles. “Let us go, right now!”
“Nnnnooooo,” Mrs. Larson replied harshly as she stepped over to loom over Kate.
“Stay away from her!” I barked, trying desperately to break free of my shackles.
She ignored me as she ran a shaky hand down along Kate’s trembling face. “Ooooooooohhhhh, Kaaaaaate… Sweeeeet, sweeeeeeeet, Kaaaaaaaaaate…” Mrs. Larson cooed as she went on stroking Kate’s wet cheek. “Doooooo noooooooot crrrrrrryyyyyyy, dooooooonnnnnn’t thiiiiiiiiiinnnnk oooooofff iiiiiiiit aaaaaaaassssss dyyyyyyyyiiiiinnnnng, thiiiiiiiiinnnk ooooooooffff iiiiiiit aaaaaassssss ssssssssaaaaaaaaaviiiiiiinnng aaaaaannnnoooootherrrrrrrrr liiiiiiiiife.”
“I-I… I d-don’t… Don’t under-understand… w-what th-that… That m-means…” Kate cried, her hands gripping the sides of the metal table beneath her, “P-Please, d-don’t… Don’t kill me… L-Let… Let us-us go!”
“Nnnnnoooooo,” Mrs. Larson answered in the same harshness she used on me, “IIIIIIIII neeeeeeeed youuuuuuuuuu,” she then shot a death glare my way through tired, silver eyes, “aaaaaaaannnnnnd heeeeeeeeee’ssssssss beeeeeeeeeennnnnn nnnnnnnoooooooothiiiiiiiiinnnnnng buuuuut aaaaaa thooooooorrrrrrnnnn iiiiiiinnnnn myyyyyyyyy ssssssssiiiiiiiide siiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnccccccce youuuuuu eeeeeessssssscaaaaaaped meeeeeeee.” She then looked back to Kate with a softer look. “Aaaaaaaassssss fffffoooooorrrrr whaaaaaaaat youuuuuuu caaaaaannnn’t uuuuuunnnnnnderrrrrrssssssstaaaaaaannnnnnd, IIIIIIIIII nnnnnneeeeeeed yourrrrrrrrrr heaaaaaaaarrrrrt tooooooo ssssssssaaaaaavvvvvvve myyyyyyy ssssssiiiiiiiisssssssterrrrrrrr.”
“The fuck does that mean?” I demanded, still trying to vain to pull my ankle from the chains. “How the hell will Kate’s heart save your sister?”
“Diiiiiiiiidnnnnnn’t nnnnnnneeeeeeed toooooo beeeee Kaaaaaaate’sssssss,” admitted Mrs. Larson, “buuuuuuuut sssshhhhhheeeeee hiiiiiiiiid theeeeee ooooooootherrrrr giiiiirrrrrrllllll ffffffrrrrroooooommmmm mmmmmeeeeee.”
“S-Son… Sonja…” Kate sniffed, the tears still streaming down her face.
“IIIIIIII oooooooonnnnnlllllyyyyy neeeeed fffffffeeeeeemmmmmaaaaallllle,” Mrs. Larson dismissed Ms. Greymoore’s name, “ffffffeeeeeeemmmmmaaaaaallllle heaaaaaaaarrrrrrrtsssss toooooo rrrrrrreeeeeetuuuuurrrrrrnnnnn mmmmmmyyyyy ssssiiiiissssssterrrrrrrrr toooooo theeeeeeee giiiiirrrrrllllll ssssshhhhhheeeee uuuuuuuusssssed tooooo beeeeeee.”
“That’s a fucking joke right?” I asked. “The hell makes you think eating a female heart will turn your sister back into a human woman? Have you seen what’s happened to your sister?”
“IIIIIIIII knnnnnnnooooooow beeeeeeecaaaauuuuusssssse iiiiiiiiiiit wooooooorrrrrked ooooooonnnnn mmmmmeeeeee,” Mrs. Larson explained, “IIIIIIIIIII waaaaaasssss aaaaaaablllllllle toooooo reeeeeeetaaaaiiiiiinnnnnn thiiiiiiiiiisssssss huuuuuummmmmmaaaaaannnnn fffffffooooorrrrrrmmmm ffffffrrrrrooooommmm eeeeeaaaaatiiiiiinnnnnng theeeeeeee heaaaaaaaaarrrrrtsssss, sssssspecifffffficaaaaaaallllllyyyyyy fffffffeeeeeemmmmmaaaaallllleeee sssssssooooooo IIIIIIIIII mmmmmmaaaaaayyyyyy rrrrrreeeeetuuuurrrrrnnnnn toooo beeeeeiiiiinnnng theeeeeeee giiiiiirrrrrrrllllll IIIIIII uuuuuuusssssed toooooooo beeeeeee.”
“You were dead,” I pointed out, “they found your body up here, you were buried.”
“Theeeeeessssssse sssshhhhheeeeeellllllsssss arrrrrrre mmmmmeeeeeerrreeeellllyyy veeeeeessssssellllllssssss ffffffoooooorrrrrr theeeeeeee sssssspiiiiirrrrriiiiiitsssss weeeee hiiiiiiiiiiide beeeeeneeeeaaaaattthhhh,” Mrs. Larson responded, finally turning her gaze to me, “IIIIIIII haaaaaaad tooooooo maaaake peeeopllllle beeeelieevvvve IIIIIII haaaaaad diiiiiiied tooooo keeeeeep frrrrroooommm theeeee poooooollllliiiiicccce ffffrrrrrrooooommmm pooookiiiiiinnnng aaaaarrrrouuuuuunnnnd aaaaannnnnd rrrrruuuiiinnnnniiinnnng eeeevvvveeerrrrryyythiiiiinnnng.”
“So, let me just get this whole thing straight,” I began as I started rubbing my temples, "when you and your sister starting into… Whatever the hell that thing you call your sister is-“
“Ooooouuuurrrrr sssssspiiiiiirrrrrriiiiiit,” Mrs. Larson corrected.
“Whatever!” I shot. “You found out that eating female hearts turns you two back into human women and to keep police from suspecting you, you pretended to be dead and… What? Just hope a shitty real estate agency would buy your property and you could just… Kill people, people with lives and families outside the mountains?”
“Thaaaaaaaat iiiiiiisssss cooooorrrrrreeeeect…” Mrs. Larson admitted, narrowing her eyes at me.
That’s when I began laughing hysterically, holding my sides that hurt with each harsh breath of a laugh I took. Both Mrs. Larson and Kate looked to me as if I had lost my mind and at this point I was starting to believe I had. Everything I had seen and heard about this entire case would put anyone in the looney bin. And I’m the damn fool who dug too deep into something he had nothing to do with.
“Whaaaaaat’s ssssoooo ffffuuunnnny?” Growled Mrs. Larson, stepping around Kate to stand between us.
“I don’t know what’s fucking funnier, honestly,” I chuckled, running a hand through my hair, “the fact that you thing people won’t be poking around even more when they discover not only is Blackwell missing, but so is a detective and escaped convict all of whom now have ties to these fucking mountains and those cabins, or that you thing I’m more afraid of what you plan on doing with me more than I am when her father finds out I got her in this situation in the first place!”
“Heeeeeee wooooonnnnn’t beeeee aaaaabllllle toooooo doooo aaaaaannnnnyyyyythiiiiiinnnng aaaaaaafffffterrrrrrr IIIIIIIII’mmmmm dooooooonnnne wiiiiiiiith booooooth ooooooooffffff youuuuuuuuu,” Mrs. Larson hissed as she inched closer, “fffffffiiiiiiirrrrrrssssst, IIIIIIIII waaaaaannnnnt youuuuuuuu toooo waaaaaatch mmmmmeeeee kiiiiiiillllll herrrrrrr,” she turned her head to look to Kate who was now just shaking, her eyes seemingly gone dry from the crying, Mrs. Larson then looked back to me, “sssssseeeeecooooonnnnd, IIIIIIII wiiiiillllll ssssssaaaaave youuuuu fffffooooorrrr mmmmmmyyyyy sssssiiiiiisssssterrrrr, oooooonnnnne heeeeaaaaart wiiiiilllll nnnnoooot ssssssaaaaaatissssfffffyyyy herrrr huuuuuunnnnnger.” She took another step. “Uuuuuuuunnnnnllllliiiiiike sssssssoooooommmme ssssssiiiiiibllllliiiiiiinnnnnngsssss, IIIIIIIII caaaaaarrrre aaaaaaboooouuuuut mmmmmmyyyyy ffffffaaaammmmiiiiilllllyyyyyy.”
She stared into my eyes, expecting a reaction and while my blood did somewhat boil at the accusatory statement, I didn’t fully understand what she was getting at. Not until she used that voice. Not until she relived that day with those two familiar child-like voices.
“Screw you, Liam!” She cried out in a voice I remember from my childhood. “I hope you drop dead!”
“Stop.” I demanded.
“Piss off, Ryan!” She shot back in a second boy’s voice.
“I said stop!” I began shouting.
“Help me, Ryan! Please, help me! I’m sorry! Please, Lucky Dime, help me!”
I then lunged toward her, reaching my hands out toward her neck only to be stopped by the shackles as she swiftly, almost without even moving, stepped just out of my reach.
“Fucking bitch!” I screamed out.
“If only you really cared about me, Lucky Dime,” sighed Mrs. Larson as she turned and began making her way to the side of the room where a cart stood in the shadows. She pulled it over to Kate’s side, the cart covered in rusted medical tools.
“P-Please,” Kate wheezed, “p-p-please… I… I d-d-don’t w-want… Want t-to d-d… D-Die, I… I w-w-want m-m-m… My m-mom!”
“Dooooonnn’t woooorrrrryyyyy,” Mrs. Larson soothed, using that mix of different voices, “mmmmmmaaaayyyyybeeee sheeee wiiiillll cooooommmme loooookinnnng ffffooooorrrr yooouuuuu aaaaannnnnd sheeeeeee caaaaannnnn joooooiiiiiinnnn youuuuuuu.”
Kate began to sob, begging and pleading for Mrs. Larson to let her go, thrashing around in her restraints. Telling the older woman that there was no saving her sister and that she was too far gone for this sick ritual to work anymore. I tried to yank at the chains once more, trying to loosen it at least enough to break free and grab at Mrs. Larson.
“Rrrrrrreeeeellllllaaaaax,” Mrs. Larson ordered as she began filling a syringe with some kind of clear liquid from a small bottle, “yoooouuuuuu woooooonnnn’t eeeeeveeennn fffffeeeellll iiiiiiit, thiiiissssss wiiiiiillllll puuuuuut youuuuu toooo ssssssllllllleeeeeep aaaaaannnnnnd wheeeeeennnnnn youuuuuu waaaaaake uuuuuuuup, youuuuuuu’lllllll beeee iiiiiinnnnnn heeeeeaaaaaaveeeennnnn… Uuuuuunnnnnnnllllllessssss youuuuuuu weeeerrrrrrre aaaaaa haaaaaarrrrrlllllooooooot, iiiiiiinnnnnn whiiiiiiiich caaaaaassssssseeeee, mmmmmaaaayyyy Goooooood haaaaaaaave mmmmmmmmerrrrrrrcccccyyyyy ooooonnnnn youuuuuur ssssssoooouuuuullllll… Aaaaannnnnd baaaaaaasssssed ooooonnnn hoooooow youuuuuu drrrrressss aaaaannnnnd theeeee coooommmmpaaaannnnyyyy youuuuuu keeeeeep,” She added as she eyed me, “IIIIIII ssssssaaaaaayyyy youuuuu haaaaaave aaaaa lllllloooooot ooooooffff fooooooorrrrgiiiiiviiiiinnnnng tooooo dooooo.”
Kate continued to cry as Mrs. Larson pushed the needle of the syringe into her arm, pushing down on the plunger as it pierced the flesh. Kate’s loud screams soon turned quieter and her red eyes began to glaze over, but she continued to stay awake, tightening her grip on the table and still begging to be let go.
“IIIIII waaaaannnnt youuuuu toooo waaaaatch, Detective,” Mrs. Larson spat out my title in Mr. Blackwell’s voice, “IIIII waaaaannnnnt youuuuu toooo waaaaatch herrrrrr fffffaaaaaade aaaaaannnnnnd mmmmmeeeee rrrrreeeemmmmooooove heerr heeeaaaarrrrrt toooooo ffffffeeeeeed tooooo mmmmmmyyyyyy ssssssiiiiiiiissssssterrrrrr,” she then pulled out a recorder, “theeeeennnnnn wheeeeeennnnn IIIIIII ssssssuuuuummmmoooooonnnnn herrrrrrr aaannnnd sheeeee fffffiiiinnnniiiishessssss oooooofffffff heeeerrrrr heeeaaaaarrrrrt, youuuuuuu’llllllll beeeeee neeeeeext.”
“Fuck you,” I snarled, “I hope you and your sister burn.”
“IIIIIIIII’mmmmm gooooonnnnnaaaaa gooooo aaaaallllllerrrrrrt mmmmmyyyyy ssssssiiiiiiissssterrrrrr,” Mrs. Larson turned and began making her way to the basement steps, “ssssseeee youuuuu boooooth ffffffoooooorrrr diiiiiinnnnnnerrrrrrr.”
She then pressed the play button on her recorder and a small, little girl’s voice echoed in the room before Mrs. Larson vanished up the steps.
“I’m here… I’m here… I’m here…”
Then the door slammed shut.
“De… Tec… Tive…” Kate squeaked out, her breathing slowing.
“Stay awake, Blackwell,” I ordered her gently, looking around frantically for anything to get us both out of this alive, “I’ll get us out of this, I promise, just stay awake, we’ll get out of here, I just need-“
“I’m… S… Sorry…” she breathed out. “I’m… So… Sorry… For… Get… Getting… You… In… To.. This…”
“No, no, this is not your fault!” I assured her. “That psychotic bitch got us both into this shit and I won’t stop until I get us out and put her and her fucking sister are six feet under!”
“W…Wha… What… H… Hap… Happened… To… To L… Liam…?”
I stopped struggling with the chains and turned to look to Kate. Her head was turned to me, her face wet, hands clenching as hard as they could to the table beneath her, the light in her eyes slowly fading second by second. She was trying desperately to stay awake. The medication Mrs. Larson taking hold of her as the minutes ticked by.
I dropped the chains that were in my hands, looking away from her, wanting to stare at anything other than another person I had failed.
“He was killed,” I answered, “we were fishing at a lake nearby… Lake Gaagige… We got into a really stupid ass fucking fight about how which fishing pole we were going to use. I wanted to use our dad’s, but Liam was older and said only men could use dad’s fishing pole… I told him… To drop dead and stormed off… When I got home, my parents dragged me back to the lake and scolded me for leaving him…” I trailed off, swallowing all the tears and screams I’d bottled up since that day. “When… We found… Him… The autopsy… Said he was mauled by a bear… I’ve blamed myself for leaving him there alone… For letting him die and getting killed like that… The last thing I ever told him was to drop dead… I was a shitty brother and now I’m a shitty detective…”
“Is… Is he… Why… You became… A… Detective…?”
I took a deep breath and swallowed the tears again. “No, Blackwell,” I answered, “he’s not why I became a detective… I already knew what had killed him… It was my fault… If I hadn’t been such a brat and stormed off… He might still be alive… And now… What that bitch said…” I replayed Liam’s screams that escaped Mrs. Larson’s mouth. “I’m starting to think I’m getting what I deserve. Karma’s back to kick my ass…”
“H… How… Old…?”
“I was six… Liam was eight…”
“N… N… Not your… F… Fault…”
I turned to look to Kate, her eyes on mine, however faded.
“Y… You were… Only… A k… Kid…”
I took another intake of what little air there was down in that basement. I had spent years trying to convince myself of the same thing, but those moments never got easier for me when those thoughts returned.
“I think you’re just being nice,” I laughed painfully, “but I’m afraid I- and my folks- don’t share the same sentiment.”
I was staring down at where the chains were coming from in the ground, Kate not saying a word for over a couple of minutes. I spun to see if she had fallen asleep and immediately tried to find out how to wake her up again. However, once I our eyes met, I saw that she was still fighting sleep, the last of her tears rolling down across the bridge of her nose and into her hair.
“I… I… I had… Had a c… Crush… O… On… J… Jasper…” she confessed, her voice getting quieter and higher. “P… Paul and… And Son… Sonja knew… I never… Never c… Cared f… For Luke… But I’m… Sure… S… Sonja t… Told him…” she looked like she was going to sob again. “I… I never g… Got the… Ch… Chance… T… To tell J… Jasper… I… Was… Scared… He… He and… P… Paul were friends… And I… I kn… Knew… How P… Paul f… Felt… A… About m… Me… I… I did… Didn’t wa… Want to… R… Ruin… Anyth… Anything…” She took a gulp of air. “I… I ha… Hated L… Luke… I… A… Always… Kn… Knew… He… He was a… Player… B… But Sonja… Said… Said she was hap… Happy… So… So I did… Didn’t wa… Want to g… Get in… H… Her way… B… But Luke d… Didn’t l… Like h… How cl… Close… We… Were… I d… Didn’t w… Want him to make… Make her th… Think I… I was l… Leading her o… On… T… To get them… To b… Break up… Th… Then… That n… Night… Sh… She w… Wanted to… To leave…” She let out two pained gasps of breath. “I… I let them down… I let them all down… Luke pro… Probably thought… Thought I w… Was the one who… Who f… Filled Sonja’s mind… With thoughts of… Of him ch… Cheating… Th… Then I… I got them… All killed…
I… I didn’t deserve them, d… Detective…” she went on, looking away from me to stare up at the water damaged ceiling, “I… I… I was a… Terrible… Terrible friend…”
“Did you read their guest book entries?” I asked.
“N… No… D… Didn’t w… Want to… To r… Read any… Anything p… Private…” Kate answered.
“Jasper didn’t blame you,” I assured her, remembering what he had written in his entry during his time watching Mrs. Larson just outside the cabin, “even when he heard the voices- when he heard Mrs. Larson- telling him to, he didn’t. I don’t think the others blamed you either. You didn’t do anything wrong, Ms. Blackwell, there’s no way you could have known any of this would happen.”
“K… Kate…”
“What?”
“C… Call… Call me… Kate…”
“Aright, Kate,” I let out what little laughter I had left inside me, “so long as we’re the last people we’ll be chatting with, call me Ryan.”
“R… Ryan…”
“If we at all live through this, I’m going to need a long vacation after this,” I said as I turned to look at my shackles again, looking around myself to try finding anything to Get free since a vacation sounded like something to die for at that moment, “do you know any good vacation spots I can book for the fall?”
“Y… You’re… You’re a… Dick…” Kate struggled to laugh.
“I also enjoy pineapple on pizza,” I winked as I reached down to my ankle, ready to break it just to taste that sweet combination of tomato sauce and fruit.
“G… God… I… I c… Can’t… Believe… I th… Thought y… You w… Were c… Cute…”
I sat down on the floor, grabbing my ankle with both my hands. Needing to hype myself up enough to do what I was going to do, I began removing my shoe and sock from the foot, rubbing and squeezing my way up and down the ankle to my toes. I had never broken a bone in my life before this and I definitely never thought I’d do it of my own volition, but this was a desperate time and it definitely called for desperate…
“Wait what?” I turned to look to Kate, finally registering what she had said.
However, just before I could be sure of what I heard, the sound of a hunting rifle going off just above our heads right before we heard the door to the basement swing open and immediately be slammed shut. Both Kate and I turned to see someone stumble down the wooden steps, his clothes torn and body scratched and cut to a nearly deadly degree. I was even shocked he was still breathing.
“M… Mr… R… Raines…?” Kate gasped out.
“What’s left of me at least,” Mr. Raines grumbled as he limped over to Kate and quickly began undoing her straps to the table, “damn thing almost ripped my head off, but one swing of the barrel to its eye and I was able to get away… Can’t say it didn’t do its damage though… I’m… Getting really fucking hungry…”
He shook his head violently before limping over to me. He then raised an eyebrow at me when he saw how I was positioned still on the floor with a bare foot in my hands shackled to the floor.
“I… I was… I… I thought you were-“ I stammered.
“I am,” Mr. Raines interrupted, “at least, I’m on my way there anyway.” He then retrieved my Glock from his back pocket. “I don’t know what that thing did to me, but I’m not gonna make it out of this alive, or the way I came in. It’s a massacre out there by the way. Lot of men in blue bodies out there… Very… Hard to ignore… Sure more will be on their way. So.”
With that, Mr. Raines pointed at my chains and pulled the trigger on my clock, barely giving me time to cover my ears as the sound rung out loudly in the basement. I shook my head, trying to undo the blurry and ringing side effects of the sound of a gun going off near your head. I gave the older man a glare before standing and snatching my Glock from his hands. That’s when I saw Kate shifting herself to the side of the metal table she was no longer tied to, trying to get her limbs to comply with her to help her off and on to the floor.
I ran over and grabbed her just as she nearly stumbled face first to the floor and lifted her up to her feet, her body heavy with lack of keeping herself up.
“Do you think you can walk?” I asked, trying to keep her on her feet.
“I… I don’t… I…” Kate stammered as she tried to push herself off of me while also using using me as a crutch until she could stand on her own. However, she didn’t seem to be able to put any kind of pressure on her legs without falling down.
“Kate?” A girl’s voice called out from above us.
Feeling Kate shudder, I realized that it must have been the sound of Sonja’s voice and Mrs. Larson was using her to keep Kate from running. I quickly swung my arm down behind her knees, pressing the other down on her back as I lifted her up off the floor, my Glock at the ready as I kept it pointed in front of me while my arm held up Kate’s knees.
“She must have heard the gunshots,” I pointed out, “how’d you get past her in the first place?”
“I set the other cabins on fire,” Mr. Raines answered as if it were the simplest of answers, “I had to distract her somehow and give those bodies she’d been eating a better fate than becoming her shit.”
“Are you planning on setting this place on fire too?” I asked.
“‘Course I am!” Mr. Raines exclaimed, seemingly offended I’d even ask. “I already doused it in gasoline, I ain’t wasting all that time!”
“Kate!” Sonja’s voice cried out, getting closer to the basement door. “Are you seriously leaving me here to die alone again!”
“Please… Make it… Stop…” Kate sniffed as she gripped my shirt and burying her face into the fabric.
“Let’s get you two out of here.” Mr. Raines began leading the way to the basement stairs, cocking his rifle as he did so.
“What about you?” I asked, immediately following after him.
Mr. Raines didn’t answer as he stomped up the stairs and kicked the door open to the first floor of the cabin. The stench of the gasoline he had spilled hitting me harshly in my face.
“Kate!” Sonja’s voice, along with a different crescendo of male voices shrieked out as Mrs. Larson appeared from the corner of the hallway where the basement was located.
“Leighton?” A different woman’s voice asked the moment the old woman’s eyes spotted Mr. Raines. I then watched in both shock and confusion as it almost looked like the very skin on the woman melted off to reveal a much younger woman. The woman I recognized as Bonnie Collins. “Leighton… Love is that you?”
Mr. Raines kept his rifle on the vision of the woman he once loved before her murder, but didn’t move or speak.
“Darling, I’ve missed you so much!” The fake Bonnie cried out as she began making her way to Mr. Raines with arms open wide to hug him.
Mr. Raines then lifted his gun up higher, placing his finger on the trigger which caused the vision to stop in her place.
“Leighton?” The fake Bonnie asked. “Baby, it’s me… Bun-Bun… Don’t you recognize me…?” She began to tear up.
“You’re not my Bunny,” Mr. Raines growled before he shot once at the woman.
The fake Bonnie swiftly dodged the bullet, an inhuman hiss coming from an unhinged mouth, revealing a row of long, sharp teeth. The skin of Bonnie then melted off to reveal another woman, a lot younger than the first one it intimidated. The face of one of the victims upon being brought on this case.
“Kate,” the fake Sonja called out, “Kate, what are you doing? Who are these men? Why are they trying to hurt me?”
Kate let out a sobbing gasp, her nails digging into my shoulder with her arm wrapped around my neck.
“Didn’t I suffer enough?” The fake Sonja asked. “First my boyfriend and now you? Why don’t you want to be with me anymore?”
“Shut up!” Kate demanded. “You’re not Sonja! You killed her, you killed all of them! I don’t care what happens to me, but I’m not letting their memories end with you!”
Kate then snatched my Glock from my hand under her legs and shot directly at the fake Sonja’s head. Again the shot missed as the fake vision of the girl slithered out of the way, a frustrated growl of a dog and human escaping it’s mouth. It then zipped to the side, cowering with its back to us on the floor.
“Lucky dime…” A child’s voice then took over. The vision’s skin melting now to a much smaller figure. “Is this what you want? To kill me all over again?” He turned to look up at me, Liam’s face forever eight-years-old staring up at me. “It’s no wonder mommy and daddy hate you now… You were always a shitty brother… Now, I’m gonna starve to death because you’d rather help a couple of strangers.”
“I’m sorry, Liam,” I replied, everyone, including the fake Liam looking to me in surprise, “I left you alone out here and that’s what got you killed by that thing out there and I’m sorry. But, if I’d stayed it may have been both of us and then mom and dad would have no one left to blame but each other. If you had left and I was the one killed, you’d probably be in my shoes instead. I’m sorry for letting you get killed, but I’m gonna make up for it now.”
I then took my Glock back from Kate and pointed it to the vision of Liam.
“Good bye, Liam.”
I shot the gun once again, missing the creature again, however, this time I just kept shooting, Mr. Raines following after. Our different bullets just kept firing, the thing dodging and trying to get closer to us. The creature screeched out at us in a myriad of different voices both familiar and unknown. It wasn’t until one shot from my Glock struck the creatures shoulder and Mr. Raines’ rifle struck its head when the skins of everyone it was trying to turn into all melted off, revealing Mrs. Larson once again.
However, this time, she looked shriveled, older than she looked before. Her face looked deformed, beginning to grow furry, her eyes growing nothing but red, no irises, no pupils, just red. Her hair grew longer, branches like antlers growing painfully out from her skull, breaking the skin as they grew larger. The lower half of her face grew elongated, turning into that of a muzzle of fangs and a drooling mouth.
“You… All… Have no rrrrrrriiiiiight!” A different, unknown voice snarled out from what used to be Mrs. Larson. “People liiiiiike you all… Abandoned me and myyyyyyyyy sister!” The fur growing around this thing grew out short and shaggy, the cloths it was using melting off with the skin and flesh it was wearing. It now didn’t look anything like a human woman. It now took the form of a large wolf mixed with that of a deer, it’s body dog-like with hooves, antlers, and a long, scraggly tail. “You lot abandoned us here! You left us all here to diiiiiiiie!”
Guilt was weighing down on me with each syllable it was growling. Kate looked away from it, burying her face in my neck as Mr. Raines lowered his rifle.
“Nooooow, you’re bringing more here to just leave and let die out here!” It went on, it’s horrifying, broken body shuddering. “Why let them just vanish and die up here when they can bring people like my sister and I back? Give me Kate’s heart and fix what you threeeeeeeeee failed!”
Mr. Raines then handed over his rifle to Kate, placing it down on her stomach as her hands were still wrapped around my neck. The older man made his way over to stand over the thing, its neck creaking like a rusted door as it turned its wolf-like head to look up at him.
“Leighton…” Bonnie’s voice came from the creature. “Give mmmmeeeee her heart aaaannnnd we can be togetherrrrr again… If you eat the deeeeeetective’s we can saaaaaave you tooooooo…”
“My Bunny’s dead,” Mr. Raines told it as he dug in his pocket and took out a carton of matches, “and so am I.”
“You’d burn your wife?” A mix of Bonnie and Mrs. Larson’s voices shrieked as it glared at the match he took from the match box.
“You’re not my wife,” Mr. Raines told it, “and I’ll never see her again.”
“Fooooooool,” Mr. Larson’s voice chuckled, “you’llllllll killllllll us both!”
“With the shit I’ve done in my life, I know you’re taking me to Hell with you,” Mr. Raines growled back as he struck the match on the box, “so I’m sure as fuck not afraid to burn here on Earth with you!”
Mr. Raines then dropped the match to the floor right before the creature and everything around the two of them immediately went up in flames, the fur of the creature catching quickly and engulfing it. An agonized shriek echoed out all around us, the creature thrashing in the fire it had gotten swallowed up in. Mr. Raines then grabbed it by it’s long, furry throat and swung it down back flat the floor, jumping to pin it down.
“Get out!” Mr. Raines cried out to me. “Leave here!”
Not needing to be told twice, I held onto Kate tightly and bolted past the two burning bodies, jumping over the fire as it began growing fast throughout the cabin. I quickly got to the front door and stopped to look back to see Mr. Raines fighting the creature and preventing it from coming after us, it begging for me to bring Kate back and that it would die without her.
“I’ll clear your name,” I called back, trying not to reel back in horror as I saw Mr. Raines skin begin to melt off, “I’ll let people know you didn’t kill Bonnie!”
“I’ll let people know you didn’t… Kill… Liam!” Mr. Raines’ voice called back, him thrashing around with Mrs. Larson as he said my brother’s name in my voice.
I turned back and kicked the front door open, rushing Kate out of the burning cabin. I ran until I got far enough from the smoke, turning back to see all three cabins now on fire, the area around them all ablaze. The only place untouched was Mrs. Larson’s house, all the evidence remaining. I could hear sirens in the distance coming closer. The sounds of shouts from the surviving officers sounding much closer.
“I’m here… I’m here… I’m here…”
I looked to the front porch of Mrs. Larson’s house where her recorder continued to call out for her sister. I set Kate down at the base of a nearby tree and ran to snatch the recorder, shutting it off. I searched around, looking for any signs of Prudence, but it appeared that the fire and the sounds of sirens and voices had scared her off. I ran back to Kate, her eyes closed and her not responding to me calling to her, but after checking her pulse and breathing, I found that the medication Mrs. Larson had given her had finally taken over and she was now fast asleep, the rifle Mr. Raines gave her still sitting on her rhythmically rising and falling stomach.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I leaned against the same tree I set Kate down on and slid down to the ground next to her. The first two cabins were already practically nothing but ash, the last still blazing as I heard the slowly fading screams of Mrs. Larson and Mr. Raines coming from inside.
When the screaming ended all together, the smoke turning blacker as it rose from the flames, I got to my feet and took out my pack of cigarettes as I approached the fires, staying far enough away not to get burned. I opened the pack up before stopping myself as I reached for one of the ten remaining cigarettes inside. I then flung the entire carton into the fires without taking one.
“Save one for me down there, you old bastard,” I told Mr. Raines before making my way back to Kate’s side.
It wasn’t long before the remaining officers found us, looking in confusion at the fires and to me with a sleeping victim in a homicide case on the ground. I told them we’d need to call an ambulance for Kate and that we needed to keep the flames from getting to Mrs. Larson’s house as it held evidence on the case. One officer retrieved his radio and called for an ambulance while a group ran to the house and another went to try controlling the fire as best they could by yanking out any bushes near by and throwing them away from the area around the house.
Luckily, the fire trucks were called long before the fire spread too far, residence noticing it practically the moment Mr. Raines set the first cabin on fire.
As I sat there, keeping Kate held up against the tree we sat under, I listened to the crackling of the fire, the sirens of fast approaching fire trucks and the ambulance, and the sounds of distance, coyote, almost human, howling.
2024.06.01 14:29 Independent_Wash_487 honestly wishing I wasn’t pregnant right now. having horrible thoughts right now.
I have so far been up all night as I can’t fall asleep for nothing. I have been stressing so much lately and there is nothing that can ease the stress.. on top of the thoughts of what can happen to the baby long term medical wise from all this stress. It’s honestly so much eating away at me and I just don’t know what to do with these thoughts. I am going to just write away everything that’s been eating away at me.. that is why this is going to be very long as it’s been a lot so far… I got off birth control in December as life was going amazing and it was giving me awful migraines as I was rearing my third year being on nexplanon. I knew that there could be a possibility of getting pregnant and honestly with how life was going the thought of potentially getting our boy as we have two girls right now was really exciting me. I have been working from home and recently got a huge raise and things were looking great. A month after getting off the birth control I started feeling weird, that intuition feeling came. Shortly after, my job that I had been with for almost 3 years randomly lays off a lot of employees including me with no notice or anything. I thought it would be a long term job but they eventually grew financial issues. Of course I didn’t want to abort this baby just because my job laid me off. I am a very independent person so of course I would do anything to make sure me and mine are straight. I start back doordashing full time from 9 am to 9 pm and I stay an hour from the nearest city so the stress of wear and tear on my car has always scared me but you gotta do what you gotta do as a parent. Of course they say I’m eligible for unemployment and I’ve tried endless times to file for it and they always denied me due to work searches as I wasn’t applying to the right places when I was applying EVERYWHERE. No matter what I put. Every week would get denied cause of this and the phone number is impossible to reach someone. So I’ve given up on unemployment. We lived off of our tax return plus DoorDashing which I really wanted to save this money. The work search has been so stressful. I got a seasonal job and did amazing at it working up to 18 hours overtime one day but they over hired people so there was way to many people to consider hiring everyone full time so once it ended less then a month of working there that was it. Until I got a call from my dream job which my mom and my bf mom both work there and it pays way higher then what I’ve made on top of providing a hybrid schedule too. I felt it was a stretch applying but my resume looked really good so I went for it. I got an interview with them and the interviewer loved me and said he felt really confident in me and would like to offer me the position. Of course I’m overly excited cause this is my dream job. After filling out the onboarding and going to scheduled onboarding appointments they state there was only one issue stopping my onboarding which was a previous account with them that had restrictions on it that I was not aware of. I trusted the wrong “friends” back in high school 7 YEARS AGO with my personal information not knowing any better and they did fraud with my information and of course it fell back on me. I even paid back every owed penny from the fraud to clear my name to move on from that mistake. They never told me they also proceeded to put restrictions cause of it. So my onboarding was put on hold until I handled the restrictions. Fast forward a month later of struggling making ends meet. We have no more income tax money.. but at least I finally receive a response saying the restrictions would be removed. So finally we receive great news. I let the people know and they proceed to let me know that someone will reach out to me in 5-7 days and it has now surpassed that time frame with no response and I am just so scared that they won’t follow through.. It is now June and I have been struggling to get a full time job since February and I am holding onto the little ounce of hope that this job will follow through like they said… Holding onto that ounce of hope as doordash grew very stressful I decided to pull all of my retirement out from my previous job to put into savings in case we need it for an emergency especially if the car were to go out on us. on top of our apartment lease renewal coming up. We did NOT want to renew the lease because this apartment has treated us HORRIBLY since we moved in. We came from a clean bug free apartment due to the rent randomly increasing twice since we moved in it and moved 30 minutes to be closer to my OLD job and his family. We moved into this apartment because I had a work friend refer it to me saying it was her first apartment and she fell in love with it. Not knowing we were going to get the worst apartment building probably out of the whole complex. Since we moved in we could not look at the apartment until after the lease was signed and given the keys. We moved ONE box into the place and came back days later to move the rest of our stuff. We moved that box and SO MANY roaches scattered from it and we knew instantly we got played and that now all of our things were going to be roach infested now. Fast forward almost a whole year later we have tried endless methods to get rid of them such as boric acid, orthene, endless traps, endless raid bottles, ONTOP of the apartment buildings monthly pest control coming in doing whatever they do and WE STILL HAVE THEM. No matter what we do they are not leaving as I believe even tho we try different methods it won’t matter if everyone else in the building aren’t trying to get rid of them. They are probably being constantly rotated between the other apartments around us so it’s useless. I DO NOT WANT TO BRING MY NEW BORN BABY INTO THIS APARTMENT. On top of all the plugs in the walls has blown in the living room. I let the landlord know about this and they sent there only technician to check it out and they didn’t know what they were doing. They switched the power surge switches on and off and it fixed the plugs but they proceeded to go back out the next day. We haven’t even been there a year and the refrigerator has been tearing up like crazy. The whole bottom of it has ripped off cause apparently the adhesive is so strong when closing and opening that it slowly tore its own frame off. We had to use gorilla glue to glue it back on and it’s so far worked. On top of the rims around the door got so many rips in it. The door holders on the fridge can’t hold anything heavy or else the whole shelf falls off same as the door handles on the freezer so we have to carefully move things around it and put only certain things in those spots or else it’s all going to the floor. The first red flag of the apartment is there are no washer and dryer hook ups and that is honestly the least of our problems with this place.. the bolts on the dish washer are so tiny and unscrewed with time and randomly the whole dish washer completely fell down from being poorly connected to the counter. Whenever you open it to put dishes in you have to hold the racks or else the whole dish washer will fall forward and they will roll out with all the dishes in it. I’m so over this place and we have BEEN ready to move out. So once the 30 days came up I contacted the landlord about the 30 day notice that we were going to move out before the lease renewed. She proceeded to tell me with no emotion that they required a 60 DAY notice in advance prior to our lease end date and that our lease already renewed for another YEAR. She didn’t even try to help us out and did not provide any kind of notice or reminding about the 60 day notice. She just kept repeating that we signed the lease and it is written in the lease. She said if we move out we will be responsible to pay the months rent for each upcoming month until a new tenant moves in and takes over the lease which is very unlikely as they have full control on whether they want to move someone new in or continue to bill us the monthly rent.. So now we are trying to figure out how we are going to work out this New obstacle/road block and I am already halfway through my pregnancy. All of this stress has been eating me alive for the whole beginning of my pregnancy and it ALL came out of the blue. This is not how I pictured being pregnant with my third baby and I feel completely miserable right now. I am struggling doordashing all day just waiting for any kind of good news. We are thinking about ditching this apartment and going to stay with my mom until we find a full time job to afford a new apartment as we just want to start the process of this landlord potentially searching for a new tenant to take this burden off of us. We do not wish to pay two apartment rents as my credit is amazing and I know if they put any of this apartments owed rent when we move out on my collections it will ruin my credit.. we have been growing it for when we are ready to get our first home. So I know not paying it is not an option for me. I’ve just been wishing this ongoing nightmare will finally come to an end and I can finally receive any kind of good news. I was sooo excited about this pregnancy but now I have zero excitement for it as I have been through endless stressing and roadblocks the whole pregnancy so far. I am afraid that this stress and pain will affect the baby long term.. I do not wish to bring this baby into this apartment as I fully wish to be in a new upgraded apartment bug free when the baby comes in October my birthday month.. It’s just super hard holding onto any kind of motivation right now and the pain is slowly eating me up inside.. I just really needed to get all of this off of my chest and hopefully maybe I can finally get some sleep right now. If you read all of this.. thank you for listening and all I can really say is check on your people cause you never know what they could be going through as life can hit so random at times..
submitted by Independent_Wash_487 to pregnant [link] [comments]
2024.06.01 14:15 ericvonroon VIP Lane
So I confirmed today that PLDT discriminates its customers. Kahapon nawalan kami ng internet. So I called customer service in the morning and got a service ticket. I suspected that the modem went bad. Probably due to recent power fluctuations. I knew from past experiences that it will be a very long process. Ire-raise daw nila sa next level for escalation. Wala naman akong gagawin so called in with an internet issue at the office and decided to call customer service again after lunch to follow-up with the service ticket. After checking on their end, they can't remote connect to my modem - either there's a cable cut from the post or the modem is bad. They will raise a new ticket a new ticket daw so that field technicians can visit within 36-48 hours. I demanded that technicians be immediately sent. Wala kakong nakalagay sa terms and conditions nila na need naming mga customers na maghintay ng 36-48 hours to fully resolve or get a technician visit. I know because I've read those T&Cs. Yung 36-48 hours kako eh SLA yan between PLDT and the contractor. Pero kaming mga customers we can demand immediate field tech visit. To make the ,long story short (because this is just the first part). I was on the phone with them from 2pm to 7pm. They were trying to contact field technicians and their management daw so that they can dispatch to my house. Umabot sa point na tatlong managers ang kausap ko sabay-sabay. Nalaman lang nilang iisa lang ang kausap nila around 5pm when they realized the ticket was getting updates from multiple persons. How I got to three supervisors? I called using multiple phones. Pag may naka-record nang ticket sa account mo, the IVR will tell you that you already have a service ticket and will not let you go futher. I bypassed that by selecting the billing option and then ask the billing agent to transfer me to tech support.
