made-up languages; Sunday Drabbleventures, NOW WITH HARDCORE DRABBLEOSITY!

[aesc]

Probably this is insight2's fault, but while I was brushing my teeth last night it occurred to me that it would be interesting (one word for it) to develop an angelic language, now that Skanr has been my practice run for language construction. What I've been thinking of is a language that is Romance-like in the sense that angels use different forms of the copulative (to be) for the created world and the divine, to express the distinction they'd probably make between essence versus state. Or would they just see the entire world as a collection of things in a state of being or becoming or changing? And how would the near-infinite think about the bounded and contained, anyway? *ponders these things*

In similar SPN news, I wrote one more drabble, In terra aliena (In a Strange Land) for the deancastiel drabble challenge.

SUNDAY DRABBLEVENTURES
By executive order, I have decided that on a semiregular basis (maybe every other Sunday, or however often I feel like it), I will contribute to weekend sloth and work avoidance by writing drabbles on request. When requests are open, I will note which fandoms I'm writing in; all you need to do is name your fandom, character/pairing, and prompt, and I will write 100 words of something. This post will be the prompt and response post, for purposes of consolidation.

.drabble prompts: Leave me a fandom/character/pairing and a prompt (SGA, SPN, Bones, and I guess I will take Merlin*) and I will see what I can do.

4.26 DRABBLEVENTURES NOW OPEN

In unrelated news, Iron & Wine's The Shepherd's Dog is completely awesome and I have been listening to it obsessively.

* = I like Morgana a lot and wish something heavy would land on Uther. And I like how Arthur is kind of a jerk, but basically a decent guy. Also, I am deeply amused and, dare I say it, somewhat gratified, by the fact that the incantation languages involve Old English. A lot of this is because the Anglo-Saxons really did not like teh magics.

*le sigh* Sunday is over, alas! Drabbles closed for now.

Comments

[lavvyan.livejournal.com]

And how would the near-infinite think about the bounded and contained, anyway?

Um. *backs away slowly*

Also, John/Rodney, lost in translation?

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

I like Morgana, too. How about Morgana and her dreams....or Morgana and what she's reallllly like to be doing instead of being the lady of the castle. Camelot's best dressed lady knight?

She seems so fearful of her dreams and yet she does warn people, so she must have a clue about being a seer. I wonder if she dreams about Merlin?

Take any of my blathering as a prompt. Take blathering as a prompt! ::bounces:: DRABBLES! WHEE!

[rsharpe.livejournal.com]

I am not a SPN fan, but I am intrigued by your thoughts. I usually have my tiny epiphanys when slipping into or out of sleep. The thoughts on language was timely to me because of catching LOTR on tv for a few moments last nite. I can slip so easily into that wonderful world and be lost in the elves, dwarves, hobbits and men . . .

Uh, anyways, SGA, John/Rodney, and in the spirit of your thoughts, "their own secret language". Thanks.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Dean/Castiel, road trip.

OH WHAT A SURPRISE I AM, MY GOD.

If that's too obvious for you, I would do anything you wanted in return for something with the angels and the Trickster. ;)

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

Also, I think the verb tenses would be a real bear for angelic language. And...why wouldn't they just communicate telepathically? Also, it calls into question what angels are...because who you are informs what you talk about, right?

Are angels God's beta-test? Did he form companions closer to his own essence than man? They know of good and evil and have eternal life...so they didn't get the garden test. ::scratches head:: Did he find them too perfect and longed for something with free will to choose to have a relationship with him?

Or did he create them as his staff and army and aides later, as humanity grew and needed looking after and Lucifer fell and things got really complicated?

And I was wondering what language(s) they were using for spells.

[dogeared.livejournal.com]

John/Rodney, selmelier :D

[aesc.livejournal.com]

And...why wouldn't they just communicate telepathically?

I think they'd still have language. The whole creative process is described in terms of speech, after all--fiat lux and the naming of things. And humans were created as creatures of articulate speech... I guess it comes down to how I prefer thinking that the only things separating angels from humans is the body, and the way the body narrows down an infinity, or a plurality of perspectives, to just one.

Or did he create them as his staff and army and aides later, as humanity grew and needed looking after and Lucifer fell and things got really complicated?

All the traditions I know, which is not a whole lot, say that angels came first; the fall of Satan almost always precedes the creation of humankind (if not the world; I think Augustine says that Satan and the other evil angels were created and fell on the same day). They're the first expression of the creative principle, not embodied as humans are--which is another problem for language, because angels wouldn't have a physical aspect to it (no lungs, no breathing!)--but rather beings of pure intellection. You could probably argue that they intuitively understand each other, and can take on language and its habits for interacting with mortals, but still :D

And I was wondering what language(s) they were using for spells.

Yeah, I'd been listening, and I realized after a while that whenever someone wants to set something on fire, they say tobærnan (to incinerate... I find it fun that they use the infinitive on occasion XD). And when Nimue raises Tristan from the dead, she says something like "awac ond aris" (I think, she definitely says "awac"), "awake and arise."

Come to think of it, there are charms in OE, for things like curing a cramp or toothache or preventing a loss of cattle, but most of it's been safely Christianized for post-pagan consumption.

[tropes.livejournal.com]

John/Rodney, in a mall.

Because if I have to be here, they do too. =))

Somnium, fantasia

[aesc.livejournal.com]

From her window, Morgana watches Gwen speaking with Merlin. Gwen's laugh flickers through the courtyard like birds. Please, let me dream something happy tonight.

That night, Gwen leaves the room leaves her to a crushing weight on her chest and acid on her tongue, and this: Arthur standing before a sword bright as the sun, reaching for it, reaching for glory and destruction because a shadow looms behind the brilliance.