Eto na. kaninang umaga dumating ang mga technicians. Tumawag mga 8:30 and on the way na raw sila. Pagbaba ng sasakyan nila parang nagtataka ang itsura nung mga technician. May binanggit yung isa sa kasama nya, "Pre, ito yung VIP escalation?". Hindi ko na pinansin yun. Nag-inspect na sila dun sa NAP box, mga fiber cables and na-conclude na modem nga ang sira. Ang sabi sa akin eh may iba daw tech na parating na at dala yung replacement modem.
TInanong ko, "Sigurado kayo, parating na?". His reply was "Yes sir, papunta na po yun. Hindi pwedeng hinde kasi VIP escalation 'to. May kilala po ba kayo sa PLDT?".
I had to think fast and answered, "Kilala ko yung Operations AVP nila.". Sa totoo, wala akong kilala sa PLDT at hindi ko alam kung may role na ganun dun.
"Ah kaya pala. Naka-tag po kasi kayo as priority. Sige po paantay na lang..."
15 minutes later the guy with the modem called me asking for direction to my house. He arrived and replaced my modem.
So ayun, I therefore conclude that PLDT has a VIP lane for politicians, artists, business, big-wigs, and occasional GAGOs like me. Less than 24 hours after my issue came out, solved na.
So either today or on monday, an Operations AVP (if that role even exists), will get a notice that the case he/she escalated is already solved... or not...
submitted by ericvonroon to InternetPH [link] [comments]
Eto na. kaninang umaga dumating ang mga technicians. Tumawag mga 8:30 and on the way na raw sila. Pagbaba ng sasakyan nila parang nagtataka ang itsura nung mga technician. May binanggit yung isa sa kasama nya, "Pre, ito yung VIP escalation?". Hindi ko na pinansin yun. Nag-inspect na sila dun sa NAP box, mga fiber cables and na-conclude na modem nga ang sira. Ang sabi sa akin eh may iba daw tech na parating na at dala yung replacement modem.
TInanong ko, "Sigurado kayo, parating na?". His reply was "Yes sir, papunta na po yun. Hindi pwedeng hinde kasi VIP escalation 'to. May kilala po ba kayo sa PLDT?".
I had to think fast and answered, "Kilala ko yung Operations AVP nila.". Sa totoo, wala akong kilala sa PLDT at hindi ko alam kung may role na ganun dun.
"Ah kaya pala. Naka-tag po kasi kayo as priority. Sige po paantay na lang..."
15 minutes later the guy with the modem called me asking for direction to my house. He arrived and replaced my modem.
So ayun, I therefore conclude that PLDT has a VIP lane for politicians, artists, business, big-wigs, and occasional GAGOs like me. Less than 24 hours after my issue came out, solved na.
So either today or on monday, an Operations AVP (if that role even exists), will get a notice that the case he/she escalated is already solved... or not...
2024.06.01 13:16 HeWhoHasTooManyDogs Small Farm
Hi all I hope this fits this sub. I'm about to purchase a small farm of about 14 ha and I have a few questions. My goal is to eventually have a small scale cattle operation (8-10 cow calf pairs) but I have never worked with cattle before so I'm having a few questions. My family mostly dealt with large scale crops and some sheep, so I'm not completely oblivious and there are people who can help me sort some stuff out. I have always been drawn to cows so I've been meaning to give it a go.
First I wanted to have a real opinion of how viable this is, starting something like that with almost zero experience. My plan is before I get my first cows I'll talk to my neighbors. (where I'm from most people have small scale operations of up to 10 pairs and people are very friendly to their neighbors) So I thought maybe I'll help some of them out for a year or so whenever they needed help in order to pick up the basics (probably for free) Insemination is commonly done by vets here, I've been told by farmers, so I don't have to learn that. (At least not early on)
Second, assuming I'll be doing rotational grazing and that grass grows here year round and very fast (I live in a very fertile area, and it rains here year round) would I need to treat the pasture in any way or just leave it be?
I was also wondering whether or not Heavy machinery is needed? I've been reading and I've seen that some operation do use heavy machinery, but those places look like they're raising more cows than they're land can naturally support.
Last what is a good book to read about raising cattle? I just started reading "Raising Beef Cattle for Dummies" which provides me with allot of info that I, a dummy, needs
I'll also say that I have allot of time to learn, and I'm planning to start really small (maybe 2/3 pairs until I get the hang of it). I'm not planning on making a profit for the first few years, so I'm realistic about it. I thought about maybe hiring someone with experience for a year so that way I don't feel like I impose on my neighbors and I'll feel free to be as stupid and useless as I'll be haha
submitted by HeWhoHasTooManyDogs to Cattle [link] [comments]
First I wanted to have a real opinion of how viable this is, starting something like that with almost zero experience. My plan is before I get my first cows I'll talk to my neighbors. (where I'm from most people have small scale operations of up to 10 pairs and people are very friendly to their neighbors) So I thought maybe I'll help some of them out for a year or so whenever they needed help in order to pick up the basics (probably for free) Insemination is commonly done by vets here, I've been told by farmers, so I don't have to learn that. (At least not early on)
Second, assuming I'll be doing rotational grazing and that grass grows here year round and very fast (I live in a very fertile area, and it rains here year round) would I need to treat the pasture in any way or just leave it be?
I was also wondering whether or not Heavy machinery is needed? I've been reading and I've seen that some operation do use heavy machinery, but those places look like they're raising more cows than they're land can naturally support.
Last what is a good book to read about raising cattle? I just started reading "Raising Beef Cattle for Dummies" which provides me with allot of info that I, a dummy, needs
I'll also say that I have allot of time to learn, and I'm planning to start really small (maybe 2/3 pairs until I get the hang of it). I'm not planning on making a profit for the first few years, so I'm realistic about it. I thought about maybe hiring someone with experience for a year so that way I don't feel like I impose on my neighbors and I'll feel free to be as stupid and useless as I'll be haha
2024.06.01 13:15 thatoneguy79134 Splinter- 3rd darkness subclass fanconcept
Splinter is inspired by the slicing and mirror powers that the witness uses during the lightfall and tfs trailer. This is basically just a fun idea as to what a 'witness subclass' would look like.
Visuals: The splinter subclass would have its designs consist of broken glass and reflecting mirrors. Its energy would be a pale red with bright white streaks. Enemies killed by a splinter debuff would have look as if they were sliced into red segments before disappearing. Lore: If stasis is control and strand is going with the flow, splinter is ignorance. Rather than controlling or flowing with the universe, you have to actively deny its rules to use splinter. The witness carved a hole in the traveller by ignoring the strength of its shell.
GAMEPLAY:
Verbs:
Cut - enemys hit by cut take a small amount of damage and are given one stack of cut. If they receive 100 stacks, they will be hit by dismantle.
Visual: Cut would look like a small red slice going across the enemy's body
Dismantle - when an enemy is 'dismantled' they will receive a moderate amount of damage over the course of 1.5 seconds. Other enemies hit by dismantle will be given a varying amount of cut stacks, depending for how long they were in the aoe. Cut and dismantle would be your bread and butter for general ad clear. Dismantle would also stun overloads.
Visual: Where cut is one single slice, dismantle is a flurry of these slices going across the inflicted targets body, as if they're being diced.
Displacement - enemies affected by displacement are initially slowed by 60%, before going back to normal speed over the course of 3 seconds. Projectiles slowed by displacement are permanently slowed by 50%, and their damage decreased by 15%.
In pvp: Displacement would slow players by 30% and gradually return them to normal over 3 seconds.
Visual: Normal enemies that have been displaced would look like segment of their body have been cut offer and separated. These pieces eventually fuse back together as the slow effect decreases. Boss enemies would simply have a red hue to show they have been affected by displacement.
Rend - A high power single tick of damage in a small radius. This would be more helpful for taking care of healthier targets quickly. Hitting a barrier champion while they are shielded stuns them.
Visual: Rend would appear like a gash in the air, as if the universe itself was cut open. This gash would stay for half a second after a rend attack. This gash would look similar to the portals made by vergil in dmc5 (although more red instead of blue)
Guard points (splinter's main gimmick) When using a splinter powered melee, the first 0.3 seconds of the attack while have a guard point. If an enemy hits while the guard point is up, you will receive 60% reduced damage and be immune to one shots. It will also boost the damage of the melee by 50%. Projectiles will also proc the guard point depending on the overall damage of the projectile. Enemies hit by a guard point empowered melee are briefly flinched.
Visual/audio: When in the 'guard point stance' your guardian will radiate red splinter energy with white streaks. When hitting the guard point, the white streaks will turn black and make it resemble an impact frame.
The audio and animation of the melee would also change to make the attack feel more impactful.
Reflective plating - while reflectjve plating is active, gain 20% dr and empower your guard points to be more effective. Guard points with reflecting plate now active in the first 0.7 seconds of the melee rather 0.3, and will increase the damage resistance to 90%. Lastly, projectiles that hit the guardian while guard point is active will reflect back to the enemy (although for reduced damage)
In pvp: The only difference with pvp is that your head hit box will not be immune to one shots.
Visual: Reflective plating will look similar to guard point, the energy will just be much less intense.
Rupert drop (probably not what it would be in game but bubbles already taken) - Rupert drops are the splinter subclass pickups (even though you don't actually pick them up). Rupert drops are a hybrid between stasis crystals and tangles. They can be for either cover or they can be shot to pop into a small cutting explosion. When shot by their creator or allies, rupert drops will move away from where they were hit, the bigger tha damage, the faster it moves. Ruperts drop would have a 15 second cool down and be generated by killing enemies with rend.
Visual: Rupert drops would look like giant bubbles roughly the size of a guardian. when taking damage, they slow crystallize before exploding into shards of glass.
When spawning in. The rupert's drop would look as if its slowly being formed by pieces of glass coming out of the gash made by the rend.
Grenades:
Shred grenade - explodes on impact to create a moderately sized explosion (slightly larger than a scatter grenade) that would deal a total of 110 stack of cut over the course of 0.75 seconds.
Cleave grenade - sticks to target before exploding into a small radius rend attack.
Dispersing grenade - explodes into a field of displacement that slowly implodes to create a small displacement explosion. The initial field would act similarly to a dusk field grenade, while the implosion would be similar to a snare bomb in damage.
Subclasses:
Each of the subclasses would mirror the arc subclasses in a way, Since splinter would be the darkness antithesis to arc (like solastasis, void/strand)
Ronin - hunter subclass Where arcstriders use their hand to hand prowess and expertise with the pole arm, Ronin use their skill with the blade to fell even the largest of does with a single slash.
Ronins are inspired primarily by heroes from old samurai movies. Wandering swordsman who could defeat armies with nothing but their trusted sword.
The gameplay fantasy of ronin would consist of well timed guard points and high power single target damage using rending attacks. The subclass would have a higher skill ceiling than most, rewarding knowledge of enemy attack patterns with high damage attacks.
Melee - Unsheathing strike (2 charges) Striking enemies with your katana inflicts them with 30 stacks of cut. Standing still before attacking will increase the damage of the strike by 15%. When empowered by a guard point, the strike will deal 60 stacks of cut in a large radius.
Visual: The splinter katana's is made up of various uneven panes of broken glass. When empowered, the katana's blade goes from red and white to pure black.
Super - shimmering blade (roaming/one off) The Ronin unsheathes their blade when beginning the super. While in super, there are 2 attacks. Light attack - fast slashes that each deal 40 stacks of cut. Heavy attack - quickly sheathe the blade and become immobile. Releasing the attack button has the Ronin slash the air and rend every enemy in a large radius. This attack ends the super immediately.
Holding the attack for a longer period of time increases the damage of the rends, fully maxxing out at an 80% boost.
During the release of the attack, a guard point is active for 0.3 seconds (0.7 when reflective plating is active). Hitting the guard point immediately increases the attack damage to 80%, while also further boosting the range and damage by 15%.
Aspect 1 - crossguard slash After a successful guard point, follow up with a second slash that rends the opponent. Killing an enemy with slash regenerates 50% of your melee charge.
Aspect 2 - quickdraw sheathe Gives hunter a guard point during initial activation. Successful guard points now boost class a ability regeneration by 150% for 4 seconds.
Blastmarine - Titan subclass Blastmarines mirror arc strikers as both are 'soldier' subclasses. Where strikers are frontline fighters, blastmarines are the 'heavy artillery' weapons experts of their fireteam.
Where ronin are calm, collected samurai, Blast marines are loud, explosive 80s action heroes. Big guys with bigger guns.
The blastmarine gameplay fantasy consist of being the heavy weapons guy, battling the hordes of their enemies with their cutting and dismantling projectiles.
Melee - Knucklebuster Raise your left arm briefly (this is when the guard point is active) before cocking back their right arm's wrist cannon. Hitting enemies with this inflicts them with 50 stacks of cut. When empowered, the radius of the blast is increased and inflicts 80 stacks of cut
Visual: The guard point would resemble a boxer blocking a punch before counter attacking with a jab. The wrist cannon would resemble the red arm punch from ultrakill. The attack would also end with the blastmarine pumping their arm like a shotgun (cus it would look cool)
Super - devastator cannon (one off) The blastmarine would ready the cannon onto their shoulder (similarly to a scorch cannon). The cannon would need to be charged fo a short period before firing. The initial blast would deal high single target damage before imploding into this cloud large cloud of dismantling slashes. This cloud would last front seconds before disappearing.
Visual: the devastator cannon would look similar to a halo spartan laser, just much bigger and with a much bigger blast radius.
Aspect 1 - coverfire blaster Rally barricades now spawn in a heavy cannon for the blastmarine and their allies to pickup. This cannon fires at 300 rpm and has a total 25 rounds that it can fire before disappearing. These shots have a small aoe effect and each deal 20 stacks of cut. Continuous damage with the turret Grant's reflective plating. This aspect would act similarly to a gauss cannon from halo.
Aspect 2 - ballistic bombard
Enhance the functionally of your splinter grenades.
Shred grenade - improved radius and total damage and duration (now deals 170 stacks of cut over 1.5 seconds) Cleave grenade - can now be charged to skip across the ground up to 3 times. Each bounce creates a rend.
Dispersing grenade - increased radius of initial field and increased damage of implosion. Initial field now pulls in enemies and flinches them.
Glassformer - warlock subclass (name tbd) Where stormcaller is harmony within, the glassformer embraces the chaos of splinter to conquer the battlefield.
glassformers are inspired from crackpot scientists from monster movie. Creating inconceivable creations.
The gameplay of glassformers revolves around using rupert drops and creating unpredictable combinations.
Melee - broken flurry (2 charges) The glassformer sends a burst of 8 panes of splinter. Each pane inflicts 6 stacks of cut. When empowered, the total amount of panes increases from 8 to 12, they also can increased tracking to targets.
Visual: Each of the panes would shoot off from the glassformer's fingertips. When empowered, the panes turn black.
Super - razing burst (one off) The glassformer raises a giant ruperts drop infront of them, before slashing it with their splinter infused hand and rending it, this creates a large ape explosions that dismantle enemies in its radius. Enemies near the giant gashes are slowly pulled in.
Visual: Razing burst is essentially a large spherical blender that would pull in enemies not originally caught in its blast.
Aspect 1 - fracturing chasm Rends now linger for a longer duration and suck in enemies in radius of it. Killing enemies that are pulled grants reflective plating.
Aspect 2 - chromatic concoction Inflicting ruperts drops with elemntal verbs gives the explosion that property. (For example, applying jolt to the rupert's drop gives the explosion jolt.) A singular bubble can hold up to 3 new verbs.
Visual: When a verb is given to the ruperts drop, the respective subclass energy will begin swirling around the inside of the drop. The more verbs, the more colours swirling around.
Fragments: Fragments would be obtained similarly to strand, killing enemies with splinter will have a chance to give a 'shard of splinter'
Killing targets with rend reduces rupert's drop cooldown (0.5 seconds per enemy)
Apply more cut stacks
Picking up orbs of power grants reflective plating
Rapid finale blows with dismantle grant grenade energy
Precision finale blows against displaced enemies creates a displacing explosion
Super finale blows create cutting explosions.
Conclusion: I'm ngl this post is wayyyy longer than I thought it'd be. I wanted to just spitball an idea I had the other day for a new subclass
submitted by thatoneguy79134 to DestinyTheGame [link] [comments]
Visuals: The splinter subclass would have its designs consist of broken glass and reflecting mirrors. Its energy would be a pale red with bright white streaks. Enemies killed by a splinter debuff would have look as if they were sliced into red segments before disappearing. Lore: If stasis is control and strand is going with the flow, splinter is ignorance. Rather than controlling or flowing with the universe, you have to actively deny its rules to use splinter. The witness carved a hole in the traveller by ignoring the strength of its shell.
GAMEPLAY:
Verbs:
Cut - enemys hit by cut take a small amount of damage and are given one stack of cut. If they receive 100 stacks, they will be hit by dismantle.
Visual: Cut would look like a small red slice going across the enemy's body
Dismantle - when an enemy is 'dismantled' they will receive a moderate amount of damage over the course of 1.5 seconds. Other enemies hit by dismantle will be given a varying amount of cut stacks, depending for how long they were in the aoe. Cut and dismantle would be your bread and butter for general ad clear. Dismantle would also stun overloads.
Visual: Where cut is one single slice, dismantle is a flurry of these slices going across the inflicted targets body, as if they're being diced.
Displacement - enemies affected by displacement are initially slowed by 60%, before going back to normal speed over the course of 3 seconds. Projectiles slowed by displacement are permanently slowed by 50%, and their damage decreased by 15%.
In pvp: Displacement would slow players by 30% and gradually return them to normal over 3 seconds.
Visual: Normal enemies that have been displaced would look like segment of their body have been cut offer and separated. These pieces eventually fuse back together as the slow effect decreases. Boss enemies would simply have a red hue to show they have been affected by displacement.
Rend - A high power single tick of damage in a small radius. This would be more helpful for taking care of healthier targets quickly. Hitting a barrier champion while they are shielded stuns them.
Visual: Rend would appear like a gash in the air, as if the universe itself was cut open. This gash would stay for half a second after a rend attack. This gash would look similar to the portals made by vergil in dmc5 (although more red instead of blue)
Guard points (splinter's main gimmick) When using a splinter powered melee, the first 0.3 seconds of the attack while have a guard point. If an enemy hits while the guard point is up, you will receive 60% reduced damage and be immune to one shots. It will also boost the damage of the melee by 50%. Projectiles will also proc the guard point depending on the overall damage of the projectile. Enemies hit by a guard point empowered melee are briefly flinched.
Visual/audio: When in the 'guard point stance' your guardian will radiate red splinter energy with white streaks. When hitting the guard point, the white streaks will turn black and make it resemble an impact frame.
The audio and animation of the melee would also change to make the attack feel more impactful.
Reflective plating - while reflectjve plating is active, gain 20% dr and empower your guard points to be more effective. Guard points with reflecting plate now active in the first 0.7 seconds of the melee rather 0.3, and will increase the damage resistance to 90%. Lastly, projectiles that hit the guardian while guard point is active will reflect back to the enemy (although for reduced damage)
In pvp: The only difference with pvp is that your head hit box will not be immune to one shots.
Visual: Reflective plating will look similar to guard point, the energy will just be much less intense.
Rupert drop (probably not what it would be in game but bubbles already taken) - Rupert drops are the splinter subclass pickups (even though you don't actually pick them up). Rupert drops are a hybrid between stasis crystals and tangles. They can be for either cover or they can be shot to pop into a small cutting explosion. When shot by their creator or allies, rupert drops will move away from where they were hit, the bigger tha damage, the faster it moves. Ruperts drop would have a 15 second cool down and be generated by killing enemies with rend.
Visual: Rupert drops would look like giant bubbles roughly the size of a guardian. when taking damage, they slow crystallize before exploding into shards of glass.
When spawning in. The rupert's drop would look as if its slowly being formed by pieces of glass coming out of the gash made by the rend.
Grenades:
Shred grenade - explodes on impact to create a moderately sized explosion (slightly larger than a scatter grenade) that would deal a total of 110 stack of cut over the course of 0.75 seconds.
Cleave grenade - sticks to target before exploding into a small radius rend attack.
Dispersing grenade - explodes into a field of displacement that slowly implodes to create a small displacement explosion. The initial field would act similarly to a dusk field grenade, while the implosion would be similar to a snare bomb in damage.
Subclasses:
Each of the subclasses would mirror the arc subclasses in a way, Since splinter would be the darkness antithesis to arc (like solastasis, void/strand)
Ronin - hunter subclass Where arcstriders use their hand to hand prowess and expertise with the pole arm, Ronin use their skill with the blade to fell even the largest of does with a single slash.
Ronins are inspired primarily by heroes from old samurai movies. Wandering swordsman who could defeat armies with nothing but their trusted sword.
The gameplay fantasy of ronin would consist of well timed guard points and high power single target damage using rending attacks. The subclass would have a higher skill ceiling than most, rewarding knowledge of enemy attack patterns with high damage attacks.
Melee - Unsheathing strike (2 charges) Striking enemies with your katana inflicts them with 30 stacks of cut. Standing still before attacking will increase the damage of the strike by 15%. When empowered by a guard point, the strike will deal 60 stacks of cut in a large radius.
Visual: The splinter katana's is made up of various uneven panes of broken glass. When empowered, the katana's blade goes from red and white to pure black.
Super - shimmering blade (roaming/one off) The Ronin unsheathes their blade when beginning the super. While in super, there are 2 attacks. Light attack - fast slashes that each deal 40 stacks of cut. Heavy attack - quickly sheathe the blade and become immobile. Releasing the attack button has the Ronin slash the air and rend every enemy in a large radius. This attack ends the super immediately.
Holding the attack for a longer period of time increases the damage of the rends, fully maxxing out at an 80% boost.
During the release of the attack, a guard point is active for 0.3 seconds (0.7 when reflective plating is active). Hitting the guard point immediately increases the attack damage to 80%, while also further boosting the range and damage by 15%.
Aspect 1 - crossguard slash After a successful guard point, follow up with a second slash that rends the opponent. Killing an enemy with slash regenerates 50% of your melee charge.
Aspect 2 - quickdraw sheathe Gives hunter a guard point during initial activation. Successful guard points now boost class a ability regeneration by 150% for 4 seconds.
Blastmarine - Titan subclass Blastmarines mirror arc strikers as both are 'soldier' subclasses. Where strikers are frontline fighters, blastmarines are the 'heavy artillery' weapons experts of their fireteam.
Where ronin are calm, collected samurai, Blast marines are loud, explosive 80s action heroes. Big guys with bigger guns.
The blastmarine gameplay fantasy consist of being the heavy weapons guy, battling the hordes of their enemies with their cutting and dismantling projectiles.
Melee - Knucklebuster Raise your left arm briefly (this is when the guard point is active) before cocking back their right arm's wrist cannon. Hitting enemies with this inflicts them with 50 stacks of cut. When empowered, the radius of the blast is increased and inflicts 80 stacks of cut
Visual: The guard point would resemble a boxer blocking a punch before counter attacking with a jab. The wrist cannon would resemble the red arm punch from ultrakill. The attack would also end with the blastmarine pumping their arm like a shotgun (cus it would look cool)
Super - devastator cannon (one off) The blastmarine would ready the cannon onto their shoulder (similarly to a scorch cannon). The cannon would need to be charged fo a short period before firing. The initial blast would deal high single target damage before imploding into this cloud large cloud of dismantling slashes. This cloud would last front seconds before disappearing.
Visual: the devastator cannon would look similar to a halo spartan laser, just much bigger and with a much bigger blast radius.
Aspect 1 - coverfire blaster Rally barricades now spawn in a heavy cannon for the blastmarine and their allies to pickup. This cannon fires at 300 rpm and has a total 25 rounds that it can fire before disappearing. These shots have a small aoe effect and each deal 20 stacks of cut. Continuous damage with the turret Grant's reflective plating. This aspect would act similarly to a gauss cannon from halo.
Aspect 2 - ballistic bombard
Enhance the functionally of your splinter grenades.
Shred grenade - improved radius and total damage and duration (now deals 170 stacks of cut over 1.5 seconds) Cleave grenade - can now be charged to skip across the ground up to 3 times. Each bounce creates a rend.
Dispersing grenade - increased radius of initial field and increased damage of implosion. Initial field now pulls in enemies and flinches them.
Glassformer - warlock subclass (name tbd) Where stormcaller is harmony within, the glassformer embraces the chaos of splinter to conquer the battlefield.
glassformers are inspired from crackpot scientists from monster movie. Creating inconceivable creations.
The gameplay of glassformers revolves around using rupert drops and creating unpredictable combinations.
Melee - broken flurry (2 charges) The glassformer sends a burst of 8 panes of splinter. Each pane inflicts 6 stacks of cut. When empowered, the total amount of panes increases from 8 to 12, they also can increased tracking to targets.
Visual: Each of the panes would shoot off from the glassformer's fingertips. When empowered, the panes turn black.
Super - razing burst (one off) The glassformer raises a giant ruperts drop infront of them, before slashing it with their splinter infused hand and rending it, this creates a large ape explosions that dismantle enemies in its radius. Enemies near the giant gashes are slowly pulled in.
Visual: Razing burst is essentially a large spherical blender that would pull in enemies not originally caught in its blast.
Aspect 1 - fracturing chasm Rends now linger for a longer duration and suck in enemies in radius of it. Killing enemies that are pulled grants reflective plating.
Aspect 2 - chromatic concoction Inflicting ruperts drops with elemntal verbs gives the explosion that property. (For example, applying jolt to the rupert's drop gives the explosion jolt.) A singular bubble can hold up to 3 new verbs.
Visual: When a verb is given to the ruperts drop, the respective subclass energy will begin swirling around the inside of the drop. The more verbs, the more colours swirling around.
Fragments: Fragments would be obtained similarly to strand, killing enemies with splinter will have a chance to give a 'shard of splinter'
Killing targets with rend reduces rupert's drop cooldown (0.5 seconds per enemy)
Apply more cut stacks
Picking up orbs of power grants reflective plating
Rapid finale blows with dismantle grant grenade energy
Precision finale blows against displaced enemies creates a displacing explosion
Super finale blows create cutting explosions.
Conclusion: I'm ngl this post is wayyyy longer than I thought it'd be. I wanted to just spitball an idea I had the other day for a new subclass
2024.06.01 13:02 rangernumberx Respect Gold (Pokemon Adventures)
"I wanted to nab the thief while Exbo here wanted to get his buddy back. Although it was our first meeting, we fought together. That guy may have escaped, but we've decided to battle together from now on. Even if I meet new Pokemon along the way, I will still treat them the same way, because to me...Pokemon are my partners! We work alongside for the same goals, because...we are partners!"
Gold was raised around Pokemon, his home having so many it was known as the Poké House to those in the community. But after a chance encounter leads to his Pokemon being stolen and being the sole witness to a boy stealing Professor Elm's Totodile, Gold gives the police a false description of the thief before setting out with a Pokedex and a Cyndaquil to hunt him down himself. Along the way, Gold demonstrates a deceptive fighting style, often using his cue to send Pokeballs in strange directions and using other members of his team to hide the key play another Pokemon is performing, as well as an ability to nurture the full potential out of any Pokemon from as early as them being in an egg, earning him the moniker of 'the Hatcher'. With these skills, Gold would prove a key player as he faced off against the likes of a revived Team Rocket, a masked man seeking to rewrite time, and even Arceus themselves.
All feats are tagged with the chapter they appear in.
Durability - Blunt Force
Other
Moves
Moves
Other
Other
Physicals
Moves
Moves
Other
Moves
submitted by rangernumberx to respectthreads [link] [comments]
Gold was raised around Pokemon, his home having so many it was known as the Poké House to those in the community. But after a chance encounter leads to his Pokemon being stolen and being the sole witness to a boy stealing Professor Elm's Totodile, Gold gives the police a false description of the thief before setting out with a Pokedex and a Cyndaquil to hunt him down himself. Along the way, Gold demonstrates a deceptive fighting style, often using his cue to send Pokeballs in strange directions and using other members of his team to hide the key play another Pokemon is performing, as well as an ability to nurture the full potential out of any Pokemon from as early as them being in an egg, earning him the moniker of 'the Hatcher'. With these skills, Gold would prove a key player as he faced off against the likes of a revived Team Rocket, a masked man seeking to rewrite time, and even Arceus themselves.
All feats are tagged with the chapter they appear in.
Gold
Physicals
StrengthDurability - Blunt Force
- Kicked in the face by Crystal460
- Struck in the back by Whitney's Miltank105
- Kicked away by Sapphire while in a suit of armour328
- Hit back by the Masked Man172
- Slammed into the ground by Ho-Oh166
- Sent flying back from Arceus hitting the ground near them453
- Hit away by Arceus454
- Kicked by Arceus459
- Thrown about by water as an island sized water construct strikes the Battle Tower329
- Sent flying into a distant wall by Guile334
- Bitten on the hand by Silver's Totodile98
- Falls a distance onto a beach after his Mantine was struck out of the air by Lugia148
- Struck by Masked Man's Deliberd's Icy Wind113
- Caught in Masked Man's Deliberd's Blizzard113
- Seemingly caught in Jirachi's Doom Desire334
- Seemingly knocked back by a beam from Arceus459
- Dodges an attack from a group of Bellsprout97
- Dodges a beam from a Gyarados112
- Dodges a beam from Arceus453
- Dodges a spike trap suddenly appearing from a wall98
- Saves a girl from an Ursaring strike101
Skill
Cue Shots - Regular- Curves a Pokeball behind an opponent93
- Hits Aipom's ball to the top of a tree, where they're then released91
- Hits a fleeing Pokemon with enough force to relocate its jaw101
- While being swept away in a river in a storm, hits Exbo's ball so it rebounds off of two surfaces and gets him safely to shore95
- Bounces a pokeball repeatedly between the walls, ceiling, and floor of a room with a single strike to make several Yanma dizzy154
- Ricochets a Friend Ball repeatedly around two Pokemon before hitting a Heavy Ball at their two feet, sending both pokeballs to Gold's and Silver's hands respectively101
- Throws his cue to block a pair of shutters from closing on Emerald328
- Drops a distance onto a board on a rough sea, maintaining balance for a short distance due to it being 'not so different' from skateboarding146
Intelligence
Battles- On numerous occasions has used a Pokemon as a distraction while a second Pokemon enacts his actual strategy in secret111
- Returns Aibo before curving his ball around an opponent, allowing him to strike their behind93
- Has the other Pokedex holders withdraw their Pokemon before having Aibo ride his skateboard with them at Guile Hideout, allowing all the Pokemon to be released directly on top of him329
- Throws Aibo in front of a charging Donphan before he uses his tail to pull himself to safety, in that brief moment successfully confusing the Pokemon and causing them to charge into a wall96
- Goads a team of Bellsprout into stacking on top of each other, allowing Cyndaquil to take them all out at once97
- Has a school of Remoraid attack Lugia's mouth, stopping the legendary from closing it and being able to use Aeroblast148
- Calculates how long a Pokeball could endure a Dragonite's Hyper Beam, uses the fact that said Hyper Beam is not changing direction in midair to tell that its trainer isn't present to give it orders, and uses this to get the Dragonite to attack in a specific direction and allow Togbo to attack them from behind444
- Drops a straw doll from a tree as a decoy, allowing him to get behind the Masked Man to attack him104
- Disappears in a smokescreen, intending to drive the Masked Man into pursuing him through a forest, while he had actually climbed a tree so he could climb back down when the coast was clear to save a trainer and his Pokemon104
- Modifies his skateboard with bike parts105
- Hits Aipom's ball up a tree to release him before using a heavy pack as a counterweight to lift him up91
- Uses the fact Yanma have 360 degree vision in a plan to make them dizzy and have one drop a baby154
- Has Aipom strike the centre of a stack of blocks, allowing the rest of his team to easily smash through the entire stack while they previously were only able to break through a few, winning him the round against a Machamp which could easily smash through stacks on his own443
- Memorizes all the obstacles on a course by going along it the wrong way on his skateboard, allowing him to guide his Togepi around it flawlessly when the Pokemon was blinded442
- Had the foresight to hold onto Emerald's broken mechanical hand, causing Archie to grab hold of it and allowing Gold to let him drop335
Gear
Pokedex- His Pokedex shows a Pokemon's strength and attacks95
- Identifies four Pokemon at once103
- Identifies an attack as the Pokemon is lunging towards him103
- Can perform trades with other Pokedex owners109
- Is capable of tracking the energy of a specific Pokemon the owner has made contact with149
- When three Pokedexes in possession of their true owners are close to each other, all of them make a noise146
- Pokemon are held in pokeballs, which have a translucent top which Gold can see Pokemon through93
- They and their Pokemon can return to Gold's hand as he wishes93
- Protect Pokemon from attacks, though they can be destroyed444
- Pokemon can move their balls from the inside107
- A cue, which he uses to perform trick shots with his pokeballs93
- Clashes with Guile Hideout's sword329
- Used to quickly change his direction on a skateboard96
- Throws it to stop metal shutters from closing on Emerald328
- Is collapsible328
- Holds it in his clothes, not his bag145
- His pokegear allows him to make and take calls95
- A pair of goggles, used to protect him from the likes of Exbo's Smokescreen98
- Carries rope to climb up a pagoda97
- Uses a skateboard to get around95
Other
- Is given the title of 'The Hatcher' by Professor Oak, with him causing a Pichu egg to hatch the instant he touched it178
- Guides his team into winning the Skill, Jump, Stamina, Speed, and Power Pokeathlon courses442-443
- Despite all his skill, still cheats at pool at a games corner107
Aibo the Ambipom
As An Aipom
Physicals- Breaks a block with his tail443
- Holds up Gold while clutching a branch with his tail91
- Lifts up and throws an enormous Snowball442
- Thrown about by water as an island sized water construct strikes the Battle Tower329
- Struck away by a Donphan's Horn Attack96
- Catches a nearby Sunkern in his tail so that Gold can catch them99
- Reacts fast enough to catch Gold after the floor's broken beneath them97
- Rapidly spins Gold's cue with his tail to enhance Exbo's fire328
- Scratch - Aibo repeatedly scratches a foe91
- Swagger - Confuses a Hoothoot, causing it to attack its trainer instead of falsely calling out that a timer's up92
- Double Team - Creates an illusionary duplicate, allowing him to dodge an attack113
- Agility - Greatly increases Aibo's speed172
- Baton Pass - Passes stat increases, such as that gained through Agility, to another of Gold's Pokemon172
- Double Hit - Allows him to attack opponents on opposite sides of him at the same time with his tail, and immediately causes him to evolve448
As An Ambipom
Physicals- Sent flying back from Arceus hitting the ground near them453
- Poked back by Arceus451
- Hit by a beam from Arceus459
Other
Exbo the Typhlosion
As A Cyndaquil
Physicals- Breaks through a wooden floor97
- Gets bitten and scratched by Silver's Totodile98
- Intercepts an attack which is about to hit Gold103
- Ember - Shoots a tall pillar of fire from his back, burning Silver's hand while he's hanging on to a tall branch94
- Tackle - Exbo charges into an opponent98
- Smokescreen - Covers an area in obscuring smoke98
- Used to cook food for Gold, though he increases the heat and quickly burns it100
- Can't emit fire while bound up100
As A Quilava
Physicals- Alongside Silver's Croconaw and Crystal's Bayleef, stops Lugia's wing from crushing their trainers and hold it up before evolving148
- Struck by Silver's Croconaw's Water Gun111
- Ember - Works alongside Silver's Croconaw and Crystal's Bayleef to slightly deflect Lugia's Aeroblast147
- Double Team - Creates an illusory duplicate, making Croconaw bite down on nothing111
- Flame Wheel - Creates a wheel of fire around him, catching several Pokemon114
As A Typhlosion
Physicals- Breaks three blocks with a punch443
- Alongside Silver's Croconaw and Crystal's Bayleef, continues to hold up Lugia's wing to stop it from crushing their trainers148
- Thrown about by water as an island sized water construct strikes the Battle Tower329
- Sent flying back from Arceus hitting the ground near them453
- Hit by a beam from Arceus459
- Blast Burn - A stream of fire which, alongside eleven other Pokemon, destroys an island-sized water construct335-336
- With an unnamed fire attack enhanced by Aibo rapidly spinning Gold's cue, creates a powerful blast of fire which knocks back Guile Hideout328
Sunbo the Sunflora
As A Sunkern
PhysicalsMoves
- Flash - Emits a bright light which blinds several Team Rocket grunts and their Pokemon100
- Growth - Presumably increases Sunbo's strength, though its effect has not been clearly shown103
- Mega Drain - Presumably absorbs energy from an opponent, but it's not seen in use104
- Sunny Day - Increases the power of nearby fire-type moves108
- Giga Drain - Absorbs the energy of a Magcargo and a Sloking alongside Crystal's Parasect164
As A Sunflora
PhysicalsMoves
Other
Polibo the Politoed
As A Poliwag
MovesOther
As A Politoed
Physicals- Breaks a block with a punch443
- Alongside Red's Poliwrath, breaks apart Archie's armour335
- Struck with Guile's knee335
- Sent flying back from Arceus hitting the ground near them453
- Hit by a beam from Arceus459
- Struck by Masked Man's Deliberd's Icy Wind113
- Caught in Masked Man's Deliberd's Blizzard113
- Dodges a beam from a Gyarados112
- Dodges a beam from Arceus453
- Water Gun - Harms Tyranitar with a stream of water, possibly shooting three streams at once though this could simply be representing how fast Silver's Murkrow is moving to block it111
- Whirlpool - Creates a whirlpool at the Lake of Rage to stun a Gyarados112
- Double Slap - Repeatedly hits an opponent112
- Dynamic Punch - Polibo lunges forwards with a powerful punch113
- Hypnosis - Puts a crowd of Pokemon to sleep at once166
- Perish Song - Instantly knocks out Masked Man's Delibird, but also knocks out Polibo himself172
- Bounce - Used off-screen459
Sudobo the Sudowoodo
- Lifts up a large piece of rubble166
- No-sells Whitney's Miltank's Tackle and Exbo's Ember105
- Sent flying back from Arceus hitting the ground near them453
- Hit by Silver's Ursaring's Fury Swipes111
- Bitten by Ho-Oh166
- Hit by a beam from Arceus459
- Focus Punch - Strikes a Rhydon, knocking it out106
- Low Kick - He extends his leg forwards at crazy angles, tripping up an opponent111
- Dynamic Punch - Lunges forwards with a powerful strike which breaks stone111
- Mimic - Sudobo uses the move his opponent's most recently used, allowing him to trade Fury Swipe blows with Silver's Ursaring111
- Mud Slap - Throws up mud in a failed attempt to hold off Ho-Oh166
- Flail - After being bitten by Ho-Oh, sends the legendary flying away166
- Rock Tomb - Used off-screen459
- Is level 78 with the ability Sturdy456
- Is capable of growing to create a highly convincing tree disguise, shrinking when revealing himself106
Togebo the Togekiss
As A Togepi
Physicals- Immediately after hatching knocks Gligar back a short distance before getting hit away107
- Seemingly endures part of a Dragonite's Hyper Beam after the Pokeball took the brunt of the attack (with said beam being able to destroy stone), then takes out the Dragonite with an attack to the back of the head444
- Struck away by a Dotrio442
- Sent flying back from Arceus hitting the ground near them453
- Struck away by Arceus before being hit point-blank by a beam459
- Hit by a beam from Arceus459
- Metronome - Uses a random move, in its debut appearance hitting a Gligar with a beam strong enough to knock them out107
- Double Edge - Pierces into a Tyranitar's foot, taking it down111
- Is level 81 with the ability Hustle456
- Runs at full pelt around an obstacle course, following Gold's commands to dodge obstacles442
- Is a delinquent from birth due to Gold taking them to Game Corners while they were still an egg107
As a Togekiss
PhysicalsMoves
Tibo the Mantine and 20 Remoraid
Other
Pibu the Pichu
2024.06.01 12:57 HelpWorkItOut Reasonable Adjustments. Are they actually adjustments? And grievance issues
Hello, please help! Posting on an anonymous account…
I have been having ongoing issues at work related to my disabilities (all diagnosed, physical and recognised under Equality Act 2010, if those things are a factor) It took me over eight months from contacting managers of my department and our HR, this includes the head of department and two line managers I had in that time, to get adjustments and an occupational health referral. I was expecting a meeting about adjustments in December, which was quite urgent at that time as I was having hospital appointments, instead my line manager told me that expected meeting would actually be about my performance. I was shocked by this as I hadn’t had any performance issues, I reiterated my confusion as I was awaiting a meeting about reasonable adjustments. She invited the head of department and HR to that meeting. The issues raised were dated in October and November, when I was having health issues and had urgently highlighted the need for adjustments, support and an occupational health referral.
Fast forward months later, occupational health referral undertaken, reasonable adjustments meetings undertaken with a different manager and I have put in an informal grievance in regards to how my request for adjustments was handled. All contact with my previous line manager has been put on hold.
The meeting for the grievance was held with the senior manager from another department and a member of HR and my union rep on 26th April. I was expecting to hear back from HR about the grievance and next steps. Instead, yesterday I received an email from the manager about another meeting next week in regards to the adjustments, and some issues around my performance (doesn’t say what) the email does not reference the grievance at all, but states the relationship with my line manager needs to be reinstated. I have expressed serious concerns about my previous line managers conduct and the anxiety communicating with them has given me.
My concerns are, the grievance has not been referenced and discussed at all since the April 26th meeting, in which I had supplied a clear breakdown of dates with communication about adjustment requests.
Also, the adjustments that have been proposed to me include two things which all employees are working to, this includes the start time I am at work, the same as all employees but it has been put as a reasonable adjustment. All members of my department WFH three days a week and are onsite two days a week. I have this written that is an adjustment for me, but it’s not, I am working to the same rota that all other members of staff in my department are.
How can I approach these issues and highlight the ongoing concerns with line management, the grievance and the ‘adjustments’ that aren’t adjustments?
TLDR: Been offered reasonable ‘adjustments’ that aren’t adjustments. Ongoing grievance issues with line manager, been raised as informal grievance, with the expectation this would be investigated, not heard anything back in regards to it, but been invited to a meeting I’ve been told ‘isn’t a disciplinary procedure or performance review’
submitted by HelpWorkItOut to HumanResourcesUK [link] [comments]
I have been having ongoing issues at work related to my disabilities (all diagnosed, physical and recognised under Equality Act 2010, if those things are a factor) It took me over eight months from contacting managers of my department and our HR, this includes the head of department and two line managers I had in that time, to get adjustments and an occupational health referral. I was expecting a meeting about adjustments in December, which was quite urgent at that time as I was having hospital appointments, instead my line manager told me that expected meeting would actually be about my performance. I was shocked by this as I hadn’t had any performance issues, I reiterated my confusion as I was awaiting a meeting about reasonable adjustments. She invited the head of department and HR to that meeting. The issues raised were dated in October and November, when I was having health issues and had urgently highlighted the need for adjustments, support and an occupational health referral.
Fast forward months later, occupational health referral undertaken, reasonable adjustments meetings undertaken with a different manager and I have put in an informal grievance in regards to how my request for adjustments was handled. All contact with my previous line manager has been put on hold.
The meeting for the grievance was held with the senior manager from another department and a member of HR and my union rep on 26th April. I was expecting to hear back from HR about the grievance and next steps. Instead, yesterday I received an email from the manager about another meeting next week in regards to the adjustments, and some issues around my performance (doesn’t say what) the email does not reference the grievance at all, but states the relationship with my line manager needs to be reinstated. I have expressed serious concerns about my previous line managers conduct and the anxiety communicating with them has given me.
My concerns are, the grievance has not been referenced and discussed at all since the April 26th meeting, in which I had supplied a clear breakdown of dates with communication about adjustment requests.
Also, the adjustments that have been proposed to me include two things which all employees are working to, this includes the start time I am at work, the same as all employees but it has been put as a reasonable adjustment. All members of my department WFH three days a week and are onsite two days a week. I have this written that is an adjustment for me, but it’s not, I am working to the same rota that all other members of staff in my department are.
How can I approach these issues and highlight the ongoing concerns with line management, the grievance and the ‘adjustments’ that aren’t adjustments?
TLDR: Been offered reasonable ‘adjustments’ that aren’t adjustments. Ongoing grievance issues with line manager, been raised as informal grievance, with the expectation this would be investigated, not heard anything back in regards to it, but been invited to a meeting I’ve been told ‘isn’t a disciplinary procedure or performance review’
2024.06.01 12:56 Legendaryrobot64 Trinity aged so well into the current meta and I love it
 | unrelated captura image of Trinity looking magnificent submitted by Legendaryrobot64 to Warframe [link] [comments] I was gonna post about this ages ago but wanted to check out the Jade update first. What was shown in the devstream confirms it. Jade is her own thing, not a powercrept version of Trinity and they might even work well together First of all, I don't believe that Trinity is just a support frame. Taking all her playstyles and uses throughout her history and all the changes and nerfs into consideration, at least from the community's point of view, she was never really meant to be just that in the first place. With the meta changing from CC to DPS and team comp to a more solo friendly approach where every frame needs to be able to cover everything, there's no need to change Trinity's damage capabilities anymore and I'm so glad she can finally be what she was always meant to be. Her 'trinity' isn't health, shields and energy, or the 3 enemy hard cap on her link. It's damage, tank, support all in one For a frame with only half a functional kit, Trinity is still more viable than ever thanks to just how good Energy Vampire and Blessing are. Energy Vampire is Trinity's trinity. With a minimum duration setup alongside the right weapons and maybe Marked for Death subsume on top of it, it's a damage ability that scale with enemy health bypassing both shields and armor, provide NET POSITIVE energy gain and shield gates you with augment. Blessing is a free shield gate that completely ignores how much shield you have, when a regular shield gating build on most other frames need multiple mods to make it work in the first place and you need to manage energy on top of it. This effectively gives Trinity 3 sources of shield gate since she can run a normal energy cost shield gate build as well although there's no need. You can even take it up to 4 if you wanna throw pillage on there which works just fine with the setup. She has extremely high survivability, does damage that ignore enemy levels and on top of that, the same build doing all these is the best in the current meta for supporting your team mates' survivability and giving then infinite energy. This is actually insanely powerful, not to mention it also promotes a very fast-paced active playstyle which is what Warframe should have Aside from that, I do believe the rest of Trinity's kit could use some work. Well of Life and Link aren't great rn and they are only useful for lower level setups. Damage reduction isn't as relevant when Trinity can access shield gating so easily. Abating Link is very lackluster since Link is capped at 3. Imo the best way to fix Well of Life and Link is to make them synergise with the rest of her kit while not taking away their current functionality. Well of Life only need a simple un-nerf. Instead of invincible, the targetted enemy gets 10x health like how it used to. Make Link target number scale with strength and give it an extra function where it can be casted on the Well of Life target. Also give them a 40 second base duration. This way, both of these abilities will be able to synergise with Energy Vampire. The Well of Life target with boosted health can massively buff Energy Vampire's true damage redirected to enemies through link when casted on it, making it a viable DPS ability without needing viral or any other ability damage buff sources. The increase in base duration would make this setup usable even with very low or minimum duration builds, plus it would open up a lot more possibilities with other setups since you no longer need to gut every other stat and qol for duration mods to make up for the tiny base duration Anyways, Trinity is the best DPS tank in the game and will never be powercrept (I'm currently neck deep in the strongest copium known to man but I'm a woman so I don't know) |
2024.06.01 12:54 QueasyStorage637 Looking for novel
Hi I just came across a novel, chosen by the moon novel by izabella W. Its on pay by chapter websites, I've opened and read a few chapters but I can't seem to find any free version or chapter version anywhere. Please help. If anyone has read it I'm willing to take spoilers. Here's the advert I found below of it on Facebook.
Lycanthrope species is a disgusting race. And I, Delan Riley, am nothing more than a human scum in their eyes never expected those species would turn my world upside down. Since when the lycans managed to penetrate our town, like in the early 1900's we have a hierarchy, upper class = the lycans, middle class = mated humans, and lower class = the normal humans, who were basically considered scum. I endured their torment day after day, vowing to run away from them one day, until that day came and everything changed.
Dylan POV "Humans," I scowled at the principal's words from tannoy. "The Alpha twins will be celebrating their birthday tomorrow, as such, festivities are in order." Oh great, the Alphas twin children. Adrian and Arya are the worst lycans alive. I swear just because they are the alphas kids they literally get away with everything. If their birthday is tomorrow, then the wolves are going to be worse than ever. "All students will be present to greet them, two lines will be made, with humans on the left and the lycanthrope on the right. Any mated human will be at the front of the line for their year, you will all also be in order of your school year. That is all." Chat broke out the minute the tannoy was finished. "We haven't had a school gathering since the alpha king visited three years ago, before his sons coronation." Nick was right, the last time we all gathered like that was for the king and queens visit, when he decided to let the world know that he was to renounce his title to his only child, son Josh. "That sick bestard, he wants to make sure everyone is there so those idiot twins can find their mates." Yes I was mad, my fists connected with the table in front of me once more as I thought about how disgusting the situation was. You see the twins will be turning 17, so it's very possible someone in our school could be their mate, finding a mate is sacred to a wolf, the minute they say that one word your fate is sealed. They will turn your mind, morph you into being a lover of their kind, and then you'll give in.
submitted by QueasyStorage637 to romancenovels [link] [comments]
Lycanthrope species is a disgusting race. And I, Delan Riley, am nothing more than a human scum in their eyes never expected those species would turn my world upside down. Since when the lycans managed to penetrate our town, like in the early 1900's we have a hierarchy, upper class = the lycans, middle class = mated humans, and lower class = the normal humans, who were basically considered scum. I endured their torment day after day, vowing to run away from them one day, until that day came and everything changed.
Dylan POV "Humans," I scowled at the principal's words from tannoy. "The Alpha twins will be celebrating their birthday tomorrow, as such, festivities are in order." Oh great, the Alphas twin children. Adrian and Arya are the worst lycans alive. I swear just because they are the alphas kids they literally get away with everything. If their birthday is tomorrow, then the wolves are going to be worse than ever. "All students will be present to greet them, two lines will be made, with humans on the left and the lycanthrope on the right. Any mated human will be at the front of the line for their year, you will all also be in order of your school year. That is all." Chat broke out the minute the tannoy was finished. "We haven't had a school gathering since the alpha king visited three years ago, before his sons coronation." Nick was right, the last time we all gathered like that was for the king and queens visit, when he decided to let the world know that he was to renounce his title to his only child, son Josh. "That sick bestard, he wants to make sure everyone is there so those idiot twins can find their mates." Yes I was mad, my fists connected with the table in front of me once more as I thought about how disgusting the situation was. You see the twins will be turning 17, so it's very possible someone in our school could be their mate, finding a mate is sacred to a wolf, the minute they say that one word your fate is sealed. They will turn your mind, morph you into being a lover of their kind, and then you'll give in.
That won't happen to me, I'm growing old to see the world as it once was, and I'm going to choose who I'll be with. No one will take that dream away from me.
Once dinner was finished, I just wanted to sleep. I'd had a very long tiring day, I quickly sat down on a small stool my mother kept in the storage closet and removed my shirt while my brother Freddy sat at the table to do his simple homework. It wasn't long before my mother came in with a large bowl of warm salt water and some cotton, this was going to sting I just knew it. She was here to help me with the wounds caused by wolves yesterday. She slowly began to unwrap the bandage from around my torso and slowed down drastically when it came to the final layer, I felt it peel off every wound and my fists clenched in pain. "Jesus!" I heard my mom exclaim once the dressing was completely removed. The air on my back was nice though and I sighed as my arm covered my once again exposed brests. "This is more than 15!" I began to hear sniffles coming from her and sighed turning round to look at her face, only to notice tears streaming down it. "Mom I'm fine, it's alright." She shook her head. "It's not alright, I'm your mother I shouldn't let these things happen. I'm so sorry. Your father would have..." here she goes again. Every single time something happened she'd always bring up dad, it really annoyed me because no matter how much we all wish he was here, he just isn't. My father was kiled by THEIR kind, almost 5 years ago when they actually managed to take over. When the lycans managed to penetrate our town my father rose up with some people from the neighborhood, to defend our livelihood, it was futile to say the least. We lost many people and I watched as my dad was ripped apart by two fully shifted wolves, I ended up shoting him to stop his suffering before they dragged me to the courtyard, i was the person to receive the first lashing of the town when I was 12! The wolves have been pretty strict with me since that day. "Stop being stvpid!" Was I harsh? Definitely! Did she need to hear it again, absolutely. "Dad is dead, we don't know what he'd do because he never knew this life. He never knew this world." I know what he'd have done, most likely attacked the guy who held the whip and got himself kiled in the process. "The best thing you can do for me, is stop crying and help me, next time don't insist on helping if you can't handle it." She began to wash my open wounds with the warm salt water causing loud winces to leave me, I knew it was necessary to prevent infection, but my god it hurt like a betch. "Some of these are really deep Dylan!" She sniffed again and my eyes rolled in my head. "I told you, I'm fine, just wrap me back up so I can get to bed." My mom was obviously more impacted by my injuries than I was, I suppose that always the case though. When it's happening to you, you've just got to get through it but when it's happening to someone you love, you just want to take their pain away. She quickly placed a fresh bandage around my waist and chest and wrapped it tightly for compression. The bowl of water that was used was now red in color, I guess from the blood my back was dripping with. "Can you keep your head down please? At least just this week. You can't take any more lashings." I simply nodded before standing up away from the stool, I walked over to Freddie and ruffled his hair in affection. "Good night squirt." He giggled and fixed his hair slightly. "Night Dilly." I smiled walking upstairs to my little bedroom, as soon as I was inside i shut the door and flopped down on to my bed on my stomach and I took a minute to cry to myself at the pain in my back, what my mom did was important but it hurt, not that I'd ever tell her. My hand covered my mouth quickly to muffle any noise I might be making. I couldn't tell anyone, I had to be strong because more and more people were crumpling these days, and my mom would break if she knew how much I was suffering. Sleep followed me shortly after, she was right though about me needing to keep my head down for the time being, I could not take another lashing! After a long night and an even longer morning, we were all finally stood in the hallway at school waiting for the twins to arrive. "Mine!" Everyone that was stood in the hallway tensed up, as we were seniors, me and Nick were stood towards the very back of the human line. All the mated people were situated directly opposite their wolf mates in their years. We stayed silent and still as Arya walked down the hall and stopped directly in front of Nick. His eyes widened in fear, unsure of wether to look up or keep his head lowered. "Look me in the eye, mate." He glanced at me slightly as if asking what he should do. "I said, look me in the eye." He slowly moved his eye line up to look at her face. I took a glance myself to see her eyes pitch black with lust. "I... can't... I mean... erm." Before he was able to mutter anything else, two wolves from opposite, grabbed him out of the line and dragged him behind Arya. "Hey!" My head shot up before I could stop myself. My mouth also forgot its place as I jumped out of line. Everyone's head shot to me as my eyes widened in realization at what I'd done. Adrian, the other twin, walked up to me before punching me right in the stomach, I doubled over instantly. Feeling the sting in my slightly healed back. "I know you... You were publicly flogged only two days ago." God I hate this guy. "I also have it on good authority, that you openly spoke out against our rules and regulations in yesterday's class." My head shot down the line slightly to see Erin, looking a little frightened, her mate, the beta to be was looking at her, nodding his head in reassurance. "You traitor, you grassed on your own kind?" I yelled at her before feeling a fist connect with my cheek. My head whipped to the side from the force, while my class members gasped. I'm so done with this treatment, right then, I wasn't in charge of my actions. My fists curled up and my stance became a lot more defensive. My head snapped up to the alpha to be, and I looked him in the eye. "You don't know the meaning of the word disrespect." I suddenly hurled my fist towards his head, which he easily dodged, but my foot came up and kicked him instead. He stumbled backwards from the force with wide eyes. "You... you Actually hit me!" He didn't even sound annoyed, more shocked. Everyone in the hallway was watching, waiting for the alpha to do something but instead he simply stood up straight, regaining his composure. "I think everyone should get back to class." He began to walk away, following his sister when I called him back. "What about Nick?!" "Simple, He's my sisters mate. He now belongs to her." Argh, he's not an object. "He's not her property." A chuckle left his mouth, before turning his back to me again. "All humans are property." A short while later everyone made it to science class, our teacher Mrs Mathews is mated to the lycans pack doctor, she also now has a four and two year old with him. She was one of the first humans to be cohered into a false relationship. "What were you thinking young lady?" I rolled my head at her before looking at the empty seat next to mine. Nick was with that stvpid wolf girl right now. Being changed, I'm so angry it's ridiculous. "I was thinking, this guy is being a prick. Did you hear him? 'All humans are property.' It's bull shet." I looked up and the whole class looked at me like I had three heads. Talking shet about wolves is one thing, but talking about an alpha is punishable by death, attacking an alpha is an even worse offense. There was then a knock at the door and in walked Erin and her band of mated bestards. "Sorry we're late Mrs." "Erin, how are things between you and bata Monroe?" She blushed, the traitor actually blushed at the mention of his name. "He spoke to me last night about trying for a baby. We need a good strong boy to take over as beta." I scoffed looking at her as she took her seat. "You guys are actually pathetic, why can't it be a girl? Those mutts are basically Neanderthals" I voiced my opinion and saw all the shocked faces around me. Calling the lycans mutts, is the same as them calling us scum. After lesson had ended the entire school was called into the hall for assembly. This is where any human who has been found to have broken the rules were punished, usually 10 lashings were goven out or something similar. "Welcome to the school assembly, congratulations to the alpha twins for finding both your mates. Now on to the business at hand, as the 5 year anniversary of the new world is coming up, we have been informed that the alpha king will be visiting our district next week, this is very exciting news. We want you all to look your absolute best, she wolves and mated females will wear exemplary dresses made by seamstress. Male wolves and mated men will wear tailored suits. Anyone who doesn't comply will be reprimanded." The Alpha King?! No one has met him yet, he took over the throne three years ago when he turned 18. He really didn't make any appearances though, great, this month is going to be a nightmare. "As for the humans, you will be given a new uniform to wear for the visit, these are to be neatly ironed and worn to the highest standard. As for the following humans, based on your attitude this past week, you will be coming to the front and facing punishment. Tony summerset?!" Tony's head shot up as he looked around, he was in the year below but he shared my views when it came to the lycans. He slowly walked up to the front of assembly, almost instantly his top was t0rn in two and he received 10 lashings. A girl named Kara was next and she too received 10 lashings. A few more people went up slowly accepting their fate then suddenly my name was called. "Dylan Riley." Inside I was terrified but I simply shrugged my shoulders, I guess I did kind of expect this. Although I'm not sure if my back can take any more damage. "You attacked an alpha, correct!" His eyes bored into mine as I bowed my head submitting to his authority. "Technically, no." Everyone in the school gym looked on in fear, as my head moved to the front row of the wolf side. Adrian sat, with a werewolf girl in the year below, her name was Jana, I guess he found his mate. Nick and Arya were no where to be seen though. Adrian gave me a shrug as if to say he didn't tell, before smirking at my comment. "He hasn't officially taken the alpha title yet, so he's just..." i looked at the principle and noticed his eyes black and his claws out, he was in what lycans call a half shift, triggered when the subject has become angered. He turned to two security wolves and gave them a nod, Almost immediately i was forced onto my knees, my arm was slammed on a table and held in place by one wolf, while my body was held in place by the other. "Ok, I don't think this is needed, I have alpha blood, a stvpid human girl can't hurt me." My head snapped to Adrian who had stood up in front of the school to stop what was happening. "Nevertheless, humans need to know their place." With that the pressure on my arm increased as our principals hand pulled my sleeve up before a long claw punctured my skin. The searing pain shoting from the fresh wound had my eyes scrunched and my fist clenched, I bit the inside of my cheek hard instantly tasting blood, however no sound left my mouth. He continued to write, using my skin as a canvas and his claws as a marker, it went on forever, my vision blurred slightly at one point as I turned my head away. After minutes of torture, he was done and the pressure on my arm eased, instantly I snatched my arm away, hissing through my teeth at the pain. I was about to scurry off stage, when I was roughly grabbed yet again, my arm being held in the air by the principal while my feet were inches off the floor, blood dripped from the wound and the pattern he had made was on show for everyone to see. Loads of people gasped, even the wolves looked slightly horrified at what had happened. "This is what happens when a human decides to speak out. I can promise, anyone who so much as says one word about our way of life, will have the same punishment." My arm was starting to seriously ache from being held in the air for so long, and the lack of blood flow to my suspended arm was causing me pins and needles, still I refused to make a sound. I held the tears back and I bit my cheek harder causing more blood to fill my mouth. "That's enough Bradley!" Adrian growled, he was still stood up and looking at the scene in front of him. His eyes hard as he stared at the principal a low warning growl erupted from his chest which had the head teacher gulping, he quickly let go of my arm causing me to crash to the floor. A small cry left my mouth as I hit the hard floor. Immediately I scrambled away, my foot just missed the high step leading to the stage and I fell, waiting for the impact of the ground, but it never came. Two strong arms wrapped around me catching my weak body causing me to look up, my eyes widened as I noticed Adrian had caught my falling form. "This isn't part of the human punishment program!" Adrian growled causing me to tense in his grip, I pushed him away from me before fixing my uniform top. The room was deadly silent, taking in the scene in front of them, while I stole a glance at my forearm. Carved into my skin by his devastating claws were two words, words that would most definitely scar my body for life. 'Human scum' "Lessons must be learned, she received lashing merely two days ago, and clearly it had no effect on her." Another growl left Adrian's chest as he stepped on to the stage, I wasn't bothered though, you would think I'd be ashamed but I simply smiled slightly. I fixed my sleeve a little so it wouldn't rub on the fresh wound before speaking. "It doesn't matter," the whole room looked at me shocked by my attitude. "I would rather be labeled human scum, than have any resemblance to your kind. I'm proud of what I am, how many of you can say that?" After my amazing little speech, I walked right down the middle between the humans and lycans and out the door. No more compliance, I'm going to get away with as much as I can without getting into too much bother. There will come a day when the lycans power will fizzle out. When it does I'll be ready, I'll be waiting for the day we take our world back. As for the best part about my plan...No one can stop me.
"Ouch, not so hard." I seethed as the school nurse cleaned my new wound with antiseptic. "If you had of just kept your mouth shut, this wouldn't have happened." I turned to my right looking out the window at the few clouds that were floating in the blue sky. "Like I said, I'm proud to be human, and now everyone knows what I am." I clenched my fist together as the nurse began wrapping a bandage around my forearm. It had been a good few hours since the incident in the hall, and I had been forced to come to the nurces office after I had tried to clean my wound by splashing it with water from the tap, it also refused to stop bleeding. "You are impossible. Can you please just try and stay out of trouble? For one day, that's all I ask." Our school nurse is a wolf, she's one of them. However she hates the way they treat us mere humans, she thinks we should all just live in peace with equal rights. Like that would ever happen. "All I've done is stay out of trouble, but you are just going to humiliate me anyway, so what's the actual point?" "The pack were discussing a public execution, Dylan. You need to walk on egg shells from now on, not just for you but for your family as well." No ones been publicly executed in over 4 months, I'm flattered they're considering it. They only execute people who they believe are the biggest problems to society. "Well then... I'm flattered." I chuckled, before looking at the patch job. 'Huh, not too shabby.' I quickly stood up from the human nursing station and pulled the sleeve of my shirt down covering the evidence of ever being hurt. "This is serious!" I just gave her a blank look before leaving the room. On the way out I heard her call back to me. "Please just think about it." I gave a clipped nod as I walked away wondering how I'm going to tell my mom about this. Later in the evening... "Dilly why you say that?" Freddie looked up at me with a mouth full of bread. "Don't speak with your mouthful!" My mom scolded him as a bashful blush made its way to his cheeks. "Sowwy mommy." His reply was muffled as he swallowed the last chunk of food. "I said it Freddie, because it's the truth. The wolf race are a pathetic excuse for..." my mom cut me off with an extremely stern look. "Dylan! They have ears everywhere, one more word out of you and it's your room." I scowled, my hatred for the Lycan kind growing stronger as each day passes. "What more can they do to me, lash me? Beat me? Brand me? They've ran out of options." I stated slamming my hands down, then severely regretting it as sharp pain shot though my wound. "What was that?" My head shot to regard my mothers worried expression. Her eyebrows were raised and her eyes were dull and judging as she looked at me. "Nothing, it was nothing." I quickly took my plate in my hand and began to walk to the kitchen. "I'm not really hungry, and I have homework to do!" My mom caught hold of my forearm causing me to drop my plate suddenly, I watched it slowly fall before shattering on the floor. I retracted my arm quickly and turned to Freddie. "Stay there and don't move until it's cleaned up ok sport?" He just nodded with wide eyes, I turned back to my mom and noticed her curious stare on my arm. Her grip shifted to the other side as she turned it around before pulling my sleeve up. The bandage was showing and a bit of blood was seeping though after the wound had been disturbed. "What the hel happened?" My moms eyes widened as she began to fumble with the bandage. Before she could unravel any of it I snatched my arm away. "I had an accident at school. No big." I began to gather the large pieces of the broken plate up ready to put them in the bin. "What did you do Dylan?" She looked at me with pure worry and only then did I realize what the wound must look like to someone who didn't know. "For gods sake! I didn't do it to myself! I got publicly punished at the assembly alright? It's no big deal." Her face dropped instantly and she stepped towards me, causing me to step backwards. "Mom, I'm ok. So back off will you." "What did you do? I've never known them to cut someone's arm as a punishment." Her shock and accusation was evident in her voice and I sighed heavily. "I spoke against the alphas son." I may have hit him too, but I wasn't going to divulge that part to her. "It's not one big cut, mom, it's a brand, 'human scum' carved onto my arm." "They've branded you now too?!" My eyes rolled at her hurt tone as I went to get the dustpan and brush. "You're so much like your father." A sigh left her mouth as she spoke, running a hand through her hair, while I quickly swept up the little pieces of the broken plate. "You've had a new uniform delivered. It's laid out on your bed. Dylan, Please just try and stay respectful in the future, I don't want my daughter to be completely mutilated. Although you're not far off." "Gee, Thanks." I then walked over to my little brother Freddy before blowing a kiss into his neck and hearing him giggle. "So sport, how's school going?" "It's ok." He shrugged before going back to coloring a dinosaur picture in. "Well that's good, stay out of trouble, ok little man?" Heading upstairs and into my room, my thoughts wandered to the permanent graffiti scar very slowly healing on my arm. Disgusting beasts. Think they own the world because they're faster, stronger and can shift. Pah. If you ask me they are not all that.The second I walked into my room my mouth dropped open. On my bed was some grey pants laid out neatly, which wasn't the surprising part, no, what shocked me was the grey high neck no sleeved button down shirt, every single set of uniform had sleeves except this one. They've done this on purpose those, mutts. They want the world to see my arm and know what a disgusting creature I am. They want the world to know that I, Dylan Riley, am nothing more than 'human scum'.
During the last week, I've been horrible, in class I've been loud in voicing my views, I've insulted at least everyone to some degree, I didn't care about the consequences, and I certainly didn't think about them. I haven't seen Nick at all since he was claimed, and to make matters worse today was the royal visit. Oh yes, werewolves and mated humans alike were spending every waking minute preparing themselves to meet his royal majesty, king of the wolves. Unclaimed Humans however would rather stick pins in their eyes. "Dylan, get down now... you're going to be late." She was right, I was dawdling this morning, I really couldn't be bothered today, I gave myself one last look in the small mirror and sighed when my eyes met my newly uncovered brand. It had bad bruising around the letters, and was still extremely tender to touch, it was definitely healing now though. I made my way down the stairs and came face to face with my mother who was seeing to Freddie, she was helping my brother get his coat on when she turned to me. "You ready sport?" Freddie nodded his little head at me and smiled while I quickly slid my shoes on. "Just Remember, the alpha is bad enough, Dylan, please, please don't do anything to anger the king." My mother stopped us from walking out the door to tell me something she had been telling me continuously for the last couple of days, it was almost as if the entire human population of our district was expecting me to do something stvpid. "Try and have a good day." I rolled my eyes but nodded, even I know not to push the king, he could kil me in the hallway like it was nothing. In fact I plan on staying out of his way for the entirety of the day. "We will see you tonight mom." I stated before me and my brother began our walk to school, his little hand clutched my own tightly as we went. Usually Nick would be with us, as he lives next door, well he used to, now he's residing in the main pack house. I quickly dropped Freddie off at his school and watched him get the wolfsbane neutralizer before walking into him building giving me a small wave before he went in. With my new scar on complete show, and my figure being complimented by the skin tight shirt I was wearing, I sauntered down the street to school, I gave my name and year in and took the wolf's bane neutralizer injection with no problems at all. It was finally getting into school that the problem occurred. Walking through the halls I was met by many looks, some of pity some of disgust. You see every single non mated human in the school was wearing a long sleeved version of the uniform I was given. All the Wolves and mated couples were scattered around in fancy floor length dresses or tailored suits. As I turned the corner I noticed a couple, now this couple happened to catch my eye the most out of all of them because it consisted of Arya and Nick, eating each other's faces off. "What the hel!" Nicks head shot to me as his eyes widened. He too was dressed in a tailored suit, a navy blue tie hung on his neck to match Aryas dress. Why was this happening all the time? It's always my friends that get completely brain washed. I shook my head in disbelief before turning my back on him. I heard his fast footsteps behind me as I rounded the corner. "Dylan?!" He ran right in front of me, stopping me in my tracks, making me drop my bag off my shoulder and almost causing me to bump into him. "Let me just explain..." "Has she marked you?" I mean you could almost see it in his eyes, she had marked him, and knowing the way life goes he's probably even mated with her. "Actually... Don't even answer that." I aggressively picked my bag up off of the floor and stormed off down the hall. "Dylan, just listen to me, Erin was right, it's so hard to resist your soulmate, and Arya is actually ok once you get to know her." I just kept walking, he caught up to me walking beside me but it didn't matter, I completely ignored everything and everyone. 'I'm so not in the mood today' getting into class was good though, I said hello to Mr Foley and took my usual seat. Nick sighed then took his bag off ready to sit next to me, but I snapped before he had the chance. "Traitors and mated idiots sit on that side of the room." I didn't look him in the eye as I pointed to a seat right at the front of the classroom on the opposite side. His eyes widened as he turned his attention back to me. "You can't be serious Dylan." I gave him a blank look before grabbing my book out of my backpack, I placed it on the desk then began to write the date on the top line. "I've sat in this seat for as long as I can remember." I ignored him, his voice sounded sad and shocked. "Dylan? Wait! What is that?!" Before I could react Nick had grabbed hold of my branded arm and turned it to see the letters. "Oh my God! What happened?" I snatched my arm away from him and shrugged as I continued to write in my book before grabbing my water bottle out of my bag. "The principal happened, it was my punishment for speaking out against Adrian and Arya. I wear it with pride." He just held a complete look of disbelief. "You spoke out against them?" I shrugged, what did he think I'd do. "It's no secret that I despise this stvpid new world and the mutts that control it. You were my friend, I wasn't going to let them just take you without saying something, although that is exactly what you seem to have done. Enjoy the view from your new seat!" "Don't be like that, Dylan, I'm your best friend, I'm sorry about your arm, but..." my eyes rolled inside my head at my friends words. "Anything with the word 'but' in, isn't an apology, it's a rationalization." I took a drink of water from my bottle and kept my eyes facing forward, ignoring his every attempt to try and talk to me. "Dylan?.. Dylan?... Do you know what? Erin is right, if you push us all away you won't have any friends left." He huffed before walking over to the empty seat and sitting down, I could feel him glancing up at me every now and again but I didn't respond. "Good morning class, please settle down." He looked at me then at Nick and frowned, we've never sat apart, we were friends before the new world even began. I just shook my head telling him to forget it. "So... as you know the king will be arriving in a short while, but until then lessons will go on as normal." Its funny seeing teachers in the same uniform your wearing, mr Foley and his wife are the coolest. Human teachers and doctors only have slightly more respect than we do. Because of Mr Foley's status him and his wife have better access to food and drink, Mrs Foley is cool, sometimes she even makes sure mr Foley brings some in for me. Ya know, coz I'm their favorite student. It's not in a weird way, it's just they were friends of the family before the new wold took effect. Mr Foley and my dad were buddies from high school, so it goes without sayin really. "All the mated humans will be at the front of each years line again, after that you will all be placed in status, Nick, as your mated to Alpha Arya, you'll be at the front of your line. Dylan as you have been branded..." his voice trailed off as he looked at me. "Yeah yeah, I'll be at the back of the line behind everyone. I get it." I huffed, moving my sight towards the window once more. "I am sorry." I turned to face Mr Foley again, he looked genuinely upset and that look of pity wasn't something I wanted to see. I gave him a clipped nod then turned away again. "Anyway, on to the subject matter, 'Of Mice and Men, page 64, Nick why don't you start us off with the reading.""Of course sir." Nick began reading the book but I switched off, today is going to be a long day. After almost an hour and a half of reading comprehension, the bell chimed signaling lunch. I shot up and out of the classroom before anyone could say anything. Today, I was avoiding drama like the plague.
I wandered the corridors straight to the lunch hall. All the people I would normally hang out with we're all mated so I grabbed my lunch quickly, and sat down at the end of the human table. Let me lay the lunch hall out for you. On one side of the room you have two long rows of tables, with simple benches that make it look like prison, on the other side of the room you have multiple round tables with fancy chairs. Yup you get it. The humans sit at the prison tables and the wolves and traitors sit on the fancy tables, they get fancy food, fancy drink and most importantly they get pudding. what I would give to have some pudding. "Dylan can we just talk?" Nick quickly took the spot next to me as he set his lunch tray down. I looked at his food which had been placed on a ceramic, circular white plate. God that looked good. I sighed knowing he was going to talk anyway. "Fine, you have two minutes." I used my fork to take a bit of pasta off his plate and shoved it into my mouth. God that was good. "After I left school, I was taken to the pack house with Arya, and I really got to know her. It took a few days for me to finally accept being with her, but ever since life has been ok, and the sax... well that's a whole other story." Eww, I didn't need that mental image in my head. "I'm glad your happy." I stated before deciding I had no appetite. His face held shock before he sighed in relief. "That means a lot Dylan, I mean you know that your opinion matters to me." I cut him off before he could say anything else. "I said I was glad your happy. I didn't say I approved of what you've done. You've basically turned into one of THEM, I can't ever forgive you for that." He looked hurt, but I couldn't care less about his feelings. He placed his hand gently on my arm and went to open his mouth when a growl sounded out. All heads whipped to where it came from, Arya was stood holding a glass of soda and a plate, she was looking right at me and Nick and I would totally be dead if looks could kil. Nick quickly retracted his hand, his whole face fell and you could see sorrow flood his irises. "You sit with me now, get away from that, that... scum!" Wow, Nick was such a lucky guy. NOT. "You heard her. Get away from me, go sit with your new friends. I'm happy for you, and I understand where your coming from, but don't come up to me again and pretend you didn't betray your own kind. Don't pretend you didn't betray me." I shoved a little bit of food into my mouth before standing up and walking out of the cafeteria, leaving my tray on the table. I was walking through the hallway to the classroom, you see I decided to spend lunch with Mr Foley in his room, when I happened to hear voices in the corridor. "Is it wise for her to actually be present when the king arrives? Surely she could be placed in the dungeons, it might actually teach her some respect?" My principal was speaking to the alpha of our district, huh, if I stayed and listened do you think they'd notice, maybe they could smell me?! "Everyone is to be present, if the Riley girl does one thing out of line she will be dealt with severely, child or not. That girl has been a blight to the district since day one, she's dangerous, if she puts one hair out of place I will personally break her into submission." Oh shet, they were talking about me specifically, and they mentioned the dungeon, that's not been used in months. Normally I would have listened in more but something about the entire situation didn't sit right with me, all of a sudden, I was on edge, and simply wasn't interested in the slightest in hearing how my misery was to be enhanced. I backed up slightly before turning around and bumping head first into one of the hottest man I had ever seen. I lost my balance immediately and fell straight on to the floor letting out a small grumble in the process. His eyebrows knitted together quickly and his breath hitched in his throat as he looked upon my fallen state and gasped. "Mate!" He whispered, his eyes fixated on mine. Now, I had seen and heard that many times to know what that means, I gasped before taking a step back. 'No, no, no, no, no. This can not be happening.' He growled slightly before stepping towards me. Oh Shet!2024.06.01 12:28 TheZandiil DM Looking for advice.