She fights the weight, claws up through layers of fear and back to Gwen's voice and gentle hands. Still the acid, a pain in her heart like a sword wound.

Lingua incognita

[aesc.livejournal.com]

"Stupid language," Rodney mutters. "Stupid ritual."

"Rodney." John turns another page of the ritual secret grammar book. "Remember, we get a ZPM out of this if we can learn enough to get us in the temple."

"Why isn't there a Fodors for this?" A page snaps as Rodney flips it. "Surely we don't need to study for months to learn how to say 'I broke my leg. Where is the hospital?'"

John kicks Rodney's ankle. Rodney kicks him back. Back and forth, until Rodney's face is inkstained and the librarian is horrified, and the secret system of declensions is forgotten.

Peanuts and mysterious floating gators

[aesc.livejournal.com]

Dean doesn't know what's weirder, roadtripping through the South with Castiel, or discovering Castiel's addicted to boiled peanuts.

Or Castiel riding on the roof at odd intervals, which Cas says he "likes."

Or yesterday at Wild Wally's Gatorpark. Dean had snapped a photo of Cas holding a baby alligator. The phone had died, but when the screen flickered on, it displayed a picture of an alligator suspended in midair.

Dean mutters something disbelieving about weird-ass angels. A moment later, Castiel manifests himself in the passenger seat.

"Havin' a good time?" Dean asks.

"The best," Cas says, divinely sincere, and eats a peanut.

--

XD

Salted caramels!

[aesc.livejournal.com]

Rodney thrusts the chocolate at John, who accepts it doubtfully

"Believe me," Rodney sighs, "the sel gris is the perfect accent to the sweetness of the caramel. And no!" he adds when he sees what John's about to do. "That's very sexy, but this is caramel, not a tequila shot."

"What salt do you use for tequila anyway?" John takes a hesitant bite, and wow, the caramel silk-smooth, sweet on his tongue, and under it the crunch of salt and the prickle of it.

"You can be taught," Rodney murmurs happily, because wow is written right there on John's face.

Re: Salted caramels!

[dogeared.livejournal.com]

\o/ \o/ \o/ DELICIOUS!

Trial by ordeal, or, The sales associate

[aesc.livejournal.com]

:D This is related to The Conferences (http://aesc.livejournal.com/324640.html) in one respect, but it's really just for further sales associate-associated fear and awe ;)

Inside the changing room, Rodney makes noises about searing torment. When the salesgirl (associate), a creature composed of glasses and a testy expression, stalks by, John whispers a request for more pants, shirts, and a cardigan John's ashamed look at.

Just when Rodney makes his escape, announcing he's tried on the pants, they can leave, the associate rematerializes.

"Not," she growls, "until you try these on. I went through the trouble of pulling them out."

Rodney meekly accepts the clothes and retreats back inside.

"You're buying all of it," the associate hisses. "Even the cardigan."

She smiles ferally. John swallows.

What to do when the hypermanifold distributor ratio is low

[aesc.livejournal.com]

John eavesdrops on Rodney's mad-scientist conference call with Radek. Between trying to be furtive and trying to hear through the speakerphone's distortion, and the fact that what Rodney's saying is completely incomprehensible, he gets maybe one word in ten.

"Coallating the hypermanifold distributor ratios yields only a .035 increase in the megapercolator phase inducer output!" Rodney hollers at the phone. "Also, it'll induce cascade entropy in the retrograde thermomotor plasma modulator."

Radek says something staticky and rude and Rodney squawks.

John leans back against the wall and listens, and thinks some things are lost, some things come through just fine.

Re: Salted caramels!

[aesc.livejournal.com]

Salty boys :> :> :>

Re: What to do when the hypermanifold distributor ratio is low

[lavvyan.livejournal.com]

Hee! Technobabble FTW! \o/

Thank you! :D

[sandrainthesun.livejournal.com]

How about: Merlin, Merlin/Morgana, mind over matter

or: Merlin/SPN Crossover, yellow eyes

*g*

Re: Peanuts and mysterious floating gators

[villainny.livejournal.com]

The image of Castiel riding on the roof will stick.

XD

Thank you.

Re: Peanuts and mysterious floating gators

[aesc.livejournal.com]

I would dearly, DEARLY love to have someone draw that... the Impala zooming along with Dean behind the wheel and Castiel perched on the roof with his trench coat flapping out behind him \o/

[mardia.livejournal.com]

I have two prompts, feel free to take either--

Bones: Sweets and Booth, hockey.
Merlin: Arthur, protecting a servant that isn't Merlin.

[kimberlyfdr.livejournal.com]

I'm putting these GRE words to good use ;)

McShep, rodomontade

[cathalin.livejournal.com]

john/rodney: discovery/discoveries OR collage OR San Francisco (ETA: OR secret language/secret code(s))

and/or:

arthur/merlin: arthur is kind of a jerk *g*

[insight2.livejournal.com]

Or would they just see the entire world as a collection of things in a state of being or becoming or changing? And how would the near-infinite think about the bounded and contained, anyway?

Your head- I would like to take a vacation there some time. Also if I am to be the scapegoat for your fantastic idea then so be it. I have been daydreaming about you somebody elucidating what the angelic culture-psyche comprises- and language is always at the heart of that sort of investigation *daydreams some MOAR*. Although, now I’m tempted to make a Babel-esque joke because let’s face it you’re kind of trying to reveal the FACE OF DIVINITY here, aesc, there’s every possibility that you might get SMOTE BY URIEL *straightfaced*

If you’re still up for one more drabble, Dean/Castiel…uhm ‘bendy legs hooked over shoulders’ :X, or if not that then Uriel and Castiel, ‘party-time’

Re: What to do when the hypermanifold distributor ratio is low

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

Heee!