Hi there! First post on reddit so please forgive me if i'm not using any fancy text.
I've been DM'ing now on and off for around near 5 years, originally I ran for 2 separate friend groups with Vastly different likes and dislikes. I had to stop one groups campaign due to work schedules and as the such (gotta love adult life ;-;)
So recently my current group consists of close friends so it is quite easy to get things across but it can also be very easy to lose control of the table if we start having jokes and a good laugh.
the above is not the issues I'm having as the DM however the stuff above i'm fine with as long as we are hanging out and having a good time. My issues span from multiple small issues which I will list below Beginning with myself as I know I make plenty of mistakes as I DM but I'm looking for advice to make sure i'm not going crazy and being a C**T with some of my table rules i've implemented
My Issues I need to work on: Note Taking - I lose track of my notes (this has been getting better moved to an app called obsidian which I have stuck with and this seems to be working wonders for me) but still needs work.
World lore - Kinda a addition to the note taking issue I have, I like to chop change some things but I still want it to make canonical sense to the worlds timeline which can be a little messy at times.
Pacing - Oh god I'm awful for pacing sometimes I'm too fast or i'm far too slow my players spend an entire 7 hour session on 1 street corner being my worst example.
Sometimes Retconning Small things - I Don't know if I think its okay to do this, I've only had to do it twice in total I Hate retconning stuff as I feel like if maybe a player that doesn't shine to often finally gets out their shell i'm worried if I retcon something It can really take away from that players motivation.
So above are my issues for sakes of time I'm going to copy paste a recent paragraph I sent to my players parts like player names will be edited of course. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So shappening dudes and dudets, DnD is going to be on the back burner for me for a Little bit cause personally feeling burnt out for a couple reasons that I'll get to in a little bit. So first things first the main thing I'm going to an induction day so I'm hoping I get this job (I got the Job whoop whoop) and DnD will be moved to every 2nd Saturday if thats gonna be a issue we can discuss that down the line. Now couple of mini Issues I want to get off my chest. So the Number 3 joke died ages ago for me and its just annoying so stopping that would be nice thank you, anyone that says it going forward you'll just take 3 damage. Unfortunately the interrupting and pacing is horrendous I'm gonna do my best to keep my focus on the game and I ask so do you. For the time being kinda a add on to the previous my max player count I can do is 6 no more, "Player Name" please let "His Partner" know I do not mind if she watches but I can't have her play not until I feel like the pacing is better and no ones shouting over each other. The Cards, They are fun but i'm gonna rejig them to be less annoying and alot less OP, (I'm removing that bag of holding card) personal thing - If I ask something to do with in the game could you please just acknowledge you have seen it, cause I've typed in plane text plenty of times before and it just doesn't get listened to it starts with one person then everyone else follows if you get me and it can make some little instructions that make things easier for me alot harder. As the DM I want a bit more control So one of the major ones that I ask is NO ONE calls "Roll a persuasion to persuade me" or anything along that lines, it is unnecessary and tbh I find it a bit rude. NO Rape or Rolling Cock size. (its just weird and its disgusting you'd think of it tbh)
There are a few more other things that personally bother me but those are the main ones, the minor ones just consist of 1. Don't Make up your own lore of my own creation and then treat it as cannon, I didn't ask and I don't care.
Revitalize x2 - Add a Medium Potion to Inventory
Treasure x3 - Add 100 Gold
Choose Your Weapon - Choose one for the Remainder of the Session
Archery - +2 to Range attacks
or
Two Weapon Fighting - +2 to Melee Attacks
Curse of Surveillance - You Grow an eyeball onto the palm of your hand, something or someone is watching you (The DM determines who) This curse is passed on
when someone else draws the card or removed with the "Remove curse Spell"
Improvised weaponry - You feel compelled to use the first random object as your weapon for the session.
Triumphant Adventurer - Roll a D20,
Even Numbers add 3 Platinum to your Inventory.
Odd Numbers Summons a Gold Plated Cocky knight to gloat how rich he is for 1 minute.
Hunters Mark - You Gain the Ability Hunters Mark for the Session it does not Require Concentration.
Contact Other Plane - You ask anything from the DM roll a d100 to discover the outcome.
Hoard Robber - The best robber in all the land has found you and took every bit of coin you have leaving a single fake gold piece.
Dawnbringer Cleric - You can Choose One to use throughout the session
Cure Wounds
Dispel Magic
Gentle Repose
Priest of Ancient lore - A old Dwarf appears in front of you radiating a holy light asking "Would you like to know the lore of this land?"
Boots of Speed - You Gain Extra 15ft Speed for the Session.
Silver Raven - A Unknown Vampires Raven Follows you.
Check for Traps - You becoming Increasingly paranoid of traps for the session the DM at Random will ask you to check for traps at your feet.
Blessed Defiance - You Summon A white Spirit, it says nothing, it is friendly to only you, it will follow and defend you for this session.
Chaos Channeler - A wild magic sorcerer Explodes from the multiverse, he looks excited as he transports himself again creating a Minor wild magic effect.
So this is a pretty large post But I am looking for advice on maybe rules I should consider going forward, how to keep proper control of a party of 6 and just anything I should improve as a DM and anything I can further communicate to my players at the table.
submitted by TheZandiil to DungeonsAndDragons [link] [comments]
I've been DM'ing now on and off for around near 5 years, originally I ran for 2 separate friend groups with Vastly different likes and dislikes. I had to stop one groups campaign due to work schedules and as the such (gotta love adult life ;-;)
So recently my current group consists of close friends so it is quite easy to get things across but it can also be very easy to lose control of the table if we start having jokes and a good laugh.
the above is not the issues I'm having as the DM however the stuff above i'm fine with as long as we are hanging out and having a good time. My issues span from multiple small issues which I will list below Beginning with myself as I know I make plenty of mistakes as I DM but I'm looking for advice to make sure i'm not going crazy and being a C**T with some of my table rules i've implemented
My Issues I need to work on: Note Taking - I lose track of my notes (this has been getting better moved to an app called obsidian which I have stuck with and this seems to be working wonders for me) but still needs work.
World lore - Kinda a addition to the note taking issue I have, I like to chop change some things but I still want it to make canonical sense to the worlds timeline which can be a little messy at times.
Pacing - Oh god I'm awful for pacing sometimes I'm too fast or i'm far too slow my players spend an entire 7 hour session on 1 street corner being my worst example.
Sometimes Retconning Small things - I Don't know if I think its okay to do this, I've only had to do it twice in total I Hate retconning stuff as I feel like if maybe a player that doesn't shine to often finally gets out their shell i'm worried if I retcon something It can really take away from that players motivation.
So above are my issues for sakes of time I'm going to copy paste a recent paragraph I sent to my players parts like player names will be edited of course. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So shappening dudes and dudets, DnD is going to be on the back burner for me for a Little bit cause personally feeling burnt out for a couple reasons that I'll get to in a little bit. So first things first the main thing I'm going to an induction day so I'm hoping I get this job (I got the Job whoop whoop) and DnD will be moved to every 2nd Saturday if thats gonna be a issue we can discuss that down the line. Now couple of mini Issues I want to get off my chest. So the Number 3 joke died ages ago for me and its just annoying so stopping that would be nice thank you, anyone that says it going forward you'll just take 3 damage. Unfortunately the interrupting and pacing is horrendous I'm gonna do my best to keep my focus on the game and I ask so do you. For the time being kinda a add on to the previous my max player count I can do is 6 no more, "Player Name" please let "His Partner" know I do not mind if she watches but I can't have her play not until I feel like the pacing is better and no ones shouting over each other. The Cards, They are fun but i'm gonna rejig them to be less annoying and alot less OP, (I'm removing that bag of holding card) personal thing - If I ask something to do with in the game could you please just acknowledge you have seen it, cause I've typed in plane text plenty of times before and it just doesn't get listened to it starts with one person then everyone else follows if you get me and it can make some little instructions that make things easier for me alot harder. As the DM I want a bit more control So one of the major ones that I ask is NO ONE calls "Roll a persuasion to persuade me" or anything along that lines, it is unnecessary and tbh I find it a bit rude. NO Rape or Rolling Cock size. (its just weird and its disgusting you'd think of it tbh)
There are a few more other things that personally bother me but those are the main ones, the minor ones just consist of 1. Don't Make up your own lore of my own creation and then treat it as cannon, I didn't ask and I don't care.
- Don't ask for any more custom items, if I give you something be happy and let it be a surprise. 3."did we level up?" i know its a joke but tone it down before it gets worse.
- If you create a backstory please give me the footnotes of the main points that I can work with, don't give me a lore book about how garfunkle the black white man slain a beast. I won't read it. (Edit - I don't mind if they give me a book to read I do like lore I just mean here that I'd prefer notes of the main points in their characters story)
- I would prefer Game things are sent on discord concerning characters thats a personal thing, I created the discord for me to be organised and have it all in one place so if you please could just send me stuff on that even if its a dnd beyond link I would like it all in one place. I get this is gonna be alot to read but I hope I get my point across. I am the dungeon master and I want to create a game for you guys to enjoy but I have neglected my own joy for the game and have been more lazy with it because of this. I have alot of stuff to fix from last session especially and I'm gonna try to be more focused on the game and create a better experience and all I ask is please listen, pay attention and any question on the world so you can clarify things you may ask me, if there is any issues during the session call for a break if its that major so we may discuss at the table and if its a small issue we discuss it after the session. I may rule things wrong but i'll attempt to rule it in a way that makes sense and then I shall research and let you know afterwards, I'd rather not search rules in the middle of the game and taking half a hour per turn. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Revitalize x2 - Add a Medium Potion to Inventory
Treasure x3 - Add 100 Gold
Choose Your Weapon - Choose one for the Remainder of the Session
Archery - +2 to Range attacks
or
Two Weapon Fighting - +2 to Melee Attacks
Curse of Surveillance - You Grow an eyeball onto the palm of your hand, something or someone is watching you (The DM determines who) This curse is passed on
when someone else draws the card or removed with the "Remove curse Spell"
Improvised weaponry - You feel compelled to use the first random object as your weapon for the session.
Triumphant Adventurer - Roll a D20,
Even Numbers add 3 Platinum to your Inventory.
Odd Numbers Summons a Gold Plated Cocky knight to gloat how rich he is for 1 minute.
Hunters Mark - You Gain the Ability Hunters Mark for the Session it does not Require Concentration.
Contact Other Plane - You ask anything from the DM roll a d100 to discover the outcome.
Hoard Robber - The best robber in all the land has found you and took every bit of coin you have leaving a single fake gold piece.
Dawnbringer Cleric - You can Choose One to use throughout the session
Cure Wounds
Dispel Magic
Gentle Repose
Priest of Ancient lore - A old Dwarf appears in front of you radiating a holy light asking "Would you like to know the lore of this land?"
Boots of Speed - You Gain Extra 15ft Speed for the Session.
Silver Raven - A Unknown Vampires Raven Follows you.
Check for Traps - You becoming Increasingly paranoid of traps for the session the DM at Random will ask you to check for traps at your feet.
Blessed Defiance - You Summon A white Spirit, it says nothing, it is friendly to only you, it will follow and defend you for this session.
Chaos Channeler - A wild magic sorcerer Explodes from the multiverse, he looks excited as he transports himself again creating a Minor wild magic effect.
So this is a pretty large post But I am looking for advice on maybe rules I should consider going forward, how to keep proper control of a party of 6 and just anything I should improve as a DM and anything I can further communicate to my players at the table.
2024.06.01 12:14 Similar_Set_6582 My account was banned from TV Tropes. Can someone do me a favor?
Just copy this, paste this into a sandbox, then make a thread in the Trope Repair Shop linking to it. The thread shall be titled "Needs Help: Inexplicable Language Fluency".
A wick check for InexplicableLanguageFluency.
'''Why?''': InexplicableLanguageFluency seems to lump in examples of characters demonstrating fluency in a language they've never learned with examples of characters merely understanding a language they never learned. For one, it doesn't make sense for the latter examples to be there since the title has the word "fluency" in it. Secondly, many of the latter examples can be moved to BilingualDialogue or AmplifiedAnimalAptitude.
'''Wicks checked''': 50/72
'''Wick totals''':
* 21/50 wicks, or 11.5%, were clear examples of a character demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned. * 24/50 wicks, or 12% were examples of a character understanding a language without demonstrating fluency. * 4/50 wicks, or 2%, were written in a way that made it unclear whether they were being used correctly. * 1/50 wicks, or 1.5%, was an aversion.
[[folder:Characters demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned (21/50)]] * Characters.AtlantisTheLostEmpire: The Atlanteans are able to fluently communicate with the explorers from the surface in English and French. This is handwaved as their own language being a precursor to all other languages. * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming finds himself immediately fluent in Japanese despite having never learned the language, and the Japan of his era was still a dwarf country that mostly only sent envoys to Shu's rival kingdom of Wei. Eiko points out the absurdity of how an ancient Chinese figure can suddenly speak Japanese, and Kongming himself is at a loss of how he can do this. * Characters.YellowjacketsCrashSurvivors: [[spoiler:She, and by extension others in the Antler Queen cult she forms, randomly speak French on occasion, which Lottie at least is ''not'' fluent in, indicating mental instability.]] '''If this is supposed to be an inversion, it's correct, but it should be rewritten to mention that it's an inversion.''' * ComicBook.Asterix: Gauls can speak to most foreign peoples without any difficulty. Either everyone can speak Gaulish, or the Gauls can speak other languages, but either way is downright impossible. * ComicBook.UltimateFantasticFour: ** Downplayed. Namor demonstrates this trope after spending nine thousand years of being sealed inside a sarcophagus prison. Being from an ancient civilization of Atlantis that predates the modern English language, he initially has no idea what his new captors are saying when they find him. However, thanks to his psionic powers he proves to be a frighteningly fast learner and is able to learn English within an hour to understand modern American English and casually deliver threats and demands. ** Happens again when the Four meets the Silver Surfer who is able to understand English perfectly the instant he arrives to Earth for the first time. He justifies this by stating can decipher electromagnetic signals in the air to learn alien tongues in seconds. * Friends.TropesFToJ: Zig-zagged. "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt" has her speaking with Joey's Italian grandmother, with Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey. But in an earlier episode, Rachel's former lover Paulo calls her "bellissima" and she doesn't understand. ->'''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Film.ExorcistTheBeginning: In-universe, the main characters note Cheche's sudden fluency in English after being brought to the hospital. Of course this is because it is Pazuzu speaking through him and not actually Cheche. '''This is DiscussedTrope, not InUniverse'''. * Film.{{Phenomenon}}: Downplayed. After a UFO encounter, George gains a form of superintelligence where he can learn complicated tasks and subjects quickly, to the point where he's able to fluently speak Portuguese after reading an English-to-Portuguese dictionary for twenty minutes. This was foreshadowed in an earlier scene where after usually fumbling to speak Spanish, he's suddenly able to speak it perfectly, to the point that his Hispanic coworker half-seriously declares that it's better than his. * Literature.ForgottenRuin: When Talker and Vandahar speak during the final stretch to the Hidden Cave, Vandahar speaks in what we would recognize as modern German, which of course makes communicating with him very easy for Talker but raises a few questions. * Literature.InCryptid: Of the GeneticMemory version. When Candice the Dragon Princess comes up against the LizardFolk wandering about the New York sewers, she's able to make them halt using a guttural language. She reveals to Verity that it's a inborn language all Princesses know and something the "Servitors" are meant to respond to. She's also never used it before as Servitors can only be created from a [[spoiler:living male dragon]]. * Literature.SeasonalFears: Aven is essentially in a coma all her life but, thanks to the alchemical knowledge tinctures of her father', she speaks perfect English even if there are some issues with definitions. * Literature.ShiversMDSpenser: Bubbie moves to France with her family and meets a new French kid, Jean-Luc, and can somehow converse with him without any language issues; at the end of the story she can hold a long conversation with a stranger in French, despite spending less than a week in the country. Previous books with an overseas setting will at least attempt justifying this trope (for instance, ''Terror on Troll Mountain'' has the protagonist's Italian family choosing to speak in English because they're anticipating American guests) but this one handwaves the issue until it's a borderline plot hole. * Recap.AsterixAndTheGoths: Getafix is able to speak fluent Gothic, despite being a Gaulish druid who has no logical reason to know it (especially considering how antagonistic the Goths are in this story). * Recap.FriendsS5E19TheOneWhereRossCantFlirt: Phoebe speaks with Joey's Italian grandmother, with [[InexplicableLanguageFluency Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey]]. '''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Recap.TalesFromTheDarksideS4E6TheGraveRobber: Aileen is surprised to hear Tapok speaking English when he wakes up, the mummy giving an offhand mention that he can speak the language of anyone who violates the tomb. * Roleplay.WanyaKingdomVSAwoofyUnity: Fragment has been shown to speak any language even if he has never heard it before. * Series.{{Llanargollen}}: In "Dirgelwch y Llyfr Coll", Prys and Barti speak to each other in Swahili. It seems incredibly unlikely that Prys would be fluent in that language, and Barti only speaks in unintelligible grunts with individual words thrown in. The other characters barely react to this. * VideoGame.EternalReturnBlackSurvival: The test subjects are able to work together with each other in spite of how one would presume that the vast majority of them would be completely unable to verbally communicate with most of the others. {{Averted}} by some of the achievement lore entries, which include statements observed from test subjects that some of which have a note underneath which states the words were translated by AI and will be reviewed and localized further in the future. '''Since this seems to be an implied example rather than a straight example, and it seems to be ambiguous InUniverse whether it's this or BilingualDialogue, I'll leave it here.''' * VideoGame.MegaManBattleNetwork2?: [=MegaMan=]'s translation system allows Lan to speak flawless Netopian after they arrive in Netopia. * WesternAnimation.{{Pocahontas}}: English explorer John Smith meets the alluring Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe. Smith doesn't know her language, nor she his. That is, until Pocahontas takes a breath of magic wind. Suddenly, her English is better than his. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Aversions (1/50)]] * DarthWiki.{{Aquilaverse}}: ''Averted'' Not inexplicable, since her spell "Xenographus" let's her read any language she encounters for a limited duration. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Unclear (4/50)]] * Characters.FrightKrewe: His power makes him this. He has the ability to communicate with anyone and understand anything they say, whether its a [[InexplicableLanguageFluency person]], an [[SpeaksFluentAnimal animal]], or an [[NatureSpirit 'elemental entity']]. '''The way the example is written, it's not clear whether it's this or BilingualDialogue.''' * Recap.CreepshowS1E3BadWolfDown: Doc is shown to speak French and understands the language quite fluently, allowing him to translate the explanation of the werewolf woman's plight. '''You can't "understand a language fluently". Does he ''speak'' it fluently, or at least speak it better than he should realistically be able to?''' * Series.AlloAllo: Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians can talk to each other. This is never explained. '''In their own languages, or...?''' * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps: The [[SpeaksFluentAnimal aliens]] and [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien chimps]] understand each other, despite that the chimps have just arrived on their planet. '''Does one of them speak the other's language, or do they just understand each other's languages?''' [[/folder]]
!!!'''Characters being able to understand a language without demonstrating fluency (24/50) 12%''' [[folder:Amplified Animal Aptitude (7/50) '''3.5%''']] * Literature.MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH: The animals can understand humans and each other, but can't talk to humans. This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic as to where exactly all these animals picked up English (justified for the rats, as they were taught it in the lab, but not for any of the others), and whether they can understand other human languages automatically as well. * Recap.TheSimpsonsS6E6TreehouseOfHorrorV: When Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." * TheSimpsons.TropesIToM: ** In "Treehouse of Horror V", when Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." '''Just checked and the sloth doesn’t say “I don’t know”, it just grunts with an intonation that indicates that that’s what it was saying. So, not fluent in English.''' * Tarzan.TropesGToZ ** Played straight when Jane talks to a baby baboon and he understands her. * TotalDrama.TropesHToP: Some wild animals--especially squirrels--can understand humans. * WesternAnimation.FindingNemo: Dory understands English. The fish in the tank understand English because they've been hearing humans all their life, but there's no reason for Dory to understand English. [[spoiler:Subverted in that ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' reveals she was raised in a marine life institute in California.]] '''Since it says “understand” and not “speak” I can only assume this is a case of TranslationConvention and AnimalTalk, which means they aren’t actually fluent in English.''' * WesternAnimation.SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron: Spirit, despite not having had any human contact before his capture, understands what the human characters are saying. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Bilingual Dialogue (11/50)]] * Characters.MashupWeekMegamixCompetitors: Despite the fact that all 3 members speak different languages (English for Scoop, French for Eric and Italian for Baba), they can be understood by each other and by others easily. * Film.NoTimeToDie: James Bond's 5-year-old daughter, Mathilde, understands English even though her mother Madelaine speaks to her in French and all the media she consumes is in French. * Film.Titanic1997: Jack and the Swedish men understand each other well enough that Olaf is able to bet his tickets for all Jack and Fabrizio's money. * FinalFantasyXIV.TropesGToI?: ** In ''Heavensward'', the Warrior and Alphinaud are startled by how they can understand the great wyrm Hraesvelgr, who only speaks the language of dragons. They learn that while other races may not speak the dragon's language, the inherent power and magic in a dragon's song essentially beams meaning directly into the hearer's mind. ** The Scions are shocked in ''Shadowbringers'' when they meet [[spoiler:Emet-Selch's recreation of the lost city of Amaurot, the home of the BenevolentPrecursor race. Although the ancient version of mankind spoke only in a StarfishLanguage of droning tones, the Scions born millennia after the world was sundered find that they're able to discern meaning from it.]] * Literature.CookingWithWildGame: Lampshaded. One of the few supernatural parts of the setting is that [[TrappedInAnotherWorld Asuta]] can understand its inhabitants' language (almost) perfectly. Nobody knows why, nor do they ever find out; it's essentially one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality needed to get the plot going. * Literature.{{Fablehaven}}: After receiving magic from fairies, Kendra gains the ability to interpret their language intuitively despite never actually learning it. * Manga.MiriyaAndMarie: Aside of occasional GratuitousFrench, Miriya can understand all French and animal characters and vice versa. Blackey also tries to charge Miriya for massage in yen despite being French. * VideoGame.KnightsOfTheOldRepublic: Yes, your character understands plenty of languages, but there isn't anyone who ''should'' understand the language of the AbusivePrecursors. [[spoiler: Subverted. Turns out you'd been there before and learned the language, but just forgotten the whole thing between Malak's backstab and whatever the Jedi did to "rebuild" you]]. '''When moving this to BilingualDialogue, I would rewrite it as “Your character understands plenty of languages, but can only speak one.''' * WebOriginal.MashupWeek: In both tournaments, Flat Eric speaks French, but everyone can understand him perfectly. Same with Gigi, who speaks Italian. * WesternAnimation.JosieAndThePussycats: ''[[RecycledWithAGimmick In Outer Space]]'' has Melody encounter an alien creature that looks like cotton candy with eyes and flippers. The critter speaks in a series of bleeps, and Melody names him Bleep. [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien She can also understand him perfectly, and acts as translator for everyone else]]. Also, Bleep seems to understand English just fine. '''I also think InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien should be limited to people actually speaking Alien instead of just understanding it, but that’s for another time.''' [[/folder]]
[[folder:Other (6/50)]] * Characters.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocusMultiverse: Upon looking at some files from the old phone Oscar picked up, he's somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Fanfic.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus: Kaito is somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming also demonstrates an ability to understand English, as he is able to tell that the English song Eiko sings to him is a love song, with enough comprehension to be moved by a vision of his old comrades due to the lyrics referencing being still alive and alone. Later, upon meeting Tsuyoshi Kondo after Eiko's performance at the Yoyogi Art Festival, Kongming easily translates his GratuitousEnglish for a confused Kobayashi, and he's even become friends with a foreigner in Roppongi, who speaks exclusively in English. He's capable of some GratuitousEnglish himself, to boot. * Recap/CreepshowS2E2PublicTelevisionOfTheDead: Goodman reveals to Ted, out of nowhere, that he can read Sumerian, allowing him to translate the Necronomicon's incantations and let Evil roam free once again. * Series.{{Carnivale}}: During the fireball show, Samson secretly passes an old Crusader fob up to the stage during Lodz's psychometry act. When Lodz touches it, he's struck by visions of a holy war and begins chanting ''"In hoc signo vinces!"'' Ben, an uneducated farmboy, surprises Samson by translating even though he doesn't even recognize the language is Latin: '''Ben Hawkins:''' By this sign we conquer... by this sign we conquer... * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps2ZartogStrikesBack: Zartog understands the humans, despite having just arrived on Earth. He even understands Spanish, Hindi, and Xhosa upon hearing them for the first time, making the humans' inability to understand him even more hilarious. [[/folder]]
submitted by Similar_Set_6582 to tvtropes [link] [comments]
A wick check for InexplicableLanguageFluency.
'''Why?''': InexplicableLanguageFluency seems to lump in examples of characters demonstrating fluency in a language they've never learned with examples of characters merely understanding a language they never learned. For one, it doesn't make sense for the latter examples to be there since the title has the word "fluency" in it. Secondly, many of the latter examples can be moved to BilingualDialogue or AmplifiedAnimalAptitude.
'''Wicks checked''': 50/72
'''Wick totals''':
* 21/50 wicks, or 11.5%, were clear examples of a character demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned. * 24/50 wicks, or 12% were examples of a character understanding a language without demonstrating fluency. * 4/50 wicks, or 2%, were written in a way that made it unclear whether they were being used correctly. * 1/50 wicks, or 1.5%, was an aversion.
[[folder:Characters demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned (21/50)]] * Characters.AtlantisTheLostEmpire: The Atlanteans are able to fluently communicate with the explorers from the surface in English and French. This is handwaved as their own language being a precursor to all other languages. * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming finds himself immediately fluent in Japanese despite having never learned the language, and the Japan of his era was still a dwarf country that mostly only sent envoys to Shu's rival kingdom of Wei. Eiko points out the absurdity of how an ancient Chinese figure can suddenly speak Japanese, and Kongming himself is at a loss of how he can do this. * Characters.YellowjacketsCrashSurvivors: [[spoiler:She, and by extension others in the Antler Queen cult she forms, randomly speak French on occasion, which Lottie at least is ''not'' fluent in, indicating mental instability.]] '''If this is supposed to be an inversion, it's correct, but it should be rewritten to mention that it's an inversion.''' * ComicBook.Asterix: Gauls can speak to most foreign peoples without any difficulty. Either everyone can speak Gaulish, or the Gauls can speak other languages, but either way is downright impossible. * ComicBook.UltimateFantasticFour: ** Downplayed. Namor demonstrates this trope after spending nine thousand years of being sealed inside a sarcophagus prison. Being from an ancient civilization of Atlantis that predates the modern English language, he initially has no idea what his new captors are saying when they find him. However, thanks to his psionic powers he proves to be a frighteningly fast learner and is able to learn English within an hour to understand modern American English and casually deliver threats and demands. ** Happens again when the Four meets the Silver Surfer who is able to understand English perfectly the instant he arrives to Earth for the first time. He justifies this by stating can decipher electromagnetic signals in the air to learn alien tongues in seconds. * Friends.TropesFToJ: Zig-zagged. "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt" has her speaking with Joey's Italian grandmother, with Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey. But in an earlier episode, Rachel's former lover Paulo calls her "bellissima" and she doesn't understand. ->'''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Film.ExorcistTheBeginning: In-universe, the main characters note Cheche's sudden fluency in English after being brought to the hospital. Of course this is because it is Pazuzu speaking through him and not actually Cheche. '''This is DiscussedTrope, not InUniverse'''. * Film.{{Phenomenon}}: Downplayed. After a UFO encounter, George gains a form of superintelligence where he can learn complicated tasks and subjects quickly, to the point where he's able to fluently speak Portuguese after reading an English-to-Portuguese dictionary for twenty minutes. This was foreshadowed in an earlier scene where after usually fumbling to speak Spanish, he's suddenly able to speak it perfectly, to the point that his Hispanic coworker half-seriously declares that it's better than his. * Literature.ForgottenRuin: When Talker and Vandahar speak during the final stretch to the Hidden Cave, Vandahar speaks in what we would recognize as modern German, which of course makes communicating with him very easy for Talker but raises a few questions. * Literature.InCryptid: Of the GeneticMemory version. When Candice the Dragon Princess comes up against the LizardFolk wandering about the New York sewers, she's able to make them halt using a guttural language. She reveals to Verity that it's a inborn language all Princesses know and something the "Servitors" are meant to respond to. She's also never used it before as Servitors can only be created from a [[spoiler:living male dragon]]. * Literature.SeasonalFears: Aven is essentially in a coma all her life but, thanks to the alchemical knowledge tinctures of her father', she speaks perfect English even if there are some issues with definitions. * Literature.ShiversMDSpenser: Bubbie moves to France with her family and meets a new French kid, Jean-Luc, and can somehow converse with him without any language issues; at the end of the story she can hold a long conversation with a stranger in French, despite spending less than a week in the country. Previous books with an overseas setting will at least attempt justifying this trope (for instance, ''Terror on Troll Mountain'' has the protagonist's Italian family choosing to speak in English because they're anticipating American guests) but this one handwaves the issue until it's a borderline plot hole. * Recap.AsterixAndTheGoths: Getafix is able to speak fluent Gothic, despite being a Gaulish druid who has no logical reason to know it (especially considering how antagonistic the Goths are in this story). * Recap.FriendsS5E19TheOneWhereRossCantFlirt: Phoebe speaks with Joey's Italian grandmother, with [[InexplicableLanguageFluency Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey]]. '''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Recap.TalesFromTheDarksideS4E6TheGraveRobber: Aileen is surprised to hear Tapok speaking English when he wakes up, the mummy giving an offhand mention that he can speak the language of anyone who violates the tomb. * Roleplay.WanyaKingdomVSAwoofyUnity: Fragment has been shown to speak any language even if he has never heard it before. * Series.{{Llanargollen}}: In "Dirgelwch y Llyfr Coll", Prys and Barti speak to each other in Swahili. It seems incredibly unlikely that Prys would be fluent in that language, and Barti only speaks in unintelligible grunts with individual words thrown in. The other characters barely react to this. * VideoGame.EternalReturnBlackSurvival: The test subjects are able to work together with each other in spite of how one would presume that the vast majority of them would be completely unable to verbally communicate with most of the others. {{Averted}} by some of the achievement lore entries, which include statements observed from test subjects that some of which have a note underneath which states the words were translated by AI and will be reviewed and localized further in the future. '''Since this seems to be an implied example rather than a straight example, and it seems to be ambiguous InUniverse whether it's this or BilingualDialogue, I'll leave it here.''' * VideoGame.MegaManBattleNetwork2?: [=MegaMan=]'s translation system allows Lan to speak flawless Netopian after they arrive in Netopia. * WesternAnimation.{{Pocahontas}}: English explorer John Smith meets the alluring Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe. Smith doesn't know her language, nor she his. That is, until Pocahontas takes a breath of magic wind. Suddenly, her English is better than his. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Aversions (1/50)]] * DarthWiki.{{Aquilaverse}}: ''Averted'' Not inexplicable, since her spell "Xenographus" let's her read any language she encounters for a limited duration. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Unclear (4/50)]] * Characters.FrightKrewe: His power makes him this. He has the ability to communicate with anyone and understand anything they say, whether its a [[InexplicableLanguageFluency person]], an [[SpeaksFluentAnimal animal]], or an [[NatureSpirit 'elemental entity']]. '''The way the example is written, it's not clear whether it's this or BilingualDialogue.''' * Recap.CreepshowS1E3BadWolfDown: Doc is shown to speak French and understands the language quite fluently, allowing him to translate the explanation of the werewolf woman's plight. '''You can't "understand a language fluently". Does he ''speak'' it fluently, or at least speak it better than he should realistically be able to?''' * Series.AlloAllo: Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians can talk to each other. This is never explained. '''In their own languages, or...?''' * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps: The [[SpeaksFluentAnimal aliens]] and [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien chimps]] understand each other, despite that the chimps have just arrived on their planet. '''Does one of them speak the other's language, or do they just understand each other's languages?''' [[/folder]]
!!!'''Characters being able to understand a language without demonstrating fluency (24/50) 12%''' [[folder:Amplified Animal Aptitude (7/50) '''3.5%''']] * Literature.MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH: The animals can understand humans and each other, but can't talk to humans. This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic as to where exactly all these animals picked up English (justified for the rats, as they were taught it in the lab, but not for any of the others), and whether they can understand other human languages automatically as well. * Recap.TheSimpsonsS6E6TreehouseOfHorrorV: When Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." * TheSimpsons.TropesIToM: ** In "Treehouse of Horror V", when Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." '''Just checked and the sloth doesn’t say “I don’t know”, it just grunts with an intonation that indicates that that’s what it was saying. So, not fluent in English.''' * Tarzan.TropesGToZ ** Played straight when Jane talks to a baby baboon and he understands her. * TotalDrama.TropesHToP: Some wild animals--especially squirrels--can understand humans. * WesternAnimation.FindingNemo: Dory understands English. The fish in the tank understand English because they've been hearing humans all their life, but there's no reason for Dory to understand English. [[spoiler:Subverted in that ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' reveals she was raised in a marine life institute in California.]] '''Since it says “understand” and not “speak” I can only assume this is a case of TranslationConvention and AnimalTalk, which means they aren’t actually fluent in English.''' * WesternAnimation.SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron: Spirit, despite not having had any human contact before his capture, understands what the human characters are saying. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Bilingual Dialogue (11/50)]] * Characters.MashupWeekMegamixCompetitors: Despite the fact that all 3 members speak different languages (English for Scoop, French for Eric and Italian for Baba), they can be understood by each other and by others easily. * Film.NoTimeToDie: James Bond's 5-year-old daughter, Mathilde, understands English even though her mother Madelaine speaks to her in French and all the media she consumes is in French. * Film.Titanic1997: Jack and the Swedish men understand each other well enough that Olaf is able to bet his tickets for all Jack and Fabrizio's money. * FinalFantasyXIV.TropesGToI?: ** In ''Heavensward'', the Warrior and Alphinaud are startled by how they can understand the great wyrm Hraesvelgr, who only speaks the language of dragons. They learn that while other races may not speak the dragon's language, the inherent power and magic in a dragon's song essentially beams meaning directly into the hearer's mind. ** The Scions are shocked in ''Shadowbringers'' when they meet [[spoiler:Emet-Selch's recreation of the lost city of Amaurot, the home of the BenevolentPrecursor race. Although the ancient version of mankind spoke only in a StarfishLanguage of droning tones, the Scions born millennia after the world was sundered find that they're able to discern meaning from it.]] * Literature.CookingWithWildGame: Lampshaded. One of the few supernatural parts of the setting is that [[TrappedInAnotherWorld Asuta]] can understand its inhabitants' language (almost) perfectly. Nobody knows why, nor do they ever find out; it's essentially one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality needed to get the plot going. * Literature.{{Fablehaven}}: After receiving magic from fairies, Kendra gains the ability to interpret their language intuitively despite never actually learning it. * Manga.MiriyaAndMarie: Aside of occasional GratuitousFrench, Miriya can understand all French and animal characters and vice versa. Blackey also tries to charge Miriya for massage in yen despite being French. * VideoGame.KnightsOfTheOldRepublic: Yes, your character understands plenty of languages, but there isn't anyone who ''should'' understand the language of the AbusivePrecursors. [[spoiler: Subverted. Turns out you'd been there before and learned the language, but just forgotten the whole thing between Malak's backstab and whatever the Jedi did to "rebuild" you]]. '''When moving this to BilingualDialogue, I would rewrite it as “Your character understands plenty of languages, but can only speak one.''' * WebOriginal.MashupWeek: In both tournaments, Flat Eric speaks French, but everyone can understand him perfectly. Same with Gigi, who speaks Italian. * WesternAnimation.JosieAndThePussycats: ''[[RecycledWithAGimmick In Outer Space]]'' has Melody encounter an alien creature that looks like cotton candy with eyes and flippers. The critter speaks in a series of bleeps, and Melody names him Bleep. [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien She can also understand him perfectly, and acts as translator for everyone else]]. Also, Bleep seems to understand English just fine. '''I also think InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien should be limited to people actually speaking Alien instead of just understanding it, but that’s for another time.''' [[/folder]]
[[folder:Other (6/50)]] * Characters.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocusMultiverse: Upon looking at some files from the old phone Oscar picked up, he's somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Fanfic.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus: Kaito is somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming also demonstrates an ability to understand English, as he is able to tell that the English song Eiko sings to him is a love song, with enough comprehension to be moved by a vision of his old comrades due to the lyrics referencing being still alive and alone. Later, upon meeting Tsuyoshi Kondo after Eiko's performance at the Yoyogi Art Festival, Kongming easily translates his GratuitousEnglish for a confused Kobayashi, and he's even become friends with a foreigner in Roppongi, who speaks exclusively in English. He's capable of some GratuitousEnglish himself, to boot. * Recap/CreepshowS2E2PublicTelevisionOfTheDead: Goodman reveals to Ted, out of nowhere, that he can read Sumerian, allowing him to translate the Necronomicon's incantations and let Evil roam free once again. * Series.{{Carnivale}}: During the fireball show, Samson secretly passes an old Crusader fob up to the stage during Lodz's psychometry act. When Lodz touches it, he's struck by visions of a holy war and begins chanting ''"In hoc signo vinces!"'' Ben, an uneducated farmboy, surprises Samson by translating even though he doesn't even recognize the language is Latin: '''Ben Hawkins:''' By this sign we conquer... by this sign we conquer... * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps2ZartogStrikesBack: Zartog understands the humans, despite having just arrived on Earth. He even understands Spanish, Hindi, and Xhosa upon hearing them for the first time, making the humans' inability to understand him even more hilarious. [[/folder]]
2024.06.01 12:12 Similar_Set_6582 My account was banned from TV Tropes. Can someone do me a favor?
Just copy this, paste this into a sandbox, then make a thread in the Trope Repair Shop linking to it. The thread shall be titled "Needs Help: Inexplicable Language Fluency".
A wick check for InexplicableLanguageFluency.
'''Why?''': InexplicableLanguageFluency seems to lump in examples of characters demonstrating fluency in a language they've never learned with examples of characters merely understanding a language they never learned. For one, it doesn't make sense for the latter examples to be there since the title has the word "fluency" in it. Secondly, many of the latter examples can be moved to BilingualDialogue or AmplifiedAnimalAptitude.
'''Wicks checked''': 50/72
'''Wick totals''':
* 21/50 wicks, or 11.5%, were clear examples of a character demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned. * 24/50 wicks, or 12% were examples of a character understanding a language without demonstrating fluency. * 4/50 wicks, or 2%, were written in a way that made it unclear whether they were being used correctly. * 1/50 wicks, or 1.5%, was an aversion.
[[folder:Characters demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned (21/50)]] * Characters.AtlantisTheLostEmpire: The Atlanteans are able to fluently communicate with the explorers from the surface in English and French. This is handwaved as their own language being a precursor to all other languages. * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming finds himself immediately fluent in Japanese despite having never learned the language, and the Japan of his era was still a dwarf country that mostly only sent envoys to Shu's rival kingdom of Wei. Eiko points out the absurdity of how an ancient Chinese figure can suddenly speak Japanese, and Kongming himself is at a loss of how he can do this. * Characters.YellowjacketsCrashSurvivors: [[spoiler:She, and by extension others in the Antler Queen cult she forms, randomly speak French on occasion, which Lottie at least is ''not'' fluent in, indicating mental instability.]] '''If this is supposed to be an inversion, it's correct, but it should be rewritten to mention that it's an inversion.''' * ComicBook.Asterix: Gauls can speak to most foreign peoples without any difficulty. Either everyone can speak Gaulish, or the Gauls can speak other languages, but either way is downright impossible. * ComicBook.UltimateFantasticFour: ** Downplayed. Namor demonstrates this trope after spending nine thousand years of being sealed inside a sarcophagus prison. Being from an ancient civilization of Atlantis that predates the modern English language, he initially has no idea what his new captors are saying when they find him. However, thanks to his psionic powers he proves to be a frighteningly fast learner and is able to learn English within an hour to understand modern American English and casually deliver threats and demands. ** Happens again when the Four meets the Silver Surfer who is able to understand English perfectly the instant he arrives to Earth for the first time. He justifies this by stating can decipher electromagnetic signals in the air to learn alien tongues in seconds. * Friends.TropesFToJ: Zig-zagged. "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt" has her speaking with Joey's Italian grandmother, with Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey. But in an earlier episode, Rachel's former lover Paulo calls her "bellissima" and she doesn't understand. ->'''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Film.ExorcistTheBeginning: In-universe, the main characters note Cheche's sudden fluency in English after being brought to the hospital. Of course this is because it is Pazuzu speaking through him and not actually Cheche. '''This is DiscussedTrope, not InUniverse'''. * Film.{{Phenomenon}}: Downplayed. After a UFO encounter, George gains a form of superintelligence where he can learn complicated tasks and subjects quickly, to the point where he's able to fluently speak Portuguese after reading an English-to-Portuguese dictionary for twenty minutes. This was foreshadowed in an earlier scene where after usually fumbling to speak Spanish, he's suddenly able to speak it perfectly, to the point that his Hispanic coworker half-seriously declares that it's better than his. * Literature.ForgottenRuin: When Talker and Vandahar speak during the final stretch to the Hidden Cave, Vandahar speaks in what we would recognize as modern German, which of course makes communicating with him very easy for Talker but raises a few questions. * Literature.InCryptid: Of the GeneticMemory version. When Candice the Dragon Princess comes up against the LizardFolk wandering about the New York sewers, she's able to make them halt using a guttural language. She reveals to Verity that it's a inborn language all Princesses know and something the "Servitors" are meant to respond to. She's also never used it before as Servitors can only be created from a [[spoiler:living male dragon]]. * Literature.SeasonalFears: Aven is essentially in a coma all her life but, thanks to the alchemical knowledge tinctures of her father', she speaks perfect English even if there are some issues with definitions. * Literature.ShiversMDSpenser: Bubbie moves to France with her family and meets a new French kid, Jean-Luc, and can somehow converse with him without any language issues; at the end of the story she can hold a long conversation with a stranger in French, despite spending less than a week in the country. Previous books with an overseas setting will at least attempt justifying this trope (for instance, ''Terror on Troll Mountain'' has the protagonist's Italian family choosing to speak in English because they're anticipating American guests) but this one handwaves the issue until it's a borderline plot hole. * Recap.AsterixAndTheGoths: Getafix is able to speak fluent Gothic, despite being a Gaulish druid who has no logical reason to know it (especially considering how antagonistic the Goths are in this story). * Recap.FriendsS5E19TheOneWhereRossCantFlirt: Phoebe speaks with Joey's Italian grandmother, with [[InexplicableLanguageFluency Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey]]. '''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Recap.TalesFromTheDarksideS4E6TheGraveRobber: Aileen is surprised to hear Tapok speaking English when he wakes up, the mummy giving an offhand mention that he can speak the language of anyone who violates the tomb. * Roleplay.WanyaKingdomVSAwoofyUnity: Fragment has been shown to speak any language even if he has never heard it before. * Series.{{Llanargollen}}: In "Dirgelwch y Llyfr Coll", Prys and Barti speak to each other in Swahili. It seems incredibly unlikely that Prys would be fluent in that language, and Barti only speaks in unintelligible grunts with individual words thrown in. The other characters barely react to this. * VideoGame.EternalReturnBlackSurvival: The test subjects are able to work together with each other in spite of how one would presume that the vast majority of them would be completely unable to verbally communicate with most of the others. {{Averted}} by some of the achievement lore entries, which include statements observed from test subjects that some of which have a note underneath which states the words were translated by AI and will be reviewed and localized further in the future. '''Since this seems to be an implied example rather than a straight example, and it seems to be ambiguous InUniverse whether it's this or BilingualDialogue, I'll leave it here.''' * VideoGame.MegaManBattleNetwork2?: [=MegaMan=]'s translation system allows Lan to speak flawless Netopian after they arrive in Netopia. * WesternAnimation.{{Pocahontas}}: English explorer John Smith meets the alluring Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe. Smith doesn't know her language, nor she his. That is, until Pocahontas takes a breath of magic wind. Suddenly, her English is better than his. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Aversions (1/50)]] * DarthWiki.{{Aquilaverse}}: ''Averted'' Not inexplicable, since her spell "Xenographus" let's her read any language she encounters for a limited duration. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Unclear (4/50)]] * Characters.FrightKrewe: His power makes him this. He has the ability to communicate with anyone and understand anything they say, whether its a [[InexplicableLanguageFluency person]], an [[SpeaksFluentAnimal animal]], or an [[NatureSpirit 'elemental entity']]. '''The way the example is written, it's not clear whether it's this or BilingualDialogue.''' * Recap.CreepshowS1E3BadWolfDown: Doc is shown to speak French and understands the language quite fluently, allowing him to translate the explanation of the werewolf woman's plight. '''You can't "understand a language fluently". Does he ''speak'' it fluently, or at least speak it better than he should realistically be able to?''' * Series.AlloAllo: Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians can talk to each other. This is never explained. '''In their own languages, or...?''' * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps: The [[SpeaksFluentAnimal aliens]] and [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien chimps]] understand each other, despite that the chimps have just arrived on their planet. '''Does one of them speak the other's language, or do they just understand each other's languages?''' [[/folder]]
!!!'''Characters being able to understand a language without demonstrating fluency (24/50) 12%''' [[folder:Amplified Animal Aptitude (7/50) '''3.5%''']] * Literature.MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH: The animals can understand humans and each other, but can't talk to humans. This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic as to where exactly all these animals picked up English (justified for the rats, as they were taught it in the lab, but not for any of the others), and whether they can understand other human languages automatically as well. * Recap.TheSimpsonsS6E6TreehouseOfHorrorV: When Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." * TheSimpsons.TropesIToM: ** In "Treehouse of Horror V", when Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." '''Just checked and the sloth doesn’t say “I don’t know”, it just grunts with an intonation that indicates that that’s what it was saying. So, not fluent in English.''' * Tarzan.TropesGToZ ** Played straight when Jane talks to a baby baboon and he understands her. * TotalDrama.TropesHToP: Some wild animals--especially squirrels--can understand humans. * WesternAnimation.FindingNemo: Dory understands English. The fish in the tank understand English because they've been hearing humans all their life, but there's no reason for Dory to understand English. [[spoiler:Subverted in that ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' reveals she was raised in a marine life institute in California.]] '''Since it says “understand” and not “speak” I can only assume this is a case of TranslationConvention and AnimalTalk, which means they aren’t actually fluent in English.''' * WesternAnimation.SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron: Spirit, despite not having had any human contact before his capture, understands what the human characters are saying. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Bilingual Dialogue (11/50)]] * Characters.MashupWeekMegamixCompetitors: Despite the fact that all 3 members speak different languages (English for Scoop, French for Eric and Italian for Baba), they can be understood by each other and by others easily. * Film.NoTimeToDie: James Bond's 5-year-old daughter, Mathilde, understands English even though her mother Madelaine speaks to her in French and all the media she consumes is in French. * Film.Titanic1997: Jack and the Swedish men understand each other well enough that Olaf is able to bet his tickets for all Jack and Fabrizio's money. * FinalFantasyXIV.TropesGToI?: ** In ''Heavensward'', the Warrior and Alphinaud are startled by how they can understand the great wyrm Hraesvelgr, who only speaks the language of dragons. They learn that while other races may not speak the dragon's language, the inherent power and magic in a dragon's song essentially beams meaning directly into the hearer's mind. ** The Scions are shocked in ''Shadowbringers'' when they meet [[spoiler:Emet-Selch's recreation of the lost city of Amaurot, the home of the BenevolentPrecursor race. Although the ancient version of mankind spoke only in a StarfishLanguage of droning tones, the Scions born millennia after the world was sundered find that they're able to discern meaning from it.]] * Literature.CookingWithWildGame: Lampshaded. One of the few supernatural parts of the setting is that [[TrappedInAnotherWorld Asuta]] can understand its inhabitants' language (almost) perfectly. Nobody knows why, nor do they ever find out; it's essentially one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality needed to get the plot going. * Literature.{{Fablehaven}}: After receiving magic from fairies, Kendra gains the ability to interpret their language intuitively despite never actually learning it. * Manga.MiriyaAndMarie: Aside of occasional GratuitousFrench, Miriya can understand all French and animal characters and vice versa. Blackey also tries to charge Miriya for massage in yen despite being French. * VideoGame.KnightsOfTheOldRepublic: Yes, your character understands plenty of languages, but there isn't anyone who ''should'' understand the language of the AbusivePrecursors. [[spoiler: Subverted. Turns out you'd been there before and learned the language, but just forgotten the whole thing between Malak's backstab and whatever the Jedi did to "rebuild" you]]. '''When moving this to BilingualDialogue, I would rewrite it as “Your character understands plenty of languages, but can only speak one.''' * WebOriginal.MashupWeek: In both tournaments, Flat Eric speaks French, but everyone can understand him perfectly. Same with Gigi, who speaks Italian. * WesternAnimation.JosieAndThePussycats: ''[[RecycledWithAGimmick In Outer Space]]'' has Melody encounter an alien creature that looks like cotton candy with eyes and flippers. The critter speaks in a series of bleeps, and Melody names him Bleep. [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien She can also understand him perfectly, and acts as translator for everyone else]]. Also, Bleep seems to understand English just fine. '''I also think InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien should be limited to people actually speaking Alien instead of just understanding it, but that’s for another time.''' [[/folder]]
[[folder:Other (6/50)]] * Characters.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocusMultiverse: Upon looking at some files from the old phone Oscar picked up, he's somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Fanfic.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus: Kaito is somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming also demonstrates an ability to understand English, as he is able to tell that the English song Eiko sings to him is a love song, with enough comprehension to be moved by a vision of his old comrades due to the lyrics referencing being still alive and alone. Later, upon meeting Tsuyoshi Kondo after Eiko's performance at the Yoyogi Art Festival, Kongming easily translates his GratuitousEnglish for a confused Kobayashi, and he's even become friends with a foreigner in Roppongi, who speaks exclusively in English. He's capable of some GratuitousEnglish himself, to boot. * Recap/CreepshowS2E2PublicTelevisionOfTheDead: Goodman reveals to Ted, out of nowhere, that he can read Sumerian, allowing him to translate the Necronomicon's incantations and let Evil roam free once again. * Series.{{Carnivale}}: During the fireball show, Samson secretly passes an old Crusader fob up to the stage during Lodz's psychometry act. When Lodz touches it, he's struck by visions of a holy war and begins chanting ''"In hoc signo vinces!"'' Ben, an uneducated farmboy, surprises Samson by translating even though he doesn't even recognize the language is Latin: '''Ben Hawkins:''' By this sign we conquer... by this sign we conquer... * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps2ZartogStrikesBack: Zartog understands the humans, despite having just arrived on Earth. He even understands Spanish, Hindi, and Xhosa upon hearing them for the first time, making the humans' inability to understand him even more hilarious. [[/folder]]
submitted by Similar_Set_6582 to bannedtvtropers [link] [comments]
A wick check for InexplicableLanguageFluency.
'''Why?''': InexplicableLanguageFluency seems to lump in examples of characters demonstrating fluency in a language they've never learned with examples of characters merely understanding a language they never learned. For one, it doesn't make sense for the latter examples to be there since the title has the word "fluency" in it. Secondly, many of the latter examples can be moved to BilingualDialogue or AmplifiedAnimalAptitude.
'''Wicks checked''': 50/72
'''Wick totals''':
* 21/50 wicks, or 11.5%, were clear examples of a character demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned. * 24/50 wicks, or 12% were examples of a character understanding a language without demonstrating fluency. * 4/50 wicks, or 2%, were written in a way that made it unclear whether they were being used correctly. * 1/50 wicks, or 1.5%, was an aversion.
[[folder:Characters demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned (21/50)]] * Characters.AtlantisTheLostEmpire: The Atlanteans are able to fluently communicate with the explorers from the surface in English and French. This is handwaved as their own language being a precursor to all other languages. * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming finds himself immediately fluent in Japanese despite having never learned the language, and the Japan of his era was still a dwarf country that mostly only sent envoys to Shu's rival kingdom of Wei. Eiko points out the absurdity of how an ancient Chinese figure can suddenly speak Japanese, and Kongming himself is at a loss of how he can do this. * Characters.YellowjacketsCrashSurvivors: [[spoiler:She, and by extension others in the Antler Queen cult she forms, randomly speak French on occasion, which Lottie at least is ''not'' fluent in, indicating mental instability.]] '''If this is supposed to be an inversion, it's correct, but it should be rewritten to mention that it's an inversion.''' * ComicBook.Asterix: Gauls can speak to most foreign peoples without any difficulty. Either everyone can speak Gaulish, or the Gauls can speak other languages, but either way is downright impossible. * ComicBook.UltimateFantasticFour: ** Downplayed. Namor demonstrates this trope after spending nine thousand years of being sealed inside a sarcophagus prison. Being from an ancient civilization of Atlantis that predates the modern English language, he initially has no idea what his new captors are saying when they find him. However, thanks to his psionic powers he proves to be a frighteningly fast learner and is able to learn English within an hour to understand modern American English and casually deliver threats and demands. ** Happens again when the Four meets the Silver Surfer who is able to understand English perfectly the instant he arrives to Earth for the first time. He justifies this by stating can decipher electromagnetic signals in the air to learn alien tongues in seconds. * Friends.TropesFToJ: Zig-zagged. "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt" has her speaking with Joey's Italian grandmother, with Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey. But in an earlier episode, Rachel's former lover Paulo calls her "bellissima" and she doesn't understand. ->'''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Film.ExorcistTheBeginning: In-universe, the main characters note Cheche's sudden fluency in English after being brought to the hospital. Of course this is because it is Pazuzu speaking through him and not actually Cheche. '''This is DiscussedTrope, not InUniverse'''. * Film.{{Phenomenon}}: Downplayed. After a UFO encounter, George gains a form of superintelligence where he can learn complicated tasks and subjects quickly, to the point where he's able to fluently speak Portuguese after reading an English-to-Portuguese dictionary for twenty minutes. This was foreshadowed in an earlier scene where after usually fumbling to speak Spanish, he's suddenly able to speak it perfectly, to the point that his Hispanic coworker half-seriously declares that it's better than his. * Literature.ForgottenRuin: When Talker and Vandahar speak during the final stretch to the Hidden Cave, Vandahar speaks in what we would recognize as modern German, which of course makes communicating with him very easy for Talker but raises a few questions. * Literature.InCryptid: Of the GeneticMemory version. When Candice the Dragon Princess comes up against the LizardFolk wandering about the New York sewers, she's able to make them halt using a guttural language. She reveals to Verity that it's a inborn language all Princesses know and something the "Servitors" are meant to respond to. She's also never used it before as Servitors can only be created from a [[spoiler:living male dragon]]. * Literature.SeasonalFears: Aven is essentially in a coma all her life but, thanks to the alchemical knowledge tinctures of her father', she speaks perfect English even if there are some issues with definitions. * Literature.ShiversMDSpenser: Bubbie moves to France with her family and meets a new French kid, Jean-Luc, and can somehow converse with him without any language issues; at the end of the story she can hold a long conversation with a stranger in French, despite spending less than a week in the country. Previous books with an overseas setting will at least attempt justifying this trope (for instance, ''Terror on Troll Mountain'' has the protagonist's Italian family choosing to speak in English because they're anticipating American guests) but this one handwaves the issue until it's a borderline plot hole. * Recap.AsterixAndTheGoths: Getafix is able to speak fluent Gothic, despite being a Gaulish druid who has no logical reason to know it (especially considering how antagonistic the Goths are in this story). * Recap.FriendsS5E19TheOneWhereRossCantFlirt: Phoebe speaks with Joey's Italian grandmother, with [[InexplicableLanguageFluency Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey]]. '''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Recap.TalesFromTheDarksideS4E6TheGraveRobber: Aileen is surprised to hear Tapok speaking English when he wakes up, the mummy giving an offhand mention that he can speak the language of anyone who violates the tomb. * Roleplay.WanyaKingdomVSAwoofyUnity: Fragment has been shown to speak any language even if he has never heard it before. * Series.{{Llanargollen}}: In "Dirgelwch y Llyfr Coll", Prys and Barti speak to each other in Swahili. It seems incredibly unlikely that Prys would be fluent in that language, and Barti only speaks in unintelligible grunts with individual words thrown in. The other characters barely react to this. * VideoGame.EternalReturnBlackSurvival: The test subjects are able to work together with each other in spite of how one would presume that the vast majority of them would be completely unable to verbally communicate with most of the others. {{Averted}} by some of the achievement lore entries, which include statements observed from test subjects that some of which have a note underneath which states the words were translated by AI and will be reviewed and localized further in the future. '''Since this seems to be an implied example rather than a straight example, and it seems to be ambiguous InUniverse whether it's this or BilingualDialogue, I'll leave it here.''' * VideoGame.MegaManBattleNetwork2?: [=MegaMan=]'s translation system allows Lan to speak flawless Netopian after they arrive in Netopia. * WesternAnimation.{{Pocahontas}}: English explorer John Smith meets the alluring Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe. Smith doesn't know her language, nor she his. That is, until Pocahontas takes a breath of magic wind. Suddenly, her English is better than his. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Aversions (1/50)]] * DarthWiki.{{Aquilaverse}}: ''Averted'' Not inexplicable, since her spell "Xenographus" let's her read any language she encounters for a limited duration. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Unclear (4/50)]] * Characters.FrightKrewe: His power makes him this. He has the ability to communicate with anyone and understand anything they say, whether its a [[InexplicableLanguageFluency person]], an [[SpeaksFluentAnimal animal]], or an [[NatureSpirit 'elemental entity']]. '''The way the example is written, it's not clear whether it's this or BilingualDialogue.''' * Recap.CreepshowS1E3BadWolfDown: Doc is shown to speak French and understands the language quite fluently, allowing him to translate the explanation of the werewolf woman's plight. '''You can't "understand a language fluently". Does he ''speak'' it fluently, or at least speak it better than he should realistically be able to?''' * Series.AlloAllo: Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians can talk to each other. This is never explained. '''In their own languages, or...?''' * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps: The [[SpeaksFluentAnimal aliens]] and [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien chimps]] understand each other, despite that the chimps have just arrived on their planet. '''Does one of them speak the other's language, or do they just understand each other's languages?''' [[/folder]]
!!!'''Characters being able to understand a language without demonstrating fluency (24/50) 12%''' [[folder:Amplified Animal Aptitude (7/50) '''3.5%''']] * Literature.MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH: The animals can understand humans and each other, but can't talk to humans. This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic as to where exactly all these animals picked up English (justified for the rats, as they were taught it in the lab, but not for any of the others), and whether they can understand other human languages automatically as well. * Recap.TheSimpsonsS6E6TreehouseOfHorrorV: When Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." * TheSimpsons.TropesIToM: ** In "Treehouse of Horror V", when Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." '''Just checked and the sloth doesn’t say “I don’t know”, it just grunts with an intonation that indicates that that’s what it was saying. So, not fluent in English.''' * Tarzan.TropesGToZ ** Played straight when Jane talks to a baby baboon and he understands her. * TotalDrama.TropesHToP: Some wild animals--especially squirrels--can understand humans. * WesternAnimation.FindingNemo: Dory understands English. The fish in the tank understand English because they've been hearing humans all their life, but there's no reason for Dory to understand English. [[spoiler:Subverted in that ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' reveals she was raised in a marine life institute in California.]] '''Since it says “understand” and not “speak” I can only assume this is a case of TranslationConvention and AnimalTalk, which means they aren’t actually fluent in English.''' * WesternAnimation.SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron: Spirit, despite not having had any human contact before his capture, understands what the human characters are saying. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Bilingual Dialogue (11/50)]] * Characters.MashupWeekMegamixCompetitors: Despite the fact that all 3 members speak different languages (English for Scoop, French for Eric and Italian for Baba), they can be understood by each other and by others easily. * Film.NoTimeToDie: James Bond's 5-year-old daughter, Mathilde, understands English even though her mother Madelaine speaks to her in French and all the media she consumes is in French. * Film.Titanic1997: Jack and the Swedish men understand each other well enough that Olaf is able to bet his tickets for all Jack and Fabrizio's money. * FinalFantasyXIV.TropesGToI?: ** In ''Heavensward'', the Warrior and Alphinaud are startled by how they can understand the great wyrm Hraesvelgr, who only speaks the language of dragons. They learn that while other races may not speak the dragon's language, the inherent power and magic in a dragon's song essentially beams meaning directly into the hearer's mind. ** The Scions are shocked in ''Shadowbringers'' when they meet [[spoiler:Emet-Selch's recreation of the lost city of Amaurot, the home of the BenevolentPrecursor race. Although the ancient version of mankind spoke only in a StarfishLanguage of droning tones, the Scions born millennia after the world was sundered find that they're able to discern meaning from it.]] * Literature.CookingWithWildGame: Lampshaded. One of the few supernatural parts of the setting is that [[TrappedInAnotherWorld Asuta]] can understand its inhabitants' language (almost) perfectly. Nobody knows why, nor do they ever find out; it's essentially one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality needed to get the plot going. * Literature.{{Fablehaven}}: After receiving magic from fairies, Kendra gains the ability to interpret their language intuitively despite never actually learning it. * Manga.MiriyaAndMarie: Aside of occasional GratuitousFrench, Miriya can understand all French and animal characters and vice versa. Blackey also tries to charge Miriya for massage in yen despite being French. * VideoGame.KnightsOfTheOldRepublic: Yes, your character understands plenty of languages, but there isn't anyone who ''should'' understand the language of the AbusivePrecursors. [[spoiler: Subverted. Turns out you'd been there before and learned the language, but just forgotten the whole thing between Malak's backstab and whatever the Jedi did to "rebuild" you]]. '''When moving this to BilingualDialogue, I would rewrite it as “Your character understands plenty of languages, but can only speak one.''' * WebOriginal.MashupWeek: In both tournaments, Flat Eric speaks French, but everyone can understand him perfectly. Same with Gigi, who speaks Italian. * WesternAnimation.JosieAndThePussycats: ''[[RecycledWithAGimmick In Outer Space]]'' has Melody encounter an alien creature that looks like cotton candy with eyes and flippers. The critter speaks in a series of bleeps, and Melody names him Bleep. [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien She can also understand him perfectly, and acts as translator for everyone else]]. Also, Bleep seems to understand English just fine. '''I also think InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien should be limited to people actually speaking Alien instead of just understanding it, but that’s for another time.''' [[/folder]]
[[folder:Other (6/50)]] * Characters.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocusMultiverse: Upon looking at some files from the old phone Oscar picked up, he's somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Fanfic.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus: Kaito is somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming also demonstrates an ability to understand English, as he is able to tell that the English song Eiko sings to him is a love song, with enough comprehension to be moved by a vision of his old comrades due to the lyrics referencing being still alive and alone. Later, upon meeting Tsuyoshi Kondo after Eiko's performance at the Yoyogi Art Festival, Kongming easily translates his GratuitousEnglish for a confused Kobayashi, and he's even become friends with a foreigner in Roppongi, who speaks exclusively in English. He's capable of some GratuitousEnglish himself, to boot. * Recap/CreepshowS2E2PublicTelevisionOfTheDead: Goodman reveals to Ted, out of nowhere, that he can read Sumerian, allowing him to translate the Necronomicon's incantations and let Evil roam free once again. * Series.{{Carnivale}}: During the fireball show, Samson secretly passes an old Crusader fob up to the stage during Lodz's psychometry act. When Lodz touches it, he's struck by visions of a holy war and begins chanting ''"In hoc signo vinces!"'' Ben, an uneducated farmboy, surprises Samson by translating even though he doesn't even recognize the language is Latin: '''Ben Hawkins:''' By this sign we conquer... by this sign we conquer... * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps2ZartogStrikesBack: Zartog understands the humans, despite having just arrived on Earth. He even understands Spanish, Hindi, and Xhosa upon hearing them for the first time, making the humans' inability to understand him even more hilarious. [[/folder]]
2024.06.01 12:11 Similar_Set_6582 My account was banned from TV Tropes. Can someone do me a favor?
Just copy this, paste this into a sandbox, then make a thread in the Trope Repair Shop linking to it. The thread shall be titled "Needs Help: Inexplicable Language Fluency".
A wick check for InexplicableLanguageFluency.
'''Why?''': InexplicableLanguageFluency seems to lump in examples of characters demonstrating fluency in a language they've never learned with examples of characters merely understanding a language they never learned. For one, it doesn't make sense for the latter examples to be there since the title has the word "fluency" in it. Secondly, many of the latter examples can be moved to BilingualDialogue or AmplifiedAnimalAptitude.
'''Wicks checked''': 50/72
'''Wick totals''':
* 21/50 wicks, or 11.5%, were clear examples of a character demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned. * 24/50 wicks, or 12% were examples of a character understanding a language without demonstrating fluency. * 4/50 wicks, or 2%, were written in a way that made it unclear whether they were being used correctly. * 1/50 wicks, or 1.5%, was an aversion.
[[folder:Characters demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned (21/50)]] * Characters.AtlantisTheLostEmpire: The Atlanteans are able to fluently communicate with the explorers from the surface in English and French. This is handwaved as their own language being a precursor to all other languages. * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming finds himself immediately fluent in Japanese despite having never learned the language, and the Japan of his era was still a dwarf country that mostly only sent envoys to Shu's rival kingdom of Wei. Eiko points out the absurdity of how an ancient Chinese figure can suddenly speak Japanese, and Kongming himself is at a loss of how he can do this. * Characters.YellowjacketsCrashSurvivors: [[spoiler:She, and by extension others in the Antler Queen cult she forms, randomly speak French on occasion, which Lottie at least is ''not'' fluent in, indicating mental instability.]] '''If this is supposed to be an inversion, it's correct, but it should be rewritten to mention that it's an inversion.''' * ComicBook.Asterix: Gauls can speak to most foreign peoples without any difficulty. Either everyone can speak Gaulish, or the Gauls can speak other languages, but either way is downright impossible. * ComicBook.UltimateFantasticFour: ** Downplayed. Namor demonstrates this trope after spending nine thousand years of being sealed inside a sarcophagus prison. Being from an ancient civilization of Atlantis that predates the modern English language, he initially has no idea what his new captors are saying when they find him. However, thanks to his psionic powers he proves to be a frighteningly fast learner and is able to learn English within an hour to understand modern American English and casually deliver threats and demands. ** Happens again when the Four meets the Silver Surfer who is able to understand English perfectly the instant he arrives to Earth for the first time. He justifies this by stating can decipher electromagnetic signals in the air to learn alien tongues in seconds. * Friends.TropesFToJ: Zig-zagged. "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt" has her speaking with Joey's Italian grandmother, with Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey. But in an earlier episode, Rachel's former lover Paulo calls her "bellissima" and she doesn't understand. ->'''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Film.ExorcistTheBeginning: In-universe, the main characters note Cheche's sudden fluency in English after being brought to the hospital. Of course this is because it is Pazuzu speaking through him and not actually Cheche. '''This is DiscussedTrope, not InUniverse'''. * Film.{{Phenomenon}}: Downplayed. After a UFO encounter, George gains a form of superintelligence where he can learn complicated tasks and subjects quickly, to the point where he's able to fluently speak Portuguese after reading an English-to-Portuguese dictionary for twenty minutes. This was foreshadowed in an earlier scene where after usually fumbling to speak Spanish, he's suddenly able to speak it perfectly, to the point that his Hispanic coworker half-seriously declares that it's better than his. * Literature.ForgottenRuin: When Talker and Vandahar speak during the final stretch to the Hidden Cave, Vandahar speaks in what we would recognize as modern German, which of course makes communicating with him very easy for Talker but raises a few questions. * Literature.InCryptid: Of the GeneticMemory version. When Candice the Dragon Princess comes up against the LizardFolk wandering about the New York sewers, she's able to make them halt using a guttural language. She reveals to Verity that it's a inborn language all Princesses know and something the "Servitors" are meant to respond to. She's also never used it before as Servitors can only be created from a [[spoiler:living male dragon]]. * Literature.SeasonalFears: Aven is essentially in a coma all her life but, thanks to the alchemical knowledge tinctures of her father', she speaks perfect English even if there are some issues with definitions. * Literature.ShiversMDSpenser: Bubbie moves to France with her family and meets a new French kid, Jean-Luc, and can somehow converse with him without any language issues; at the end of the story she can hold a long conversation with a stranger in French, despite spending less than a week in the country. Previous books with an overseas setting will at least attempt justifying this trope (for instance, ''Terror on Troll Mountain'' has the protagonist's Italian family choosing to speak in English because they're anticipating American guests) but this one handwaves the issue until it's a borderline plot hole. * Recap.AsterixAndTheGoths: Getafix is able to speak fluent Gothic, despite being a Gaulish druid who has no logical reason to know it (especially considering how antagonistic the Goths are in this story). * Recap.FriendsS5E19TheOneWhereRossCantFlirt: Phoebe speaks with Joey's Italian grandmother, with [[InexplicableLanguageFluency Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey]]. '''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Recap.TalesFromTheDarksideS4E6TheGraveRobber: Aileen is surprised to hear Tapok speaking English when he wakes up, the mummy giving an offhand mention that he can speak the language of anyone who violates the tomb. * Roleplay.WanyaKingdomVSAwoofyUnity: Fragment has been shown to speak any language even if he has never heard it before. * Series.{{Llanargollen}}: In "Dirgelwch y Llyfr Coll", Prys and Barti speak to each other in Swahili. It seems incredibly unlikely that Prys would be fluent in that language, and Barti only speaks in unintelligible grunts with individual words thrown in. The other characters barely react to this. * VideoGame.EternalReturnBlackSurvival: The test subjects are able to work together with each other in spite of how one would presume that the vast majority of them would be completely unable to verbally communicate with most of the others. {{Averted}} by some of the achievement lore entries, which include statements observed from test subjects that some of which have a note underneath which states the words were translated by AI and will be reviewed and localized further in the future. '''Since this seems to be an implied example rather than a straight example, and it seems to be ambiguous InUniverse whether it's this or BilingualDialogue, I'll leave it here.''' * VideoGame.MegaManBattleNetwork2?: [=MegaMan=]'s translation system allows Lan to speak flawless Netopian after they arrive in Netopia. * WesternAnimation.{{Pocahontas}}: English explorer John Smith meets the alluring Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe. Smith doesn't know her language, nor she his. That is, until Pocahontas takes a breath of magic wind. Suddenly, her English is better than his. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Aversions (1/50)]] * DarthWiki.{{Aquilaverse}}: ''Averted'' Not inexplicable, since her spell "Xenographus" let's her read any language she encounters for a limited duration. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Unclear (4/50)]] * Characters.FrightKrewe: His power makes him this. He has the ability to communicate with anyone and understand anything they say, whether its a [[InexplicableLanguageFluency person]], an [[SpeaksFluentAnimal animal]], or an [[NatureSpirit 'elemental entity']]. '''The way the example is written, it's not clear whether it's this or BilingualDialogue.''' * Recap.CreepshowS1E3BadWolfDown: Doc is shown to speak French and understands the language quite fluently, allowing him to translate the explanation of the werewolf woman's plight. '''You can't "understand a language fluently". Does he ''speak'' it fluently, or at least speak it better than he should realistically be able to?''' * Series.AlloAllo: Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians can talk to each other. This is never explained. '''In their own languages, or...?''' * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps: The [[SpeaksFluentAnimal aliens]] and [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien chimps]] understand each other, despite that the chimps have just arrived on their planet. '''Does one of them speak the other's language, or do they just understand each other's languages?''' [[/folder]]
!!!'''Characters being able to understand a language without demonstrating fluency (24/50) 12%''' [[folder:Amplified Animal Aptitude (7/50) '''3.5%''']] * Literature.MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH: The animals can understand humans and each other, but can't talk to humans. This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic as to where exactly all these animals picked up English (justified for the rats, as they were taught it in the lab, but not for any of the others), and whether they can understand other human languages automatically as well. * Recap.TheSimpsonsS6E6TreehouseOfHorrorV: When Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." * TheSimpsons.TropesIToM: ** In "Treehouse of Horror V", when Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." '''Just checked and the sloth doesn’t say “I don’t know”, it just grunts with an intonation that indicates that that’s what it was saying. So, not fluent in English.''' * Tarzan.TropesGToZ ** Played straight when Jane talks to a baby baboon and he understands her. * TotalDrama.TropesHToP: Some wild animals--especially squirrels--can understand humans. * WesternAnimation.FindingNemo: Dory understands English. The fish in the tank understand English because they've been hearing humans all their life, but there's no reason for Dory to understand English. [[spoiler:Subverted in that ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' reveals she was raised in a marine life institute in California.]] '''Since it says “understand” and not “speak” I can only assume this is a case of TranslationConvention and AnimalTalk, which means they aren’t actually fluent in English.''' * WesternAnimation.SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron: Spirit, despite not having had any human contact before his capture, understands what the human characters are saying. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Bilingual Dialogue (11/50)]] * Characters.MashupWeekMegamixCompetitors: Despite the fact that all 3 members speak different languages (English for Scoop, French for Eric and Italian for Baba), they can be understood by each other and by others easily. * Film.NoTimeToDie: James Bond's 5-year-old daughter, Mathilde, understands English even though her mother Madelaine speaks to her in French and all the media she consumes is in French. * Film.Titanic1997: Jack and the Swedish men understand each other well enough that Olaf is able to bet his tickets for all Jack and Fabrizio's money. * FinalFantasyXIV.TropesGToI?: ** In ''Heavensward'', the Warrior and Alphinaud are startled by how they can understand the great wyrm Hraesvelgr, who only speaks the language of dragons. They learn that while other races may not speak the dragon's language, the inherent power and magic in a dragon's song essentially beams meaning directly into the hearer's mind. ** The Scions are shocked in ''Shadowbringers'' when they meet [[spoiler:Emet-Selch's recreation of the lost city of Amaurot, the home of the BenevolentPrecursor race. Although the ancient version of mankind spoke only in a StarfishLanguage of droning tones, the Scions born millennia after the world was sundered find that they're able to discern meaning from it.]] * Literature.CookingWithWildGame: Lampshaded. One of the few supernatural parts of the setting is that [[TrappedInAnotherWorld Asuta]] can understand its inhabitants' language (almost) perfectly. Nobody knows why, nor do they ever find out; it's essentially one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality needed to get the plot going. * Literature.{{Fablehaven}}: After receiving magic from fairies, Kendra gains the ability to interpret their language intuitively despite never actually learning it. * Manga.MiriyaAndMarie: Aside of occasional GratuitousFrench, Miriya can understand all French and animal characters and vice versa. Blackey also tries to charge Miriya for massage in yen despite being French. * VideoGame.KnightsOfTheOldRepublic: Yes, your character understands plenty of languages, but there isn't anyone who ''should'' understand the language of the AbusivePrecursors. [[spoiler: Subverted. Turns out you'd been there before and learned the language, but just forgotten the whole thing between Malak's backstab and whatever the Jedi did to "rebuild" you]]. '''When moving this to BilingualDialogue, I would rewrite it as “Your character understands plenty of languages, but can only speak one.''' * WebOriginal.MashupWeek: In both tournaments, Flat Eric speaks French, but everyone can understand him perfectly. Same with Gigi, who speaks Italian. * WesternAnimation.JosieAndThePussycats: ''[[RecycledWithAGimmick In Outer Space]]'' has Melody encounter an alien creature that looks like cotton candy with eyes and flippers. The critter speaks in a series of bleeps, and Melody names him Bleep. [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien She can also understand him perfectly, and acts as translator for everyone else]]. Also, Bleep seems to understand English just fine. '''I also think InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien should be limited to people actually speaking Alien instead of just understanding it, but that’s for another time.''' [[/folder]]
[[folder:Other (6/50)]] * Characters.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocusMultiverse: Upon looking at some files from the old phone Oscar picked up, he's somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Fanfic.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus: Kaito is somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming also demonstrates an ability to understand English, as he is able to tell that the English song Eiko sings to him is a love song, with enough comprehension to be moved by a vision of his old comrades due to the lyrics referencing being still alive and alone. Later, upon meeting Tsuyoshi Kondo after Eiko's performance at the Yoyogi Art Festival, Kongming easily translates his GratuitousEnglish for a confused Kobayashi, and he's even become friends with a foreigner in Roppongi, who speaks exclusively in English. He's capable of some GratuitousEnglish himself, to boot. * Recap/CreepshowS2E2PublicTelevisionOfTheDead: Goodman reveals to Ted, out of nowhere, that he can read Sumerian, allowing him to translate the Necronomicon's incantations and let Evil roam free once again. * Series.{{Carnivale}}: During the fireball show, Samson secretly passes an old Crusader fob up to the stage during Lodz's psychometry act. When Lodz touches it, he's struck by visions of a holy war and begins chanting ''"In hoc signo vinces!"'' Ben, an uneducated farmboy, surprises Samson by translating even though he doesn't even recognize the language is Latin: '''Ben Hawkins:''' By this sign we conquer... by this sign we conquer... * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps2ZartogStrikesBack: Zartog understands the humans, despite having just arrived on Earth. He even understands Spanish, Hindi, and Xhosa upon hearing them for the first time, making the humans' inability to understand him even more hilarious. [[/folder]]
submitted by Similar_Set_6582 to OnlineFavors [link] [comments]
A wick check for InexplicableLanguageFluency.
'''Why?''': InexplicableLanguageFluency seems to lump in examples of characters demonstrating fluency in a language they've never learned with examples of characters merely understanding a language they never learned. For one, it doesn't make sense for the latter examples to be there since the title has the word "fluency" in it. Secondly, many of the latter examples can be moved to BilingualDialogue or AmplifiedAnimalAptitude.
'''Wicks checked''': 50/72
'''Wick totals''':
* 21/50 wicks, or 11.5%, were clear examples of a character demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned. * 24/50 wicks, or 12% were examples of a character understanding a language without demonstrating fluency. * 4/50 wicks, or 2%, were written in a way that made it unclear whether they were being used correctly. * 1/50 wicks, or 1.5%, was an aversion.
[[folder:Characters demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned (21/50)]] * Characters.AtlantisTheLostEmpire: The Atlanteans are able to fluently communicate with the explorers from the surface in English and French. This is handwaved as their own language being a precursor to all other languages. * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming finds himself immediately fluent in Japanese despite having never learned the language, and the Japan of his era was still a dwarf country that mostly only sent envoys to Shu's rival kingdom of Wei. Eiko points out the absurdity of how an ancient Chinese figure can suddenly speak Japanese, and Kongming himself is at a loss of how he can do this. * Characters.YellowjacketsCrashSurvivors: [[spoiler:She, and by extension others in the Antler Queen cult she forms, randomly speak French on occasion, which Lottie at least is ''not'' fluent in, indicating mental instability.]] '''If this is supposed to be an inversion, it's correct, but it should be rewritten to mention that it's an inversion.''' * ComicBook.Asterix: Gauls can speak to most foreign peoples without any difficulty. Either everyone can speak Gaulish, or the Gauls can speak other languages, but either way is downright impossible. * ComicBook.UltimateFantasticFour: ** Downplayed. Namor demonstrates this trope after spending nine thousand years of being sealed inside a sarcophagus prison. Being from an ancient civilization of Atlantis that predates the modern English language, he initially has no idea what his new captors are saying when they find him. However, thanks to his psionic powers he proves to be a frighteningly fast learner and is able to learn English within an hour to understand modern American English and casually deliver threats and demands. ** Happens again when the Four meets the Silver Surfer who is able to understand English perfectly the instant he arrives to Earth for the first time. He justifies this by stating can decipher electromagnetic signals in the air to learn alien tongues in seconds. * Friends.TropesFToJ: Zig-zagged. "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt" has her speaking with Joey's Italian grandmother, with Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey. But in an earlier episode, Rachel's former lover Paulo calls her "bellissima" and she doesn't understand. ->'''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Film.ExorcistTheBeginning: In-universe, the main characters note Cheche's sudden fluency in English after being brought to the hospital. Of course this is because it is Pazuzu speaking through him and not actually Cheche. '''This is DiscussedTrope, not InUniverse'''. * Film.{{Phenomenon}}: Downplayed. After a UFO encounter, George gains a form of superintelligence where he can learn complicated tasks and subjects quickly, to the point where he's able to fluently speak Portuguese after reading an English-to-Portuguese dictionary for twenty minutes. This was foreshadowed in an earlier scene where after usually fumbling to speak Spanish, he's suddenly able to speak it perfectly, to the point that his Hispanic coworker half-seriously declares that it's better than his. * Literature.ForgottenRuin: When Talker and Vandahar speak during the final stretch to the Hidden Cave, Vandahar speaks in what we would recognize as modern German, which of course makes communicating with him very easy for Talker but raises a few questions. * Literature.InCryptid: Of the GeneticMemory version. When Candice the Dragon Princess comes up against the LizardFolk wandering about the New York sewers, she's able to make them halt using a guttural language. She reveals to Verity that it's a inborn language all Princesses know and something the "Servitors" are meant to respond to. She's also never used it before as Servitors can only be created from a [[spoiler:living male dragon]]. * Literature.SeasonalFears: Aven is essentially in a coma all her life but, thanks to the alchemical knowledge tinctures of her father', she speaks perfect English even if there are some issues with definitions. * Literature.ShiversMDSpenser: Bubbie moves to France with her family and meets a new French kid, Jean-Luc, and can somehow converse with him without any language issues; at the end of the story she can hold a long conversation with a stranger in French, despite spending less than a week in the country. Previous books with an overseas setting will at least attempt justifying this trope (for instance, ''Terror on Troll Mountain'' has the protagonist's Italian family choosing to speak in English because they're anticipating American guests) but this one handwaves the issue until it's a borderline plot hole. * Recap.AsterixAndTheGoths: Getafix is able to speak fluent Gothic, despite being a Gaulish druid who has no logical reason to know it (especially considering how antagonistic the Goths are in this story). * Recap.FriendsS5E19TheOneWhereRossCantFlirt: Phoebe speaks with Joey's Italian grandmother, with [[InexplicableLanguageFluency Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey]]. '''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Recap.TalesFromTheDarksideS4E6TheGraveRobber: Aileen is surprised to hear Tapok speaking English when he wakes up, the mummy giving an offhand mention that he can speak the language of anyone who violates the tomb. * Roleplay.WanyaKingdomVSAwoofyUnity: Fragment has been shown to speak any language even if he has never heard it before. * Series.{{Llanargollen}}: In "Dirgelwch y Llyfr Coll", Prys and Barti speak to each other in Swahili. It seems incredibly unlikely that Prys would be fluent in that language, and Barti only speaks in unintelligible grunts with individual words thrown in. The other characters barely react to this. * VideoGame.EternalReturnBlackSurvival: The test subjects are able to work together with each other in spite of how one would presume that the vast majority of them would be completely unable to verbally communicate with most of the others. {{Averted}} by some of the achievement lore entries, which include statements observed from test subjects that some of which have a note underneath which states the words were translated by AI and will be reviewed and localized further in the future. '''Since this seems to be an implied example rather than a straight example, and it seems to be ambiguous InUniverse whether it's this or BilingualDialogue, I'll leave it here.''' * VideoGame.MegaManBattleNetwork2?: [=MegaMan=]'s translation system allows Lan to speak flawless Netopian after they arrive in Netopia. * WesternAnimation.{{Pocahontas}}: English explorer John Smith meets the alluring Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe. Smith doesn't know her language, nor she his. That is, until Pocahontas takes a breath of magic wind. Suddenly, her English is better than his. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Aversions (1/50)]] * DarthWiki.{{Aquilaverse}}: ''Averted'' Not inexplicable, since her spell "Xenographus" let's her read any language she encounters for a limited duration. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Unclear (4/50)]] * Characters.FrightKrewe: His power makes him this. He has the ability to communicate with anyone and understand anything they say, whether its a [[InexplicableLanguageFluency person]], an [[SpeaksFluentAnimal animal]], or an [[NatureSpirit 'elemental entity']]. '''The way the example is written, it's not clear whether it's this or BilingualDialogue.''' * Recap.CreepshowS1E3BadWolfDown: Doc is shown to speak French and understands the language quite fluently, allowing him to translate the explanation of the werewolf woman's plight. '''You can't "understand a language fluently". Does he ''speak'' it fluently, or at least speak it better than he should realistically be able to?''' * Series.AlloAllo: Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians can talk to each other. This is never explained. '''In their own languages, or...?''' * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps: The [[SpeaksFluentAnimal aliens]] and [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien chimps]] understand each other, despite that the chimps have just arrived on their planet. '''Does one of them speak the other's language, or do they just understand each other's languages?''' [[/folder]]
!!!'''Characters being able to understand a language without demonstrating fluency (24/50) 12%''' [[folder:Amplified Animal Aptitude (7/50) '''3.5%''']] * Literature.MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH: The animals can understand humans and each other, but can't talk to humans. This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic as to where exactly all these animals picked up English (justified for the rats, as they were taught it in the lab, but not for any of the others), and whether they can understand other human languages automatically as well. * Recap.TheSimpsonsS6E6TreehouseOfHorrorV: When Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." * TheSimpsons.TropesIToM: ** In "Treehouse of Horror V", when Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." '''Just checked and the sloth doesn’t say “I don’t know”, it just grunts with an intonation that indicates that that’s what it was saying. So, not fluent in English.''' * Tarzan.TropesGToZ ** Played straight when Jane talks to a baby baboon and he understands her. * TotalDrama.TropesHToP: Some wild animals--especially squirrels--can understand humans. * WesternAnimation.FindingNemo: Dory understands English. The fish in the tank understand English because they've been hearing humans all their life, but there's no reason for Dory to understand English. [[spoiler:Subverted in that ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' reveals she was raised in a marine life institute in California.]] '''Since it says “understand” and not “speak” I can only assume this is a case of TranslationConvention and AnimalTalk, which means they aren’t actually fluent in English.''' * WesternAnimation.SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron: Spirit, despite not having had any human contact before his capture, understands what the human characters are saying. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Bilingual Dialogue (11/50)]] * Characters.MashupWeekMegamixCompetitors: Despite the fact that all 3 members speak different languages (English for Scoop, French for Eric and Italian for Baba), they can be understood by each other and by others easily. * Film.NoTimeToDie: James Bond's 5-year-old daughter, Mathilde, understands English even though her mother Madelaine speaks to her in French and all the media she consumes is in French. * Film.Titanic1997: Jack and the Swedish men understand each other well enough that Olaf is able to bet his tickets for all Jack and Fabrizio's money. * FinalFantasyXIV.TropesGToI?: ** In ''Heavensward'', the Warrior and Alphinaud are startled by how they can understand the great wyrm Hraesvelgr, who only speaks the language of dragons. They learn that while other races may not speak the dragon's language, the inherent power and magic in a dragon's song essentially beams meaning directly into the hearer's mind. ** The Scions are shocked in ''Shadowbringers'' when they meet [[spoiler:Emet-Selch's recreation of the lost city of Amaurot, the home of the BenevolentPrecursor race. Although the ancient version of mankind spoke only in a StarfishLanguage of droning tones, the Scions born millennia after the world was sundered find that they're able to discern meaning from it.]] * Literature.CookingWithWildGame: Lampshaded. One of the few supernatural parts of the setting is that [[TrappedInAnotherWorld Asuta]] can understand its inhabitants' language (almost) perfectly. Nobody knows why, nor do they ever find out; it's essentially one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality needed to get the plot going. * Literature.{{Fablehaven}}: After receiving magic from fairies, Kendra gains the ability to interpret their language intuitively despite never actually learning it. * Manga.MiriyaAndMarie: Aside of occasional GratuitousFrench, Miriya can understand all French and animal characters and vice versa. Blackey also tries to charge Miriya for massage in yen despite being French. * VideoGame.KnightsOfTheOldRepublic: Yes, your character understands plenty of languages, but there isn't anyone who ''should'' understand the language of the AbusivePrecursors. [[spoiler: Subverted. Turns out you'd been there before and learned the language, but just forgotten the whole thing between Malak's backstab and whatever the Jedi did to "rebuild" you]]. '''When moving this to BilingualDialogue, I would rewrite it as “Your character understands plenty of languages, but can only speak one.''' * WebOriginal.MashupWeek: In both tournaments, Flat Eric speaks French, but everyone can understand him perfectly. Same with Gigi, who speaks Italian. * WesternAnimation.JosieAndThePussycats: ''[[RecycledWithAGimmick In Outer Space]]'' has Melody encounter an alien creature that looks like cotton candy with eyes and flippers. The critter speaks in a series of bleeps, and Melody names him Bleep. [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien She can also understand him perfectly, and acts as translator for everyone else]]. Also, Bleep seems to understand English just fine. '''I also think InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien should be limited to people actually speaking Alien instead of just understanding it, but that’s for another time.''' [[/folder]]
[[folder:Other (6/50)]] * Characters.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocusMultiverse: Upon looking at some files from the old phone Oscar picked up, he's somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Fanfic.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus: Kaito is somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming also demonstrates an ability to understand English, as he is able to tell that the English song Eiko sings to him is a love song, with enough comprehension to be moved by a vision of his old comrades due to the lyrics referencing being still alive and alone. Later, upon meeting Tsuyoshi Kondo after Eiko's performance at the Yoyogi Art Festival, Kongming easily translates his GratuitousEnglish for a confused Kobayashi, and he's even become friends with a foreigner in Roppongi, who speaks exclusively in English. He's capable of some GratuitousEnglish himself, to boot. * Recap/CreepshowS2E2PublicTelevisionOfTheDead: Goodman reveals to Ted, out of nowhere, that he can read Sumerian, allowing him to translate the Necronomicon's incantations and let Evil roam free once again. * Series.{{Carnivale}}: During the fireball show, Samson secretly passes an old Crusader fob up to the stage during Lodz's psychometry act. When Lodz touches it, he's struck by visions of a holy war and begins chanting ''"In hoc signo vinces!"'' Ben, an uneducated farmboy, surprises Samson by translating even though he doesn't even recognize the language is Latin: '''Ben Hawkins:''' By this sign we conquer... by this sign we conquer... * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps2ZartogStrikesBack: Zartog understands the humans, despite having just arrived on Earth. He even understands Spanish, Hindi, and Xhosa upon hearing them for the first time, making the humans' inability to understand him even more hilarious. [[/folder]]
2024.06.01 12:10 Similar_Set_6582 My account was banned from TV Tropes. Can someone do me a favor?
Just copy this, paste this into a sandbox, then make a thread in the Trope Repair Shop linking to it. The thread shall be titled "Needs Help: Inexplicable Language Fluency".
A wick check for InexplicableLanguageFluency.
'''Why?''': InexplicableLanguageFluency seems to lump in examples of characters demonstrating fluency in a language they've never learned with examples of characters merely understanding a language they never learned. For one, it doesn't make sense for the latter examples to be there since the title has the word "fluency" in it. Secondly, many of the latter examples can be moved to BilingualDialogue or AmplifiedAnimalAptitude.
'''Wicks checked''': 50/72
'''Wick totals''':
* 21/50 wicks, or 11.5%, were clear examples of a character demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned. * 24/50 wicks, or 12% were examples of a character understanding a language without demonstrating fluency. * 4/50 wicks, or 2%, were written in a way that made it unclear whether they were being used correctly. * 1/50 wicks, or 1.5%, was an aversion.
[[folder:Characters demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned (21/50)]] * Characters.AtlantisTheLostEmpire: The Atlanteans are able to fluently communicate with the explorers from the surface in English and French. This is handwaved as their own language being a precursor to all other languages. * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming finds himself immediately fluent in Japanese despite having never learned the language, and the Japan of his era was still a dwarf country that mostly only sent envoys to Shu's rival kingdom of Wei. Eiko points out the absurdity of how an ancient Chinese figure can suddenly speak Japanese, and Kongming himself is at a loss of how he can do this. * Characters.YellowjacketsCrashSurvivors: [[spoiler:She, and by extension others in the Antler Queen cult she forms, randomly speak French on occasion, which Lottie at least is ''not'' fluent in, indicating mental instability.]] '''If this is supposed to be an inversion, it's correct, but it should be rewritten to mention that it's an inversion.''' * ComicBook.Asterix: Gauls can speak to most foreign peoples without any difficulty. Either everyone can speak Gaulish, or the Gauls can speak other languages, but either way is downright impossible. * ComicBook.UltimateFantasticFour: ** Downplayed. Namor demonstrates this trope after spending nine thousand years of being sealed inside a sarcophagus prison. Being from an ancient civilization of Atlantis that predates the modern English language, he initially has no idea what his new captors are saying when they find him. However, thanks to his psionic powers he proves to be a frighteningly fast learner and is able to learn English within an hour to understand modern American English and casually deliver threats and demands. ** Happens again when the Four meets the Silver Surfer who is able to understand English perfectly the instant he arrives to Earth for the first time. He justifies this by stating can decipher electromagnetic signals in the air to learn alien tongues in seconds. * Friends.TropesFToJ: Zig-zagged. "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt" has her speaking with Joey's Italian grandmother, with Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey. But in an earlier episode, Rachel's former lover Paulo calls her "bellissima" and she doesn't understand. ->'''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Film.ExorcistTheBeginning: In-universe, the main characters note Cheche's sudden fluency in English after being brought to the hospital. Of course this is because it is Pazuzu speaking through him and not actually Cheche. '''This is DiscussedTrope, not InUniverse'''. * Film.{{Phenomenon}}: Downplayed. After a UFO encounter, George gains a form of superintelligence where he can learn complicated tasks and subjects quickly, to the point where he's able to fluently speak Portuguese after reading an English-to-Portuguese dictionary for twenty minutes. This was foreshadowed in an earlier scene where after usually fumbling to speak Spanish, he's suddenly able to speak it perfectly, to the point that his Hispanic coworker half-seriously declares that it's better than his. * Literature.ForgottenRuin: When Talker and Vandahar speak during the final stretch to the Hidden Cave, Vandahar speaks in what we would recognize as modern German, which of course makes communicating with him very easy for Talker but raises a few questions. * Literature.InCryptid: Of the GeneticMemory version. When Candice the Dragon Princess comes up against the LizardFolk wandering about the New York sewers, she's able to make them halt using a guttural language. She reveals to Verity that it's a inborn language all Princesses know and something the "Servitors" are meant to respond to. She's also never used it before as Servitors can only be created from a [[spoiler:living male dragon]]. * Literature.SeasonalFears: Aven is essentially in a coma all her life but, thanks to the alchemical knowledge tinctures of her father', she speaks perfect English even if there are some issues with definitions. * Literature.ShiversMDSpenser: Bubbie moves to France with her family and meets a new French kid, Jean-Luc, and can somehow converse with him without any language issues; at the end of the story she can hold a long conversation with a stranger in French, despite spending less than a week in the country. Previous books with an overseas setting will at least attempt justifying this trope (for instance, ''Terror on Troll Mountain'' has the protagonist's Italian family choosing to speak in English because they're anticipating American guests) but this one handwaves the issue until it's a borderline plot hole. * Recap.AsterixAndTheGoths: Getafix is able to speak fluent Gothic, despite being a Gaulish druid who has no logical reason to know it (especially considering how antagonistic the Goths are in this story). * Recap.FriendsS5E19TheOneWhereRossCantFlirt: Phoebe speaks with Joey's Italian grandmother, with [[InexplicableLanguageFluency Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey]]. '''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Recap.TalesFromTheDarksideS4E6TheGraveRobber: Aileen is surprised to hear Tapok speaking English when he wakes up, the mummy giving an offhand mention that he can speak the language of anyone who violates the tomb. * Roleplay.WanyaKingdomVSAwoofyUnity: Fragment has been shown to speak any language even if he has never heard it before. * Series.{{Llanargollen}}: In "Dirgelwch y Llyfr Coll", Prys and Barti speak to each other in Swahili. It seems incredibly unlikely that Prys would be fluent in that language, and Barti only speaks in unintelligible grunts with individual words thrown in. The other characters barely react to this. * VideoGame.EternalReturnBlackSurvival: The test subjects are able to work together with each other in spite of how one would presume that the vast majority of them would be completely unable to verbally communicate with most of the others. {{Averted}} by some of the achievement lore entries, which include statements observed from test subjects that some of which have a note underneath which states the words were translated by AI and will be reviewed and localized further in the future. '''Since this seems to be an implied example rather than a straight example, and it seems to be ambiguous InUniverse whether it's this or BilingualDialogue, I'll leave it here.''' * VideoGame.MegaManBattleNetwork2?: [=MegaMan=]'s translation system allows Lan to speak flawless Netopian after they arrive in Netopia. * WesternAnimation.{{Pocahontas}}: English explorer John Smith meets the alluring Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe. Smith doesn't know her language, nor she his. That is, until Pocahontas takes a breath of magic wind. Suddenly, her English is better than his. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Aversions (1/50)]] * DarthWiki.{{Aquilaverse}}: ''Averted'' Not inexplicable, since her spell "Xenographus" let's her read any language she encounters for a limited duration. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Unclear (4/50)]] * Characters.FrightKrewe: His power makes him this. He has the ability to communicate with anyone and understand anything they say, whether its a [[InexplicableLanguageFluency person]], an [[SpeaksFluentAnimal animal]], or an [[NatureSpirit 'elemental entity']]. '''The way the example is written, it's not clear whether it's this or BilingualDialogue.''' * Recap.CreepshowS1E3BadWolfDown: Doc is shown to speak French and understands the language quite fluently, allowing him to translate the explanation of the werewolf woman's plight. '''You can't "understand a language fluently". Does he ''speak'' it fluently, or at least speak it better than he should realistically be able to?''' * Series.AlloAllo: Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians can talk to each other. This is never explained. '''In their own languages, or...?''' * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps: The [[SpeaksFluentAnimal aliens]] and [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien chimps]] understand each other, despite that the chimps have just arrived on their planet. '''Does one of them speak the other's language, or do they just understand each other's languages?''' [[/folder]]
!!!'''Characters being able to understand a language without demonstrating fluency (24/50) 12%''' [[folder:Amplified Animal Aptitude (7/50) '''3.5%''']] * Literature.MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH: The animals can understand humans and each other, but can't talk to humans. This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic as to where exactly all these animals picked up English (justified for the rats, as they were taught it in the lab, but not for any of the others), and whether they can understand other human languages automatically as well. * Recap.TheSimpsonsS6E6TreehouseOfHorrorV: When Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." * TheSimpsons.TropesIToM: ** In "Treehouse of Horror V", when Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." '''Just checked and the sloth doesn’t say “I don’t know”, it just grunts with an intonation that indicates that that’s what it was saying. So, not fluent in English.''' * Tarzan.TropesGToZ ** Played straight when Jane talks to a baby baboon and he understands her. * TotalDrama.TropesHToP: Some wild animals--especially squirrels--can understand humans. * WesternAnimation.FindingNemo: Dory understands English. The fish in the tank understand English because they've been hearing humans all their life, but there's no reason for Dory to understand English. [[spoiler:Subverted in that ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' reveals she was raised in a marine life institute in California.]] '''Since it says “understand” and not “speak” I can only assume this is a case of TranslationConvention and AnimalTalk, which means they aren’t actually fluent in English.''' * WesternAnimation.SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron: Spirit, despite not having had any human contact before his capture, understands what the human characters are saying. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Bilingual Dialogue (11/50)]] * Characters.MashupWeekMegamixCompetitors: Despite the fact that all 3 members speak different languages (English for Scoop, French for Eric and Italian for Baba), they can be understood by each other and by others easily. * Film.NoTimeToDie: James Bond's 5-year-old daughter, Mathilde, understands English even though her mother Madelaine speaks to her in French and all the media she consumes is in French. * Film.Titanic1997: Jack and the Swedish men understand each other well enough that Olaf is able to bet his tickets for all Jack and Fabrizio's money. * FinalFantasyXIV.TropesGToI?: ** In ''Heavensward'', the Warrior and Alphinaud are startled by how they can understand the great wyrm Hraesvelgr, who only speaks the language of dragons. They learn that while other races may not speak the dragon's language, the inherent power and magic in a dragon's song essentially beams meaning directly into the hearer's mind. ** The Scions are shocked in ''Shadowbringers'' when they meet [[spoiler:Emet-Selch's recreation of the lost city of Amaurot, the home of the BenevolentPrecursor race. Although the ancient version of mankind spoke only in a StarfishLanguage of droning tones, the Scions born millennia after the world was sundered find that they're able to discern meaning from it.]] * Literature.CookingWithWildGame: Lampshaded. One of the few supernatural parts of the setting is that [[TrappedInAnotherWorld Asuta]] can understand its inhabitants' language (almost) perfectly. Nobody knows why, nor do they ever find out; it's essentially one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality needed to get the plot going. * Literature.{{Fablehaven}}: After receiving magic from fairies, Kendra gains the ability to interpret their language intuitively despite never actually learning it. * Manga.MiriyaAndMarie: Aside of occasional GratuitousFrench, Miriya can understand all French and animal characters and vice versa. Blackey also tries to charge Miriya for massage in yen despite being French. * VideoGame.KnightsOfTheOldRepublic: Yes, your character understands plenty of languages, but there isn't anyone who ''should'' understand the language of the AbusivePrecursors. [[spoiler: Subverted. Turns out you'd been there before and learned the language, but just forgotten the whole thing between Malak's backstab and whatever the Jedi did to "rebuild" you]]. '''When moving this to BilingualDialogue, I would rewrite it as “Your character understands plenty of languages, but can only speak one.''' * WebOriginal.MashupWeek: In both tournaments, Flat Eric speaks French, but everyone can understand him perfectly. Same with Gigi, who speaks Italian. * WesternAnimation.JosieAndThePussycats: ''[[RecycledWithAGimmick In Outer Space]]'' has Melody encounter an alien creature that looks like cotton candy with eyes and flippers. The critter speaks in a series of bleeps, and Melody names him Bleep. [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien She can also understand him perfectly, and acts as translator for everyone else]]. Also, Bleep seems to understand English just fine. '''I also think InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien should be limited to people actually speaking Alien instead of just understanding it, but that’s for another time.''' [[/folder]]
[[folder:Other (6/50)]] * Characters.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocusMultiverse: Upon looking at some files from the old phone Oscar picked up, he's somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Fanfic.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus: Kaito is somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming also demonstrates an ability to understand English, as he is able to tell that the English song Eiko sings to him is a love song, with enough comprehension to be moved by a vision of his old comrades due to the lyrics referencing being still alive and alone. Later, upon meeting Tsuyoshi Kondo after Eiko's performance at the Yoyogi Art Festival, Kongming easily translates his GratuitousEnglish for a confused Kobayashi, and he's even become friends with a foreigner in Roppongi, who speaks exclusively in English. He's capable of some GratuitousEnglish himself, to boot. * Recap/CreepshowS2E2PublicTelevisionOfTheDead: Goodman reveals to Ted, out of nowhere, that he can read Sumerian, allowing him to translate the Necronomicon's incantations and let Evil roam free once again. * Series.{{Carnivale}}: During the fireball show, Samson secretly passes an old Crusader fob up to the stage during Lodz's psychometry act. When Lodz touches it, he's struck by visions of a holy war and begins chanting ''"In hoc signo vinces!"'' Ben, an uneducated farmboy, surprises Samson by translating even though he doesn't even recognize the language is Latin: '''Ben Hawkins:''' By this sign we conquer... by this sign we conquer... * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps2ZartogStrikesBack: Zartog understands the humans, despite having just arrived on Earth. He even understands Spanish, Hindi, and Xhosa upon hearing them for the first time, making the humans' inability to understand him even more hilarious. [[/folder]]
submitted by Similar_Set_6582 to FuckFighteer [link] [comments]
A wick check for InexplicableLanguageFluency.
'''Why?''': InexplicableLanguageFluency seems to lump in examples of characters demonstrating fluency in a language they've never learned with examples of characters merely understanding a language they never learned. For one, it doesn't make sense for the latter examples to be there since the title has the word "fluency" in it. Secondly, many of the latter examples can be moved to BilingualDialogue or AmplifiedAnimalAptitude.
'''Wicks checked''': 50/72
'''Wick totals''':
* 21/50 wicks, or 11.5%, were clear examples of a character demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned. * 24/50 wicks, or 12% were examples of a character understanding a language without demonstrating fluency. * 4/50 wicks, or 2%, were written in a way that made it unclear whether they were being used correctly. * 1/50 wicks, or 1.5%, was an aversion.
[[folder:Characters demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned (21/50)]] * Characters.AtlantisTheLostEmpire: The Atlanteans are able to fluently communicate with the explorers from the surface in English and French. This is handwaved as their own language being a precursor to all other languages. * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming finds himself immediately fluent in Japanese despite having never learned the language, and the Japan of his era was still a dwarf country that mostly only sent envoys to Shu's rival kingdom of Wei. Eiko points out the absurdity of how an ancient Chinese figure can suddenly speak Japanese, and Kongming himself is at a loss of how he can do this. * Characters.YellowjacketsCrashSurvivors: [[spoiler:She, and by extension others in the Antler Queen cult she forms, randomly speak French on occasion, which Lottie at least is ''not'' fluent in, indicating mental instability.]] '''If this is supposed to be an inversion, it's correct, but it should be rewritten to mention that it's an inversion.''' * ComicBook.Asterix: Gauls can speak to most foreign peoples without any difficulty. Either everyone can speak Gaulish, or the Gauls can speak other languages, but either way is downright impossible. * ComicBook.UltimateFantasticFour: ** Downplayed. Namor demonstrates this trope after spending nine thousand years of being sealed inside a sarcophagus prison. Being from an ancient civilization of Atlantis that predates the modern English language, he initially has no idea what his new captors are saying when they find him. However, thanks to his psionic powers he proves to be a frighteningly fast learner and is able to learn English within an hour to understand modern American English and casually deliver threats and demands. ** Happens again when the Four meets the Silver Surfer who is able to understand English perfectly the instant he arrives to Earth for the first time. He justifies this by stating can decipher electromagnetic signals in the air to learn alien tongues in seconds. * Friends.TropesFToJ: Zig-zagged. "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt" has her speaking with Joey's Italian grandmother, with Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey. But in an earlier episode, Rachel's former lover Paulo calls her "bellissima" and she doesn't understand. ->'''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Film.ExorcistTheBeginning: In-universe, the main characters note Cheche's sudden fluency in English after being brought to the hospital. Of course this is because it is Pazuzu speaking through him and not actually Cheche. '''This is DiscussedTrope, not InUniverse'''. * Film.{{Phenomenon}}: Downplayed. After a UFO encounter, George gains a form of superintelligence where he can learn complicated tasks and subjects quickly, to the point where he's able to fluently speak Portuguese after reading an English-to-Portuguese dictionary for twenty minutes. This was foreshadowed in an earlier scene where after usually fumbling to speak Spanish, he's suddenly able to speak it perfectly, to the point that his Hispanic coworker half-seriously declares that it's better than his. * Literature.ForgottenRuin: When Talker and Vandahar speak during the final stretch to the Hidden Cave, Vandahar speaks in what we would recognize as modern German, which of course makes communicating with him very easy for Talker but raises a few questions. * Literature.InCryptid: Of the GeneticMemory version. When Candice the Dragon Princess comes up against the LizardFolk wandering about the New York sewers, she's able to make them halt using a guttural language. She reveals to Verity that it's a inborn language all Princesses know and something the "Servitors" are meant to respond to. She's also never used it before as Servitors can only be created from a [[spoiler:living male dragon]]. * Literature.SeasonalFears: Aven is essentially in a coma all her life but, thanks to the alchemical knowledge tinctures of her father', she speaks perfect English even if there are some issues with definitions. * Literature.ShiversMDSpenser: Bubbie moves to France with her family and meets a new French kid, Jean-Luc, and can somehow converse with him without any language issues; at the end of the story she can hold a long conversation with a stranger in French, despite spending less than a week in the country. Previous books with an overseas setting will at least attempt justifying this trope (for instance, ''Terror on Troll Mountain'' has the protagonist's Italian family choosing to speak in English because they're anticipating American guests) but this one handwaves the issue until it's a borderline plot hole. * Recap.AsterixAndTheGoths: Getafix is able to speak fluent Gothic, despite being a Gaulish druid who has no logical reason to know it (especially considering how antagonistic the Goths are in this story). * Recap.FriendsS5E19TheOneWhereRossCantFlirt: Phoebe speaks with Joey's Italian grandmother, with [[InexplicableLanguageFluency Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey]]. '''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Recap.TalesFromTheDarksideS4E6TheGraveRobber: Aileen is surprised to hear Tapok speaking English when he wakes up, the mummy giving an offhand mention that he can speak the language of anyone who violates the tomb. * Roleplay.WanyaKingdomVSAwoofyUnity: Fragment has been shown to speak any language even if he has never heard it before. * Series.{{Llanargollen}}: In "Dirgelwch y Llyfr Coll", Prys and Barti speak to each other in Swahili. It seems incredibly unlikely that Prys would be fluent in that language, and Barti only speaks in unintelligible grunts with individual words thrown in. The other characters barely react to this. * VideoGame.EternalReturnBlackSurvival: The test subjects are able to work together with each other in spite of how one would presume that the vast majority of them would be completely unable to verbally communicate with most of the others. {{Averted}} by some of the achievement lore entries, which include statements observed from test subjects that some of which have a note underneath which states the words were translated by AI and will be reviewed and localized further in the future. '''Since this seems to be an implied example rather than a straight example, and it seems to be ambiguous InUniverse whether it's this or BilingualDialogue, I'll leave it here.''' * VideoGame.MegaManBattleNetwork2?: [=MegaMan=]'s translation system allows Lan to speak flawless Netopian after they arrive in Netopia. * WesternAnimation.{{Pocahontas}}: English explorer John Smith meets the alluring Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe. Smith doesn't know her language, nor she his. That is, until Pocahontas takes a breath of magic wind. Suddenly, her English is better than his. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Aversions (1/50)]] * DarthWiki.{{Aquilaverse}}: ''Averted'' Not inexplicable, since her spell "Xenographus" let's her read any language she encounters for a limited duration. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Unclear (4/50)]] * Characters.FrightKrewe: His power makes him this. He has the ability to communicate with anyone and understand anything they say, whether its a [[InexplicableLanguageFluency person]], an [[SpeaksFluentAnimal animal]], or an [[NatureSpirit 'elemental entity']]. '''The way the example is written, it's not clear whether it's this or BilingualDialogue.''' * Recap.CreepshowS1E3BadWolfDown: Doc is shown to speak French and understands the language quite fluently, allowing him to translate the explanation of the werewolf woman's plight. '''You can't "understand a language fluently". Does he ''speak'' it fluently, or at least speak it better than he should realistically be able to?''' * Series.AlloAllo: Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians can talk to each other. This is never explained. '''In their own languages, or...?''' * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps: The [[SpeaksFluentAnimal aliens]] and [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien chimps]] understand each other, despite that the chimps have just arrived on their planet. '''Does one of them speak the other's language, or do they just understand each other's languages?''' [[/folder]]
!!!'''Characters being able to understand a language without demonstrating fluency (24/50) 12%''' [[folder:Amplified Animal Aptitude (7/50) '''3.5%''']] * Literature.MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH: The animals can understand humans and each other, but can't talk to humans. This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic as to where exactly all these animals picked up English (justified for the rats, as they were taught it in the lab, but not for any of the others), and whether they can understand other human languages automatically as well. * Recap.TheSimpsonsS6E6TreehouseOfHorrorV: When Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." * TheSimpsons.TropesIToM: ** In "Treehouse of Horror V", when Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." '''Just checked and the sloth doesn’t say “I don’t know”, it just grunts with an intonation that indicates that that’s what it was saying. So, not fluent in English.''' * Tarzan.TropesGToZ ** Played straight when Jane talks to a baby baboon and he understands her. * TotalDrama.TropesHToP: Some wild animals--especially squirrels--can understand humans. * WesternAnimation.FindingNemo: Dory understands English. The fish in the tank understand English because they've been hearing humans all their life, but there's no reason for Dory to understand English. [[spoiler:Subverted in that ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' reveals she was raised in a marine life institute in California.]] '''Since it says “understand” and not “speak” I can only assume this is a case of TranslationConvention and AnimalTalk, which means they aren’t actually fluent in English.''' * WesternAnimation.SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron: Spirit, despite not having had any human contact before his capture, understands what the human characters are saying. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Bilingual Dialogue (11/50)]] * Characters.MashupWeekMegamixCompetitors: Despite the fact that all 3 members speak different languages (English for Scoop, French for Eric and Italian for Baba), they can be understood by each other and by others easily. * Film.NoTimeToDie: James Bond's 5-year-old daughter, Mathilde, understands English even though her mother Madelaine speaks to her in French and all the media she consumes is in French. * Film.Titanic1997: Jack and the Swedish men understand each other well enough that Olaf is able to bet his tickets for all Jack and Fabrizio's money. * FinalFantasyXIV.TropesGToI?: ** In ''Heavensward'', the Warrior and Alphinaud are startled by how they can understand the great wyrm Hraesvelgr, who only speaks the language of dragons. They learn that while other races may not speak the dragon's language, the inherent power and magic in a dragon's song essentially beams meaning directly into the hearer's mind. ** The Scions are shocked in ''Shadowbringers'' when they meet [[spoiler:Emet-Selch's recreation of the lost city of Amaurot, the home of the BenevolentPrecursor race. Although the ancient version of mankind spoke only in a StarfishLanguage of droning tones, the Scions born millennia after the world was sundered find that they're able to discern meaning from it.]] * Literature.CookingWithWildGame: Lampshaded. One of the few supernatural parts of the setting is that [[TrappedInAnotherWorld Asuta]] can understand its inhabitants' language (almost) perfectly. Nobody knows why, nor do they ever find out; it's essentially one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality needed to get the plot going. * Literature.{{Fablehaven}}: After receiving magic from fairies, Kendra gains the ability to interpret their language intuitively despite never actually learning it. * Manga.MiriyaAndMarie: Aside of occasional GratuitousFrench, Miriya can understand all French and animal characters and vice versa. Blackey also tries to charge Miriya for massage in yen despite being French. * VideoGame.KnightsOfTheOldRepublic: Yes, your character understands plenty of languages, but there isn't anyone who ''should'' understand the language of the AbusivePrecursors. [[spoiler: Subverted. Turns out you'd been there before and learned the language, but just forgotten the whole thing between Malak's backstab and whatever the Jedi did to "rebuild" you]]. '''When moving this to BilingualDialogue, I would rewrite it as “Your character understands plenty of languages, but can only speak one.''' * WebOriginal.MashupWeek: In both tournaments, Flat Eric speaks French, but everyone can understand him perfectly. Same with Gigi, who speaks Italian. * WesternAnimation.JosieAndThePussycats: ''[[RecycledWithAGimmick In Outer Space]]'' has Melody encounter an alien creature that looks like cotton candy with eyes and flippers. The critter speaks in a series of bleeps, and Melody names him Bleep. [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien She can also understand him perfectly, and acts as translator for everyone else]]. Also, Bleep seems to understand English just fine. '''I also think InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien should be limited to people actually speaking Alien instead of just understanding it, but that’s for another time.''' [[/folder]]
[[folder:Other (6/50)]] * Characters.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocusMultiverse: Upon looking at some files from the old phone Oscar picked up, he's somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Fanfic.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus: Kaito is somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming also demonstrates an ability to understand English, as he is able to tell that the English song Eiko sings to him is a love song, with enough comprehension to be moved by a vision of his old comrades due to the lyrics referencing being still alive and alone. Later, upon meeting Tsuyoshi Kondo after Eiko's performance at the Yoyogi Art Festival, Kongming easily translates his GratuitousEnglish for a confused Kobayashi, and he's even become friends with a foreigner in Roppongi, who speaks exclusively in English. He's capable of some GratuitousEnglish himself, to boot. * Recap/CreepshowS2E2PublicTelevisionOfTheDead: Goodman reveals to Ted, out of nowhere, that he can read Sumerian, allowing him to translate the Necronomicon's incantations and let Evil roam free once again. * Series.{{Carnivale}}: During the fireball show, Samson secretly passes an old Crusader fob up to the stage during Lodz's psychometry act. When Lodz touches it, he's struck by visions of a holy war and begins chanting ''"In hoc signo vinces!"'' Ben, an uneducated farmboy, surprises Samson by translating even though he doesn't even recognize the language is Latin: '''Ben Hawkins:''' By this sign we conquer... by this sign we conquer... * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps2ZartogStrikesBack: Zartog understands the humans, despite having just arrived on Earth. He even understands Spanish, Hindi, and Xhosa upon hearing them for the first time, making the humans' inability to understand him even more hilarious. [[/folder]]
2024.06.01 11:59 YukiteruAmano92 There Will Be Scritches Pt.180
Previous Interlewd XLI Next First
---Sample---
---Fnurfar’s perspective---
---2710 Terran Calenda3 years BF---
All six of my paws desperately scramble against the slick pavement of the Prosperity back alley as I flee for my life!
Pursuing me… is a monster!
His species aren’t meant to be sprinters!
They said if it came to a chase, I just needed to quickly get out of his line of sight and keep going and he’d not be able to keep up!
I skid around a corner and steal a glance behind me, seeing two furious eyes moving towards me so fast that they seem to leave streaks of emerald green behind them as afterimages!
The Fury is so close on my tail that he’s almost certain to catch me now!
It would be laughable how much my… ‘employers’ had underestimated him if it weren’t so terrifying!
‘You’ve got a Terran with you! There should be no issue!’
Yes, that idiot mercenary they hired almost had me going with his smug, arrogant proclamation that ‘Big=slow! Slow=dead!’ as he idly showed off his little knife tricks!
My confidence lasted up until the very moment I saw the one we were supposed to rob!
[20cm] taller than the skinny mercenary and looking like he could easily weigh twice as much, the man was a Hunt damned beast compared to the one who was meant to protect me from him!
I think Flynn reassessed his cocksure attitude as well because, rather than waiting for me to have an opening like we agreed in the [fucking] plan, he just drew a knife and tried to stab the monster to death!
An extremely poorly calculated risk!
There was no competition!
This juggernaut dealt with Flynn as easily as Flynn could have dealt with me!
It took him a matter of seconds to dispatch my accomplice but that was a matter of seconds where he was distracted enough that I was able to snag what we had been after… not that it makes any difference now!
Just as I hear thundering footfalls coming up on my left, powerful fingers impact the space between the bottom of my neck and the top of my top shoulderblades.
I’m slammed into the ground… but not killed…
I can feel the power contained in the iron grip around my neck…
I know that decapitating me would be as simple as deciding to close his fingers but, as I wait for death to come, it doesn’t…
Instead, the hand slides up my shoulders, gathering the loose skin and lifting me up like a kit in her parent’s mouth…
The first thing I’m able to see is the monster’s flat, booted feet, followed by a pair of long thick legs, then a chest and left arm covered in a loose fitting, buttoned shirt, patterned with vertical and horizontal lines.
The red fabric of his top disguises the bloodstain from the wound he got from Flynn, just below his shoulder. However, the nauseatingly metallic smell of it absolutely fills my nostrils!
The final thing to be revealed, as my feet hang more than [a metre] from the ground, is a face… the scarred skin a pale beige, the white, calcite teeth bared in a furious grimace, copper coloured eyebrows tilted downward in the middle over a nose, wrinkled with anger, and emerald eyes, burning with rage!
His shoulders rise and fall, in time with panted breaths he sucks in and out through his gritted teeth, putting me less in mind of a person (or even an animal) catching their breath after exertion and more in mind of some hulking piece of machinery from the Steam Age venting its pressure!
The Terran extends his pallid skinned, long fingered, furless, pentadactyl left hand to me, stained with the ferrous blood that’s run down his sleeve, and growls “Sample!”
“No…” I breathe, terrified.
“GIRL! I AIN’T fuckin’ PLAYIN’ with you!” he snarls, curling all but his index finger and jabbing it towards my snout “You’re gonna. GIVE. BACK. what you. FUCKIN’. STOLE!”
“You… can take it… from my corpse…” I defy, clutching my exhausted, trembling pawhands to the front of my jumpsuit.
Effortlessly, his free hand comes forward, batting my four aside, before pinching the top of the stasis vial and pulling it free, with there being absolutely nothing I can do to stop him!
He holds up the tube, in which is visible a small plant with a rosette of frilly black leaves and through which can be seen a frozen impression of the room it was in when it was stasised, demanding “You’re really willin’ to die for this!? For corporate espionage?!… Why the fuck’s this matter to you like that?!?!?!”
“I don’t care… about the plant… at all…” I answer, defeated.
His face twists in a sneer as he asks “Then why tell me I had to pry it from your cold. dead. hands!?”
“Because… if I come back… emptyhanded… they’re going to… torture my husband… and son… and make me watch!… If I don’t… come back… at all… maybe they’ll let them go!” I pant in answer.
His face falls blank… but I can tell that is not because he’s no longer angry!
Instead, his redoubled rage has gone from white hot to ice cold as he leans in and demands “Who’s ‘they’?”
---2715 Terran Calenda2 years AF---
“One!?” demands the sceptical, lutrine, Nvar man, one of six listening to my story for the first time (along with the two friends who’ve heard it before), holding up a webbed pawhand and extending a single finger “You’re trying to tell us that one Terran dismantled the entire Giluspri Sisters’ Syndicate, overnight!?… Simply because you told him a sob story about them holding your family hostage!?”
“I did say you wouldn’t believe me(!)” I smirk, lifting my drink to take a sip.
“You’re damn right I don’t believe you!!!” he sneers “It might have been a little more believable if you’d made it a team of a dozen or so Terrans that were guarding this thing but one!?… There’s no way it took a single individual a single night to root out and entirely destroy an enterprise that Prosperity’s government had been hunting for nearly [2 decades], even if that individual was a Terran!”
I place my drink down on the table and turn the palms of all four pawhands to the ceiling as I say “Believe me or don’t… that’s exactly how it happened!”
“Hmmm… Don’t know ’bout ‘exactly’…!” comes a familiar voice from behind my head, in the next booth over.
I freeze and straighten my back.
The friends and audience in my booth are looking past me, curiously, but, from their faces, it doesn’t look like they can see anything.
I stand and slide out through the gap between the table and Nafnarl’s footpaws.
I turn right and am immediately able to see that the booth next to us is occupied by a mixture of Terrans and some much smaller humanoids with green skin.
I keep going, rounding the partition to reveal…
“By the Hunt! Victor?!” I exclaim, seeing the man sat with his back almost exactly to where I was sitting, next to another tall, slim humanoid with blue skin and four arms.
His copper hair is much longer, his face isn’t as scarred and isn’t wearing the disgusted sneer that characterised so much of the time he and I spent together but… there’s no mistaking it!
The man turns his head, smiling, before standing up to nearly twice my height and extending a palm to ruffle the fur between my ears, saying “How’s it goin’, Foxy? You look a lot better ’an you did last time I saw you at least(!)” gesturing with his other hand up and down my less skinny and less visibly scarred body.
“Never mind that, Victor! What are you doing here?! You didn’t tell me you were coming back to Prosperity!”
He smirks “Yeah, sorry Foxy… It’s a loose lips sink ships kinda deal… Just thought I’d show my friends here the bar you brought me to celebrate after everythin’ was done that time… Didn’t think I’d actually run into you here!”
I stare up at the man, agog, for a few moments before reaching up with both my left hands and closing them around his wrist.
He allows me to drag him back to the head of my table.
“Nafnarl! Gfurnaf! This is him! This is the one I’ve been telling you about for the last [5 years]!” I say to my two Graufna friends before turning to the rest of the table to declare “He’s the man who took down the Giluspris! He’s Victor ‘Cuddles’ Taylor!”
With mirthful bemusement, the Terran raises his left palm to the table to smile “Y’alright guys!” before his eyes scan the faces and his expression goes concerned. He turns to me and asks “Your hubby alright, Foxy?”
I bare my teeth (I hope friendlily) and answer “Fnarnulf’s fine, Victor!… Fuffarn too! This is just a girl’s night…” gesturing at my two friends “…or… it was(!)” gesturing over the four men and two women, of four different species, who joined us to hear my story.
“What did you mean by it not being ‘exactly’ right?” queries Lunvo, the same sceptical Nvar who voiced disbelief before, still looking sceptical (not that I can blame him) but at least impressed by the fact that the ‘con’ has an (imposing looking) Terran stooge now(!)
“Weeeeell…” Victor frowns down at me, mirthfully “…the way she described me dodgin’ that knife attack, she made me sound almost psychic(!)… In reality, she and this guy weren’t as smooth as she seems to think(!) The fact that I even got nicked by someone I was payin’ as much attention to as that is a bad reflection on my reaction time!… Also, she kinda made it sound like I went into their headquarters with a gun in one hand and a lit plasmasword in the other(!) As I recall, I gave ’em all a chance to surrender and come quietly and it were only after they, shall we say, indicated a lack of interest in that option that my weapons first cleared leather!… Oh! And what was with all that comparin’ the way I pant to ventin’ steam engines, Foxy(?!)”
“But…” starts Muan, a nervous tolypeutine Wne woman beside her Wno husband, Kmuw “…you don’t deny it was you and you alone who brought down the Giluspris?… Without help?”
The pale skin of the Terran’s flat face performs a complicated scrunch as he considers the question before answering “Don’t know ’bout ‘without help’… I had Foxy here for showin’ me the way, after I’d done a lotta convincin’… and, once I’d taken care of ’em, local law enforcers came to take the survivors away… Aaaaand… I probably didn’t actually manage to kill or capture every last one of ’em… just gutted its power structure enough that the rats fled the sinkin’ ship(!)”
“Why are you calling her ‘Foxy’?” asks Lunvo, four eyes narrowed in suspicion “‘Fnurfar’ is the name she gave us!”
The large man shrugs his shoulders “I didn’t get her name until we came here to celebrate… she didn’t trust me to give it… Had to call her somethin’, so I called her Foxy.”
“Hmmm…” responds Lunvo “…I’m not buying it…”
Victor raises an eyebrow “You ain’t buyin’ me givin’ her a nickname(!?)”
“I don’t believe any of it! The whole story reeks of the fanciful!”
I bare my teeth and slam my paws on the table before snarling “I don’t care if you question my honesty, Lunvo, but this man saved my husband’s life, my son’s life, the lives of dozens of others, freed me from effective slavery and freed this planet from its largest criminal syndicate! I will not have you questioning his integrity!”
Lunvo cowers away from me, despite the table separating us.
I feel a large, strong hand on my shoulder.
I turn to see a smiling face.
“Eeeeasy there, Foxy… ’Preciate the defence but there ain’t no need to get heated over it!… ’Specially not when there’s a really easy way to sort this out…” he looks up at Lunvo and asks “Lunvo, was it? Could I ask you to look up the front page of the Prosperity Chronicle from the 3rd of September, 2710?… I think you’ll see a picture of me shakin’ hands with your governor at the time…”
---
Previous Interlewd XLI Next First
Discord
Dramatis Personae
submitted by YukiteruAmano92 to HFY [link] [comments]
---Sample---
---Fnurfar’s perspective---
---2710 Terran Calenda3 years BF---
All six of my paws desperately scramble against the slick pavement of the Prosperity back alley as I flee for my life!
Pursuing me… is a monster!
His species aren’t meant to be sprinters!
They said if it came to a chase, I just needed to quickly get out of his line of sight and keep going and he’d not be able to keep up!
I skid around a corner and steal a glance behind me, seeing two furious eyes moving towards me so fast that they seem to leave streaks of emerald green behind them as afterimages!
The Fury is so close on my tail that he’s almost certain to catch me now!
It would be laughable how much my… ‘employers’ had underestimated him if it weren’t so terrifying!
‘You’ve got a Terran with you! There should be no issue!’
Yes, that idiot mercenary they hired almost had me going with his smug, arrogant proclamation that ‘Big=slow! Slow=dead!’ as he idly showed off his little knife tricks!
My confidence lasted up until the very moment I saw the one we were supposed to rob!
[20cm] taller than the skinny mercenary and looking like he could easily weigh twice as much, the man was a Hunt damned beast compared to the one who was meant to protect me from him!
I think Flynn reassessed his cocksure attitude as well because, rather than waiting for me to have an opening like we agreed in the [fucking] plan, he just drew a knife and tried to stab the monster to death!
An extremely poorly calculated risk!
There was no competition!
This juggernaut dealt with Flynn as easily as Flynn could have dealt with me!
It took him a matter of seconds to dispatch my accomplice but that was a matter of seconds where he was distracted enough that I was able to snag what we had been after… not that it makes any difference now!
Just as I hear thundering footfalls coming up on my left, powerful fingers impact the space between the bottom of my neck and the top of my top shoulderblades.
I’m slammed into the ground… but not killed…
I can feel the power contained in the iron grip around my neck…
I know that decapitating me would be as simple as deciding to close his fingers but, as I wait for death to come, it doesn’t…
Instead, the hand slides up my shoulders, gathering the loose skin and lifting me up like a kit in her parent’s mouth…
The first thing I’m able to see is the monster’s flat, booted feet, followed by a pair of long thick legs, then a chest and left arm covered in a loose fitting, buttoned shirt, patterned with vertical and horizontal lines.
The red fabric of his top disguises the bloodstain from the wound he got from Flynn, just below his shoulder. However, the nauseatingly metallic smell of it absolutely fills my nostrils!
The final thing to be revealed, as my feet hang more than [a metre] from the ground, is a face… the scarred skin a pale beige, the white, calcite teeth bared in a furious grimace, copper coloured eyebrows tilted downward in the middle over a nose, wrinkled with anger, and emerald eyes, burning with rage!
His shoulders rise and fall, in time with panted breaths he sucks in and out through his gritted teeth, putting me less in mind of a person (or even an animal) catching their breath after exertion and more in mind of some hulking piece of machinery from the Steam Age venting its pressure!
The Terran extends his pallid skinned, long fingered, furless, pentadactyl left hand to me, stained with the ferrous blood that’s run down his sleeve, and growls “Sample!”
“No…” I breathe, terrified.
“GIRL! I AIN’T fuckin’ PLAYIN’ with you!” he snarls, curling all but his index finger and jabbing it towards my snout “You’re gonna. GIVE. BACK. what you. FUCKIN’. STOLE!”
“You… can take it… from my corpse…” I defy, clutching my exhausted, trembling pawhands to the front of my jumpsuit.
Effortlessly, his free hand comes forward, batting my four aside, before pinching the top of the stasis vial and pulling it free, with there being absolutely nothing I can do to stop him!
He holds up the tube, in which is visible a small plant with a rosette of frilly black leaves and through which can be seen a frozen impression of the room it was in when it was stasised, demanding “You’re really willin’ to die for this!? For corporate espionage?!… Why the fuck’s this matter to you like that?!?!?!”
“I don’t care… about the plant… at all…” I answer, defeated.
His face twists in a sneer as he asks “Then why tell me I had to pry it from your cold. dead. hands!?”
“Because… if I come back… emptyhanded… they’re going to… torture my husband… and son… and make me watch!… If I don’t… come back… at all… maybe they’ll let them go!” I pant in answer.
His face falls blank… but I can tell that is not because he’s no longer angry!
Instead, his redoubled rage has gone from white hot to ice cold as he leans in and demands “Who’s ‘they’?”
---2715 Terran Calenda2 years AF---
“One!?” demands the sceptical, lutrine, Nvar man, one of six listening to my story for the first time (along with the two friends who’ve heard it before), holding up a webbed pawhand and extending a single finger “You’re trying to tell us that one Terran dismantled the entire Giluspri Sisters’ Syndicate, overnight!?… Simply because you told him a sob story about them holding your family hostage!?”
“I did say you wouldn’t believe me(!)” I smirk, lifting my drink to take a sip.
“You’re damn right I don’t believe you!!!” he sneers “It might have been a little more believable if you’d made it a team of a dozen or so Terrans that were guarding this thing but one!?… There’s no way it took a single individual a single night to root out and entirely destroy an enterprise that Prosperity’s government had been hunting for nearly [2 decades], even if that individual was a Terran!”
I place my drink down on the table and turn the palms of all four pawhands to the ceiling as I say “Believe me or don’t… that’s exactly how it happened!”
“Hmmm… Don’t know ’bout ‘exactly’…!” comes a familiar voice from behind my head, in the next booth over.
I freeze and straighten my back.
The friends and audience in my booth are looking past me, curiously, but, from their faces, it doesn’t look like they can see anything.
I stand and slide out through the gap between the table and Nafnarl’s footpaws.
I turn right and am immediately able to see that the booth next to us is occupied by a mixture of Terrans and some much smaller humanoids with green skin.
I keep going, rounding the partition to reveal…
“By the Hunt! Victor?!” I exclaim, seeing the man sat with his back almost exactly to where I was sitting, next to another tall, slim humanoid with blue skin and four arms.
His copper hair is much longer, his face isn’t as scarred and isn’t wearing the disgusted sneer that characterised so much of the time he and I spent together but… there’s no mistaking it!
The man turns his head, smiling, before standing up to nearly twice my height and extending a palm to ruffle the fur between my ears, saying “How’s it goin’, Foxy? You look a lot better ’an you did last time I saw you at least(!)” gesturing with his other hand up and down my less skinny and less visibly scarred body.
“Never mind that, Victor! What are you doing here?! You didn’t tell me you were coming back to Prosperity!”
He smirks “Yeah, sorry Foxy… It’s a loose lips sink ships kinda deal… Just thought I’d show my friends here the bar you brought me to celebrate after everythin’ was done that time… Didn’t think I’d actually run into you here!”
I stare up at the man, agog, for a few moments before reaching up with both my left hands and closing them around his wrist.
He allows me to drag him back to the head of my table.
“Nafnarl! Gfurnaf! This is him! This is the one I’ve been telling you about for the last [5 years]!” I say to my two Graufna friends before turning to the rest of the table to declare “He’s the man who took down the Giluspris! He’s Victor ‘Cuddles’ Taylor!”
With mirthful bemusement, the Terran raises his left palm to the table to smile “Y’alright guys!” before his eyes scan the faces and his expression goes concerned. He turns to me and asks “Your hubby alright, Foxy?”
I bare my teeth (I hope friendlily) and answer “Fnarnulf’s fine, Victor!… Fuffarn too! This is just a girl’s night…” gesturing at my two friends “…or… it was(!)” gesturing over the four men and two women, of four different species, who joined us to hear my story.
“What did you mean by it not being ‘exactly’ right?” queries Lunvo, the same sceptical Nvar who voiced disbelief before, still looking sceptical (not that I can blame him) but at least impressed by the fact that the ‘con’ has an (imposing looking) Terran stooge now(!)
“Weeeeell…” Victor frowns down at me, mirthfully “…the way she described me dodgin’ that knife attack, she made me sound almost psychic(!)… In reality, she and this guy weren’t as smooth as she seems to think(!) The fact that I even got nicked by someone I was payin’ as much attention to as that is a bad reflection on my reaction time!… Also, she kinda made it sound like I went into their headquarters with a gun in one hand and a lit plasmasword in the other(!) As I recall, I gave ’em all a chance to surrender and come quietly and it were only after they, shall we say, indicated a lack of interest in that option that my weapons first cleared leather!… Oh! And what was with all that comparin’ the way I pant to ventin’ steam engines, Foxy(?!)”
“But…” starts Muan, a nervous tolypeutine Wne woman beside her Wno husband, Kmuw “…you don’t deny it was you and you alone who brought down the Giluspris?… Without help?”
The pale skin of the Terran’s flat face performs a complicated scrunch as he considers the question before answering “Don’t know ’bout ‘without help’… I had Foxy here for showin’ me the way, after I’d done a lotta convincin’… and, once I’d taken care of ’em, local law enforcers came to take the survivors away… Aaaaand… I probably didn’t actually manage to kill or capture every last one of ’em… just gutted its power structure enough that the rats fled the sinkin’ ship(!)”
“Why are you calling her ‘Foxy’?” asks Lunvo, four eyes narrowed in suspicion “‘Fnurfar’ is the name she gave us!”
The large man shrugs his shoulders “I didn’t get her name until we came here to celebrate… she didn’t trust me to give it… Had to call her somethin’, so I called her Foxy.”
“Hmmm…” responds Lunvo “…I’m not buying it…”
Victor raises an eyebrow “You ain’t buyin’ me givin’ her a nickname(!?)”
“I don’t believe any of it! The whole story reeks of the fanciful!”
I bare my teeth and slam my paws on the table before snarling “I don’t care if you question my honesty, Lunvo, but this man saved my husband’s life, my son’s life, the lives of dozens of others, freed me from effective slavery and freed this planet from its largest criminal syndicate! I will not have you questioning his integrity!”
Lunvo cowers away from me, despite the table separating us.
I feel a large, strong hand on my shoulder.
I turn to see a smiling face.
“Eeeeasy there, Foxy… ’Preciate the defence but there ain’t no need to get heated over it!… ’Specially not when there’s a really easy way to sort this out…” he looks up at Lunvo and asks “Lunvo, was it? Could I ask you to look up the front page of the Prosperity Chronicle from the 3rd of September, 2710?… I think you’ll see a picture of me shakin’ hands with your governor at the time…”
---
Previous Interlewd XLI Next First
Discord
Dramatis Personae
2024.06.01 11:18 unklejazzbo HELLO!! What do you think you would be like if you were a Hedgie Minion?
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i would have watched Dumb Money alot for research but not Drive Angry where the Devil’s accountant motivated cops with “promotion and pay raise”
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i would be scraping the socials in the middle of the night to sew discontent and discourage people coming together
If I was a Hedgie Minion, I would NOT have seen movies like Branded, Jones Plantation, The Informers, What Just Happened or City of Lies because i’m smarter than those who organize against us always thinking we must be smarter.
If I was a Hedgie Minion, no matter what critical analysis is thrown out, i believe i’m on the right side and would never investigate my company for chicanery so I too will be like the guys in “The Wolf of Wall Street”
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i would use words like “its just business”, not realizing that is a common phrase said by bad guys in films as if to exonerate themselves.
If i was a Hedgie Minion, i would not have seen films like “Don’t look Up” and saw how underlings got shat upon by arrogant people in charge, or films like “Swimming with Sharks” where winning in life meant losing your soul
If i was a Hedgie Minion, i would think P Diddy sure is talented, Harvey Weinstein is just a pervert and not a gangster, OJ was a terrible person but not his son with rage issues and chef knives
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i would root for the Empire in Star Wars films and never look for Sith like phrases my boss would throw out like “i’ll take care of you” or “thats above your pay grade” and never ever look at the possible chicanery that i may be a part of.
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i would not understand how to think creatively, how the perceptions put upon the masses since birth are meant to stifle and control rather than empower which would help me understand the drive of people coming together to take back moneys in an overburdened and overtaxed system
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i wouldn’t talk to other minions who played the game i’m playing and lost because I am definitely smarter and besides my bosses probably discourage it.
If i was a Hedgie Minion, i would see homeless bums and not the remainder of an equation of people born into a consumer based society that fail to consume and take no responsibility for this remainder
If I was a Hedgie Minion i would never ask, “is money driving emotion or is emotion driving money?”..”should a creation of man have control over feeling, will, or intent?”
If I was a Hedgie Minion i would never think i am on the wrong side because we dont cheat and everyone wants our money that we are definitely not manipulating.
If I was a Hedgie Minion there is no way some dude on Reddit could know more than me, Even if they are a third generation accountant, who has traversed the world and works in the clockwork of Hollywood, and has observed “Old Money”, “Fast Money”, “New Money”, “Inherited Money”
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i never saw “Born Rich” or “The 1%” and put together that Jamie’s Dad constantly discouraged him making such documentaries because they are a den of piranhas that will eat them, and I sure want to be in their service because I can definitely become one of them..Lee Atwater and that “Boogieman” Documentary was all bullshit is what I would think
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i would just do what i am told, not think creatively..let Ai use me and not use it to expand upon original thoughts
If I was a Hedgie Minion..i would not understand the motivations of my enemy or think i could ever lose, and use phrases like “just doing my job”
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i would never ask “is the best that money can buy the best there is?”
But i am not a Hedgie Minion, and if you are you’re predictable, Apes are not.🍌
submitted by unklejazzbo to FFIE [link] [comments]
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i would be scraping the socials in the middle of the night to sew discontent and discourage people coming together
If I was a Hedgie Minion, I would NOT have seen movies like Branded, Jones Plantation, The Informers, What Just Happened or City of Lies because i’m smarter than those who organize against us always thinking we must be smarter.
If I was a Hedgie Minion, no matter what critical analysis is thrown out, i believe i’m on the right side and would never investigate my company for chicanery so I too will be like the guys in “The Wolf of Wall Street”
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i would use words like “its just business”, not realizing that is a common phrase said by bad guys in films as if to exonerate themselves.
If i was a Hedgie Minion, i would not have seen films like “Don’t look Up” and saw how underlings got shat upon by arrogant people in charge, or films like “Swimming with Sharks” where winning in life meant losing your soul
If i was a Hedgie Minion, i would think P Diddy sure is talented, Harvey Weinstein is just a pervert and not a gangster, OJ was a terrible person but not his son with rage issues and chef knives
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i would root for the Empire in Star Wars films and never look for Sith like phrases my boss would throw out like “i’ll take care of you” or “thats above your pay grade” and never ever look at the possible chicanery that i may be a part of.
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i would not understand how to think creatively, how the perceptions put upon the masses since birth are meant to stifle and control rather than empower which would help me understand the drive of people coming together to take back moneys in an overburdened and overtaxed system
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i wouldn’t talk to other minions who played the game i’m playing and lost because I am definitely smarter and besides my bosses probably discourage it.
If i was a Hedgie Minion, i would see homeless bums and not the remainder of an equation of people born into a consumer based society that fail to consume and take no responsibility for this remainder
If I was a Hedgie Minion i would never ask, “is money driving emotion or is emotion driving money?”..”should a creation of man have control over feeling, will, or intent?”
If I was a Hedgie Minion i would never think i am on the wrong side because we dont cheat and everyone wants our money that we are definitely not manipulating.
If I was a Hedgie Minion there is no way some dude on Reddit could know more than me, Even if they are a third generation accountant, who has traversed the world and works in the clockwork of Hollywood, and has observed “Old Money”, “Fast Money”, “New Money”, “Inherited Money”
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i never saw “Born Rich” or “The 1%” and put together that Jamie’s Dad constantly discouraged him making such documentaries because they are a den of piranhas that will eat them, and I sure want to be in their service because I can definitely become one of them..Lee Atwater and that “Boogieman” Documentary was all bullshit is what I would think
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i would just do what i am told, not think creatively..let Ai use me and not use it to expand upon original thoughts
If I was a Hedgie Minion..i would not understand the motivations of my enemy or think i could ever lose, and use phrases like “just doing my job”
If I was a Hedgie Minion, i would never ask “is the best that money can buy the best there is?”
But i am not a Hedgie Minion, and if you are you’re predictable, Apes are not.🍌
2024.06.01 10:45 Ready-Bat-8824 May 2024 Hilaria Baldwin’s IG Recap = 5 Posts or “The Baby Also Has Sewer Slippers?!?”
 | ~Hillary & Alec’s IG Stats~ submitted by Ready-Bat-8824 to HilariaBaldwin [link] [comments]
Alec: Well, in my family now, I'm the only person I know who drops four kids off at school in the morning and comes home and I still have three kids waiting for me. When I get home, I have seven - I have eight children. Ireland, my oldest daughter who's married, Ireland has a baby, and she and her boyfriend are living in Oregon. And I met my wife and I got remarried and I had seven kids in nine years. It's crazy. (I think you meant to say, “my wife is batshit crazy.” The devil is in the details, Zander) And then, all of a sudden, I met my wife, who I love dearly, (I think he repeats this in virtually every interview to counter the years of talking shit about Kim Basinger) every time the baby would get to be two years old, we’d go, maybe it's time for one more baby, one more baby, so we have seven kids. But we're actually selling our house, moving to Vermont. We bought a place in Vermont, and I'm trying to get everybody to start to acclimate up there…I think my wife wants a little change of scenery now, it's so crowded out here…I love Vermont. It's so peaceful. We got a great deal. We got fifty-five acres; house was built in 1792. It's very pretty. The Kids Want Alec Around All the Time Host: What do you do away from your family? Meaning, do you play golf? Do you play tennis? Alec: I play tennis all summer...The thing that's happened in these last ten years, especially the last three or four years, is my kids are used to me being around…I mean they really rely on that… when I'm gone, they're like, you know, they're on FaceTime. If I travel to go away for a couple of days to get a paycheck, they’re on my FaceTime going you know, where are you? What are you doing? You know, they're completely baffled when I go away. (God bless those kiddos and I’m preeetttttty sure they rely on Leonela/Leonetta a whole lot.) Drug & Alcohol Use Alec: Every day for two years, I think I snorted a line of cocaine from here to Saturn. We did one on the rings of Saturn. Then we came home. We took it back home. I mean, cocaine was like coffee back and everybody was doing it all day. I did a lot of coke and then I and then February 23rd, 1985…I stopped doing drugs and my drinking increased, which is they tell you that's going to happen, and that did happen. I just started drinking. I mean, and the thing, I miss drinking. I don't miss drugs at all, but I do miss drinking. I like to drink. (I appreciate next to nothing about this man, but I appreciate the honesty of this statement). Host: But because you don't drink, and because you don't do drugs, what do you do? Do you meditate? What do you do to deal with the pressures of the outside, you know, forces, (I think you mean “lawsuits”, Paul) what do you do to get away from that? Alec: (deadpan) Drink. I drink. I lied; I've been drinking nonstop since 1985. I lie. I tell people I'm sober and I drink my balls off. (Laughs) But no, I do miss drinking, I must say…New York relaxes me. I walk around and I see aspects of it that I've never seen before. I look at a building and I'll go, my god, I never noticed that about that building. Those doors. You know. New York is like a European city. You walk around and keep your eyes open. And I have lunches and coffee with my friends. (Um is he talking about the owner of Madman Espresso? Because that’s the only coffee related person we’ve ever seen him around.) And, I'd like to get out of here because the city is chaotic. (But also relaxing? What the hell?) But we live in the village. It's a little bit more residential. I love New York. I go to the symphony and the opera and the ballet all the time, you know, pretty regularly. But I do try to meditate. Meditating with seven children is like trying to play ping pong on the deck of an aircraft. It's a real pain in the ass. (But they rely on you, Alec?!?!)
MichWho was also there- if only Hillary's mallet could tap some life into the frozen tundra of Mich's mask/face.
|
2024.06.01 09:43 cartoon_Dinosaur Yulpa wife-- [one-shot]
This is a sequal to u/uktabi's Yulpa GF one shot, since he seems to LAZY to make a sequel. (that's a joke, god I'm so tired its almost 3am as I write this god fucking dammit why did i do this to myself)
He was originally inspired by u/FrostedScales' art., (God, please make a cover for this I want one so fucking baaaaaaad)
I make my way into my house, a small part of me is hoping for relief from the harsh Savannah heat. Only to be brought back to my unpleasant reality of my house being just as hot and dry as the outside.
Ugh, why do I willingly live in this hellish place without AC?
I hear mewing and tapping hooves getting closer, a small blood red calf comes running towards me and runs circles around me. I extend my free hand and she readily forces her head into it, wrapping her tongue, upper and lower lip around it to return the gesture of connection. The barbs irritate my skin, but she's old enough now not to unintentionally draw blood.
I look down at the pleading eye, happy to see me again.
Ah, right. While I'm in hell she's in paradise, I guess I’ll have to suck it up for her.
I give her a closed lip smile and rub her ears.
“Hi honey, how was school?” She inflates her nostrils and begins to talk to me in learned English. It is… unsettling how accurately she can mimic almost anyone with only her nose. I am reminded of that fact as she speaks in my voice.
“Good, bunny lunch was.” I forced down an indignant laugh at the child's broken grammar. It seems Yulpa are able to understand words, but grammar doesn't seem important to them. I remember how off puttingly dense their spoken language is, they can communicate in infra sound over vast distances. Their phrases were spoken in single words, so a single “word” was a bit of a conversation. Like “Over the river” or ”up the tree is food.”
It was insane how dense their language was.
“Do you know if mom is back?” The little head in my hand nodes while still wrapped around me.
“Garden she eating is.”
I rub her head one more time before I make my way out the back door. The child quickly scampered off to do who knows what.
Out in the back I see her, draped in golden jewelry, with a well maintained main, green cloth and jewels to accentuate her natural deep red coat. She was laying down with what looked like roughage in her maw. She was absentmindedly chewing and staring off into space.
I walked over and rested myself against her side, I let her breathing rise and lower me. Being in the presence of such a large person really made me feel how insanely varied our body masses were. Despite being married and … constituting it, we had to sleep in separate beds, lest she roll onto me and I die of suffocation or all my bones breaking.
I absentmindedly picked some grass and twirled it around. “So, what's wrong?” She rolled her eyes towards me.
“Hungry.” She spoke in perfect English, I looked down at the grass I began to weave together.
“You need to get the cure.” She raised her massive head ever so slightly. “No, betrayal, life lived one way. Too late, already sacrificed too many.” She blows out her nose.
I grab more grass and weave it into the mass I was creating. “I thought I was too old, set in my ways to be married when we met. But now look at us.” I point to the child in the window clearly talking to someone on the home computer. “I’m glad you hunted me, forced me into this. If you didn't I'd still be a lonely S.O.B. jacking it to venlil stuff right now.”
She flicks an ear. “I wanted sacrifice YOU.“ She spoke.
I smirked as I continued to weave. “Yeah but ya didn't. Cause I’m just so sexy!!!”
I can feel a ruble as she laughed, I didn't notice the twitching of her neck mussels as she swung her head over to slap my head with her upper lip. “Ow!!!” I screamed at the surprising strength of the dexterous lip.
I will never get used to how she can hold me like a rag-doll with just her lip. Nor do I want to.
As I nursed my wounded pride I placed the straw hat on her head. “Besides, this is a better use for the hay than causing you pain.”
She breathed out sharply and made a sound only a multi-ton mammal can produce.
“Okay, me get cure.”
I smiled and rubbed her ears, she adjusted the hat I made for her and rested her head on the ground once more.
**\*
She seemed antsy as she rocked back and forth, she was making a loaf of herself on the ground. But she could still reach up to my face with her lips as I sat down in a chair beside her.
The waiting room of the Xeno walk-in clinic reminded me more of the vets as species of every size and shape sat in chairs meant for humanoids, or sat on the ground or in perches or, rarely, species specific chairs. Though they were a rarity, a luxury whose expense was used for the most populous non-human species in the area.
Most of which were in a separate waiting room. I saw a family of Farsul enter it, opening the door to the KolSul wing of the clinic. Most everyone in the office instantly scowled when the mother and her pups walked through. They got both the separate wing and specialty chairs as they were by far the most populous Xenos on earth. Thanks to resentment building to massive levels all across the S.C. pushing them here.
I ran my hand through her main, careful to not undo any braids or tug any of her excessive adornments.She was still shifting this way and that as we waited to be called on. I spied a venlil with a deep scowl near the door of the separate wing, he seemed to be wearing a coat. Something highly unusual for his species, especially in this climate.
“Hello uh, we are not sure you… should be seeking care here.”
I was jolted out of my observations by a young farsul attendant addressing me.
“What?” She seemed to stammer.
“We, uh, are a xeno clinic, we specialize in ailments for non humans. Since we are on a human majority planet, human specialty clinics are open here. They can give you much better focused care."
I stared at the young farsul for a few moments, I studied her nervous stance. She seemed to resemble a great Pyrenees breed of dog. I continued to stare for a couple of seconds, enough to make the awkward situation even worse before I shook myself out of it.
“Oh, uh, I’m not here to receive care, my wife is.” I run my hand through her main and look down at her. This is the most nervous I've ever seen her in all my years with her. “She recently got the cure injection and is here to test it out in case something goes wrong.”
The farsul then takes on a deeply confused expression, snapping her head between me and her in quick succession. “...You two… are married?”
I smile and straighten my back and respond in the most enthusiastic voice I can muster. “Yep!!!”
She continued her confused expression before resigning herself. “...Alright then, I’ll get her tested… just follow me.” She turns as she reads our file, we were heading to a farm outside of town to test her on some authentic meat. As we exited the office I tapped her shoulder. “By the way, I saw a venlil by the Kolsul section door, I think is planning something bad.”
She took on a look of annoyed apathy, as though it was a daily occurrence. “Oh, him. Don't worry security is on their way to search him, you'd be surprised how many expats from Scalga we get.”
She rubbed the back of her head and I could barely make out something she whispered. “Not nearly as weird as a human yupla couple, Jesus Christ.”
**\*
There, the object of my fearless and terrifyingly powerful wife's hesitation. A single skinned chicken leg, sitting on a metal table. The farsul nurse was making superficial vital checks on her as she stared at the drumstick.
Her lips were curled under her chin.
“Common honey. It's not going to bite you.” I say to comfort her. She glances at me with a look of I don't want to do this, why did i let you convince me to do this onmygodi’mgoingtosacrificeyouyousonofabit-
Her simultaneous death stare/ pleading eyes were pulled away as the farmer spoke at us.
“Eat it and get off my property, I got enough animals to take care of. Don't need two more.” He pointed to my wife and the farsul nurse, they both gave him a scowl as he turned back into his house.
She gently unrolls her lips and tentatively brings out her barbed tongue and wraps it around the drumstick. She brings it into her mouth and I hear a series of slow crunches.
The farsul nurse looks over at her medical doodad as she chews.
“Hmm, it seems everything is in order, the cure has taken and she is handling the meat fine. Just call our clinic if she seems to be having-”
My focus was pulled away from the nurse as I saw my wife's eyes light up from the taste. She looked at the ground at the pecking chicken that was so near. I could hear her imitate the clucking of the chicken, I saw it shoot up and looked confused. Before my wife coils it in her tongue and quickly brings it into her maw, I hear crunching again and a loud gulp. She looks around at the pens and she spies a pig.
She stalks towards it and I can hear her imitating the pigs, she steps over the fence and quickly grapples the approaching pig and bites down hard on its head. I can see her tongue quickly strip the skin off as her lips dig in with their own bards to force the corpse up and into her mouth.
I stare in shock at the display, by this time the other pigs notice the smell of blood and my wife devouring one of their companions and they quickly run to the farthest corner of the pen.
Before I know it the corpse is gone, she licks her lips and walks back over to us.
“-mitochondrial flux drive. As long as that looks good over the next week you should be all set!”
“I , uh, she ate a pig! D-did you see that?” I point to my wife cleaning herself of the mud of the pen.
'Yes, you'd be surprised how suddenly ravenous former omnivores get when they get their appetites fulfilled for the first time, heck I remember I ate a guinea pig when I got cured I was so hungry!’
I wave my arms about. “SHE ATE AN ACTUAL PIG AND YOUR NOT ONE BIT IMPRESSED OR SCARED???”
She turned her gaze to my wife, who was currently spying yet another pig in the corner. “I’ve seen yulpa do it before, trust me, get used to her eating vast amounts of meat.”
I looked at the simultaneously nervous and unimpressed Farsul. I was still reeling from my wife's actions, but decided to deal with them another time. “O-okay”
“Good, now I'd suggest you get her to not eat another. The farmer will definitely notice two pigs missing.” She begins to laugh in her throat. “Heh, I guess he’ll have two less animals to take care of after today heh.”
As we rode back to the clinic my wife was fast asleep in a food coma. The way she just… ate that thing so fast… I think I have to worry about being eaten now. It felt… oddly exhilarating, like when she was still trying to convince herself to sacrifice me all over again.
I think I might have a problem.
submitted by cartoon_Dinosaur to NatureofPredators [link] [comments]
He was originally inspired by u/FrostedScales' art., (
I make my way into my house, a small part of me is hoping for relief from the harsh Savannah heat. Only to be brought back to my unpleasant reality of my house being just as hot and dry as the outside.
Ugh, why do I willingly live in this hellish place without AC?
I hear mewing and tapping hooves getting closer, a small blood red calf comes running towards me and runs circles around me. I extend my free hand and she readily forces her head into it, wrapping her tongue, upper and lower lip around it to return the gesture of connection. The barbs irritate my skin, but she's old enough now not to unintentionally draw blood.
I look down at the pleading eye, happy to see me again.
Ah, right. While I'm in hell she's in paradise, I guess I’ll have to suck it up for her.
I give her a closed lip smile and rub her ears.
“Hi honey, how was school?” She inflates her nostrils and begins to talk to me in learned English. It is… unsettling how accurately she can mimic almost anyone with only her nose. I am reminded of that fact as she speaks in my voice.
“Good, bunny lunch was.” I forced down an indignant laugh at the child's broken grammar. It seems Yulpa are able to understand words, but grammar doesn't seem important to them. I remember how off puttingly dense their spoken language is, they can communicate in infra sound over vast distances. Their phrases were spoken in single words, so a single “word” was a bit of a conversation. Like “Over the river” or ”up the tree is food.”
It was insane how dense their language was.
“Do you know if mom is back?” The little head in my hand nodes while still wrapped around me.
“Garden she eating is.”
I rub her head one more time before I make my way out the back door. The child quickly scampered off to do who knows what.
Out in the back I see her, draped in golden jewelry, with a well maintained main, green cloth and jewels to accentuate her natural deep red coat. She was laying down with what looked like roughage in her maw. She was absentmindedly chewing and staring off into space.
I walked over and rested myself against her side, I let her breathing rise and lower me. Being in the presence of such a large person really made me feel how insanely varied our body masses were. Despite being married and … constituting it, we had to sleep in separate beds, lest she roll onto me and I die of suffocation or all my bones breaking.
I absentmindedly picked some grass and twirled it around. “So, what's wrong?” She rolled her eyes towards me.
“Hungry.” She spoke in perfect English, I looked down at the grass I began to weave together.
“You need to get the cure.” She raised her massive head ever so slightly. “No, betrayal, life lived one way. Too late, already sacrificed too many.” She blows out her nose.
I grab more grass and weave it into the mass I was creating. “I thought I was too old, set in my ways to be married when we met. But now look at us.” I point to the child in the window clearly talking to someone on the home computer. “I’m glad you hunted me, forced me into this. If you didn't I'd still be a lonely S.O.B. jacking it to venlil stuff right now.”
She flicks an ear. “I wanted sacrifice YOU.“ She spoke.
I smirked as I continued to weave. “Yeah but ya didn't. Cause I’m just so sexy!!!”
I can feel a ruble as she laughed, I didn't notice the twitching of her neck mussels as she swung her head over to slap my head with her upper lip. “Ow!!!” I screamed at the surprising strength of the dexterous lip.
I will never get used to how she can hold me like a rag-doll with just her lip. Nor do I want to.
As I nursed my wounded pride I placed the straw hat on her head. “Besides, this is a better use for the hay than causing you pain.”
She breathed out sharply and made a sound only a multi-ton mammal can produce.
“Okay, me get cure.”
I smiled and rubbed her ears, she adjusted the hat I made for her and rested her head on the ground once more.
**\*
She seemed antsy as she rocked back and forth, she was making a loaf of herself on the ground. But she could still reach up to my face with her lips as I sat down in a chair beside her.
The waiting room of the Xeno walk-in clinic reminded me more of the vets as species of every size and shape sat in chairs meant for humanoids, or sat on the ground or in perches or, rarely, species specific chairs. Though they were a rarity, a luxury whose expense was used for the most populous non-human species in the area.
Most of which were in a separate waiting room. I saw a family of Farsul enter it, opening the door to the KolSul wing of the clinic. Most everyone in the office instantly scowled when the mother and her pups walked through. They got both the separate wing and specialty chairs as they were by far the most populous Xenos on earth. Thanks to resentment building to massive levels all across the S.C. pushing them here.
I ran my hand through her main, careful to not undo any braids or tug any of her excessive adornments.She was still shifting this way and that as we waited to be called on. I spied a venlil with a deep scowl near the door of the separate wing, he seemed to be wearing a coat. Something highly unusual for his species, especially in this climate.
“Hello uh, we are not sure you… should be seeking care here.”
I was jolted out of my observations by a young farsul attendant addressing me.
“What?” She seemed to stammer.
“We, uh, are a xeno clinic, we specialize in ailments for non humans. Since we are on a human majority planet, human specialty clinics are open here. They can give you much better focused care."
I stared at the young farsul for a few moments, I studied her nervous stance. She seemed to resemble a great Pyrenees breed of dog. I continued to stare for a couple of seconds, enough to make the awkward situation even worse before I shook myself out of it.
“Oh, uh, I’m not here to receive care, my wife is.” I run my hand through her main and look down at her. This is the most nervous I've ever seen her in all my years with her. “She recently got the cure injection and is here to test it out in case something goes wrong.”
The farsul then takes on a deeply confused expression, snapping her head between me and her in quick succession. “...You two… are married?”
I smile and straighten my back and respond in the most enthusiastic voice I can muster. “Yep!!!”
She continued her confused expression before resigning herself. “...Alright then, I’ll get her tested… just follow me.” She turns as she reads our file, we were heading to a farm outside of town to test her on some authentic meat. As we exited the office I tapped her shoulder. “By the way, I saw a venlil by the Kolsul section door, I think is planning something bad.”
She took on a look of annoyed apathy, as though it was a daily occurrence. “Oh, him. Don't worry security is on their way to search him, you'd be surprised how many expats from Scalga we get.”
She rubbed the back of her head and I could barely make out something she whispered. “Not nearly as weird as a human yupla couple, Jesus Christ.”
**\*
There, the object of my fearless and terrifyingly powerful wife's hesitation. A single skinned chicken leg, sitting on a metal table. The farsul nurse was making superficial vital checks on her as she stared at the drumstick.
Her lips were curled under her chin.
“Common honey. It's not going to bite you.” I say to comfort her. She glances at me with a look of I don't want to do this, why did i let you convince me to do this onmygodi’mgoingtosacrificeyouyousonofabit-
Her simultaneous death stare/ pleading eyes were pulled away as the farmer spoke at us.
“Eat it and get off my property, I got enough animals to take care of. Don't need two more.” He pointed to my wife and the farsul nurse, they both gave him a scowl as he turned back into his house.
She gently unrolls her lips and tentatively brings out her barbed tongue and wraps it around the drumstick. She brings it into her mouth and I hear a series of slow crunches.
The farsul nurse looks over at her medical doodad as she chews.
“Hmm, it seems everything is in order, the cure has taken and she is handling the meat fine. Just call our clinic if she seems to be having-”
My focus was pulled away from the nurse as I saw my wife's eyes light up from the taste. She looked at the ground at the pecking chicken that was so near. I could hear her imitate the clucking of the chicken, I saw it shoot up and looked confused. Before my wife coils it in her tongue and quickly brings it into her maw, I hear crunching again and a loud gulp. She looks around at the pens and she spies a pig.
She stalks towards it and I can hear her imitating the pigs, she steps over the fence and quickly grapples the approaching pig and bites down hard on its head. I can see her tongue quickly strip the skin off as her lips dig in with their own bards to force the corpse up and into her mouth.
I stare in shock at the display, by this time the other pigs notice the smell of blood and my wife devouring one of their companions and they quickly run to the farthest corner of the pen.
Before I know it the corpse is gone, she licks her lips and walks back over to us.
“-mitochondrial flux drive. As long as that looks good over the next week you should be all set!”
“I , uh, she ate a pig! D-did you see that?” I point to my wife cleaning herself of the mud of the pen.
'Yes, you'd be surprised how suddenly ravenous former omnivores get when they get their appetites fulfilled for the first time, heck I remember I ate a guinea pig when I got cured I was so hungry!’
I wave my arms about. “SHE ATE AN ACTUAL PIG AND YOUR NOT ONE BIT IMPRESSED OR SCARED???”
She turned her gaze to my wife, who was currently spying yet another pig in the corner. “I’ve seen yulpa do it before, trust me, get used to her eating vast amounts of meat.”
I looked at the simultaneously nervous and unimpressed Farsul. I was still reeling from my wife's actions, but decided to deal with them another time. “O-okay”
“Good, now I'd suggest you get her to not eat another. The farmer will definitely notice two pigs missing.” She begins to laugh in her throat. “Heh, I guess he’ll have two less animals to take care of after today heh.”
As we rode back to the clinic my wife was fast asleep in a food coma. The way she just… ate that thing so fast… I think I have to worry about being eaten now. It felt… oddly exhilarating, like when she was still trying to convince herself to sacrifice me all over again.
I think I might have a problem.
2024.06.01 09:30 jazzgrackle The little man by the tall reeds.
I know all of you like to tell your scary stories, I like them too. Way back when my voice was still high-pitched I knew a man who told the scariest stories you'd ever hear, well he wasn't a human exactly, but he sure was a man. A good man by estimation, but you can be the judge of that. See, my mama used to live way down in the rural bits of Texas. Ain't nothing much down there 'sides toads and mosquitos. Fireflies would light up the night sky, and once in a while you'd see a couple eyes comin' up from the water. We lived in a small house, a bedroom, a kitchen, nothing special, but nothing shameful neither. It was just me and mama, papa left a long time ago, mama says he was out on the lake and got eaten by one of them gators. I believed it, he was always drunk and on a tear. He'd go out into the reeds until they got as high as his head. He was big a fella, too. That man'd go out there and throw meat to the alligators, meat my mama said we couldn't afford. And he'd come back scratching from the mosquitos and what else was in those high reeds. He'd stumble into the house and fall asleep somewhere round the door.
None of that may seem wholly pertinent, but it will be, just give it some time. I was outside one evening, mama was asleep. Mama was a hard sleeper, I think she grew up by a train track - Chicago she said, mama was a city girl that came out to the country to raise a big family. It was just me though, I never asked why, but it was always just me. It was a gorgeous evening, the ones you see in those little photo booklets that advertise how beautiful the town is. Fireflies dotted the sky, and a big yellow moon lit the whole way down to the lake. As much as a lake as you could call it, the critters sure did like the water. Bugs, frogs, gators, big and little fish; you could stick a net in the water and be sure something'd be stuck in there.
So, I walked throught the reeds, taking little chunks off the ones nearest me so I could find my way back. It was just a straight walk, but you try walking in a straight line when you're blind. You'll end up going in a circle - I think that's why they say we have a circulatory system. As I'm just near the water, pullin' reeds, and swattin' mosquitos, I see a kid with a lantern, about my height. The lantern was half the size of his body, big flame in the middle of glass, the orange waves danced and flickered lighting everything it touched, and casting shadows where it didn't. The kid beckoned me too him: "Hey, come here" he said. Well, it wasn't a kid, it was a very adult voice. "Little person" I thought, that's what they liked to be called. Just the same I didn't feel too comfortable approaching a man I didn't know.
"Come here, it's all right." And he beckoned again. Something about him, seemed - familiar. I didn't need much convincing, I headed over to him, and he gestured with his hand for me to sit. I sat, and he sat beside me. Wasn't much of a man either, he had a bulbous yellow eyes that searched around and never found anything. Big lips, red splotches just about everywhere. He was fat too, well not quite fat, but somehow, inflated. He was barefoot, and smelled like old hamburgers. I breathed through my mouth, and waited for him to speak again.
"I've got tell you a story about that house you're living in" he said. He paused, just waiting for it to sink in. Somewhere I was livin'. Now, I loved my house, and I loved my mama, but there weren't nothing worth telling a story about there. And everyone in town knew about papa, so it couldn't be that.
"Just me and my mama here" I replied, shifting a bit on the dirt as the small tide lapped close to my sneakers, the shadows from the lantern playing on the water. I had my eyes fixed on the water, always expecting a couple of eyes and a big alligator mouth.
"Just hold on there, I've been around this place a long time, I might know something you don't." He waited again, his eyes whirling, and his hands shuffling around the dirt, like he was lookin' for something on either side.
"Okay, go ahead then."
"There's a woman in that house, sometimes thin, sometimes big. Sleeps heavy, talks about the trains in Chicago"
"That's my mama"
"It is?"
"yes sir"
"She good to you?"
I hesitated. Mama was good, but she was rough sometimes. Sometime she'd get sick, and, well, irrational. She'd yell about how people in the house tryin' to talk to her, wanted to 'get' her. Eventually she'd tire herself out, and then she was a sweet mother then. Cooked the best beef stew you'd ever had, I never had any other beef stews, but her's was real good all the same: "yeah, she's good" I said.
The little man waited again, then continued on: "Well, maybe I'm talkin' about another woman. I couldn't know, your mama seems a wonderful gal."
"Tell me the story" I said. My fingers were tapping on the ground, along the dancing shadows, under that big yellow moon. I could hear the plop of a fish flying out out of the water and right back in. That siren eek of a mosquito came by my air and I shooed it away. And I looked at the water, where it was lit by the flame I could still see the little man. His eyes still whirling, his hands still digging.
"Well, some woman lived in that house. And she had a husband, handsome fellow, maybe a little too hard on the bottle, but he got done what needed to be done. For years the two of them would talk about havin' kids, and it just never happened, well almost never. Don't worry - I'll get to that. Now I want go too into the details because you're so young, but boy did those two try. And sometimes, like woman do when they're ready to become mamas, she'd get nice and big. Then she'd get thin again. Now, her husband was confused to say the very least. His wife'd cry, say the child was taken by the Lord, and they'd continue on about their lives, alone, in that little house by the lake. But funny enough how God works, like a miracle, when they were at their saddest - plenty would come in. See, the woman had a sister from the city who'd send her big packages full of meat and she'd make that meat into a nice stew. Sometimes they even had a little extra, you know what they'd do with it?"
I paused, I knew, I heard the stories. "He'd go throw it to the alligators"
"You're right, he'd throw it right to the alligators, now I don't know if gators can taste spice, but if they can they're mighty tough. That stew was always filled with the habaneros and all sorts of chilis, something you gotta stop and sweat for every few bites. Not those gators though, they'd gobble them right up. I'll tell you though, one day those two did have a child, handsome one too. Fuzzy brown hair, and cute as all get out. Looked' something like you matter of fact. Named him Matthew."
"My name is Matthew" I knew what was going on, I did, and I felt something like fear and something like comfort. Knowing just who this man was saying he was.
"Is it? Well, that can't hardly be a coincidence. I'll tell you something though, Matthew, I lied earlier in the story, I s'pose I should go ahead and tell you the truth."
"What's that?"
"Well, you already figured out, wasn't too hard, that's your mama I'm talkin' about, and yes, I'm your papa. I'm sure you figured that out too. I know I don't look like much not after you know what happened, but I didn't die. I've been living around this here lake since you was born. Your mama says she don't want me back in the house account of how I look. I don't blame her, but it sure is frustrating." there was some rustling in the reeds behind us, and the croak of some old frogs - they always sounded old to me at least.
"And that meat, ain't no packages from Chicago, I don't think Carol ever lived in Chicago, maybe she did, but I never heard from anyone there. And there wasn't so much as a picture to prove it. Those was those little miracles from the Lord. Yes I'd put one in your mama, we'd wait a few months, and we'd have ourselves a nice meal. The first one really was a miscarriage, and we were hungry, so we tried just a bite. Maybe we were both a little too much on the whisky, but we were very hungry. And boy - it tasted good. Best meat I'd ever had. And as long as I could keep fishin' by that lake I could give your mama the energy she needed to make that delicious beef stew."
I got up as fast as I could muster, I tried to run, took a few good strides, and then felt arms on my shoulders, locking me in place, and shoving me down onto the floor. I squirmed and screamed: "Let me go, no!" I cried, and I hollered, but it was no use. It was my mama, she straddled me with her legs, and pinned my arms down so I couldn't move a muscle. She smelled like those old hamburgers. And she smiled the sweet smile she always smiled when she was in one of her better moods.
"We waited a bit longer with you, wanted you to be nice and ripe, and now I think you're ready. Don't you think he's nice and ready, Carol?"
Mama took one hand off me, whipped it behind her back, and pulled out a big kitchen knife. She held it in front of me, and I could say my eyes in the metal, tears were rolling, and my face was red and screaming. Can't say I'd been that scared since.
"Carol, darlin', before we make our meal, how bout' we kiss like we used to. It'd be nice for him to see what a happy family looks like"
"Kiss you?" Mama spat. "You ugly little drunk, not even the alligators would want to kiss your mouth. Last one tried to kiss you spat you right out. I ain't want nothin' to do with that."
"Darling, I missed you."
"I didn't miss you, I ain't lettin' you back in the house neither. You think I can't find another man? Just past this lake I've got a hundred suitors just waitin' to take a gal like me. Bet they have big cocks too, not like your little pecker."
That was enough for papa, He ran right toward mama, I don't know how he did it with those whirlin' eyes, but he did it. He came and pushed mama right off me. I started crawling away as quickly as I could. Papa bit her and mama let out a big yelp: "Fuck!" she screamed; mama didn't cuss much 'less she was real mad. And boy was she real mad. I crawled into the reeds and hid there, lookin' through to see what was gon' happen.
She stabbed him, right in his arm when he tried to block her form his stomach. Big nasty gash, blood running everywhere, a little brown, a little green, but still mostly red. But he kept just goin' kickin' and bitin'. "I'll kill you!" she screamed and slashed, and they both yelped and hollered.
Then, I swear, he started hummin' a little tune, sounded like a nursery rhyme, and the water started to bubble, and I saw two big eyes out of the water, and then that mouth, and a big gator came right up. whappin' his tail, snortin' and groanin' in that way gators do. Bit mama on the leg, and started draggin' back to the water, mama screamed, and kicked, but that gator hung on. Bit up on her thigh, boy was she bleeding, strips of meat, and bone cracked and split. That gator dragged mama right down into the water. There was some splashin' and the gators back would come up and then back down into the water, and occasionally I heard a gurgly scream, but before I knew it the whole thing was over.
My papa sat there, I have to say, even then I felt a bit bad for him. "Son come out of those reeds, I promise I ain't gonna eat you no more."
I came and sat by papa and papa started hummin' again. I started to get up, but he put his hand on me. "Don't worry, she ain't gon' hurt you. I just gotta go away for a while."
The alligator came back on to the land and papa sat right down on her back, she crawled into the water until just her back and his upper body were above the water. "I gotta go son, I'm sorry. One day we might see each other again."
I didn't say a word, what was there to say? I met my papa, and he tried to eat me, now he wasn't, and now he was riding an alligator. So, I just nodded, and secretly hoped that maybe I wouldn't see him again.
And then off he went across the lake until I couldn't see him no more, haven't seen him since either. I went back to the house, and I'll tell you, I heard those voices my mama used to hear, too. But they wasn't mad at all, they was saying thank you. I think those are my brothers and sisters, and I think they thought I did something right. I whispered, "Don't thank me, thank papa, he saved us after all." And then, I'll tell you, nobody ever heard those voices again.
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None of that may seem wholly pertinent, but it will be, just give it some time. I was outside one evening, mama was asleep. Mama was a hard sleeper, I think she grew up by a train track - Chicago she said, mama was a city girl that came out to the country to raise a big family. It was just me though, I never asked why, but it was always just me. It was a gorgeous evening, the ones you see in those little photo booklets that advertise how beautiful the town is. Fireflies dotted the sky, and a big yellow moon lit the whole way down to the lake. As much as a lake as you could call it, the critters sure did like the water. Bugs, frogs, gators, big and little fish; you could stick a net in the water and be sure something'd be stuck in there.
So, I walked throught the reeds, taking little chunks off the ones nearest me so I could find my way back. It was just a straight walk, but you try walking in a straight line when you're blind. You'll end up going in a circle - I think that's why they say we have a circulatory system. As I'm just near the water, pullin' reeds, and swattin' mosquitos, I see a kid with a lantern, about my height. The lantern was half the size of his body, big flame in the middle of glass, the orange waves danced and flickered lighting everything it touched, and casting shadows where it didn't. The kid beckoned me too him: "Hey, come here" he said. Well, it wasn't a kid, it was a very adult voice. "Little person" I thought, that's what they liked to be called. Just the same I didn't feel too comfortable approaching a man I didn't know.
"Come here, it's all right." And he beckoned again. Something about him, seemed - familiar. I didn't need much convincing, I headed over to him, and he gestured with his hand for me to sit. I sat, and he sat beside me. Wasn't much of a man either, he had a bulbous yellow eyes that searched around and never found anything. Big lips, red splotches just about everywhere. He was fat too, well not quite fat, but somehow, inflated. He was barefoot, and smelled like old hamburgers. I breathed through my mouth, and waited for him to speak again.
"I've got tell you a story about that house you're living in" he said. He paused, just waiting for it to sink in. Somewhere I was livin'. Now, I loved my house, and I loved my mama, but there weren't nothing worth telling a story about there. And everyone in town knew about papa, so it couldn't be that.
"Just me and my mama here" I replied, shifting a bit on the dirt as the small tide lapped close to my sneakers, the shadows from the lantern playing on the water. I had my eyes fixed on the water, always expecting a couple of eyes and a big alligator mouth.
"Just hold on there, I've been around this place a long time, I might know something you don't." He waited again, his eyes whirling, and his hands shuffling around the dirt, like he was lookin' for something on either side.
"Okay, go ahead then."
"There's a woman in that house, sometimes thin, sometimes big. Sleeps heavy, talks about the trains in Chicago"
"That's my mama"
"It is?"
"yes sir"
"She good to you?"
I hesitated. Mama was good, but she was rough sometimes. Sometime she'd get sick, and, well, irrational. She'd yell about how people in the house tryin' to talk to her, wanted to 'get' her. Eventually she'd tire herself out, and then she was a sweet mother then. Cooked the best beef stew you'd ever had, I never had any other beef stews, but her's was real good all the same: "yeah, she's good" I said.
The little man waited again, then continued on: "Well, maybe I'm talkin' about another woman. I couldn't know, your mama seems a wonderful gal."
"Tell me the story" I said. My fingers were tapping on the ground, along the dancing shadows, under that big yellow moon. I could hear the plop of a fish flying out out of the water and right back in. That siren eek of a mosquito came by my air and I shooed it away. And I looked at the water, where it was lit by the flame I could still see the little man. His eyes still whirling, his hands still digging.
"Well, some woman lived in that house. And she had a husband, handsome fellow, maybe a little too hard on the bottle, but he got done what needed to be done. For years the two of them would talk about havin' kids, and it just never happened, well almost never. Don't worry - I'll get to that. Now I want go too into the details because you're so young, but boy did those two try. And sometimes, like woman do when they're ready to become mamas, she'd get nice and big. Then she'd get thin again. Now, her husband was confused to say the very least. His wife'd cry, say the child was taken by the Lord, and they'd continue on about their lives, alone, in that little house by the lake. But funny enough how God works, like a miracle, when they were at their saddest - plenty would come in. See, the woman had a sister from the city who'd send her big packages full of meat and she'd make that meat into a nice stew. Sometimes they even had a little extra, you know what they'd do with it?"
I paused, I knew, I heard the stories. "He'd go throw it to the alligators"
"You're right, he'd throw it right to the alligators, now I don't know if gators can taste spice, but if they can they're mighty tough. That stew was always filled with the habaneros and all sorts of chilis, something you gotta stop and sweat for every few bites. Not those gators though, they'd gobble them right up. I'll tell you though, one day those two did have a child, handsome one too. Fuzzy brown hair, and cute as all get out. Looked' something like you matter of fact. Named him Matthew."
"My name is Matthew" I knew what was going on, I did, and I felt something like fear and something like comfort. Knowing just who this man was saying he was.
"Is it? Well, that can't hardly be a coincidence. I'll tell you something though, Matthew, I lied earlier in the story, I s'pose I should go ahead and tell you the truth."
"What's that?"
"Well, you already figured out, wasn't too hard, that's your mama I'm talkin' about, and yes, I'm your papa. I'm sure you figured that out too. I know I don't look like much not after you know what happened, but I didn't die. I've been living around this here lake since you was born. Your mama says she don't want me back in the house account of how I look. I don't blame her, but it sure is frustrating." there was some rustling in the reeds behind us, and the croak of some old frogs - they always sounded old to me at least.
"And that meat, ain't no packages from Chicago, I don't think Carol ever lived in Chicago, maybe she did, but I never heard from anyone there. And there wasn't so much as a picture to prove it. Those was those little miracles from the Lord. Yes I'd put one in your mama, we'd wait a few months, and we'd have ourselves a nice meal. The first one really was a miscarriage, and we were hungry, so we tried just a bite. Maybe we were both a little too much on the whisky, but we were very hungry. And boy - it tasted good. Best meat I'd ever had. And as long as I could keep fishin' by that lake I could give your mama the energy she needed to make that delicious beef stew."
I got up as fast as I could muster, I tried to run, took a few good strides, and then felt arms on my shoulders, locking me in place, and shoving me down onto the floor. I squirmed and screamed: "Let me go, no!" I cried, and I hollered, but it was no use. It was my mama, she straddled me with her legs, and pinned my arms down so I couldn't move a muscle. She smelled like those old hamburgers. And she smiled the sweet smile she always smiled when she was in one of her better moods.
"We waited a bit longer with you, wanted you to be nice and ripe, and now I think you're ready. Don't you think he's nice and ready, Carol?"
Mama took one hand off me, whipped it behind her back, and pulled out a big kitchen knife. She held it in front of me, and I could say my eyes in the metal, tears were rolling, and my face was red and screaming. Can't say I'd been that scared since.
"Carol, darlin', before we make our meal, how bout' we kiss like we used to. It'd be nice for him to see what a happy family looks like"
"Kiss you?" Mama spat. "You ugly little drunk, not even the alligators would want to kiss your mouth. Last one tried to kiss you spat you right out. I ain't want nothin' to do with that."
"Darling, I missed you."
"I didn't miss you, I ain't lettin' you back in the house neither. You think I can't find another man? Just past this lake I've got a hundred suitors just waitin' to take a gal like me. Bet they have big cocks too, not like your little pecker."
That was enough for papa, He ran right toward mama, I don't know how he did it with those whirlin' eyes, but he did it. He came and pushed mama right off me. I started crawling away as quickly as I could. Papa bit her and mama let out a big yelp: "Fuck!" she screamed; mama didn't cuss much 'less she was real mad. And boy was she real mad. I crawled into the reeds and hid there, lookin' through to see what was gon' happen.
She stabbed him, right in his arm when he tried to block her form his stomach. Big nasty gash, blood running everywhere, a little brown, a little green, but still mostly red. But he kept just goin' kickin' and bitin'. "I'll kill you!" she screamed and slashed, and they both yelped and hollered.
Then, I swear, he started hummin' a little tune, sounded like a nursery rhyme, and the water started to bubble, and I saw two big eyes out of the water, and then that mouth, and a big gator came right up. whappin' his tail, snortin' and groanin' in that way gators do. Bit mama on the leg, and started draggin' back to the water, mama screamed, and kicked, but that gator hung on. Bit up on her thigh, boy was she bleeding, strips of meat, and bone cracked and split. That gator dragged mama right down into the water. There was some splashin' and the gators back would come up and then back down into the water, and occasionally I heard a gurgly scream, but before I knew it the whole thing was over.
My papa sat there, I have to say, even then I felt a bit bad for him. "Son come out of those reeds, I promise I ain't gonna eat you no more."
I came and sat by papa and papa started hummin' again. I started to get up, but he put his hand on me. "Don't worry, she ain't gon' hurt you. I just gotta go away for a while."
The alligator came back on to the land and papa sat right down on her back, she crawled into the water until just her back and his upper body were above the water. "I gotta go son, I'm sorry. One day we might see each other again."
I didn't say a word, what was there to say? I met my papa, and he tried to eat me, now he wasn't, and now he was riding an alligator. So, I just nodded, and secretly hoped that maybe I wouldn't see him again.
And then off he went across the lake until I couldn't see him no more, haven't seen him since either. I went back to the house, and I'll tell you, I heard those voices my mama used to hear, too. But they wasn't mad at all, they was saying thank you. I think those are my brothers and sisters, and I think they thought I did something right. I whispered, "Don't thank me, thank papa, he saved us after all." And then, I'll tell you, nobody ever heard those voices again.
2024.06.01 09:27 meothfulmode The Common Principles of Health - a synthesis of reading 32 different nutrition books and 30 different papers
Because I am a dork who has been interested in nutrition for years I was curious how much overlap there was between nutrition advice across the medical, scientific, and consumer self-help spectrum. So, I went through and read a whole bunch of books[1] on the subject, government guidelines across the globe, as well as a number of scientific articles (meta-analysis, editorials, etc.) and wrote down all the general principles they suggested.
Then I ran that through ChatGPT 4Omni and asked it to give me a list of the most common principles from most-often repeated to least. The answers were... not surprising! Turns out common sense really is common.[2] I suspect a lot of people will read these and say "yeah, no duh" but it was a fun exercise for me and it increased my confidence in the general intelligence of humanity and the value of the scientific method.
Below is the list of Healthy Habits organized by categories (Diet Principles, Eating Principles, Living Practices) and arranged in order from the greatest impact[3] to the least. So, if you want to try adopting any of these principles into your life start at the top of each list and work your way down.
[1] I started by reading through everything at Red Pen Reviews and then I moved onto the best-seller list for diet and nutrition on the NYT and Amazon.
[2] What I did find surprising is how rarely Calorie Counting was mentioned as a healthy habit. It was associated with weight loss in the short term, but most of the meta-analysis showed that over the long term most people gain the weight back so it wasn't considered a "general solution for health and longevity." I've excluded it from the list because it was way low down on the list of principles that GPT spit out and because it feels like a thing one can do on top of these habits, but the habits can also be practiced without writing down what you ate and how many calories were in them.
[3] I use the term "impact" to mean "basically a lot of studies showed significant and strong evidence in observational cohort metaanalysis that doing this is good for you"
submitted by meothfulmode to loseit [link] [comments]
Then I ran that through ChatGPT 4Omni and asked it to give me a list of the most common principles from most-often repeated to least. The answers were... not surprising! Turns out common sense really is common.[2] I suspect a lot of people will read these and say "yeah, no duh" but it was a fun exercise for me and it increased my confidence in the general intelligence of humanity and the value of the scientific method.
Below is the list of Healthy Habits organized by categories (Diet Principles, Eating Principles, Living Practices) and arranged in order from the greatest impact[3] to the least. So, if you want to try adopting any of these principles into your life start at the top of each list and work your way down.
Healthy Diet Principles
- Focus on Whole, Minimally Processed Foods
- Avoid refined carbohydrates and highly processed foods.
- Getting the majority of your calories in the form of from ultra-refined carbohydrates, fats, proteins has a very different effect on the body than minimally-processed carbohydrates, fats, proteins.
- After a certain level of refinement the body doesn't like it.
- Highly-refined calories can be "hyper-palatable" and trigger the evolved "binge response".
- If you eat refined foods, choose ones you would have found hundreds of years ago:
- Masa
- Stone ground whole grain wheat flour
- Rolled oats
- Cheese
- etc.
- Cook foods gently to make them more nutritious:
- Cooked foods are easier to digest (more nutrients absorbed) but too much cooking can destroy heat-sensitive nutrients.
- Temperature * Time = Heat-sensitive nutrient loss. Choose fast, gentle cooking methods.
- Microwaving > Pressure Steaming > Steaming > Pressure Boiling > Boiling > Slow cooking.
- Avoid or moderate highly calorie-dense and nutrient-poor foods:
- Oil and sugar have very little in the way of nutrients per calorie.
- Avoid refined carbohydrates and highly processed foods.
- Eliminate or Greatly Reduce Added Sugars and Oils
- Use as little added oil as possible to make food taste good. Save the fats in your diet for whole plant foods.
- Reduce or eliminate added sugars.
- Eat a Variety of Vegetables
- Include vegetables in every meal.
- Eat a variety of colors every day
- The different colors (red, orange, yellow, green, purple) all indicate different vitamins and phytonutrients that are beneficial
- Eat mushrooms, onions, garlic, and greens regularly
- Make sure you have cruciferous vegetables regularly
- Limit or Avoid Animal Products
- Factory farming is terrible for the environment
- There are other ways to get the nutrients needed than killing animals
- The vitamins you think you need from animal products (b12) you can get from plant foods, where the animals get it.
- If you choose to eat animals consider them a condiment or special occasion food
- Replacing animal protein with plant protein (legumes for meat) has shown to improve health and longevity
- Plant proteins are the healthiest
- Fish proteins are second healthiest
- Fowl proteins are the third healthiest
- Red meat proteins (beef, pig, deer, etc.) are the least healthy
- Most of the longest-lived humans in [Blue Zones] eat very little meat
- e.g. 40g a day average or less
- Factory farming is terrible for the environment
- Eat Fruits Daily
- Include whole fruits in your diet.
- Avoid dried fruits and fruit juices.
- Make the Bulk of Your Calories Whole Grains and Starches
- Base your diet around filling starches like whole grains, beans, corn, and potatoes.
- Use Salt and Sugar in Moderation
- Reduce salt and sugar during cooking, and apply at the table as needed
- Salt and sugar crystals that directly touch your tongue are the ones you experience
- Eat Nuts and Seeds in Moderation
- Include nuts and seeds but in moderation.
- Eat Legumes Daily
- Eat beans and pulses daily for protein and extra fiber
- These are very good for your gut bacteria
- Include Flax Seeds & Other Seeds Daily
- Flax is a great source of plant-based Omega-3 fatty acids
- Seeds contain all sorts of different antioxidants and phytonutrients as well as healthy fats
- Use Spices and Herbs for Flavor and Health Benefits
- Turmeric, cumin, and garlic all have anti-inflammatory properties
- Nutritional yeast has health benefits based on their beta glucan content (and are often fortified with B12)
- Regularly Include Fermented Foods
- Kimchi, sauerkraut, pickles, etc. are good for your gut
- Fermented veggies also are a great way to include salt for flavor while also adding extra health benefits
- Ensure Adequate Vitamin and Mineral Intake
- Consider a multivitamin for insurance
- Vitamin D is basically required
- Selenium likely if you're of European descent
- B12 supplementation if you're a vegan
- Alcohol in Moderation, If at All
- If you do drink, drink socially
- All the major benefits (antioxidants) you can get from grapes
- Alcohol is a diuretic—drink 1 cup of water for every 1 unit of alcohol to avoid hangovers
Healthy Eating Principles
- Eat When Hungry Until Comfortably Full
- Listen to your body’s hunger cues.
- If you're hungry it's ok to eat.
- If you think you're hungry it's ok to eat
- Eat Meals Undistracted and Slowly
- Focus on eating without distractions.
- Take time to enjoy your meals.
- Hydrate Well
- Drink plenty of water daily, 2.7-3.7 liters per day
- Preloading a meal with 1-2 cups of cold water can fill you up faster and increase burn rate of calories
- Consider Intermittent Fasting
- Fasting for at least 12 hours a day has health benefits (this includes sleeping)
- Fasting more can reduce calorie intake as a side-effect, which could be beneficial if you want to lose weight
- Listen to your body: Ignoring hunger signals constantly can raise stress hormone levels and potentially reduce beneficial hormone levels (e.g. testosterone)
- Front-Load Your Calories
- Eating more earlier in the day means your body can use those readily-accessible calories for work and play
- Unused calories near the end of the day tend to get stored (as fat) until needed later
Healthy Daily Practices
- Moderate Exercise Regularly
- Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily.
- Moderate means you are breathing harder and faster than you would be walking slowly
- Incorporate strength training
- Builds muscle and bone density
- Do whatever kind you enjoy but body weight exercise (pushups, squats, pullups) is enough for major benefits
- Incorporate flexibility training
- Yoga, stretching
- Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily.
[1] I started by reading through everything at Red Pen Reviews and then I moved onto the best-seller list for diet and nutrition on the NYT and Amazon.
[2] What I did find surprising is how rarely Calorie Counting was mentioned as a healthy habit. It was associated with weight loss in the short term, but most of the meta-analysis showed that over the long term most people gain the weight back so it wasn't considered a "general solution for health and longevity." I've excluded it from the list because it was way low down on the list of principles that GPT spit out and because it feels like a thing one can do on top of these habits, but the habits can also be practiced without writing down what you ate and how many calories were in them.
[3] I use the term "impact" to mean "basically a lot of studies showed significant and strong evidence in observational cohort metaanalysis that doing this is good for you"